Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

In case you couldn’t guess by the title, this is the biography of Steve Jobs. He was a co-founder of Apple, created the first truly personal computer (with graphical interfaces, the mouse, fonts, and colors), started Pixar (Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc.), and more recently worked on the iPod, iTunes, the iPhone, and the iPad. Steve Jobs died at the young age of 56 this past October, and the biography was released a few weeks after.

It’s best to know a little background on Walter Isaacson. He has written the biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein. I actually read half of the Einstein biography but it was too burdensome for me to finish. Steve Jobs is just as detailed and lengthy (571 pages). Every aspect of his life is covered – work, family, religion, diets, relationships. The smallest details and conversations are included. Given all of this, it took me over two weeks to finish this book.

What Steve jobs accomplished is unfathomable. Besides being one of the first to bring computers to the world, he has revolutionized so many industries: animated movies, music, phones, books, newspapers, retail stores. (Yes, retail stores. Consider this: on average, each of the 326 Apple stores earned $34 million in 2010. The store in New York earned more money per square foot than any store in the world, and it earns more money than any store in New York City - Saks, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, all of them.) His philosophy was people didn't know what they wanted: if Henry Ford asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse, not a car. Often quoted in the book is Wayne Gretzky, who said "skate where the puck was going, not where it’s been." It’s easy to describe him as a genius after reading the book, and history will place him with Thomas Edison and Henry Ford for all the he has contributed.

Steve Jobs can apply to many people. It’s not very technical, but it will certainly entertain those amused by computers and technology. There are a lot of management lessons, some that should be followed, some that should never be repeated. There are deep questions posed, such as open-sourced or closed-sourced, whether it’s good or bad to have end-to-end control. Younger readers who are energized to begin their own company will enjoy hearing the initial struggles that were overcome.

My rating for Steve Jobs: 4 stars out of 5. Get it here!

Bonus Segment: I finally watch The Help this weekend, and I wanted to leave a few comments. I thought the beginning of the movie was exaggerated and over the top, but eventually it simmered down. It did follow the book very closely. The emotions from the actresses were as real as they are in the book, although some of the dialects were tough to understand. The movie was also very long, but I still enjoyed watching it (even though it seemed really sad). Final opinion: the book was better than the movie.

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

My guess is most people have heard of Tuesdays with Morrie. It’s what I would describe as a recent classic. Morrie Schwartz was a professor at Brandeis University who was beloved by many students. As he grew older, he was diagnosed with ALS and forced to retire as his body began to shut down. An article about him in the Boston Globe prompted NBC Nightline to interview him. Mitch Albom, one of his favorite former students, saw him on television and reached out.

Mitch decides to take a break from sports reporting to visit Morrie. Their relationship is rekindled and Mitch visits again. They continue to meet on Tuesdays. Each week they discuss something different such as marriage, death, family, forgiveness, etc. Morrie has so much to share, Mitch has so much to learn, but there is little time left.

Tuesdays with Morrie is straightforward with plenty of life lessons that reads quickly. The layout of the book is smart – it’s laid out like a professor would do, with a syllabus and lessons. I will say that this is not my favorite Mitch Albom book, but I still think it is very good. He is near the top of the list of my favorite authors. His other books include The Five People You Meet in Heaven and Have a Little Faith (maybe I will feature a review on them in the future). 

My rating for Tuesdays with Morrie: 3 stars out of 5. Get it here!

The Big Short by Michael Lewis

This book is either going to interest you or it’s not. It chronicles the financial crisis of 2007-2008, explaining the subprime mortgage markets that drove the economy into recession. In my opinion, it’s very technical. Most of the vocabulary and some of the concepts will be brand new to the reader. When writing this review, I realized it’s hard to talk about the subject because much has to be explained initially. Here’s my best shot:

A subprime mortgage is one that is less likely to be repaid by the borrower. These subprime mortgages were packaged together into bonds for large investors. For example, an individual subprime mortgage could be rated triple B, but when a group of them were packaged together they were rated triple A (same as a U.S. Treasury bond). Investors wanted more of this safe investment, so more subprime mortgage loans were giving out to less and less deserving borrowers. Borrowers were offered teaser rates: low interest rates for the first 2 years then it would jump up. And little or no documentation was required, credit scores were glanced over, there were no down payments. Basically loans were given to people who had no chance of repaying once the interest rate jumped up.

No one really questioned – or understood – what was in these bond packages. How likely were they to default? What if house values stopped increasing? How could a strawberry picker earning $14,000 a year pay off a $725,000 mortgage? Who would even give a loan for that?

I’ve tried to simplify the root of the problem. But truthfully, it’s way more complicated. Products were created that held a 100 of these subprime mortgage bonds. Things got so big and out of control way too fast. Companies earned millions of dollars and wanted more. This was all too good to be true and turned into a vicious, self-destroying cycle. You wonder how everyone could be so ignorant and not question what was going on. The few people who dug into the prospectuses and questioned others realized the whole system was going to blow up. They made hundreds of millions of dollars, some even made billions.

