The Bin

Happy Hump Day, everyone, and happy Halloween! I hope everyone is enjoying their week so far. If not, just remember: you’re already halfway done with it. I’m personally having a great time vacationing at my favorite place on Earth, Disneyland! However, I still wanted to take the time to bring a new back to you by one of the authors I have reviewed on here before, Jim Lindsay. The subject of today’s review is Swerve: The Little Bastards 2, sequel to Jim Lindsay’s The Little Bastards.

In Swerve: The Little Bastards 2, The Little Bastards are back and growing up. They’ve traded in bicycles for hot rods, high school for college, summer jobs for full-time work, and casual dating for serious relationships filled with love and talks about their future. As their lives take them down their separate paths, Sonny and his friends both relive the glory days and roll with the punches, making the best of the bittersweet lemons the world throws at them. After all, the only thing in life that’s guaranteed is change.

Jim Lindsay starts Swerve right where The Little Bastards left off: Sonny Mitchell has saved a drunk driver and his passengers from a brutal death on the train tracks. One of these passengers is the lovely Marylyn, and romance between her and Sonny seems inevitable, but life never lets things go exactly as planned. When Marylyn’s father, the rich banker J.R. Swanson, catches onto the mutual attraction between his daughter and the boy from “the wrong side of the tracks,” he puts an end to the relationship before it can even begin. This rebellious and lovesick young man realizes that, for once in his life, no amount of risk-taking or rule-breaking will get him what he wants this time, and he must trudge forward as though nothing has happened. As life goes on, so must the heartbroken Sonny. Yet even through his daily routine, car repairs, catastrophic street racing, and a damaging financial mystery at the mill, Sonny can’t help but wonder: what will it take to change the banker’s opinion of this Little Bastard?

Lindsay does not disappoint with this sequel to his classic coming-of-age novel. He has preserved the engaging, colloquial tone of the first novel while still allowing the narrator to age, a feat which can be difficult when writing a sequel in first-person narration. Of course, this preservation means that there are some phrases which modern readers might not understand. However, these phrases are essential to taking the reader back to this time period and are easy enough to look up if there is any confusion. More importantly, the voice is uniquely Sonny Mitchell. He is no longer the boy-turned-teenager from the majority of the first novel, but he is still the smartass, rebellious, and kind-hearted Little Bastard that readers fell in love with. Sonny’s storytelling is what kept my attention most and drew me back to the book even when I had a mile-long list of work to get done.

While the unique and historically-accurate voice is my favorite part of the book, a close second has to be how Lindsay handles the romance in Swerve. Marylyn is often on Sonny’s mind, slipping back in at the most inconvenient moments and causing him reevaluate every aspect of his life. However, the romance is not the focus of the novel. Rather, it is one of many elements which make up the true focus of Swerve: Sonny’s adolescence and young adulthood. We see him grow up and have many of his firsts; we watch as his emotions mature, as he struggles with fears and insecurities, and as he grows into the man he was meant to be; we witness him and his friends move beyond their “Little Bastards” phase and prove that moving on does not have to mean drifting apart. Sonny is able to care about a young woman without losing himself to empty-headed romanticism, a portrayal that I think even adults can learn from.

Sometimes this wide spectrum of growing-up stories causes the book to lose its thread. Some of these stories, while they fit where Lindsay has written them, led me away from the main plot to the point that I would forget about it until I reached the end of that particular mini-story. Oddly, though, I did not mind getting sidetracked like that in Swerve. I would become so wrapped up in the events and Sonny’s storytelling that I usually did not notice that the thread had been lost until I found it again. Furthermore, Lindsay always ties the flashbacks to the narrative present eventually and everything resolves fairly well by the end of the novel, so even if the plot swerves every now and then, it does not detract from the overall quality.

I feel I should warn my readers that there are several heart-wrenching moments in Swerve. Because it involves a major event from the first book, I cannot go into too many details here. However, I can say that Lindsay does well in portraying the effects of a tragic event from the first novel in this second novel. He shows how it has stuck with the characters, changed them—for better or worse—and how it influences their decisions. I could feel their sadness and loss but also the glimmer of hope and determination, the hope that things will get better and the determination to never let that tragic event repeat itself. When an author can make me tear up at the mere memory of a character’s loss, I know his/her writing is powerful.

