HBR on Return, Reenergize & Reinvent

I'm writing this blog post in January, to post in March, just as my students leave for Spring Break.  Why? Because about that time we'll be closing in on then of Q1 for 2011, so I'll need reevaluate my progress on my 2011 goals and also determine if how to keep myself going until the end of the semester (for my students) and through the next quarter of my own classes.  So thanks Harvard Business Review blogs, for giving me inspiration throughout the year, even when I actually plan two months in advance to tap into it :-)

Goal #3: Reading More Broadly

I finished Kate Morton's The Distant Hours, a novel about the ties that bind us, the perceptions we carry into the world, and what we will do to hide from our worst selves. Another book that counts toward the Support Your Local Library Challenge, but only as a bonus for the Where Are You Reading Challenge, as it set in Kent, England.

Goal #3: Reading More Broadly

I picked up Craig Robinson's A Game of Character as a lighter, uplifting read. I like these kinds of lighter reads for my ebook picks as it is easier to pick up with interruptions, are wont to happen during my daily commute. I used the Chicago Public Library's ebook system to download it onto my iPad, which has it count for the Support Your Local Library Challenge.  As the parts I enjoyed the best (though were largely glossed over), were his Princeton years, I also added this to cover New Jersey for the Where Are You Reading Challenge.

Goal #3: Reading More Broadly

Goal #3 of Reading More Broadly --  I've finished Wes Moore's The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates. This one actually counts toward my goal in the Where Are You Reading Challenge? (as their stories largely intersect in Maryland, that is where I'll pin this one) for my Where Are You Reading Challenge? plus my Support Your Public Library Challenge.The writing was a bit simplistic, and some of the story rushed (likely due to not being able to fully develop or mine all the information), but I enjoyed it as a quick read that underscores the uphill battle, and various broken systems, that exist in climbing out of poverty.

Goal #3: Reading More Broadly

Goal #3 of Reading More Broadly --  I've finished Andrew O'Hagan's Be Near Me. It only counts as a bonus  (as it is largely set in England & Scotland -- I'll add this pin to Scotland) for my Where Are You Reading Challenge? but it still counts fully toward the Support Your Public Library Challenge. If you want to contemplate solitude, and the ways we respond when we are lonely, disenchanted, or adrift, you'll enjoy this book. My flavor of Catholicism is different, so some of those pieces dragged for me.