Wait, I'm Working With Who?!? the Essential Guide to Dealing With Difficult Coworkers, Annoying Managers, and Other Toxic Personalities

 Wait, I'm Working With Who?!?  The Essential Guide to Dealing With Difficult Coworkers, Annoying Managers, and Other Toxic Personalities by Peter Economy  206 pages

Summary from Goodreads: This is the go-to guide on working with anyone in your office—from the difficult or negative to the toxic and destructive—whether they are your manager, a team member, or someone who’s just waiting out the clock. Chock-full of useful advice that will make your workday happier and more productive. Who hasn’t had to deal with a jerk at work? Whether it’s a toxic team member who loves nothing more than to suck the life and excitement out of her colleagues, the difficult coworker who isn’t happy unless the office is filled with mayhem and drama, or a bad boss who causes his employees to constantly dream of telling him to “Take this job and shove it!”, we’ve all had to deal with people on the job we would rather not.

And here's what I thought:  It never hurts to read a book like this, even if you don't work with a lot of difficult people. Economy breaks things down into different types of people, and then some practical advice on how to work with them.  Note -- not befriend them, not change them -- work with them.  If you do work with someone you find difficult, this book may also help because you might be able to figure out what type of person they are, and then go from them.  Quick read, but helpful.

Just One Damned Thing After Another

 Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor  335 pages

Summary from Goodreads: Behind the seemingly innocuous façade of St Mary's, a different kind of historical research is taking place. They don't do 'time-travel' - they 'investigate major historical events in contemporary time'. Maintaining the appearance of harmless eccentrics is not always within their power - especially given their propensity for causing loud explosions when things get too quiet.

Meet the disaster-magnets of St Mary's Institute of Historical Research as they ricochet around History. Their aim is to observe and document - to try and find the answers to many of History's unanswered questions...and not to die in the process. But one wrong move and History will fight back - to the death. And, as they soon discover - it's not just History they're fighting.

And here's what I thought:  This is a clever, funny, interesting story. I read this for a book group discussion, but otherwise wouldn't have picked up the book. But, once I started it, it was pretty good and a quick read. The main character has a dry sense of humor and she's very sensible, and she's also a good foil for some of the other characters. The author includes enough details that I found it somewhat easy to suspend my disbelief --- I could see this place existing!  

For readers who liked watching the TV show Timeless.  Also, if you enjoyed the book The Rook. 

Forgotten Empire

Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia, edited by John E Curtis and Nigel Tallis, 263 pages

The Achaemenid Persian Empire, the empire of Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes, may not be entirely forgotten, but it is certainly overshadowed by the Hellenistic empires that followed.  When it is remembered, it is usually through other eyes, as the great enemy of the Greeks or as the great friend of the Jews.  Although the empire was the largest the world had ever seen up to that time and endured for over two centuries, even in Persia itself its memory swiftly eroded, in large part due to the vandalism of Alexander and his successors.

This exhibition, then, put on by the British Museum with the cooperation of the Iranian government, represents a welcome opportunity to explore the world of the Persians from within.  It is unfortunate that it is rather underwhelming.  The objects themselves are largely indifferent, and the essays included in the catalogue tend to be mind-numbingly technical, focused more on describing the archaeology of ancient Persia rather than making it live.  There are some interesting essays, just as there are some interesting exhibits, but on the whole it is somewhat disappointing.

Sizzling Sixteen

 Shirley J.                Adult Fiction         Humorous Adventures of Two Female Bounty Hunters

Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich  340 pages

Vinnie has really done it this time.   When his father-in-law sold the Bail Bonds Business to a corporation,  Vinnie seized the opportunity to borrow company funds for his gambling addiction by falsifying bond records.  Now Mobster Bobby Sunflower is coming to collect on the $786,000 and growing in interest daily, debt that Vinnie owes him.   When Vinnie goes missing, it is up  to Connie, Stephanie and Lula to find him and make good his debt while still keeping the office running.    So much action!  Mooner is holding a Hobbit-Con, and wait till you meet Mr. Jingles!  Oh yeah and the gals are in hot pursuit of a rest stop toilet paper nabber!   And the Bond Office Yard Sale is a hoot!   You will love this one.   It is laugh out loud hilarious.   I recommend this one to mature grade schoolers on up.   Funny!

