The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks

It's been a while. I know. I realize I've been saying that often. Sometimes life just takes over. I haven't been reading much since September. I miss it. The last book I read was The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks, but I never got around to writing a post for it. Here it is, finally.

The Longest Ride came out in September, the latest Nicholas Sparks book. As many of you know, I'm a big fan of Nicholas Sparks. However, I've been tempted to jump off the bandwagon after the past few books. They're just not doing it for me anymore. They've been unrealistic and predictable. Unfortunately, that's the case again.

The Longest Ride is a story about two couples. A college-aged boy and girl. The girl takes her studies pretty seriously and is family oriented. The boy is a professional bull rider. The other couple is an old man and woman. The man is involved in a serious car accident and has hallucinations about his wife who has passed away. The story is about the young couple falling in love and how their lives cross paths with the old man in the car accident.

I found the old man recounting his days with his wife boring. I was much more enthralled with the young couple. The story goes back and forth between the two. I was skimming the chapters on the old couple and absorbing the chapters on the young couple. About two-thirds into the book, I knew exactly how it was going to end. It was so predictable. And that's where I stopped reading.

My rating for The Longest Ride: 1 star out of 5. Get it here.

P.S. Books on the shelf: The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom, David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell, Allegiant by Veronica Roth, A Game of Thrones by George Martin, The Zahir by Paulo Coelho, Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

Everyone is indeed crazy, but the craziest are the ones who don't know they're crazy. ~ Veronika

I was walking around Barnes and Noble in West Hartford a few weeks ago killing time, looking for different books to read. I thought of Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist, and decided to see what else he's written. He has a ton of books, but two struck me. I'm going to read the other one in a few weeks. Veronika Decides to Die sounds like a book about death. In reality, it's a book about living.

Veronika is a 24 year old who seems to have everything - college educated, a good job, caring parents, good looks. But at the same time, something is missing from her life. One desperate evening, she decides to end her life by swallowing a handful of pills. Except it doesn't work. She passes out, waking up in a mental hospital, being told she only has days to live due to damage to her heart from the pills.

In the mental hospital, she is surround by the insane, but also the not-so-insane. With only a few days to live, she has deep conversions about everything. What it means to be crazy. What it means to feel alive. There are countless conversations, quotes, and stories that are simply phenomenal. Veronika's stay in the mental hospital makes her realize who she truly is, and simultaneously brings out the best in the other patients. An awareness of life sometimes requires an awareness of death.

My rating for Veronika Decides to Die: 4 stars out of 5. Get it here!

P.S. Nicholas Sparks' latest book, The Longest Ride, came out this past Tuesday. Should have a post on it next Sunday.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

 

The Book Thief was something different for me to read. Not usually into 'fiction that could be real'. A friend recommended it and given I didn't have much to read, I thought I'd try it.

The story is about a ten year old girl in Germany during World War II who has an affection for stealing books. On the train to her new foster family, her brother dies. At the funeral, she finds a book on the ground. Her foster father teaches her how to read. Her life is somewhat normal, going to school and playing soccer in the street. And stealing books. But this is Nazi Germany, and things are not normal. Soon, her family takes in a Jew, hiding him in their basement. The little girl becomes fond of the new guest, reading and writing with him. However, the war takes it's toll on the family and their town.

The story is told from the perspective of Death. That's right. Death is given human qualities and feelings. His job is to pick up the souls from dead bodies. You can imagine the stories he has from WWII. It's a unique way to tell a story. I thought it was effective and certainly gave an interesting perspective on things.

When I started reading the book, I was reading at a good pace. But I slowed down. The book is long (550 pages). It just wasn't doing much for me. As much as I struggled to get through it in the middle, I did want to know how it ended. Although I could tell it wasn't going to end well, and I was right.

Fun fact: It was written in 2006, but only recently became a big hit. A movie based on the book is coming out in November.

My rating for The Book Thief: 2.5 stars out of 5. Get it here!

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

 

"People, I have discovered, are layers and layers of secrets. You believe you know them, that you understand them, but their motives are always hidden from you, buried in their own hearts. You will never know them, but sometimes you decide to trust them." ~ Tris in Insurgent

I really liked that quote. It also sums up Insurgent pretty well. After reading Divergent, I didn't think I'd continue with the trilogy. What changed? I didn't have anything better to read. And I must admit, I was a little curious as to how the story would transpire. We learned in the first book that Tris elected to switch factions. She survives initiation, but there is chaos in all the other factions. Insurgent picks up right where Divergent left off.

