Expert Interviewer

Avil Beckford is founder of Ambeck Enterprise, The Invisible Mentor and Readers are Leaders. I founded The Invisible Mentor, a non-traditional mentoring program where professionals mentor themselves by way of expert interviews with highly successful people, profiles of wise people, and SummaReviews which are hybrid book summaries and reviews.
Listen Now
Add to Technorati Favorites
Blogarama
Biz Blog Directory

Archive for the ‘Book Review/Summary’ Category

The Invisible Mentor Week in Review


This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: By a Thread by Jennifer Estep, Mother Teresa, CEO of the Missionaries of Charity, and Diane Craig, President, Corporate Class Inc.

Adventures in Learning

Self-confidence is an excellent leadership trait. Overconfidence is a dangerous quality to have, which could result in serious repercussions. It’s important to build and protect your reputation. And it’s great to be known for something, but don’t ever let it get to your head and affect your performance.

The Dangers of Believing Your Reputation 

Booked for Mentoring

By a Threadby Jennifer Estep is one of the books in the Elemental Assassin Series. Gin Blanco, an assassin whose moniker is Spider has finally found a way to kill Mab

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Monroe, Queen of the Underworld. However, things have not gotten better in Ashland because now all the factions in the underworld are jockeying for power to take over Mab’s place. Each day, Gin is fighting off the bad guys as they try to eliminate her since they know they can only rule effectively if the Spider is out of the way.

Book Review – By a Thread by Jennifer Estep 

Wisdom of Life Profile

Mother Teresa was CEO of the Missionaries of Charity, a large and growing organization in India. She dedicated most of her life to working with the poorest of the poor, and was practical in that she catered to both their spiritual and physical needs.

Mother Teresa, Founder of Missionaries of Charity and Nobel Prize Peace Winner 

Interviews for Mentoring

This week we featured Diane Craig, President of Corporate Class Inc. How does someone recover first from the death of her husband and then the death of a child? Here are Part I and Part II of Diane Craig’s interview.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Print Friendly

Mentor Yourself: Book Review – By a Thread by Jennifer Estep


By a Thread (Elemental Assassin) by Jennifer Estep is one of the books in the Elemental Assassin Series. Before reading this review, please read Review – Success Lessons from Gin Blanco in Jennifer Estep’s Spider’s Revenge and The Dangers of Believing Your Reputation.

To get the most from this SummaReview of By a Thread, after you have read it, answer the following questions:

  1. Is this a book you’d like to read for yourself? Why? Why not?
  2. What has made an impression on you in this reading?
  3. Were there any kernels of wisdom in this reading?
  4. Is there a framework that you can use in your life and work?
  5. What are five takeaways from the SummaReview?
  6. What is one action that you can take as a result of reading this SummaReview?

Like many of the books in the Elemental Assassin Series, By a Thread (Elemental Assassin) by Jennifer Estep teaches many leadership and success lessons, many of which were already indentified in Review – Success Lessons from Gin Blanco in Jennifer Estep’s Spider’s Revenge so I will not repeat them. However, there were some additional lessons that I thought were worth noting.

Gin Blanco, an assassin whose moniker is Spider has finally found a way to kill Mab Monroe, Queen of the Underworld. However, things have not gotten better in Ashland because now all the factions in the underworld are jockeying for power to take over Mab’s place. Each day, Gin is fighting off the bad guys as they try to eliminate her since they know they can only rule effectively if the Spider is out of the way.

Gin is a retired assassin, but once an assassin, always an assassin. The only difference with her is that now she works for free. She kills those who terrorize others. She is quite weary and her foster brother, Finnegan Lane suggests that she needs to take a vacation – Gin and her boyfriend Owen, and Finnegan with Bria, Gin’s sister.

Gin and Bria were separated for many years after Mab killed their mother and older sister, both thinking that the other is dead. Their relationship is strained because Bria is a detective and Gin is an assassin. They are trying to figure out what their new relationship will look like now that they have found each other.

Bria wants to return to Blue Marsh, an island on the Georgia-South Carolina line where she grew up, one of the reason being that her best friend, Callie Reyes got engaged. The sisters leave a day early because Owen and Finn have business they have to conclude first.

