REVIEW: "Platform Decay" by Martha Wells (5 stars)

Just over two years ago, I discovered — and promptly devoured — Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries. The series hooked me with its unusual protagonist: a part‑organic, part‑mechanical security construct who has hacked its governor module and claimed its own autonomy. Calling itself “Murderbot,” it’s a hyper‑competent multitasker who can monitor a dozen threats while binge‑watching future‑space telenovelas. As a relatively “new” human, Murderbot has a complicated relationship with emotions, and the series tracks its gradual, often funny, often touching evolution as it figures out what it means to be a person, make friends, and navigate feelings it never asked for. It’s no surprise that many readers see Murderbot as a stand‑in for teenagers, neurodivergent folks, or anyone who has ever felt out of sync with the world.

If you’re new to the series — or if you’ve only watched the Apple TV+ adaptation — there’s still time to catch up. At its core, Murderbot’s story is a sequence of adventures that double as a coming‑into‑personhood narrative. It has an intrinsic sense of fairness, a habit of pulling information from wildly diverse sources (especially pop culture), and a growing awareness of the political structures around it. One of the series’ ongoing themes is the tension between the hyper‑capitalist “Corporation Rim” and the more egalitarian societies struggling to exist outside its reach.

Platform Decay, the eighth installment, can absolutely stand alone. Wells gives new readers enough grounding to understand who Murderbot is, what it can do, and why its freedom is precarious.

This time, the action unfolds on a massive rotating space station shaped like a torus, orbiting a planet that has been strip‑mined into ruin. (If you’re not familiar with torus habitats, the Stanford Torus page on Wikipedia has great visuals.) The station itself is one of the book’s delights: Wells avoids the trap of “video‑game level design” by giving each subdivision its own history, socioeconomic profile, and architectural logic.

The plot centers on Murderbot and its fellow SecUnit, Three — a newer model who has been free for far less time — as they attempt to rescue their friends from Preservation. These friends, all brown and all from a non‑Rim world, have been illegally detained by Corporation operatives and are being processed for indentured servitude (or worse). The parallels to the past year of ICE overreach in the U.S. are unmistakable. Wells doesn’t soften the critique; she uses the sci‑fi frame to make the injustice sharper, not more distant.

While Murderbot can hack security systems, forge credentials, and erase itself from surveillance feeds without breaking a sweat, its real challenge is blending in. Much of the book’s humor comes from its attempts to navigate the crush of humanity on the torus, including installing movement‑assist modules so it can walk more like a natural‑born human. The resulting journey has a bit of Tintin energy — lots of transit systems, lots of motion, lots of chaotic detours — all described with Wells’ signature dry wit.

There’s plenty of action: rescuing friends, evading capture, investigating reports of a “rogue SecUnit” (which turns out to be Three making some questionable choices out of boredom), and dealing with wealthy, entitled kids who have turned piracy into a hobbyist “smash and grab.” Through it all, Murderbot remains Murderbot — trying to minimize harm when possible, but taking undeniable satisfaction in dealing decisively with people who insist on being terrible. At one point, it does all this with a kindergartener attached to it like a barnacle, which is exactly the kind of chaotic tenderness that makes this series work.

And ultimately, Platform Decay is less about whether Murderbot will succeed — long‑time readers know the mission will get done — and more about how it gets there. The pleasure of this installment is in the movement, the worldbuilding, the character beats, and the messy, funny, deeply human moments along the way. After so much fast‑paced action, the ending feels a bit anticlimactic, but that’s because the real payoff is the journey itself.

REVIEW: "Platform Decay" by Martha Wells

RATING: 5 stars

Thanks to TOR and NetGalley for the ARC. The book is due out in May 2026.

REVIEW: Bad Kitty Goes on Vacation by Nick Bruel (5-stars)

 This is a fun graphic novel focused on Uncle Murray and the bad kitty who win a vacation and encounter many obstacles to fun along the way, including evil chickens trying to subvert human preference for cats over chickens as domestic pets.  

There's a happy ending and Uncle Murray gets to watch his tv program and enjoy his favorite sandwich in his favorite chair with all his pets.

REVIEW: Bad Kitty Goes on Vacation by Nick Bruel 

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami (5-stars)

Set in a chillingly plausible near future, this novel imagines a world where nearly every aspect of daily life is filtered through surveillance and algorithmic decision-making. Airports operate more efficiently thanks to SCOUT, an AI border agent that scans faces and moves passengers quickly through security. Homes are equipped with intelligent systems that remind residents of appointments, suggest meals based on fridge contents, and generate shopping lists.

One particularly unsettling innovation is a cerebral implant called Dreamsaver, designed to optimize sleep—and record dreams.  The data is incorporated into a broader government initiative focused on “risk management,” a decades-old program intended to prevent violence by assigning every citizen a risk score, much like a FICO score. These scores are calculated from a "holistic" body of 200+ data sources, including the criminal records of long-lost cousins. Much like Minority Report, this system flags individuals as potential perpetrators of "future crimes" based on subconscious patterns— including troubling dreams.

Sara, a historian with a PhD, works as an archivist at the Getty, handling rare analog collections. She’s also a new mother of surprise twins, navigating intense exhaustion and the widening gap in her marriage. Her husband already uses a Dreamsaver implant to stay well-rested with only a few hours of sleep. Reluctantly, Sara decides to get one too.

Soon after, her dreams—disturbing but private to her—are flagged, and her risk score spikes. Without committing a crime or even understanding what she’s done wrong, Sara is detained at a remote facility in the Southern California high desert. Though it's technically not called a prison, detainees—euphemistically called “retainees”—are held indefinitely “for their own safety.” The name and setting evoke chilling historical echoes of Manzanar.

The logic is Kafkaesque: stress causes nightmares, which worsens her score, which causes more stress. The male attendants enforce arbitrary rules—like citing her for an "unauthorized hairstyle"—which extends the length of her "retention." Meanwhile, retainees are "free" to work on Mechanical Turk-style digital labor classifying video clips for media companies to identify AI-generated content.

In an insidious twist, it turns out that the makers of Dreamsaver have embedded a marketing experiment in the facility, using a researcher posing as a retainee to test dream-based product placement.  The experiment was not entirely successful.  -- instead of the brand name product, Sarah has been seeing the general type of item in her dreams. Sara, who has been keeping a dream journal, begins noticing recurring objects in her dreams—generic items instead of specific brands—signaling the experiment's flawed execution.

