Jan 4, 2008

Steel audiobook should be left unheard

By Terri Shlichenmeyer / Book Reviewer

"Amazing Grace," by Danielle Steel
Read by Tom Dheere
Brilliance Audio
$39, 8 CDs / approx 9 hours

Imagine that the unthinkable happens.

A disaster strikes. Your entire city is affected.

Imagine tens of thousands of people dead. Hundreds of thousands homeless. You and your family are safe, but help is needed in your area.

Would you lend a hand?

In the new audio book "Amazing Grace," by Danielle Steel, few do. They're mostly interested in appearances, love and staying out of jail.

Because her firstborn spent time in the neonatal unit of a San Francisco hospital, Sarah Sloane knew it was time to give back. Sarah spent considerable time putting together a benefit at the Ritz-Carlton ballroom in the hopes of raising several million dollars to help the hospital.

Sarah's husband Seth, a financial expert who wowed his customers with his savvy, made it possible for Sarah to have time to devote to this benefit. Seth made millions for his customers and they paid him well in return. The Sloane family owned several properties, cars, jewelry, a plane ... and Sarah hoped to have the winning bid to capture the donated Range Rover at the evening's auction.

Performing at the benefit was highly talented 18-year-old Grammy winner Melanie Free, whose singing fee was high but whose performance was off-the-charts. Sarah knew Melanie would be worth it. Sweet Melanie was certainly someone that everyone wanted to see, and big entertainer equaled big donations.

Photographer Everett Carson wasn't happy about being sent to this kind of shindig, but a paycheck was a paycheck. Everett had some bumps in life and when he found himself in a prostitute's bed in another country, he knew it was time to dry out and get back to work. This gig wasn't exactly his "thing," but it was a good start to re-employment.

All her life, Sister Maggie Kent wanted to be a nun. She loved being married to God and wore her religious wedding band with pride. Caring for the people in San Francisco's Tenderloin District was not just a calling, it was what she loved to do. Feeling like a fish out of water, Maggie was helping out at the benefit at the Ritz-Carlton. It was all another facet of her life of service.

And then the earthquake hit. Tens of thousands dead. Hundreds of thousands homeless. And five lives changed forever.

Hoo, boy.

Several words came to mind when I was listening to this audiobook. Implausible. Insulting. Irritating. Never-ending.

I generally listen to audiobooks in my car while I'm running errands. "Amazing Grace" made me want to stay home.

Steel populated this novel with characters that are either so completely self-centered that I wanted to cover my ears, or are so impossibly angelic that my teeth hurt. The only character that does anything you can imagine anyone actually doing is so hatefully selfish that you want to reach into the CD player and do violence to him.

If you're a big Danielle Steel fan, buy the book and run far away from the CD version of this novel. "Amazing Grace" in audio is an amazing disgrace.



NOVEL PEERS OVER THE FENCE
"Them," by Nathan McCall
Atria
$25, 352 pages

Question: Do you know your neighbors? Do you get along with them?

Perhaps you're the type that likes peace and quiet, but they like it loud. You sleep in on Saturday and they mow the lawn as soon as the sun is up. Or maybe you think your neighbor is OK, it's his kids that aggravate you.

Whatever it is, it's you against them if you don't get along.

In the new novel "Them," by Nathan McCall, the battle lines have been drawn in the Fourth Ward of Atlanta. The solution to the problem can be easily laid out in black and white.

When Barlowe Reed found himself homeless, he realized two things: one, he was one step above the guys sleeping beneath the bridge, and two, he sure wished Nell hadn't kicked him out. He considered calling her back and asking if she would change her mind, but he knew the answer in his heart. Instead, he put money down on the shotgun house in Atlanta's mostly-black Fourth Ward.

The place was leaning to one side and squatters had been literally squatting in it, but with a few gallons of paint and a promise from the landlord, it became home for Barlowe and his former-convict nephew, Tyrone.

Now Barlowe wants to buy the house. If he can scrape up $5,000, he'll be the first person in his family to own a piece of land. But his job is lousy and saving even a few dollars is near impossible. Still, Barlowe has a dream and he has pride in the neighborhood.

And then they start to show up on the streets.

First, it's a white guy with a dog. Then it's a white jogger. Pretty soon they are moving in, buying up houses, forcing the neighborhood to change. Fourth Ward residents don't want them around. Barlowe doesn't want them around, either.

And then a pair of them moves in next door.

Sandy and Sean Gilmore believe the charming Victorian house is the perfect place to live. The neighborhood is up-and-coming, the price was right and they love the house. But it quickly becomes obvious that they don't want the Gilmores in the Fourth Ward. They don't want whites in the neighborhood, period.

So who will give in and leave first? Them ... or them?

Looking for a different kind of novel? One that unfolds with wry, knife-edged wit and a squirmy kind of uneasiness? That's "Them." You know what's going to happen in the story, but you don't want to see it.

While I liked all the characters in this book, Barlowe is my favorite. Part Walter Mitty, part Howard Beale (from the movie "Network"), he surprises himself and everyone else with a sense of fairness that no one ever thought he could possess. I liked that, and I liked this book.


TURNING BACK ON TURNOVER
"Giving Notice," by Freada Kapor Klein
Jossey-Bass
$28, 219 pages

The new year is here and business was good in 2007.

Except for one thing.

Turnover at your company is high and you aren't sure why. Everybody seems happy, but employees just don't want to stick around.

You do know one thing, though. It's got to stop.

Put a plug in employee exodus by reading "Giving Notice," by Freada Kapor Klein. You might be shocked to find out why your staff pool is leaking and your bottom line is going down the drain.

In today's corporate world, diversification seems to be quite the buzzword. Business is a global enterprise and the wise CEO welcomes the chance to work with partners and gain clients from as many countries and cultural groups as possible. Your company has likely spent lots of money and time impressing upon employees the importance of acceptance and tolerance.

But do your actions belie your avowals?

Klein says that even seemingly innocent remarks or cultural assumptions cause tens of thousands of highly talented women, gays, and minorities to leave their jobs in favor of other employment. Offhanded comments create an unwelcome work environment. "Protecting" high-ranking (and high-earning) bigots sends a subtle message. Excluding employees in important work-related functions hammers the message home. This bias costs U.S. businesses a stupefying $64 billion a year in turnover, recruitment, payouts, and more.

But wait, you're thinking. You're no racist. You hire the best candidate, no matter what color or gender they are.

Not surprisingly, most business owners say that, but Klein found that a large majority of us are biased to a greater-or-lesser degree. Bias exists even when executives know they're being tested for it. When given similar resumes for a hypothetical job opening, most managers openly chose the candidate most like them, citing "comfort level" as the reason.

So what can your business do to make employees stay? Klein says that three steps will start the process: Ask each employee to consider his or her personal boundaries in appropriateness of conversation, humor, and social norms. Recognize and respect those boundaries. And if those boundaries aren't respected, give the employee the right to safely speak up.

Sounds easy enough to me. But then I wondered if those steps would be as viable at a huge corporation as they would be at a small mom-and-pop business. Could individual boundaries of tens of thousands of people be respected without offending someone at some time?

Klein is co-founder of the Level Playing Field Institute in San Francisco, and although I thought her recommendations were sound, I think there could have been more usable steps for larger businesses. Klein offers all managers, CEOs and co-workers a good basis for change and conversation starters in this book, but there was a lot of convincing and not quite enough help here for big corporations.

Still, if you've got a revolving door in your HR department, you owe it to your employees to read this important book.