When they arrive, they learn that Callie is being terrorized by the powerful vampire Randall Dekes because he wants her land to build a resort. Dekes kills all the landowners who refuse to sell to him and Callie is now the only person holding out. Callie’s restaurant is located in the middle of Dekes’ planned resort development. Dekes is very powerful, and many are either two afraid of him or simply turn the other way, so law enforcement officers who are not dirty find that their hands are tied.

Dekes sends two of his goons to give Callie a severe warning to force her to sell, but the Spider steps in, and in no time the offenders are on the floor. Callie’s fiancée, Detective Donovan Caine, rushes to the restaurant when he learns of what happened, and comes face-to-face with Gin who he had a “thing” with when he was a detective in Ashland. He is not pleased that Gin is in Blue Marsh, and she is very surprised to see him. Donovan arrests the men, and hours later they are free because of the power that their boss, Dekes wields.

Later in the night, the two men that the Spider hurt and two additional ones goes to the hotel where the sisters are staying with the intention of raping and murdering them. Gin hasn’t gone to bed yet, and hears a sound so she goes to investigate and listens to them just outside her hotel door. When they enter, she is hidden, so they think that they are going to surprise the sisters. The fight starts, and Bria only appears at the end since she was sleeping with earphones and didn’t hear what was going on. The Spider kills three of the men and Bria one. They clean the hotel room, check-out and vacated the premises.

Bria and Gin used a hotel laundry cart to dump the four bodies into the swimming pool. Dekes had called a press conference to announce his resort development project at the hotel’s swimming pool. He changes the venue when his men are found dead there and decides to hold the press conference at his home.

An assassin has a very suspicious personality, and that has served Gin well over the years. Even though they were booked under Bria’s name at Dekes’ luxury hotel, The Blue Sands, Gin booked a beach house using one of her many aliases. Shortly after they arrive at the beach house, Gin calls Finn to alert him to the change of accommodations. Later that day, Owen and Finn arrive at the beach house. Using his extensive contacts in the business community, Finn secures invites to the press conference. He also spends time gathering intelligence on Randall Dekes, which the Spider studies. Gin doesn’t take the time to carefully plan the way she usually does.

The plan is for Gin to go as a reporter and the other three as regular guests. After the press conference, Dekes goes around talking to the guests. When he gets to Gin, she asks him for a personal interview, which he grants. Unknown to her, Dekes already knows that she isn’t a reporter. He knows that she is Gin Blanco also known as the Spider with stone and ice elemental magical powers and has a devious plan in store for her. Gin feels very uneasy, and her alarm screams at her to abort the plan, but she doesn’t listen.

When they are in Dekes’ library where the private interview is supposed to take place, the Spider realizes that she is in serious trouble. She learns that Dekes has been feeding off his wife and sister-in-law to take away their elemental powers. The sister-in-law is more dead than alive at this point because of Dekes’s cruelty. Before the Spider can act, Dekes shoot her with a tranquiller, which numbs her. He sinks his fang into her, and starts feeding on her blood, depleting Gin’s ice and stone magic power. Deekes becomes stronger, and Gin gets weaker. Gin is unusual because she has two strong elemental powers, ice and stone, when others only have one, and both magical powers are very strong. Dekes feeds off her until she comes to an inch of losing her life.

Without the ability to use any weapons, Gin has to think quickly about how to save herself. With a little access to some ice power, she lowers her body temperature, and pretends to be dead. Dekes’ body guards throw her into the surrounding swamp, where Gin has to use her willpower and what little energy she has left to escape.

After more careful planning, the Spider returns to Deke’s home to assassinate him. Her magical powers have not returned to her so she has to use other means to eliminate the vampire. Because of better preparation, and the assistance of Dekes’ wife, a fire elemental, the Spider is able to kill Dekes.

By a Thread (Elemental Assassin)  by Jennifer Estep is an excellent book if you take the time to study Gin Blanco, aka the Spider. It also teaches many leadership and success lessons such as a great leader knows that she needs a team to be successful. If you haven’t done so already, please read Review – Success Lessons from Gin Blanco in Jennifer Estep’s Spider’s Revenge (Spider’s Revenge (Elemental Assassin Books)).

