Review: Сторітелінг, який не залишає байдужим

Сторітелінг, який не залишає байдужим by Kindra Hall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

All of us have stories to tell. When I was a 14-year-old girl, I found a poem written by my grandfather and signed “Athens, 1946”. Everybody in my family knew he was writing poems and even wrote one novel. Everybody knew, he was fighting in WWII, but few years right after the war were a blurry spot in his biography. He didn’t talk much about the, and, frankly saying, nobody ever asked.

So being a 14-year-old and finding that poem, I approached my grandpa and asked: “Have you been to Greece?”. For a child born in Soviet Union and knowing that people were able to travel outside the USSR were considered to be super duper lucky dogs (or spies), and discovering, that your close relative travelled to Greece, was a real excitement.

My grandpa was silent for a moment and the replied: “Yes, I was”. He told me, he was there with Soviet Army, exporting the revolution to Greece. Soviets were kicked out and that operation was supposed to stay a state secret for 50 years. So when my grandpa was silent after my question, he was simply counting, if 50 years have already passed since that time.

A side note – his novel all the family knew about, but never read, was called “Greece on Fire” and nobody ever asked why. This was a moment, when a teenage girl revealed a part of the family history simply asking the right question.

The book of Kindra Hall tells about the importance of the story told at the right time by the right people. It gives some really hands on advices on how the founder story, the customer story, the value story and the purpose story can influence the growth of the business and how asking the right question can help the customer to write a good review on you product and to help sell the product to the next customer. It made me think of goods I buy and why do I buy them. I do read reviews of customers and I am indeed interested in the story of a founder.

On a personal level, I reflected a lot how the stories I told people (without being aware, I am doing the storytelling) changed my relationship with them and how the stories I was told also changed my point of view on other people. Telling stories of your life make you more likeable. Now that I think of it, it might look like a tiny manipulation, though on the other hand, telling true stories to fix relationship with people is something else.

An interesting read advised to everyone, regardless if you’ll use the knowledge you got for business or for your personal life.


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Review: Cranford

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I can’t help it – I am a fan of the Victorian era literature and of UK in general. Cranford is a beautiful example of that age’s writing and subjects.

Unlike many famous writers of that age, describing the twists and turns of the English upper class, Elizabeth Gaskell was focusing more on the lower class and the middle class, which started to emerge. It’s like an encyclopedia of the everyday life of those days’ regular people.

Basically, Cranford is the collection of stories with characters who travel from one story to another. It’s a kind Gossip Girl. Victorian Edition, if you take away the evil side of it. The events unroll in a village called Cranford, where, obviously, everybody knows everybody and where the circle of the Cranford Ladies meets from time to time to discuss latest news and developments. They seem to be quite nice and a bit funny, trying to imitate the upper class, not actually being the one.

The novels are well-written and really transport you to mid-19th century. However, I read it in English and not being the native speaker and, even less, knowing the peculiarities of culture, could throw you off a bit. Why is one called Lady and that one is a simple Mrs? Who’s Your Ladyship and why isn’t she a Lady? By lucky coincidence, at the very same time I was watching the Downton Abbey, so I was a bit prepared by it to answer these questions.

I enjoyed reading Cranford and would definitely recommend it to those, who are fond of Victorian Era and want to have some easy and entertaining reading.

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