December 10, 2011

Last book read: The Widow’s War by Sally Gunning

All-time favorite books include: The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Give: The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart. This little-known nonfiction book written in 2002 takes place during the author’s time as an American expatriate and details the relationship he develops with the owner of Desforges Pianos, a shop he passes by as he walks his children to school every day. Carhart also rediscovers a childhood love of the piano and relays the history of the instrument. I found this book engrossing because the author actively sought out a friendship with the owner — who was not at all friendly at first — based on a sense that a good story lay inside the shop. I lent this book to a friend who is widely read but hadn't heard of it and she loved it.

Get: Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy by Caroline Kennedy and Michael Beschloss. Following the release of the book in September, I listened to snippets of Jacqueline Kennedy's conversations with historian Arthur Schlesinger online. Taped in the days following her husband's death, the conversations are an intimate peek into the life of the First Lady and our country at a time of great change. It would be a treat to receive the book and 8-CD set and to hear more from Kennedy.

 

Last book read: Mandela’s Way Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love and Courage, by Richard Stengel

All-time favorite books include: Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind, Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds

Give: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. It grabbed me by the throat from the start at the description of a young girl saying to her young friend Steve: “So does that mean your parents didn’t want you?” It’s a compelling study of how one person came to stand at the intersection of science and humanities, knew it, and changed the world forever. 
 
Get: Give me an afternoon in my jammies with a warm blankie, a snowstorm blowing and a good cup of tea. Then, take me away with a romance novel by Stephanie Laurens or Mary Balogh.  OK, I’m shallow.  But this does it for me!

TEKLA SZYMANSKI

Last book read: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

All-time favorite books include: I’ll pick the first book that made me forget the world around me: The Lord of the Rings. I envy anyone who reads this trilogy for the first time. 

Give: The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (to be given together with Hemingway's A Moveable Feast and a DVD of Woody Allen's movie Midnight in Paris). If you ever wanted to be transported to 1920s–1930s Paris, this book is it! The author makes Hemingway's first wife come to life in such a vibrant and believable way that you have to pinch yourself to not believe that this is an autobiography. It is not only a tip of the hat to the beginnings of women's lib and emancipation but also an ode to writing and living out loud. Hemingway's struggles with his craft will make any of your writing assignments seem manageable.
 
Get: American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodward. I moved to the United States from Europe in 1995, and I am still puzzled by the stark cultural, social and political differences between the 50 states and their relative independence. It seems that these differences are so profound because they are rooted in history. It is a wonder that anything gets done here on a federal level...or does it?
 
Tekla Szymanski is a multilingual writer, editor 
and content strategist and managing editor of nywici.org

DEANNA UTROSKE

Last book read: Knowing Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You're Worth by Mika Brzezinski

All-time favorite books include: Parisian Chic: A Style Guide by Ines de la Fressange with Sophie Gachet

Give: Women, Work & the Art of Savoir Faire: Business Sense & Sensibility by Mireille Guiliano. Full of stellar career advice — in Guiliano's lovely conversational cadence — for professional women at any career stage, Women, Work & the Art of Savoir Faire is a great gift for savvy colleagues and our fellow New York Women in Communications Inc. members.
 
Get: Emily Post's Etiquette, 18th Edition: Manners for a New World by Peggy Post, Anna Post, Lizzie Post and Daniel Post Senning. Because manners matter! And, here Emily's great-grand children cover etiquette from the conventional to the digital. With Emily Post's Etiquette, 18th Edition, I will be well equipped to choose when to let my rustic, Montana roots show and when to let the more refined me shine through.
 
Deanna Utroske is copyeditor and proofreader and a founding editor of
Films for the Feminist Classroom, an online journal of reviews, interviews, and essays

ROSALIND DESHAZOR

Last book read: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

All-time favorite book: The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

Give: The Daily Book of Positive Quotations by Linda Picone contains daily inspirational quotes from some of the world's most influential thinkers. Deep thoughts are shared with the intention of sharing inspiration, encouragement and humor. Each quotation is followed by a few short discussion paragraphs.
 
Get: Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. Value innovation and creation of unknown market space will be the driving force behind the survival and sustainability of global businesses and/or industry sectors. Steve Jobs was the “king” of value innovation and product development; he was an expert at creating value for his customers and for the Apple, Inc. business. Steve Jobs was a genius at creating untapped new markets and business models for Apple, Inc.
 
Rosalind DeShazor is a full-time executive MBA student
studying global management at Fordham University

Last book read: Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad

All-time favorite book: Grace Paley’s short story collection, Enormous Changes At The Last Minute 

Give: 99 Ways to Tell A Story by Matt Madden. It’s a hilarious, brilliant visual homage to Raymond Queneau’s 1947 creative writing classic, Exercises in Style.  Like Queneau, Madden tells a brief almost non-story but spins it 99 different ways — in eight frames (or one), as a map, as a graph, as a paranoid religious tract, from the dark interior of a refrigerator. I insist, I’m a serious reader: I don’t do graphic novels. No, I mean, I didn’t do graphic novels. I’m hooked. You’ll be too.
 
Get: Thinking, Fast And Slow by Daniel Kahneman. It’s a lively tour of how we think, and (according to the Amazon blurb) exposes “the extraordinary capabilities — and also the faults and biases — of fast thinking” and reveals “the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behavior.”  Kahneman, a psychologist, won the Nobel Prize in 2002 — for economics. That his is also a book that’s rapidly hitting all Best Books of 2011 list clinches it for this Tipping Point geek who’s always wondering why people go this way or that — whether we’re talking life partners, detergent or health care policy.