Wildflower

 Shirley J.                         Non-Fiction  Autobiography                     Drew Barrymore

Wildflower by Drew Barrymore  276 pages

Drew Barrymore has been one of my favorite in the moment people ever since I first saw her in

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.   She bares her soul in this story of her life and how becoming a Mom has given her a completely new perspective on life.   She shares many of her adventures in life from before the E.T. days being raised by hippies, both her mother and father, and how being raised in that environment she related more to adults than kids.   She talks about  just deciding to do a thing and then doing it - rent an R-V and go touring the countryside with her best gal pal leaving for L.A. headed to her friend's folks place in New Hampshire.   They just pulled off every where they wanted to along the way and had a blast, well there was that incident in New Orleans with misjudging the height of the dealie over the gas pumps where she ripped the top off the RV and they got help from a mysterious drag queen coming out of the dark.   Then the time where she read an article about a school in Africa. and ended up getting a free trip to go there and write an article about it, thanks to magazine, Marie Claire.   She decided to go to India one day, called her travel agent and went (must be nice!).  But when she met her current husband and the father of her children her take me as I am attitude relaxed to O. K. I see your point, too, and her frenzied life took on a new look.   Interesting look inside some of the stories that made headlines and Internet virals over the years    I would recommend this book to mature teens on up.

Finding It in Everything

 Shirley J              Adult Non-Fiction   Photography          Finding heart shapes everywhere you look

Finding It in Everything: Photographs by Drew Barrymore    96 pages

Drew Barrymore discussed her love of hearts in her book Wildflower which I just finished reading, she also discussed how she loves to take photographs and has often been surprised over the years how hearts jumped out from the photo some she saw and some shed didn't until she saw the actual photos.   She shared this happy hobby with her then father-in-law Ari Koppelman, who often found literal heart shapes in things.    Drew's phoos in this book find a heart appear on the back of a beloved dog when it curled up to relax and she took a photo of it, she has been blessed with heart showing up in her coffee and tea, soups, Japanese food, pancakes she lovingiy made for then husband will Koppelman. in the clouds in the sky, even a distorted hazy moon/sun shining dully in the sky, whose cloud cover offered another valentine in the upper atmosphere.   She finds a random tear in a tee-shirt is heart shaped and finds hearts appearing on sidewalks, tombstones, random wall and art designs, brick facades, etc.   To Drew these found hearts are inspirational and messages of love from the universe.   She loved the idea when she looked at the sky over head and saw a heart there that the man in the sky was sending a message of love to everyone below. A ten year collection of photos, some with captions that beg the reader to look for their own continuous lines forming herts to share a secret surprise of the love in the world that exists if we look for it..    Makes me want to go on a journey finding the hearts in life.   I recommend it to everyone of every age.

Blessed Charles of Austria

 Blessed Charles of Austria: A Holy Emperor and His Legacy by Charles Coulombe, 374 pages

The subtitle of this biography of the last of the Habsburg monarchs is certain to raise a few eyebrows.  At best, Charles was helpless as Austria-Hungary went down in defeat in the last years of World War I, ultimately being dissolved by the victorious Allies into a handful of feuding ethno-states.  What kind of legacy could he have?  More generally, how is it possible for an emperor to be "holy"?  Did not the high priests of Enlightenment indelibly write their verdict that "no one can reign innocently" across the pages of history in the blood of Louis XVI and his family?