At about the midpoint of the book, we see Julie (aka Einsley) outside the facility following her 3 week stint in Madison.  We see her at the office reviewing data and later home hosting a dinner party with friends where they ask her questions about her time at Madison. 

This helps us to understand the broader context of the facility's operations, including the unethical corporate experiments tied to Dreamsaver and the power dynamics between the for-profit corporations (the detention facility, the communications company that provides email, the official online store which is the only place family can make purchases for retainees, and the government). According to the Dreamsaver folks - everyone who has the device agreed to all these experiments and data use which ties back to whether people can really agree to 15 page terms of use in repetitive and obscure legalese. 

Einsley/Julie reaches out to Sara via e-mail to see how she is doing following the wildfire on the area and to offer support via contributions to her commissary account.  She accidentally signs one email as "Julie" -- which sets off a chain of events.  Sara realizes what we, the readers, have already figured out and this catalyzes her to lead a collective resistance by refusing to provide their labor.  If no one cooks, cleans, or works on the digital media contract piecework, the facility can’t function.

After nearly a year of being "retained" for her "safety"  -- Sara’s expedited release comes not through legal recourse or proof of innocence, but because she refuses to work despite the institution increasing punitive measures by reducing her privileges (email, commissary, shower and library) and began to withhold food from her at mealtimes. 

Lalami’s novel is deeply timely. It probes pressing questions about AI, surveillance, predictive analytics, and justice. It also draws urgent parallels to real-world issues like the use of prison labor by tech companies and the shocking number of incarcerated individuals harmed by faulty data, flawed legal processes, and systemic bias.

Some reviewers critique the book’s pacing. I’d argue the slow buildup is intentional: we’re meant to inhabit Sara’s disorientation and anxious introspection. The first half mirrors her foggy mental state—hopeful but uncertain, overthinking every move. 

I was intrigued by the author's details about the former elementary school now serving as the "retention facility" -- Perris, CA is in fact about 90 minutes drive from Victorville (where they take refuge during a wildfire).   It's nearly equidistant from LA (71 mi) and San Diego (81 mi) which would make it a good location to take "retainees."  There's also a Spanish revival style museum that was formerly Sherman Indian High School that is steeped in its own history of forced institutionalization.  

Finally, the author does reference a number of other books which influenced her -- such as "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" by Shoshana Zuboff.  While some of the concepts may land a bit heavily at times, they ground the story in a recognizably imminent future and presents a relatable scenario for a future we may all soon inhabit.

REVIEW: The Dream Hotel  by Laila Lalami 

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: Rare Trees: The Fascinating Stories of the World’s Most Threatened Species by Sara Oldfield (5-stars)

I was thrilled to receive an advance copy of Rare Trees. As someone who loves trees, I hoped for a book that combined striking visuals with clear, accessible information—and this volume exceeded my expectations.

With its National Geographic–quality photography and encyclopedia-style detail, Rare Trees is both visually stunning and deeply informative. It’s the kind of book that invites readers to linger over its pages, making it equally at home as a coffee table centerpiece or an educational resource.

What impressed me most was the thoughtful conclusion: a concise, one-page list of practical steps readers can take to support trees and the environment. The inclusion of lifestyle suggestions—such as reducing meat and dairy consumption—shows the author’s commitment to connecting beauty with action.

This is a gorgeous, inspiring book that will appeal to adults and children alike. I can’t wait to see it in print and share it with others. 

REVIEW: Rare Trees: The Fascinating Stories of the World’s Most Threatened Species by Sara Oldfield 

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey (5 stars)

The dangers of rest to the dominant paradigm have been well known for millennia. Centuries ago Aesop and other writers described the story of the “Ant and the Grasshopper” as a cautionary tale. For hundreds of years – strikes and work stoppages have been the primary means of resisting the demands of productivity demanded by Capital. People put down their tools and walked off the job and out the factory doors. Truck drivers block ports with their vehicles.  Work stoppage has long been a means of resisting the dehumanizing effects of capitalism.  

“Capitalism commodifies whatever it can and doesn’t allow space for us to experience the full spectrum of being human.”

“We are socialized into systems that cause us to conform and believe our worth is connected to how much we can produce.”

“Fear and scarcity are a big part of how the culture keeps us bound up in the hamster wheel.”

Tricia Hersey’s new book is part auto-biography, part history book and part sermon, offering us a lens for resistance of the dehumanizing, deleterious effects of capitalism & the cult of “productivity” that is womanist, liberationist and at the same time deeply validating of both the need to disconnect for dreaming & private thoughts and of community.  

Hersey makes her keen observations in a style of a song: intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, outro.  

She doesn’t need to expand too much on her verses – it’s not novel information for her audience.  It’s the repetition and the chorus – the soothing reassurance that “You are not unworthy. The systems are unworthy.” 

Deep inside, people know:

“ we didn’t arrive on Earth to be a tool for a capitalist system.” … It is not our divine purpose. […] You were not just born to center your entire existence on work and labor.”

The effects of this fatigue remove community and intellectual agency – turning us into machines: 

“When you are exhausted, you lack clarity and the ability to see deeply. Your intuition and imagination are stifled by a culture of overworking and disconnection."

“[…] stealing your imagination and time, grind culture has stolen the ability for pleasure, hobbies, leisure, and experimentation.”

Black liberation and womanism are woven throughout the book – her message that “Black liberation is human liberation” is strong and consistent.  The goal of capitalism and white supremacy is to strip away the humanity – it’s essentially reductionist and isolating.

“Black liberation is a balm for all humanity and this message is for all those suffering from the ways of white supremacy and capitalism.”

If you are reading this book and feel that the topics of white supremacy and black liberation are a bit heavy – you have a lot more work to do before you can well and truly appreciate what is being communicated in this book.

The goal of this work is to decolonize your mind and enable a culture shift.  If your reaction to creating a nap practice, making time for day dreaming or resting as resistance is to immediately think of slackers, freeloaders and laziness – you’re falling into racist stereotypes as well as white supremacist programming. 

