Author: Kristine Kathryn Rusch

I’ve been following Dean Wesley Smith for quite some time and while I knew his wife, Kris, is a tremendous fiction writer, it was only recently I peered into her blog.

Holy crap am I ever feeling stupid for not reading it sooner.

Within two posts, I immediately went to her non-fiction books and purchased this one. Yes, I know it’s a series of posts on her blogs that were re-configured for book format, but the information inside is absolutely worth the cost. You’re not only buying action oriented advice from someone who’s been in the field for decades, you’re also buying the wisdom that comes from it.

Discoverability is more than just putting your book in front of a reader. It’s a whole world more and if there’s one thing I really appreciated is Rusch’s admittance that not everything works all the time. She speaks to how different strategies work, when they work and the results that come from it, but leaves it to the reader to put in the work and find out what works for them.

The biggest strategy?

Ask yourself the following question: Would I be better off writing? (WIBBOW)

In almost all instances, the answer is yes.

While simple to say, the explanation for why makes perfect sense. It’s enough of a kick in the pants to get you back in the chair and churning out the next story.

You can feel the many years experience on every page of this book, which is why I will be working my way through her library in the upcoming months. There’s just so much good insight.

Author: David Kudler

After having this book, and many others, sitting on my Kindle, I decided to finally work my through them starting with the ones that interested me most. I had to remind myself why I picked this up in the first place and a lot of it had to do with the setting: historical Japan.

I’ve never been there and my primary fascination with the place came through playing video games and watching anime. Still, it held an allure I couldn’t explain.

It’s a young-adult book with a young character, Risuko, who may be the key to helping win a civil war. Orphaned by her parents, she is picked up and learns there may be more to her than just a great interest in climbing. An innocence to coming-of-age character arc mixed in with light fantasy elements, political intrigue and history.

The first part of the book was a bit all over the place and I had trouble following along. However, once the action picked up, I was sucked right in and enjoyed the book to its climax.

I may come back to this series later, but there’s plenty of other books I need to get through before then.

Authors: Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, Jim Huling

A non-fiction book is good to me if there’s a good idea in there I can use, even if the rest of it seems irrelevant or padded (more likely the latter considering the publishing demands of filling page quotas). Based on a figure I follow, he recommended an idea in this book and I picked it up to read the rest of it.

There’s a lot of good material focused specifically on the execution part of an equation. While other books delve into getting inspired, building passion, generating ideas, strategies that work, tactics that are useful — it means nothing without execution. This is where this book hopes to fill that niche.

Right from the start, it’s obvious this is a platform for further coaching sessions. For someone running an organization, or a division of it, there may be more gems in here to mine than I could get. Unfortunately, for me, the personal takeaway was limited.

In fact, the original inspiration for picking it up felt anti-climactic. There wasn’t much more to the suggestion of the idea that intrigued me, just flavourings on how to make it look and why it’s effective. Good to know, but nothing that gets my brain fired up.

While most of this book is business heavy, there is a section of the book dedicated to implementing these ideas for personal use.

If you’re having issues executing and making it stick, this would be worthwhile to pick up.

Authors: Peter Brown, Henry Roediger III, Mark McDaniel

I am always on the hunt for better methods of teaching, especially those based on research and not circumstance. While I try to be careful about the books I choose in this category, as many fall into the cheerleader/self-help category with all flash and no substance, this one did not disappoint. There was enough solid advice in here to pass along to my students and use for myself.

Actually, if you consider yourself a lifelong learner, you would do well to pick up this book.

During my first year of University, my professor told the class to throw away our highlighters when reading. In college, my instructor told us to not cram the night before and instead, go out and relax (the implicit suggestion is you would study in chunks leading up to the test or exam). This book explains why they were right.

The traditional study methods we often resort to (reading or watching something repeatedly) are ineffective and don’t stick. At best, it’s like reciting a phone number in your head over and over until you make the call.

Instead, the authors actually take you through the book using the methods they are advocating based on cognitive science (brain based research). While the first seven chapters of the book can feel like padding to the payoff in chapter eight (actionable steps), it’s because the concepts are sticking that the final chapter makes perfect sense.

Some of the concepts in here were already familiar to me, including the flash card method (Leitner box or Anki app) and the memory palace technique, but the suggestions for applying them shed some new light on how I go about teaching and learning. Let’s just say my students might not be too happy with me in September when they start getting more quizzes, but they might start to appreciate it by December when they see improvement.

This is a great book to read for any teacher or learner and even if you only get a nugget of usefulness, it will be a highly useful nugget.

Author: Rachel Aaron

It took me a while to start reading the final book in this series. Not from a lack of desire, but more from a need to read many other works beforehand. This particular series has been a pleasure read of mine since Aaron introduced it four years ago.

This book is a departure from the innocent fun of the first one, Nice Dragon’s Finish Last, but still retains its young adult nature. All the characters feel familiar even if they are jaded by the events happening, which includes… well… the entire universe ending.

If you’ve read the Eli Monpress series, you’re already familiar with the setup. I was really hoping it wouldn’t be more of the same as the buildup was suggesting it would be. Thankfully, there were just enough surprises to differentiate the two. For that reason, and the obvious fact Aaron planned out this story arc meticulously to come to a satisfying conclusion, it was a welcome finale.

To say anything more about the book would be to spoil its plot and anything that came beforehand. There were no disappointments about this series and now that it’s complete, a new reader can happily binge on it.

Author: Tanya Talaga

It’s really hard to pick-up a book like this one and not feel ashamed. Originally given to me as part of a professional development series, I put off reading it until closer to our meeting date where the group of us would discuss the themes present.

My thought process was with the overwhelming number of items on the go and books I’m reading, I’d like the content to be fresh.

