machines!

Big Machine: A Novel
$25.00
I forget how I heard about this novel (Powells in Portland, OR; NY Times; Amazon), but I had this on my radar approx. 2 weeks before it was released.

I tore through this novel in only a few sittings, and it's such a mindjob of a story. There's hyper-realism, mysticism, sci-fi/horror rumblings...all with protagonists as ill-at-ease with their lives as anyone thrust into circumstances beyond their comprehension.

Victor LaValle's "Big Machine" is full of ideas about how we fit in the world, what we're destined for...and what it means to have faith (and, how that faith can shake everything to its core).

The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies
$15.00
Chet highlights proven sales techniques but with a new twist... dogged determination. Being a martial arts instructor shows up in his presentation. Really an outstanding sales guide with in-depth descriptions on how to find, sell and retain new customers. Follow his recommendations and I have no doubt you can double your sales. As a sales manager, I plan on implementing his game plan with my small sales force.

The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds
$25.99
If you've read other books about the Reds, or were alive then and had access to the Sporting News, Baseball Digest, or the Reds newsletter there's not a ton of new material here. However, the author gets into what actually made some of the players tick better than I've seen in other books, especially Ken Griffey and Gary Nolan about whom I knew next to nothing prior to reading. You can tell he interviewed a lot of players and spent time analyzing what they said.

On a positive note it's a great recap of the season, especially from the eyes of the main 4 starters (Morgan, Rose, Bench, and Perez (my favorite)). I remember a lot of the games and gained some insights I didn't have about them. The reader will really feel like he did as the season unwinds, particularly the cold start the Reds and their fans endured that year. The author does a good job of explaining how much pressure Sparky Anderson and the team were under that year...the "choker" title was just about to be bestowed on them. Posnanski treats Game 6 of the 1975 World Series with as much detail as he does the other games, which is helpful since other writers and TV shows about the 1975 World Series spend so much time on it. It was a great game, but, as a Reds fan I enjoyed Games 5 and 7 a lot more.

On a negative note, I could have stood to hear more about the pitching staff in general and some of the bench players, e.g. Bill Plummer, Darrel Chaney, Doug Flynn.

Still, it's a fun book and if you are fan of the Reds from that time or baseball in the 70's in general, it's worth the investment.

Brother CS6000I 60-Stitch Computerized Free-Arm Sewing Machine with Multiple Stitch Functions
$449.00
I have done a few projects on my new machine. For the most part, it has been really good, nice and easy. I really enjoy not having to use the foot pedal. My last project was not so good. My top thread kept breaking. At first I thought it was a chip in my plate, but that is not the case. I have yet to bring it back out and explore it further. Hopefully it is just my needle or something very fixable, and not a permanent malfunction.