Check It Out!

Andrew Ballard knows a thing or two about business success.

He does it. He teaches it. He wrote a book about it. He gives talks on it, including one at TEDxSnoIsleLibraries.

But it took near-death health issue for Ballard to realize – and then incorporate – the most important component of success and achieving breakthrough growth.

On this episode of Check It Out!, Ballard discusses how balancing family and business can make for healthier outcomes in both areas.

There were plenty of references to books, events and people; hope we got all of 'em here:

• Six Sigma reading list
• Your Opinion Doesn't Matter
• Marketing Solutions website
• Andrew Ballard's LinkedIn profile
• Blue Ocean Strategy
• Voice of the customer
• Business Pros events
• What is dyslexia?
• Brain tumors
• A to Z business databases and others
• Dave Lee Howard Band
• Hurricane Ridge band
• Teasing & bullying

Also …

In our Book Notes segment, Jackie Parker, Sno-Isle Libraries Lead Librarian for Readers' Services, offers up three very different titles that she enjoyed. Her recommendations are:

• Vox, a novel by Christina Dalcher that Parker says is "clearly a descendant of The Handmaid's Tale." Dalcher imagines a society where the rights of women have been pared away until they are restricted to speaking just 100 words a day.
• The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman is about how gardening not only helps plants grow, but also helps the young widow and mother who takes on the unfamiliar task.
• Tougher in Texas is part of Kari Lynn Dell's series set with Texas rodeo as the backdrop. The lead character, who has Asperger Syndrome, copes with the challenges of life and the rodeo circuit. The entire "Texas" series is available as an eBook and audiobook.

Proudly brought to you by Sno-Isle Libraries, serving residents of Snohomish and Island counties in the great state of Washington, and the Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation.

Top: The Twitter post from July 21 by Panos Mourdoukoutas announcing his Forbes article. Below: An Amazon kiosk store at Westfield Southcenter Mall, south of Seattle.

Early Saturday morning, July 21, Panos Mourdoukoutas posted on Twitter a link to his latest opinion item just published online by Forbes magazine.

And Twitter came unglued.

By Monday morning, the post titled "Amazon Should Replace Local Libraries to Save Taxpayers Money" had received more than 200,000 views. Twitter was awash in comments that took Mourdoukoutas, an economics professor at Long Island University, to task.

Forbes quickly pulled the article from their site and issued a statement: "Forbes advocates spirited dialogue on a range of topics, including those that often take a contrarian view. Libraries play an important role in our society. This article was outside of this contributor's specific area of expertise, and has since been removed."

This episode of Check It Out! takes a look at the issue and uproar.

Join Sno-Isle Libraries Communications Director Ken Harvey and Jim Hills, public information manager at the library district and a former newspaper reporter, editor and publisher, in a discussion of the differences between Amazon and public libraries and the motivations for publishing – and retracting – such provocative opinions.

Also …

Book Notes with Denise Douglas-Baird!

Who knew there was a niche for "alternative-history vintage glam spy thrillers?"

Looks like author Lara Elena Donnelly really gets into her characters!

Denise does and she'll tell you all about it!

Amberlough and Armistice are the first two volumes in The Amberlough Dossier trilogy by Lara Elena Donnelly. A colorfully seedy and vibrantly freewheeling city on the eve of the election. A haunted spy, his cabaret-star lover, and a sassy red-haired dancer.

Submerge yourself in intoxicating settings reminiscent of 1930s Europe and Asia. Rendezvous with intriguingly flawed and unforgettable characters. Ponder the unthinkable queries of living in a polity gone wrong: What will you sacrifice for love? Who will you betray for revolution?

There's plenty of time to read these first two installments and then join Denise, a librarian with Library on Wheels, in anxiously awaiting the final volume, "Amnesty" out next April.

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Proudly brought to you by Sno-Isle Libraries, serving residents of Snohomish and Island counties in the great state of Washington, and the Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation.

Welcome to Check It Out!, a podcast for lifelong learners with inquiring minds.

In this inaugural episode, host Ken Harvey, who doubles as Sno-Isle Libraries communications director, introduces himself and his co-hosts. In upcoming episodes, listeners will meet the amazing spectrum of people who work at, use and collaborate with Sno-Isle Libraries. Listeners will learn about all of the services the library district offers at its 23 community libraries, Library on Wheels, and online. In addition to this website, Check It Out! will soon be available wherever you get your podcasts.

Joining this first conversation are:

Paul Pitkin, the Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation director who brings his talents as a singer, songwriter and self-proclaimed adequate guitarist and pianist to bear on helping fund library programs. Listen for his near-miss with a Ph.D. in poli sci.

Cindy Tingley, with the Sno-Isle Libraries talent development group who became very familiar with police procedures while serving on the force in her hometown, Key West, Fla. You can bet that folks sit up straight when she's teaching a class. Listen for the answer to: "What is a square grouper?"

Jim Hills, the library district's public information manager, a storyteller who claims to still have some ink in his veins from familial connections with and previous career infusions from the newspaper biz. Listen for the probably exaggerated 70 mph incident.

Topping off this episode's conversation is Book Notes, because no library podcast would be complete without occasional reading recommendations. Lindsey Anderson, a member of our Readers Services team, describes Circe, Madeline Miller's rich tale about the misunderstood witch from Homer's Odyssey; and The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of the Lost World by paleontologist Steve Brusatte.