<i>45 Things You Do that Drive your Boss Crazy and How to Avoid Them </i> by Anita Bruzzese

This book was recommended by a career blog for 20-somethings. After my own recent experience of not really understanding what bosses generally want out of employees, I thought it might be a useful read. I was correct. On the same trip to the library, I also picked up Work 101 by Elizabeth Freedman (Ms. Freedman found it necessary to include MBA after her name, which gives a sense of the intended audience for this book).

Work 101 was recommended by the same blog. It focuses almost exclusively on how to behave in the super-corporate setting of trading companies, ad-firms and other places where an MBA is the currency. As a result the advice is all given in this context and it is hard to suss out the information that is relevant to me in my engineering-centric world.

45 Things, on the other hand, looks more fundamentally at problems that occur when people are in subordinate relationships. Most of the recommendations are common sense---use correct spelling in your emails, don't lie, don't argue about politics or religion at work---but are good to be reminded of. Others were suggestions that weren't obvious to myself---watch who you hang out with at work, as bad attitudes can easily rub off, how to stand up to bullies---but make sense now that I've read them.

Overall, what I learned was:

• Be consistent.
  
• Don't be too weird.
  
• Be respectful all the time.
  
• Think for yourself.
  
• Be nice.
  

I'd definitely recommend 45 Things for anyone who, like myself, doesn't always "get" a lot of human interaction stuff, but can learn to. Work 101 is best left for those looking to climb the corporate ladder.

<i>The Bonfire of the Vanities</i> by Tom Wolfe

I had trouble believing this book was set in the 1980s for about the first 300 pages. Wolfe's descriptions and people seemed out of the 1950s or 60s. It wasn't until a character was said to have AIDS that it really became clear to me. From then on I was able to place the story in the correct temporal context.

I struggled a bit with the outcome of the story. Despite the NYC that Wolfe was trying to show where the old-boys-club is breaking down, I have a significant amount of trouble believing that its true. Wolfe painted money---or having money---as being fundamentally useless if your crime takes place in the Bronx, but I would think, even in such a case as described in this book that money would be able to get the individual out of trouble. It may not be legal, it may be underhanded, but it seems more likely for an anonymous rich man (not Paris Hilton) to buy his way out.

I was frustrated by Sherman's lack of a backbone in doing the right thing: going to the cops when it first happened. Wolfe had to put "the other woman" in the car with him, or else Sherman *would have* gone to the cops, as he was one who believed in and respected authority. I was still, though, frustrated with the guilt that he felt, but I guess the situation was intended to show: although Sherman was a bear with bonds he couldn't stand up to himself otherwise.

At the end Sherman is able to break through that barrier, but it seems a bit inauthentic to me: I can't believe demonstrators would be allowed in the courtroom. That may have a modern bias based on the current security checkpoints. Aside from that, the judge and the jury are intended to decide based on the facts, not on the emotion of the crowd.

Wolfe's writing in some respects remind me of Charles Dickens. Excessive detail that makes you wonder if he is getting paid by the word. Wolfe also uses his metaphors over and over again so you understand *quite clearly* that the Bronx courthouse is an island fortress. He does carry the reader along on a brisk ride, and I was able to stay reasonably engaged with the characters throughout the book.

The only other books of Wolfe's I've read are non-fiction. Looking back, I rated both of those---The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and Hooking Up---well and have memories of liking each. Based on that, I would have to say that I like Wolfe's non-fiction better than his fiction.

5/10

<i>Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things</i> by William McDonough and Michael Braungart

I like the material of this book---both the content and the material the pages were made of. The entire book is made of PET. As Dave said, you can read it in the tub. I never took advantage of that property.

The book is made out of PET to demonstrate a new idea in design (the design of everything---products, houses, cars, rugs, etc.) where the item when "used up" is not "thrown away" or downcycled (the authors' replacement term for recycling since most products that are recycled do not become products of the same quality of the original since the materials being recycled degrade on each cycle), but is instead completely reused in the same product it appeared in originally. Or the material becomes a "technical nutrient"---a material that took a lot of time and energy to extract originally and therefor is valuable if it can be maintained. With most current materials this is not possible due to chemicals used in processing. It turns out not to be very good for one to wear a shirt made out of old plastic bottles due to the chemicals used in bottle making---they were never intended to be worn against the skin.

The authors propose that designers consider this as they come up with product and choose materials and processes that are appropriate for long-term reuse. I like this idea, but I see it as very difficult to actually change, as even when pilot tests are run in large companies and prove these ideas out, the inertia of the management chain makes it very disheartening to think about.

The book is well written and easy to read. I like the brightness of the PET pages as well. The biggest fault I see with the book is that it doesn't give much of a call to action. Nothing really tells me what I can do as a consumer to improve the situation.

7/10