The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg by Nicholas Dawidoff
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
There is a reason this book was $6.50 at a used book store. It should have been a magazine article. On the surface the idea of a book about a baseball player who also was a spy was very intriguing. However, Moe Berg was neither a great baseball player nor a great spy. Granted it was still a cool story but one that was so meticulously research and told that it was very boring. The problem with the story was the lack or real conflict. At no time was Berg ever really in trouble with no issues to overcome or resolve. It is impressive that Berg managed to never really get a job in his whole life and having the amount of time to pursue reading and travel must have been great for him, but not so much for the reader. I really struggled to get through this one and most of the second half of the book did not enjoy turning the pages. I rarely recommend not reading a book but this is one of the few I would completely steer clear of if I were a potential reader.
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Decision Management Systems: A Practical Guide to Using Business Rules and Predictive Analytics by James Taylor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
IBM Press. Yep, that pretty much sums up this book. While there is a wealth of information in this book it is so boring, even for an IT nerd like me, it made it tough to get through the material and I probably would have quit had the book not been required reading for an MBA class. Yes, a book on decision management systems is not necessarily going to be the most fun book to get through and this one is certainly not fun. However, it does make you appreciate books like “Competing on Analytics” that have at leas a bit of flavor all that much more.
On the upside, it was fun through to discover the whole open source world of Drools which is built on top of the JBOSS family of products. While I only have a cursory understanding of this field, it was interesting to know there is a whole industry developed around the science of decision making and selling a decision making platform. I had previously assumed this would be proprietary information to every company, but it looks like you can jump right into a fully developed decision management system with a rules workflow and event processing if you were so inclined.
In the end pick this book up only if you are really into decision work flows, otherwise there are many more exciting technology/business books out there. Ideally they should have packaged this in textbook format to scare away only the most dedicated of readers.
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Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Disappointed. Michael Lewis finally let me down. After putting out such awesome books like Moneyball, Liar’s Poker, The Blind Side, The Big Short, and the New New Thing (often overlooked), I’ve finally hit a dud. I felt like this book was just the B-Sides of the Big Short. My assumption is his publisher threw a lot of money at him to turn around a book in short order for the holiday season of 2011, and he took it.
Boomerang picks up where The Big Short left off looking at the wreckage of the world Economy after the financial disaster of 2008. While the Big Short was mostly U.S. based, this book is largely about places outside oft he U.S. My favorite chapter was about Iceland. I learned a great deal about the small country and really enjoyed it, but it wasn’t enough to make a book out of the small amount of material presented here. The entire thing feels like a bunch of magazine articles pieced together to form a book.
In the end, this was an ok read, but because it was from Lewis, I expected so much more. I guess you can’t hit a home run ever time up to bat. I’m still waiting for him to come out with a Hockey or Basketball themed book, I guess time will tell.
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Free Prize Inside: The Next Big Marketing Idea by Seth Godin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
There is a considerable amount of good information contained within these pages. However, there also is a fair deal of fluff. I normally try to review books as soon as I read, them but this one I completed about a month ago. Sorry to say not much stuck with me, which is never a good sign. Looking back through my dog-eared pages, I did like Godin’s thoughts on Edgecraft vs. Brainstorming. Based on his notes in the book, it turns out that people are less productive at coming up with ideas in groups because they hold back, so brainstorming by yourself is actually a better idea than with other people.
This quick read boils down to finding “that thing”, that will turn your product from commodity to brand name. What that is, for each product is hard to determine so, Seth suggests you get cracking and start thinking about ways to differentiate other wise you end up as a commodity just like everyone else. I’m still looking for the ATM that spits out a $100 instead of a $20 but, once I find it I’ll know it was the product of someone reading this book.
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Idiot: Beating “The Curse” and Enjoying the Game of Life by Johnny Damon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Being from Pittsburgh, I don’t really have a huge interest in Redsox vs. Yankees. However, being a baseball fan and a stats junkie, I just can’t get enough of the 2004 ALCS where the Red Sox came from three games down to beat the Yankees. Just like the 1980 USA Hockey, the story is told about a great rivalry where a team overcame what looked like insurmountable odds and the championship is often an after thought.
Damon does a fantastic job of educating the reader on what it is like to be a lead off hitter and the importance of taking pitches to wear down the opposing pitcher, often to his own Batting Average’s detriment. I didn’t realize how much emphasis the players put on becoming an all star, and hearing Damon’s frustrations about not getting selected as often as he though he was deserving was interesting. Also getting the back story on Pedro, Shilling, and Manny was always enjoyable to read. Reading Damon’s thoughts on living in a hotel and life on the road, especially as a single guy was funny too. I don’t want to spoil it but his story of getting propositioned by two girls is funny, but his reaction is priceless. I came into this book expecting something average, and I was pleasantly surprised, kudos to Johnny.
The only thing I didn’t like about the book was how hypocritical it made Damon look knowing full well he would eventually go play for the Yankees. But granted the book was written before he jumped ship to the tune of $52 Million over 4 years in 2006. Damon seems like a level headed guy, and hearing how he treats the game like a business seems very practical. It was awesome getting his first hand account of the 2004 ALCS, and he did a good job keeping his rise to stardom entertaining but saved enough for the bulk of the book to be about those 4 fateful days in October.
