The Bookshelf: May

June 01, 2019

For 2019, I’m trying something different. At the beginning of each month (or thereabouts), I’m sharing the books I read the previous month.

Central Station

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Central Station. At times it was so disjointed. It turns out it was a connection of short stores set in the same world.

While I didn’t love this, there was one story that pulled me towards the end. That motovated me to seek out a novel by Lavie Tidhar…

A Man Lies Dreaming

A noir set in the 1930’s. Communists come to power in Germany and Nazi’s are left as refugees… If you’re into alternative history fiction, go pick this up without spoiling it.

Setting the Table

This was my second time picking up Setting the Table, a memoir and business book by a New York City restaurateur. I consider it required reading if you work in customer facing role. I love Danny Meyer’s definition of service and hospitality:

Understanding the distinction between service and hospitality has been at the foundation of our success. Service is the technical delivery of a product. Hospitality is how the delivery of that product makes the recipient feel. Service is a monologue–we decide how we want to do things and set our own standards for service. Hospitality, on the other hand, is a dialogue. To be on a guest’s side requires listening to that person with every sense, and following up with a thoughtful, gracious, appropriate response. It takes both great service and great hospitality to rise to the top.