Very recognizable.

Like Marguerite I find parties exhausting (I pop out to walk the dog), the noisiness of the open plan office bothers me (and so does wearing ear plugs), and a few years ago I read an article on hidden autism in women that just clicked. Unlike Marguerite I haven't bothered to get a diagnosis: it's not going to cure the social awkwardness; it just makes it more difficult to renew my driver's license.

It was great reading Marguerite's life. I recognize that, and that. Other things: I don't have it as bad as that. Noise in the office: it didn't exhaust me as much as Marguerite, but due to corona most of the colleagues and their annoying habits are working from home now. Still, not going to share I think I have Asperger's with the colleagues; their framework is probably the same as the people Marguerite told (Rain man and such). I've worked too hard at being almost normal to change their opinions of me.

Recommended to everyone that feels awkward in a social situation most of the time. We are not alone.

Recommended to everyone who knows someone that you think is odd and responds unpredictable. (HR manager, I'm looking at you.)

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Great first chapter in the story of Rose.

Rose has always been able to step outside her body and move around as if she were a ghost. After her father's death she meets three ghosts that live in the building that he owned. She also finds the scene of his crime is an exact copy of a scene on a painting in the museum where she works.

There's very strong story telling through the dialogue and the drawings.

I wish I could read the rest of the story already.

I read a copy of this book through Netgalley.

I like a little morbid and absurd humor, and though I recognized the effort in this, only a few of the comics made me snort. Many I found on the dull side.

I liked the recurring characters. I liked that the characters did not have mouths. I didn't like how the images were framed (can't decide whether that is part of a learning curve or done deliberately). And for some reason, it bothers me that all the coffee cups were steaming.

I was looking for some erotica on netgalley and found graphic novel. Curious what that would be like, I downloaded it.

I liked the stories; they were cute. I would have thought the graphicness of the artwork might bother me a little, but it didn't. Not even in the bondage story (which I usually don't like).

In all, I think I'm more of a words person than a pictures person.

This book was recommended to me over 15 years ago when I was job hunting. I didn’t look into it at them time, but when it was up on NetGalley some months ago, I requested it to see what it was about. I’m glad I did not read it when it was first recommended to me.

The first part - about job hunting - quite frankly depressed me. I certainly did not need a negative motivator at that time. The second part - about getting to know you, the people you like to work with and the skills you have - wouldn’t have been of much use to me either. I had very little job experience. I didn’t know yet I prefer to work with competent, open-minded people. I also didn’t know yet there are a lot of incompetent people that really hate for their incompetence to be challenged in the workforce.

On the other hand, when I was job hunting last year, I applied some of these ‘what can I do?’ and ‘what do I want?’ questions in my search. But that came more from the conventional wisdom: “If you keep doing what you always do, you will get the result you always did.” I wanted a different result.

That is perhaps also what irked me about pedal four “Favourite Subjects, Knowledges, Fields and Interests”. After working out all your subjects you group them into bins along the axes of Expertise and Enthusiasm and you copy the top four or five in bin #1 (high expertise + high enthusiasm) onto pedal four ”and maybe, just maybe, one item from bin #2”. But if you want to change careers, you’re probably very enthusiastic about something you don’t have a lof of expertise in yet - at least I was. You’re not going to get a lot of expertise if you are going to abandon this subject in favour of subjects you have more expertise in but less enthusiasm for (but still more than average enthusiasm otherwise they would not have ended up in bin #1).

Pedal five “Salary” I found disappointing. It’s about determining your minimum salary based on your current spending. It does not go into determining a realistic salary range based on the skills and expertise. Any employer should pay you based on what you bring into the job (skill and expertise). The bare minimum (salary based on spending) should only be used as a reflection tool: can I actually afford this job?

Chapter 10 goes into researching salaries, but it really should be in your flower. The flower is what is supposed to keep you motivated during your jobhunt and it’s kind of disheartening to look at a salary that ranges from minimum living wage to this sounded kind of nice.

The third part - what to do to land the job you want to do - was all right, until it got to the section about job interview questions. ”the most important question they are likely to ask you is ‘Tell me about yourself’ (…) With this question they are giving you a kind of test. They want to see how you respond to an open-ended, unstructured situation”
No, they are not. It’s a lazy question asked by employers who have no idea what they want or how they’re going to compare the different candidates they have. “Tell me about yourself” is perhaps a great opportunity for self-promotion for job candidates, for employers it means they are going to end up with the best person to make conversation with at the coffee-machine. That’s not necessarily the best person for the job, but then, conversations at the coffee-machine are important too, right?

(Same goes for the “Where do you see yourself in five years?” question. Anyone that’s paid attention in the past year knows that’s an impossible question to answer.)

I skipped the orange pages.

The best tip I read in the book is ”plan to keep track of your accomplishments at this new job - jotting them down in your own private log.” Simple truth is: other people don’t always see how great you are; you may have to remind them. (And if they ever start taking you for granted, you have a good list of things you can tell new prospective employers about.)

As said, I’m glad I didn’t read this book over fifteen years ago. And as such, I don’t recommend it to people fresh out of college. Introspection is great, but only useful if you have something to introspect about. I would recommend this book to people in their 40’s and 50’s stuck in a rut (workwise or other).

Not sure what to think.

Trinidad decides to move to Sprocket - a small town, but a popular tourist destination - to open a shake shop: specialty freak shakes. About a week before the opening of her shop, she finds her neighbour in his popcorn kettle. Soon after, Juliette who had been dating the man is arrested for murder.

The case seems pretty slim: Juliette’s finger prints were on the murder weapon, but that can be explained in another way; Juliette has no alibi, but it’s up to the DA/police to prove she was at the crime scene, there are no witness to that either; and Juliette made threats to man. For the police it’s enough to arrest her, for the judge enough to deny her bail.

Trinidad believes the woman to be innocent and starts to ask around questions. In between preparations to open up her shop, that is. She’s helped by local farmer Quinn.

The clues are there to figure out the murderer, so that’s good. Still, I couldn’t really engage with the story. Most people seemed to talk too much. Of the “I don’t own you an explanation, but here it is” variety. The sort of talkativeness that works better with someone you have an established relationship with, not with the newcomer in town.