The factions are strategizing and fighting with each other. The leaders are withholding secrets that Tris is dying to know (and so is the reader). It seems everyone is a friend or foe at one point or another. People are constantly switching sides. The author does a great job incorporating many characters and developing each of them. Suspense builds as difficult decisions are made and the factions converge on the brink of destruction.

My complaints of the book. First, where the heck are the adults? Every kid who went through initiation - and everyone in initiation is sixteen years old - somehow becomes a leader with super secret information. I don't get it. Second, way too much love between Tobias and Tris. I can't imagine watching this on screen. I guess the female readers probably eat up this lovey-dovey stuff. Not me.

I didn't mind the simulations in this book. I'm becoming more accustomed to it, and I didn't think any of it was over the top (well, maybe near the end). But outside of that simulation, the ending was superb. I don't think it could have ended any better. We learn so much about faction history and are opened up to a whole new world. Great cliff-hanger to the next book.

My rating for Insurgent: 4.5 stars out of 5. Get it here!

P.S. Allegiant, the third and final book in the trilogy, is due out on October 22nd. Be sure to check out the "Upcoming Releases" page!

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

By far this is the best of the three Malcolm Gladwell books I have read (see The Tipping Point and Blink). I read this while on the vacation I mentioned last week. I actually read the entire book in a day. What can I say...we were at the beach. I don't think I've ever done this before, but I am going to recite the back of the book as it perfectly describes the book (fair use):

In understanding successful people, we have come to focus far too much on their intelligence and ambition and personality traits. Instead, Malcolm Gladwell argues in Outliers, we should look at the world that surrounds the successful - their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way, Gladwell reveals what the Beatles and Bill Gates have in common, the reason you've never heard of the smartest man in the world, why almost no star hockey players are born in the fall, and why, when it comes to plane crashes, where the pilots are born matters as much as how well they are trained.

I found the book to be extremely insightful. Maybe smarter people have already heard about some of the examples in the book. Obviously everyone has heard of the Beatles and Bill Gates, but do you know their background? Understanding what they went through and where they came from makes you realize success was inevitable.

I thought the second half of the book could be misconstrued as stereotyping or racist. The author makes a lot of statements about different cultures and races, but a lot of what he said was simply pointing out facts and making connections. I didn't find any of it offensive. In fact, I thought it provided a great segway to the conclusion of the book. The final chapter tied together the whole book together (not the chapter about his mom, but the chapter about KIPP).

Almost positive this will end up on my top 5 at the end of the year. I cannot wait to read Malcolm Gladwell's next book, David and Goliath, due out October 1st of this year.

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

P.S. At some point, I'm going to make a list of my favorite authors. Malcolm Gladwell would definitely be on the list. This goes back to the question I posed last week...should I blog random topics when I don't have a book to review?

P.S.S I've added an "Upcoming Releases" page, which you can access by clicking the link on the right side of the page. Basically keeping track of upcoming books so I don't forget!

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

Five days of vacation with family equals a ton of reading time. A ton. As in three books in five days. What can I say. I like to read. So I'm spending my Sunday night writing three posts, one of which will be revealed as soon as I'm done. I'm saving the other two for the following two Sundays (but I'll spare the suspense - I read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and Insurgent by Veronica Roth).

I received Hosseini's first book, The Kite Runner, as a secret Santa gift a few years ago. I was glad I got it, because I knew it was a good book but I had yet to read it. I ended up really liking the book. Before the vacation, I stopped at Barnes and Noble and decided to pick up Hosseini's most recent book, And the Mountains Echoed.

The story spans a lifetime. Literally. It starts with a brother and sister in Afghanistan. They live in a very poor village. When the brother is ten and the sister is three, the father decides to give up his daughter to a wealthier family. From there, the book goes on about all the people who came in and out of the brother's and sister's lives. They are reunited at the end of their lives as their health is deteriorating (sorry for the spoiler, but it's really obvious that's the ending).

The storytelling is great. This author may be one of the best at telling stories. But the book dragged on as more characters were brought into the story. We dive into obscure characters' lives for no apparent reason. I got bored with it. I finished it only because I was curious how all these random people's lives intersected. Unfortunately, the ending didn't make up for me fighting to the end.

My rating for And The Mountains Echoed: 2 stars out of 5. Get it here!

Quick Side Story: I was in Saratoga this weekend, and the hotel I stayed had a "Read & Return" library. You could take a book and return it whenever you stayed at another one of their hotels. I love ideas like this. My only complaint is many of the books were old and not very popular. More current books in the circulation would make something like this very popular.

