(57) Extraordinary Leadership

Title: Extraordinary Leadership: Thinking Systems, Making a Difference by Roberta Gilbert
Publisher: Leading Systems Press
224 pages
Genre: Psychology, Family Systems Theory,

Synopsis: Today's leaders face increased individual and societal anxiety that affects their organizations. Unfortunately, their training has not provided them with any understanding or guidelines that show how to manage themselves in the emotional chaos and intensity. Bowen family systems theory provides the needed understanding. It has proven itself enormously effective not only in families, but also in non-family groups as businesses, institutions, and congregations. Extraordinary Leadership examines organizations as emotional systems through the lens of Bowen theory. The types of questions addressed include: What is an emotional system? How do leaders handle themselves in stirred up organizations? What are high-level and low-level leaders? Do organizations need principles? What about difficult people? What is a relationship master? As the subtitle suggests, Extraordinary Leadership teaches leaders how to think systems and how that makes a difference.

Review: I loved this book.  I think it was very helpful in using systems theory in work place settings and seeing how we all tend to fall into certain roles.  It helps you identify when you are emotionally hijacked and different ways of behaving.  You can't change other people but you can change yourself and your behavior and it is amazing how small changes in the way you interact with people will change the situation.  This is great for people who want to take a look at themselves and figure out how to improve their home or work environment.  Gilbert's books do tend to be a bit repetitive so reading both this book and the 8 concepts book might be too much - if you have to choose I would pick this one.

(56) The Eight Concepts of Bowen Theory

Title: The Eight Concepts of Bowen Theory By Roberta Gilbert
Publisher: Leading Systems Press
138 Pages
Genre: Systems Theory, Psychology

Synopsis: The Eight Concepts" is a clear and concise description of the basic concepts of Bowen family system theory. Beginning with the fundamental concept of the nuclear family as the emotional unit, the other concepts -- differentiation of self scale, triangles, cutoff, family projection process, multigenerational transmission process, sibling position, and emotional processes of society -- are explained as they evolve out of the fundamental concept of the emotional unit. The emphasis is clarity of presentation and purity of presentation of theory.

Review: Short with a basic overview of Bowen Family Systems Theory.  If you want to know more about Triangling, Over and Under functioning, cutoff, sibling position etc...than this book can help.  I personally enjoyed her book Extraordinary Leadership better.  I thought this was a bit too basic for me.  But if you are just starting out and would like to know more about Family systems and how to identify and possibly break patterns that may be holding you back at work or in your personal life this might be a good book.

Teaser Tuesday 8/28/12

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser Tuesday is from: Altar of Bones by Philip Carter

"It was the third man in the film, the one in the railroad uniform, the one who'd taken the rifle from Ry's dad, broken it down, put it in a toolbox, and then walked away with it into the sunset. The flaring eyebrows, the pronounced widow's peak that pointed like an arrow to the hooked beak of a nose, the full lips that looked too Angelina Jolie for a man. He was much older now, nearly fifty years older, but it was still him. The man who had helped to kill President John Fitzgerald Kennedy."  

(55) The Hunter

Title: The Hunter by John Lescroart
Publisher: Dutton Adult
400 Pages
Genre: Mystery

Synopsis: Raised by loving adoptive parents, San Francisco private investigator Wyatt Hunt never had an interest in finding his birth family-until he gets a chilling text message from an unknown number: "How did ur mother die?"

The answer is murder, and urged on by curiosity and the mysterious texter, Hunt takes on a case he never knew existed, one that has lain unsolved for decades. His family's dark past unfurls in dead ends. Child Protective Services, who suspected but could never prove that Hunt was being neglected, is uninformed; his birth father, twice tried but never convicted of the murder, is in hiding; Evie, his mother's drug-addicted religious fanatic of a friend, is untraceable. And who is the texter, and how are they connected to Hunt?

Yet in the present, time is running out. The texter, who insists the killer is out there, refuses to be identified. The cat-and-mouse game leads Hunt across the country and eventually to places far more exotic-and far more dangerous. As the chase escalates, so does the threat, for the killer has a secret that can only be trusted to the grave. 

Review: This was a great book, it really captured me from the start.  Because I have ties to the adoption community I found this book to be even more intriguing.  Throw in some Jim Jones and you have me hooked. I am always fascinated by cults and how or why people just do strange things like force their kids to drink the Kool Aid and then drink it themselves.  Fascinating stuff.  The search for Wyatts birth parents and his feelings about it only made it more real. I think I found myself a new author to catch up on!

New Book Shelves!

I have been living out of boxes for the last few weeks but the worst part is having the 25+ boxes of books cluttering up my living room while I had a new book shelf built.  Its finally done!  I feel so much better now that my books are mostly away.  Now the house finally feels like home.

Teaser Tuesday 8/21/12

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser Tuesday is from: The Hunter by John Lescroart

"Its been a challenging couple of weeks," he said. Then figured what the hell and came out with it. "An employee of mine got killed on a job I sent him on."  

All my books are packed! Eeek

My life is starting to get back to normal so I will start posting reviews again...I didn't fall off the face of the earth I just moved...which is sort of like falling off the face of the earth because I'm buried under boxes...but now that most of them are unpacked and my bookshelf is almost complete I will be able to restock the shelves and sit back and read again...