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Saturday 6 August 2016

Author Interview And Book Giveaway: Hire Train Monitor Motivate By David J Waldron

About the author

David J. Waldron is a passionate student and practitioner of organization, team, and individual career effectiveness in the transformational workplace. He is the author of the new book, Hire Train Monitor Motivate (Country View) published May 31, 2016 and now available on Amazon Books and in the Kindle Store.He is also author of The Ten Domains of Effective Goal Setting (Country View: 2016) and A Great Place to Learn & Earn (Country View: 2015).

David is an award winning contributing writer to Seeking Alpha; and frequent contributor to Career Education Review, HR.com, and Pulse. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business studies from Stockton University and completed The Practice of Management Program at Brown University. David lives with his wife, Suzan, outside Providence, Rhode Island USA.

Find the author here: 



About the book:

Paperback, First Edition, 86 pages
Published May 31st 2016 by Country View
Rating: 4.5/5

Blurb: The transformational workplace of the twenty-first century is front and center. Are you ready to navigate its twists and turns toward reaching your career goals and dreams? In Hire Train Monitor Motivate, author and veteran organizational leader, David J. Waldron, offers powerful, yet simple techniques that can dramatically improve your organization, team, or individual career achievements in today’s hyper-competitive local and global marketplaces.

This practical book will teach you how to master the art of workplace effectiveness by first making a lasting commitment to placing people first, whether a customer, recruit, staff member, or coworker. Then hire, or get hired for an optimistic mindset; train, or be trained for delivering quality products and services; monitor, or allow monitoring for regulatory compliance; and motivate, or stay motivated for enduring performance.

As a practitioner more so than an academic, Waldron, presents unpretentious, everyday workplace rules that when implemented, or followed, can transform your organization, team, or individual career to one of lasting distinction. Master the proven techniques for playing the game the right way and learn how to practice leadership or teamwork by inclusion toward making your workplace a great place to learn, earn, and grow.

Hire Train Monitor Motivate guides the reader toward recognizing his or her essential role in today’s transformational workplace. A work environment—whether for-profit, nonprofit, or in the public service—that requires an understanding and buy-in to the Millennial Model, the cultural transition of the now predominant generation that, according to Waldron, is fast becoming the new standard in organizational behavior, group dynamics, and individual effectiveness. This horizontal hierarchical model will likely drive the influential organizations, teams, and careers of the twenty-first century as the vertical hierarchy of the Baby Boomer generation did in the twentieth century.

Waldron guides the reader in embracing crucial areas of the modern workplace. Join him as he explores the emerging dominance of the expert economy; the importance of lifelong learning and perpetual career development; and how to be an active participant—as opposed to the spectator—on the precipice of reinventing compensation and worker equality. Plus, why accepting the significance of work/life balance will remain necessary to sustainable career success.

Whether an owner, donor, leader, manager, supervisor, or staff member, make a commitment to your essential role in the transformational workplace. Read Hire Train Monitor Motivate, today, and make your workplace a great place tomorrow. Your organization, team, and career are counting on you.

Interview:

Kritika: How is the publishing process like for a non-fiction? 

David: I have only written non-fiction since I wrote a two act play in 9th grade English that my teacher adored and encouraged me to write more. So I can’t compare but what I enjoy about non-fiction is I get to write what I know. It is a culmination of life’s experiences. The publishing process is simple (but certainly not easy): plan, research, write, edit, format, publish, and market.

Kritika: What is it about writing a non-fiction that people do not know? 
David: Fiction certainly dominates the overall book market, but non-fiction plays an essential role in assuring that our personal and professional lives are balanced between reality and entertainment. I think both genres are necessary for a rich reading experience.

Kritika: What challenges does a non-fiction writer face? 
David: Publishers prefer lots of pages and words to justify book prices. Most non-fiction books I read (and enjoy) are about 250-400 pages but I typically can highlight the key concepts down to about 100 pages. The other 150-300 pages are mostly filler to satisfy publishers and reference material to satisfy academia. I write what I know with no filler (I think) and limited reference material which is why my books are all around 100 pages.

