en-US Sat, 03 May 2025 12:12:39 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg ReadStatus9382653496 Sat, 03 May 2025 12:12:39 -0700 /review/show/7539885877 Scott wants to read Better Data Visualizations: A Guide for Scholars, Researchers, and Wonks by Jonathan Schwabish
]]> Review7472846680 Thu, 01 May 2025 19:33:25 -0700 /review/show/7472846680 Scott gave 4 stars to Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (Hardcover) by Chip Heath
bookshelves: audiobook, management-business
Many business folk seek the one great idea that’ll transform the world and their bank accounts. They want to start a company or a product line to take them to the top or provide more stability. In our information age, however, ideas are everywhere; people able to push those ideas forward into beneficial, lasting change are harder to find. Leadership gurus (and brothers) Chip and Dan Heath seek to educate us about how to make our concepts “stick� around in the minds and lives of our listeners.

In an age where authoritarian tendencies are seemingly flourishing, the Heath brothers offer a refreshing look at persuasion. They do so by pulling examples from dozens of different fields � all with the common theme of making lasting change. Obviously, you need a good idea, but most good ideas don’t morph into results without good rhetoric. They show us how to identify those story lines and narrative hooks in our own lines. Thus, at the proper time, we can pull out the proper push to inspire, challenge, or springboard our audience to reach new heights.

I’ve appreciated both Chip Heath’s and Dan Heath’s writing in other domains, but I found this book not up to their usual standard. The examples are interesting, but the central, take-home message is weaker. The book dissected different ways people pitched ideas, but I finished the book without a lot of action items for my daily life and work. I guess you could say that the book itself didn’t have much “stickiness� for me. Don’t get me wrong: The concepts were good and sound, but it read more like a normal business book rather than reaching the high bar these two have set for themselves.

]]> ReadStatus9372126830 Wed, 30 Apr 2025 18:37:42 -0700 /review/show/7057623496 Scott started reading Seeing with Fresh Eyes: Meaning, Space, Data, Truth by Edward R. Tufte
]]> Review7125895300 Wed, 30 Apr 2025 18:36:01 -0700 /review/show/7125895300 Scott gave 4 stars to The Wishing Game (Hardcover) by Meg Shaffer
bookshelves: fiction-stories
Lucy Hart had a horrible childhood, but one book series saw her through: The Clock Island series by Jack Masterton. Now, she’s an twenty-something working as a teacher’s aide. One of her students Christopher is a foster child whom she wants to adopt and who wants her to adopt him, too. The problem remains that teacher’s aides aren’t paid much. Despite Lucy’s best intentions, Christopher’s social worker tells her she’s simply not financially stable enough to adopt. What will come of Christopher?

She’s in luck as Jack invites her to his very real Clock Island off the Maine coast for a contest. This super-rich, bestselling author has received thousands of letters from children who write how he helped them face their fears. The contest involves games crafted by his masterful mind with a chance for contestants to make it rich if they win. Lucy is obviously intrigued. The real challenge, like Jack’s book characters, becomes for Lucy to face her own reality and to overcome her adult fears. Though the book’s eventual outcome seems ever-guaranteed, the twists and turns of the plot induce curiosity about what the ultimate path will be.

This book is clearly inspired by the classic tale of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Shaffer provides a good parody while developing each character’s growth. Just like life, the eventual outcome seems assured in our hearts, but the next step is always precarious. Almost every reader has dreamed of being involved in some fairy tale. However, wishing a fairy tale to become true involves inevitable bravery.

This book kept me engaged as I wondered the next step. Since the final resolution was never in doubt, the suspense didn’t pull me in as much as a great book. The crafty plot hooks did keep the pages turning, but in the end, the book remained just above average.

]]> Review7125892451 Sun, 27 Apr 2025 20:00:03 -0700 /review/show/7125892451 Scott gave 5 stars to The Lost Story (Hardcover) by Meg Shaffer
bookshelves: fiction-stories
CS Lewis� Chronicles of Narnia remain some of the best fantasy works for children in the twentieth century. This book from Meg Shaffer uses that template for inspiration to depict a magical world accessible only through a special spot hidden in the West Virginia backwoods.

The story starts when two young men are lost, only to be found six months later in good health. No one is quite sure what transpired, not even the teenagers themselves. This book unfolds to show us that mystery. Themes of love, functional and dysfunctional families, kidnapping, and magic fill its pages. It slowly begins to entice your heart until it grips it fully and melts it in the end.

It’s hard to describe the start of the plot any more than what I said without giving away the beauty of this tale. I’ll only add this: Each detail in the early part of the book is wonderfully (magically?) reused in later stages of the book. Shaffer achieved this setup without confusing or boring me, too � a common pitfall for many books. The Lost Story is truly a wonderful gem! ]]> AuthorFollowing108800895 Sun, 27 Apr 2025 19:58:51 -0700 Review7125892451 Fri, 25 Apr 2025 19:56:08 -0700 /review/show/7125892451 Scott gave 5 stars to The Lost Story (Hardcover) by Meg Shaffer
bookshelves: fiction-stories
CS Lewis� Chronicles of Narnia remain some of the best fantasy works for children in the twentieth century. This book from Meg Shaffer uses that template for inspiration to depict a magical world accessible only through a special spot hidden in the West Virginia backwoods.

The story starts when two young men are lost, only to be found six months later in good health. No one is quite sure what transpired, not even the teenagers themselves. This book unfolds to show us that mystery. Themes of love, functional and dysfunctional families, kidnapping, and magic fill its pages. It slowly begins to entice your heart until it grips it fully and melts it in the end.

It’s hard to describe the start of the plot any more than what I said without giving away the beauty of this tale. I’ll only add this: Each detail in the early part of the book is wonderfully (magically?) reused in later stages of the book. Shaffer achieved this setup without confusing or boring me, too � a common pitfall for many books. The Lost Story is truly a wonderful gem! ]]> ReadStatus9352932926 Fri, 25 Apr 2025 19:56:06 -0700 /review/show/7125895300 Scott started reading The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
]]> Review7125892451 Fri, 25 Apr 2025 19:56:05 -0700 /review/show/7125892451 Scott gave 5 stars to The Lost Story (Hardcover) by Meg Shaffer
bookshelves: fiction-stories
CS Lewis� Chronicles of Narnia remain some of the best fantasy works for children in the twentieth century. This book from Meg Shaffer uses that template for inspiration to depict a magical world accessible only through a special spot hidden in the West Virginia backwoods.

The story starts when two young men are lost, only to be found six months later in good health. No one is quite sure what transpired, not even the teenagers themselves. This book unfolds to show us that mystery. Themes of love, functional and dysfunctional families, kidnapping, and magic fill its pages. It slowly begins to entice your heart until it grips it fully and melts it in the end.

It’s hard to describe the start of the plot any more than what I said without giving away the beauty of this tale. I’ll only add this: Each detail in the early part of the book is wonderfully (magically?) reused in later stages of the book. Shaffer achieved this setup without confusing or boring me, too � a common pitfall for many books. The Lost Story is truly a wonderful gem! ]]> ReadStatus9351247582 Fri, 25 Apr 2025 10:26:15 -0700 /review/show/7472846680 Scott started reading Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath
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