I had to look up the word quincunx, a word I’d never come across before, when it described a series of novels by Andre Alexis. Google says that a quincunx is “an arrangement of five objects with four at the corners of a square or rectangle and the fifth at its center, used for the…
Category: Monday Morning Reading
Nickel and Dimed: Undercover in Low Wage America – Barbara Ehrenreich
In September I came across a byline in the newspaper that the writer Barbara Ehrenreich had passed away (here is fuller obituary from the New York Times). Though her name had crossed my desk many times, I’d never read any of her books, so I did what any person would do – I asked Google…
Five Little Indians – Michele Good
Growing up, a survivor meant one thing – a person who survived the Holocaust. For me this meant a person who somehow escaped murder by the Nazis, and then went on to live a life in Canada. It did not give any thought to what that life looked like upon their arrival, what memories haunted…
The Six Types of Working Genius – Patrick Lencioni
Ever since I read The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni, I’ve been a big fan of his work. Lencioni is a consultant who focuses on improving workplaces and organizational culture. He’s lucid, easy to read, and always makes intuitive sense to me as a leadership practitioner. Almost all of his books are…
Between Slobodka and Berlin by Hillel Goldberg
I rarely follow Amazon ‘suggestions’ of books to read, but when a book is titled Between Slobodka and Berlin: Jewish Transition Figures from Eastern Europe, has a picture of the Rav on the cover, and is only $6.98, of course I ordered it! The core of this book is a fascinating thesis: that there is…
What Strange Paradise – Omar el Akkad
I read What Strange Paradise at the same time as I came across the story of Yusra Mardini, whose biography was made into the Netflix movie, The Swimmers. That the stories parallel one another (with the exception of the outcome) was fascinating to me, and reinforced the reality behind each narrative. I’d never read much…
Unaccustomed Earth – Jhumpa Lahiri
I find myself drawn to writers who write about the immigrant, or second generation immigrant experience, who have to negotiate the boundary between the new culture they desperately want to fit into, and the parent culture that they can’t, or their parents won’t let them, let go of. I’m thinking of people like Philip Roth…
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden power of character – Paul Tough
When I was reading How Children Succeed: Git, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character, a family member said she couldn’t imagine how I continue to find these kinds of books interesting. I took this as a fair comment about where my interests lie, and that they may not overlap with too many others. As…
The Success Equation: Untangling Skill and Luck in Business, Sports and Investing, by Michael Mauboussin
I’ve always been envious of business people, for the simple reason that there’s a clear answer as to whether they have been successful or not – either there’s money in the bank at the end of the day, or there’s not. I, of course, realize it’s more complex than this (and the book I discuss…
The Lowland – Jhump Lahiri
Even as I finished this book a few weeks ago, The Lowland, by Jhumpa Lahiri, continues to hold something over me, hovering in the back of my mind and heart. It left an unexpectedly strong emotional resonance that drew me in and left an impression. The title of the book reflects the neighborhood in Calcutta…