“We have been bamboozled. This is why it’s so critical that we create systems of care to help people dismantle and decolonize their minds.”

“We are resting not to do more and to come back stronger and more productive for a capitalist system.”

The loudest chorus in this book is that you don’t have to always be “productive” – and that busyness reduces your ability to heal, dream and tap into your imagination. Even Hersey’s grandmother would rest with her eyes closed and reminded her granddaughter that every shut eye was not asleep.  We close our eyes to reduce distraction and focus inward on our own experience whether it’s breathing in meditation or processing feelings or enjoying the fragrance of a flower (to name a few). 

• “Resting is not a state of inactivity or a waste of time. Rest is a generative space.”
• “Naps provide a portal to imagine, invent, and heal.”
• “Rest is not a luxury, privilege, or a bonus we must wait for once we are burned out.”
• “Rest is not a privilege because our bodies are still our own, no matter what the current systems teach us.”
• “Your bodies don’t belong to capitalism, to white supremacy, or to the patriarchy.”

Social media is another area covered by various choruses throughout the book.  Just as a reminder:  where anything is “free” – you are the product.  Hersey rightly points out that social media is a marketing tool and an extension of capitalism. “The goal is to keep you scrolling long enough that you become a consumer. The goal is for you to buy, buy some more, and stay on as long as possible until that happens.”  Social media “is a space of dependency” and “robbing us of the archives and memory. Taking from us the ability to go to the past for guidance, motivation, and grounding.”

Hersey highlights the disruptive nature of social media and how it has absorbed “our quiet time” – and urges us to “detox intentionally and often if we are to find rest.”

Our challenge is to “spiritually disconnect from the shenanigans of grind culture while physically still living in it.” Establish healthy boundaries, resist responding right away to email or social media. Reject urgency.

“You cannot achieve deep rest in a consistent way if we don’t detox regularly from social media and the internet. Technology is not built to support our rest or make space for our rest.”

Finally – you have to accept that you have been brainwashed.  You have been swimming in a pool of the dominant paradigm for so long, there’s no way it could be any other way.  The repetition in this book serves a purpose – to begin unspooling the cocoon that has been limiting us for so long so that we can claim our birthright.  

We are enough just as we are – we are enough because we exist.  We do not have to be productive, busy or constantly contributing.   There is no quick fix – dismantling millennia old mindsets and building communities of care takes time.  

“Our interconnectedness is a form of resistance in times thriving against the dehumanizing ways capitalism and white supremacy sees the world.”

“We will not heal alone. We will not thrive alone. Communal care is our saving grace and our communion. Community care will save us. It is already saving us.”

Hersey offers some places to begin:

- Intentionally and regularly detox from social media

- Learn boundaries – “heal the individual trauma you have experienced that makes it difficult for you to say no”

• Establish a “daily practice in daydreaming”
• “Slow down”
• “Listen more”
• “Create systems of community care”

Print out this quote and stick it up in your environment in a half dozen places:

1. I deserve to rest now. 

2. I am worthy of rest. 

3. I am not lazy. How could I be lazy? My Ancestors are too brilliant for that. 

4. Capitalism wants my body to be a machine. I am not a machine. 

5. I am a magical and divine human being. 

6. I have the right to resist grind culture. 

7. I don’t have to earn rest. 

8. Do less, watch how I thrive. 

9. Ease is my birthright. 

10. I Will Rest!”

“You don’t have to wait on permission from the dominant culture.”

“Grind culture is violence. Resist participating in it.” 

REVIEW: Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey (2022)

RATING: 5 stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean (5-stars)

 "Democracy in Chains" is a thorough examination of 20th century efforts to undermine democratic systems through slow, methodical and intentional erosion and manipulation of the democratic system.  Their interests are to maintain property for the wealthy -- and to reduce access to education and intergenerational mobility to the many.  Having been a child in the Reagan years - I saw the message clearly:  plan now for things that most people think are a right or you will never have them.  I have chosen not to have children.  I have worked my ass off but now at middle age -- it seems unlikely that I will avoid poverty in old age.  At least now it's clear that's part of a larger design out of my control. 

VOTE.

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: Jay-Z: Made in America by Michael Eric Dyson (5-stars)

Humans have always been resourceful – they find ways to increase power and status, even when it means inventing and convincing others of the validity of something.  For example – at a time when France’s relative power and strength was troubled, Louis XIV basically invented “luxury” lifestyle and merchandise – fabrics, clothing, perfumes and furniture – in the 16th century, and his ambassadors became marketing managers, selling an idea that possessions of a certain quality meant something and inspiring the earliest fear of missing out that we see in modern marketing.

Michael Eric Dyson dives into the “art of hustle” in the first chapter – describing the ways that people, particularly African Americans in poor neighborhoods, have sought to find such niches to improve their circumstances and achieve financial and social success.  He talks about facets of types of hustle based on poverty and opportunity of location as integral to the black experience in the US.

Dyson’s writing works on many levels, skillfully interweaving biographical information about Jay-Z, biographical portraits of other artists, politicians and historical figures, social history, and literary analysis of the lyrics of Jay-Z and other artists.  

Throughout, there are references to conversations that Jay-Z and other artists have through the lyrics of their music – some are serious and some are light-hearted play acting or “dues.” 

Dyson also does a deep dive into masculinity and blackness – analyzing the Hegelian dynamics of Jay-Z and Beyonce’s musical conversations around the complexities of relationships between women and men.  

As a former language major – I really enjoyed Dyson’s analysis of Jay-Z’s lyrics in literary terms, summarized as an “extremely sophisticated romp on poetry’s playground of metaphor and metonymy, simile and synecdoche.”  Dyson dives into all the references to philosophy, history, politics and satire and summarizes as “Jay’s lyrical cleverness masks his deeper intellectual reflections on the world and on black culture itself.”

 “Jay’s openness to a variety of art forms and his understanding that common themes of existential struggle unite disparate genres of music. Thus one of his most successful songs, at a critical point in his career, features a sample from a Broadway musical that highlights the plight of poor, socially invisible children.”  

Jay-Z is a poet, a philosopher and has a strong political voice – which does not lessen as his popularity and success continue.  He’s the first rap artist to become a billionaire, and throughout his career – one where he never writes down his lyrics --  “Jay has also mastered a sneak-and-speak approach to political commentary, He laces his lyrics with pieces of social and political insight, from entire blocs of songs through extended metaphor to just a word or two.”