Overall, Swerve: The Little Bastards 2 by Jim Lindsay exceeded my expectations. It is exemplary both as a coming-of-age story and as historical and literary fiction. The characters are just as well-rounded as in the first novel, and the emotional connections between them and the reader have not faded. The mini-stories could have presented a more united front, but I think something would have been lost from the realistic, colloquial feel of Sonny’s voice if the thread had carried entirely intact throughout the whole book. If you like coming-of-age stories and historical fiction with a splash of literary fiction, action, and mystery, you’ll definitely want to give Lindsay’s work a try. Just remember to read the first book before this one—you’ll find they’re both better that way and that it’s certainly worth your time!

You can buy a physical copy of Swerve: The Little Bastards 2 by Jim Lindsay on Amazon.

Do you know of any books I should read? E-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com and let me know!

Biblical fiction exists at the intersection of historical fiction and supernatural fiction. The line between fact and legend becomes blurred, and, often, we are made to look at the classic stories we thought we knew through a new lens. Such is the nature of works such as Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, and it is such a book I am reviewing today: The Leper Messiah by Rob Levinson.

Most of us—especially those raised in a Christian environment—know the story of David and Goliath. Many of us also know David as King David, successor to King Saul and father of King Solomon. But what do we know about his childhood? About his life before he became a king, before he slayed Goliath, before he was revealed to be a great warrior or even a skillful lyre player? That is where the details get fuzzy, and it is these details and gaps which Levinson has used to weave the tale of The Leper Messiah.

David has always been an outcast. Even within his own family, he only seems to have decent relationships with his mother, his brother Shimea, and his mother’s father, Obed. Everyone else, including his own father and his other brothers, seem to fear and avoid him. David is left to feel utterly alone this world, but he does not let that deter him; he knows he is destined for greater things, he can feel it, and he is determined to make everyone else see his potential, too. How far will David have to go to prove his worth? How will the path to his destiny as King of the Israelites be paved? And what sort of connections—human and divine—will he forge along the way?

As I have mentioned in other posts, I am not Christian. If anything, I am agnostic. However, I have been exposed to the religion, including studying the Bible as apiece of literature and the historical bases for its stories. Due to this background, I find biblical fiction absolutely fascinating, and Levinson’s work is no exception. The writing style in particular caught my eye as it reminds me of the style I have encountered in English translations of the Bible. While more detailed and engaging than biblical passages, Levinson’s writing utilizes the same simple language and slightly distant, storyteller tone. Reading this book, I felt as though I had been pulled into the Bible while still being entertained.

The Leper Messiah captured my attention from page one. Levinson throws readers right into the middle of the action by starting the novel with supernatural action and intrigue. Despite being based on a well-known biblical character, this book does not lack in mystery and twists. New characters and locations are constantly added, and one of the greatest incentives to finish the story is to see how everything ties together. Admittedly, though, these additions sometimes confused me. Many of the transitions within the chapters do not occur smoothly and are often so vague that it takes readers a few sentences to realize which characters are involved. Regardless, Levinson’s compelling plot and fast-paced writing will pull readers right back into the story.

I am also impressed with how well Levinson has developed relatively flat biblical figures into well-rounded, very human characters. Most notably, he turns David from a revered king whose only memorable scandal is adultery with Bathsheba into a boy—and, later, young man—with emotional vulnerabilities and desires to both succeed and be loved. However, he is not my favorite character or, oddly, the one I find most compelling. Those titles belong to two other characters: Arlemay and The Scorpion. In my opinion, they have the most captivating stories. They are true lepers by the definition which means “a person who is avoided or rejected by others for moral or social reasons”. Along with David,they enhance the theme of the need to heed outcasts, a lesson which I think a lot of people in modern society still need to learn.

Levinson’s extensive research of biblical stories and figures is evident. Still, the historical side of the book seems less-than-accurate. I am no historian, and I know nothing about this time period for certain, but I still have a sizeable bone to pick here. Namely, at least one of the characters makes clear references to Islam. In particular, she mentions the pilgrimage to Mecca and the Ka’bah, which is the most sacred mosque in Mecca. Historians generally believe that the Islamic religion was established in the 600s CE, whereas David existed around 1000 BCE. Even the belief of the Muslims—that Islam is the original religion for all the prophets—does not explain this mix-up as David has the religion explained to him and, if Islam were the original religion for all the prophets, David’s religion would have been Islam. Theological beliefs aside, the timeline does not match up and caused a lot of headaches for me as I tried to straighten everything out in my mind.

Overall, The Leper Messiah by Rob Levinson is a very entertaining novel with relatable characters, each with compelling stories of their own to tell. I normally do not recommend Christian fiction to non-Christians, but I feel that this book is worth the read for people of any background for the story alone. The elements of mysticism and the involvement of more supernatural events might rub hardcore Christians the wrong way, while others will find that they align perfectly with the traditions of biblical tales. History buffs and historical fiction fans should definitely take all of it with a grain of salt but for the most part, Levinson really transports readers back to David’s time and keeps them there until they reach the end. I recommend it for those with an open mind that like biblical fiction, but keep in mind that this book plays on the darker side of biblical stories and so there are some moments of grotesque imagery, violence, and—yes—lepers.

You can find The Leper Messiah by Rob Levinson on Amazon.

Do you know of a book I should read? E-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com and let me know!

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope your weekends went well. I’ve had quite the doozy myself, scrambling to get stuff done before I go on vacation. I foolishly pulled an all-nighter this past weekender and still have not recovered, but at least I received good news from an editing client! So, what do I decide to do when my brain is fried from lack of sleep? Discuss high-end programming languages, of course! Today I have a book I want to bring to the more tech-savvy among us looking into the best programming language for create web and desktop apps, Mastering Python: Machine Learning, Data Structures, Django, Object-Oriented Programming and Software Engineering (Including Bonus Programming Interview Questions) by Michael B. White.

Mastering Python is a detailed guide not only introducing readers to one of the more popular programming languages in the world but also explaining how machine learning works and using Python which such programs as Django and ArcGIS. Readers learn everything from how to install Python onto their computers to sorting algorithms to software development and testing. While it certainly cannot cover every part of this subject imaginable, this book goes in-depth into learning how to use Python and some of its more practical applications, giving novice programmers a solid foundation for their growing knowledge.

I have to be upfront about something: I know absolutely nothing about programming. It is the most foreign of foreign languages to me; I know more about Greek and Russian than programming languages. That’s why, when Michael B. White’s Mastering Python was brought to my attention, I decided to give it a try. I figured that I could at least get a feel for the complex issue in the first reading and then come back to it to help grow my understanding.

White’s writing is to easy follow for most of the book, even for those very new to programming like me. The terminology can be rather daunting, but such is to be expected from this subject matter. However, that does not necessarily make learning this programming language a passive act or entirely easy. This guide is very hands-on, requiring readers to have access to Python to the point that White uses part of the beginning to instruct readers on where and how to download Python depending on the operating system their computer uses. The tasks require practice to master, but White’s guide shows readers which steps they need to take to be successful while using Python for this wide variety of tasks.

My favorite part of Mastering Python, though, is the sheer variety of uses for Python that it covers. As the author says in the introduction and synopsis, Master Python is not just an introduction to the basics of this programming language. For me, the most interesting section is on the integration of Python with ArcGIS, a geographical software program which I learned about in a one-unit college course during high school. However, the depth and range of White’s coverage does necessitate a long book. In fact, it is over 600 pages long. It is not a light read and could take quite some time to read on its own, let alone read while actually trying to practice the advice given. Many will find this length intimidating, which is why I wonder if this book would’ve been better as a series of guides, but those dedicated to learning how to program probably will not be deterred.

Overall, Mastering Python by Michael B. White is not for everyone. The writing is easy to follow, but the book requires participation on the reader’s part in order for its knowledge to truly be imparted. If you have the patience for a book 600+ pages long and truly want to be able to make your own web and/or desktop applications, this book is for you.This is especially true if you already have intermediate knowledge of programming, more particularly Python. However, if you know nothing of the topic or are only dabbling in it, you will probably want to start out with a more basic guide and then move onto this book if programming with Python still piques your interest.

You can buy an eBook copy of Mastering Python by Michael B. White on Amazon.

Do you know of any books I should read? E-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com and let me know!

Happy Hump Day, fellow writers! We’re halfway through another week and only seven days away from my favorite holiday, Halloween. Today I’m stepping pretty far out of my comfort zone and reviewing a book on a topic which I’ve never given much consideration: certified personal trainers. In particular, this book is for people wanting to become certified personal trainers. The subject of this post is the CPT Test Prep Team’s  NASM Exam Prep: The Certified Personal Trainer Study Guide Including 200+ Test Questions and Answers for the National Academy of Sports Medicine Exam.

NASM Exam Prep is an in-depth study guide for those looking to take the test to become a certified personal trainer. It explores every kind of question that you will find on the certification exam, from knowledge on human anatomy to training instruction and even how to grow your business. The book is divided into nine sections: the introduction, a brief “about” section regarding the guide and the exam, one section for each of the six domains covered in the exam, and a conclusion. Finally, each of the domain sections includes questions on that domain which are based on questions found in the NASM exam as well as their answers. Almost everything you need to prepare for the certification exam can be found in this book.

I must start by acknowledging that NASM Exam Prep is definitely a highly specialized book. Those readers who pick it up should already have an interest in becoming a certified personal trainer or, frankly, it will bore you. The length (253 pages) and sheer amount of information might also discourage those whose hearts aren’t already set on becoming CPTs. After all, this guide discusses everything that someone would need to know in order to pass the exam. Think of it as the CPT equivalent of the GRE exam practice books.

However, you do not need to have much—if any—knowledge of the profession in order to understand what the CPT Test Prep Team has written. The writing is very straightforward and flows smoothly. While scientific terms are necessary in the anatomy section, the language overall is also easy to understand. Better yet, there are little to no proofreading errors. It is just best to have already researched the career some so that you can have emotional investment in the read and you can get the most benefit from this book possible.

Despite the thoroughness of its information and the helpful sample test questions, NASM Exam Prep could have done more to help readers prepare for the test. Pictures and other visuals, for example, would have been very helpful. Visual learners such as myself would do a lot better with diagrams showing how different parts of the body interact or how to guide clients through certain exercises. These kinds of visuals would make it easier for potential CPTs to retain this information, and they would serve as useful tools to return to throughout the person’s career. A list of additional resources would also help readers be as prepared as possible to take the exam. This book talks about everything you need to know, but some people still like the option of being able to explore other resources if they are not entirely sure they understand something.

Perhaps the most unique and useful part of this book is the section on running your career as a CPT. Most guides for topics like these stick strictly to what is required to complete the job on a day-to-day basis. NASM Exam Prep, though, gets readers to look at the bigger picture and reminds them to figure out why they are taking on this career and how to maintain it before taking the big leap into certification. This section also refreshes readers’ memories of the ethics and safety issues involved with being a CPT, both from the CPT’s end and from the client’s end. While this part is not unique to this book, it is still essential that a guide like this includes such information and readers will want to go over this section very carefully. All of this information will both prepare readers for the test and save them a lot of trial-and-error and costly mistakes in the long run.

Overall, NASM Exam Prep by the CPT Test Prep Team is a must-read for those looking to become certified as personal trainers. It’s a useful study guide and can redirect you if you feel that your CPT career has gotten off-track. If you’re only curious about the profession and are still undecided on whether or not to pursue it, you will want to put off this book until you make a definitive decision. However, if you are ready and dedicated to becoming a CPT, read this book thoroughly before taking the exam. You will not regret it.