As Charles Coulombe relates, the life of Blessed Charles was dominated by three great loves - his God, his family, and his people.  These were not competing, but complimentary, just as his love for his wife only reinforced his love of his children, and his children his love of his wife.  These were loves tested, proven, and refined through suffering, yet loves to which Charles remained faithful with his whole heart.  It is for this reason that he has been raised to the altars of the universal Church even as the men who supplanted and persecuted him are increasingly maligned or forgotten.

It is no doubt possible to construct a coherent biography of Charles of Austria, based entirely on his external acts, which portrays him as yet another incompetent Machiavel, interested only in power, badly exercising it when he had it and futilely attempting to regain it after he lost it.  This would seem superficially plausible, but would miss the inner life of the man and the self-sacrificial ideal of rulership he represents.  It would also do nothing to change the disastrous course the world has been on since at least 1914.

Hemingway’s Saint Louis: How St. Louisans Shaped His Life and Legacy

Hemingway’s Saint Louis: How St. Louisans Shaped His Life and Legacy by Andrew J. Theising 158 pages

Readers and scholars are aware of Ernest Hemingway’s connection to St. Louis. He was great friend with the Smiths, a high-profile St. Louis family and three of his four wives hailed from the Gateway City. This book is not about St. Louis’ connection to the writer but about those people who influenced him. If anyone is looking for a guide to visit Hemingway attractions, well, there aren’t any.

I lied. There is probably one: The house at 4748 Westminster Place. That was the home of Laura Charles, the woman who raised Katy Smith, Hadley Richardson’s friend, who introduced the two. There’s nothing to see except the house’s exterior.

The chapter on the Smith Family is confusing and seems to be all over the place. I kept having to reread paragraphs to really know who author Theising was discussing.

The rest of the book was a little better. Each chapter focused on an important St. Louis family who touched Hemingway in some remote way. However, this scholarly work is written in the style that I don’t like about reading some biographies---it’s a list of what happened when, and sometimes not in chronological order. I was never able to get to know these people. They are abstract versions of anyone, anywhere.

The most interesting part of the book is the list of “Untimely Ends.”  I knew that Ernest’s father had committed suicide, but I was unaware that his brother and sister also met the same fate. In addition, there were many (12 in all) people in Ernest’s wide circle who died before the age of 70. That could make an interesting book, how all those young deaths attributed to his suicide.

I learned of this book when the author did a segment of KETC’s “Living St. Louis” show.  It was much more fascinating hearing Andrew Theising talk about the Hemingway’s St. Louis connection than it was to read the book. Therefore, “Hemingway’s Saint Louis: How St. Louisans Shaped His Life and Legacy,” receives 2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

The Satapur Moonstone

 The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey; 360 pages

The second in the Perveen Mistry series, inspired by the real-life first woman lawyer in India. What I loved about the first book in this series was the description of 1920s Bombay: the culture, the diversity, the food, etc., so I was initially disappointed that this book took Perveen Mistry out of the city and into an isolated world of royalty and wealth. But that didn't last long because the writer transported me to this world right away!

In this story, Perveen is called upon to meet with a royal family in India to resolve the educational path of its future monarch. She is selected primarily because the two women (the mother and grandmother of the future ruler) who cannot come to an agreement observe purdah and cannot meet with a male lawyer. Luckily, Perveen is smart and resourceful and soon finds that there is much more than just a disagreement in regards to schooling that is keeping the palace in turmoil. Between stolen jewels, hidden identities, poisoning attempts, and a possible love interest, Perveen has her work cut out for her. There's a lot happening in the plot, but I never lost the thread. In addition, moving the action out to the countryside of India allowed me to learn more about the small kingdoms of the time and the uneasy relationship between Indians and British colonialists.

I very much enjoyed this book and look forward to the next in the series.

We are the Brennans

 

We are the Brennans by Tracey Lange 288 pages

Tracey Lange’s debut novel centers on an Irish Catholic family in New York with lots of secrets to hide, and that makes for a perfect afternoon of reading!

