"Wayward" - Blake Crouch

This book pissed me off and left me with an unpleasant taste in my mouth.  "The Pines" was one of my favorite books last year.  I loved it and have recommended it more times than I can count.  I couldn't wait when I saw the sequel was coming out.  I should have known.  I tried reading several of Crouch's books after "The Pines" and didn't really like them. BUT, I thought he's going back to Wayward Pines.   Upcoming spoilers for "The Pines".  Consider yourself warned.

The big reveal at the end of the "The Pines", is that our world has been destroyed.  It is hundreds of years into the future and the town of Wayward Pines and the outpost in the mountain are the only pockets of humanity left.  Ethan Burke, the main character from the previous book has been told the truth and is the new sheriff.  He knows it all know.  The town is wired.  Every aspect of life is under surveillance.  Bathrooms, bedrooms, everything is all wired for sight and sound being reviewed up in the mountain.  All inhabitants have an imbedded tracker to mark their locations as well.   All of this makes you feel uncomfortable and in need of a shower (in the dark).  Which is the point I suppose as Ethan is now in charge of upholding the status quo. Out in what's left of the world, the "Abbies" are an ever present threat that the outpost is monitoring under the control of evil mastermind David Pilcher, who is known to the town as their psychiatrist.   Crouch spends a lot of time with Pilcher's character.  I'm still not sure if we are supposed to understand him or hate him.  Whatever, I gave up.

After a very slow opening where Ethan contemplates all that sucks in the world, he finds a dead body.  GASP!! How does that happen in this town.  Not just any dead body, she's a spy for Pilcher.  At this point I did get engaged again.  The mystery.  The who, what, why of it all.  Then we get the end when Ethan figures it all out.  Ethan goes for broke, Pilcher throws a tantrum and it ends. Right there, cliffhanger city. Cue the music.

Well no not really, because you know what happened and is happening.  Crouch forgot to finish the book.  It is to be continued in the third book of the series.  My problem is that this book isn't finished.  Each book in a series should stand on it's own and this one doesn't.  It really, really doesn't.  I was so disappointed I would have thrown it across the room, except it was on my Kindle. I realize that I had extremely high expectations for this book and that factored into my reading experience.  I can't recommend this book.  I really wanted to, but I can't.

"Wool" ~ Hugh Howey

"Wool" tops my list of must reads for the year. This book is amazing.  The book opens with a group of people living in an underground silo.  Why?  Who are they?  Why are they there?  "Wool" was initially released as a short stand alone story.  Readers demanded more and Mr. Howey obliged.  The rest of the story was released over six months.  Thankfully I found it after it was finished.  Waiting to find out  what happens would have driven me crazy.

The worst crime you can commit  in the Silo wanting to go outside.  The punishment, they let you.  In this post apocalypse world, the Silo's inhabitants have one view of the world.  The screens on the top most level showing a desolate world of brown.  Nobody knows why, they just know they can't survive out there.  The story opens with the sheriff stating that he wants to go outside.  This means he will be sent outside to clean.  The will put him in a self contained suit, strap wool pads to his hands to clean the camera feed sensors and let him go.  Nobody makes it very far before their suit disintegrates.  And everybody cleans before they die.  Every...single...person.  Even the ones who swore they wouldn't.

You spend the first part of the book with the sheriff, who's wife was sent to clean three years ago. Then you shift to the mayor and the deputy sheriff as they journey through the silo to hire the next sheriff.  Howey's created an amazingly believable world.  It makes sense and functions well.  You see the how, but again you just can't quite put your finger on the why.  The third shift takes you to Juliette, the new sheriff.  I love Juliette.  As a mechanic and engineer, she's looking for the pieces that don't fit.  That don't make sense.  She's us, the reader, at this point and actively taking us with her as she tries to figure it out.

 And after that?  I'm not going to tell you.  Go read the book.  All I know is that I couldn't put it down.  I finished it and bought the next two books in the series.  Shift provides the backstory for the Silo as it bounces between the past and present.  Dust brings it all together.  Did I like them as much as "Wool"?  Almost.  I had some story issues and some character issues, but over all, I highly recommend the whole series. Why did I like "Wool" better?  "Wool" is that magical first experience before you have anything to compare it to.  Before there is history, context and explanations.  Did I say go read it?  Go read it.