Out of all the books I’ve read this year, this was the hardest to read. There is so much new information that I found myself re-reading page after page. And I was reading it very slowly. You have to in order to take it all in. I don’t mean any of this as criticism; I think it’s important to read the book slowly in order to understand it. The book contains a lot of facts and information. For the most part, Michael Lewis leaves out his opinions until the end. From other stuff I’ve read or seen, I think The Big Short provides the best explanation of the crisis. I am not saying this is the only thing one should read, but it offers a great starting point to understanding the basics. After reading The Big Short, you ask yourself how did they not see this coming?

My rating for The Big Short: 5 stars out of 5. Get it here!

Note: Like I said, this book will not interest everyone. I personally found it fascinating. 

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire is the second book in The Hunger Games series. As mentioned in a previous post, I couldn’t wait to read this book. The first book leaves the reader wondering what will happen to many of the characters and really does not provide any glimpse as to what the second book will revolve around. I can’t write much without giving it away. Part of the excitement of reading Catching Fire is not knowing what will happen next.

After the Hunger Games, the survivors return home to their families in their District, only to embark upon a victory tour. They see things in other Districts and how the Capitol controls the country. There is talk of uprisings in many of the Districts, but it’s unorganized due to the lack of communication available between Districts. What will Katniss do next? Run away from the controlled life she knows? Inspire and organize uprisings? Or could there be something completely unforeseen?

With so many twists and turns, the reader is left surprised at the turn of every page. You think you know where the story is heading and something unexpected happens. For the ending, Catching Fire could have left the reader hanging on the edge of their seat like the first book. Without giving too much away, I will say it doesn’t. You get a strong idea what the third book will be about.

My rating for Catching Fire: 4 stars out of 5. Get it here!

P.S. This was the hardest review to write without giving away any spoilers. Apologies if this post is vague. 

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

When I first heard about Randy Pausch’s story in 2007, I immediately watched it online. There are few lectures/movies/shows where you remember exactly where you were when you watched it. But I remember being in my living room and really learning about what life is about. Over the years, I have re-read the book time and time again, most recently a few weeks ago.

Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. The school ran a series of “Last Lectures”; if you had one last lecture to give before you died, what would you say? For Randy Pausch, this was his last lecture. He had recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was given only a few months to live (he passed away shortly after the lecture). Randy decided to discuss “Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”.

In one way or another, all of his childhood dreams were realized. They were somewhat nerdy (look who’s talking). Being in zero gravity, writing an article for an encyclopedia, being a Disney Imagineer. Not typical childhood dreams. But the life lessons and brick walls overcome are the true messages of the book. 

It’s a quick read with a ton of memorable quotes and stories. Some are obvious, but we forget them in our busy, daily lives. What if you did have three months to live. What would you share? This is a book everyone should read at some point.

My rating for The Last Lecture: 4 stars out of 5. Get it here!

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This book has been on best seller lists for a while. I always thought about reading it, but when I looked at the description I decided it wasn’t for me. Then I was persuaded to give it a chance. I’m glad I did. This is one of those books you pick up and can’t put down. (I finished it in a weekend.) The best part is The Hunger Games is part of a trilogy so I get two more books to read!

The Hunger Games takes place a few hundred years in the future, yet it seems set in the past. The country of Panem is dictatorship controlled by the Capitol. The surrounding 12 Districts support the Capitol, providing all their resources in order for the Capitol to live in a gluttonous manner. As a way to remind the Districts who’s in charge, the Capitol hosts an event in each where the Districts are forced to send one boy and one girl to compete in a game for survival that is televised across the country. The only way to win is to kill everyone else. If it sounds barbaric, it is. It kind of reminds me of the show Survivor, except these people are not being voted off; they are being killed off.

Katniss comes from the worst District with no hope of winning. But her upbringing secretly gives her an advantage over her foes. Who’s really her ally? Who’s her enemy? The competitors are faced with the challenge of balancing survival versus humanity. There’s suspense at every page as Katniss takes on her competitors and the elements in a struggle to make it to the end.

The author does a great job creating a world that is easy to understand. For the most part, it’s believable and you want to know more. There’s a bit of love intertwined throughout the story, but is it part of the game or true feelings? I think the author does a wonderful job of captivating the reader. This is one of my favorite books of the year. I cannot wait to read the next one, Catching Fire.

My rating for The Hunger Games: 5 stars out of 5. Get it here!

Anything You Want by Derek Sivers

Hard to blog when you don’t have power or internet. Hence the hiatus last week. This will be a short post because this was a terrible book. The story initially interested me, but I was left disappointed. Derek Sivers ran a music distribution platform online for independent artists (before the days of iTunes and even before PayPal existed). The book contains a lot of the history of his company, CD Baby. But almost all of it can be found on Wikipedia.