Sunday Brennan, the only girl in a family of sons, left home five years ago for Los Angeles on the pretext of a job offer to write web content. Leaving involved more than her family. It meant that she walked away without a word to her fiancé. In reality, she was hiding from her deepest secret and trying to overcome it.

Life hasn’t quite worked out for her. She’s basically estranged from her family and drinks too much. After a serious car accident that left her with a broken bone and bumps and really awful bruising, her older brother, Denny, talks her into coming back home to heal. Sunday feels she has no choice and flies back to New York with Denny.

Denny has his own set of problems. He and his best friend, Kale (who is also Sunday’s ex-fiancé) own a pub. They are trying to expand, but things at the new location are not going smoothly. Denny has taken out a mortgage on his family home, unbeknownst to his father, and borrowed money from a very shady character from their past. Denny’s separated from his wife and child, while Kale is also facing difficulties at home.

Navigating the past, each other and the present are at the heart of this family drama, along with the secrets they share.

Told in multiple points of view (there are at least six) I felt this gave the story a completeness that could not have come from a single narrator---readers get multiple sides of the story. Author Lange does a wonderful job in keeping the voices varied and it’s easy to know who is narrating each section.

“We are the Brennans,” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

When the Stars Go Dark

When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain 384 pages

I’m a huge fan of author Paula McLain. She writes some of the most compelling historical fiction today focusing on forgotten women like pioneer aviator Beryl Markham and Hadley Richardson and Martha Gellhorn (Hemingway’s first and third wives). Well, there’s been a renewed interest in the Hemingway wives sine Ken Burns’ documentary on Papa aired on PBS last April (2021). This time out, McLain threw me. The protagonist of this contemporary historical fiction is a fictional character but still possess the strength of those real-life women.

The year is 1993. Missing child expert Detective Anna Hart of the San Francisco Police Department has come to the small town of Mendocino (also in northern California) to grieve a personal tragedy. I like the way McClain wasn’t upfront with the Anna’s heartbreak---it was one of the plot lines that made this a page turner. Mendocino holds special meaning for Anna, as she lived there with her foster parents.

Anna came to be alone, to clear her head, to work things out. It didn’t help that her marriage is also crumbling.  She came to find the peace of wilderness.

On her first tip into town, she reads the bulletin board at the local coffee shop and learns that a local teenage girl, Cameron Curtis, is missing. This could turn out to be a high-profile case as Cameron is the daughter of a television mega-star who is hiding out, hoping the case will be quickly solved. Anna doesn't want to get involved, even though the case seems similar to one that occurred when she lived there. Anna knows the local sheriff and many of the other villagers, but she came here to heal, not solve another case.

The year 1993 is significant. Readers may remember that as the year real-life Polly Klaas was abducted from her home in front of her friends. So that case is floating around in the novel’s background. And with yet when another teenage girl goes missing in the next town, Anna is drawn in to the cases. There must be some connection between that cold case from so many years ago and the two local ones. And so, she offers to help.

This novel falls into several genres: mystery, suspense, literary, historical fiction and thriller, but the one that stood out the most to me was the literary aspect…several times I had to slow down and re-read some of the sentences because they were so beautifully written. I wish I had marked a few that really stood out, but alas, the copy I read is a library book, and I was too lazy to copy them. DANG! I think y’all would have liked to read a few.

 “When the Stars Go Dark” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

Finger Lickin' Fifteen

 Shirley J.                   Adult Fiction            Bombs,, BBQ,  Bounty Hunters

Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich   308 pages

I can't understand how Ranger keeps putting up with Stephanie being the reason his Porche Cayennes keep exploding.   Lula has her Firebird she calls her Baby or does she?   When Lula witnesses two crazed killers chopping a celebrity chef's head off the killers go after her but money  the potential for money and fame for creating her own BBQ Sauce tempt her and Grandma Mazur out in the open to compete in the competition.   And just where in the heck is Al Roker?   So funny, Lula is the big star in this book and so rightly so.  Fun from the git go  Afterall, what is a little diarhhea among friends?   Hilarious.   I recommend this one to highschoolers on up and especially to anyone who really needs to see someone deserving getting what is coming to them.