As Ken Burns highlighted in his documentary of country music in the US -- which featured mostly white artists -- the non-white artists he included stressed repeatedly "it's about the stories."  Hip-hop and rap are also about the stories, and shifting from stereotyped masculine swagger, avoidance of commitment and personal consumption.  There are women calling BS on men treating them poorly and even a young (gay) black artist whose "country trap" song quickly went up the Billboard charts as the most popular song in Billboard history.

Hip-hop / rap artists are not just telling their stories and shining light into the dark corners of our cultural consciousness, but they are working into the general conceptions of many concepts, such as who gets to enjoy "luxury" goods? (See https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/intelligence/the-new-kings-and-queens-of-fashion-kanye-west-asap-rocky-cardi-b ) -- and importantly, they are changing the rules around power and status.

One of the most appealing traits of Dyson's writing is his passionate enthusiasm for Jay-Z's oeuvre --  his contextualization and analysis of Jay-Z’s music, achievements and life flows in a way that seems clear and almost obvious (as in "Of course it happened that way!").  Dyson provides a fantastic annotated discography at the end of this lovely synthesis of popular culture, history, capitalism and social class.  Or, as my friend Andre says – “Just listen to the music.” 

REVIEW: Jay-Z: Made in America by Michael Eric Dyson 

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape by Sohaila Abdulali (5-stars)

 Powerfully written testimonial of the attitudes and experiences of women (mostly) of rape across cultures and time.  The author provides her own experience with rape -- and with writing about rape -- as a backdrop for first-person accounts of the impacts of rape, getting on with life after and the changes in attitude around the world toward rape (though mostly in India, Europe and the US).   This book is incredibly well written and personal - highly recommended for everyone.

REVIEW: What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape by Sohaila Abdulali 

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder by Chip Conley (5-stars)

 Chip Conley's first hand experiences were fascinating and fun to read.  He skillfully intertwines his observations with information from readings on happiness, aging, workplace engagement and success and accounts from other professionals who also reinvented themselves after mid-life.

Keeping a beginner's mind, or attitude of lifelong learning, is key to successfully aging.  As Chip points out - we have more older people than ever before - people are living longer PLUS the Boomers were a pretty big cohort.   We no longer have an entire generation retiring at once and leaving homogenous generations in control of workplaces and government.  

We do still have outdated cultural perspectives on the value of elders and the work they do. I'm not even 50 and have already felt this in my job search process where many Millennials are barely able to disguise their disgust/hostility toward me. 

 Older workers have valuable skills that can help younger workers, and vice versa.  Younger workers are "digital natives" while older workers have a lifetime of knowledge and experiences that have given them stronger EQ, and as neuroscience is demonstrating, subconsciously stored information allows elders to tap into a "gut" instinct.  

In addition to recommendations for "Becoming an Age-Friendly Employer" - Chip also provides an excellent appendix with lists of books, articles, videos and even step-by-step instructions for figuring out your next transition as a modern elder.  

While we make an adjustment to figure out how to integrate multiple generations in the workplace, and the increasing demand for meaningfulness in work - perhaps this will result in workplaces that better support the people who make any business possible -- dare we wish for a 4 day work week, or shorter, more focused workdays (aside from retail or food service - what white collar workers really spend 8 focused hours on work?).  The days of pretending that there's a separation between work life and personal life are nearing an end -- and we all need to understand how to better integrate our values, talents and time across everything we do in a way that supports our income-generating and life-supporting activities.   Tapping into the wisdom of elders is a great initial phase!

REVIEW: Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder by Chip Conley 

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: The Empathy Effect by Helen Riess (5-stars)

A very thorough and enjoyable read that thoroughly covers many aspects of empathy, though the writing can be a bit rambling and overly conversational, which had merits – I stopped more frequently to digest the material than I would with a more structured writing style (and it took me much longer to read this book as a result).

The book begins with an overview of empathy as a term and dives deep into the neuroscience behind this hard-wired human trait.  Empathy allows us to not just acknowledge/validate (sympathize) with someone else’s feelings, but to feel what they are feeling and relate to the experience of another person.  The authors briefly touch on true empathy and misplaced or sham empathy, as well (ie, helicopter parents who are unable to bear any expression of perceived discomfort of their children).

Early in the book, we are presented with a 7-point tool for developing better empathy, called “E.M.P.A.T.H.Y.” 

E for eye contact

M for muscle facial expression

P for posture

A for affect (emotions)

T for tone of voice

H for hearing the whole person

Y for your response

“With deep empathic listening comes an empathic response that starts on a physiological level because of our shared brain activity.”

This tool was tested out on physicians to help them better relate to patients and understand not just the “complaint” but the “concern” – resulting in greater patient satisfaction as well as more effective treatment by the physician.  

The authors dive into childhood cognitive development and empathy, discuss parenting and empathy and the ways that parents provide a “mirror” to help children develop empathy and form secure attachments.  Empathy in education is discussed – using as a case a “last resort” high school where staff are directed to use empathy and compassion, and failing or delinquent students are “punished” with study hall, counseling and support services.  This made me consider the style of education in my experience where corporal punishment in the form of detention hall (sit straight, eyes forward, no sleeping, no eating, no talking, no moving, no studying/reading) was the first response to any infraction.  

Learning and educational methods are critical for teenagers who learn best from “Project based learning”  -- a great place to learn to collaborate, form relationships and absorb information by directly doing things.  This leads into a discussion around the ways that new technologies – esp cell phones, Internet use – are changing our brains by developing habits that tap into primal responses and keeping us from being able to develop deeper relationships by depriving us of access to the emotional context of our interactions.

The authors also devote a substantial portion of the book to discussing the role of literature and art in providing opportunity for people to interpret and project what the artist (or subjects of the work) were thinking or feeling.   “Art is incomplete without the perceptual and emotional involvement of the viewer.”  Art allows (or even requires) us to move out of our own perspectives and open to other ways of perceiving or seeing the world.

“The power of art lies in its ability to stimulate both cognitive (thinking) and affective (feeling) empathy.”