The other part of the book is Sivers saying how easy it is to become successful. I don’t like how easy he makes everything seem. It’s definitely misleading. I’m not sure what the point of the book is. It’s not inspiring in any way. It’s not a how to guide. Mostly it is a waste of time and money in my opinion.

My rating for Anything You Want: 0 stars out of 5. Don’t get it.

P.S. The cover is terrible.

Every Thing On It by Shel Silverstein

Do you remember Shel Silverstein? He was best known as an author/drawer of children’s books titled Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, and Falling Up. He passed away nearly a decade ago, but his family put out one final book featuring some of his best unpublished poems and drawings a few weeks ago. I’m not going to hold back: I loved the book. The poems are smart and witty, entertaining and funny. It made me feel young (even though I’m not that old).

I've never reviewed poetry before, so I’ve decided to share a few of my favorite poems (if this is copyright, I apologize and will remove the poems…but from my research on the web, this appears to be okay).

Years From Now

Although I cannot see your face

As you flip these poems awhile,

Somewhere from some far-off place

I hear you laughing – and smile.

Happy Ending?

There are no happy endings.

Endings are the saddest part,

So just give me a happy middle

And a very happy start.

The Clock Man

“How much will you pay for an extra day?”

The clock man asked the child.

“Not one penny,” the answer came,

“For my days are as many as smiles.”

“How much will you pay for an extra day?”

He asked when the child was grown.

“Maybe a dollar or maybe less,

For I’ve plenty of days on my own.”

“How much will you pay for an extra day?”

He asked when the time came to die.

“All of the pearls in all of the seas,

And all of the stars in the sky.”

When I Am Gone

When I am gone what will you do?

Who will write and draw for you?

Someone smarter – someone new?

Someone better – maybe YOU!

There were a bunch of other poems I really liked: The Lovetobutcants, Growing Down, Call the Please, Jake says..., Investigating, The Kid-Eating Land Shark, the list goes on and on. I really hope others read this book. It’s for all ages, not just children. I would love to know which others’ favorites were. You can pick it up and read a few poems at a time to brighten your day.

My rating for Every Thing On It: 5 stars out of 5. Get it here!

P.S. Do you know any other popular poets of our time? I would love to read more of it, but no one sticks out in my mind.

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

I have so much to say. I pre-ordered this book weeks ago from Amazon, but it wasn’t expected to arrive at my house until ten days after the release. Unacceptable. I canceled my order and drove to the nearest Barnes and Noble so I could start reading right away. (In case you didn’t know, I’m a big fan of Nichoals Sparks.)

The story is about Amanda and Dawson, two high-school lovers from drastically different backgrounds. Amanda’s good-to-do southern family disapproves  of Dawson’s family, full of villains and troublemakers. Dawson tries to separate himself from his family’s associations by taking up refuge at an old man’s house. Tuck provides a safe haven (you like that pun?) for Dawson, and him and Amanda spend a ton of time together at Tuck’s. The relationship ends when Amanda goes off to Duke and Dawson ends up in jail.

Fast forward twenty years. Amanda’s married and successful. Dawson is lonely and works on an oil rig. Tuck’s death brings them back together as Tuck’s will asked each of them to carry out a ceremony for him. The fire is re-kindled but things happen. (This post will be spoiler free.) I will say the ending has a lot of twists, although as it develops the ending becomes predictable.

The backgrounds for each character are overly dramatic, even for a Nicholas Sparks book. Dawson’s family is feared and has the run of the town, but it doesn't seem like real life to me. The depth of character development is captivating. As always, the reader understands the characters’ feelings and easily falls in love with the story.

My rating for The Best of Me: 4 stars out of 5. Get it here!

P.S. If you remember, I had a huge surprise for this week…well, guess who I met!!!

That’s right! Mr. Nicholas Sparks himself. A good friend alerted me of a book signing at The Coop in Harvard Square. I went there right after my half-marathon in Newport (by the way, I half-marathoned in 1 hour, 45 minutes). As soon as I got off the train I hopped in line. Before I knew it, I standing next to Nicholas Sparks. The meeting went something like this…

“How are you doing?” – Nicholas Sparks

“Good, good. I am one of your biggest guy fans. I'm guessing you're used to girls but as a guy I really like your books.” – me

“Don’t see too many guys. There are a lot of women here today. It’s usually them at these book signings.” – Nicholas Sparks

“That’s not a bad thing. It was great to meet you. Can we get a picture?” – me

"Sure." - Nicholas Sparks

In my copy of The Best of Me, he wrote: 

Nick - 

All the best. 

Nicholas Sparks

Laugh at me for being so giddy but this is one of the first “celebrities” I’ve ever met. It was awesome. The perfect ending to a perfect weekend. 