Lessons Leadership Lessons from Gin Blanco, the Spider

  1. Learn from your mistakes: Gin Blanco never makes the same mistake twice. She also learned the lesson Never Believe You Reputation which allowed her to eliminate Dekes’ reign of terror.
  2. It’s more than just about you: Gin learned that lesson after she stopped being an assassin for hire. Now she works to help the vulnerable.
  3. Prepare before taking action: Not only does Gin gather intelligence before the Spider goes out, she evaluates all the scenarios before she chooses, and she usually has a Plan B.
  4. Have focus: Gin has a singular focus and excels at compartmentalizing, and that’s one of the reason she is so successful. Her ability to concentrate on the task at hand is uncanny.
  5. Know when to let go and walk away: Most of the times, Gin aborts a mission when it isn’t safe. Her patience allows her to wait for a better opportunity.
  6. Listen to your instincts: Though this may sound a bit touch-feely, a good leader follows her instincts, that “inner guidance system.”
  7. Never believe your reputation: Self-confidence is an excellent leadership trait, overconfidence isn’t.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Print Friendly

The Invisible Mentor Week in Review


The Invisible Mentor Week in Review

This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: The Invisible Man by H G Wells and The Whip by Karen Kondazian, Wisdom of Life Profile: Isaac Newton, Physicist, Mathematician, and Sandra Ann Baptiste, Consultant, and Trainer.

Adventures in Learning

Last week in the post Self-Mentoring – an Idea for the Twenty-First Century, we delved into the idea of mentoring yourself. We mentioned briefly how to become a self-mentor and how to use The Invisible Mentor blog to mentor yourself. But how do you really mentor yourself, and how can you use resources other than those found on this blog?

How to Self-Mentor 

Booked for Mentoring

The Invisible Man by H G Wells and The Whipby Karen Kondazian are two stories about people altering their appearance, but for very different reasons. I read both stories right after each other and that’s one of the reasons that I noticed the connection between them and thought it would be interesting to review them together. In The Invisible Man, the protagonist altered his appearance because he wanted power and accolades. Charley, in The Whip, altered her appearance to take care of and support herself.

first edition cover of The Invisible Man by H....

first edition cover of The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Book Reviews – The Invisible Man by H G Wells vs. The Whip by Karen Kondazian 

Wisdom of Life Profile

Isaac Newton was born on Christmas day in 1642 in Lincolnshire, England as a premature baby who was not expected to live. His father had died three months before he was born, and when Newton was three, his mother remarried and left him with his grandfather. While he attended King’s School, a grammar school, he lived in the house of an apothecary. As a young lad, Newton had an interest in mechanical things and made windmills, water clocks, kites and sundials.

Mentor Yourself With Isaac Newton, English Physicist, Mathematician 

Interviews for Mentoring

This week we featured Sandra Ann Baptiste, consultant and trainer who has met all the key people that she has ever wanted to meet. Here are Part I and Part II of Sandra Ann Baptiste’s interview.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Print Friendly

Book Reviews – The Invisible Man by H G Wells vs. The Whip by Karen Kondazian


Book Reviews – The Invisible Man by H G Wells vs. The Whip by Karen Kondazian (Click on the link to get to each review)

Expert Interviews With Successful People

The Invisible Man by H G Wells and The Whip by Karen Kondazian are two stories about people altering their appearance, but for very different reasons. I read both stories right after each other and that’s one of the reasons that I noticed the connection between them and thought it would be interesting to review them together. In The Invisible Man, the protagonist altered his appearance because he wanted power and accolades. Charley, in The Whip, altered her appearance to take care of and support herself.

I will present the reviews separately then I will tie them together.

To get the most from the SummaReviews of The Invisible Man by H G Wells and The Whip by Karen Kondazian, after you have read them, answer the following questions:

  1. Are these books that you’d like to read for yourself? Why? Why not?
  2. What has made an impression on you in this reading?
  3. Were there any kernels of wisdom?
  4. Is there a framework that you can use in your life and work?
  5. What are five takeaways from the SummaReview?
  6. What is one action that you can take as a result of reading this SummaReview?