From here, the authors examine leadership – and the ways that empathic leadership can change the brain chemistry of leaders and followers via an “interconnectedness of thoughts and feelings” that establishes a “social intelligence.”  A good leader is pays attention to the health of her relationships with his constituents/followers and is able to create bonds that underlie a culture of trust and collaboration.  Empathy is critical to this process.

There’s a bit of a ramble about the 2016 presidential election and the problems created and expressed by both major party candidates that resulted in manipulation into a false “in-group” and a sense of exclusion on either side.   The remainder of the book reviews different responses to “out group” types, including homeless, the mentally ill, substance abusers, LGBTQ folks, etc.  

The important takeaway here is that those times when you feel the least empathetic are critically important for you to be empathetic – and requires self-awareness, impulse control and self-examination feelings to determine what is blocking an empathic response.  

Finally, there’s an entire chapter on self-empathy and mindfulness and the importance of this as a reflection on how you treat others.  You treat others as you treat yourself – if you listen to the chatter in your brain (not all your thoughts are you) and have a harsh inner critic, that will result in similar approach or responses to others.  From self-kindness springs empathy for others.  This is an excellent lesson to keep!

REVIEW: The Empathy Effect  by Helen Riess 

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: Influence: Science and Practice by Robert B. Cialdini (5-stars)

This is a thorough examination of different tactics and techniques involved in influence and persuasion -- lots of great information from research and great examples.  

The book is very nicely structured and includes summaries at the end of each chapter, along with questions for discussion.  He even offers sections titled "Defense" to help understand how to diffuse or deflect the different types of influence.  He delves into reciprocation, liking, social proof, compliance to authority, scarcity, and consistency/conformity.

The premise of the book is that humans are all wired in certain ways -- we look for cognitive shortcuts to save time and energy in making decisions.  Sometimes this is useful and sometimes, not so much.  We're wired to accept things that are familiar, and to reciprocate and like people and to want to get along in certain ways.

Cialdini talks a lot about "compliance professionals" -- folks in marketing and sales who understand the concepts he describes in the book, and at the end of the book -- advises us to rebel against those unscrupulous types who seek to manipulate us with false information.  

Since the book was written in 2009 - I was curious to see what Cialdini has written more recently, especially on the recent presidential elections in the US.  It turns out that "Team Cialdini" has written quite a bit  and it's interesting reading (start here: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-presidential-election-was-donald-trumps-to-lose-2016-12-13).

REVIEW: Influence: Science and Practice by Robert B. Cialdini 

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50 by Jonathan Rauch (5-stars)

 We've all heard the jokes about midlife crisis and folks who are experiencing difficulties in midlife are often pooh-poohed -- I remember one middle aged friend laughing at midlife crises as self-indulgent, saying "I can't afford a midlife crisis!"  

Would we do the same thing with respect to adolescents?  There may be many satires and jokes about adolescence but we are all very aware of the real changes and challenges faced by humans in this phase of their development.  It exists and it's not a joke.

Well, the same can be said of midlife, as it turns out.  Jonathan Rauch's book, "The Happiness Curve" starts off by diving into a huge pile of research:  dozens of research teams have seen this u-shaped curve in self-reported life satisfaction scores.   We start off VERY happy in life and our satisfaction gradually decreases at mid-life, and then begins to increase again after this midlife trough.  It's not just cultural -- it's found across multiple cultures and samples across decades.  And, it's not just humans --  researchers working with primates around the world, in various settings, have found the same curve in our nearest non-human primate relatives and may be biological.

Rauch defines this midlife slump as "normal and natural."  it's not just a "crisis" but "a change in our values and sources of satisfaction, a change in who we are."

"It is about the dawn of 'encore adulthood,' a whole new stage of adult development which is already starting to reshape the way we think about retirement,education, and human potential."

Studies have examined all sorts of extrinsic and intrinsic factors -- income, education, wealth, fast or slow growing economies, depression, and so on.  The author provides a very indepth review of these studies and how different kinds of happiness are defined (affective vs longer term life satisfaction).  

Humans are programmed to start off big and then switch gears -- so when we get to middle age and we haven't saved the world, we get a negative feedback loop that says "Something's wrong with  me."

The keys to surviving or "muddling through" this trough are to first and foremost, accept as "normal" what you are going through and resist the urge for comparison to others or to your own goals/expectations.  Then, despite your inclination to become a hermit and hide out -- connect and reach out to others who are going through it or who have gone through it:  connectedness is one of the keys to surviving.  Finally, make changes in small steps, not giant leaps -- and build on your strengths, skills and experience.  

Just before that section of the book -- the author gets into the wisdom studies and some very pragmatic and clear information on what it is and why it is important to those 

Rauch also supplies plenty of studies that demonstrate the universal principles of underlying wisdom and where people usually end up on the other side of the trough: 

"compassion and prosocial attitudes that reflect concern for the common good; pragmatic knowledge of life; the use of one’s pragmatic knowledge to resolve personal and social problems; an ability to cope with ambiguity and uncertainty, and to see multiple points of view; emotional stability and mastery of one’s own feelings; a capacity for reflection and for dispassionate self-understanding."

There are three basic components of wisdom -- and they have to be balanced with each other, and serve to enrich and strengthen the other components.  The author uses "Star Trek" as an example: "In Star Trek, undoubtedly the wisest of all television shows, a recurrent theme is that the most blazingly intelligent character, the Vulcan Spock, lacks the instinctive empathy of Dr. McCoy and the pragmatic decisiveness of Captain Kirk. None of the three alone is wise.  Wisdom arises from the (sometimes tense) interaction of the triumvirate."

The studies on wisdom align nicely with the basic tenets of Buddhism -- which may explain why so many folks are drawn to it in middle age, it provides a structure and community for their changing values and beliefs.  There's no association between wisdom and intelligence, "What wise people know about is life."

Wisdom, he says, is balanced, reflective, active -- "the happiness curve is a social adaptation, a slow-motion reboot of our emotional software to repurpose us for a different role in society."

"You may be dissatisfied, but you don’t need to be quite so dissatisfied about being dissatisfied!"

It's a long slow adjustment that is normal, not pathological, and you're NOT crazy or losing your mind!   