You are an Ironman by Jacques Steinberg

You may or may not know that I am planning to run a half-marathon next Sunday in Newport, RI. I’ve been training since May and am fairly confident I will be able to finish in good time. (Although yesterday my foot started hurting a lot after running 5 miles…I’ll have to take it easy until race day.) Anyways, as some last minute motivation, I thought I would read a book about marathons. I ended up selecting You are an Ironman by Jacques Steinberg.

The story chronicles six people through their journey training and partaking in the actual Ironman competition. For those who don’t know what an Ironman is, it’s a 2.4 mile swim in open water, a 112 mile bike ride, and then a 26.2 mile run. All of it must be done in 17 hours. (Oh and as a bonus, the Ironman World Championship was held yesterday in Hawaii.) The people in the story are average Americans. They come from difficult financial situations, they were never a jock, nor are they professional athletes. The author spells out in the first few pages that this is not a training manual. He does not offer any tips and really does not go into too much detail as to what the participants are doing on a day to day basis (he does offer resources if you are interested in that sorta thing). Instead he talks about everyday struggles leading up to the Ironman.

Even though there were six main characters, I found I was constantly confused as to whose history was whose, who was training where. Each chapter will give updates on a few of the competitors. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention enough. Still, I appreciated what each person went through. And I thought the ending was one of the most suspenseful that I’ve read in a while. The final pages discuss how each person faired in the Ironman event. This book is exactly what I was looking for just before my half-marathon. Wish me luck!

My rating for You are an Ironman: 3 stars out of 5. Get it here!

P.S. Huge (absolutely huge) surprise for next week. It will be awesome!!

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

There has been little time to read lately, hence the hiatus last week. I have an interesting book to blog about for this week’s review. Erin Morgenstern’s first novel called The Night Circus is marketed towards the Harry Potter audience and comes with a ton of hype. It debuted a few weeks ago. The story revolves around a challenge between two competitors, yet they don’t know what the challenge is. The venue for their challenge is a circus, which shows up unannounced in cities all over the world. The circus becomes a huge draw and attracts devoted followers.

The two competitors start out as young kids. Celia learns from experience, Marco learns from books. Their paths don’t cross until the circus forms when they are about 20 years old. Celia is the main star at the circus; Marco manipulates the circus from afar, as the owner’s assistant. Somehow they fall in love with each other and it turns into a romantic novel. The very end of the book links it all together and makes you wonder.

My thoughts: The beginning is captivating. The world created by the author is really cool. However, as the story progresses, we are introduced to more and more illusions which become less and less believable. The best example of this is the father becoming ghost-like (more ghost-like magic occurs later on) or the worlds created inside some of the tents. For me, the story became too fake. I’m unsure how Harry Potter fans would feel…maybe they would be enthralled, maybe not (although I’m sure nothing compares to Harry).

I was also put off by the love part of the book even though I knew it was coming. This book wasn’t for me but I thought I would give it a shot and change up my usual reading habits. I’m sure others would enjoy it. I’d be interesting to hear others’ perspectives. If you want to give it a read, shoot me an e-mail/text/tweet/facebook message and I’ll send the book to you.

My rating for The Night Circus: 2 stars out of 5. Get it here!

P.S. I’m excited for the next few weeks. Got some great books coming up!

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

In the Garden of Beasts tells the story of the U.S. Ambassador to Germany during the 1930s. William Dodd was a professor at the University of Chicago when he was selected for the position. Many deemed him unqualified and inexperienced, which was warranted given his lack of foreign politics. He brings his family along and discovers firsthand how Germany was being quietly transformed. He meets with Hitler and different government officials often. At first Dodd was naïve of the real things occurring around him. But after living in the country for a year, he believed war was eminent unless the world intervened. Unfortunately, his worries fell on deaf ears.

Many details come from Dodd’s daughter, Martha, because she kept an immaculately detailed journal of everything. There was more Martha in the story than I initially expected, but she does play an important role in networking with officials. Contradictory to Martha, her brother was completely absent from the book even though he was in Germany the entire time. Maybe because I’m a guy, but I thought there was too much about all the men Martha chased. (A book written about past lovers is not ideal.) I wasn't that interested in all the romances; although it’s sort of justified because she did almost became a Soviet spy after dating a Russian man and she was set up on a date with Hitler himself. 

The author writes very eloquently. He uses the most complex vocabulary that I’ve read since I’ve started the blog. But it does not disturb the flow. It’s quite refreshing to be honest. Difficult parts for me (a.k.a. made for slower reading) were all of the German terminology. Hard to sound things out and names/places can be a bit forgetful, but that is expected because of the circumstances. My only complaint is I wish there was more to the book. The first two years are told in entirety; the last few years are summed up too quickly for my liking.

This book was recommended by a friend and it is right up my alley. I am starting to appreciate books based on true stories and I may give those more preference going forward.

My rating for In the Garden of Beasts: 3.5 stars out of 5. Get it here!

Remember, if you would like this book, send me a message and I will be more than happy to send it to you.

