Review: An Innocent, a Broad

An Innocent, a Broad by Ann Leary
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed reading one of Leary’s fiction books and I thought her voice would be entertaining in this more personal memoir telling of her difficult child birth. Her story was quite entertaining. I learned about the British medical system through this book, but I also learned that Leary is like a lot of people, myself included, that read up on a topic and feel that we are smarter than the experts we hire. In this case, Leary time and again worries that these British doctors and nurses don’t know how to do things. We find out throughout the story that, in fact, she was in very capable hands during her extended stay in London after giving birth to a preemie. We also find that with her focus on her child, she missed out on her husband’s increase in fame. You end up seeing Leary as very human. This book evoked some emotion in me, which is rare. I found I wanted to strangle Leary who was showing signs of being a helicopter parent even before her child was born. And I sensed her gradual giving in to the reality of an extended stay in London tied to a hospital. But I also found a few passages caused me to laugh. Well written episode.

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Review: What Comes Next and How to Like It

What Comes Next and How to Like It by Abigail Thomas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Memoir, with somewhat random reflections on the past, with some self-analysis of the author’s life mixed in along the way. I appreciated that the flow was very much like a daily journaling exercise, and the author has a way to explain things simply, the results of a writer who has spent a lot of time thinking about her life. This shows you how this practice can work to build into a more cohesive story by providing examples of actions and thoughts at different times in the authors life, at different events. It is some attempt at understanding herself, while also acknowledging the bad (like drinking too much vanilla). You are left after reading this considering the author as both very strong and very weak, given how events have unfolded in her life. Her focus here seems to be on relationships with friends, daughters, and dogs. Her marriages didn’t seem to last, so you don’t see as much of that here in the analysis. I enjoyed the audiobook version – it was a nice and calming narration that allowed for personal reflection through comparison.

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Review: Fear of the Dark

Fear of the Dark by Walter Mosley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found myself mildly more interested in this episode of Paris Minton and Fearless Jones than the previous two. The entanglement of family ties, the evil eye, and the continual namecalling of cousin “Useless” was kind of funny. The plot was similar to others in the series, and the book contains interesting descriptions of the times and place – post-WWII LA. Lots of knocking on doors. And some of the action occurs off-stage and is related to the protagonists through a long story. But this felt more polished than the earlier ones in the series, like Mosley is optimizing his writing for the Minton/Jones pair as time goes on. The story, on reflection, was less of-its-time, and more character/personality driven.

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Review: The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I expected this to be more of a how-to book than it ended up being. Magnusson mostly tells stories of her life, and of the times she’s had to clean up the houses of people, mostly relatives, that had passed away. Through her often funny stories, I was reminded of the times when my Mother was responsible for her Mother’s house after she passed. I saw the angst, and although it was decades ago, I still remember the weight of the decisions of what to do with every item in the house. Magnusson captures the issue cause by those weighty decisions, and suggests, in persuasive ways like a grandmother would use, to clean up your stuff while you still can, so you don’t excessively burden your relatives and friends after you pass. Nice and short read.

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Review: Purposeful Retirement: How to Bring Happiness and Meaning to Your Retirement

Purposeful Retirement: How to Bring Happiness and Meaning to Your Retirement by Hyrum W. Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This audiobook was quite enjoyable. The author was one of the creators of the Franklin Day Planner, and you can tell he is experienced at teaching his system to large audiences – he has a way to tell anecdotes that seems well practiced. His stories are often personal, and they feel different than others, unique. And the sense of humor is not the antiseptic, safe-from-innuendo stuff that you almost always read in these kinds of books. This felt more like your uncle telling you what he’s learned in his retirement. And what made this even more interesting? The narrator reminded me of the pompous baritone of Ted Baxter, from Mary Tyler Moore. The personality in the writing was a great match for this. Very appropriate!

The advice tended to the get-off-your-ass variety. Wholly appropriate. Some help in finding purpose.


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Review: The Awakened Millionaire: A Manifesto for the Spiritual Wealth Movement

The Awakened Millionaire: A Manifesto for the Spiritual Wealth Movement by Joe Vitale
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Should really be called “The Awakened Would-Love-To-Be-A-Millionaire, And Thinks He’d Be Really Good With Lots Of Money And Could Do Some Good Things For People, But Probably Won’t Earn That Much”. I was disappointed with this. It is not a how-to book, it is heavily motivational. And it seemed like it was aimed at people without means. I get the feel of Steve Martin’s bit on “How You Can Be a Millionaire and Never Pay Taxes”. (“First, get a million dollars…”) No thanks. I like the concept, but not this execution.

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Review: Architecting the Future Enterprise

Architecting the Future Enterprise by Deborah J. Nightingale
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’ve read a number of books and manuals on enterprise architecture. Many provide help in creating architectures from a high level down to a low level. “Architecting the Future Enterprise” is like most of the books I’ve read on architecture, but the aim was a little higher. The book spends a lot of time on documenting the company and its needs at a very high level. Think mission/vision/values, but deeper drill-downs on those kinds of topics. The book covers the architecting process from this high level down through scenario planning and architecture documentation, not to the deep technical level but more to the story level. This certainly isn’t the process you would use to architect, say your cloud computing environment, but you would use it to architect at a higher level.

Like most architecture processes, doing everything that is recommended generates huge amounts of documentation, and would take massive time investments, including time from high level executives. When I read these books, I look for suggestions on economizing and timeboxing the processes. I didn’t get that here. That’s why you pay consultants to manage these processes, I guess, including the authors I suspect. I liked how the authors described the process and the kinds of issues that need to be analyzed and documented. This certainly could be a useful book for those going through an architecture exercise at work, to help you think through your process and to avoid missing something that you might need.


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