Finished (Paper Book) - "Are You Smart Enough To Work at Google" - William Poundstone

As a book of clever problems and puzzles, I liked "Are You Smart Enough To Work at Google" by William Poundstone.  Many of the problems presented would have left me in a coma, but going through the answers, there did seem to be certain ways to step back and examine the tenets of the problem, some of which you can actually take strides to solve.

However, as a book about HR and hiring practices, the book actually left me depressed.  I've never had a great love of HR interviewing techniques, as they all seem so idiosyncratic, an often are based only on applicants proving that they respect the hiring process.

From my view, from both sides of the table, I consider interviews an examination of whether or not the applicant and the corporation are a mutual fit - a two-way street.  As such, there should be a level of openness and honesty in the conversation, with the HR role, of course, making sure that the applicant has the required background skills/knowledge (largely gained from the resume and work history), but primarily focusing the interviews on the much more important "fit" characteristics.  Excellent candidates who expect to work in a team environment won't work out well in an isolated environment and vice-versa.  Highly political environments favour some candidate profiles over others.

Doing problems of the type explored in Poundstone's book merely shows that HR folk don't have any science to fall back on.  Their real value of assessing candidates on fit/personality and making sure that processes are fair to candidates (e.g. not swayed by friendships or biases) is a key role, but doesn't seem to be one that HR folk hang their hats on.  Doing "trick questions" may be fun, and in some cases may provide some illumination on particular personality characteristics (e.g. frustration tolerance, ability to deal with incomplete instructions), but these can be dealt with more honestly and directly through more conventional means.

I fully understand that Google has many more applicants than it can possibly deal with, but doing an unreliable selection methodology seems quite "un-Googly".

Finished (Paper Book) - "The Eleventh Plague" - Jeff Hirsch

My daughter ordered "The Eleventh Plague" as part of her interest in dystopian worlds ("City of Embers" books and "The Hunger Games" books).  As she took a break from this book, I picked it up (I liked the "Embers" and "Hunger" books, along with the old favourite "1984" by Orwell).

I can't say I got too much out of this book.  It was fairly typical scavengers and isolated pods of "normalcy" - nothing particularly unique or surprising.  The "City of Embers" had the whole idea that as generations went by, they didn't even realize they were underground - "Hunger Games" had the political realities and the forced Games themselves to drive home issues.

"Eleventh Plague" suffered from the main character not being defined well enough to have any deep feelings for his motivations.  Further, the main confrontation, and the lead-in causes were weak and childish.  The setting could have led to a more complex and meaningful confrontation (e.g. making the "leader family" more evil, which would have required more events in the book, or making the precipitating event more substantial - as it was, a childish prank caused a major repercussion).

In all, the elements of the book were OK, but the balancing was off - the familiarity with some key characters was lacking, so some of the power of the story was lost, and the town, which seemed idyllic, was apparently (and inexplicably) so unstable, that one event on one home resulted in a war-response.

Not high on my recommendation list, but I'm not particularly the target audience for the book.

Finished (E-Reader): "Under the Dome: A Novel" - Stephen King

As I had re-kindled my interest in Stephen King with "11/22/63" I decided to e-read "Under the Dome".  Like all SK novels, it does read well - you are compelled to find out what the next chapter holds.

The basic premise is that a small town in Maine suddenly finds itself locked under an impenetrable, clear dome. No traffic in or out of town.  Small town political leaders become driven by power...

However, I didn't find the book all that "believable".  The move to evil of the locals seemed much too fast, and the ending wasn't' all that fulfilling, it seemed a little extreme and rushed.  I guess the purpose of the dome was interesting, but I found it too "out to lunch" and might have been better as some more intrinsically interesting plot or mystery.

I have found other SK novels to be much more complete and probably wouldn't recommend this one.

Finished (E-Reader): "That Used To Be Us How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back" - Thomas Friedman

"That Used to be Us" is a sobering look at changes in the U.S. in recent history - the loss of the pre-existing blue-collar work, polarization of politics, inability of the politicians and public to deal with real issues (climate change, deficits, public debt, infrastructure, eduction) all pointing to a loss of status of the U.S. in the world, with the trend downward.

I did find the text easy to read, but difficult to read long-term, as the topic was relatively depressing.

I must say that I felt the authors tried their best to be apolitical, and tried to assign the current political problems evenly between democrats and republicans.  However, with the recent changes in the political environment in the states being the rise of Fox News, and the conservative radio network, it is perhaps disingenuous to try to keep things "even".  It is the coordinated network, and the controlled, consistent messaging that allow for a relatively radical positioning to take hold, which does drive the "other" party to become permanent defenders of the status quo.  I personally don't believe the pre-Fox arena was "liberal media", and I don't think there has ever been as coordinated an effort from the "left" to drive an agenda the way the Fox/Limbaughs/Becks/O'Reilly have done in the past 20 years or so.

All in all, I think the book is a necessary read, particularly for anyone who wants to make a difference, or anyone who has a need to understand the changes that have occurred in the world economy in order to understand that which needs to change, and that which is lost forever.

Finished (Paper Book) - "New York - The Novel" - Edward Rutherfurd

I received "New York - The Novel" by Edward Rutherfurd for Christmas.  I haven't read any "historical fiction" before, but found the book compelling.  I've always had an interest in New York, so getting a feel for the history of the place was great.

The novel reads, well, like a novel.  It is difficult to put down, and there are linkages through the years from a dutch settlement dealing with the fur trade, and gradually moving the Native Americans away, through the takeover of the British, the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and up through prohibition, the Depression and on into 9/11.

Over the course of the book, there is a link through the Master's family from trapper days to the present, but also longitudinal following of immigrants from Italy and a slave/freed-slave family.

The characters intertwine naturally and the story flows nicely between storylines.  The history learning occurs painlessly, and I had little trouble keeping track of characters (I'm pretty bad with names, so this is an issue for me with complex storylines).

I found it a great read, and will probably read more in this genre.  I hadn't though Michener's books ("The Source" and "Space") could be considered historical fiction, but I had read these years ago.  I'm quite ready for another epic.