A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind

A Hope in the Unseen follows a young African-American boy as he journeys through his last two years of high school and freshmen year of college. Cedric Jennings comes from a poor, broken family living in a terrible neighborhood in Washington, D.C. His faith in God carries him through tough times and he works incredibly hard to earn good grades in a high school where fewer than 5% will go to college. Cedric works hard enough to get into Brown University. He is overwhelmed at the cultural differences as well as the classwork. But he perseveres to graduate with a 3.3 GPA and go onto graduate school at Harvard.

Cedric’s story is rare in the sense that very few can escape the dire circumstances they are put in. Many would give up and make up excuses. The determination Cedric possesses is something everyone could learn from. Most of us (probably everyone reading this blog) had a better upbringing than Cedric. Yet he was able to accomplish so much with so little.

I have to mention how much race is discussed in the book. One of the challenges Cedric faces is never being around white people growing up. He constantly ponders how whites treat him. Is it because of his skin color? At the same time, he doesn’t want to fall into his previous life of only being surrounded by his own kind. The author does a good job of writing from Cedric’s perspective and the reader really gets a sense of how deep race can affect someone.

Although this book was recommended to me, I really wanted to read it because all incoming students to UMASS were given A Hope in the Unseen at summer orientation and required to read it before they returned for the start of school. (It's the first time I've heard of required summer reading for college.) Then they brought Cedric in as their speaker at Convocation. I wanted to see what made his story so special. After reading the book, I also believe this story would be powerful for younger high school students to read. It could provide some motivation for what they could accomplish if they worked hard enough.

My rating for A Hope in the Unseen: 5 stars out of 5. Get it here!

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

If you’ve been following my blog, you may remember how I said my brother had to read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult for his summer reading and that I wanted to read it alongside him. (Obviously my brother waited until the week before school to read the book.) This is what I said at the time:

“I haven’t read the book yet, but I did look it up online…the story includes a high school shooting, bullying, and suicide. I think it’s a perfect topic for a high school student to read. Kudos to whoever selected it.”

After reading the book, I do NOT agree with what I said two months ago. For a sophomore, I don’t think this book was a good choice. The beginning of the book is incredibly confusing as countless characters are discussed, some of whom are irrelevant but the reader wouldn’t know that until the middle of the story. The novel is not written in the usual manner Jodi Picoult writes; instead, each chapter is written at a different point in time with insights into every character in the book. I was able to follow the logic, but my brother struggled with whose thoughts were whose.

I also thought some of the discussions in the book were not needed. Things like sex, abortion, parties. I get the idea of trying to set the scene and build characters, but it was a tad too much in my opinion. My last rift with the book was the ending. It simply ended. No real drama. No huge surprise. There is a slight twist, but the outcome remains as expected.  

Maybe Nineteen Minutes wasn’t written for high school students. But I was even a little uncomfortable with some parts of the book. I did think the author did a good job getting into the mindset of the shooter. The problems with bullying are real and the book does an excellent job of showing that. But as in most awareness campaigns, there's no solution presented to fix bullying in the book. It’s weird for me to say this (first time on the blog), but I would not recommend Nineteen Minutes. Sorry Jodi.

My rating for Nineteen Minutes: 2 stars out of 5. Get it here!

Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh

A couple housekeeping items to start off this post. I am going to start screening the books recommended to me because the stack next to my bed is growing. I simply don’t have enough time in my life to read all of them right now. With that being said, I hope people still suggest books for me. I will eventually read them, I promise. Also, I am changing the “Upcoming Reviews” tab to list all of the books in my queue to be in no particular order. I'm going to read a few at a time and whichever is finished first will be reviewed on the blog. Lastly, I am going to start lending books to people. If you want to read something I review, shoot me an e-mail, text, tweet, or facebook message and I will mail the book to you (if you live close then I’ll drop it off). All I ask is that you return the book when you’re done. Now onto the review for Delivering Happiness…

Delivering Happiness is the story of Tony Hsieh, who is currently the CEO of Zappos. They sell shoes and are known for great customer service. (All employees start by answering phones in the call center; then they are offered $2,000 to quit.) Tony attended Harvard and was one of those computer geeks, but in a good way. After quitting the corporate world a few months after college, he started a company which eventually sold to Microsoft for $265 million. Tony started investing as a venture capitalist and nearly went broke. Then he invested in the company Zappos and took a more involved role with the company, eventually becomming CEO and selling to Amazon for $1.2 billion.

I liked the book because I thought it was very personal. In the first few pages, Tony says he didn’t use a ghostwriter and he wanted to write it as if he was talking normally. You definitely get that feel when reading. While you do hear some of the business stories, you also get the personal stories. [Side tangent: I got the idea of training for a half-marathon from the book – I’ll be running in October.] The reader also gets an inside glimpse of the company as Tony shares e-mails he sent out company wide. By the end of the book, I was left wanting to order from Zappos…which I did a few months ago.

