Mary Jo Tate One of the best business books I read last year was Good to Great by Jim Collins. It’s based on an impressive five-year study of companies that made the leap from good to great . . . and comparable companies that failed to make the leap. Even though its focus is on corporations, most of … Read more
My reading for 2005 included business, classic fiction, current fiction, autobiography, masculinity and femininity, homeschooling, health, personal and business productivity, marketing, travel, childrearing, time management, writing, and more. You can see why I call myself the Eclectic Bibliophile! Carolyn 101 by Carolyn Kepcher Laddie by Gene Stratton-Porter The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton Homeschooler’s College … Read more
What we read has a profound impact on us. Whether it’s for education or entertainment, instruction or escape, it shapes who we are and who we become. For that reason (and also because I’m a compulsive documenter), in July of 1986 I began keeping a list of every book I read. I keep my list … Read more
Only a die-hard bibliophile would own a book with a title like A Brief Illustrated History of the Bookshelf What fun to see the many ways that bibliophiles through the ages have stored their treasures! Here are a couple of my favorite quotes: I have heard people complain innumerable times that they have no space … Read more
A couple of years ago one of my Mastermind teammates challenged me to answer these three questions: * What would I be doing if nothing stood in my way? * What stands in my way? * What do I need to do to achieve my goals? I resisted it, put it off, said I didn’t … Read more
Which comes first—the wardrobe or the magician? C. S. Lewis published one Narnia book a year from 1950-1956, in this order: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Prince Caspian The Voyage of the Dawn Treader The Silver Chair The Horse and His Boy The Magician’s Nephew The Last Battle At some point, Lewis allegedly told … Read more
What bliss to relax in front of a roaring fire with Jan Karon’s Mitford Cookbook & Kitchen Reader! I recently met a major deadline for a book of my own, so I celebrated by lounging in the recliner for an hour or so with this delightful book. Recipes are evenly interspersed with related passages from the … Read more
In case you’re wondering, I haven’t dropped off the planet! I was in Los Angeles for a business conference, then playing catch-up at home, then a transformer explosion fried my computer’s power supply for a week. Whew! During family time in front of the fire and while driving to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving, the … Read more
I was just browsing through a newsletter from one of the homeschooling companies that offer a complete packaged curriculum (fourth grade in a box) and optional support services. There were a few good ideas, but one tip came across completely wrong. The suggestion was to establish a specific area to use for homeschooling, and to use it … Read more
One day last spring, my 4yo Thomas wanted to know if today was a school day. “I want to do school,” he said. “What kind of school work do you want to do?” I asked him. He replied, “I want to do the kind of school where the whole family sits down together and draws … Read more