This is a story of the effects of improper incarceration of America’s black men. It is also a love story. The reconciliation of these two themes births a plot with several twists and turns, right down to the Epilogue. Jones provides us with a fresh tale with interesting food for thought. My only additional wish is for more. I wish that there were some other theme that played itself out in these pages and interacted…
Any work by William Faulkner is going to be heady, confuse sometimes, and be filled with long, descriptive prose. Light in August, one of Faulkner’s earlier works in Yoknapatawpha county, Mississippi, is no exception. In it, he compares the plight of the American negro in the early-twentieth-century South to the sufferings of Jesus Christ while interweaving several points-of-view into a coherent tale. Joe Christmas (whose initials suggest that he is a Christ figure) is a…
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is a classic that most high schoolers read excerpts from in high school. Burton Raffel here offers a new, full-length translation. The translation mostly succeeds (at least in oral format) as it conveys the sense of the work fairly well. While reading, it struck me how essentially medieval Chaucer’s setting is. While he is often talked about as one standing at the cusp of an enlightened England, his roots are thoroughly planted…
This work straddles the fence between a short novel and a book on business. It covers a helpful topic of five common dysfunctions of a team. Through reading it, I helped identify pits that teams I have participated in have fallen prey to. The story itself is relatively easygoing, if a bit short and superficial. A new CEO faces the scenario where her new form has more cash and more talented leaders, but is underperforming.…
Sanctuary, one of Faulkner’s early novels, focuses on the dark side of Southern society in post-Civil-War America. It is one of Faulkner’s more readable works. It’s a more straightforward crime mystery that is still based on the convoluted Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. Like many (most/all?) of Faulkner’s characters, they appear aimless and uprooted from life. While in college, the daughter of a judge is raped and is kidnapped to Memphis. She eventually becomes a sex slave…
This book is routinely ranked by critics as one of the best books of the 20th century. It is a tale told by 19 points of view via stream-of-consciousness storytelling. If the reader can follow through the arrangement of the plot, it keeps the final twist hanging until literally the last sentence. The story is set in Faulkner’s famed Yoknapatawpha county. Addie Bundren is the mother of a family in rural Mississippi. She dies in…
This book helped define the genre of management books told as narrative fiction. It teaches management principles while allowing the reader to see what real management looks like in practice. This particular work even introduces a love story to the mix. This story tells the common tale of a generic manufacturing plant and a marriage in crisis. It’s in the ilk of a coming-of-age tale in which the main character Alex learns how to take…
I must confess, I am no ardent environmentalist. I am very sympathetic towards causes and policies which manage the environment sustainably, even at the expense of economics. However, perhaps because of my Christianity, I find the aligning of human spirituality and nature somewhat strange. When I am in nature, I see the footprints of God. I definitely do not take a step further and worship nature. Powers’ book seems to take us along that path.…
I’m reading this book to be prepared for a software launch that might happen in the next few months. I read a book like this to ensure that I am on top of my IT game when it comes to responding to life forces. Stories like this tell how powerful information technology can be at transforming organizations when coupled with a simple desire to learn from each other. Too often, those in IT keeps their…
To understand and appreciate Russian author Leo Tolstoy, one has to understand and appreciate Russian history. Leo Tolstoy was born as a part of the aristocratic class in Russia, yet he spoke up for the serf. Russia has millions of uneducated serfs – and has had for generations. Most viewed them as worthless. Like Abraham Lincoln, Tolstoy saw value in their lives; he, as they say, saw their humanity. Even though many did not read…