2020: What I’ve read so far … Nicole Schlinger Book Review (Part 2)
In part one of this year’s book review, I took you through my pre-pandemic reading. Now, let’s take a closer look at what ideas had my attention as things started closing in.
Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath
I began reading this oddly prescient book on March 8th, just a few weeks before Governors across the country closed schools and businesses, forcing millions of people out of work.
It is a discussion about why societies continually deal with problems downstream, putting out fires that are already ablaze instead of preventing them from starting in the first place. The primary problem remains that you cannot mandate upstream action in a free society. Unless you are the leader of the Chinese Communist party or a member of the Kim Family in North Korea, you do not get to decide what is “good” for others and force your worldview upon them, no matter how much you believe you know best.
To his credit, Dan Heath does not try to use his cry for upstream, preventative action as a rallying cry for big government overlords. His examples are, for the most part, local, voluntary, and effective.
This is one of many great reads by Dan Heath and his brother Chip.
You may also want to check out: The Power of Moments Why Certain Experiences have Extraordinary Impact
The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday
And then the pandemic started.
If this was your first existential crisis … welcome. Hope it didn’t kick you too hard.
For those of us in the arena, whose backs have been up against the wall before, who have had to make the decision “do I live or die today?” … do I put up my hands in surrender or do I turn and fight? We’ve been practicing for this our whole lives. We’re made for this. Like Marcus Aurelius says, “What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do?
So when it felt like the walls were closing in, I picked up my copy of the Daily Stoic, ironically on March 20th. “Ready and At Home.”
I read the entire year again in under a week. If you want to come out the other side of this mess as a winner, read this now. If you need further convincing, check out my prior review:
The Queen’s Fortune: A Novel of Desiree, Napoleon, and the Dynasty That Outlasted the Empire by Allison Pataki
This book had everything I look for in historical fiction: action, suspense, and an education.
I’d never heard of Desiree Clary and her amazing, lifelong connection to Napoleon Bonaparte. She was Napoleon’s first fiancé and eventually his sister in law. She was a lady in waiting at the court of Empress Josephine. And it was Napoleon himself who introduced her to her eventual husband, Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, the future King of Sweden.
Fun side note — Allison Pataki is the daughter of former NY Governor, George Pataki. He was given little chance of defeating Mario Cuomo in 1994, that glorious year of the Republican revolution. He came to Syracuse University where we few college Republicans valiantly waved signs on his behalf. Unbelievably, he won and became the longest serving Republican Governor of the State of New York. It was George Pataki who suggested Desiree would make an incredibly subject for Allison’s next book. Once again, he was right.
In Five Years: A Novel by Rebecca Serle
After Rebecca Serle’s last dumpster fire of a book, you may wonder why I picked this one up. Once again the premise for the book seemed so compelling, the execution just had to be worth the ride. Once again, disappointment.
As the story opens, “Type -A Manhattan lawyer” Dannie Kohan is on the cusp of getting everything she wants. She is about to get the job she has not only dreamed of, but doggedly, determinedly worked towards every day of her life. She is about to get engaged to a man who by all rights, seems perfect for her. Not a wallflower. Not a lazy lout. But content with Dannie being the one whose career takes precedence in their upcoming marriage. On the eve of all this joy, Dannie has a weird dream where she wakes up five years in the future, in a different apartment, next to a different man. From there, the rest of the book is a journey of discover to find out what happens to screw up her life so that it does not end up as planned. I won’t spoil the surprises if you plan to read the book.
Here’s my problem with the premise of this book. Just because she has this weird dream, just because some terrible things happen to people she cares about, does not mean that the career she’s fought for and man she picked suddenly is not good enough. This woman goes from being completely all there and put together to being a typical Chick-Lit “Bridget Jones” mess. I just don’t buy it. Read my prior review here:
