Ask A Manager: Work Stuff Book Club

Landing page for the AskAManager.org Book Club

Our first discussion is Friday, July 6th, about Alison's own newest book: Ask a Manager (ISBN: 9780399181818). I'll post a link to the comment thread once the weekend is done.

Our second discussion will be Friday, August 3rd, and with 6 voters in the poll, the winner is Thrive, by Arianna Huffington (ISBN: 9780804140867)

Our next poll for deciding on the September read (September 7th) is up here: https://doodle.com/poll/y2cvw3aqp26p5pc6 and will be linked in my user name on the comment thread.


Please continue to suggest titles or cateogories you'd like to read (falling under the loose umbrella of professional development or interest) in the comments here or there and I'll add them to the list!

Title List

All of Alison's Books

Body Language
Barbara and Allen Pease

The Captain Class: the hidden force that creates the world's greatest teams
Sam Walker

Coach the Person not the Problem
Chad Hall

The Coaching Habit
Michael Stanier

The Confidence Code
Katty Kay and Claire Shipman

Confident Digital Content: master the fundamentals of online video, design, writing, and social media
Adam Waters

Contagious: why things catch on (suggested by Anxiety Anon, currently on September poll)
Jonah Berger

The Courage to be Disliked
Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

The Culture Map: breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business (currently on September poll)
Erin Meyer

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (for October poll, suggested by ThursdaysGeek)
Patrick Lencioni

The Four Tendencies
Gretchen Rubin

Gift of Fear
Gavin de Becker

Great At Work: How Top Performers do less, work better, and achieve more
Morten Hansen

The Gutsy Girl Handbook
Kate White

The Happy, Healthy Nonprofit (currently on September poll; suggested by Victoria Nonprofit)
Beth Kanter and Aliza Sherman

How to be an Imperfectionist
Stephen Guise

How to be Miserable: 40 strategies you already use
Randy Paterson

How to Talk to Anyone
Leil Lowndes

How to Win Friends and Influence People
Dale Carnegie

Influence (for later poll, suggested by Viola E)
Robert Cialdini

Leaders Eat Last
Simon Sinek

Lean In (suggested by PhyllisB)
Sheryl Sandburg

The Like Switch (by an FBI agent about much better options for getting info out of people than "interrogating" them)
Jack Schafer

Mastering Civility: a manifesto for the workplace
Christine Porath

Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics
Dan Harris, Jeff Warren, Carlye Adler

No Asshole Rule (for later poll, suggested by PhyllisB)
Robert Sutton

No Sweat Public Speaking: how to develop, practice, and deliver
Fred Miller (no votes on August poll, we'll try it again later)

Not Nice: stop people pleasing, staying silent, feeling guilty...
Aziz Gazipura

Off the Clock: feel less busy while getting more done
Laura Vanderkam

The Power of Habit
Charles Duhigg

Predictably Irrational (on September poll, suggested by Emily S)
Dan Ariely

Radical Candor: How to be a kick-ass boss without losing your humanity (on September poll, seconded by Victoria Nonprofit)
Kim Scott

7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Stephen Covey

The Silent Language of Leaders
Carol Kinsey Goman

Smarter Better Faster
Charles Duhigg

Speaking Out: A 21st Century handbook for women and girls
Tara Moss

The Speed of Trust (for a later poll, suggested by Sami)
Stephen M R Covey

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
Mark Manson

Talk like TED
Carmine Gallo

Thrive
Arianna Huffington (suggested by Emily S., for AUGUST 3, 2018 Discussion)

Thinking Fast and Slow (for later poll, sugggested by Viola E)
Daniel Kahneman

Verbal Judo (updated)
George Thompson

What Every Body is Saying
Joe Navarro

When to Jump: if the job you have isn't the life you want
Mike Lewis

Winning the Talent War through Neurodiversity *not published yet*
William Rothwell and Jonathan Zion  (suggested by Good, Cheap, or Soon, Pick Two)

Work Clean (for later poll; suggested by LilySparrow)
Dan Charmas

Writing Your Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day (for later poll, suggested by Extra Vitamins)
Joan Bolker

Tuesday Storytime AND Summer Reading: Sound Science!

For storytime, a trio of "school" themed books featuring music or noisemaking. For the summer reading program, a visit from Miss Frizzle, who also read Max Found Two Sticks during her fantastic science-filled program.

Storytime:
Violet's Music
Angela Johnson, illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith
ISBN: 0803727402
Violet lives breathes dances walks sings and exudes music - which is fine, and generally satisfying, but there's no one else at school who really understands her passion. They all have their own different passions. So Violet starts to look for her people, and when she finds some others who REALLY dig music, they all validate her previous passion and vague loneliness, and then happily start up a band.

Music Class Today!
David Weinstone, illustrated by Vin Vogel
ISBN: 9780374341311
A boisterous music class is kept on a gentle schedule by a bearded teacher, while a shy/introverted/sensitive child hovers around the edges, unsure about all this noise and commotion, until they gather their courage and happily join in the fun. Very short, but very inclusive and positive look at a classroom setting.

Ruby Sings the Blues
Niki Daly
ISBN: 1582349959
I've used this one before, because I love Ruby, with her volume control permanently set to HIGH. She's just excited and happy and wants to be heard, which drives everyone at school and home absolutely bonkers, until someone suggests music lessons, and Ruby discovers Jazz and Blues, and puts her BIG voice to excellent (and finally appreciated) use.

Tuesday Storytime AND Summer Reading! Dance Party!