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Fearless Fourteen

 Shirley J.        Adult Fiction      Murder, Money, Video Gamers

Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich   310 pages

Morelli's cousin, Dom Rizzi just got out of the joint having served time for a heist of 9 million dollars that was never found.  All of a sudden people are breaking in to Morelli's house and dead guys are turning up in his basement.   In the meantime Morelli and Stephanie are babysitting Morelli's nephew "Zook,"   Toes arrive in the mail, Mooner invents a potato gun and Ranger hires Stephanie to help him play body guard to a randy female country singer known as Brenda.  Murder and chaos abound as always when Stephanie is involved.   Another great story from Janet Evanovich.   I recommend this one to grade schoolers on up.   

The Royals

Shirley J.        Adult Fiction                     Roayl Family,  Drug Addiction,  Kidnappers

The Royals by James Patterson and Rees Jones    125 pages

A short story by James Patterson and Rees Jones regarding the kidnapping of a lesser Royal in the English Royal Family  who happens to be a drug addict.    Also several murders occur during the Elite Agencies trying to locate the kidnappers and bring them to justice.   A quick read and not a bad story.  I would recommend this story to mature highschoolers on up.  Helps if you are a royal watcher.   

Say Something

 

Shirley J.             Children's Book  E         Speaking up 

Say Something by Peter H. Reynolds   40 pages

I liked this book.   It encourages kids to speak up and say what is on their minds.   it encourages children not to be shy and to stand up for what they believe in.   Personally AI think some of the instances shown could get a child beat up like telling a bully to stop pounding on somebody seems the child would then get the bully's wrath.   Better to encourage them to speak up within a group of like minded friends to talk the bully out of beating someone up but I applaud the thoughts within these pages.   Yes, a good read and role model for wee ones, but, have the discussion as to what to do if met with resistance or repercussions or when to speak and when to gather fellow super heroes to take on a cause.

Wicked Appetite

 Shirley J.     Adult Fiction      Pastry Chef's  Ancient Relics  Supernatural

Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich     313 pages

Set in Boston and Salem, Massachusetts,  pastry chef Lizzie Tucker meets up with magic man Diesel who was introduced in her Stephanie Plum books.    Turns out Lizzie is an unmentionable and she has the ability to pick up psychic vibes from touching  objects.   Both of their skills come in to full use when Diesel's cousin, Wulf Grimoire decides to start collectiong powerful artifacts representing the Seven Deadly Sins.   Good story with lots of cupcakes and magic.   I would recommend this series of 3 books to anyone interested in the paranormal and to highschoolers on up.   I enjoyed the story and will read the series..

The Husband List

 Shirley J.    Adult Fiction        American Heiresses in the Gilded Age (1894)   English titles

The Husband List by Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly    309 pages

I really love Janet Evanovich's style of writing and the detail to which she and Dorien Kelly bring the reader to really feel the lifestyles of the privileged elite in American society in 1894 and how daughters were flaunted to English minor titled nobility to get the prestige of a title for their heiress daughters.   It was pretty much a pimping situation and mothers and fathers often turned a blind eye to what was actually transpiring in order to get the benefit of a titled lord within their family for bragging rights.    Love was never a part of the bargain it was all transacted as any business deal of the time within the upper 2%.   Fortunately, Caroline Maxwell has run off every suitor her mother has tried to snag for her.  But when broke, gambling debt ridden, English Lord Bremerton comes to call, Caroline has met her match in someone who wants her family fortune more than she wants to be shed of him.   Good story.   I would recommend this one to mature gradeschoolers on up.

