Supercommunicators

Title:  Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection

Author:  Charles Duhigg

Publication Information:  Random House. 2024. 320 pages.

ISBN:  0593243919 / 978-0593243916

Rating:   ★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "If there was one thing everyone knew about Felix Signal, it was that he was easy to talk to."

Favorite Quote:  "... listening means letting someone else tell their story and then, even if you don't agree with them, trying to understand why they feel that way."

Reading a book on communication is a double edged sword. On the one hand, many of us read and receive training on the topic - in school, on the job, through self-education, and through experience. Thus, reading another book about the ideas can sometimes feel like it rehashes the same thoughts and skills. On the other hand, our modes of communication may have changed, but human nature has not. Individual needs to be heard and understood remain constant. As such, even though the concepts of such a book may not be new, reading another's interpretation of it and another packaging of it can sometimes teach me something new - a new way of looking at the same thing. For that nugget of truth, a book such as this proves its value.

This book is structured around three kinds of conversations:

• "What's this really about conversation?"
• How do we feel conversation?"
• Who are we conversation?"

The first may be practical. The second is emotional. The third is about identity. The concern with this structure is that is any conversation truly about only one of these facets or is it always a mix of all three? Likely the latter. However, perhaps, it can be understood that the primary focus of the conversation may just be one.

The book set out four conversation rules:

• Rule one:  Pay attention to what kind of conversation is occurring.
• Rule two:  Share your goals, and ask what others are seeking.
• Rule three:  Ask about others' feelings, and share your own.
• Rule four:  Explore if identities are important to this discussion.

Again, the ideas are not new. Think listening triangle. Think Stephen Covey's "Seek first to understand, then to be understood." Think about many other books and articles that have been written about this topic.

Beyond the ideas are the stories the author uses to anchor the framework to situations. As may be expected, some I relate to. Some I do not.

What I love best about this book is actually captured in its subtitle. Communication is about connection. Particularly, as communication shifts to media that are remote and electronic, connection remains at the heart of it. That reminder is the lesson I will take.

As with other books such as this, I will take what works for me and leave the rest. Your value will vary based on what you bring to it.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Book of Doors

Title:  The Book of Doors

Author:  Gareth Brown

Publication Information:  William Morrow. 2024. 416 pages.

ISBN:  0063323982 / 978-0063323988

Rating:   ★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "In Kellner Books on the Upper East Side of New York City, a few minutes before his death, John Webber was reading The Count of Monte Cristo."

Favorite Quote:  "Happiness is not something you sit and wait for. you have to choose it and pursue it in spite of everything else. It's not going to be given to you."

A bookstore. A librarian. A magical book. Those who, at first, do not understand the power of the books. Those who wish to use the magic of the books for their own purposes. A main characters whose life seems to be passing by. "Don't waste your life hidden away in your own mind. Make the most of the time you have, otherwise before you know it, you'll have no time left."  Until now.

This book has a setup that has been done before. This book has so many characteristics that appeal to a bibliophile reader. I love books about books and am predisposed to picking a book with a description such as this one. Add to that the intriguing promise of this magical book. "any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them." The story then goes even further with the idea that there is not just one book but a whole series of them. Each one grants its owner a special ability, and yet, this one surpasses them all. I open the door to this book and walk right in.

Cassie Andrews lives a quiet, humdrum life. She is a bookseller in a local shop. She shares an apartment with her friend Izzy. Then, a customer - one of Cassie's favorites - dies in the shop. He leaves behind a book. Not just any book. A magical book. At first, the book is a joy - the ability to open a door or reopen a door considered forever lost in our lives is an appealing one. However, doing so comes at a price.

Cassie and Izzy are thrown into the world of intrigue and are now in the sights of those who want this book. As this is an old conflict, there are sides. Drummond Fox appears as a librarian, educating Cassie on the provenance of the book and what happens if it falls into the wrong hands.

