The Strain * Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

"Once upon a time, there was a giant"...so begins "The Strain". In exchange for eating all of his cabbage, young Abraham's grandmother feeds him stories about Sardu, the giant boy who mysteriously disappears during a hunting trip, only to return to his home, shutting himself in with lights and movement only seen late at night. The grandmother's ghastly story becomes all too real for Abraham as a prisoner during the horrors of Treblinka.

Fast forward: Regis Air flight 753 maintained tower communication until it landed. And then it mysteriously goes radio silent on the runway at JFK. When security enters the plane, they find every last passenger dead. Dr. Eph Goodweather of the CDC is brought in to investigate the cause. It becomes quickly clear that something is not quite right in the morgue: the bodies aren't decomposing. There is no rigor mortis. And, most bizarre, there is no blood. Who shows up? A now-not-so-young Abraham...and he's out for revenge.

I'm about two-thirds of the way through (I go through books like some addicts go through crack) and absolutely enjoying it. I'm already starting to imagine how del Toro will bring this to the big screen--there's all kinds of great opportunities for creatures. The characters are also fantastic. Dr. Goodweather has a side plot--his divorce has been finalized, the custody battle is ongoing and he's starting up a relationship with his lab assistant, Nora. Abraham is now a pawnbroker--a trade that lets him obtain antiquities and esoteric items. Gus is a Mexican gangster who killed one of the undead and was arrested by the police, assumption that he jumped some poor innocent man. It's fantastic--part "I am Legend", part "The Stand", part Bram Stoker.

The Strain * Guillermo del Toro

Has anyone read this between Twilight, Sookie and Anita Blake? I LOVE Guillermo del Toro's direction (think the Hellboy series, Pan's Labyrinth, etc.)--he's sort of like the Jim Henson of slightly twisted grown ups. I have some upcoming airplane time--I might have to take a break from all the presentation and psychology reads for The Strain.

Presentation Zen * Garr Reynolds * Chapter 3

Planning Analog....Reynolds spends some time talking about the positives of (gasp!) stepping away from the computer for a few minutes and using such rudimentary tools as a legal pad and pencil, a whiteboard, post-it notes or a moleskin storyboard. During the planning stages, these are great. In fact, some of my best brainstorming sessions have involved a package of post-its and some smart colleagues.
The top takeaways from this chapter for me?

• the list of questions to ask. The top two being "What's my point?" and "Why does it matter?".
• the piece on avoiding the slideument. A presentation comes in 3 parts: the slides the audience sees (the simpler the better!), the notes only the presenter sees and a seperate takeaway document to serve as a handout (never ever a copy of the presentation slides).
• the reminder that planning well means you can still convey the message if the projector bulb burns out or if the client decides that there isn't time for all the slides after all.

Go Ahead! Break These Rules * In Style * August 2009

My favorite rules to break from this list?

• Art on the walls should always be framed
• Light scents for day, headier scents for night
• Only neutral interiors stand the test of time
• A fireplace is only for fires

Granted, In Style's list was focused on beauty, fashion and home decor. What rules would you add to your list of rules to break for the rest of the year?

Presentation Zen * Garr Reynolds * Chapters 1 and 2

I have a very hard time with presentations. Not giving them (although once upon a time, I had to memorize my speeches because I would get so nervous waiting that I would shred my notecards), suffering through them. This is primarily because so many of them are so godawful boring: either a gazillion words on a slide or slide after slide of mind-numbing bullet points.

Enter Garr Reynolds' book: "Presentation Zen". I'm two chapters in and have decided Reynolds is my presentation soulmate. Chapter one, Presenting in Today's World, discusses what went wrong with PowerPoint (aka: words, words, words). He references Daniel Pink's six aptitudes (Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play and Meaning. Reference Pink's book: "A Whole New Mind") and dicusses their application to a whole new approach and way of thinking regarding PowerPoint. Chapter two, Creativity, Limitations and Constraints, has an overriding message that I love, say it out loud with me: WE ARE ALL CREATIVE.

Three things I loved in Chapter 2:

• the Brenda Ueland quote he provides: "Let her go! Be careless, reckless! Be a lion. Be a pirate!". We can all use the reminder to let go long enough to take the risk.
• the reminder not to force it. Reynolds provides a list of suggestions on how to get away from work long enough to let the creativity come. As if I need to have an excuse for a walk on the beach or a long sit at a coffee shop with a paper!
• the insistence to put your love, passion, imagination and spirit into everything you do.

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes * Diane Chamberlain

An unsolved murder. A missing child. A lifetime of deception...... those are the first three lines on the back cover of the "The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes". I'd been looking for something to fill the void while I wait for Jodi Piccoult's latest to come out in paperback. What I love about her books is that she writes all of the drama and relationships around a central issue, usually a legal or moral one. I picked this up on impulse at Sam's Club and it turned out to be a reasonable facsimile. I'm with the other reviewers out there who are calling Chamberlain the "Jodi Piccoult of the South". Enough so that I picked up another book today ("Before the Storm").

The basic plot line: teenage girl (CeeCee Wilkes) meets boy. Boy is part of an underground association against the death penalty. Boy asks her to help him kidnap the governor's pregnant wife so that he can negotiate for his sister's life: the sister is on death row for murder. CeeCee reluctantly agrees. While in a remote cabin, the kidnapped wife goes in to labor and hemorrhages to death. CeeCee takes baby on the run. The story comes to a peak 20 years down the road when the boy is found and arrested for the murder of the kidnapped wife.

The central issue of the death penalty was intriguing. The boyfriend tells CeeCee that his sister was raped. Following the rape, she chased down the attacker and killed him. CeeCee uses this to rationalize her decision to participate in the kidnapping scheme to negotiate for the sister's release. She later finds out that the reality of the situation is a little different. Is the motive what really establishes the appropriateness of the penalty or is it only the act?

We've come a long way in technology--the book starts in 1977. CeeCee didn't have access to the world wide web to do a google search for the sister's press clippings. Does her naivity make her less culpable for her role in the kidnapping?

The book was a page turner. I enjoyed the characters. The plot was interesting. I liked it enough to buy another Chamberlain title. That all said, if I had a Piccoult book and a Chamberlain book and could only buy one, I'd pick Piccoult.

Socially Awkward? Hit the Books.....

Hayley Mick wrote an article earlier this year on fiction's impact on social skills. Researchers are conducting studies that show fiction readers score higher on tests of empathy and social reasoning. This absolutely makes sense to me, because what is fiction but the answer to the "what if....." part of the equation. What if...the children turned the tables and outsmarted the parents who left them out in the woods on their own? What if...all your wishes were granted? What if...you lived in another part of the world? Really great fiction allows you to enter in to the story and be a part of another experience outside your own.

This is all fine and well, but it made me realize how unsocial my personal reading has become. I used to be part of a book club that met once a month to talk about fiction selections. A mentor and I used to spend hours over wine talking about more spiritual choices in books. I used to volunteer in a literacy program where I could compare notes with the other tutors. Now, I post on my blog the titles of what I've been reading and I signed up for good reads to keep a running list of titles. Put that's completely output: what's missing is the exchange of thoughts.

Hence, lagitanareads.blogspot.com. I'm doing some web 2.0 experimentation at work and this seems like an opportunity to make it a whole life experience. I see this blog as a chance to share my thoughts on what I'm reading: fiction, non-fiction, magazine articles. I'm not necessarily seeing this as a "book review" once I'm done, but as a way to share thoughts as I go--I might do posts on chapter 1. I invite you to share your thoughts and questions and suggestions on what to read next via the comments feature.