136. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

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Briggs, Patricia. MoonCalled. New York, NY: Ace, 2006. Print.

288 pages

Reviewed by Jess d'Artagnan Love

Mercy Thompson is a shape shifter who can shift into coyote form. She lives next door to a pack of werewolves and makes a living as an auto mechanic for vampires. When her local pack is invaded by  rogue bunch of vampires and the pack leader, Adam’s, daughter is kidnapped, Mercy starts the process of solving the mystery and tracking down the kidnapped girl.

This book is whimsical, sexy, and well paced. I know a lot of my Christian readers have an issue with any kind of book that represents magic or the fantastical but interestingly, Mercy is portrayed as a Christian character. The werewolves, fae and other magical creates are seen as evolutionary more than anything. I found that an interesting world-building choice that may appeal to a Christian audience more readily than other fantasy novels.

There weren’t a lot of big questions asked or much exploration of major themes. Briggs is more interested in entertaining the reader than teaching them. If you want to read a book that doesn’t make you think to hard about life but still provides enough context to be good escapism, this is a great book for you.

Would I read it again? 

Yes. This was actually the second time I read the book as I’d like to re-read the series this year.

Recommended for

Readers who want some decent escapism.

Not Recommended for

Readers who desire a book with heavier themes.

Word Bank

Harridan p.6

Reticent p. 7

Sufference p. 10

Desultory p. 12

Limpid p. 49

Canted p. 55

Gracile p. 62

Quelling p. 96

Cozen p. 127

Anathema p. 129

Obstreperous p. 186

Vassalage p. 189

3 stars out of 5

Patricia Briggs' website: http://www.patriciabriggs.com/

Jennifer Lynn Barnes on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/40563.Patricia_Briggs

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135. Getting Things Done by David Allen

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Allen, David. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.

Shepard, Sara. Pretty Little Liars. New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2001. Print.

259 pages

Reviewed by Jessica d'Artagnan Love

This book was recommended to me numerous times by the driven, ambitious women in my life. They all swear by Allen’s method of organization and productivity. So, I added the book to my list and finally got around to reading it. Allen’s main purpose is to provide a productivity system that will allow you to focus so you don’t get random thoughts popping into your head about the things you need to be doing. Those random thoughts are distracting and decrease productivity and he claims his system will eliminate the distraction.

Honestly? This book is summed up in the first chapter. That is all you really need to read of it to understand and implement the system. It is a simple process that goes something like this: collect all your tasks, decide what needs to be done with those tasks, decide how you will do them, and do them. He offers some random interesting ideas like working from the bottom up—getting the easy stuff out of the way first so you can concentrate on the big things. He also has an interesting idea of having a “tickler file” system to organize your daily to-dos. The phrase “tickler file” kind of gave me the creeps, though. Aside from that, he basically describes a bullet journal system which I think works better than his exhaustive method.

I blame a lot of the problems with this book on the editor and publisher. Allen has some ideas that would work for a magazine article and that’s about it. In order to get a full book out of the concept, he had to squeeze all possible minutiae of the process out onto paper and it really felt like he was struggling to make word count because it was repetitive. A publisher saw a chance to make some money and jumped on it instead of producing something of higher quality.

Some of the things I will apply in my life from this book include his workflow chart for processing email, mail, and paperwork. I am also going to try out working from the "bottom up" by finishing the easy tasks first so they don't clutter my brain and I can focus on the big tasks with more clarity. We'll see how it goes!

Would I read it again? 

No.

Recommended for

If you’re not familiar with the bullet journal system this might be helpful to read in conjunction with information online about the basics of the bullet journal method. Read the first chapter fully and then feel free to pick and choose what you read of the book from there. 

Not Recommended for

Readers who are already organized. Those who use a bullet journal system.

Word Bank

·         None

2 star out of 5

David Allen’s website: https://gettingthingsdone.com/

David Allen on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1058.David_Allen

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