‘The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Manga Edition): An Illustrated Leadership Fable’ by Patrick Lencioni

It is safe to say that I wouldn’t have read this book if it weren’t in graphic novel form. Furthermore, I wouldn’t have read this graphic novel if it weren’t something curriculum-related that I purchased for our library. Lencioni’s story is about a business with disorganized unsuccessful leadership that hires a new CEO to turn the company around. Several meetings take place in which she confronts the tension of the existing management and attempts to teach them to work together effectively.

The end of this book gives specific advice for carrying out the team reformation that the author recommends. It’s difficult to say whether this book would be helpful to me if I were actually in a team leadership position. Most of the advice makes sense and is clearly explained. But is the advice too simple? It seems like some of the things discussed may be obvious, but maybe this is the problem – management techniques that work are so deceptively simple that they get overlooked.

As I’m sure some are aware, Lencioni has written The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (non-Manga edition), on which this edition is based. I can’t comment on how similar the content is, not having read the original. However, as a person who reads very little in the way of business management books, I can say that this is a tolerably entertaining, quick and painless read.

'Life of Pi' by Yann Martel

It feels that many people will have already read the novel Life of Pi, so this review may not be terribly helpful to those people. But I have read this book recently and enjoyed it thoroughly, so there will be a review anyway. Life of Pi is the story of a teenage boy, Pi Patel, who is travelling with his family from Asia to North America when the ship sinks. The ship had also been transporting many of the family’s zoo animals, and four of these animals, a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a Bengal tiger, end up on a lifeboat with Pi. After a short time, Pi and the tiger are the only two remaining. Life of Pi is a survival story combined with the unusual element of fear, admiration and love of the Bengal tiger, Robert Parker.

Pi is a very religious boy and though the book is not heavy-handed in this respect, there is frequent evidence of his faith throughout. When looked at in these terms, Pi’s love and fear of Richard Parker elevates the tiger to a deity-like status. By staying by his side during his darkest time, the tiger saves Pi from desperation and certain death. If Martel had written a novel about a shipwreck survivor that saved himself through his own faith in god, this wouldn’t have been an unusual book at all; it is the transfer of religious love to a living being that makes the book uncommonly endearing.

All in all, a wonderful book with a bittersweet ending – C.S. Lewis would have been proud.

‘Dance of Death’ by Francine Pascal

It should be painfully obvious by now that I really enjoy reading old Sweet Valley High books. Unfortunately, the local public library doesn’t both keeping these dated teen books on the shelves anymore as updated books for teen girls have become popular lately. Though Dance of Death was enjoyable, it isn’t a stand alone book and ends in a cliffhanger. If the library had the next book in the series this wouldn’t be a problem. Jessica and Enid are competing for the love of the mysterious Jonathan who recently moved to Sweet Valley and lives by himself in a crumbling mansion. Meanwhile, Elizabeth has problems of her own as her summer fling comes to California and attempts to win her from longtime boyfriend Todd Wilkins.

This story seems to be fairly typical of Sweet Valley because it includes Todd/Elizabeth relationship drama and Jessica falling for a somewhat dodgy character. Of course, the best Sweet Valley books also include supernatural elements and Dance of Death won’t disappoint readers in this respect either (spoiler alert: A Vampire, spooky!). On a side note, it amazes me that just about every Sweet Valley book includes Elizabeth cheating on Todd Wilkins, and Todd seems to be thickheaded enough to keep returning to her. But that seems to be just one of the many things that make Sweet Valley so good, no matter how many murders and betrayals take place, it will be mostly back to normal within a couple hundred pages.