Lastly I’d like to say that I heard Tony speak at an event I attended last September in Providence. He gave all attendees a free copy of the book, and I stuck around to get it signed by him:

“To Nick, Live in the WOW. Tony Hsieh”

Didn’t get to chat much because he was being rushed out of the building as part of his “Happiness Bus Tour” across the country. Still this is the first review I’ve done where I met the author. Good stuff.

My rating for Delievering Happiness: 3 stars out of 5. Get it here!

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

This is going to be a personal post and I am not one to usually get personal. The reason for reading Unbroken was simple. At my college graduation, Louis Zamperini received an honorary degree from my school. They briefly told his story but frankly there was more to it. Zamperini received 3 standing ovations during the ceremony, all of which were deserved. My dad asked for his book for father’s day. When he finished it, I decided to read it.

Louis Zamperini was a trouble-maker as a child, one time running away but soon returning home. He took up running in high school and quickly became one of the fastest runners in the country – so fast that he qualified for the 1936 Olympics. He shook Hilter’s hand after running one of his races in Germany. Many believe Louis would be the first person to ever break the 4-minute mile (he was seconds away). Then WWII began.

Zamperini enlisted in the Air Force as a bombardier. Soon his plane was shot down and he was stranded over the ocean in a raft with no food or water. He and the pilot survived the long journey at sea, fending off sharks and machine-gun attack from the Japanese. They were found after 47 days by the Japanese and became Prisoners of War. Back in America, Louis was declared dead.

He was tortured and dehumanized for over 2 years at various POW camps throughout Japan. It is shocking to hear how poorly the POWs were treated and how demoralizing the camps were. When the war ended, Zaperini returned home a hero but was haunted by the punishment he endured. He turned to alcohol but was saved by a preacher and God. Later in life, he returned to Japan to forgive the guards who had abused him.

The writing is just as good as the story. The author went to extremes to research and confirm all of the stories, details, and quotes. You become hooked to Zamperini’s grave situations, wanting to know how he survives. (Side note: Laura Hillenbrand finds the most incredible stories to tell. She wrote the novel Seabiscut, which was eventually made into an Oscar winning moving. After her second book, I think Hillenbrand is one of the best historical storytellers out there.)

My grandfather was a POW during WWII in a German camp. I have no idea what he went through. He never talked about it. But this story made me think about him. There’s an even higher level of respect for all veterans when you read a story like this.

If you need any more incentive to read this book, it was named the book of the year by Time magazine for 2010. 

My rating for Unbroken: 5 stars out of 5. Get it here!

The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyes

The Murderer’s Daughters was the first book recommended to me at the beginning of summer. Surely strange for a guy to read a novel about a story consisting of mainly two female characters, but the idea behind the story was intriguing. An alcoholic man comes home in a rage, kills his wife, and nearly kills his youngest daughter, Merry. The book chronicles the lives of the two daughters as they live with these scars for the rest of their lives.

Lulu and Merry come from a broken family and struggle to find relatives to care for them. When their grandma passes away, they are left to the orphanage system. They pass through school together. Eventually Lulu goes off to college and becomes a doctor with a family. Merry becomes a parole officer, but never finds a suitable man.

Lulu absolutely despises her father, never having any contact with him. Merry stays in contact with her father through visits and letters. It’s interesting to see how the different views and actions of the daughters reflect on their lives. (Chapters are written with points of view from each character.) The culmination of the past 30 years really comes to life when the father is finally released and we see how the daughters cope.

The beginning and ending of the story are very climatic. The middle can become a bit slow even though years pass within a page. I can’t deny that the story is a bit sad, but I think that’s what makes the book a good read.

My rating for The Murderer’s Daughters: 3 stars out of 5. Get it here!

*P.S. What do you think of the reviews so far? More reviewing? Less spoilers? More about the story? Leave comments.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help was recommended to me last year by a friend. I bought the book, but I never read it. It was just too big, there were other books I wanted to read, the story didn’t seem that interesting to me. Well, I was wrong. I finally got to reading it at the beginning of this summer and I couldn’t put it down. I finished it in a week (I was full-time reading).

The story is set in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s. It tracks a group of upper-class white women and a group of maid-serving black women. The interaction between the groups is limited. Miss Skeeter changes all of that.

She desires to be a writer. She writes for a newspaper about housekeeping solutions, but she uses the knowledge of one of the black servants to turn her column into a meaningful contribution to the newspaper. Her relationship with the servants grows from there. Miss Skeeter wants to write a book. Attempting to get recognized by New York publishers, she decides to tell the story of maids throughout Jackson. Over a year, she secretly meets with different black women to hear their candid stories, stories that need to be heard. She documents everything they say, good and bad. It makes for a very compelling story, one that the big New York publishers eventually agree to print. As in all stories, the novel becomes a hit to make for a happy ending.

