Gee thanks, Nora - now we can all be self conscious about our necks. Never realized it was an issue until reading her book.
I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron, provides one with a bit of humor for your day. The short essays are fun to read in a pinch or that last bit of reading before going to bed. Ephron has a great sense of humor and she reminds me of a snarkier Erma Bombeck. A fast, fun read.
Flowers and bee
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
Then We Came to the End
Do you think the movie Office Space is in your top ten list? Does the TV series the Office make you laugh - however uncomfortable it gets? I have the book for you. Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris, has enough in it to make you laugh, take a closer look at your co-workers, and think a little about why we are really working anyway?
Ferris sets his tale in the 1990s - before 9/11, in an ad agency in Chicago. He has a wide range of character types - the cut up, the diligent one, the popular one with all the gossip, and if you have ever worked in a pressured environment filled with cubicles - you may have experienced some of the wackiness of this kind of office life. (Sometimes I think those days were a variation of an adult version of high school continued! Yeah, a bit scary!)
With a mixture of humor - the office pranks: the mysterious smell that turned out to be sushi taped to the back of a certain someone's bookcase, the radio stations that are changed each morning, and the various techniques used in looking busy for the boss, and with a mixture of pathos: the office mate whose young daughter is found murdered, the office member who dies and the threat of the boss having cancer, Ferris manages to make us care about this group. It comes to play when the corporate layoffs and cuts start happening and it starts spliting up the creative teams.
Some thoughts this book might leave you with - Who are those people you are working with? Is their office face different from who they are in their home lives? And what kind of work life do you want to have - since you spend so much time there anyway?
A very good read.
Ferris sets his tale in the 1990s - before 9/11, in an ad agency in Chicago. He has a wide range of character types - the cut up, the diligent one, the popular one with all the gossip, and if you have ever worked in a pressured environment filled with cubicles - you may have experienced some of the wackiness of this kind of office life. (Sometimes I think those days were a variation of an adult version of high school continued! Yeah, a bit scary!)
With a mixture of humor - the office pranks: the mysterious smell that turned out to be sushi taped to the back of a certain someone's bookcase, the radio stations that are changed each morning, and the various techniques used in looking busy for the boss, and with a mixture of pathos: the office mate whose young daughter is found murdered, the office member who dies and the threat of the boss having cancer, Ferris manages to make us care about this group. It comes to play when the corporate layoffs and cuts start happening and it starts spliting up the creative teams.
Some thoughts this book might leave you with - Who are those people you are working with? Is their office face different from who they are in their home lives? And what kind of work life do you want to have - since you spend so much time there anyway?
A very good read.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
The Hot Zone
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
Who knew that a tale of the Ebola virus could be such a thriller? Preston takes us on a journey of the discovery of the Marburg and Ebola virus strains, and then shares the story of how it came to the United States and how scientists battled with it. He manages to engage you in the characters and include you in their terrifying story. A bit gorey in parts, but in the age of SARs and the threat of world wide flu strains, this is a book worth reading.
Who knew that a tale of the Ebola virus could be such a thriller? Preston takes us on a journey of the discovery of the Marburg and Ebola virus strains, and then shares the story of how it came to the United States and how scientists battled with it. He manages to engage you in the characters and include you in their terrifying story. A bit gorey in parts, but in the age of SARs and the threat of world wide flu strains, this is a book worth reading.
Where Stuff Comes From
Where Stuff Comes From: How Toasters, Toilets, Cars, Computers, and Many Other Things Come to Be As They Are by Harvey Molotch
This book looks like it is going to be about how things work, but really it is about how things are designed. If you are interested in industrial design, this is the book for you. A bit dry in parts, but if you are fascinated with how designers change "everyday" objects - take a look at this.
Molotch offers some interesting points when he suggests that designers can effect social responsibility - when it comes to the things they design and thus can lighten the ecological load.
This book looks like it is going to be about how things work, but really it is about how things are designed. If you are interested in industrial design, this is the book for you. A bit dry in parts, but if you are fascinated with how designers change "everyday" objects - take a look at this.
Molotch offers some interesting points when he suggests that designers can effect social responsibility - when it comes to the things they design and thus can lighten the ecological load.
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