Marshall CookBesprekingen

Well written, focused, not cutesy like so many business how-to books are nowadays, and filled with practical suggestions and helpful examples. Unfortunately, reading it revealed the extent to which I've limped along as a marginal coach and supervisor for far too long!

My only critique is that some of the dialogue was hard to read due to the way the conversations were written going on the same line, rather than separate lines per character

The formatting wasn't good. I had no idea who was speaking & I had to re-read the sentences several times to figure it out. Too much work, plus the story wasn't engaging, DNF'd at 35%

Fairly light book, easy to read and quite short. Nothing terribly exciting and a little predictable with quite stereotyped characters.

Monona "Mo" Quinn edits the local paper in a suburb of Madison in Dane County, Wisconsin. She has the reputation of being a real "Nancy Drew." Unfortunately this book was just not believable. I find it difficult to believe that a sheriff in such a large county would be as inept as the one depicted in this novel. The characters weren't very likeable to me, and I found myself not really caring about the novel. Once a true motive for the murder was uncovered, it wasn't difficult to figure out who committed the crime. I can live without reading future installments of this series. ***SPOILER ALERT: There are some coverup elements in this story that are too near the recent scandal involving Jerry Sandusky and the Penn State team for my tastes.***½

I like the exercises that this book lays out.

I originally read this when I was a creative writing undergrad. I remembered liking it pretty well, so I picked it up again recently as I attempt to inject my fledgling writing career with a fresh dose of focus and inspiration. I'm very glad I did. A good deal of the advice is the same as what can be found in other books on writing, but Cook offers some good specific suggestions and practices that I actually do use in my own writing. His friendly, conversational tone makes this an easy read, and he's so obviously passionate about writing that it's hard not to be inspired.½