Forget Nothing by Jason Anspach & Michelle G Meyers (audio)

This well-acted audiobook is a good back story to an interesting character in the series. There were some fun, tantalizing clues to the "big mystery" that is being revealed too slowly, 4/5 Stars.

The Sandman Act III by Neil Gaiman and Dirk Maggs (audio)

I listened to the most popular audiobook on audible and was disappointed.  The graphic novel is not well-adapted to audio; the power of the images is poorly conveyed.  Many of the stories are not bad and would do well as theatre plays or sketches.  Audio is inappropriate. 3/5 Stars.

Remains by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole

Fun story, great characters, 5/5 Stars.

Tschick von Wolfgang Herrndorf

Die Geschichte ist spannend und anschaulich.  Die verschiedenen Charaktere sind lebendig beschrieben und eine Entwicklung durchlaufen. Das Buch hat mir sehr gut gefallen, 5/5 Sterne.

Tips for business writing

A wise friend of mine recently posted these simple tips for business writing.  I personally violate all of these rules frequently and needed Marc's reminder.

minimize dependences

One of the rare objective principles we try to apply to reorgs and org design is to minimize the required communication and lock-step dependencies each execution team requires to deliver value to end-users.  This empowerment is sometimes called the "independent executor model" within the rubric of coordination models.  Recently my wise friend Michael posted his own take on how to apply this model to existing product teams.  The key, as Michael points out is that teams should be self-reliant:

They ask, but never expect other teams to do work for them.

The Signal 2 by Joshua and Philipp Calvert

The series is getting much worse as the magic system devolves and the prepper lifestyle is glorified. 2/5 Stars.  I shall likely not read the next one.

Gateway by Frederik Pohl

The story is surprisingly good despite the terrible Freudian psychobabble, 3/5 Stars.

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

The master still has his mojo.  Put this one at the top of your stack.  5/5 Stars.

The Signal by Joshua T Calvert & Philipp Calvert

The plot, mystery, characters, and background "awe & wonder" writing remind me of early 20th century golden age science fiction that I loved growing up.  It was easy for me to suspend disbelief of the techno-babble magic system and put up with tedious "prepper" messaging to find out what would happen in both storylines.  I look forward to the next book in the series. 4/5 Stars.