There are skirmishes, adventures, and escapes as Cassie attempts to keep the book safe. I go right along, enjoying the ride. That being said, be warned that the ride gets violent at times, and at times, I feel like I have been on this ride before. Magical book, time travel, good guys, bad guys, and so on. I nevertheless love the premise.

The Book of Doors is a debut novel. I look forward to seeing what the author does next.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Backyard Bird Chronicles

Title:  The Backyard Bird Chronicles

Author & Illustrator:  Amy Tan

Publication Information:  Knopf. 2024. 320 pages.

ISBN:  0593536134 / 978-0593536131

Rating:   ★★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "These pages are a record of my obsession with birds."

Favorite Quote:  "For birds, each day is a chance to survive."

Amy Tan is an award winning author. This book is a departure from her prior work. From the author's website... "In 2016, Amy began taking nature journaling classes with John Muir Laws. During the pandemic shutdown, she spent long hours observing the behavior of wild birds in her backyard. Her editor, Dan Halpern, suggested she turn those pencil sketches, colored portraits and journal notes into an illustrated book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, published in April 2024 by Knopf."

From interviews with the author about why this project came about when it did: Amy Tan is of Chinese American heritage, born to immigrant parents. In her words, in 2016, racism in our nation was rampant, and she was the target of that racism because of her heritage. "The world was ugly, and I needed to find beauty again."

The idea of nature providing beauty, comfort, and solace is one that resonates with me. Although I am not a birder per se, the idea of retreating into nature for calm and peace resonates with me. The lesson and reminder to us to be good stewards of our world resonates with me.

For me, long walks and discovery of all our local parks became a survival mechanism during the pandemic. The author's birding adventures continued during the pandemic. That being said, she has the luxury of a home in the San Francisco hills with a view of the bay, a large garden, a wall of windows, and the means to create a green roof. That is not most people's reality, but it is a lovely reality to share.

As the title suggests, this book - the words and the images - are all about birds. If that is not your thing, you may not be the reader for this book. The book is structured into short, date and time stamped entries, each focused on a particular sighting.

The goal of this book is not to relate the descriptions and illustrations to humans. It is not to anthropomorphize the birds. Nevertheless, the journal entries do ponder bird behavior - the adult birds and the caretaking of young, the competition amongst like birds and between species, the impact of environmental changes on the lives of birds, the communal reaction to a bird in distress, the lifecycle of birds, and so much more. Each one of these ideas has relevance to the human world.

Of course, fiction or nonfiction, Amy Tan's writing and her ability to draw me into this world of birds and keep turning pages makes this a memorable book.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Acts of Forgiveness

Title:  Acts of Forgiveness

Author:  Maura Cheeks

Publication Information:  Ballantine Books. 2024. 320 pages.

ISBN:  0593598296 / 978-0593598290

Rating:   ★★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "Marcus Revel was willing to trade the illusion of his sanity to keep his home."

Favorite Quote:  "Because sometimes you have to go where you're not wanted in order to change people's minds."

Philadelphia - the original capital of our nation.

Change has come. A woman serves as the United States president. The Forgiveness Act is being considered. If passed and signed. If signed, the legislation would provide up to $175,000 in reparations is a family can prove that they are descended from slaves. The nation is watching.

The author anchors this discussion in the life of Willa Revel. Long ago, she gave up a career to help the family business. She is a single parent to a daughter. She has always put her family before herself. "It was one thing to feel like your sacrifices were worth it but another to feel like you sacrificed for nothing. Was it possible to be a good person if you were always resenting the sacrifices you made to be good." The passage of the act would mean acknowledgement. The money could mean staying out of bankruptcy.

The questions this book raises are important ones that go well beyond this book:

• Can reparations ever compensate for the horrors of slavery?
• Is the thought of reparations merely to assuage the guilt of those who consider themselves representative of the enslavers?
• Can trauma inherited through the generations be remedied by monetary reparations?
• From a pieces of legislation called the "Forgiveness" Act, is forgiveness possible?
• What does forgiveness means?
• How do you put a value on the loss?
• How do you prove a family line?
• How do you prove a family line when
• people were bought and sold?
• birth records were not kept?
• a child's birth was recorded as property rather than parental lineage?
• ownership rights extended into rape and fathering of unacknowledged children?

