Author: Morten T. Hansen
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Given the demands on time, I can always appreciate solid advice when it comes to work efficiency. Being a huge proponent of GTD, and possibly obsessing over it too much, I’ve read quite wide in this genre. However, if a book is willing to give you one insight that can change things for you, then it’s worth reading.

Hansen has gone into the field to conduct a five year study about the success of people in the workplace. I appreciated the academic approach to this endeavour, which confirmed advice that others have written about with only anecdotal evidence.

The bulk of the insight for me was a reminder of something I’ve been hammering at the past few years: work less and obsess. This is in the beginning chapters of Hansen’s work and he articulates it well by calling people to focus on less, but work extremely hard at those few things. It’s the confirmation to other similar styled books including “Essentialism,” “The One Thing” and “Deep Focus.”

The other two chapters of interest were to focus on adding value (rather than achieving goals) and having a learning loop (constant, small, iterative improvements) in place.

The rest of the book, while interesting and having a great narrative to carry it through, didn’t have the same luster for me as the beginning. This may be in part to my deluge of reading where the advice now seems so commonplace, however, I can see it working for someone who may be new to these key insights.

Worth the read for a few insights?

Absolutely.

Author: John Green
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It’s difficult to give this an unbiased review after loving Paper Towns and The Fault In Our Stars. Understanding this book would be neither one of the two, nor does it need to be, I did come to it with high expectations.

Green definitely delivers in his style and voice in this book, but the main narrative is a bit fuzzy. There are a few tangents happening and all of them could have been better served as the focus of this book, but who am I to give judgment on the choices of a best-selling author?

The main character, Aza, is handled brilliantly as someone struggling with mental health issues. Her internal dialogue is enough to keep the reader captivated, especially as Aza lives two lives in the narrative: the one in her head and the one she presents to others.

However, the story is really about friendship and the search for a fugitive billionaire.

Then the writing gets existential… which is up my alley considering my background and interests… but it doesn’t quite fit with the story… or that it’s being doled out by teenagers. And no, this isn’t me saying teenagers can’t have existential conversations, but I’m hard pressed to be convinced they sound like post-grad philosophy students on a daily basis.

If, however, the characters were in their late twenties/early thirties, then I’d be on board. This is possibly just my personal taste based on personal experience and I still finished the book anyway.

I’m torn with this one as it didn’t work for me, but I can see it working for others.

Author: James H. Cone
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It’s hard to review a book that hits you right in the gut and leaves you feeling both stupid and ashamed after finishing. Stupid because you never made the connection yourself and ashamed at not having given it a second thought. I had to give this one some time to settle before coming back to the review as it was an eye-opener.

Cone really strikes a nerve in making the connection between the Cross upon which Jesus was sacrificed and the many black people who were lynched. The narrative he createsIt’s hard to review a book that hits you right in the gut and leaves you feeling both stupid and ashamed after finishing. Stupid because you never made the connection yourself and ashamed at not having given it a second thought. I had to give this one some time to settle before coming back to the review as it was an eye-opener.

Cone really strikes a nerve in making the connection between the Cross upon which Jesus was sacrificed and the many black people who were lynched. The narrative he creates, and stories he tells, are disturbing, yet necessary to hear.

The black communities (especially in the South) could directly relate to the story of a man who was marginalized, publicly tortured and put to death in a prominent area where crowds could gather and jeer at him. It was a reality they lived with each day as people in their own community, including their own family, could be next.

You’ve heard about such a heinous act, but Cone brings it to life. His narrative brings you to the moments, the pains and the struggles, then connects it in a way to Theology that’s just brilliant.

Although I borrowed this copy from the public library, I’ll be getting a copy for my personal shelves.

Author: Rick Yancey
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This book came my way as a suggestion from one of my students, who said he was eagerly enjoying it. I picked it up and while reading through it, he then informed me he stopped reading it for something else.

It’s not the first time someone recommended a book to me they didn’t finish.

Regardless, I started with the audio version and switched to the text once it became available and read through until the end. The backdrop is a young adult take on an alien invasion, but the process by which the aliens invade is mesmerizing.

