Reading & Reviews

Songs of Willow Frost

Posted on by Seniye Groff

After reading “Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet”, I waited anxiously for a second book from Jamie Ford.  After several years, Jamie has delivered another stunner!  “Songs of Willow Frost” is set in 1920’s and 1930’s Seattle.  William, a twelve-year-old, Chinese-American boy lives at the Sacred Heart Orphanage.  Not only does he carry the stigma of being an orphan, but he is also Chinese–practically as low as the Coloreds.  William’s only friend, a blind girl named Charlotte, challenges William to find his mother after a school field trip to the city exposes William to a theater poster that he thinks is his mother.

Charlotte and William escape the orphanage and manage to find William’s mother, Willow.  Willow shares her past with William, as he tries to understand why she left him.  Willow is nothing but a hard-luck story; but she never wavered on her love for William.  The 1920’s is a difficult time for a Chinese, unwed mother to try to make her break in show business.  Willow thinks she has found love but cannot verbalize her feelings.  But, alas,  the possibility of hope, love and safety do not materialize.

William returns to the orphanage feeling lonelier than ever.  This story will pull at your heart strings.  Ford writes with passion and empathy as hope, love, struggle and being an outsider collide in this beautiful story.

Instructions for a Heatwave

Posted on by Seniye Groff

Maggie O’Farrell presents the reader with an interesting dilemma as she tells the story of a crisis in the Riordan family.  London is experiencing a vicious heatwave and one morning, Gretta Riordan’s husband of forty years, Robert, disappears while on his morning task of buying the newspaper.  Oh, and he empties out the bank account at the same time.  All the children are alerted and descend upon the family home.  Michael Francis has a failing marriage; Monica is on her second marriage with two stepdaughters that barely tolerate her and mysterious, wild child Aoife flies in from New York City.

While all three children are focused on finding their father, Greta slowly reveals potential clues which revolve around a hidden past.  Simultaneously, each child hides a secret that O’Farrell seductively divulges.  In the end, each family member realizes no one is as they seem.  O’Farrell writes with depth and exposes tantalizing details while moving from one character to the next rather quickly.  Each deep, dark secret is one that a reader can relate to and very much empathize with the character.  There are no “grand” surprises here, but instead, revelations that make each character whole, human and believable.

The Girl You Left Behind

Posted on by Seniye Groff

Jojo Moyes has written an astoundingly great book.  If you read “Me Before You” and were enraptured, get ready to be even more enamored with her latest book, “The Girl You Left Behind/”.  Sophie and Helene are barely surviving in a small French town during the German occupation of World War I. The sisters run the local restaurant, Le Coq Rouge, and are forced to feed the German soldiers every night.    The Kommandant is mesmerized by a painting in the dining room by Sophie’s husband, Edouard Lefevre, called “The Girl You Left Behind”.  It is a painting of Sophie when she was full of love and life after she first met Edouard.  Sophie dreams of Edouard daily; hoping he is alive on the front.  Sophie decides to make the ultimate sacrifice by offering her painting to the Kommandant in return for seeing her husband.

Alternating chapters reveal Liv, a woman living in 2006 London.  She is still struggling four years after the sudden death of her 38 year-old architect husband.  David gave Liv “The Girl You Left Behind“ for their honeymoon and it is proudly displayed in Liv’s home.  Liv’s life has essentially stopped.  She is unwilling to make anything different in David’s house since his death.  During a chance meeting, Liv meets Paul and finally gets a shot at the possibility of a  “normal” life.  But the mysterious painting plays an integral role in both Sophie and Liv’s life as events unfold in this engrossing novel.  

Moyes writes of love, sacrifice and loss with glaring detail.  Her characters leap from the pages with the vivid writing of the author.  “The Girl You Left Behind” is fraught with deeper meaning and readers will be thinking of the characters long after they finish the book.  

Moyes will be reading her book at Powells at Cedar Hills this Monday, September 16th at 7 p.m.

Whistling Past the Graveyard

Posted on by Seniye Groff

I laughed out loud to the many antics of nine year old narrator, Starla, in Susan Crandall’s latest novel,  “Whistling Past the Graveyard”.  Starla lives with her Mamie (grandmother) in a small southern town while her father works on an oil rig and her mother is busy getting “famous” in Nashville.  Starla is sassy and acts before she thinks and lands herself on restriction on her most favorite holiday:  July Fourth.  So Starla decides she is going to run away, find her mother in Nashville and her father will join them and, of course, a perfect family will form.

Starla is quickly picked up by Eula, an African American woman in an old rickety truck accompanied by a white newborn.  Eula Takes Starla and the newborn to her home and husband, Wallace.  Wallace is a bit of a drunkard and nuts and insists that Eula cannot form an “instant” family with two white children.  Starla tries to escape and disaster ensues.  Eula, Starla and the baby decide to head to Nashville to find Starla’s mother.  During their adventures to Nashville, Starla begins to understand what is “allowed” for Coloreds in 1960’s America.  Watching (or reading) Starla discover the discrimination is mesmerizing.  As the reader, I almost felt I had been transported back to the 1960’s.

This story has so many layers to it: the south, being nine, being white vs. African-American, being childless, being battered and being a part of small town America–just to name a few.  Starla is smart, clever and naive all at the same time.  Crandall writes with skill and emotion and this novel will make you laugh, cry, smile and gain an understanding of how difficult it is to make change happen (and how brave those change agents really are!).

Crandall has written nine novels prior to this latest release, and I cannot wait to read all of her other books!