Book Review -

The Invisible Man, H G Wells

The Invisible Man, a science fiction novella by H G Wells has a very dramatic start. “The stranger came in February, one wintry day, through a biting wind and a driving snow, the last snowfall of the year, over the down, walking from Bramblehusrt railway station, and carrying a little portmanteau in his thickly gloved hand. He was wrapped from head to foot, and the brim of his soft felt hat hid every inch of his face, but the shiny tip of his nose; the snow had piled itself against his shoulder and chest, and added a white crest to the burden he carried. He staggered in the “Coach and Horses” more dead than alive, and flung his portmanteau down. ‘A fire’ he cried, ‘in the name of human charity! A room and a fire!’ He stamped and shook the snow off himself in the bar, and followed Mrs Hall into her guest parlour to strike a bargain. And with that much introduction, that and a couple of sovereigns flung unto the table, he took up his quarters in the inn.”

The Invisible Man

The Invisible Man (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Isn’t that a great story starter? You can picture this person who arrives at the “Coach and Horses” and the reader instantly knows that this person has to be the invisible man. This is the first book I have read which was written by H G Wells – who also wrote War of the Worlds – and I liked it a lot. I went through a range of emotions while reading the book, and there were times when I sympathized with the protagonist, even though I knew that I shouldn’t, and I felt ashamed about it.

In the story you have this man, who looks very weird. He arrives in a small town and there is a cloud of secrecy surrounding him. No one knows his name, and he doesn’t engage in serious conversation with anyone. Mrs Hall assumes that the stranger had an accident or an operation of some sort and that’s why he looks so weird. We know he is invisible and we cannot help but wonder how he became that way. Was it an experiment gone wrong? Was it deliberate? If it was deliberate, what was his motive for becoming invisible?

Initially we do not know the invisible man’s name. However, later in the story we learn that his name is Giffin. The invisible man is locked away in a room conducting chemical experiments, which he records the results in notebooks. He works long hours. He tells Mrs Hall that he is an experimental investigator, but what does that really mean? What is he trying to uncover, why are these experiments so important to him? His true nature starts to emerge and he has a really short fuse. Did the experiment that made him invisible, affect his personality, or was he always like that? Because he is in a small town and doesn’t verbally engage with others, rumours start floating around.

There are many clues in the story, but the characters are not able to interpret them. Even though the evidence is there staring them in the face, they look for an explanation because people are not conditioned to embrace the “impossible.” When Fearenside’s dog bites the stranger and tears his clothing, he assumes the stranger is black because of what he is seeing. Mr Cuss the general practitioner decides to interview the stranger, and notices the empty sleeve. The stranger nips Cuss’ nose, and when he hits the hand away he feels something like an arm even though he cannot see one. But it doesn’t occur to Cuss, that the stranger is invisible even though the facts are staring him in the face.

The stranger steals money from the vicarage because he has to pay for board and lodging. The vicar, Mr Bunting, and his wife, hear a sound which they follow. They find a lit candle, notice that the money is missing, and the door unlocked. After the invisible man returns to the inn, Mrs Hall confronts him and demands that he vacate her inn. He pays her some money and she wonders where he got if from because just a few days before he didn’t have any. Right in front of her he starts to take off his disguise. He stuns everyone, “For the man [the invisible man] who stood there shouting some incoherent explanation, was a solid gesticulating figure up to the coat-collar of him, and then – nothingness, no visible thing at all!”

There is quite a disturbance, and the village constable, Mr Bobby Jaffers appears on the scene. They try to capture the invisible man, but it’s quite difficult and he escapes from their grasp and flees. Shortly after, he forces Thomas Marvel, a vagrant to help him retrieve his notebooks from the inn, since he had to leave in such haste. Back at the inn, some of the villagers look in the stranger’s notebooks and all they see are figures and ciphers which they do not understand.

The vagrant is also a coward, and who really likes to be forced into doing things. He tries to resign from the duties that the invisible man has bestowed on him, but to no avail. So Marvel tries to betray the invisible man to the police. The invisible man threatens to kill Marvel who escapes to Port Burdock. The story really starts to unfold now and we discover who the invisible man really is. He hides in a house which turns out to be the home of Dr Kemp, an acquaintance from University College, medical school. And we find out the invisible man’s name is Giffin when he reveals his identity to Dr Kemp. Giffin had switched from medicine to study physics.