You can buy NASM Exam Prep by the CPT Test Prep Team as an eBook on Amazon. If you want to learn more about becoming a certified personal trainer or just want to know what it takes to break into this profession, visit the NASM and ACSM websites.

Do you know of any books I should read? E-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com and let me know!

Happy Tuesday, readers and writers! I had a doozy of a weekend. The deadline for the first feedback session in my master’s program this year was early yesterday, and I was bedridden all day Saturday with a crippling migraine. That’s for another post, though. Right now I want to talk about a fairly handy (and short) book I came across recently, The Blogger Trailmap: How to Take Your Blog to the Next Level in Easy Steps by Chivi Frost.

The Blogger Trailmap takes readers through a step-by-step guide to creating a successful blog. Whether your goal is to make money off your blog or just raise awareness for a subject you’re passionate about, Frost’s advice will help you to optimize your blog’s potential and navigate the often confusing world of SEO, affiliate marketing, and e-mail harvesting. Visual aids and free resources through zavesti.com supplement the experience and expand the book’s reach to visual and hands-on learners as well as traditional learning through reading.

I’ve read more than my fair share of blogging resources. After all, I’ve been working at building and strengthening The Writer’s Scrap Bin for over a year now. Most of them highlight the same tips for running a blog: finding a niche, posting on a regular schedule, SEO optimization, engaging with readers, etc. In that way, this book is like most other blogging resources. However, The Blogger Trailmap provides a new perspective on these well-worn topics. It is a concise guide to the marketing and personalization aspects of blogging and clearly lays out each step from launching your blog to building your community and selling physical and digital products through your blog.

The most unique element of this book is the personalized approach it advocates. Of course, almost all tips to blogging emphasize giving your blog its own identity. They all talk about choosing the right topics for your posts, creating a presence on the right social media sites, and so on. Frost, though, takes this idea a step further and recommends personalizing your blog for not just your brand but also for your audience. For example, Frost explains that if your readers are mostly senior citizens, you should make your blog easy to navigate with a slightly larger font and closely watch out for e-mails asking for helping getting around your site. This book shows that a blogger cannot just think from the writer’s perspective; they must put themselves in the reader’s shoes as well.

The most helpful part of The Blogger Trailmap, however, would have to be the visual aids and free resources scattered throughout the guide. While I learn very well through reading, I usually do better in these cases when I have a visual aid and/or some sort of template that I can use as an example and modify for my own needs. Frost seems to understand this idea very well and by teaming up with the marketing site zavesti.com, The Blogger Trailmap is able to create an experience which benefits all kinds of learners.

If you are more of a vlogger than a blogger, you can still benefit from perusing this guide. Frost oscillates between discussing things from a blogger’s—so textual—perspective and discussing things from a vlogger’s—videos and photos—view. As Frost explains, in today’s world blogging and vlogging are flip sides of the same coin and often become intermingled, so it is almost impossible to explore one without considering the other.

Overall, Chivi Frost’s The Blogger Trailmap is a very useful tool for both novice and veteran bloggers/vloggers. At only about sixty-two pages, it’s a quick read and easy to skim through after the initial read in order to find the information you need to access. While Frost recommends following each step sequentially, bloggers who are already established can find where they fall on the trail map and pick up from that point in the book without any problems. The only issue I really take with this guide is that it could use further proofreading. I noticed multiple grammatical errors, but those who aren’t already writers and/or editors might not notice them, so just proceed knowing that you may encounter these.

Youcan buy The Blogger Trailmap by ChiviFrost as an eBook on Amazon. Also make sure to check out zavesti.com for more free resources and help related to marketing, blogging, and self-publishing.

Ifyou are looking for a broader view of blogging, including snagging a domain andthe technical side of running a website, be sure to also check out Writer’s Market Deluxe Edition 2017.

Do you know of any books I should read? E-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com and let me know!

Trigger Warning: The Magic List: Girl Invictus by Mark Tiro contains depictions of violence and rape. If you are triggered by such depictions or otherwise wish to avoid reading them, proceed with caution.

