White Noise

I’m in the “reading mode” at this point in the academic year, almost 1 a day.  Today’s book was White Noise by Don DeLillo. The book follows the life of college professor, Jack Gladney, who makes his name in the academic circles as the creator and teacher of Hitler studies.  The first section of the book introduces the reader to his family (wife and kids) and also to his life as a faculty member.  In the second section, Gladney and his family are running from a “toxic airborne event” in which the local government mandates all community members to leave the area based on toxic clouds bringing harmful air to the area.  Gladney and his family leave for the quarantine area, but on the way Gladney has to leave the safe confines of his car to fill the car with gas and later learns that he was exposed to the deadly air mass.    In the last section, the reader learns that Gladney’s wife (Babette) is having an affair with a doctor who may have created a drug that allows people to live longer, as Babette is afraid of dying,  and she is provided the pill, ‘Dylar,’ to help her overcome the fear of dying.  Additionally, Gladney is driven to attempt to kill the doctor, after his conversation with a colleague about his own fear of dying.  His colleague encourages him that being a ‘killer’ might actually help him to live a fuller life.  Gladney decides to experiment with this idea and plots to kill the doctor.  While in the end he shoots the doctor, he is not successful and the doctor lives.  The end of the book adds a strange twist when Gladney and his family go to a highway overpass, contemplate life while watching his son ride a bicycle through traffic, and lives!  The story has some bizarre futuristic thinking, but does raise the age-old question, when and how do I die, what does the after-life hold, and the fact that at some level we all face death.  The book was clearly impacted by the nuclear age and the fear of living life outside of ourselves.  In many ways it seemed life a few different books, not a great deal of linear thinking.  There is some absurdist elements, which also allows the reader to suspend their beliefs. The book asks the ultimate question about our morality and how fear can affect how we respond to the various inputs can impact an unexpected outcome.  I enjoyed the characters and the manner in which the author wrote the story.  The Hitler piece reinforced the impact of the negative and how we all have some level of being captured in this life.  While I liked the writing and characters, the story was a bit unconnected… I guess that what absurdist want us to feel.   

The Alliance (extra book)

I always love when RAs come back with a really enthusiastic “you gotta read this book”…. As happened when the stellar Samir came by to encourage me to read The Alliance, by Reid Hoffman (who is the cofounder and chairman of LinkedIn), and two other colleagues.  The book captures the change in relationship between employer and employee.  Gone are the days where an individual devotes all of their life to one company, yet how will a company get the loyalty from an employee, albeit a shorter stay at the company then for the days when a pension kept people there forever.  Hoffman and his colleagues share how employment in the networked age needs to change.  As noted in the book, “the old model of employment was a good fit for an era of stability”…. Yup, those days are definitely gone!  Businesses need a new model that builds a framework for mutual trust, investment, and benefits.  Think about how much money is spent on training of staff nowadays.  How does a company leverage that relationship long-term?  They create … the “alliance!”  Supervisors need to create honest conversations about each other’s goals and aspirations.  Hoffman suggests in this era of constant turn-over that employees should be completing a “tour of duty” which is a letter of commitment that companies should have to an individual.  These “commitments” can last 6 months to 5 years.  There are different type of tours, such as, rotational (where employees work in different areas of a company), transformational (high level impact on the company), and foundational (where permanence is possible with the company).  The book shares how LinkedIn uses the model described above.  Additionally, the authors share how “constant conversations” and review of the long-term goals of the individual are critical to the success of both the company and the employee.  Finally, there are some really neat ideas of how a company can have long-term connections with employees after they leave the firm, of course only if they leave on good terms, through an alumni network (much like higher education does for students who graduate).  The book also contains copies of some forms that might be helpful for anyone looking to implement this type of ‘alliance’ with their staff.  In many ways it seems like some common sense approach to employee relations.  It is too bad that most companies don’t seem to do that for their staff, their most important commodity.  Some good common sense approaches and worth the read.  Should be able to finish this one in a few hours for sure.  Thanks Samir for giving me some good things to think about.

The Bitch in Your Head: How to Finally Squash Your Inner Critic

For any “life coach” reading this RA Favorite book adds to the collection of referral books for clients.  The Bitch in Your Head: How to Finally Squash Your Inner Critic by Jacqueline Horner Plumez captures much of what I have learned over the years… we are our own worst critics.   In many ways, Plumez’s book reminds me of Barbara Sher’s book (I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was) as she is attempting to teach individuals where there barrier in life exists…. In our own head.  More times than not we are our own worst enemies.  Plumez uses the “”bitch concept – our inner self is always bitching about some weakness we have… from our appearance (weight/beauty), to not being worthy of the person we are attracted, to being jealous of others,” there is always reasons why we can’t move forward, and we are the ones who constantly have the inner “chat” that stops us from meeting our potential.  What I like about the book are the stories shared from clients that help illustrate each “bitch” and Plumez provides easy ways to start to address “fighting back those bitches”.  One of the other things the author does is as the book moves forward it addresses life in a linear fashion, ending with the bitch in our older years, and even when we are dead.   Plumez does suggest that there may be a better word for the “bitch” she describes each chapter.  This is a pretty simple book that is all about self-improvement and how we get to a place of a quiet mind and faith and comfortability in ourselves.  Thanks Dr. Plumez for providing yet another resource for your readers.  Life is hard, but when you have the support and resource like this book it can certainly help you focus and believe that anything is possible.