Kritika: One thing about writing you absolutely love? 
David: Creating something from mind to screen, then to paper or online, and sharing it with the world for better or worse.

Kritika: One thing about writing you kind of hate? 
David: The process is very time consuming. A month as writer seems to go much quicker than a month as an education executive (my former career).

Kritika: How would you describe your relationship with deadlines? 
David: Assigned deadlines are non-negotiable – so you just meet them. Self-imposed deadlines are the most challenging as they are negotiable and therefore can lead to unintended procrastination.

Kritika: When did you decide you write this book? 
David: My first book, A Great Place to Learn & Earn was a memoir of my career in post-secondary education. Hire Train Monitor Motivate is based on the workplace concepts and principles of the original book but is targeted to all careers and industries.

Kritika: What was the trigger for you to write a book dealing with HR topics? 
David: Thirty plus years as a leader, manager, supervisor and staff member in the workplace. I combined my professional experience with my passion for writing into a new career as a non-fiction author. HR topics are varied and controversial which makes them fun to write about. I am a frequent contributing writer to HR.com: the Human Resources Social Network (free, registration required.)

Kritika: What was it like to assimilate all HR wisdom in one concise book? 
David: Some authors prefer to separate related concepts into several books. For example, I could have written perhaps three books on Hire Train Monitor Motivate: one about hiring, one on training, and one on motivating. But I have several books in the works as part of the Books for Main Street℠ series at my publisher, Country View. Therefore, I decided to put all these HR concepts into one book and still keep it at a readable at 100 pages. I like to think of the book as more of a handbook for career motivated millennials.

Kritika: How do you plan for a non-fiction like this, do you write the broad headlines and then work on it, or do you gather all the pointers and then club them together? 
David: Great question, Kritika! I start with a working title which will often change as the book is written. For example, Hire Train Monitor Motivate was originally titled, Make Your Workplace a Great Place, which ended up as a chapter title. I then outline the book based on notes and research of the principles and concepts. Then organize the outline into a table of contents and begin writing. And writing. And writing. I will skip around and write a chapter or section based on what is flowing from my mind on that particular day. It is kind of like making a movie, where scenes are shot from a storyboard but rarely in order of the script. The editing process then puts the scenes together in sequence. The same with a non-fiction book as it is ultimately edited into a hopefully seamless and orderly flow. Like fiction, repetitiveness is common in non-fiction to insure the reader is given ample opportunity to grasp the concept (or plot development in fiction) so the transition to the next concept (or plot twist) is seamless.

Kritika: Are you currently working on another non-fiction book? 
David: I am currently writing the next book in my series, “Books for Main Street℠,” about personal investing, an adult life-long passion of mine. The working title (which I think will stick) is Value Investing for Main Street. It is a primer on how to invest with limited capital, lower costs, and less risk than the titans of Wall Street. The book is based on my article series of the same title on Seeking Alpha, the most read online investment platform on the web.


Nothing elates me more than the fact that there's more wisdom coming from this person in his next books!
Thank you so much for an amazing interview!

For a limited time, the eBook edition of Hire Train Monitor Motivate is being offered in a free promotion on KindleiBooksNookKoboInktera, and Smashwords

He is also generous so as to give away a paperback copy of his book, and the giveaway is open worldwide. All you have to do is follow the instructions on the rafflecopter below.
This giveaway is being run by the blog SO Many Books, SO Little Time in collaboration with the author, and has no affiliation to any other entity.

It is open for a week, so do not wait and participate right away!
The only condition is to have an amazon deliverable address!

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Links to the book:








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Friday 5 August 2016

Book Review: Hire Train Monitor Motivate By David J Waldron

About the book:

Title: Hire Train Monitor Motivate By David J Waldron
Paperback, First Edition, 86 pages
Published May 31st 2016 by Country View
Rating: 4.5/5


Blurb: The transformational workplace of the twenty-first century is front and center. Are you ready to navigate its twists and turns toward reaching your career goals and dreams? In Hire Train Monitor Motivate, author and veteran organizational leader, David J. Waldron, offers powerful, yet simple techniques that can dramatically improve your organization, team, or individual career achievements in today’s hyper-competitive local and global marketplaces.