"The Field Guide to Understanding Human Error" - Sidney Dekker

This is an odd book for me to review, because it's a book about accident investigation.  I'm on the Safety Committee at work and they sent me to a big conference.  One of the presenters is the head of the safety program at 3M.  When he recommended this book, I thought we should check it out.  I never thought I would enjoy it. I certainly never thought I'd be so passionate about it that I would walk around quoting it or talking about on the phone in a casual conversation.  Yet that's what happened.  I spent 20 minutes straight talking about this book to a friend while we were shopping.  WHO does that with a book about accident investigation?  Me, apparently.

Mr. Dekker's premise is how do you investigate accidents without blaming the employees. He asks, "Is human error the cause or a symptom of trouble?" To him, "human error" is the starting point not the end.  This was intriguing to me because he does not believe that complex systems are inherently safe and everything would be fine if we could just get rid of those "bad apples" who mess it up.  My brain immediately started jibbering "but, but, but...that's WRONG"!  There are bad apples! If we just got rid of them, forced them to follow the rules, invented new rules, etc. life would be wonderful and we could live in our shiny, happy perfect world. Mr. Dekker has a strong background in aviation accident investigation.  He also writes in a clear, easy to follow style that makes sense to me.  He makes two statements that resonate with me and he makes them both in the first chapter.

• "You have to assume that nobody comes to work to do a bad job."
• "You have to understand why what people did made sense to them at the time."

The first statement got me thinking. Nobody goes to work and thinks I'm going to crash this car, or give wrong medication or electrocute myself.  Most of us show up and try to get through the day.

"People are doing reasonable things given their point of view and focus of attention; their knowledge of the situation; their objectives and the objectives of the lager organization they work for. In normal work that goes on in normal organizations, safety is never the only concern, or even the primary concern.  Systems do not exist to be safe, the exist to make money; to render a service; provide a product.  Besides safety there are multiple other objectives: pressures to produce; to not cost an organization unnecessary money; to be on time; to get results; to keep customers happy. People's sensitivity to these objectives, and their ability to juggle them in parallel with demands for safety, is one reason they were chosen for the jobs, and why they are allowed to keep them."

The second statement is even more crucial to me.  If it made sense to one person, odds are good it will make sense to someone else. Chapter three is called "The Hindsight Bias".   You've heard that saying hindsight is 20/20?  Well, not in Mr. Dekker's world.  Hindsight is the wrong place to be.  You need to follow the events from inside with the knowledge that was available at the time.

"Hindsight changes how we look at past decision making.  It turns real convoluted complexity into a simple linear story; a binary decision to err or not to err."

As he also states, to these people, in these situations, the outcome was not known or they would have done something different.

So what do you do?  How do you change your thinking and patterns.  Not easily.  This book is full of so much information, but I found something in every chapter that translated to my work environment. He isn't saying that people do not bear any responsibility for their actions or don't make mistakes. I have to say this was one of the most compelling books I read this year.  If non fiction is your thing, or understanding systems, I highly recommend this book.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking ~ Susan Cain

So it's been a while since I posted here, 8 months, but whose counting right? Introvert that I am, I was so excited to read this book and am glad I did.  I actually read it last summer, which will be a good thing because I won't bore you with minutia, just the stuff that stuck with me. 

First this book is not a casual read.  It's dense, well researched and full of studies and statistics.  They are all interesting studies and you learn a lot.  One I found interesting is how our society has shifted to a cult of personality, something that heavily favors the extroverts.  How many moons ago the personality traits we prized most highly were things like honesty, loyalty, working hard.  That shifted around the time of Andrew Carnegie, with his "How To Win Friends and Influence People" mentality, to things such as likability, presentation, and charm. Several dealt with being able to scientifically measure the differences between an introvert and an extroverts brains.  I thought it was pretty cool information.  The second thing all this information did, was layout some solid information on why introverts and extroverts and can have such different physical, emotional, and behavioral responses to the same situations.  Again, cool!  There are reasons I march to the off beat of the weird drummer over in left field.  There were some odd bits the seemed off.  The section about the Asian students comes to mind.  Overall, though I did enjoy the book, with one drawback.

I never did find the "Power" mentioned in the title.  Unless it's know and owning your introvertedness.  (Yes, my spellcheck is telling me that is not a word, but I don't care.)  If it is, that didn't really help me.  I know I'm an introvert.  I was looking for a "how-to" of sorts.  Coping strategies and concrete actions.  I didn't find that in this book and I really wanted too.  I found this book interesting and contemplate reading it again.  I probably wont, but it will stay on the bookshelf.

Final thought, Years ago my mom gave me a book called "The Introvert Advantage" by Marti Olsen Laney.  If your looking for book that helps you cope as an introvert, that is the book for you.