Happy Friday, readers and writers! I want to start this weekend with a special look at a new release from author Mark Tiro. You might remember him from my reviews of his books Implicit: Soul Invictus and All These Things (The Spirit Invictus Series Book 2). I have been given the honor of reading and reviewing an advanced reader copy of the third book in The Spirit Invictus series, The Magic List: Girl Invictus.

The Magic List, like the other books in The Spirit Invictus series, takes us back, but this time we are not taken back to Maya’s other lives or even just her past. Instead, The Magic List takes readers back to the most traumatic moment of Maya’s childhood, a moment of familial betrayal alluded to in All These Things. Following this tragedy, Maya finds herself in an infinite tunnel of endless light and love with no memory of what has happened to her. It is in this tunnel that she encounters a mysterious, formless being called David, someone—or something—she has known through almost every life of her spirit’s journey. This time, though, David has a special gift for her: a magical list. Anything Maya writes on this list will come true—just not always in the way Maya expects it to.

From one item on her list to the next, Maya is forced to face the consequences of her reckless wish-making, and these consequences are only the tip of the iceberg she must explore in order to learn the truth. All the while, Maya is left wondering: why does this list keep going awry? Why is nothing she asks for turning out the way she wants? What is David trying to teach her with frustrating riddles? And more importantly, why does she keep reacting violently to the sound of her brother Tom’s name—is there something more that she has forgotten?

In true Spirit Invictus form, The Magic List is a complex story about spiritual exploration, philosophy, and examining the emotional nature of mankind. The first-person perspective thrusts readers right into the turmoil of Maya’s adventures, and the conversational voice that Maya assumes as the narrator makes the character easy to relate to and heightens the emotional impact of her story. However, this book is not a light read. The conversational voice certainly makes the book easier to follow and more captivating, but the first-person perspective also removes all barriers between the reader and Maya’s mind as she reflects on these events. The narrative is pure Maya, uncensored; readers get glimpses at what is going on outside of Maya’s narration, but overall, her journey is our journey, and her confusion is our confusion. It is a chaotic form of storytelling which I’ve only ever come close to with one other writer—William Faulkner in Benjy’s section of The Sound and the Fury—and while Tiro mostly pulls off this method, there were still moments which I got confused as to what was happening and was forced to stop and think about what must have happened.

Even with such confusion, this novel is still gripping and more straightforward than the first book in the series, Implicit: Soul Invictus. The surreal tone of the first two books carries into this one, but the amount of surrealism falls somewhere between Implicit: Soul Invictus and All These Things. Maya’s wish fulfillment provides an otherworldly experience for the reader, but the main story and themes remain intact and plainly visible throughout, allowing the reader to remain grounded even as Maya’s fantasies takes us on wild adventures. Tiro’s work is certainly not for those looking for strict realism, but those who enjoy more fantastic tales that make you think will definitely want to read The Magic List.

The ever-changing nature of the narrative made it hard for me to form any attachment to the characters with three exceptions: David, Maya’s brother Sean, and Maya herself. Regardless, my ties to these characters were enough to keep me anxious to find out what happens and why all of this is happening. David, for a spiritual being, can be quite the smartarse, and I loved him for it. He’s the wisecracking hippy friend that many of us secretly wish we had, someone you can go to for wisdom and guidance but is also there when you just need a fun and loving friend. Sean, similarly, is the supportive and loving sibling we all want for ourselves and hope to be for those we consider our brothers and/or sisters. He is the typical older brother—existing in his own world yet still present in Maya’s—but is clearly close to his sister and much more sensitive than he’d probably admit. These two characters, who acted as guides for Maya in different ways, help remind the reader through the cacophony of Maya’s wishes what is actually happening to her.

Maya is, by far, the most complex and developed character and for good reason, considering that she’s narrating her own story. She is fun but annoying, both selfless and selfish, and simultaneously smart, naïve, and oblivious. Sometimes I liked her as a person, and other times…not so much. She grows tremendously by the end of the book, and that is what made me like her as a character. At times she seems a little flat or narrow-minded, but she is portrayed that way so that she may develop and become a new person.