But not everything was happy throughout the story. Miss Skeeter becomes excluded from her circle of white friends because of her suspicious behavior. Even inside the black community things become tense. There are racial issues at play, but there are also women rising up against the norm. The author writes with dialects which really personifies each character. All of this is done in a non-conflicting manner and the author does an awesome job of creating a behind-the-scenes portrait of the cultures.

The Help received tons of critical acclaim. I certainly support that. It’s a very well written novel. The story is one that will make you want to keep reading. It is coming out to the movies this Friday (see preview here) starring Emma Stone. I always think books are better than movies, so read this book before you go see it in theaters. It’s a must.

My rating for The Help: 5 stars out of 5. Get it here!

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999) was recommended to me by a friend. I must say I bought the book without reading the description. I had no idea how deep and reflective the book would be. I probably wouldn't have purchased it if it wasn't recommended to me. Stephen Chbosky makes you laugh, feel sad, feel happy. I felt some things were awkward/uncomfortable to read. The more I read, the more I thought this book was simply going to turn out to be a tragedy. But the last few pages were able to put it all in perspective and leaves us with some good lessons. When you are reading this book, you become a wallflower.

The story is narrated by Charlie through letters. He is a freshmen in high school. Charlie is a wallflower. He sees things, he keeps quiet about things, and he understands. He is introverted and overly shy. Through the letters we learn of Charlie's friend who committed suicide, Charlie's experiments with drugs and alcohol, his first experience with a girl, his homosexual friend, and lastly (spoiler) molestation.

Clearly this a deep book with a lot of sensitive issues. Given this was written 12 years ago, I give props to the author for addressing these issues directly. Society still struggles with these today. Still, I don't think this book would satisfy everyone's reading standards. To close this post, I wanted to add that I googled The Perks of Being a Wallflower earlier today, and I saw they are making this book into a movie next year (starring Emma Watson).

My rating for The Perks of Being a Wallflower: 3 stars out of 5. Get it here!

In the Plex by Steven Levy

In the Plex (2011) is an inside view of what Google is all about. It took me just over two weeks to read this book, and I literally read it every day. I cannot remember the last time it took me this long to a read a book that I could not put down. The reason it took a while is there is an incredible amount of information. Everything Google has done up until the beginning of this year is documented. The author has been reporting on the company since they first began and was granted permission to all kinds of inside access at Google.

The book starts with how Google was started by two kids in graduate school at Stanford. He tells stories of them in their offices: from dorm rooms to a lady’s house to above a pizza shop to a real office building. The two founders, Brin and Page, tried to sell Google numerous times, but nobody really wanted it. Eventually they figured out how to make money – advertising. They cracked the code everyone was trying to decipher on the internet. Last year alone they earned $30 BILLION dollars in revenue.

People probably know the basic stuff Google does…the search engine, g-mail, YouTube, Android phones, Chrome browser, blogger, Google Maps and street view. But some other things really stand out: attempting to scan every book in existence (33 million of them); building data centers all over the world; impacting the 2008 presidential election; building a car that can drive itself. It’s amazing how many different things Google does. While their motto has always been “Don’t be evil”, they’ve run into many enemies as they’ve grown into different sectors. In one instance, 133 companies and organizations combined in a lawsuit again Google (their law department has hundreds of employees). The book details every project Google took on, so you really get to understand how things came about.

Brin and Page are very interesting people. Countless times they are described as Montessori kids, which is a unique type of schooling that really spurred their creativity and installed their principles. They are absolutely geniuses, but not typical business leaders. They don’t dress up and are not formal in any way. They have exercise balls in their offices. Brin blesses or rejects each new hire (he did this for all 30,000 employees). They ask ridicules questions in interviews. After reading In the Plex, their actions are justified and it all makes sense.

I will say that if you are not technologically inept, this book would be incredibly confusing. I can see an elderly crew struggling with some of the concepts. Most shocking to me was that Google keeps logs of every search. And they pin-point it to each individuals internet IP address. With their ads, they now install "cookies" that track every website you visit. The book is much more than privacy issues though. If you take the time to learn of Google’s history, you will understand why this intrusiveness is appropriate and in their eyes, completely okay.

I enjoyed the story 100%. I cannot say enough good things about this book. It’s fitting this was a long post. My rating for In the Plex: 5 stars out of 5! Get it here!

Linchpin by Seth Godin

Linchpin (2010) is written by Seth Godin, who has a great blog. He writes short posts, usually a paragraph at most. Sometimes it’s simply a few sentences. I really like his blog. He points out things that are unique and enlightening. He has written a dozen books and is a renowned speaker. He’s the person who coined the term “purple cow”. Linchpin is written similarly to his blog. There are chapters, but in each chapter are short essays. In my opinion, Linchpin is a compilation of musings that could have, maybe should have, been on his blog.