This practical book will teach you how to master the art of workplace effectiveness by first making a lasting commitment to placing people first, whether a customer, recruit, staff member, or coworker. Then hire, or get hired for an optimistic mindset; train, or be trained for delivering quality products and services; monitor, or allow monitoring for regulatory compliance; and motivate, or stay motivated for enduring performance.

As a practitioner more so than an academic, Waldron, presents unpretentious, everyday workplace rules that when implemented, or followed, can transform your organization, team, or individual career to one of lasting distinction. Master the proven techniques for playing the game the right way and learn how to practice leadership or teamwork by inclusion toward making your workplace a great place to learn, earn, and grow.

Hire Train Monitor Motivate guides the reader toward recognizing his or her essential role in today’s transformational workplace. A work environment—whether for-profit, nonprofit, or in the public service—that requires an understanding and buy-in to the Millennial Model, the cultural transition of the now predominant generation that, according to Waldron, is fast becoming the new standard in organizational behavior, group dynamics, and individual effectiveness. This horizontal hierarchical model will likely drive the influential organizations, teams, and careers of the twenty-first century as the vertical hierarchy of the Baby Boomer generation did in the twentieth century.

Waldron guides the reader in embracing crucial areas of the modern workplace. Join him as he explores the emerging dominance of the expert economy; the importance of lifelong learning and perpetual career development; and how to be an active participant—as opposed to the spectator—on the precipice of reinventing compensation and worker equality. Plus, why accepting the significance of work/life balance will remain necessary to sustainable career success.

Whether an owner, donor, leader, manager, supervisor, or staff member, make a commitment to your essential role in the transformational workplace. Read Hire Train Monitor Motivate, today, and make your workplace a great place tomorrow. Your organization, team, and career are counting on you.

About the author
David J. Waldron is a passionate student and practitioner of organization, team, and individual career effectiveness in the transformational workplace. He is the author of the new book, Hire Train Monitor Motivate (Country View) published May 31, 2016 and now available on Amazon Books and in the Kindle Store.

He is also author of The Ten Domains of Effective Goal Setting (Country View: 2016) and A Great Place to Learn & Earn (Country View: 2015).

David is an award winning contributing writer to Seeking Alpha; and frequent contributor to Career Education Review, HR.com, and Pulse. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business studies from Stockton University and completed The Practice of Management Program at Brown University. David lives with his wife, Suzan, outside Providence, Rhode Island USA.

Find the author here: 





My Review:

To begin with, this is a quick, good read. Usually the books that talk about HR and management wisdom and the like read as textbooks, always didactic, always sleep-inducing. What sets this book apart is the fact that this isn't a lengthy text or research paper that uses jargons to make a point look valid.
For one, it is a fairly quick read, and while you'll surely want to make notes and markers and jot down tips from it, it doesn't take you very long to absorb the meaning that the book is trying to convey.
There are umpteen professional, hands-on tips on important HR activities like interviews, group discussions, hiring, incentives, among other things. So, even if you are not hiring but are getting hired, it provides useful insights from the other side of the table. I have myself made a lot of markers at different pages to refer to these points in the future.
If you're a part of any organization, which at some level, each one of us is, then, in my opinion, you need to apprise yourself with the mechanics of the crucial processes of hiring, training, etc.
So, to give you an example, it talks about ninety-day impact, which is a very useful piece of information, considering its knowledge will help everyone in the system aim at higher efficiency.

With short paragraphs and short snippets on every HR topic under the sun, I can see myself coming back to the book for reference purposes in the future.
Simply put, here is some practical knowledge. here are some techniques that work.
The other things- the title, the cover are also so precise and apt that they reflect and portray the meaning of the book quite well.
So now, while this book is certainly not boring as a textbook, while imparting equal, if not more, information, still there's a scope for including more and more anecdotes and maybe engaging comments/exercises. It would have drawn me to read the book almost instantly.
The author's own experiences have been drawn inspiration from, considering his amazing background in the field and his body of work. No doubt, this book is a resource for anyone who wishes to enhance his/her knowledge about human resource management.

