The Hanging Girl by Jussi Adler-Olsen, Translated by William Frost

Posted on March 11, 2016 by bseat

The Hanging Tree_Carl Mørk, a Danish detective in charge of Department Q is taking a well deserved nap in his office when he gets a phone call from a police officer on the remote Danish island of Bornholm. After chatting a bit, Mørk realizes that the officer is trying to foist a twenty year old cold case about a girl hanging in a tree on him and quickly shuts down the conversation pleading over work. Relieved to have avoided this potential intrusion into his already busy schedule, Mørk tries to settle back into his nap. But a few hours later Rosie, his high strung assistant, comes running into his office with some shocking news and Mørk realizes that whether he likes it or not the disturbing case of th young, vivacious 17 year old found dead, hanging high up on a tree on the island of Bornholm is now Department Q’s case to solve.

Mørk, and his assistants Assad, Rosie and newcomer Gordon are soon on Bornholm Island reviewing the case files. They find the police on the island strangely uninterested in the case and the one officer who was interested seems to have gone off the deep end, ruining his relationship with his wife and son and even his career with this obsession. Using the clues they find in the files, the members of Department Q are soon trying to trace a man who was a part of a sun worshiping hippie commune on the island. but as they get closer to finding him, Mørk and Assad also uncover dark secrets, unrequited love, betrayal and even more murder.

I love the irascible Mørk!  He is good hearted but a bit dense on how to get along with others and Adler-Olsen’s descriptions of his efforts just make me laugh.  Rosie and Assad badger and bully him along, getting him to do things he is otherwise disinclined to do, but when it really counts they all pull together and work as a team to solve the case. Assad’s vaguely menacing past and Rosie’s high strung emotions add further depth and interest to the ongoing interpersonal drama of Department Q. I have read several books in this prize winning series and have never been disappointed and strongly recommend them to anyone who is looking for a new detective series to add to their reading lists!

Brenda’s Rating: ****( 4 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Marian and Sharon

Book Study Worthy? sure

Read in ebook format.

 

Posted in Detective novel, Fiction, Mystery, Prize Winner, Series, Suspense | Tagged , | 1 Comment

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Posted on March 4, 2016 by bseat

A Little Life _Sometimes when there is so much buzz and hype about a book, like there was for this one, I get a bit resistant about reading it.  But, I am so glad that I overcame my resistance, because this is one of the most profound, insightful and provocative novels about friendship, love and the meaning of family, that I have ever read!

The story begins with four friends from college who move to New York City to begin their lives and pursue their dreams. Willem, the actor, is working as a waiter waiting for his big break. JB is pursuing his art while working as a receptionist; a job he loathes almost as much as the people he works with.  Malcolm has managed to find work as an architect at a large and prestigious firm, but still lives at home and remains uncertain of the choices he has made. Jude is a lawyer who works at the US Attorney’s Office, but is an enigma to his friends since he is unable share with them the childhood trauma and abuse which caused the injury to his legs, limiting his mobility and causing debilitating pain.

Told in alternating voices, we see the friends grow, change and mature. Their lives continually revolve around each other, as they begin to achieve success in their respective careers. Yet even as they gain individual recognition and success, it is their devotion to Jude that holds the four men together. Kind, perceptive and gracious, Jude always sees the best in each of his friends and tries to get them all to see the best in each other. But he is unable to allow them to do the same for him, even Willem, who seems to know him best and has the ability to overcome some of his defenses. While they look out for him and protect him from his own worst impulses, the friends are handicapped by their limited knowledge of his past and are only partially successful in helping Jude build up his ability to trust and allow himself to be loved. It is only when further tragedy strikes that Jude must decide whether to allow himself to see himself the way others see him or to condemn himself to see only the distortions that he has believed since childhood.

Beautifully written in an elegiac style that pulls you in, Yanagihara has created an ode to the power of friendship and the healing power of love. But it is also a bitter reminder of the pall that childhood abuse can exert over the minds and lives of its victims. Each character is lovingly realized and the use of different voices to develop and tell the stories of the other characters is truly unique. Profound but not preachy, tender but unequivocally truthful, transcendent and devastating at the same time, this is indeed a modern love story.

Brenda’s Rating: *****(5 out of 5 Stars)  

Recommend this book to: Keith, Ken, Sharon, Marian and Lauren

Book Study Worthy? YES

Read in ebook format.       