The book is really well written, enjoyable and informative.  I really appreciate that it doesn't focus entirely on perimenopause or "hormones" -- but I do wish that there was a bit more coverage on that area aside from a mention of "the grandmother effect" and the interesting bit of trivia that humans are one of 3 species on this planet where the female of the species long outlives her fertility (the other two species are whales).

REVIEW: The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50 by Jonathan Rauch 

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle (5 stars)

 I was lucky enough to get a copy of this as an ARC from NetGalley - and devoured it! 

I'm fascinated by the subjects of leadership and teams these days, mostly because I have experienced great team leadership in the past but too infrequently.   After enjoying "Turn This Ship Around" -- this seemed like a great follow-on.

In the first chapter, the author describes an experiment in teamwork and collaboration -- conducted between two different groups:  kindergarteners and college students.  The goal was to build the highest tower with straws and marshmallows.  The kindergarteners WON because they were entirely focused on the outcome, made changes and took feedback without being distracted by status management.  That's something we all learn as we unlearn trust and vulnerability.

The book presents compelling case studies to support three sets of skills for building strong teams.  First, you have to "Build Safety" -- create environments where it is ok to provide feedback regardless of status or role.  Second, "Share Vulnerability" - describes how "habits of mutual risk drive trusting cooparation."  Third, "Establish Purpose" -- by creating a shared culture that clearly defines the group's purpose, goals and how they do things.

Much like the mythical "work" of a romantic relationship or marriage,  the author  maintains that "Culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal."

In building safety, there are some real physical patterns of interaction that help create a bond in a group, these include:

• Close physical proximity
• Profuse amounts of eye contact
• Physical touch (handshakes, fist bumps, hugs)
• Lots of short, energetic exhanges (no long speeches)
• High levels of mixing
• Few interruptions
• Lots of questions
• Intensive, active listening
• Humor, laughter
• Small, attentive courtesies

When is the last time that you were part of a group where you had that kind of experience?  Would you ever want to leave that environment?  He then describes "belonging cues" which are "behaviors that create safe connection in groups."  This is basic NLP stuff combined with basic etiquette:  taking turns, body language, vocal pitch, eye contact.  These help signal energy, individualization and future orientation.  These are all translated as "You are safe here" by the brain.

Just a few of these, once in a while, is not enough -- "We are built to require lots of signaling, over and over. This is why a sense of belonging is easy to destroy and hard to build."

Coyne also dives into the neuroscience that has been on my radar for much of 2018  -- and emphasizes that the amygdala is not just about perceiving threats but also plays "a vital role in building social connections."  Those "belonging cues" are all transformed in your brain to help "set the stage for meaningful engagement."

The WWI "Christmas Truce" is one of the cases in this section -- and it's come up in popular media in my life several times this year alone.   Basically - you throw a bunch of guys into very adverse conditions, and you find that creating environments that are rich in social belonging cues is critical to their survival and cooperation.    However, as the battle dragged on -- this spilled over to "the enemy" -- and soldiers established "micro-truces" around meal times, bed time, using the latrine or picking up the dead, cumulating in a series of Christmas day truces across a pretty widespread geographic area.  Respect the power of the amygdala!

By way of contract, another type of culture that is the opposite of belonging is described -- it was designed to break up cohesion and resulted in very poor work performance from otherwise very smart people in charge of massively destructive and dangerous weapons.  You'd think people would pay attention to something as important as culture, right?

Coyne also addresses a popular conception that highly successful cultures are happy places:  "They are energized and engaged, but at their core their members are oriented less around achieving happiness than around solving hard problems together."

This goes back to "this is a safe place (to give effort" -- creating connection, giving feedback, and communicating the big picture are important.  But with the negative (say, giving feedback on poor performance) there is reward (belonging).

During the Cold War era, an MIT professor named Thomas Allen conducted research into what attributes were shared by successful projects.  In addition to the projects being driven by “clusters of high communicators,” Allen found that the most successful teams sat close to each other and could establish eye contact with each other regularly.  

Plotted on a graph, the increase in interaction against proximity is known as the “Allen Curve.”  Physical “[c]loseness helps create efficiencies of connection” even with digital communication, studies show “we’re far more likely to text, email, and interact virtually with people who are physically close.”

Many studies since have demonstrated the importance of physical proximity – the informal interactions among colleagues are critical to building relationships that foster trust.  In the past several years, it seems like this has resulted in a lot of companies tearing up their office environments to turn them into "open plan" work spaces without figuring out what works best for their teams.  Not all teams are alike, and one size does not fit all when it comes to building strong teams.

To create safety, Coyne offers a few tips, including:

• Overcommunicate your Listening (and avoid interruptions)
• Spotlight your Fallibility Early On - Especially if you are a leader
• Embrace the Messenger 
• Preview future connection -- connecting the dots between where we are now and where we plan to be
• Overdo Thank-Yous - that includes "thanks for letting me coach you" - as a way of affirming the relationship and "igniting cooperative behavior."
• Be Painstaking in the Hiring Process
• Eliminate Bad Apples
• Create Safe, Collision-Rich Spaces
• Make Sure Everyone Has a Voice
• Pick up the trash - make sure leaders are helping with tasks that are "menial" - rolling up their sleeves goes a long way to creating that safety
• Capitalize on Threshold Moments
• Avoid Giving Sandwich Feedback - handle negative and positive feedback as two different processes
• Embrace Fun - "it's the most fundamental sign of safety and connection."

In sharing vulnerability -- teams can demonstrate their willingness to accept the help and support of others in a way that makes the entire team stronger.  The case study of two pilots and a passenger who happened to be a flight instructor crash landing a plane together -- resulting in the survival of 185 of 285 on board.  Simulations run after the event failed to do nearly well as those three people -- resulting in crashes 28 times.  Coyne analyzes the content of their communication and finds that they shared information in a way that was humble and allowed them to perform in the face of catastrophic systems failure (it's a fantastic story!).

Coyne then goes on to analyze the importance of social exchanges in the team environment -- the kind that open up shared vulnerability in a way that creates a "shared exchange of openness" that forms "the most basic building block of cooperation and trust."

The DARPA Red Balloon Challenge is another fantastic case study about how people can cooperate when vulnerability is shared and support invited in a way that is reciprocal and offers mutual benefit.  That is, he points out - the whole point of groups:  "combine our strengths and skills in a complementary way."