Jaws Unmade

Jaws Unmade: The Lost Sequels, Prequels, Remakes, and Rip-offs by John LeMay, 302 pages

Jaws is sometimes regarded as the first summer blockbuster, and, as such, the prototype for all those that followed.  Whatever caveats ought to be attached to that claim, it was certainly wildly successful (indeed, the highest grossing film in unadjusted dollars to that point) and like successful movies before and since it spawned a legion of imitators, some more flattering than others, from its own sequels and major studios' attempts to bottle the same lightning to the inevitable parade of Italian rip-offs.

Jaws Unmade chronicles these more or less misbegotten children of Bruce, both legitimate and illegitimate, not only describing the movies that did get made but, just as intriguingly, all those projects that miscarried.  There are the well-known early versions of Jaws 2, one featuring Quint's son and another angry mobsters.  There's MST3K favorite Devilfish (aka Monster Shark, not to be confused with Bert I Gordon's aborted project Devil Fish, which is also discussed).  There's the legendary unmade spoof Jaws 3, People 0, which Universal spent 2.5 million dollars developing before cancelling the project for fear of alienating Steven Spielberg.  There's Bruno Mattei's 1995 film Cruel Jaws, sometimes marketed as Jaws 5 ("This time it's even more personal than the last time."), which piles on subplot after subplot seemingly without purpose, until, that is, you learn that the main plot rips off 1981's The Last Shark to the point of actually stealing entire sequences of footage.  There's Joe Dante working on Piranha and James Cameron working on Piranha II and John Sayles working on anything that pays the bills.  There's Roger Corman and Dino De Laurentiis and a surprise appearance by John Carpenter.  There's George Clooney and Laura Dern getting eaten by a giant grizzly bear.

If this is your idea of fun, it is tremendous fun.  It isn't clear how extensive or accurate LeMay's research is (his cites sometimes go no further than an IMDB trivia page), and the book is riddled with homophonic errors that suggest the proofreading was limited to a spellcheck, but the author's love of this material, as misplaced as it seems at times, is truly infectious.

Plum Spooky

 Shirley J.             Monkeys,  The Jersey Devil  Cat Dad,  Bounty Hunters

Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich    309 pages

Another fun Stephanie Plum adventure with Diesel popping back in.   Diesel seeks Stephanie's help cornering his evil cousin, Wulf Grimoire, who is dangling Stephanie as a prize to nerdy physicist Munch for helping him in his rocket laden plan.   Carl the monkey is back giving everyone the finger and more.   This time there is a barrell of monkeys rescued from a science lab only to be experimented on by Munch in their quest to control people's moods and sometimes the weather.   While Lula continues to plan her wedding, Tank continues to sweat and becomes a cat Dad.   Psychic Miss Gloria tells Lula their moons aren't lining up right.  Oh yeah, the Easter Bunny, Sasquatch and the Jersey Devil drop in, too.   And wait till you encounter the fire farter!   What a fun series!  Always something unexpected.  Great story lines.   Go Janet Evanovich!  I would recommend this book to middle-schoolers on up. 

Unleashed

 Shirley J.           Adult Fiction   Texas Rangers,  Cold Cases,  Dysfunctional Families

Unleashed by Diana Palmer    332 pages

Is every book now part of a series?   I get the hook, but, gee, really?      This book is #49 in the Long, Tall Texan series, but, the story does stand on its own.     It is the story of  Clancy Lang, who's mother marries an abusive man with a son older than Clancy.   When her mother dies, Clancy is left living with her abusive step-dad, and her now two step-brothers.   While she is terrified of her druggy older step-brother and her step-father, she adores her younger step-brother and puts her own safety and health in jeopardy protecting the younger child from the abusers in the house.   When things escalate in the home terror runs rampant and circumstances get pretty dire for the siblings.   It is a good story that will keep you interested but, if you don't like your heroes old school Texas Ranger style you might want to avoid this series.   However, if you enjoy a good female victim/hunky he-man story then this one is right up your alley.   I liked the story, the do as I say woman stuff - not so much, but, hey, it was the stry that was told.   I would recommend it this story to romance and urder mystery readers who like larger than life heroes in the mix.  There were many good elements to the story.