 

Posted in Fiction, Literary Fiction, Prize winner | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

Posted on February 26, 2016 by bseat

H is for Hawk_After her father died, Helen Macdonald seemed to die a little too. A naturalist and historian, she was completing her research fellowship at a university in England when her father’s unexpected death throws her off course, overwhelmed by her fierce and intractable emotions. “The archeology of grief,” she finds, “is not ordered. It is more like earth under a spade, turning up things you had forgotten. Surprising things come to light: not simply memories but states of mind, emotions, older ways of seeing the world.”

Slowly she cuts herself off from her family and friends, unable to cope, until one day she comes across her old copy of T. H. White’s Goshawk which she had loved as a child and instilled in her a love for falconry. She had embraced that world with its esoteric words and conventions, claiming for herself a place in its historic and arcane relationship between humans and birds of prey. She had even trained sparrow hawks and falcons as she grew older and hunted with them, but the goshawk was the prize-the ultimate test in falconry circles, because they were so notoriously difficult. And so, Helen decides that the only way to get over her grief is to train a goshawk.

The goshawk she orders arrives off the ferry in Scotland where Helen has driven to pick it up. She puts the large box containing the goshawk in car and takes it home where she really sees it for the first time. ” In the half light through the drawn curtains she sits on her perch, relaxed, hooded, extraordinary. Formidable talons, wicked, curved black beak, sleek cafe-au-lait front streaked thickly with cocoa-colored tear drops, looking for all the world like some cappuccino samurai,” and decides to name her Mabel.

Weaving together the story of T. H. White’s difficult and devastating experience in training his goshawk, with reflections about her father, as well as her own experiences in training Mabel, we begin to see the complicated terrain of claiming what is human in the face of that which is not human and wild.

Although this is ostensibly a book about training a goshawk, it is in reality a book about confronting and dealing with grief and loss. The goshawk and Helen’s training of it is in essence a metaphor on how we come to terms with that ultimate wild, untameable inevitable thing called Death. Helen rails against its unexpected intrusion into her life just as the goshawk rails against its training and loss of freedom.  Helen’s extraordinary journey, the incredible insights she shares about the natural world, the interactions she shares about Mabel and her unflinching honesty about her devastating grief make this one of the most profound and touching non-fiction books I have read in quite some time and no wonder it was on everyone’s short list as a “best book” in 2015!

Brenda’s Rating: *****(5 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Keith, Ken, Marian, Lauren and Sharon.

Book Study Worthy? YES

Read in ebook format.

 

 

 

 

 

The Great Natural Drama, an interview with Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk

Posted in History, memoir, Non Fiction, Prize winner, Spiritual | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Confession of the Lioness: A Novel by Mia Couto and translated by David Brookshaw

Posted on February 19, 2016 by bseat

Confession of the lioness_The remote village of Kulumani, Mozambique is under attack. For weeks now something has been stalking the women of the village and killing them. They are the vicious bloody attacks of a wild animal, probably lions, who now have a thirst for human blood. The village elders unable to protect the village or the workers of a large company working on a project nearby have done the unthinkable and acquiesced to allowing the company to retain a hunter to kill the lions who are on a killing rampage.

Told between the alternating perspectives of Mariamar, a young girl in the village who has lost her older sister, Silencia, to the lions and Archangel Bullseye, the mulatto hunter who comes to kill the lions, the story weaves in the legends and beliefs of this remote village with the rules and skill of the hunter, giving an almost dreamlike quality to the narration.

Mariamar, who remembers the hunter from many years ago when he came to the village, hopes that this time he really will take her away from the village as he promised so long ago.  She knows that there is something sickening the village, but unable to put her growing unease into words, she instead describes her mother’s flouting of the tribal customs and taboos while all the while her father must continually reassert the authority that so often escapes him. “[T]he order of the universe…governed by those laws that neither God teaches or Man explains,” seems to be crumbling and shifting all around her and Mariamar is witness to this disintegration without the ability to stem its tide or alter its course.