Collaboration Boosts Learning

Posted on by Seniye Groff

In this month’s issue of “Talent Management” an article about collaboration struck a chord.  Although there will always be a need for formal learning, given how fast-paced and ever-changing the world is, collaborative learning is gaining increasing popularity.  Employees are able to leverage each other when sharing much-needed knowledge.    The article states that three building blocks are needed to have “an effective collaborative learning environment:  people, processes and tools.”

People must have a way to share knowledge, as well as, create new knowledge and solutions.  Given that people, not a specified process, drives collaboration,  it is important to consider how to structure your collaborative environment.  “Collaborative learning technologies don’t have to be complicated.  They can be content management systems, social networks, instant messaging or cloud computing technology that is easily accessible to everyone.”

“Six traps that destroy collaboration:

  1. Lack of compromise
  2. Rigid organizational structures
  3. Convoluted communication lines
  4. Office setup
  5. Negativity
  6. Ownership and control issues.”

Measuring collaboration:

  1. “Quality
  2. Learning effectiveness
  3. Job impact
  4. Business results
  5. Return on investment.

Check out the entire article for full explanations.  Add a comment if have seen any of the above ideas in action!

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A Catalyst for Change

Posted on by Seniye Groff

“This book has two particular uses. The first is to address specific topics or concerns, and the second is to assist in the development of broad-based efforts to create exceptional organizations.”

William F. Brandt, Jr. proposes a new paradigm for organizations in his recent book “Compass”. This paradigm includes organizations that are viable, sustainable and valued. Brandt’s goals for the reader are to expand horizons of what is possible, increase the likelihood of creating organizations they desire, reduce time to accomplish the task and reduce cost and consequences of missteps. The book begins with the foundations of key elements of exceptional organizations. I loved how the book began with a case study so that the reader has a frame of reference for the remaining lessons and essays in the book. The essays are followed by reflection questions and related chapter information. Most essays are only a few pages long and lend themselves to be used as tools if a leader wants to share the material with their teams. This is a comprehensive book with a companion website loaded with PowerPoint slides for each lesson and lesson materials so that the various topics can be disseminated to an audience. This book is a viable tool for any leader, either new or tenured. It is loaded with ideas, concepts, tools and valuable information and would be a catalyst for organizational change and improvement.

All the Light There Was

Posted on by Seniye Groff

“All the Light There Was” by Nancy Kricorian takes on a common topic: Nazi occupation of Paris but with a unique twist: the Armenian immigrant experience. In this novel, the reader meets Maral Pegorian, an innocent 14 year-old girl in 1940’s Paris. Maral lives in a cramped apartment with her family. Many Armenians and Jews live just like her in her Paris neighborhood. She soon loses school friends and neighbors as the Jews are rounded up. Those that are left in the neighborhood are fearful and hungry but not too scared to fight back in their own little ways-hiding a Jewish child, spreading pamphlets and showing up for rallies. Maral experiences death first-hand, as well as, her first love. When the boy she loves, Zaven, is imprisoned with his brother, Maral is distraught as the families grieve. When WWII is over, those that have survived have their own losses to deal with as they try to resume “normal” life.

Kricorian’s tale is based on history and gives the reader a glimpse of the Armenian experience in 1940’s Paris. As you read this descriptive tale, your stomach will ache with hunger and you will be convinced that Maral’s nightmares are you own. I could not put this book down. Once I started reading; the story was immersive like quick sand!

“The Woman Upstairs”

Posted on by Seniye Groff

Claire Messud’s “The Woman Upstairs” introduces the reader to Nora Eldridge.  Nora narrates the story and portrays herself as an angry and disappointed almost-forty-something.  She dreamed of being a successful artist and instead finds herself as a never-married, third grade teacher with little excitement in her life.  She then gains a new student in her classroom, Reza Shadid and his parents Skandar and Sirena.  Nora almost instantly sees Reza as her son and his parents as her family/potential lovers.  She believes she is in love with each of them and becomes hungry for what they have:  Reza, a beautiful boy, Sirena, an Italian artist and Skandar, a Harvard academic.  Nora’s false reality causes her to distance herself from her friends and sick father.  She becomes ferocious with a lust for life.  She rediscovers the artist within her.  Unfortunately, her dream reality is shattered when the ultimate betrayal happens.

Messud’s book is hypnotic.  She writes with emotion and a storyline full of metaphors.  I could feel the passion and anger of Messud’s characters.  Messud’s skillful writing, coupled with a compelling story that hinted of disaster at the end, kept this me reading late into the night.   I tried reading Messud’s “The Emperor’s Children” a few years ago and could not get through it but I am motivated to give it another shot, since I loved this recent book so much.

 

Who Says It’s a Man’s World

Posted on by Seniye Groff

With a byline of “The Girls’ Guide to Corporate Domination” how could you not be interested in “Who Says it’s a Man’s World”? Emily Bennington has written an intriguing book full of advice, tools and action-oriented mantras for women trying to find their place in the workplace. The book is divided into six sections: self-awareness, social skills, personal effectiveness, team development, leadership and toolbox. Each section begins with a core principle, bulleted-list of what you will learn and a quotation of, “What your coworkers are thinking”. Bennington contends that if the reader selects three goals from each of the five sections to create an action plan and complete the goals in 60 days they will be a rock star and be promotable. She offers a career plan template on her website to complete this task.

Bennington writes with a snappy and humorous style, which engaged me right from the beginning of the book. She uses tons of real-life examples and quotes from executive career women. I love all the tools sprinkled throughout the book and the action plan items are realistic and achievable. Read this book several times, take time to create the suggested action plan and then take action. This book is the tool you have been waiting for to set your career on the right path!