Review: My Daddy Was a Pistol and I'm a Son of a Gun

My Daddy Was a Pistol and I'm a Son of a Gun by Lewis Grizzard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When I reviewed Grizzard’s later “Shoot Low Boys – They’re Ridin’ Shetland Ponies” I found that book was a collection of what appeared to be newspaper columns Grizzard had written earlier, then pasted together with some introductory material and a bit of loose thematic organization. I was expecting much the same from this effort, focused on his father and their relationship. This was different. Instead of a collection of columns, this appeared more an entire book written to the subject. This was good, and author Grizzard injected his humor along the way, playing up the strange character that was his father. Another thing I noticed about Grizzard’s writing is that he knows how to pull the heartstrings when he wants to. He does that here, judiciously. It had to be done judiciously, as Grizzard’s father was a flawed individual, with a past as a war hero and an ability to ingratiate himself with others, but with a knack for borrowing money and disappearing, and a weakness for drink. Grizzard’s father answered to his demons, making him not fully a character for pity. Everything we are told is through the author’s eyes. You feel more for poor young Louis than his father. Yet Grizzard is portrayed as a Southern character, with musical abilities that allowed him to wheedle free food from churches after singing some hymns, while calling himself “Major” even though he was discharged not honorably at a lower rank. In the end, you realize this was son Grizzard’s story of trying to understand his father. It shouldn’t surprise you that he’s not much closer by the end of the book. Major Grizzard was too overwhelming a character to understand. I liked the writing, I liked the descriptions of how Grizzard’s father lived (what a character), but I hoped to find growth beyond expected forgiveness and it wasn’t in the story.

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Review: Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall by Adrian Goldsworthy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I took this book on knowing nothing about Hadrian’s Wall. I found it interesting in the level of detail – not too much, not too little. There’s not a lot of detail known about the wall. There are the measurements and descriptions of the wall from current times. There are mentions of the wall in historical documents, as well as the soldiers that patrolled the wall and the townspeople that supported the soldiers. There is plenty of conjecture about the wall’s use – not so much a defense for battle but a way to slow down attackers and force traffic through toll gates. I enjoyed that story, as well as the descriptions of Legionnaires in the society at the time of the wall. I listened on audio. I believe reading the book, assuming it had good pictures, would be more worthwhile, but on audio you still get the descriptions.

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Review: Slow Travel: Escape the Grind and Explore the World

Slow Travel: Escape the Grind and Explore the World by Jennifer M. Sparks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This short travel book focused on the planning aspects of long-term travel. The author speaks from experience, having gone on a number of multi-month trips she relates here. If anything, her trip descriptions are just background here, as the focus is on the planning of extended trips. The author provides some useful ideas on deciding what you want to get out of travel, deciding where to go, affording extended trips, preparing your home and career for absence, packing, and more. The author provides short checklists here, but they are mostly quite high-level “did you think about” items and not the kind of checklist with details. Overall, a good overview of planning for extended trips, with a balance of example and how-to suggestions.

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Review: Forlorn River

Forlorn River by Zane Grey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked up Grey’s popular “Nevada”, but when I found it was a sequel to this book, I decided to read them in order. In “Forlorn River”, I was treated with a story about as I expected. Grey’s writing is more modern than I expected in this 1926 Western. Less of the flowery prose of some of Grey’s other stories, this seemed more direct. Grey did have a tendency to latch on to a word and re-use it to excess – the word of this book is “ejaculated”, in the non-porn sense. Listening to this on audio, I was glad I was using my headphones. The story was typical Western fare, with honor and coyboying along side romance with the rancher’s daughter, who in this book just got back from college. The characters were well written and acted their parts. It was disappointing to see the token Indian treated much like a minor character, doing things for unsatisfactorily explained reasons, and disappearing entirely while apparently on-stage and part of the action near the end. And the plot seemed too contrived at places – the hero conveniently does exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time here to generate the climax. I found the naivety unappealing for an otherwise winning character. The narrator in the version of the audiobook I listened to, Jack Sondericker, did a good job with the various voices, best with hero Ben and his group. All told, I found it an enjoyable story and I look forward to reading more from Grey.

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Review: The Transparency Sale: How Unexpected Honesty and Understanding the Buying Brain Can Transform Your Results

The Transparency Sale: How Unexpected Honesty and Understanding the Buying Brain Can Transform Your Results by Todd Caponi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve worked in technical sales for almost two decades now, and I’ve been involved in many sales cycles. I liked “The Transparency Sale” because it agrees with what I’ve seen, and takes the best practices a little farther than many other sales books I’ve read. The author suggests calling out early in the sales process your own product’s weaknesses. I’ve found this counterintuitive with most sales managers and account managers I’ve worked with, who hope to eliminate any discussion of perceived weaknesses. I buy the author’s tact of starting with this discussion to build trust. When I’ve been in talks that start this way, the sales process went much more smoothly. I also appreciate the author’s additional points, including getting in front of contract terms negotiations and using references. I’ve taken many classes on creating and giving good technical demonstrations, appealing to limbic thinking in our prospects, and I appreciate those learnings, but they often stand alone, unconnected with the bigger sales process orchestration. Caponi’s book makes a good companion to those demo processes in order to think about the overall sales and account management process in an integrated way. Good read.

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Review: The Code of the Extraordinary Mind: 10 Unconventional Laws to Redefine Your Life and Succeed On Your Own Terms

The Code of the Extraordinary Mind: 10 Unconventional Laws to Redefine Your Life and Succeed On Your Own Terms by Vishen Lakhiani
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is another example of a book that is as much an advertisement for the author’s website and paid content as it is to provide some actionable ideas to live your life in a better way. Many, if not all of the suggestions I’ve read before in different books, and in fact the author quotes from some of these source books quite often. To the good, the author does interject personal experiences that are at times interesting. He also has an energy-filled writing style. To the bad, the author writes this in a way typical for stretching limited content, by repeatedly telling you what he will be covering in upcoming chapters. You end up hearing what’s coming up a few times before you actually get to it, and at times when you get to the meat of the ideas you are underwhelmed because it’s familiar. On the audio version of this book, the author narrates. You get his excitement, but the reading is unsteady, with some odd timing. I would consider reading more by this author, but would look to verify that it wasn’t advertising focused.

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Review: Clotel: Or, the President's Daughter

Clotel: Or, the President's Daughter by William Wells Brown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The story was about as I expected but the writing was quite a bit different. Given the time period in which it was written I was expecting more flowery, Victorian prose. Instead, “Clotel” was written in a more straightforward style. And on audio, it came across sounding like a radio drama from the 40s. At times, the author started a new chapter with something like, “Recall that when we left Mary she was in disguise and travelling through territory dangerous to her.” I listened to the audio version of this book, and this kind of writing stood out. I found it comfortable listening, despite the content that had the expected level of tragedy and violence. The story itself was interesting in the situations depicted, although I found it a bit difficult to follow the character changes on audio. Reading might have helped in this regard.

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