Archangel Bullseye, on the other hand, comes from a family of hunters. His father and his brother were also hunters, and yet Archangel is now alone, his father killed by his brother’s own hand. His brother now spends his days locked away in a mental hospital in the capital, leaving it to Archangel to continue the family’s hunter legacy. Archangel’s world is defined by what he can see, hear and touch and it is his knowledge and skill that makes it possible to track his prey and kill them. But even he can see that all is not what it seems in the village of Kulumani.

Based on an actual experience in working for a company who did seismic prospecting in northern Mozambique in 2008, Couto has created a story where the modern collides with age old customs and understandings. His characters are deftly portrayed and given their full voice. We can feel the intensity of the fear of the villagers and the hope that the old ways can be preserved even in the face of outsiders and the change they bring. We can sense the fear in those who are confronted with more than what they can see, hear or touch and their inability to understand or react to it.  In the end it is a cautionary tale where distinctions between men and women, the powerful and the disempowered, and the inability to redress wrongs that have been committed against those who have no voice, haunt the pages and lurk in the shadows waiting for the moment when they can be set free. This is one of the most powerful and provactive books I have read in a long time!

Brenda’s Rating: *****(5 Stars out of 5)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian, Lauren Keith and Ken

Book Study Worthy? YES!

Read in ebook format

Posted in Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Romance in the Air: A Collection of Notable Romance Books

Posted on February 12, 2016 by bseat

Although it is not quite Valentine’s Day it seemed appropriate to share with you some of the romance books I have read and enjoyed.  Romance is a difficult genre, often over looked and disparaged as not “good enough,” in much the same way that fantasy or science fiction were previously. But new authors and a change in climate where fans of books like Fifty Shades of Gray are no longer ashamed to claim and enjoy them in droves has given the genre new life.

Romance as a genre has many sub categories now from fantasy romance, or vampire romance or the more traditional period romance or sexy “bodice-ripper” romance  or more recently, gay or poly-amorous romance books. There are even “Fifty Shades wanna-be” series that are actually quite good and need something to binge on! So if you haven’t checked out some of these new categories you have a lot of catching up to do!

Susanna Kearsley has almost single handedly carved out a new kind of literary romance category for herself which she calls “modern gothic” that blends the past with romance and suspenseful spookiness.  She is a great writer who creates interesting and diverse characters and places them in well researched settings.  In The Shadowy Horses, VerityShadowy Horses_ Gray is invited to Scotland to add her expertise to a archeological dig of a Roman ruin. She is intrigued by the educational value and the honor of working with other renowned archaeologists at the dig, but one of them, David Fortune, is making it difficult for her to feel welcome or fit in. Soon however, the ghostly appearances of a Roman sentinel, and the dire warnings overwhelm any discomfort Verity may feel as she tries to figure out who these messages are for and what role David has in these events. The Rose Garden_Similarly in The Rose Garden Eva returns to the old house in Cornwall where she spent time as a child.  With her famous sister now gone, Eva feels rudderless, and in need of this place where she feels grounded.  But soon she is hearing voices in the room next to hers and and feels a haunting male presence that is both intriguing and eerie. As Eva stays longer in Cornwall and confronts the presence in her room, she soon realizes that he is a man from a different time and soon she must decide where she belongs.

Elin Hilderbrand has taken the romance genre, shaken it up and given it a good dose of reality. Wisely, she has realized that romance is not only for the young and her characters are usually older, modern women, who have children, been married for awhile or are divorced. The Rumor_In The Rumor, two long time girlfriends face enormous challenges to their perfect lives one summer on Nantucket Island, when rumors begin to fly about a possible affair, a broken romance, and an illicit side business. Hilderbrand deftly relates this story of small town gossip, the difficulty of keeping up appearances and the strains of modern life, all while giving us believable characters who struggle with loyalty to their families and to their long friendship.

Sabrina Jeffries is one of several historical romance writes who have breathed some much needed new life into the period romance category. In The art of sinning_The Art of Sinning, the first book in her Sinful Suitors Series , (Try saying that three times!) the members of St George’s Club bemoan the fact that among them they are the guardians of several young women of marriageable age and decide to band together to help each other guard their charges from the clutches of sinful suitors. But that proves to be easier said than done and when Lady Yvette Barlow enlists the aid of Jeremy Keane, an artist her brother has hired to paint her portrait, in order to gain entry into a notorious brothel, the lines of propriety are irretrievably crossed. Jeffries takes the old formulaic Georgian period romance and finds new and interesting characters, unusual situations and creates interest and suspense that makes these books truly binge worthy.