I must warn readers that this book does not have a happy ending. At least, not entirely. It has what I would refer to as a “bitter-sweet” ending. It is fulfilling and exciting, a fitting conclusion to this story, but it is not the happily-ever-after that people have come to expect from so-called “uplifting” stories. The Magic List ends on a strong note, but if you are expecting everything to be tied up with a neat little bow by the time you finish a book, you will want to pass on this one.

Overall, The Magic List by Mark Tiro is an engaging and emotional piece of surrealist, spiritual fiction. Living the narrative so completely through Maya’s eyes may lead to some confusion, especially as more “realities” are created by Maya’s list, but things are cleared up enough by the end to understand what has happened and the lessons Maya is supposed to learn even before she recognizes them herself. You can easily read this book without reading the first two, but doing so will ruin some of the “ah-ha” moments you could experience as things from the other books start to reappear here. You should not pick up this novel casually as it does take a long time to digest fully, but it is a very satisfying read once you have the time to read and appreciate it.

The Magic List by Mark Tiro is not currently available for purchase, but I will let you know when it is released on Amazon.

To learn more about Mark Tiro, The Magic List, and The Spirit Invictus series, make sure to visit Tiro’s website, Facebook account, and Facebook author page.

Do you know of any books I should read? E-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com and let me know!

Happy Monday/Tuesday, everyone! It promises to be another very hectic week on the home front. Writing, editing, reviewing…no rest for the wicked, right? Well, what better way to start off such chaos than with a book meant to give you a new way to look at the world and critically solve problems? Today, I am reviewing Thinking in Systems: Strategies for Problem Solving, Planning and Critical Thinking by Alex J. Golding.

Thinking in Systems breaks down a method of viewing the world and its problems called systems thinking. Rather than looking at groups/organizations as stems with removable branches and problems as strictly cause-and-effect, systems thinking involves seeing groups/organizations—even the whole universe—as a large system with several individual, sustainable, but still interlinked subsystems that work best together even though they exist independently. The book goes on to show many real-life examples of systems and systems thinking as well as explain the benefits/drawbacks of this way of thinking. By the end, you will have a good idea of how to use systems thinking in your professional, social, and personal lives.

Golding provides an in-depth look at this nontraditional way of thinking. He gives very clear examples of what systems are and how systems thinking plays out in real life, which helped to clear things up for me any time I became confused. I especially appreciated examples such as the World Trade Organization meeting protests and the downfall of the USSR. Of course, I rarely got confused while reading this guide, but that might be a result of my own way of thinking and my background in critical thinking. I went to a project-based high school which emphasized critical thinking and I have thought about the world in a manner very similar to systems thinking, and so I think it was easier for me to follow the concepts discussed here than it might be for the average reader.

Due to the thoroughness of the book’s information, it might be a slow read for many people. The ideas it expresses are also abstract and hard to describe, and so it might take re-reading certain sections in order to fully digest what Golding is saying. In general, Golding uses simple language that most readers can follow. He also explains the most important terminology in relation to systems thinking in the second chapter. The concepts themselves are what drag down the writing at points, such as in the critical thinking sections. Golding explains these ideas as well as can be done, but it also would have been nice if there had been resources available for readers to do more of their own research on the subject.

I also think that the reader could be eased into the subject better. Golding introduces the reader to systems thinking and explains what it is in the first chapter, but it feels that he rushes right into the “what” without giving much idea as to “why”. After I re-read the first few pages, I understood why I should care about this way of thinking. Before that, though, I felt like I had been pushed off an airplane without a parachute to ease my descent.

All that being said, Thinking in Systems by Alex J. Golding is a great introduction to a topic which to me is fascinating. The examples are very helpful, the definitions are as clear as can be for such abstract subjects, and the coverage is thorough. However, the book is very long (around 312 pages) and requires multiple readings in order to take complete advantage of the information and practices inside it.

You can find Thinking in Systems by Alex J. Golding on Amazon as both an eBook and in print.

Do you know of any books I should read? E-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com and let me know!