And so many more.

What grounds this book and makes it work for me is that it is not a philosophical essay on these topics. In fact, many of these questions are not and, I don't think, can be resolved in a book such as this. To me, a packaged fictional resolution would undermine the questions. 

Instead, this is very much the story of one woman and one family. It is about a search for the past and the complicated history it reveals. It is about learning where we come from and separating it from where we are going. It is about understanding. The questions and the search will stay with me for a long time.

This book is a debut novel. I look forward to reading more from the author.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Phoenix Crown

Title:  The Phoenix Crown

Author:  Kate Quinn & Janie Chang

Publication Information:  William Morrow Paperbacks. 2024. 400 pages.

ISBN:  0063304732 / 978-0063304734

Rating:   ★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "'A rose by any other name,' someone quote, and Alice Eastwood was hard-pressed not to roll her eyes."

Favorite Quote:  "Well, maybe she was tired of being good. Maybe she wanted to play the game for once, and play it for all she could get."

On Wednesday, April 18, 1906, Northern California including the San Francisco bay area was hit by a 7.9 magnitude earthquake. In the aftermath of the earthquake, massive fires broke out all over the city and lasted for days. Over eighty percent of the city was destroyed, and over 3,000 people died.

This story begins about 2 weeks before the earthquake.

Four women:

• Suling - a young woman in the city's Chinatown trying to avoid a forced marriage.
• Gemma - an opera singer looking for her friend and a new start.
• Nelli - Gemma's friend who seems to have disappeared.
• Alice Eastwood - a botanist. This character is based on an actual historical figure. The real Alice Eastwood was a botanist and is credited with saving part of the plant collection of the California Academy of Sciences during the 1906 earthquake and the ensuing fires. Nothing much survived beyond what she saved. 

One man - Henry Thornton.

One legendary artifact - The Phoenix Crown, an antique from Beijing's summer palace. The phoenix crown actually are called fengguan, and they historically are "hats" or crowns worn by Chinese brides and noblewomen. 

These lives meet and intersect. Plans are made. Alliances are forged. Betrayals happen. There is an incidental love story. It seems there for the sake of being there, not central to the main story of the book.

Then, the earthquake happens, and Henry Thornton disappears along with the crowns.

Five years later, in 1911, the crown reappears. The mystery and the dresire for revenge, retribution, and more brings these characters to a finale crash.

The story introduces each characters and their backstory. It takes a while for the connections to form and for the reader to see the threads come together. The historical setting - the city before, during, and after the earthquake - really comes to life. I can "see" it and feel as though I am walking those streets. 

This book is part historical fiction and part thriller and mystery. The history give the book its vivid color. The female characters draw attention to the challenges faced by women at that time and in that place. The mystery and the chase give the book its pace. The pace definitely picks up more later in the book as the story fast forwards five years. 

Overall, a fun read. This is my first book by these authors. I will likely look for more.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Redwood Court

Title:  Redwood Court

Author:  Délana R. A. Dameron

Publication Information:  The Dial Press. 2024. 304 pages.

ISBN:  0593447026 / 978-0593447024

Rating:   ★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "My grandpa Teeta says I am the second and last daughter of Rhina, who is the only daughter of Weesie, who was the first daughter of Lady, who is the secret daughter of Big Sis, who was born to Sarah, who came from Esra, the adopted daughter of Ruth (who adopted her because Esra was a salve and was sold without her mama, but the story was Esra's mama had thirteen children depending on who asked and depending on if you counted those unborn or born dead)"

Favorite Quote:  "... the future and the joy and risk and pain are worth it if our generation experience a greater freedom than we're allotted."

