Month: July 2017

Dawn-Michelle Baude “The Executive Guide to E-mail Correspondence”

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The book provides very valuable advice on writing business letters in general, not just in English. It thoroughly covers aspects such as the structure of a letter, the order in which information is presented, key points of emphasis, and more. English adds its own nuances, which the author addresses separately (as the book focuses specifically on correspondence in English).

The content is divided into thematic chapters with examples, and each is broken down almost paragraph by paragraph. I initially started reading the e-book version but soon realized that this is the kind of book you need to have as a reference on your desk. This way, you can refer to it when necessary and compose a letter with recommendations tailored to a specific situation or topic. It serves as a kind of cheat sheet.

I recommend it to anyone whose job involves a lot of business correspondence. It’s definitely worth getting the paper version and keeping it handy on your desk.

My rating: 5/5

Andrzej Sapkowski “The Witcher”

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I had wanted to read the book for many years but, for some reason, always hesitated to start. Finally, riding the wave of the well-known game about Geralt the Witcher, I decided to give it a go.

Honestly, I expected much more. The saga starts as a collection of short stories about various contracts of the witcher, a monster hunter. Then, the author decides to turn it into a full-fledged epic saga. And this is where the tension started to weaken. The witcher gradually stops being a witcher, essentially losing all the traits that defined him (at the very least, he doesn’t use them at all). The intrigue keeps building and building, often interspersed with frankly tedious and unnecessary lyrical digressions that don’t add much to the main plot. Book after book, but the saga feels very uneven. Sometimes you fly through the pages, unable to put it down, and other times you want to skip entire chapters. And finally… it ends with a whimper. With nothing. There’s no clear understanding of what it was all for, and the “deus ex machina” feels contrived and unconvincing in terms of the characters’ logic. Even after that, there are a few more chapters that don’t give a sense of closure.

However, overall, I think the character of Geralt the Witcher far outshines the quality of the book itself.

My rating: 3/5