User Profile

The only criticism I can muster for this book is my desire for more examples within my field, so authors, if you create a 4DX geared specifically at education, running a district and schools, I’ll be first in line.

As an educator in struggling Nevada, I’ve seen one or two elements of 4DX implemented time and again without success; however, never with a scoreboard or lead indicator weekly goal settings.

We revisit goals annually at every level of our district, and we’ve implemented PLC time daily for teachers to meet and to share ideas and review their goals, and at one point a principal had teachers set weekly goals. But, eventually everything falls apart as everything gets swept up in the whirlwind.

I love the approach with these disciplines, the idea that we can’t eliminate or often alter the whirlwind. The work is the work is the work, but if we fundamentally want to change things, we have to set bite sized, achievable, weekly goals that will move the needle for achievement. And, all of the disciplines, supported by all leaders, are critical to prevent the plan from falling apart.

The Disciplines: Focus on the wildly important Act on the lead measures Keep a compelling scoreboard Create a cadence of accountability

For me, the lead measures and the scoreboard hold the most interest because I haven’t really seen change management implement these two. I’ve also not seen really successful change management.

Two items I really appreciate about this book are the clarity around the disciplines and the examples. The whole second and third sections are devoted to examples.

After reading this, I’m really looking forward to our training session later in the month, and I’m excited to see how we move forward.

McCammon never fails to satisfy, and he definitely brings the emotion in this one.

Curtis is a Listener. He can hear and mentally speak with other listeners. He has a very specific telepathy; he can’t simply read minds. As a child, his mother took him to different types of doctors until one finally explained that he wasn't sick or crazy, just different, maybe blessed.

Nila, a young girl of 10, finds Curtis. She’s also a Listener and, like Curtis, she doesn’t know if the voices in her head are real.

From the shocking murders in the first chapter, the reader knows he’s in for a ride. Sadly, that murderer wasn’t even the worst character in the novel. Like Swan Song, the characters here embody different types of good and evil, and the unknown of their personalities makes it difficult to know where things will go until the end.

Once the plot moves into the kidnapping, I found myself uplifted by Curtis’s need to help a stranger despite the many obstacles in doing so, race not being the smallest of those.

I listened to this book, and for the first time in a long time, I was worried for the characters and caught up in the moment. My walking pace was significantly faster the week I listened to this, and I frequently had to stop and unclench my fists. I even gasped aloud at a couple of events.

Readers should be aware that this book is set in the 1930s and has all the racist hallmarks of the period. They are important to the complications of the plot.

I enjoyed this but many of the stories left me wanting more, which might be exactly Aaronovitch’s intention.

The explanations of the origins of some of the stories is a nice addition, and I really appreciate the dating of each story by the preface explaining between which novels they sit.

As a former bookseller, “The Cockpit” is among my favorites in the collection. I’d love to retire into the life of a small used bookstore owner who has to read to spirits each evening. That would be cool.

Some of the stories are really poignant, containing a few uncomfortable edges that we try to stay away from in our thinking about society. (“The Domestic” and “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Granny”)

I loved “Favorite Uncle,” the Abigail story, and now I have to go find “What Abigail Did that Summer.” She’s quite a detective. She could move to the U.S. and partner with Harry Dresden.

The three “moments,” didn’t move me much, but they might be something worth expanding. I would like to read more about Agent Reynolds.

I first read this novel in 2018 before the 3rd book had been released, “I really like this concept of a utopian future. The characters are easy to love and hate and to connect with. The conflict and political intrigue are realistic in this fantasy world. I can't wait for the 3rd book.”

I’ve thought about this story several times since then, and the concepts are still compelling. The idea that humanity overcomes natural death and has to create artificial administrators who work outside standard governing influences is the crux of the story and its political intrigue, but with this read I picked up more on those just living… endlessly.

It’s not the focus of the story, but Shusterman does touch on how life might be without the consideration of death. I think it would create a new paradigm for the living, new stages of life. The youthful stage being filled with risk and partying, a life without consequence. Then a stage of education, where the living try “to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life,” and then a stage of resignation, those that Scythe Curie looks for. I guess these stages aren’t much different than our current situation, but without aging the last stage would look a lot different.