Question...should I make stories like these separate posts? Like when I haven't finished reading a book for a Sunday post. I have a few other musings I could write about.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

A friend asked me my opinion of Gone Girl. While I had heard of the book, I didn't have any interest in reading it. But since she asked, I decided I'd give it a go. My course of action was to take a bite - read the first few chapters - and if I liked it, I'd finish it. Not going to lead you on...I only took a bite.

The plot itself is neat. A husband and wife move back to Missouri after losing their jobs in New York City. They are celebrating their five year anniversary when something goes terribly wrong. While Nick (the husband) goes to work, Amy (the wife) disappears. The house is shaken up and clearly she didn't leave on her own. Nick reports her missing to the police, but he lies often and doesn't appear to be a grief-stricken husband. Could he be a killer?

After reading the first 75 pages, it wasn't for me. Here's why. I wanted to find out what happened to Amy. I did. The style was cool, too. The story happens in real time from Nick's perspective. At the same time, we get to read Amy's old diary entries. But I couldn't bear to read the author's writing. I thought it was terrible. Amazon declared her "one of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time". Maybe for coming up with good plots. It can't possibly be for her writing. On one of the first pages, I counted a sentence with 12 commas. They were all used to separate phrases. The sentence was truly a paragraph. There was so many adjectives I found it hard to read. It's as if she was trying too hard. It's unfortunate that this takes away from a solid plot.

My rating for Gone Girl: Did not finish. Get it here.

P.S. Back to back weeks with the main character being named Nick. Is there another book I could read with the main character named Nick?

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

I can't recall if The Great Gatsby was required reading in high school. If it was, I didn't read it (sorry Ms. Patnode). I decided I wanted to read it after a co-worker said it was her favorite book and it was recently made into a movie. I wasn't sure what to expect, knowing it was a classic and written a long time ago. I'm really glad I read the book because I thought it was great.

Nick Carraway moves into a small house on Long Island, surrounded by the wealthy with huge mansions. His neighbor is Jay Gatsby, who has a mysterious past but is always throwing lavish parties. Nick is somewhat new to New York, but he does know Tom and Daisy Buchanan.  Nick spends time with Tom and Daisy and frequents Gatsby's parties. Even with all the wealth and parties, nobody seems to be happy. Everyone is chasing a lover who is entrenched in a relationship. It is a runaway train that cannot possibly have a happy ending.

Nick carries the story, as everything is told from his perspective. And while he is a main character, he remains set back from most of the action. It is really about Gatsby and Daisy and their relationship. They were in love years ago, but a lot has changed since then. It leads to an unimaginable ending but one that I really liked.

The story is well written. The way everything wove together was great. The character's lives intersected like you wouldn't believe. I also thought Fitzgerald's use of adjectives was the best I've read in any book. He was very descriptive and detailed, but his choice of words flowed easily and did not slow me down.

This got me thinking after I finished reading the book...this is a book high school students would enjoy. It's fun and hip. Parties and wealth and relationships. I think if it was presented in that manner, kids would actually read it. But in my opinion, kids don't like reading books that they are required to read or that are from decades or even centuries ago. And while I don't blame them, I think The Great Gatsby is an exception.

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

P.S. I thought I was going to watch the movie this week, but the theater where it was playing stopped showing it.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Not necessarily that I agree with everything he writes, but the things he says are thought provoking and written in a concise manner. He weaves examples in and out of the book perfectly. I read his first book, The Tipping Point, a few months ago. A friend recommended reading Blink next. I flew through it. And I've already purchased Outliers, another one of his books.

Blink is about snap judgments, decision making, and unconscious thinking. Malcolm Gladwell's point is maybe we are overthinking too much. He has a ton of interesting examples. The simplest way to explain it is from the first page of the book. A museum wanted to purchase a rare piece of art, but they questioned it's authenticity. They conducted a bunch of research on it, comparing it to fakes, looking up supporting documents, scientifically testing the piece of art. But there was one problem. A few experts who simply looked at the piece of art instantly thought it was a fake. They didn't have any proof, but they could tell. How so? That is what the book seeks to explain.

I will say I wasn't completely convinced. It's hard to tell when you should stop to think and when your should trust your instincts. And Gladwell admits this. There's not one answer that fits every case. But he does try to provide research to support his theories. I found the unconscious many of the stories fascinating.