The Navy SEALs examples are fantastic -- and you have to buy the book so you can read and understand them.  I especially like the description of how the SEALs were established -- and the type of training they undergo to reinforce team behavior.  They learn how to move together, trust each other and figure things out as they go because they trust each other and they understand how things have to be done.  He also goes into the rules around a complicated improv exercise with a successful comedy troupe where "Every rule directs you either to tamp down selfish instincts that might make you the center of attention, or to serve your fellow actors (support, save, trust, listen)."

Coyne also talks about the importance of overcoming authority bias to create successful groups -- "having one person tell others how to do things is not a reliable way to make good decisions."  This is fascinating because it goes back to the premise of "Turn This Ship Around" where the goal was to  make everyone in the team a leader -- creating a team of leaders who understand the problems that need to be solved and work together without regard for role or hierarchy is important for these successful groups.

The chapter on  "The Nyquist Method" is fascinating -- it's named after a particularly nurturing engineer who created a safe space for his coworkers to share ideas and sparked ideas with them that resulted in greater achievements than if they had worked on their own.  He then reviews other folks who perform similar catalyst roles in other environments - people who mostly just are good active listeners, encouraging others to dig deep and shape the solutions to their challenges.  Again, NLP plays a role here - or "concordances" -  body language that helps increase perceived empathy and in turn creates a safe environment for stronger teams and success.

Coyne is good about reiterating and building on the tips for creating these safe environments and strong relationships throughout his book.  Primarily - listening, being willing to be open and vulnerable, using objective techniques for sharing information (like "Before-Action Review" or "After Action Review").  

Taking us back to the previous point about successful cultures aren't always sunshine and rainbows -- "one of the most difficult things about creating habits of vulnerability is that it requires a group to endure two discomforts:  emotional pain and a sense of inefficiency."  

Finally, the section on "Establish Purpose" is really fun to read -- as he goes to lengths to repeat, a lot of the slogans and catch phrases seem hokey or corny or obvious but the fact is that teams who create compelling, clear goals and articulate them like that are described as "high purpose environments" because they know what they are doing as a team.  These catchphrases establish a link between a goal or behavior and "consistently create engagement around it."

He also talks about  how positive feedback can create a "virtuous spiral" of success (and no need to mention how the opposite happens as well!).

These kind of heuristics "provide guidance by creating if/then scenarios in a vivid, meorable way" and function "as a conceptual beacon."  These kinds of clearly articulated catch phrases make it easier to make decisions in support of specific team goals, such as "You can't prevent  mistakes but you can solve problems graciously" or "If someone is rude make a charitable assumption."

The final tips include: Name and rank your priorities; Be 10x as clear about these priorities as you think you ought, determine where your team aims for proficiency (and for creativity), embrace the use of catchphrases, measure what really matters, use artifacts, focus on bar-setting behaviors -- and go buy this book if you want to learn more about what all those things mean!

REVIEW: The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle 

RATING: 5 stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators (J-B Lencioni Series) by Patrick Lencioni (5-stars)

This is one of the best books I have read all year about leading teams -- much more useful than the last multi-week project management course I took! 

I've worked in environments where strong team building was a priority and have always appreciated the extra effort made to organize team off-sites where everyone works together on many of the issues described in this book.  Even though I am not leading team and my department is huge and geographically dispersed, I feel like there's a lot of material here that I can take away to help with my projects.

Similar to some of the recent books I have read ("Power of Habit", "Reprogram Your Weight" and even "Outliers") - there is discussion of the "Fundamental Attribute Error."    

human beings tend to falsely attribute the negative behaviors of others to their character (an internal attribution), while they attribute their own negative behaviors to their environment (an external attribution).

That's a tremendous bit of human behavior that we should all keep in mind.  It's something I constantly repeat when one of my friends gets mad at some behavior in traffic, for example, "That person probably wasn't thinking of you at all - they were just thinking of themselves."  It's NOT personal. 

My biggest takeaways from this book are around meetings and metrics for success.  Even if I do not (currently) find myself in a position to organize and lead a team offsite based on the information in this book (wish we could do that!), there are some really great concepts I can apply.

First - meetings.  Boring meetings where everyone agrees or some people don't talk or where nobody comes to "consensus" indicate a lack of clarity of purpose, perhaps even the wrong people in the meeting and worse, the "ultimate penalty of boring meetings is bad decisions, not to mention wasted time." 

It is important to get buy in at the beginning of the meeting or discussion - raise the anxiety a bit.  This isn't just a status meeting -- let's have a meeting to commit to an decision that is important because it affects some goal that we all care about.  Status can happen in e-mail or on the wiki.

Second, the author stresses the difference between "consensus" and "commitment" -- one of the key qualities of leadership in moving forward to a goal is getting people to commit, "buying in to decisions when the “right” answer seems nowhere to be found."

Further, "Good leaders drive commitment among the team by first extracting every possible idea, opinion, and perspective from the team" and then step up and make a decision.  NB:  commitment cannot happen if there is not perfect clarity - and that's where "cascading communication" comes into play.  Recap "what did we decide here today?" in the meeting, and then send it out in e-mail, and make sure the team members communicate it to their staff right away.

One of the tips in this book is to start a meeting with a "lightning round," allowing "no more than thirty seconds to update the team about their three top priorities that week."  Another excellent tip is to track progress against specific goals and objectives -- so that the team can stay on track and ensure that decisions around changes in scope or priority are measured against those objectives. 

Finally - the author makes it clear that building a good team requires commitment to process and is like a marriage, it happens over time.  Being able to build trust on a team, using inquiry to hear all the ideas, making decisions based on specific goals -- these all can help a team make better decisions and be more effective & efficient. 

The last section of the book  provides an outline of the itinerary and directions for different exercises - pretty high level but still appears to be a very useful tool for managing a team building offsite.  I'll definitely keep this in my back pocket for future reference and recommend it to anyone who works on a team of any type!

Author website with tools & resources: https://www.tablegroup.com/teamwork

REVIEW: Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators (J-B Lencioni Series) by Patrick Lencioni  

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: Solitude: A Return to the Self by Anthony Storr (5-stars)

 First, this book is magnificently structured.  The quality of writing and clarity of concepts laid out from the preface to the last page is well organized and clear without being overly pedantic or repetitive.  The author refers to concepts and goals of previous sections of the book - even mentions upcoming areas that will be addressed later - and it all just flows really nicely.  Very tightly written book - it's only 202 pages (the rest are notes).

