A Lucky Star
Oct. 1st, 2016 08:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyI forgot to say that when I came home this week, I came home to one of the highlights of the year. That's right: the Christmas with Innovations catalogue is out. Joy.
This year, they are into weirdly glowing things. What would you do with these roses? Scare your child with this whimsical unicorn! The agapanthus is my least favourite flower, so this weather-resistant plastic and steel light is not doing anything for me. And this is only scraping the surface of glowing things. There are orchids and cherry blossoms and elephants and fairies and puppies and more.
I do quite like this pineapple lantern.
They have a carpet sweeper called the Hoky Power-Rotor, which is a terrible name for a product. Also they say: A Kitten in your Tree - guests will do a double take!. Meaning three kitten parts to arrange like a serial killer.
I must admit I would not say no to this dachshund trinket box.
Which brings us to: September books read
Here is the problem of doing these things monthly: it doesn't reflect the flow of real life. Cast your mind back to last month, when the last book I finished was called Drive. Now see what I followed that up with:
* Thrive - Arianna Huffington (2015) (abandoned)
That's right! I read rhyming books! What a wag I am.
I bought this book when I was in Melbourne in August, on sale in a homewares shop. Did I pick it up just because it rhymed with the one I was reading? Yes, I did. Did I search my local library's catalogue for other books called *ive to find out how I could continue this theme? Yes, I did that too. It offered me a book called The Hive (out on loan) or two biographies called Clive. Fame and glory to the f-lister who can guess which two luminary Clives they were about. (No cheating!)
Anyway, this didn't need to be a book, really. An article at most. It's not bad, just overlong for what it says (which is that money isn't the only measure of success).
* The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable - Patrick Lencioni (2002) ★ ★
This was on the recommended reading book list for my subject. The content of this is okay, if you are interested in leading teams, but the book is too long for what it says, and also too cutesy. It's a little story about a woman who used to be a teacher, who is appointed CEO of a troubled company, and how she wins over her executives (except the one who resigns and the one she sacks for the good of the team). Meh. (I have now finished my subject, and won't have to read any more like this until next year. Huzzah!)
* The Sellout - Paul Beatty (2015) ★ ★ ★
Back to the Booker nominees, finally. This one is a satire about racial politics in America. The story is told by "Bonbon" Me, who lives in an area of Los Angeles known as Dickens. When Dickens is wiped off the map and no longer recognised as a distinct place, Bonbon decides to put it back. He begins by painting a border on the street, and then, seeing how well isolating the area has gone in building community pride, he decides to go back to the good old days, re-introducing slavery and segregated schools. So... yeah. It was bracing. Brilliantly written. I am white and not American, so I suspect a lot of the references in it went over my head, but still, it was not a comfortable read. Which is how it should be, I suppose.
One review I read afterwards described it as "not for the faint-hearted, or the light-hearted", which sounds about right.
This year, they are into weirdly glowing things. What would you do with these roses? Scare your child with this whimsical unicorn! The agapanthus is my least favourite flower, so this weather-resistant plastic and steel light is not doing anything for me. And this is only scraping the surface of glowing things. There are orchids and cherry blossoms and elephants and fairies and puppies and more.
I do quite like this pineapple lantern.
They have a carpet sweeper called the Hoky Power-Rotor, which is a terrible name for a product. Also they say: A Kitten in your Tree - guests will do a double take!. Meaning three kitten parts to arrange like a serial killer.
I must admit I would not say no to this dachshund trinket box.
Which brings us to: September books read
Here is the problem of doing these things monthly: it doesn't reflect the flow of real life. Cast your mind back to last month, when the last book I finished was called Drive. Now see what I followed that up with:
* Thrive - Arianna Huffington (2015) (abandoned)
That's right! I read rhyming books! What a wag I am.
I bought this book when I was in Melbourne in August, on sale in a homewares shop. Did I pick it up just because it rhymed with the one I was reading? Yes, I did. Did I search my local library's catalogue for other books called *ive to find out how I could continue this theme? Yes, I did that too. It offered me a book called The Hive (out on loan) or two biographies called Clive. Fame and glory to the f-lister who can guess which two luminary Clives they were about. (No cheating!)
Anyway, this didn't need to be a book, really. An article at most. It's not bad, just overlong for what it says (which is that money isn't the only measure of success).
* The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable - Patrick Lencioni (2002) ★ ★
This was on the recommended reading book list for my subject. The content of this is okay, if you are interested in leading teams, but the book is too long for what it says, and also too cutesy. It's a little story about a woman who used to be a teacher, who is appointed CEO of a troubled company, and how she wins over her executives (except the one who resigns and the one she sacks for the good of the team). Meh. (I have now finished my subject, and won't have to read any more like this until next year. Huzzah!)
* The Sellout - Paul Beatty (2015) ★ ★ ★
Back to the Booker nominees, finally. This one is a satire about racial politics in America. The story is told by "Bonbon" Me, who lives in an area of Los Angeles known as Dickens. When Dickens is wiped off the map and no longer recognised as a distinct place, Bonbon decides to put it back. He begins by painting a border on the street, and then, seeing how well isolating the area has gone in building community pride, he decides to go back to the good old days, re-introducing slavery and segregated schools. So... yeah. It was bracing. Brilliantly written. I am white and not American, so I suspect a lot of the references in it went over my head, but still, it was not a comfortable read. Which is how it should be, I suppose.
One review I read afterwards described it as "not for the faint-hearted, or the light-hearted", which sounds about right.