Howdy, friends.
I haven’t been updating with my books lately, and I’m going to try to do that again. I always like to see what others are reading, so maybe folks are still interested in what I’m reading.
Normally I read about 50 to 60 books a year. But sometimes life gets in the way. That happened to me the second half of this year, and I found myself, instead of discovering new books, drowning in some of my favorite works by my favorite author, Jeanette Winterson. It was a beautiful walk down memory lane, but I needed to crawl back out into the new books again. At the same time, I was struggling to focus on fiction stories — in print, on television, anywhere. I just couldn’t put myself there, suspend my disbelief and go along for the ride.
But without a book to read, I didn’t feel like myself.
I did what I always do, which is head to the library and let titles, book covers and straight curiosity guide me. So when I saw Anne Kreamer’s “Risk/Reward” book on an endcap, and as I faced changes in my own career and life, I thought maybe it was the perfect sort of palate cleanser for my reading brain.
And it was. It was interesting and sort of skimmable. I liked learning about the different kinds of workers out there and trying to see which one I was most like — turns out you can see yourself in all kinds of people in all kinds of situations. In general, it’s just a look at group dynamics and how individuals fit into different groups, and I’ve always liked any discussion on that.
One of the best lessons came toward the end: “The career mindset this century requires is about having multiple skills and learning to live a life of perpetual flexibility and course correction.”
That’s pretty good.
Here’s a review from Fortune. And here’s a link to Kreamer’s website.
Happy reading.
Jack & Viv 