As you can see the romance genre has something for just about everyone and I hope this has given you some new books and new authors to try!  I hope you will share with me your favorites as well!

All books were read in ebook format!

 

Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance, Series | Leave a comment

Fool’s Assassin and Fool’s Quest by Robin Hobb

Posted on February 5, 2016 by bseat

Many years ago I read Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice and was introduced to FitzChivalry Farseer and the Fool. I fell in love with the characters and the world that Hobbs had created. I read the two other books in the trilogy but then Hobbs moved on to other characters and other parts of the world she had created, and I was never able to recapture the feelings I had for those earliest books.  Now after nearly 20 years Hobbs has taken up the story of Fool's Assassin_the Fool and FitzChivalry again in a new trilogy; Fool’s Assassin and Fool’s Quest and a still untitled third book.

Fitz has retired from his former life as an assassin and is living a quiet life in the country, far from the intrigues of the court. Known now as Tom Badgerlock, a country squire, he has married his childhood sweetheart, Molly, and they are enjoying their empty nest now that their daughter Nettle and Molly’s children from a previous marriage have grown and moved out.

Fool's Quest_The Fool and their adventures together are a distant memory now. And although Fitz misses the companionship of the Fool and the love that they had for one another, he also remembers the urgency that the Fool felt in separating from each other in case their connection might cause a change that was not intended. The loss of that friendship was the sacrifice they made to save their world from a cataclysmic event. In any event, life has gone on, and Fitz is older, more complacent and less interested in what is going on outside of the village and the farm where he lives.

That is until, Molly announces that she is pregnant and suddenly things begin to change. Molly insists that she is pregnant but it is a strange and prolonged pregnancy. When the baby is born, she is small and does not seem to thrive. Named Bee she cannot talk clearly, and is terrified of Fitz. And if that is not enough, unexpected things seem to start happening.  Messages arrive that make no sense and add to the disquiet that Fitz feels. A terrible loss must be faced and then suddenly all is changed and Fitz must leave Tom Badgerlock behind and face a new and uncertain enemy in order to protect his own.

Well written and intriguing, Hobbs has been able to resurrect these familiar and much loved characters not as the young impetuous youths they were but as the mature and solid people they have become in the intervening years. We see sparks of who they were, but we also see how they have matured and have absorbed what life has taught them. Fitz continues to be self blaming and very obtuse about the needs of those around him, but his genuine goodness and honorable character are still what draws you to him.

I recommend reading the first Farseer trilogy before starting this second trilogy so that you get the full context of this new journey. Lucky you, to have these wonderful books to read for the first time!

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to:  Lauren and Marian

Books Study Worthy? Yes, especially by fans!

Read in ebook format

 

Posted in Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery, Series, Thriller | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Crossing by Michael Connelly

Posted on January 29, 2016 by bseat

The Crossing_Harry Bosch retired from the police; forced into it by being suspended for a minor infraction. He hired his brother, Mickey Haller, the so called Lincoln Lawyer, to sue the LAPD and so when he gets a call from Mickey inviting him to have lunch, Bosch suspects Mickey is going to update him on his case.  But that isn’t what Mickey wants to talk about at all, instead he wants to talk about the Lexie Parks case.

Lexie Parks, one of four deputy assistant managers for West Hollywood, was found murdered in her bed by her husband, Deputy Vincent Harrick.  After weeks of being in the news with little or no progress, the case finally broke when Da’Quan Foster was arrested. But his arrest raised some serious questions. Although Foster had been in trouble with the law early in his life, he had turned his life around and was teaching art in after school programs at a local community center and had had no contact with the police for  more than a decade.  Yet, the police claimed that the DNA found at the scene of Lexie’s murder matched the DNA of Foster that was still in the system when it had been taken back in 2004.  At that time he and 20 other men had rounded up an been held on suspicion of rape but no charges were ever filed and he was released within hours of his arrest. His DNA however, had remained in the system.  Haller had represented Foster before and was now representing him again and is convinced that Foster is innocent. However, the private investigator that Haller usually uses was hurt in a terrible accident and he needs Bosch to help him prove Foster’s innocence.