For several chapters, Giffin shares his story with Kemp about how he became invisible. Giffin shares the tale of burning down a boarding house to keep his secret. He kills people to get what he wants, and the reader discovers that he really isn’t a likable person, someone who you might sympathize with. Giffin shows no kind of remorse for harming others. During his conversation with Kemp, he discloses the weaknesses of being invisible, which was subsequently used to bring him down

It turns out that when Giffin eats, before the food is completely digested into his system, you can see it. If it rains the water creates a watery outline, or if it snows, the snow sticks to his body, which prevents complete invisibility. And in the winter, he has to wear clothes because his body still reacts to the temperatures. While telling his story, Giffin tries to enlist Kemp in his “Reign of Terror,” not knowing that his former acquaintance had already alerted the local police. Giffin escapes and wants to exact revenge on Kemp. Kemp tells the police to use dogs because they can sense Giffin even when he is invisible.

This time, Giffin doesn’t get to exact his revenge, he is killed before he kills Kemp. Giffin, a gifted physicist has a tragic end. “Someone brought a sheet from the ‘Jolly Criketers,’ and having covered him [Giffin], they carried him into that house. And there it was, on a shabby bed in a tawdry, ill-lighted bedroom, surrounded by a crowd of ignorant and excited people, broken and wounded, betrayed and unpitied, that Giffen, the first of all men to make himself invisible, the most gifted physicist the world has ever seen, ended in infinite disaster his strange and terrible career.”

Great Ideas

  1. Be careful what you wish for because you might just get it, and it may not be what you expected. Giffin wanted the cloak of invisibility and discovered that it wasn’t perfect.
  2. There is little a person can do by himself, he needs the help of others to succeed.
  3. Power corrupts the corruptible.
  4. At what point is enough, enough? Giffin was a gifted physicist, but that wasn’t enough. He didn’t want to share the spotlight or accolades with others.
  5. Do work that matters and share it with the world to benefit others.

Book Review -

The Whip, Karen Kondazian

The Whip by Karen Kondazian is based on the life of a stagecoach driver Charley, (Charlotte) Parkhurst (1812–1879), who lived most of her life disguised as a man. In those days, stagecoach drivers were also known as whips. The author, Kondazian uses the flashback literary device to tell her story.

The Whip starts off on May 8, 1879, when a young journalist, Timothy Byrne is riding beside One-Eyed Charley who works for Wells Fargo.  Charley is traveling to Santa Cruz to make a delivery to Lester Middleton, a banker. After Charley fulfills his obligation by making the delivery to the bank, he goes to visit Doc Plum, and learns that he has advanced tongue cancer probably from chewing tobacco. The doctor encourages him to have the operation, which he refuses. Doc plum estimates that Charley has four or five months to live if he doesn’t have the cancer surgery. Readers do not know as yet that One-Eyed Charley is actually a woman called Charlotte.

After Charley leaves the doctor, he meets Byrne at the saloon, where the young journalist will interview him. The journalist notices something different about Charley’s demeanor, there is something very melancholy about him, but he proceeds with the interview.

Over seven months later, on December 28, 1979, Charley arrives home from another trip, and Anna is there with a steaming tureen of soup waiting for him. Who is Anna? Is she his wife or girlfriend?  The reader can only speculate at this point. Charley has problems eating his supper, and his breathing becomes very laboured. He goes into his room and bolts the door. He refuses any help from her, so she has no other choice but to go and get help.

After she leaves, with great effort, Charley retrieves a trunk that is hidden under the bed. He opens the trunk and retrieves, “something small and fragile and read.  He held it up in his hands. It was a tiny embroidered homespun dress…the dress of a small child.” Next he retrieves a tiny pair of crocheted shoes, a tattered copy of Emerson’s Essays and a dusty old whip. After he gets up from the floor, Charlie is feeling smothered by his clothes. He takes off his shirt, and unwraps cotton binding that is wrapped around his chest and back. Charley is dying and we know that, so the reader knows that his final acts are significant but do not understand why.

The story reverts to March 1812, where a mother leaves her baby at the Boston Society for Destitute Children, an orphanage. During the night, the baby awakens seeking the comfort of her mother’s breast and doesn’t find it. She starts to cry and the other children start to scream. One of the workers at the orphanage takes the baby and places her in a closet, in a laundry basket. Lee Colton, a four year old boy, follows her to see what she is going to do with the baby. After the woman leaves, the young boy gathers the baby in his arms and they both fall asleep. The next morning, the worker finds Lee asleep with the baby girl staring up at him.