The point of the book is to be a linchpin, someone who is indispensable. Being creative, going beyond what is asked, and overcoming fears of whatever is holding you back. The best part of the book to me was how he describes people as cogs in a machine. In school, we are told what to do, when to do it, and are evaluated on how well we followed the instructions. The same goes in the workplace. People are interchangeable parts in a factory. But that is only a short part of the book. The rest focuses on creating “art”, which he defines as emotional labor and tons of examples of people are who linchpins in their field.

While the book is short and an easy read, I found it to be fluffy and repetitive. I started the book a few months ago, but never got around to finishing it. It’s an easy book to pick up and keep reading because of the writing style of short essays. But it was difficult to get myself to finish it. This wasn’t a book I couldn’t put down. 

My rating for Linchpin: 2 stars out of 5. Read Linchpin here!

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

­­­­Last summer I first heard of Jodi Picoult. I didn’t get around to reading any of her books until winter, when I read Change of Heart. I like her writing style and the way the story gets told. Each chapter is written from a different character’s perspective (including different fonts). You really get into the mindset of each person. House Rules (2010) is the second Jodi Picoult novel I’ve read.

House Rules is about a person with Asperger’s Syndrome who is accused of murder. While I am not sure if the portrayal of Asperger’s is completely accurate, reading from Jacob’s perspective makes you fully aware of what someone with Asperger’s could be thinking and going through. He is fascinated with crime scene analysis and is incredibly smart at deciphering how the crimes occurred. When his tutor is murdered, he is eventually charged and the court trial begins. The book shows the struggle between his family, his disability, and the way others perceive them. Obviously I am not going to tell you the outcome, but I will say I didn’t think it was all that surprising.

Why didn’t I find it surprising? From reading two of Jodi Picoult’s books, I have come to a few conclusions. The story raises a moral question, involves a young and inexperienced lawyer who has romantic feelings with an important character, and the ending turns out fairytale-ish. Not sure if this is true for all of her novels, but just some things I noticed after reading two of her books. I still think House Rules was entertaining; but it was also predictable to me.

On a more personal note, my younger brother has to read Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes for his summer reading book for school. I haven’t read that book yet, but I did look it up online…the story includes a high school shooting, bullying, and suicide (sorry if that’s a spoiler). I am going to read it alongside him to make sure he actually understands the book, but I think it’s a perfect topic for a high school student to read. Kudos to whoever selected it. 

My rating for House Rules: 3 stars out of 5. Read House Rules here!

Moneyball by Michael Lewis

The first book I’m going to review is the 2003 book Moneyball by Michael Lewis, who also wrote The Blind Side. The reason I chose this one first is because it was the first one in the box of books I ordered from Amazon! But really, this book is being made into a movie that’s coming out in September, with Brad Pitt as the main actor. There are already calls for him to win the Oscar for Best Actor. That’s not the reason I wanted to read the book though. The storyline is really intriguing to me.

The book is about the Oakland A’s baseball team and their unprecedented success in the early 2000s even though they were one of the poorest teams in the MLB. Based on a true story, the author gives a behind the scenes look at how they were able to accomplish so much with so little. Michael Lewis gives a lot of background of baseball terminology, as if the reader knew nothing about baseball. I suppose that is good for a novice reader, but as a baseball fan, it makes parts read slow. There’s many statistical references (which is probably why I liked the book so much), but none are overly complicated; he takes the time to explain them and there’s no hard math. A big feature of the book is on the general manager of the Oakland A’s, Billy Beane. At times it can almost seem like a biography. But the books is not a biography about him, as some critics have said. Telling the stories of Billy Beane and individual players makes the storyline much more real and compelling.

I really liked this book because I am a fan of true stories and it highlights the application of statistics. I thought it was interesting that after the book was written, teams from the NBA, NFL, NHL, Fortune 500 companies, Wall Street firms, and Hollywood studios contacted the Oakland Athletics to learn more about their ways. Everyone except other MLB teams, which is really the most shocking part about Moneyball. The “Club” of baseball insiders still felt that the Oakland A's were a fluke. An aberration. Luck. (However, it should be said that the Boston Red Sox quickly adapted Billy Beane’s data-driven strategies shortly after Oakland’s success. Result: two championships.)

I would highly recommend the book for baseball fans, statistics majors, analytical careers, and those interested in learning of efficiency using data. The story truly gives an insider’s view of what it’s like to be in the front office of a MLB team or a player struggling to make it through the minor leagues. 

My rating for Moneyball: 4 stars out of 5. Read Moneyball here!

The First Post

This is my blog. My plan is to review books. I read just about everything, so hopefully you can relate to a few of them. I will try to alternate genres to keep things interesting. The inspiration for this blog is that I've always discussed books I've read with friends, and some people have recommended books for me. This is a way to continue sharing the books that I'm reading. Maybe one of my reviews will give you enough motivation to try reading the book yourself. I'm going to try to review one book a week. If I don't finish a new one during the week, then I will review one that I've recently read before I started this blog. And maybe we'll have a few guest reviews. Who knows. Hope you enjoy it!