Bosch is not having any of it. If he crosses the line and helps a defense attorney, even if they are related, Bosch’s reputation would be completely lost.  No one in the police department would ever trust him again. There is no way he will cross that line. But something about the way Haller talks about Foster bothers Bosch, and when he starts looking into the case by reading the news reports and a copy of the murder book, there are things about the case that begin to bother Bosch as well.  And soon, whether he likes it or not, Bosch is doing the very thing he swore he would never do-helping the defense.

This was a great read! The suspense of trying to find out who really killed Lexie Parks  the dissonance that Bosch carries throughout as he ends up helping the defense rather than the prosecution, the disillusionment that both men feel about the justice system and their prickly, and cautious relationship, all add to the depth and reality of these characters and the book as a whole. Connelly has an uncanny ear for dialogue, with each book we are getting to know these characters a bit more!

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Marian, Sharon and Ken

Book Study Worthy? yes

Read in ebook format

Posted in Detective novel, Fiction, Legal Procedural, Mystery, Series, Suspense | 1 Comment

Thunderstruck by Erik Larson

Posted on January 22, 2016 by bseat

Thunderstruck_On July 20, 1910, two suspects wanted for murder, boarded the SS Montrose in Antwerp.  The ship was bound for Quebec City, Canada and   three hours into the voyage, as Captain Henry George Kendall was making his rounds, he noticed two men by the life boats talking, presumably father and son.  What caught his attention was the oddly intimate way the younger man was holding his father’s hand.  He greeted the two men and wished them a good journey and returned to his cabin, convinced that these two were the two suspects he had read about earlier that morning in the continental edition of London’s Daily Mail.  The news account was filled with new details regarding the North London Cellar Murder and the search that was being conducted for the two suspects; the doctor and his lover. The Captain instructed his crew to quickly remove all newspapers containing any information about the murders and decided that he would await instructions after communicating by wireless with the shipping company, Canadian Pacific Line, on how to apprehend the suspects.

The Canadian Pacific Line had been aggressively installing a new Marconi wireless on all its ocean going ships and although the SS Montrose was not particularly new and its decor so modest that it did not even merit a first class, it still had this latest apparatus in order to communicate. Invented by a compulsive, socially awkward, competitive, self taught genius named Guglielmo Marconi, the wireless sets were able to communicate from the ship to ship or ship to land at far greater distances that ever before, making it possible for shipping lines to have up to the minute confirmation of where their ships were, what trouble they might have encountered and whether or not they would make their schedules. So when Captain Kendall communicated with the head office of the shipping line he expected a response on how to handle the situation, what he did not expect was that within twenty-four hours of  that communication, he and his ship would become the most talked about vessel afloat, even though no one on board the ship, except just a few key officers, knew anything about the Captain’s suspicions or that the world was following their voyage with bated breath!                  

Larson has done it again, by making history come alive! He shows us how not so long ago, wireless communication, which we take so much for granted now, was something truly amazing and sensational.  Using this incident he shows how the intersection of invention and scientific breakthroughs change how we think and how we perceive the world. Although I found  the portions concerning Marconi sometimes a wee bit tedious, the unfolding murder story more than made up for it keeping me turning the pages and wondering how it was all going to come together! 

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 out of 5 Stars)      

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian, Lauren, Keith and Ken

Book Study Worthy? Yes

Read in ebook format.    

    

Posted in History, Mystery/Detective, Non Fiction | 1 Comment

The Promise by Robert Crais

Posted on January 15, 2016 by bseat

The Promise_Elvis Cole was hired to find Amy Breslyn who has vanished.  She had recently lost her son, a rising journalist who was killed in a terrorist bombing incident overseas.  Although she was grieving she seemed to be coping with this tragedy until one day she didn’t show up for work. Cole’s client, a co-worker, is understandably concerned but is extremely secretive, insisting they meet in parking lots all over the city and has extracted a promise to keep the fact that she is a client a secret.

