Browsing Category

Book Reviews

The Up Side of Down

Megan McArdle has written The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success for anybody who has ever failed. Which means she has written it for all of us.

The premise of the book is counterintuitive: to truly succeed, fail well. Avoiding failure is obviously preferable, but how we handle failure (and we will all eventually fail at something) sets the tone for how we overcome obstacles. It’s deeper than just learning from our mistakes — it’s actually overcoming our mistakes. McArdle looks at this from a personal, corporate, societal and political perspective.

For a lot …

Book Reviews,

Reading Books So You Don’t Have To!

Enjoyed several fun books in the first quarter of 2014, so I wanted to list them here. It’s a fairly short list for me — just 25 books. Quality over quantity, perhaps?

My favorites (and recommended) would be It Happened in Wisconsin (a novel), Everest 1953 (history), The Myth of America’s Decline (current events), Their Eyes Were Watching God (classic novel), and The Bully Pulpit (history).

Below are my reviews or links to the Amazon page for each book.

APE: How to Publish a Book, by Guy Kawasaki

It Happened in Wisconsin, by Ken Moraff

Everest 1953, …

Book Reviews, Junkyard Management, Sabbatical, So you think you're a writer?,

So you think you’re a writer?

Four years ago I took a month-long sabbatical to consider where to invest future energies. Great friends offered advice, shared their ideas, and asked me tough questions.

One of the questions often asked was, “Why not write a book?” I chuckled at the suggestion and pushed it aside.

But the idea wouldn’t go away. Three years ago a friend again asked, “You love to write. Why don’t you write a book?” This time the idea wasn’t pushed aside as quickly. But to write a book — a good one — you need an idea worth sharing. A unique idea or …

Book Reviews,

The Bully Pulpit

Last year I wrote about my favorite books of the year and mentioned The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin as the one most deserving of a Pulitzer Prize. At that time I had not finished the book, but now it’s an even easier statement. This is a great book.

Goodwin, author of such acclaimed historical works as Team of Rivals and No Ordinary Time, is at her best as she explores the relationship between Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the press.

Both progressives, both Republicans, both on the same team for much of their careers, Roosevelt and …

Book Reviews,

2013 Reading List

Another year, another 100+ books. My reading list for 2013 was varied and fun. I already posted my favorites here, but below is a complete list of all the books I read this year. You can click on them to read a review or go to Amazon.com and read more.

Here they are:

Myanmar Startup Guide 2013, by Derek Sivers

The World Atlas of Wine, by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson

Hunt Vs. Lauda: The Epic 1976 Formula 1 Season, by Paul Fearnley

Grace, by Max Lucado

The Cricket on the Hearth, by Charles …

Book Reviews,

The World Atlas of Wine

My brother-in-law gave me a great Christmas gift: The World Atlas of Wine for my iBook reader. Written by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson, this beautifully done book made my Christmas evening.

If you love wine and are looking for a way to spend a gift certificate, this is a fun investment. But get the version for the iBook because it contains video, photos, expandable maps, etc. This is a great example of how to integrate technology into the making of an ebook. I was up too late last night going through the book and reliving past excursions to wine …

Book Reviews,

Best Books of 2013

Wow, the year has flown by! I can’t believe it’s already time to list my favorite books of 2013. Now remember, this is highly subjective, very biased, and aiming to to be on the fun side.

You can see the full reading list here if you wish. It’s shorter than last year but still pushing 100 books.

The coveted, “Would you shut up about that book? It’s all you talk about” Award goes to David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell. Whether you agree with him or not, Gladwell makes you think and see things differently. And he’s an excellent writer.…

Book Reviews, Junkyard Management,

Junkyard Planet

Despite the title of this blog, I did not grow up in an actual junkyard. It’s might be splitting hairs, but my family owned automotive dismantling centers (or simply wrecking yards). To most folks it amounts to the same thing. But there is a difference. A junkyard takes any kind of junk that can be resold (copper wire, aluminum cans, even Christmas tree lights). But an auto dismantler focuses strictly on cars and trucks.

Here’s another way to view it. Junkyards are recycling centers that take stuff nobody can use and then recycle it into useful products. Think scrap iron …