Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher, William Ury

Based on the work of the Harvard Negotiation Project, this book outlines the key point of how to negotiate effectively so that both parties can reach a mutually acceptable agreement without being adversarial. The authors have four key points: Separating the people from the problem, focusing on each party's interests instead of their positions, work together to create mutually beneficial options, and how to deal with those who are more powerful or not willing to negotiate fairly. The authors use examples from both famous negotiations and day-to-day interactions to illustrate their techniques. 

This is an old classic in the library of business self-help books, but there is a reason has gone through multiple editions.  The advice is common sense and really useful.  The writing is clear, and the authors use interesting examples.  Since it is an older book, younger readers might not remember some of the famous examples, like the Iran Hostage Crisis, or the Egypt Israel treaty of 1979, but the authors explain them well enough to still be illustrative. In this third edition, the authors include a few comments about how the internet has influenced negotiations, but mostly to warn people not to try to negotiate solely via texts or emails. I checked out the book because of some upcoming negotiation I will need to do at work, and I felt like I gained some good ideas from it. (240, 2011)

Ring of Secrets by Roseanna M. White

 Winter lives with her loyalist grandparents. They urge her to play the dumb beauty at social events, but she is really a patriot spy.  Most men don't see past her beautiful but witless façade, except awkward Harvard professor Bennet Lane. He is convinced that there is more to Winter than her beauty, and is determined to find out what it is.  His attentions make it harder for Winter to pass the information she gleans from her many admirers, but Winter's grandparents urge her to encourage Lane's attentions since he is set to inherit a large English estate. As they are thrown together, Winter begins to feel as attached to him as her grandparents wish, but how can she fall in love with a loyalist, continue her spy work, and let the man she is starting to love see the real her. 

My dedicated readers know how much I loved Ms White's Christian spy romances that were set in WWI.  They have been some of my favorite all time Christian historical romances. I also really enjoyed this one but it has a slightly different flavor. As I read it I wondered if it was one of Mrs White's earlier books, and it is. Her writing just wasn't quite as refined as in the Codebreakers series.  The religious elements are quite a bit more heavy handed.  Every chapter has the characters praying out-loud of spouting scripture. It could be off-putting to some, but it was actually just right for me this week (despite the less than ideal cover). I like her characters, and her plot was well crafted. I wonder how much reflects actually Revolutionary War history? I have already put the second in the series on my wish list and will check it out next time I need some biblio RX. (352 p. 2013)

12 Days at Bleakly Manor by Michelle Griep

 When Clara Chapman was left abandoned at the alter, her life changed forever.  Not only did her fiancé leave her, he also embezzled money from her family's business.  Clara goes from being a debutant to being a poor dependent relation living off an aunt's generosity. Then one day, right before Christmas, Clara receives a mysterious invitation. If she can go to a house party at Bleakly Manor, and stay there for the full 12 days of Christmas, she will receive enough money to give her a modest independent living. When she arrives there are other guests that have been promised similar boons if they can last out the 12 days, including Ben Lane, her estranged fiancé, but no host for the party.  As each day passes, strange and dangerous events occur which threaten the guests, but slowly bring Clara and Ben together.  Can both of them forgive the pain caused by their misunderstanding, while surviving Bleakly Manor?

One of the patrons at the library recommended Michelle Griep to me as a good Christian Historical Romance writer, so I picked one of her books to try.  It ended up being pretty good.  Griep is a decent writer and likes a clever turn of phrase.  The characters, though not terribly deep, where still well drawn and sympathetic, The ending was a little contrived, but I liked it anyway.  I will definitely be putting Ms Griep on my Good Clean Romance Writer's list. (2017, 192 p.)

The Unselected Journals of Emma Lion V. 6 by Beth Brower

 Emma's relationships with Islington, Pierce, and Hawkes becomes closer and more complicated.  They pass Christmas together and Emma reaches her 21st birthday, when she legally gains her majority.  A lot of good it does her, since she barely has any inheritance left, so she takes a job as a lady's companion and tutor. That doesn't go so well, due to some mishaps with some pets. The whole fiasco is nearly worth it because she gets to share the story with her new friend, Mrs. Penury. 

This is just more of the writing confection that is Emma Lion.  The characters are all brilliant, and Brower comes up with some really delightful moments, both happy and sad. It is such a lovely story of a shattered young woman and the three men who decide to hold her gently while she gradually mends. (247 p. 2022)

Love and Lavender by Josi Kilpack

 Hazel Stillman has a keen mind and a club foot.  With no hopes of an advantageous marriage, she devotes herself to her chosen profession as a teacher at a girl's school.  Duncan Penhale has a brilliant mind, but his spectrum disorder makes social interaction difficult. Hazel and Duncan share an uncle (though there is no blood relationship since Duncan was an adopted nephew), the same Uncle Elliot who is determined to help all his nieces and nephews find true love.  He offers each of them the fondest wish if they are able to find and marry a suitable spouse. He didn't anticipate that they would confer and decide to marry each other just to get the inheritance. Fearing that they were missing the point, Uncle Elliot adds one more requirement, they have to live together a full year, acting as husband and wife, before they inherit. At first they share a house, but not much else, but as they come to enjoy each other's company, despite their peculiarities, their pretend relationship begins to feel much more real.

Here is another in the Mayfield Family Series.  I have enjoyed the books in this series because the main characters learn to overcome their own shortcomings and hangups to make their match work. I love the message that two people who are willing to be nice to each other can learn to love each other. Kilpack does a good job of making Duncan sympathetic, even though he is not neurotypical and showing how Hazel could fall in love with him.  She also shows how Duncan learns to recognize and show his love for Hazel.  It was a refreshing read after the heavy Irving Stone book. (2021, 320 p.)

The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone

 Michelangelo Buonarroti was born to an old but financially endangered family in Florence in 1475.  Stone's novel about his life is highly fictionalized, but interesting and insightful.  It recounts his life from his childhood in the hills above Florence, through his apprenticeship, and then his time in the household of Lorenzo de Medici.  Stone portrays his lean years trying to establish himself, and then the period when he was forced into projects he didn't want by a long list of corrupt popes and cardinals. Stone particularly focuses on the periods when Michelangelo was working on his most famous pieces, the David, the Sistine Chapel, the de Medici tomb and finally the dome of St Peter's. 

You may have been wondering why I haven't posted in a while.  It is because this recorded book is 34 hrs long! Someone recommended I read it before my trip to Italy next week, and I am glad I did.  I had read it before, years ago, maybe when I was in college*, but it was good to refresh my memory about the time period and all the social pressures that influenced Michelangelo's work. The reader of the audiobook does a good job (even at 125% speed) and the writing style is very readable, if a little sentimental.  I wonder how similar Michelangelo was to Stone's portrayal?  Stone quotes from Michelangelo's letters and poems, and refers to contracts and deeds, suggesting that these were the primary sources he used in writing the book, but that might have just been a literary device.  I was very impressed with Stone's ability to describe and interpret the motivations behind each of the principle art works.  Mostly, I am just excited to actually get to see some of these amazing works next week in person! (776 p. 1961)

*When I read the book those many years ago, I think I was too naive to pick up on a lot of the sexual imagery the justified the book's title. It is subtle, but everywhere :)