When Charlotte is four and Lee eight, Miss Isabelle Haden comes to the orphanage, and decides to make changes. All along boys and girls shared the same room so she decides to have separate rooms for them. Lee panics and cuts Charlotte’s hair like a boy and dresses her in boy’s clothing because he does not want them to be separated. Lee renames Charlotte Char…lee. Unfortunately, Miss Haden has the boys stripped and discovers that there is a girl among them.

Haden is a cruel woman. At nights, Lee slips into the girls’ room and sleeps next to Charlotte where Haden finds him in the morning. She punishes Lee and admonishes Charlotte instructing her not to have anything to do with Lee. Both defy her and she punishes them. The cruelty Haden metes out to Charlotte and Lee makes them even more defiant.

When Charlotte is 11, instead of sewing, she goes to play with Lee. A fight breaks out and Haden beats Charlotte mercilessly. She thinks she can break Charlotte by forcing her to become a stable boy. Charlotte can only return inside after issuing a heartfelt apology.

Jonas the groom takes Charlotte under his wings and teaches her about horses. Charlotte never apologizes to Haden and is contented to live in the stables. Two years later Charlotte is still in the stables. Lee never forgets Charlotte and he is quite obsessed with her – he also views her as his possession. When he is 18, Lee forces himself on Charlotte and rapes her, but in his mind he doesn’t view it as raping. Jonas always take care of Charlotte and he becomes the father she never knew.

After Charlotte leaves the orphanage, she goes back regularly to visit Jonas, and when he dies she takes his whip. Charlotte works at Bidwell Boardinghouse as a cook. After leaving the orphanage, over the years, she sees Lee from time to time when he shows up. During one such occasion, Lee appears with a horse that is hurt, seeking Charlotte’s assistance. After she examines the horse, Charlotte identifies the problem, and suggests that Lee take the horse to a farrier.

They go together to see Byron, the farrier. There is an attraction between Charlotte and Byron and though he discourages it, the chemistry is too strong. She sneaks out in the nights to visit Byron and they read Emerson’s Essays together. Charlotte is fired from her job because she is involved with a black man, and at the time it was not acceptable for the races to mix. The people in the town ostracized her for it, and treat her like she never existed. Lee doesn’t react very kindly either. Byron and Charlotte leave the town and live on the outskirts and have a child together.

One day while Charlotte is away washing clothes, Lee organizes a lynching mob. The mob only want to scare Byron, however, Lee ensures that he is killed. When Charlotte returns he sees what has happened. At the time most of the hooded men had already left, except for Lee. He rapes and abuses her, screaming obscenities at her. Charlotte is unconscious for a while. When she comes to, she buries her family, let the horses loose except for one, takes Byron’s pistol and gathers her small bundle of possessions and rides away.

Charlotte promises herself that she will kill Lee Colton for killing her family. A few days later, Charlotte sees an ad for becoming a whip. She cuts off her hair and disguises herself as a man. She becomes what Lee Colton wanted her to be all those years ago at the orphanage.

The Whip is a wonderful story, and you see how Charlotte blossoming as the whip, Charley. Jonas has trained her well and she really knows and understands horses. She also adopts masculine traits and she fills out into her new persona. Charley picks up the masculine habit of chewing tobacco. The story is quite intriguing as it unfolds and you see Charley blossoming as she finds her purpose in life. She is one of the best whips around and is known for being on time.

Charley is pushed over the edge after Lee Colton kills Tonia who is like a daughter to Charley. Charley had confided in Tonia – who was living with her mother Anna at Charley’s home – that she is a woman and what Lee Colton had done to her family. The next day, Tonia goes in search of Colton to kill him. Tonia is killed instead and that breaks Charley’s heart. After Tonia’s funeral, Charley grabs Byron’s gun and goes in search of Colton. “Well, hello there. Shit. I wasn’t sure back then at the coach it was you Charlotte. Or should I say Char…lee? Looks like you took my name after all….Come on now, Charlotte, you can’t kill me. I’m the one took care of you. I raised you. I’m the one that loves you. I’m all you’ve got in the world. I’m your brother.”

