February reading

For the second month in a row I’ve surprised myself and read 2 (two) books. This time one was non-fiction: Engineering Management for the Rest of Us by Sarah Drasner. For my sins I’m a manager now and, having been a fan of Sarah’s work and writing for years I wanted to read it.

There’s a testimonial by Cassidy Williams at the start telling readers to grab sticky notes, bookmarks and notebooks to use while reading the book. I decided to read through first, so will read it again with the requisite office supplies.

It’s very good, the Notion weekly planner template idea has already paid for the book, and it’s clear Sarah has thought long and hard about management, and is not embarrassed to admit she learned a lot from her own mistakes.

It was also a tough read for me because I needed to fully concentrate. Not a word is wasted.

I’m not qualified to rate books because I’ve only read four in 20 years, but if I was I’d give this one 5 gold stars, and would recommend any manager read it.

The other book was We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza. It’s the first time I’ve heard tell of a fiction book having two authors. Pride is black and Piazza is white. The chapters alternate between first person accounts of the lives of two best friends Jen, a white woman whose police officer husband kills a black boy; and Riley, a black woman and reporter who reports on the murder.

I was reading it when Tyre Nichols was murdered, and it was relevant. This one has stayed with me for a bit.