I could’ve read this years ago and the content would still be fresh in my mind.

Thunder Bay has been in the (Canadian) national media for the tragic end to seven of its teenage Indigenous students. As with all news cycles, people take an interest and then move on to something else. Talaga strung together a series of stories that just cannot be ignored.

It starts with Channie Wenjack, who froze to death in the 1960s running away from residential school (a horrendous part of our history, which was nothing more than cultural genocide) and looks at the human rights violations that are still happening with our Indigenous population. Seven deaths from young people who were forced to leave home and travel hundreds of kilometers to a city that was/is violent and racist towards them.

While it may sound like this book is centered around guilt and blame, it’s really a wake-up call for the entire country.

Canada’s dark history towards its Indigenous peoples isn’t something that happened, it’s still happening. We lament the tragedies happening in other parts of the world, but fail to recognize the serious tragedy happening in our own.

In 2008, the government formally apologized for residential schools and as a result, a truth and reconciliation commission was formed. Its aim is to reveal the past wrongdoing and find ways to resolve the issues going forward. The commission gave its final recommendation in 2015.

Yet, the conditions upon which these seven fallen feathers lost their lives still exist today as they did when they died.

This book makes you think and it does that by waking you up.

Author: Michael Finkel

Ever feel like you just want to get away from society?

Disappear into the woods and be left alone, never bothered by anyone?

Would you be willing to do it for close to thirty years?

This book is the true life story of a hermit, Christopher Knight, who decided he had enough, disappeared into the woods in Maine and cut himself off completely from society. The only words he spoke in his twenty seven years of solitude was “hi” to someone who passed him by during a nature walk.

He was only found out after being caught stealing food from the local camp. However, his crime wasn’t just a one-off event. The reason for his survival was his ability to break into homes and steal what he needed… making the entire community fearful of the legendary hermit thief.

The author does a great job initially about getting into the details of Knight’s life, what led him to the woods and how he survived. He, like many others, were also intrigued by any great insights one would have after being voluntarily isolated for so long.

Readers may be disappointed as the last thing Knight wanted was to talk to anyone and he makes it known people have this expectation from him. Unfortunately, it’s not something he can deliver. He does offer some pretty solid observations about what happened to society.

The book gets awkward near the end.

Knight and his family just want to be left alone. Finkel keeps badgering him, trying to get more information, but Knight doesn’t want anything to do with him.

At that point, you really do just want the author to let the man be. For that reason, the first two-thirds are worth reading, but the last third is tough to get through.

Author: Hiromu Arakawa

This review covers volumes 1-6 as I haven’t quite gone through all 27 yet. That will eventually happen, but I have enough of a taste of the series to know where it’s going and why I want to be there.

I was first introduced to the series by my good friend, Matti Silver, who demanded I watch the anime series. Considering I barely have time to watch shows right now, dedicating time to watch an entire series is not going to happen. Hence, I was happy to discover the books in my school library.

First, I will say the series has been incredibly fun to read. Each one only took me an afternoon because I found myself addicted to finding out what happened next, ignoring the demands of daily life while I flipped “just one more page.”

It chronicles the adventures of two brothers who are alchemists, which is a special brand of magic that only dedicated students can master. While the series slowly peels away its origins and how it works, Arakawa has a fully developed system that makes you feel instantly comfortable reading about it.

Through an alchemy spell gone horribly wrong, one of the brothers, Alphonse, was bound to a metal suit of armor. The older brother, Edward, blames himself and is on a quest to return his brother to a physical body.

Along the way, they get wrapped up in an even greater plot that requires their talents. While meant for a younger audience, the themes feel relevant to someone much older.

Given the first six had my full attention, I’ve already dedicated part of my summer to finishing the rest of the series. It’s fun, easy to follow and addictive.

Author: Daniel Pink

A wonderful science teacher I work with handed this book to me and asked me to read it. She also told me it was a borrowed copy from the library and I was on a strict timeline to finish it.

I was happy to be forced to finish it under the gun.

Pink is a tremendous storyteller, which allows him to distill scientific research into a digestible narrative that makes sense to the average reader. Watching his talks (TED and other lectures) will give you an idea of how that looks.

When (The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing) delves into the details that define perfect timing. I consider this an important lesson as my wife constantly tells me what horrible timing I have with just about everything.

The big takeaway is the natural rhythms that dictate our own lives (biologically wired) and how to take advantage of those to confront our day better. For instance, instead of chugging an extra-large coffee with three shots of espresso in the afternoon to get over the afternoon ‘wall,’ take a short nap. Your body naturally wants to shut down, so let it (for 15-20 minutes).

Some of the other research he includes aren’t secrets, but merely overlooked articles that are corroborated by other sources.

The information wasn’t quite new, but the presentation was certainly refreshing. Well worth a read if you want to get a better handle on your day.

 

Editor: Dean Wesley Smith

I’ve been following Smith for a few years now and signed up for a few of his courses. Considering he’s someone who is making a living off his writing for 30+ years (with over 100 traditionally published novels and getting close to that number for self-published… not to mention the hundreds of short stories), I take to heart what he has to offer and suggest. So far, it hasn’t led me astray.

When he started a Kickstarter campaign to restart Pulphouse Fiction magazine, there was no hesitation for me to back it.

It is now on Issue 2 (technically it’s the third issue as the first one was issue zero), but the backing was definitely worth it. As with all short story collections, there will be some that stay with you and others that are amusing, but not your cup of tea.

What cannot be denied is the caliber of writing.

With the glut of material to read today and endless recommendations from people, it’s really nice to have a master in the field curating amazing content. Guaranteed there will be something in here you will enjoy.