After trying to persuade her, Charley finally whispers that he isn’t her brother. She pulls the triggers and shoots him in the chest. “She stepped in close to Lee’s body. Her thoughts were wrapping themselves tight around her feelings. There was no joy or relief, no satisfaction, no sense of revenge now fulfilled. The time had come. She had done what she had to do for Tonia, for Anna, for Byron, for the baby. Done what she had to do for herself.”

Giffen, the invisible man, and Charley, the whip, both alter their appearances. Giffen does it for power and prestige, while Charley does it for survival. Giffen takes pleasure in hurting others and feels no remorse. He kills people because they get in his way. Charley kills Lee Colton because he not only killed her family, but also Tonia who was like a daughter to her. She feels no joy when the deed is done – she doesn’t feel as if revenge is sweet.

I recommend both The Invisible Man by H G Wells and The Whip by Karen Kondazian and recommend that you read one immediately after the other. There are big lessons in both of these books. I won a copy of The Whip, and also received a copy in the mail, so if anyone would like a copy, please email me.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

The Invisible Man (1933) – 1/7

Cannot view the video? Click here. Uploaded by  on Jan 3, 2010

The Invisible Man (1933) – 2/7

Cannot view this video? Click here.

The Invisible Man (1933) – 3/7

Cannot view this video? Click here.

The Invisible Man (1933) – 4/7

Cannot view this video? Click here.

The Invisible Man (1933) – 5/7

Cannot view this video? Click here.

The Invisible Man (1933) – 6/7

Cannot view this video? Click here.

The Invisible Man (1933) – 7/7

Cannot view this video? Click here.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Print Friendly

The Invisible Mentor Week in Review


This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville, Wisdom of Life Profile: Thomas Carlyle, British Historian, Essayist and Leading Social Critic, and Julie Daniluk, TV Show Host, Author, and Nutritionist.

Adventures in Learning

Self-mentoring is not a new concept, and according to Dr. Marsha L. Carr from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, “Self-mentoring occurs when the achiever (mentee) is willing to take the initiative while accepting responsibility for his/her own development by devoting time to navigate within the culture of his/her environment in order to make the most of opportunity to strengthen competencies needed to enhance job performance and career progression.”

Self-Mentoring – an Idea for the Twenty-First Century 

Booked for Mentoring

Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street is a short story by Herman Melville and is one of the oddest stories I have ever read. You are not given sufficient details in the story, and at the end you are left with many questions that you cannot really answer. Despite that, it’s a fascinating story.

Book Review – Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street by Herman Melville 

Wisdom of Life Profile

British Historian, Essayist and Leading Social Critic of Victorian England, Thomas Carlyle was born close to the end of the 18th century in Scotland. His father was a staunch Calvinist. Thomas attended Annan Grammar school and later Edinburgh University in 1809 where he distinguished himself in mathematics. He was also a voracious reader. It was Thomas’ intention to enter ministry, but he changed his mind because he lost his faith while attending university.

Profile of Wisdom – Thomas Carlyle, British Historian, Essayist and Leading Social Critic of Victorian England 

Quarter-plate daguerreotype of Thomas Carlyle

Quarter-plate daguerreotype of Thomas Carlyle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Interviews for Mentoring

This week we featured Julie Daniluk, Nutritionist, Motivational Speaker, Writer, and TV Host. Daniluk contributes her success to her team, and she is right because no one succeeds alone. Here are Part I and Part II of Julie Daniluk’s interview.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book link is affiliate link.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Print Friendly
Subscribe
In any reader.

emailOr use email.

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Tip Jar

The Invisible Mentor is a non-traditional mentoring site. In 2012, I plan to take the content to another level with the interviews, profiles and book reviews I feature. If you find the content valuable, please consider making a donation. I spend more than 200 hours each month to bring mentors who you can learn from!

Categories
Archives
Buy My Books

Mentoring, mentors, successful people, interviews, interviews with successful people,influential books, books that impact, focus, passion, learning, self help, wise women, wise people,professional development, self-improvement, work-life balance, regret, book summaries, success formula, board of invisible mentors, invisible mentors, invisible mentoring, business challenges, lessons learned

workbook, focus, passion, learning, self help, professional development, exercises, self-discovery, book summaries, success formula, successful people
Search Me
Loading