Second - this book does a really great job of talking about the need for solitude as a balance to the need for human relationships and interactions using the experiences of highly accomplished historical figures including Beatrix Potter, Kant, Dostoevsky, Newton and many others.  

This was originally published in 1988 - so many watershed events happened in the 80s, and most people in developed countries were on the precipice of previously unknown opportunity for connection, distraction and surveillance of each other's activities.

"At the time of writing, it is generally considered that the highly introverted person is more pathological than the very extraverted person. This is because of the current emphasis upon object relationships, and the disregard of processes which take place in solitude."

The premise is that people who want solitude or who are single are missing out and have something wrong with them.  We even use the Greek word for a person who lives alone - troglodyte - as an insult to indicate some kind of stupid or defective person.

Storr goes into detail about the intrinsic need for humans to spend time alone -- sleep, for example, and dreams -- they provide our brain with time alone to integrate and heal and process experiences, ideas and thoughts about things.  Humans always crave some kind of solitude -- and even in the face of social convention and obligation, we come up with ways to get time to ourselves -- Florence Nightingale feigned a health complaint so she could get time alone to study and write.  Victorian women would have time to "rest" in the afternoons after spending so much time being empathically focused on the needs of others.

So - why is it that 30 years after this book was written, it seems like we are still not allowing people to take or make space to integrate their thoughts, experiences and ideas so that they can be healthier, happier and more productive?

I'm thinking specifically here of corporate professional work and the move to crowd people into "open workspace" areas and the retraction of control over where one works (many employers are repealing remote/work from home policies).  It seems counter productive to require an "always on", in the office for 8 hours workday when that's not really how human brains function.  

Being alone is necessary not just for personal life - but for professional life as well.  While corporate culture values ideation, collaboration and consensus for decision-making -- where is the space for integration and problem-solving on an individual level?  

Lots of great material to dig into here -- it feels like this is just another spot on the tip of the iceberg of a subject that fascinates me:  the psychology of creativity.  If you enjoy reading "Finding Flow" and other books by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi -- you'll enjoy this book.

REVIEW: Solitude: A Return to the Self  by Anthony Storr 

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: American Gods by Neil Gaiman (5-stars)

 I confess that I only read this because I recently watched the TV series and I enjoyed both.  The TV series seemed awfully violent and bloody - especially the first episode.  There's a lot that was changed in the TV series from the book - and I truly marvel at the skill and imagination of the authors of the screen play -- what they created is absolutely in line with this universe.

The book was very enjoyable -- I found Gaiman's writing style to be very easy to read.   He's got a good sense of humor and I enjoy the small jokes that he weaves in.  Many of the characters were very likeable - and I really admire the way he created such a dense web of interrelationships, stories and sub-plots.  

It wasn't until I was nearly halfway through the book - that I asked, "Who IS Shadow Moon, anyway?"   Gaiman's interpretations of mythology and character development is a lot of fun to read.  I just wish I had the paperback version (not the e-book) so I could share this with someone.

If you've been reading reviews of the TV series written by fans of the book - you'll already know that the carousel scene is not in the TV series, and there are several other things that have been added which are very enjoyable (such as expanding Mad Sweeny and Laura Moon's characters, changing the location of the first meeting with Easter and her response, OMG the ice cream truck!).

I did read the expanded author's special edition which may have added scenes and content not in the well loved original version of the book.  The carousel scene was a really fun pile of events -- reminded me of the descriptions of hallucinations in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" in some ways.  When Shadow Moon looks at Mr Nancy - he sees all the visual incarnations at once -- which is a stretch for a human brain, right?  

The idea that "gods" are created by a number of people growing to believe in a thing is the basic premise of this book -- people brought their "gods" with them from other lands, like cutting a branch of code off a tree -- that god came as a version of him/herself at the time, leaving behind versions in the homeland who may be having a different experience.  The "old gods" are basically subroutines.  The new gods are net-new -- maybe that makes them more powerful in some ways, but also less personally invested in the same kinds of things that drive the other gods.

One of my favorite concepts in the book was "Backstage" -- the idea that there is this place that looks like the world we see, but it's not quite the same. Even the passage of time is different - a few minutes backstage is like hours in the world we see, and so on. This alternate reality is a convenient mechanism for playing out important actions and conversations.

REVIEW: American Gods by Neil Gaiman 

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: The Wild Muir: Twenty-Two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures by John Muir (5-stars)

 Purchased as an impulse at some park bookstore in the past couple of years, I am so glad I finally sat down to finish this book! It's like a box of chocolates, packed with novel delights - each just as delicious as the other, making it hard to decide which you like best.  The book lacks the excessive, hyperbole laden introductions that typically accompany this sort of thing.  The editor includes a brief paragraph or two to introduce each selection and provide context, along with a nice timeline of Muir's life at the back.  

There's even the inclusion of an article written by a man who accompanied Muir on a hike - and another report showing someone else's view of the same incident.  All in all, showing that Muir's physical fitness must have been quite unusual even for today because he rarely mentions any difficulties on climbs and gives the appearance to the onlooker of a fleet footed gazelle prone to bouts of "amatory botany."  It's funny - I rather had a picture of Muir as somewhat kin of Doctor Who - very intelligent, constantly moving and going and exploring, not really getting upset or stressed out about any scraps: falling ass over teakettle and knocking himself senseless or going snowblind didn't seem to upset him.  All the while admiring, enthusiastically appreciating and overflowing with joy at the amazing lovely wonderful things around him.  

I think one of my favorite stories was about the tree ride because I share this fascination with wind and could totally see the movement of the trees he described.  I most envy his description of the aurora borealis events - never having seen one.  The little dog going along on the hike was a fantastic tale, too.  I quite relished his constant descriptions of the quality of light - and the anthropomorphization - describing "badgers, marmots and other small people who live on the mountain."  

Now, I wish I could hear his voice - so I am going to have to go find some proper Scottish indie films to get that in my head for the next time I read something by Muir.

REVIEW: The Wild Muir: Twenty-Two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures by John Muir 

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.