Our Iceberg is Melting
OUR ICEBERG IS MELTING by John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber is not just a story about cute emperor penguins in the Antartica but there’s much more in this short tale. The penguins fable drew on the frameworks found in Leading Change (by John Kotter in 1996) and The Heart of Change (also by Dr Kotter and co-written with Dan Cohen in 2002). At first glance, the book may look silly but it draws on the power of good stories to influence behavior and compel actions.
Discover how to use the “Eight Steps Process of Successful Change” (as the penguins did even without knowing them) to enjoy even more success in these changing times. […]
Not Quite What I Was Planning
Do you have a six-word memoir? Can you write one? When I saw the 225-page book Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, I grabbed a copy off the shelf at the bookstore. And finished reading it in one sitting.
The six-word memoir was launched online in 2006 by SMITH magazine and they’re now compiled into a book, and published this year. It is personal storytelling that soon creates a storm across the Internet.
The English Patient
THE ENGLISH PATIENT is a historical fiction set in the hills of Tuscany during World War II—a tale of tragedy and passion. The novel does not go according to chronological order, but alternates between the present and flashbacks to memories, seen from the point of view of each of the main characters. It slowly reveals the identities of the characters as the story progresses.
I can’t believe it took me ages to begin reading The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. I bought the book in May 2007 […]
Hot Stuff
There is never a dull moment in any of Elaine Fox’s novels and this includes HOT STUFF. This is a fun book and it has certainly made me laugh. After many failed romances, the thirty-something Laurel who is a writer for DC Scene decides that enough is enough and so gives up on falling in love. She thinks that “arranging” her own marriage would be a better idea. Her thinking is fueled by the book her demanding editor, Rulinda insists that she reads. The book is entitled Love Is Not the Answer.
The male protagonist in this book is Joe who is a witty, good looking guy. He owns a coffee cart outside of Laurel’s office.
Coraline
CORALINE by Neil Gaiman is a story for children but it is a rather dark one. I loved it.
Coraline is a little girl who lives with her parents in a huge old house together with other people who share the same house. Those other people are two old former actresses named Miss Spink and Miss Forcible who own three dogs, and an old man Coraline calls ‘the crazy old man’.
She loves to explore her surroundings.
Fahrenheit 451
FAHRENHEIT 451 is a classic written by Ray Bradbury. The novel is originally a short story entitled “The Fireman” published in the Galaxy Science Fiction in 1951 and two years later expanded into Fahrenheit 451. It’s a story about books and it’s not a happy one, because you see, it’s a crime to possess books and if anyone is found to keep them in their houses or read them, they will be reported and everything will be burned to ashes—the books, the house, and sometimes even the owners. Why? Because books give readers ideas of unhappiness, pain, suffering—they are evil.
Normally firemen put out fire but in Bradbury’s story, they don’t. Instead, the firemen start them in order to burn books. As indicated by the title Fahrenheit 451, the numbers 451 is the identification of a particular fireman in the story […]
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME is Mark Haddon’s debut novel and it’s beautifully written in the first-person narration. The story is about a fifteen-year-old autistic boy named Christopher John Francis Boone who is mathematically gifted but socially hopeless. He is superbly logical and sees everything literally based on patterns, rules and diagrams. You’ll be able to observe this by the way the book is being written.
One night, Christopher sees his neighbor’s poodle, Wellington, lying on the grass. He takes a look and finds the poor pooch killed by a garden fork. […]
Dingo
This is the first time I’m reading the work of Charles de Lint and am happy to say I’m not disappointed. DINGO holds my attention from the beginning to the end, and it speaks to me throughout like a friend.
Seventeen-year-old Miguel Schreiber meets an unusual new-girl-in-town named Lainey and her large dog named Em. Lainey is pretty with red-gold hair and so is the fur of her dog. […]