For a limited time, the eBook edition of Hire Train Monitor Motivate is being offered in a free promotion on KindleiBooksNookKoboInktera, and Smashwords

Links to the book:




Source of the review copy: Book Received from the author, in exchange of an honest review




To get your book reviewed, read my review policy here. And then contact me here.


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Book Blast: The Conspiracy at Meru

The Conspiracy at Meru (Vikramaditya Veergatha # 2)





VICTORY IS TEMPORARY. THE BATTLE IS ETERNAL.

Vikramaditya and his Council of Nine have fought valiantly to repel the rampaging hordes from Devaloka and Patala – but Avanti has been brought to its knees. Ujjayini lies battered its citizens are scared and morale is badly shaken. Meanwhile, the barbaric Hunas and Sakas are gathering on the horizon and cracks are emerging between the allied kingdoms of Sindhuvarta.

The only silver lining is that the deadly Halahala is safe. For now.

Bent on vengeance, Indra is already scheming to destroy Vikramaditya, while Shukracharya has a plan that can spell the doom for the Guardians of the Halahala. How long can the human army hold out against the ferocity and cunning of the devas and asuras? And will Vikramaditya’s love for his queen come in the way of his promise to Shiva?






The deadly Halahala, the all-devouring poison churned from the depths of the White Lake by the devas and asuras, was swallowed by Shiva to save the universe from extinction.
But was the Halahala truly destroyed?
A small portion still remains – a weapon powerful enough to guarantee victory to whoever possesses it. And both asuras and devas, locked in battle for supremacy, will stop at nothing to claim it.
As the forces of Devaloka and Patala, led by Indra and Shukracharya, plot to possess the Halahala, Shiva turns to mankind to guard it from their murderous clutches. It is now up to Samrat Vikramaditya and his Council of Nine to quell the supernatural hordes – and prevent the universe from tumbling into chaos!
A sweeping tale of honour and courage in the face of infinite danger, greed and deceit, The Guardians of the Halahala is a fantastical journey into a time of myth and legend.


About the Author

Door-to-door salesman, copywriter, business journalist & assistant editor at The Economic Times; Shatrujeet Nath was all this before he took to writing fiction full-time. He debuted with The Karachi Deception in 2013, followed by The Guardians of the Halahala and The Conspiracy at Meru, the first two books in the Vikramaditya Veergatha series. At present, he is writing volume three of the series. Shatrujeet lives in Mumbai, but spends much of his time in the fantasy worlds of his stories.


Also by the Author:


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Thursday 4 August 2016

Book Review: Dream Job by Janet Garber

About the book:

Title: Dream Job, Wacky Adventures of an HR Manager
Paperback, 178 pages
Published March 16th 2016 by Janet Garber via Lulu
Rating: 4/5

Blurb: Single sexless Melanie Kohl's trying to keep it all together at Axis Mundi Medical Center in NYC where misbehaving doctors and immoral staff line up outside her HR office for solace and solutions. Hey, she's got her own problems! Where is her life? Just as she's starting to melt down . . .

Join Melie for a wild ride through a landscape dotted with comical mishaps, murder, and romance. Will she learn to balance work and life? Have you?

About the author
Janet Garber
Janet Garber toiled in the trenches as a HR exec in NYC for xx years, using those experiences to indulge in her prime passion: Writing. She focused on careers (WSJ, NY Post, trade journals), reviewed new books (www.neworldreview.com and simplycharly.com), movies (Stage and Cinema, Senior Film Files), and published a non-fiction book, assorted articles, essays, poems, short fiction, and, in March 2016, her first novel, Dream Job, Wacky Adventures of an HR Manager.

Find the author here: 



My Review:
I will start from the cover of the book. It has management and HR written all over it.
With a silhoutte of a face and dream job inscribed on it, it is hard to miss the irony and the multiple meanings lent to it.