Yancey did an incredible job at detailing out a unique twist on humans being attacked while encasing it in enough mystery to keep you turning the page. The book shifts between two points of view and each one slowly unravels the bigger picture at hand.

As the reader learns, the alien invasion didn’t come in one attack. Rather, it was a systematic process done in four waves, each one decimating the human population even further. The suspense is in finding out how the fourth wave functions (the aliens have taken on human form) and wondering what the fifth wave will be.

While there’s plenty of action and intrigue to keep the story moving, I did feel parts of dragged on longer than necessary. I get the author was telling two stories (sometimes three) and merging them together, but it almost felt like too much build up for not enough payoff. Perhaps this is remedied in the sequels now that most of the info dumping is done.

There’s enough in here to get me to the sequels and certainly enough to give the casual onlooker a worthwhile read.

Author: Meg Cabot
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I’ll be the first to admit this isn’t my type of book, nor is it something I would have a passive interest in reading. I suppose if my wife threw it my way and told me I should read it to expand my horizons, I would put it in the buffer.

However, for the sake of reading books I think my students would enjoy, I picked it up.

Then I powered my way through it because it hooked me.

Meg Cabot is a wonderful writer whose prose is compelling enough to keep you glued to the page, even if the content isn’t up your alley. It was easy to see why many of her books (both adult and young adult) were bestsellers… a point I completely forgot about before I started.

The story follows the main character, Jean aka Jinx, who attributes herself to having the worst luck in the world. Through an incident at home, slowly revealed throughout the book, she is forced to move to New York to live with her aunt and uncle.

She meets her cousin who has completely changed… teenage drama… and a touch of accusations about being a witch… and you have yourself a story that unfolds nicely to the last page.

The only aspect that irked me was the whole witchcraft theme. It almost felt wedged into this story and flirted with, but never embraced. It was like an invisible barrier Cabot was willing to gently step over the line into without ever leaping. This would have been fine if the story wrapped this thread up nicely, but it fell just short.

Still a fun read and I learned my lesson (again!) about not judging a book by its cover.

Author: Arnold Bennett
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Here’s something people may not expect – a self-help book about productivity written over a hundred years ago. We like to think we’re in an age where there’s never enough time and the golden era of leisure was yesterday.

Arnold Bennett comes out and, in a fun and entertaining British way, writes his advice for a middle/upper class society who feel miserable about their existence.

In this book (which is public domain and therefore free), he tackles the issue of people going to work, coming home and then wasting their evening away until they wake up the next day to do it again. All the while, they complain about not having enough time to pursue anything meaningful in their lives (hmmm… sounds familiar…)

While today’s self-help genre focuses toward the idea of being your true self, finding your passion or making money (usually the latter… which only profits the author, but that’s another rant), Bennett focuses on taking advantage of time.

Specifically, how one is able to maximize every minute of every day given to them. Money can be replenished, but time is something that can never be banked. Instead, one should learn how to find all the spare minutes of their day and use it to start living, not merely existing.

It’s a short book and if you’re willing to delve into it, you’ll find plenty of wisdom that is highly useful today.

Author: Meaghan McIsaac
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It’s exciting to read a sci-fi book, especially one written for a younger audience, with attention to world building. Yes, this is a sci-fi book set in the future… and yes it has time travel elements… and yes, it’s dystopian (have we hit all our YA sci-fi cliches yet?), but it moves in a different direction.

Forgive the dad joke.

This story is centered around Pat, who is in a world that is overcrowded and with little resources to spare. To compound the issue, there are people in the world known as ‘Movers.’ They are connected to others in the future, called ‘Shadows’ and the movers have the ability to move shadows into the present time.

The issue is the government doesn’t want this happening as the world’s resources are already stretched thin and adding more to the mix only makes it worse. Hence, any time they detect someone moving, or in large suspicion of moving, they put that person to sleep.

Pat is not a mover, but has latent abilities. His sister and classmate, however, are a different story. Right away, they find themselves tangled up in an issue where they are on the run. The story keeps you hooked all the way until they end as they discover secrets about the world, the government and themselves. It ends on a massive cliffhanger.

