Peopleware: Productive Products and Teams

I finished "Peopleware: Productive Products and Teams", by DeMarco and Lister, the other night.  It was a really good collection of "management" essays about how to lead teams of knowledge workers.  It's mostly focused on software developers, but it has some applicability to other fields as well, I think.  One of the more interesting chapters in it was the chapter on Teamicide -- things you do as a manager that make it impossible for your team to jell into a cohesive team.  It was particularly interesting that there's nothing you can do to make a team jell, but there are certainly things that you can do that guarantee it won't happen.

A lot of the strategies and particulars were things that I don't have the authority to influence (yet), but it's a good picture of making teams that work well together and are more productive, and probably more fun to be on.

Next up: "In Defense of Sanity" -- a collection of essays by G.K. Chesterton!

THe Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I just finished up my read of The Hunger Games.   I really liked it and got into it very quickly, also through it very quickly.  Something just kept me wanting to keep the pages turning and reading more.  I enjoyed the characters and also was delighted to read something different than my usual style.  It reminds of the Twilight books where you read and read and read just to get through and when you are done you can’t wait to jump into the next book.  It was filled with action, a little bit of romance and some drama.  A trifecta for a good read.  I look forward to reading #2.

Night Watch

Just finished "Night Watch" by Terry Pratchett. It's one of his later Discworld novels, and as such is part fantasy novel, part political satire, and dryly funny. In this one, Vimes and a madman get thrown back in time, and Vimes has to stop the bad guy before he destroys the past. It's pretty standard fantasy time travel fare, but Pratchett does a great job twisting it around to talk about fate, politics, and revolutions. It's brain candy, but it's tasty.

I am currently listening to a biography of Bohnhoffer on my commute, so I needed a break from Nazis and really deep theology!

Brides of the West - Faith

I just finished Brides of the West – Faith by Lori Copeland a gift Mom had sent me back in February.  My thought after turning the last page was, “Well, at least I finished it!”  It is a tale set in old western times – doesn’t give an exact date - of a mail-order bride from Michigan (Or some northern state) getting placed to marry a man in Texas.  It’s a typical love story.  Woman and man hate each other, woman and man develop secret love for each other but are to scared to say anything, etc, etc, etc.  Needless to say there were no surprises in this book.  I bet if you just let your imagination take over for a minute you will know how it ends.  I liked the idea of the story but execution was poor.  The author is a Christian writer and works VERY hard to not let you forget that.  I try my best to read fiction Christian books but I am yet to be wowed by one.  Just because it is sold as a Christian book doesn’t mean you need to put the words “Jesus, faith, God or pray” in every sentence or paragraph.  I would love any suggestions of Christian fiction that doesn’t do this though!

Brides of the West - Faith

I just finished Brides of the West – Faith by Lori Copeland a gift Mom had sent me back in February.  I was excited about the read and thankful for the gift.  Sadly, my thought after turning the last page was, “Well, at least I finished it!”  It is a tale set in old western times – doesn’t give an exact date - of a mail-order bride from Michigan (Or some northern state) getting placed to marry a man in Texas.  It’s a typical love story.  Woman and man hate each other, woman and man develop secret love for each other but are to scared to say anything, etc, etc, etc.  Needless to say there were no surprises in this book.  I bet if you just let your imagination take over for a minute you will know how it ends.  I liked the idea of the story but execution was poor.  The author is a Christian writer and works VERY hard to not let you forget that.  I try my best to read fiction Christian books but I am yet to be wowed by one.  Just because it is sold as a Christian book doesn’t mean you need to put the words “Jesus, faith, God or pray” in every sentence or paragraph.  I would love any suggestions of Christian fiction that doesn’t do this though!

    Overall, I'd say pass on this read unless you need an easy book that you can read a page of at a time and never get lost in the plot.

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

Finally! I have finished a book. I wish I could say I really liked it, but for me... it was just OK. Meredith left it for me and she has already posted about it, but I will just do my own re-cap as well. The book has several stories going at once and nearly each chapter moves from one to another. The main character is Ann Eliza Young, Brigham Young's 19th wife. Ann Eliza is a pioneer and crusader to end polygamy in the United States 1875. The book includes a history of her and her family's polygamist life style, as well as her escape from it and her powerful husband. The other narrative unfolds as a murder mystery in present-day Utah centering around a polygamist family. The main man in this story was cast out of his fundamentalist sect but returns to discover the truth behind his father's murder. So I guess this book is part history, part a revelation of the LDS and their polygamist behavior and part love story. I will bring it home and you are free to pass it around. I learned some interesting things about polygamy and was glad to read it, but glad to be done.
(507 pages)

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

I wrapped up "Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void" by Mary Roach last night. Roach explores what happens to the human body during space flight. It's a very entertaining and somewhat educational read. Topics range from early concerns about zero-g (a couple concerns were that the heart wouldn't function and that eyes would deform, rendering the astronaut blind) to food to motion sickness.
     She explores some more taboo subjects as well. The sections on bathroom use was particularly humorous and really painted a picture of the challenges of space. Another brief section covered sex and whether it has happened in flight yet. Not particularly enlightening but it served as to introduce some of the challenges of long duration space flight and the psychological challenges it presents.


Her wit and fast pace make it an enjoyable read. I've read quite a bit about the space program so some of this wasn't exactly fresh to me. It did provide a good amount of history and information about the less glamorous parts of being an astronaut. It actually sounds pretty terrible aside from the fact that you're weightlessly traveling around the earth at 17,500mph.

I've read another book by this author and would recommend it over this one. It's called "Stiff" and tells the story of what happens to the body after you die. It sounds morbid, and at times it is, but it is also very interesting.

I probably won't be posting for a while as I've started book 3 of the "A song of Ice and Fire" series. It is quite long.