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How Come That Idiot’s Rich and I’m Not? by Robert Shemin
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Do not waste your time with this book. This is just a rehash of so many other books on investing and real estate. Buying a used car instead of a new one, and explaining how real estate is a good investment over the long run has been explained more interestingly by much better writers elsewhere. The one unique thought here was to become a travel agent using some multi-level marketing site so you could get free or discounted travel. While not a bad idea I must admit, it just did not seem practical and would end up costing you money up front and the ROI seemed like a lot of work over a long time before it paid off.
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Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning by Thomas H. Davenport
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Impressive book. As I make my way through Drexel’s MBA program I’m finding anything published by the Harvard Business School press to be a cut above my normal reading material. While most of my reading of their work was through handouts for a MIS class and academically focused this book I picked up to further my education of the Web Analytics field.
With over a dozen pages dog eared this one will be on my shelf for the long haul. The competing on analytics stages model is by far my favorite part of the book. The chart ranking companies from stage one “analytically impaired” to stage five “analytical competitor” with each of the stages in between is fantastic. Not only does this book give great background on how companies like Harrah’s and Marriott became more competitive by using evidence based decisions, it puts together a step by step plan to take your company to the next level.
In my experience most companies struggle with analytics, and getting from stage 1 to stage five is very difficult. While the background and stories are great, the real advantage of this book is the charts you can pull out and show to others so they can quickly understand why having an analytically competitive company is valuable. While this is probably over the head of most general business readers, it is solid gold for anyone in business intelligence or web analytics.
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This is Gonna Hurt by Tito Ortiz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was on the fence about Tito Ortiz, until I read this book. The main reason I did not like Tito was I started out as a Chuck Liddell fan when I started watching UFC in 2006. Once I watched season three of the Ultimate Fighter starring Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock, I began to appreciate Tito as a coach. He really does wear his heart on his sleeve and cared about his team, which he dubbed team punishment. This was more than we could say for Ken Shamrock.
This book goes all the way back to the beginning of his life, and it becomes clear early on that Tito had a very tough upbringing. Tito doesn’t like to talk about it but both of his parents were addicted to drugs. The reason he is so street smart when it comes to business, is he did spend a lot of time on the streets as a kid. He even joined a gang, and was nearly shot. Later in the book, he does credit wrestling for helping him get of the streets and for staying in school. I did not know of his connections to Tank Abbott in the early days of the UFC, but they were spelled out in this book. The book did seem very disjointed and I doubt it was 100% written by Tito. However, just as in real life it did come across as authentic, and Tito did cover the majority of the topics honestly. The chapter on Jenna was the most intriguing, and the fact the met on MySpace still cracks me up.
This was a good quick read for MMA or Tito fans, but outside of that core audience there are a plethora of better constructed books about the sport. I still think Jens Pulver’s book is the best to read of the dozen or so MMA Bio’s I’ve read.
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Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book gave an exceptional review of the Bond Market in the 1980′s ending with the stock market crash in 1987, and the attempted hostile takeover of Solomon Brothers. This is the fifth book of Michael Lewis I’ve read and he delivered a great story once again.
This story certainly filled in some gaps in my knowledge of the 1980′s economic scene. Discovering this book after I completed “The Big Short” made it difficult to believe the existence of the U.S. bond market for mortgages is younger than I am. As always it is difficult to go back and read an author’s prior works, as they always seem choppy and most author’s get better over time, but Lewis did a great job here for his first foray into a complicated subject for a novel.
With all the consolidation that occurred in the banking and financial industry post 2008 market crash, I still have trouble figuring out which companies have merged with other companies in the 20 years since this book was written.
Once again after reading the inside scoop of on bond salesmen, I’m more assured that anyone managing your money but you is a big mistake. Also, Lewis makes it clear that all a salesman wants to do is push you a sale, whether it works out for you or not, their loyalty is to their commission, and to the firm long before their customers. Parts of the book were dry, but what can you expect from a book about bonds.
I’m very excited to read Boomerang when it comes out in October of 2011, and if nothing else I learned how to play the game liar’s poker. Lewis explains the rules on first four pages of the book, but once you get that far he draws you into the rest.
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 Trump University Real Estate 101: Building Wealth With Real Estate Investments by Gary W. Eldred
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
After reading Donald Trump’s books “The art of the Deal” and the “Art of the Comeback” I picked this book up. It looked more like a text book or how-to so I was excited to dive in after reading his biographical style previous books. It sat on my shelf for a week with that big Trump name sparkling in gold and his face on the cover. I finally got around to reading it and realized he wasn’t the author but only had written the foreword. Robert Kiyosaki slaps his name on purple and black books in a similar way as Trump but I think he has been a bit more successful at this branding. I find this practice somewhat annoying but I have to hand it to both of them at getting the most out of their brands. I hope to one day have other people write books and slap my name on the cover to sell more copies.
So, after ten minutes of feeling tricked by Trump I flipped through and decided to give Gary W. Eldred a shot. He didn’t disappoint in fact he did a fantastic job. As I read more and more real estate books this one surely did have a lot of overlap, but it did excel at making me think about re-purposing houses in a way that would make them more profitable. His thoughts on market segments in Chapter 7 were new to me, and will help me make money in the future. I’m especially referring to the part about college students and seniors. I see these as two rapidly expanding segments and so do the authors.
Also I’ve been guilty of focusing solely on price and not paying attention to some of the other deal points like available financing included in Real Estate deals so this was a good reminder. Using the Comparative Sales, Cost Approach, and Income approach is nothing I have not seen before but using them all together to create an Estimated market value is a logical extension.
In the end this book made me smarter, and isn’t that what all books are designed to do? I’m going to keep picking up Trump University books even if they arn’t actually written by Donald himself.
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