While I found the book took a bit long to get going, the students I’ve offered it to said it gets exciting right away. This may be a case of my over-saturation with the genre in comparison to their eager and young minds. The fact the few who have read it blasted through it in less than a week speaks volumes of how it plays to a younger audience.

For something different in the YA Sci-fi genre, it’s worth picking up.

Author: Daisy Christodoulou
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As someone committed to professional growth and constantly on the lookout for material that will get me there, I was excited to pickup this book. From the onset, I made the assumption I would largely be agreeing with Christodoulou’s arguments and it was partially true.

The backbone of the entire book is Myth 1: Facts Prevent Understanding.

Twenty years ago (further if you count the outlier teachers who were early adopters), the push for education in Canada was to move from knowledge based to skills based education.

Knowledge based education was (and still is) looked upon with serious disdain.

Of course the common argument about moving away from knowledge based education is the average student will never need to memorize some random fact they’ll never use again. This is true.

However, what Christodoulou brilliantly points towards is knowing one random fact on its own isn’t useful, but knowing many is crucial to making connections.

Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses on a Wittenberg Church door in 1517. The town had approximately 2000 people in it at the time.

Based on that bit of information, it’s difficult to answer why the Reformation even happened. However, when you add the following two facts:

Gutenberg invents the printing press in 1440.
Explosion in literacy because of easy and cheap access to printed materials.

Connections can be made. The people of the town reprinted those theses and distributed them far and wide across the continent. In essence, Martin Luther created a viral post that spurred the masses.

After the first myth, I was committed to reading the rest. Unfortunately, each subsequent myth pointed towards many common education reform ideals (teacher led instruction is bad, project based learning is best, etc.) but still fell back on the first myth. There wasn’t enough in each to follow the depth of argument I was already primed to hear.

This may have been a case of Christodoulou trying to get her thoughts packaged together, but it may have been more beneficial to focus on her primary point and use those other myths as extensions.

In her mission to get me thinking, however, she succeeded.

Author: Nahoko Uehashi
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This book is what happens when you mix anime style ninja/samurai guardian tropes with classic touches of fantasy.

I would call this a fun read for someone who is looking for a lot of action in their fantasy without getting bogged down in the details that can plague newcomers to the genre. It drips out the explanations just enough for you to easily follow along without scratching your head trying to connect it to an earlier info dump.

The story begins with our guardian, Balsa, who tasks herself with protecting a young prince named Chagum. Along the way, you learn the history of Balsa, the prince and the mysterious great egg dwelling inside of him that he must bring to its source. Given this was meant for a younger audience (teen fiction according to the library label), it will be familiar territory… although there were a few surprises.

There’s enough intrigue in here to keep you turning pages, although the action sequences (which you wait patiently for) don’t quite live up to the hype that’s built around them. Perhaps this is just me being nitpicky, but when you’ve read enough incredible action sequences from a variety of texts, your expectations are a little high.

Still, the book was fun enough to have a permanent home in my classroom library. I hope my students will dive into it and discover this fun world for themselves.

Author: Lois Lowry
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In considering a book for my Language Arts class this year, this title came across my desk. Having read “The Giver” back in elementary school out of a suggestion from a friend, I knew Lowry wouldn’t disappoint.

Number the Stars is a look at World War II as seen through the perspective of the people of Denmark. The backdrop is already more fascinating than the typical settings of a war novel, giving it an extra allure for young readers.

Annemarie is a young girl who is now living through occupied Denmark, after having the king surrender to Nazi Germany. As the troops begin their mission to “relocate” the Jews, Annemarie must protect Ellen, her friend, and her family.

The story expands to one about the entire country of Denmark trying to smuggle every Jewish person across the sea to Sweden, all told through Annemarie’s perspective.

It’s a quick read for the avid reader, but it grips you. You find yourself interested in both the history of what’s happening combined with the tale it’s woven into and cheering for every victory along the way.

It’ll be exciting to read it with my students this year, who may be given their first introduction to the deeper history of World War II and the writings of Lowry.