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

P.S. Next week is The Great Gatsby. I'm going to try to see the movie after I finish the book to add a little spice to the blog next week.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

 

Blogging full time. Got the laptop back. Finished two books this weekend. Went to Barnes and Noble and picked up a few more yesterday. I decided to blog about Divergent this week, and next week I'll feature Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. I feel like Divergent has been prominently featured on book shelves since it debuted in February. I've picked it up multiple times and thought A) this sounds like The Hunger Games and B) I simply wasn't that intrigued by the description. After a friend suggested the book and asked multiple times if I read it, I decided to give it a shot.

The premise: the country is divided into five states, or factions. Each faction is dedicated to a specific virtue: the honest, the selfless, the brave, the peaceful, and the intelligent. Each year, all sixteen year olds must choose a faction to live in for the rest of their lives, sometimes choosing to abandon their family forever. The main character, Beatrice, is a small girl from the faction of the selfless. She chooses a faction and goes through the initiation process, which is more complicated than you would think. Beatrice is unique and different from a majority of the population, a trait that she knows makes her dangerous, but she doesn't know why. And at the same time, a growing conflict is emerging.

The layout of the story is eerily similar to The Hunger Games. The choice of faction happens fairly quickly, as did the selection of kids for the hunger games. The majority of the story is the initiation process, as the major of the story was the hunger games. The endings happen really quickly, and they are basically the same idea (sorry if that is a spoiler). And to top it all off, there is the meddling romance that carries throughout the story.

I actually thought the first 300 pages were incredible entertaining and enjoyable. The idea of having to pick a virtue for the rest of your life and live it is neat to think about. You never knew what was coming with the next stage of the initiation. My three complaints would be that it was too similar to The Hunger Games, that is wasn't all that believable, and that it was fairly predictable at the end. There's a lot of injections, mind games, simulations, and mind control. That's a bit too sci-fi for me.

The second book is called Insurgent, and it was announced this past week that the third book will be called Allegiant and is being released October 22nd of this year. Debating if I will read them or not. Also, movie rights have already been bought. The first movie will debut in March 2014.

My rating for Divergent: 3.5 stars out of 5. Get it here!

P.S. While I'm mentioning future books, Nicholas Sparks has a new one coming out September 17th called The Longest Ride. I'm going to read it, but after reading the description, I don't think I'm going to like it.

Picking Winners by Andrew Beyer

I was never really into horse racing until a few years ago when a friend brought me up to Saratoga. I thought the experience was a lot of fun. Since then, I've been multiple times every summer. My friend has taken it to a whole new level - he's going to be a part of a TV series on handicapping horse races. Naturally, I thought I would do a bit of reading to get a deeper understanding of the sport. When deciding where to start, I picked up a book that was mentioned in Trading Bases as the bible of horse racing: Picking Winners.

I'm going to offer a disclaimer by saying if you aren't interested in wagering on horse races then you'll find the book boring. Start by going to a track, then maybe you'll find the book useful. I loved how Beyer explains simple concepts. He quickly escalates to more detail using examples and actual outcomes of races. He hits on all aspects of horse racing. He even adds in some humor which fits perfectly. The greatest takeaway of the book is the chapter on money management. In my opinion, that is 50% of the battle in trying to successfully wager, whether it be on horses or any other sport.

The most absurd part about Picking Winners is the fact it was written in 1975. Just about everything he wrote is still relevant today. The speed figures he came up with to measure horses against each other are now used in the Daily Racing Form programs. (You can check if you don't believe me. They're called the Beyer Speed Figures.) The one thing that I would like to see is an updated version with more commentary on the impact of computers, statistics, and predictive modeling. Incredibly, all of his analysis was done by hand and calculator.

My rating for Picking Winners: 4 stars out of 5. Get it here!

P.S. Still no computer. Within the next week I should be able to update these posts with pictures and links.

Updated on Saturday, July 13th (pictures, links, italics)

Big Data by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier

Really struggling right now. As you know, I haven't been reading as much this year. Hoping to change that. Took my test last week, went out and bought a bunch of books. Then my laptop dies. So yes, I'm writing this on a tablet. I actually have a few books in the pipeline as I've had some on my wishlist for a long time and friends have been recommending books. Anyways, onto Big Data.

Going to cut straight to the chase. I didn't finish the book. Fell about forty pages short. The book is about how data already is and will continue to change the world. I don't think the idea is all that revolutionary. If you follow the news/internet you would recognize this. Books I have previously read also shared a lot of the points that were in this book. