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It seems appropriate to leap into September with a book review, no? A little what I read over the summer, if you will.

And one book I went back to a few times over the past number of months is How We Lead Matters by Marilyn Carlson Nelson. I received it as part of the One Degree Mini Book Expo: Business Edition, and I was awfully excited to dive in.

I’m at a point, professionally, where I’m finding myself more often in a leadership position. My style so far is… bullish. I’m definitely the no-nonsense type, and I often make the classic foible of focusing on results over feelings when maybe I shouldn’t, at least not exclusively.

I’ve been called out for being an insensitive, hardass bitch a time or two. While I don’t really mind that, I am looking specifically for leadership resources that will help me become a trusted manager with a focus on results rather than simply a brutish taskmaster.

The Brute = Bitch issue is also a leadership perception issue that is unique to women. Maybe it’s not right, but it’s there, and something that female leaders need to be aware of. I would like to hone a style that is authentic to my role as a woman as well as a leader.

So I thought notes on leadership from one of the first female CEOs would be an excellent study in ways to build that style.

Unfortunately, it fell a bit short for me.

Rather than reflections on a life of leadership, the book seemed to me to be notes on occasions my actions resulted in an act of graciousness (sometimes on purpose, sometimes not), which paid off later.

I missed the opportunity to read about someone’s struggles (internal and external) and how they were overcome. The short stories (each about 100 words long) don’t lend themselves well to true lessons. For example: The author’s daughter died, she was devastated, she grieved, faced the idea of her own mortality and decided with her husband to live their lives celebrating every day, because her daughter didn’t get the chance to.

Whoop. De. Doo.

Not that a child dying isn’t tragic, but I don’t know a single person who has managed to pick themselves up out of such a horrible event and NOT been inspired to live their lives with a bit more purpose. What I want to know is how did she finally get out of the dark days? How did she finally move past the pain into the point of graciousness? And what were some of the struggles she made it through and lessons learned on the way?

The entire book is missing the hard details. The things we struggle with every day. How do we make it through? How do we pick ourselves up out of those instances we wish we could forget of occasional embarrassment, incompetence and insensitivity?

The book’s “lessons” are all shared from a point where hindsight has long since provided clarity and obviousness. Do the right thing. Thing is, that’s not so easy in the heat of the moment, and such simplistic advice offers cold comfort to those of us in the trenches.

This book annoyed me.

Until I started flipping through it one more time to write this review.

Maybe that is the lesson. What happens in the trenches, those clumsy, embarrassing missteps are not what will matter in the end. What will matter is that, despite the mistakes, you did the right thing. You stayed focused on what’s truly important, and did not let disappointment or difficulty or disaster dissuade you.

You did not puke at 9-G’s. Even if you wanted to.

Huh.

In true Vancouver fashion, November has ushered itself in with rain which probably won’t depart until sometime in February, when we’ll be blessed with a week or 10 days of bright, crisp sunshine, to be followed by more rain through April.

And not much is better in that kind of weather than curling up with a hot beverage, wrapped in a warm blanket, completely absorbed by a good book.

So I decided to start a book club.

My idea came from looking at Barbara-Jo’s Books to Cooks Eating Between the Leaves book club. Six cold, dark months, six captivating books, six great meals that tie into the story. But because I’m not a professional cook or doing this tied to a commercial enterprise, I’ve made mine a community effort, inviting some friends to participate where we’ll each pick a book and cook a meal for the group that ties into the story.

Of course, being that this was my hairbrained idea, I’m up first.

And this, dear readers, is where I ask for your input.

I’m hoping to make good use of some of the spices and cookbooks that I brought back from the Carribean with me – but I need a book-club-suitable fiction novel or memoir that contains some definite island flair. Any suggestions?

If you don’t have any grand ideas for that, drop me a comment with a creative reading/feeding idea of your own!

And while I wish I could invite each and every one of you into the group, I don’t cook for parties greater than 10. But don’t let that stop you from starting your own Books & Cooks Book Club! Gather some good friends, good books, good food and go to it! Just don’t forget to share what you’re reading and eating!

The man and I were kindof bored last night.

TV wasn’t interesting, it was raining outside, books weren’t satisfying our restless need to do something.

So we did this.

That’s right.

We’re now the couple who sits at home on a Wednesday night and does the Crossword Puzzle together.

Good thing we finished before our 8:00pm bedtime!

In honour of BC Book and Magazine Week (you’re going to one of the events, right?) I thought it would be a good time to review a great BC Book I recently had the pleasure of enjoying.

Well, technically it might not be a BC Book, since it is set in Ontario, and the author is from and wrote the book in Manitoba…

But he lives here now, so I’m claiming him, and his book, as our own!

Up in Ontario by James Sherrett was a highly enjoyable debut novel, and kept me in great company while lounging on Seven Mile Beach.

Like the bedrock that lines the highways between Winnipeg and Lake of the Woods, Gilbert Dubois is unmoveable. He can’t give up life as a trapper and fisher on the lake; nor his cabin on its shore. Not for Christine, the beautiful young law student from Winnipeg he marries, and not for their son Wade.

As Wade grows, the Lake of the Woods becomes to him a paradise where he summers with his dad. It’s a yearly escape from the upscale existence he shares with his mother in Winnipeg.

Wade has come to terms with his parents, who are now friends-but-nothing-more; he has accepted his father’s need to live off the land and his mother’s remarriage.

Now, as Wade graduates from university with a love of his own, he must reconcile himself with the Lake of the Woods. Is this the place that has kept Wade and his father close all these years, event as it pulled his parents apart? Is it the place where Wade will forge a life for himself alongside his dad? Or is this place, this lake up in Ontario, caught between history and progress, the chasm that will separate the Dubois family forever?

I’ll confess that when it comes to works of fiction, coming-of-age and personal growth stories are generally my favourites (on the more serious side I enjoy books by Wally Lamb, on the less serious side it’s Sophie Kinsella), and if you enjoy them as well then you should definitely pick up this book.

Sherrett’s language is so descriptive I can really see and feel life around the Lake, though he doesn’t mire the reader in pointless details that detract from the story. I find myself really caring about the characters: who they are, what shaped them, which choices they’re going to make. This is a classic tale of city mouse vs. country mouse, though the story never seems tired and played out.

The book demands attention from the reader to the progression of the story, but is still light and short enough to bring to the beach.

All in all a great read, and I’m looking forward to a follow-up publication.