Book 14

A frequent subject of conversation at work is introversion and extroversion. We have had examples of both introverts and extroverts on our team, and it is interesting to see how management tries to manage these personality types. I'm a pretty strong introvert, and I often take it upon myself to educate people that this does not mean "socially awkward."

I was searching the internet one day for examples of other introversion myths, such as introverts don't like people, they are all shy, they can't work in a team environment, that sort of thing, when I discovered a book by Susan Cain called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. I immediately reserved the book at my library.

The book does an excellent job of explaining introversion, and contrasting it with the "extrovert ideal" that our American society seems to value so much. The author is skilled at looking at all the research that is out there and distilling it down to a very readable book. She offers great insights into why it is dangerous to overlook introverts, especially as employees and team leaders, and why overvaluing the extrovert ideal can be detrimental. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the subject.

Personally, however, I was hoping for a bit more from the book. I came to grips with my introversion long ago, so I was looking for some sort of life changing epiphany on how to use my introvert status to greater effect. In retrospect this was probably an unfair expectation, but there it was anyway.

To be fair, perhaps it has motivated me to seek out projects, and possibly a new job, that better value an introvert's personality traits. The book is good at pointing out there is value in being an introvert. And sometimes it is okay to be quiet in a loud world.

Not related to reading (or movies)

Last Tuesday (May 8) my wife gave birth to our daughter, Arissa Cate. 7 lbs 11 oz and 21 inches long. Makes things a bit busy, but what's adding one more to the mix? Once you have 3, you and your spouse are outnumbered anyway.

Mom and baby are doing great. I've forgotten how tired you get taking care of a newborn, but life really is a miracle.

April List

Books:
14.Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking
15. The Sisters Brothers
16.How to Build a Time Machine
17. The Sense of an Ending

Movies:
25. Battle: Los Angeles
26. The Smurfs
27. Kung Fu Panda 2
28. The Hunger Games
29. Country Strong
30. True Grit
31. Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster

Lots of family movies this month. Also interesting to watch the original True Grit after seeing the remake. Pleasant surprise read of the month: The Sisters Brothers. The Sense of an Ending was also good.

Movie 25

At the start of April I came down with a cold and a fever that I'm pretty sure one of the kids brought home from school. Accordingly, I decided to take a day off of work. After all, that's why we have sick days. I also took the opportunity to add another movie to my list.

I had checked out Battle: Los Angeles from the library because I thought the boys might want to watch it for Family Movie Night. We ended up turning it off because of some pretty strong language for kids, as I probably should have guessed with a movie about Marines. I decided to watch it myself as I was sick in bed the next day.

The movie was a pretty mindless sci fi action flick. You want war cliches, this movie's got 'em. From the Marine about to be married to the about-to-retire sergeant called back to see action one last time. Still, the characters were likable enough for such a routine story, and the actors weren't bad. The alien invaders added a nice touch, even if they didn't seem all that original either. They certainly annoyed me less than Transformers.

It was a movie you didn't have to think about, which is just what I needed on a sick day.

Book 13

While I was reading Heat Rises, my wife was also reading the same copy, and she would often beat me to the Nook (I had the ebook checked out from the library). Fortunately, due to a slightly uncontrollable library habit, I generally have several books checked out waiting to be read at any one time. One of these was Gone, by Mo Hayder, a British crime fiction writer.

Gone is apparently the fifth in a series about Detective Jack Caffery. I did not realize that when I read a review of the book that enticed me to read it and checked it out of the library. I'm usually a little compulsive about reading a series in order, but that compulsion did not kick in this time. The book worked well as a stand alone, although I can see where I might have missed out on some character development that carried over from previous volumes. There is one character, the Walking Man, a vagrant confidant of the detective, that seemed wildly out of place. I can only assume his presence would make more sense if one read the other books.

Despite this, Hayder has written a nicely paced mystery. Not only is the suspect unknown, but his true motive in carjacking cars with children in them is a mystery, too. A nice supporting cast, both police and victims, flesh out the story. It was a bit dark in places, but it kept me turning the pages.

My one complaint with the main character was with how he pieced all the clues together. The problem is he didn't. Other characters are shown working out the mystery, but Caffery sort of just magically knows all of the sudden who did it and why. There are other examples of action happening off scene, in particular a rescue I was looking forward to reading about, that I didn't like either. Perhaps it moved the book along, but it left me wondering, "What exactly happened there?"

Still, I wouldn't mind reading the other books in the series, even if I'm not rushing out to find them.

On another note, I learned not to read two mysteries at once. I often have bookmarks in two or three books at the same time, but they are generally from different genres. For example a history book and a science fiction book. But this time it was two mysteries. They were different enough that I didn't get too confused, although there were a couple of minor characters that I had to remind myself were in different books.

March List

Looks like I'm slowing down a little, but still on pace.

Books:

10. The Power and the Glory

11. The Book Thief

12. Heat Rises

13. Gone

Movies:

20. The Devil's Arithmetic

21. Johnny English

22. True Grit

23. Zookeeper

24. Holocaust

Movie watching was less than normal this month because we have been watching the Christopher Reeve Superman movies for Family Movie Night. Apparently I'm the only one in the family that has seen them before.

Book 12

My wife and I are fans of the show Castle. It's one of the shows we always try to watch together. We have enjoyed Nathan Fillion since we saw him years ago on Firefly. And he is great in the role of a ride-along crime fiction writer with a NYPD homicide squad.

So when we discovered that they were actually publishing the fictitious books Castle was writing on the show, we were intrigued. Unfortunately, the books tend to leave us with the feeling that we wish we were just watching the TV show. However, we have now read all three of the Nikki Heat books and each one does seem to be better than the last. Although I wouldn't call any of them great.

I finished the third book in the series, Heat Rises, as my 12th book. While this was the best book in the series to date, it was still fairly average. I'm a pretty casual mystery fan, but the plot moved along nicely here. The ending might have been a little rushed, but I get that feeling a lot with detective stories.

The main problem with the book is that scenes and plot threads seem to be lifted directly from the TV show. This installment even had some dialogue, especially one liners, straight out of the TV characters' mouths. I guess I can understand it as an inside joke, but it gives weight to that feeling that I'd just rather be watching the real show.

One area where these books are actually a bit better than the show is they have moved along the relationship between the writer and the detective. No more coming up with artificial reasons to extend the ride-along. However, the books are a little more crass than than the show when it comes to this area, so maybe it is a toss up. Anyway, I'd probably only recommend this to Castle fans when the show is in reruns.