Redwood Court is a story of a time and a place. Redwood Court is literally that - a cul-de-sac in an all-Black working-class suburb of Columbia, South Carolina. The main character is Mika as she grows up in the 1990s surrounded by family and their stories. The stories trace the history and reality of any family - the love, the loss, the joy, and the drama. Through this particular family, the book also portrays the history of being black in America, particularly in the American South. The fact that the reader sees these through the eyes of a child growing up in the 90s adds an additional layer as she navigates her childhood and also create an interesting perspective of the history embedded in the adult stories. As an adult reader, I read between the lines of what Mika sees to the deeper concepts that lie beyond.

The story is of history and community, much more character driven than plot driven. The place - Redwood Court - is as much a character in the book as the people. The history and the communitiy feels authentic. Redwood Court comes to life. I can see it full of real people, love, laughter, tears, conversations on the porch, and community coming together. The stories and the characters cover multiple generations and the history - spoken and unspoken - that surrounds them. It picks up on the everyday details of life, that help create a painting of this family and community. 

Being character and history driven, the story is a slow and quiet one. While that may be the goal, that also keeps it from engaging me emotionally. Sometimes it is too quiet and too focused on time and place. I want more story. Perhaps, I want more focus on any of the myriad story lines rather than having them all seem to fade into the bigger picture. I want more of an anchor in a character's story. The fact that the story also jumps back and forth in time makes this more of a challenge as well. Being time and place driven, the book also just ends. There is not truly a conclusion because the point is not a plot to be concluded.

That being said, I am glad I read it. It made me think and reflect on American history and on the bonds of family and community. It made me walk through my own memories of the "Redwood Courts" of our family history and all the stories they hold.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Book of Fire

Title:  The Book of Fire

Author:  Christy Lefteri

Publication Information:  Ballantine Books. 2024. 336 pages.

ISBN:  0593497279 / 978-0593497272

Rating:   ★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "This morning, I met the man who started the fire."

Favorite Quote:  "There is something about stories that allows us to process the present. We listen to tales of tribulations overcome so that we might imagine we can survive ours. Children listen to the same fairy tale time and time again because there is a puzzle in their hearts that they unknowingly need to solve."

A small Greek village. An idyllic life. A fire. Life forever altered. An opportunity for retribution. A fateful, life altering decision. Life beyond with its challenges, its guilt, and its hope.

The book tells the story through Irini's eyes and, more importantly, the story of her thoughts. They meander through life before the fire, the fire, her decisions, and her coming to terms with that decision. Through Irini, the author offers commentary on global issues - climate change, global warming, the impact of development on the environment and the communities surrounding the development, and more. "We live in a world where we can have anything we want, and some people have learned not to accept no for an answer. Consequences mean nothing - they've probably never had to really face any. I am of a different generation, and you have a good, sensible head on your shoulders, but Mr. Monk... Well, what can I say? All greed and no kindness. Unfortunately, that gets you somewhere."

Pain and grief are the central themes of Irini's thoughts. Tasso's hands are burned, which causes physical pain and the emotional pain of being deprived of his artistic passion and livelihood. Tasso's father is missing. Chiara has significant burns, and, as we learn well into the book, is unable to walk without crutches. A child, whose name means Joy, is anything but joyful. Irini's pain comes not just from the suffering of her family but from the decision she makes when she meets the man responsible for the fire. The book is a tragic one. "Things are never as simple as they seem, always remember that in life. It is dangerous to see things in black and white, even  - and maybe especially - during troubled times... Each side hates the other because of memories and traumas on both sides, some are ready and some are imagined, and these become national narratives. They demonize each other. The 'other' is always to blame and it fuels people and groups and governments with fire. This never leads to any good on this earth."

Because of the perspective, the book has the feel of a personal journal - an individual's musings as they try to process their own thoughts and emotions and to puzzle through and understand the situations they find themselves. The challenge of this perspective is that we process iteratively - thinking about something, stepping away from it, thinking again, often over and over again. Irini does the same. As a result, the book appears to repeat itself at times. It makes sense given the set up but presents a challenge as a reader because the pacing becomes very slow. I feel the emotion of the story but walk away, wanting more.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.