Cole has few leads but one of them takes him to a house in Echo Park. After knocking on the door and getting no response, Cole sits in his car reviewing his files, hoping that someone might show up. Suddenly an LAPD helicopter flies low overhead.  Soon there are police cars blocking the roads in a three block radius of where Cole is parked and he can see police swarming through the streets blocking them off.  Cole gets out of his car and one of the neighbors comes out to see what all the commotion is about.  Cole asks him about the house but learns only that there have been various renters but nobody fitting the description of the a man named Lerner who supposedly knew the woman he his supposed to find.  Suddenly, the police converge on the very house that Cole was looking into, and Cole sees a K-9 team in pursuit of a man who exited from that house. Thinking it might be the person he is looking for, Cole joins the chase, but the man eludes them and disappears. While walking back to the house, Cole introduces himself to the K-9 officer, Scott James and his dog Maggie, and Scott tells him that he saw the man who exited the house and can identify him, but he looks nothing like the man Cole is trying to find.  Arriving back at the house they find that the police have discovered a stash of explosives, guns and a dead body and suddenly this missing persons case has taken a much more complicated turn.

As Cole tries to dodge the suspicions of the LAPD and the FBI as to what he was doing in that neighborhood, the man that Scott saw exiting the house decides that he must clean up loose ends and targets Scott and his dog for elimination.  Fearing for his life and the life of his dog Maggie, Scott tries to tread a very fine line between obeying orders to stay away from Cole and wanting Cole’s help in finding out who is trying to kill them.

This was a great book! It was fun to see Scott and Maggie again after their debut in Suspect and to see their interaction with Cole and Pike as they try to find out who is trying to kill them. In the meantime, Cole becomes aware that his missing persons case may somehow related to the explosives found in the house and that he may be involved in something much bigger than he had anticipated. Crais is in great form, keeping the suspense taut and slowly unraveling the complicated plot lines to a satisfying conclusion!

Brenda’s Rating: **** (4 Out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Marian, Lauren, Sharon and Ken

Book Study Worthy: Sure

Read in ebook format.

Posted in Detective novel, Fiction, Mystery, Series, Suspense, Thriller | Leave a comment

Triggers: Creating Behavior Change That Lasts – Becoming the Person You Want To Be by Marshall Goldsmith

Posted on January 8, 2016 by bseat

So, how are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions? Have you exercised like you promised yourself you would? Are you eating healthier, like you said you would? What about the other commitments you made; like being nicer to that really irritating person at work? Why is it so hard to make these changes that we know are good for us?

Triggers_One of the reasons it is so difficult to change is that we are surrounded by triggers; “…stimulus that reshapes our thoughts and actions.” These triggers cause us to lose sight of the goals we set for ourselves. The candy on receptionists desk makes us forget that we are on a diet. If we didn’t sleep well, that becomes an excuse not to exercise. The release of the whole season of your favorite TV show on Netflix becomes the reason for not going to bed early and instead you stay up late which results in you being grumpy and non productive the whole next day. Our environment triggers us constantly and  yet we are often totally unaware of those triggers at all.

Goldsmith knows what he is talking about.  He has worked with many companies and their executives to help them change behaviours that were preventing them from getting ahead. This book is filled with stories from his experiences in helping people change their behaviour so that they become the people they want to be.

I found Goldsmith’s insights to be very helpful. It made me realize that I carry some of the belief triggers regarding change that are keeping me from making the changes that I say that I want to make. Belief triggers like: “Today is a special day” or “My change will be permanent and I will never need to worry again” which keep me from fully committing to making the changes I want to make and keep me from being vigilant. Additionally, the chapter entitled “We are Superior Planners and Inferior Doers” was very eye opening. Goldsmith reminds us that within each of us there is a bifurcated individual. We are partly a planner and partly a doer. In the morning when we wake up and plan the day ahead, we are the planner. We think about the day and make a plan and expect that our plan will be easily accomplished. But as the day progresses and we have to deal with an emergency, or  realize that the person whose contribution is critical has not done their part, or the computer crashes, we begin to see the whole plan fall apart. By the end of the day the doer who is supposed to accomplish the plan has lost energy, motivation and self-discipline and the plan was not accomplished. Goldsmith has some great insights in how we can change this disconnect between the planner and the doer which I found very helpful.

Making changes in behaviour is hard! But with some insight, perseverance and some very good practical advice, Goldsmith gives us the tools to make it happen.

Brenda’s Rating: ****( 4 out of 5 Stars) 

Recommend this book to: Keith, Sharon, Marian, Lauren and Ken

Book Study Worthy? Yes

Read in ebook format.

 

 

Posted in Non Fiction, Self-help | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment