Book discussion
These tend to be short-ish reviews of books I've read recently. I tend to focus on character development more than the plot of the story, so the interestingness of the story itself is not likely to be ranked too highly in my review.
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New Witches Story: “Interception”
Part seven of The Witches of Ming Ung: “Interception” Here’s a snippet: “Yeah, sure,” Markos said. “When are you coming home?” he whined. “This place is all big and lonely without you.” “Markos, it took forever just getting here,” she said. “We’re just getting into the swing of things. It could be a while before I’m set to go.” Markos’s pout became a frown and Hardi realized she’d protested too much. His chuckle was forced as he said, “You sure you aren’t enjoying the sights while you’re out there?” Hardi’s smile was weak. “Well, it is a lovely planet.” As I mentioned earlier this week, from here until Witches is…
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One-on-one meetings
I’m going to put on my team lead hat for a minute. Many moons ago, I stumbled across and read Johanna Rothman and Esther Derby’s excellent Behind Closed Doors. One of many great managerial practices and recommendations in the book is to do one-on-one meetings: a regular (weekly) meeting between a manager and each of her charges to discuss project statuses, job satisfaction, progress in and reevaluation of professional goals, etc. I’ve done and seen this done with two different mindsets, each with their own uses and problems.
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Bujold’s Mirror Dance
I’ve got a big crush on Miles Vorkosigan. He’s got a sense of style that appealed to me as soon as I read Young Miles back in the day. He’s not so silly as to be fearless, but is manic enough to keep getting embroiled in shit and smart enough to extricate himself. Makes for good times. Mirror Dance (which I read in the Miles Errant omnibus) is the best of the series, combining a Bujold-style people-manipulation story with two good coming-of-age tales. It’s a pivotal book in the series, where Mark becomes his own person and Miles is forced to confront his own mortality. (Definitely some spoilers below the…
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Inflation!
So I’m filling up my library from memory, and I’ve just discovered the best way to “bloat” it ever. See, back in elementary and middle school, I lived near a Half-price Book Store. During one trip, I discovered… Star Trek books. …I bought them. All of them. So now I have all of the Next Generation and Original Series books released before, say, 1999. Well over a hundred books. *grin* Now I have to keep them in boxes, because I don’t reread them much, and I don’t have that much bookshelf space. I’m excited to see how many books I have in the end. All my shelf space is double-stacked,…
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Won over by Pratchett
A few months ago, I was cajoled into reading [tag]Soul Music[/tag], by [tag]Terry Pratchett[/tag]. Couldn’t stand it. I got at least half way through, and found it to be boring and the humor contrived. A couple of weeks ago, though, I picked up [tag]Going Postal[/tag], and proceeded to laugh my way through 400 pages of wonderful stuff. I immediately read [tag]Monstrous Regiment[/tag] (WO’s only other Pratchett book here), and although I chuckled less, I appreciated the increased sense of suspense as much as I appreciated Going Postal‘s humor. If WO has more Pratchett books here, I’d be tearing through ’em. As it is, I’ve started Palahniuk’s Survivor, which proves, as…