Our summer reading program was a blast this week, with pulsing african drums and all sorts of great encouraging yells to our dancers and kid (and adult) volunteers. The troupe was amazing, had lots of energy, and was unfailingly kind and professional, even when confronted with about 80 kids and toddlers.

But that's not what we're here for: BOOKS!

Dancing books are so much fun. There are so many, and I do them so often, that I try to find something new to read when I can, rather than recycle ones that are my own personal favorites. This time I ended up with a favorite from a couple years back, a really great read that I'd enjoyed before but never used in storytime, and a delightful newcomer who just stole my heart.

The Newcomer:
Dance is for Everyone
Andrea Zuill
Ballet class isn't quite the same when an alligator joins the practice sessions. But they name their new student Tanya (after the school's prima ballerina founder) and everything goes pretty well once they figure out how to deal with language barriers and very large and swishy tails. In fact, it goes so well that they create a piece specifically for their recital and it goes perfectly! But Tanya doesn't come back to class afterwards. After a few disheartening weeks, the class gets a note (you'll love the note) and they head over to the nearest swamp for an encore performance of their recital. Really cute, and a good match up with Lyle Crocodile or the snake one with the old lady that I can't remember at the moment.

Older Cutie:
Everybunny Dance
Ellie Sandall
This one is very sweet and cool because it totally subverts the fox and bunnies thing, and I love it when the kids are all shook when the fox appears, and then slowly grin and get into the joke when it all turns out all right. An excellent plot and twist and finale for such a short book.

Great (non-storytime) Read:
I Got the Rhythm
Connie Schofield-Morrison, illustrated by George Morrison
Our unnamed sassy AA protagonist girl sashays down the streets, into the parks, and into the hearts of literally everyone she meets as she emits a cool funky beat with every move she makes. Eventually the beats compose into a dance, and there's glimpses of like an Enchanted (Disney live action princess movie, it's great, go watch it) sort of dance montage where you wonder if the rats and roaches are also cutting the rug under everyone's feet, and then it's all faded back and she's left alone sashaying back into the next chapter. No plot worth speaking of, but style and moxie for miles.

Tuesday Storytime AND Summer Reading!

Two-fer posts all summer long, aren't you lucky!

Last week started off with a literal bang, with a great SRP performance by a local magician and musician who did a delightful and very well choreographed performance using a lot of classic music cues. Very clever and thoughtful and the music was integrated into every part of the performance except perhaps the magic rabbit that turned into a real rabbit for the kids to pet, but I'm going to overlook that because soft cuddly rabbit. But enough about him, this blog is about the books.

For the storytime earlier in the day, I focused on general music books to set the mood: later programs have more specific themes (dance, jazz, biographies) so I wanted to keep any of those back to make a connection between those programs.

I ended up with an old favorite, a new classic, and a fun little cutie. 

New Classic:
88 Instruments
Chris Barton
ISBN: maybe later
So this kid goes into a music shop and there are 88 instruments for him to choose from; which one does he want to take lessons with? We wander past the strings, triangles, electric guitar, are dreadfully tempted by the drum set, but then he discovers the piano, which (amazing coincidence not at all contrived by the writer) has 88 keys ALSO! And once he masters them all, he's going to play beautiful music, and then perhaps pick another new instrument to learn after all.

New Cutie:
Rock and Roll Soul
Author: hmmmm
ISBN: reply hazy
I don't normally like "scribbly" art, but I do want to give all different art styles and approaches a fighting chance, and the bubbly happy beat of this book was too much to pass up. I feel like there was a bit of a story (girl is going to perform in her school's talent show) but there really isn't any urgency or flow to that, just a set of spreads of her bopping and rocking out with her bad self and her amazing self esteem. Really fun.

Old Favorite:
My Family Plays Music
Author: I should know this but it's summer reading and a tuesday so I can barely remember I need to buy cat food tonight.
ISBN: not a chance
This is my "platonic ideal" book when I want to show people what diversity in picture books looks like. All these people are family, and they are all different, and all different-looking, and they all love each other and NOTHING in the story references their color or their nationality AT ALL. It's beautiful and I love it and it's nearly perfect. The narrator is a young girl, and she plays along with a VERY large musical family in lots of venues, picking just the right percussion instrument to fit in with a dizzying array of differing musical styles and traditions. Clean, clear, crisp, straightforward, no explanations or apologies. Just a family who loves music.

Tuesday Storytime: Like a Lion

Three very nice ones (one that I've been holding back for a loooooong time (whoops) so I'm very happy that they all read beautifully and were well-received.

You are a Lion and other fun Yoga poses
Taeeun Yoo
ISBN: 9780399256028
Really cute and non-jargony intro to the concept of yoga through some basic poses. I'd heard of downward dog and cat pose, and of Mountain, but I had never heard of lions or snakes or frogs before. Regardless, the kids enjoyed posing, and everyone had fun guessing which animal the poses would end up being.

Quick as a Cricket
Audrey Wood, illustrated by Don Wood
ISBN: 0859531511
Classic read, perfect here. One kid was so taken with the idea that he repeated every line back out-loud, word-and-intonation perfect. It was a little weird, but kindof fun at the same time. I always like it when a book seems to resonate well with an individual kid - those are the memories that happy readers and library-users are built on.

Lion Lessons
Jon Agee
ISBN: 9780803739086
A cute kid is taking "Lion Lessons" from an experienced lion in his town. Only seven lessons to get your official lion certificate! But things don't go so smoothly; from roars to sprinting to food choices - the kid isn't doing too well. But when the chips are down, our wanna-be lion roars into action to protect someone small, and proves that he really did learn his lion lessons.