At first I found it an exercise and a tough one to delve under the skin of the book but there was an inundation of names making it a bit tougher for me to get through without going back every 5 sentences or so.
But then the humor and the cases of HR take over, and my reading caught up speed.
There's the tricky area of sexual harassment cases, and makes me want to double up how grievance redress can be so annoying and for the lack of a better word, cathartic at the same time.

The protagonist is an interesting portrait herself who at one point was just okay with the idea of having a boyfriend, but as it turns out romance isn't every ones domain of expertise.
Bottom line: the job of an HR manager is not an easy one. If anything, it is the resignation to a morbid tell-tale of people's complaints and dealing with the most difficult creatures on this planet: humans. Oh the relief it is to have defused a major catastrophe.

Her subway escapades had me sympathising with her. And the description was so life like.

Links to the book:




Source of the review copy: Author



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Wednesday 3 August 2016

A New Bookstore In (Virtual) Town: BOOKLE




Bookle.in/ is India's first online bookstore for kids. And who am I kidding, I read children's books even now, so nothing really comes as a surprise.


My experience with Bookle:
The search was pretty easy.

There was a filter for price.

Shipping is free only for order above Rs 500, which is not a bad deal, considering that I would definitely buy a bunch of books and not just one.

The collection is adorable.

They let you sell books you bought from Bookle only, at 50% of the price.

Here's the bunch I ordered, and that arrived promptly, and for 500, it wasn't a bad deal at all.
I had never read GooseBumps ever, so I ordered those, along with a copy of High School Musical.

I received the delivery in a fine state, and the quality is not bad at all. Traversing the portal wasn't difficult at all.

Here's what my purchase looked like!





The only surprise element that could also be a downside is the fact that you can never guess the actual condition of the books that you're going to receive. I received some of them in a really decent condition, but all of them reeked of a used-rugged smell and sight. They looked like they came from a library clearance. I think what could help in this case is posting pictures of the actual products. Which also brings me to another glitch, that the pictures are pixelated. Had the pictures been clearer, I could have made wiser decisions.

The prices, for this condition, do seem higher, especially when we can get these books at this quality at Sunday markets, among other cheap deals.

But children's books are a tricky affair and this website will definitely untie some knots of the trick here.
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Monday 1 August 2016

Book Review: Take One More Chance by Shriya Garg

About the book:
13041100
Title: Take One More Chance
Paperback, First, 426 pages
Published January 2011 by Mahaveer Publishers
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4/5
BlurbWhen Naina is set the daunting task of finding her Mr Right, her siblings and best friend offer to help. But after sending every man she meets to the hospital, she finds herself falling for the one she cannot stand. This is the intriguing and hilarious love story of Naina Kashyap and her arch enemy.
About the author
The author bio is from Juggernaut, the app where I read this book! They are  a mobile-first publishing company started by Chiki Sarkar and Durga Raghunath, aiming to give authors and books a physical as well as a digital platform. 

My Review:

This one was a couple-hours long read. And a thorough entertainer nevertheless.
While the plot was a giveaway right from the blurb, it was interesting to see how the plot panned out.


There is an uncanny pleasure (sadistic?) I derive from stories that revolve around finding THE ONE. Any story around this theme inexplicably cracks me up, and there's no dearth of humor in them either. The world has been very dynamic and the approach to relationships has undergone a huge change, but a section Indian parents have not moved even a bit from their concerns. And that's nothing short of hilarious. Because it is so painfully real to life, there's some fun involved in casually reading these tales. The plots are a treat always, in that they are always interspersed with jokes, amateurish frustration and healthy banter. The protagonists Naina and Aditya were endearing right from the start, and the other characters were just as pivotal as they were a good company.
There was a slight need of lubricants in the scene that linked the plot to the opening lines, rest was all a thorough joyride.

Bonus: I loved reading it on the Juggernaut app, which is super-comfortable and convenient.

Links to the book:





Source of the review copy: Juggernaut app


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Kritika's bookshelf: read

Angels & Demons
The Story of My Life
The Hunger Games
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Ruined
A Tale of Two Cities
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
Sense and Sensibility
Emma
A Christmas Carol
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Kidnapped
The Time Machine
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The Da Vinci Code


Kritika Narula's favorite books »


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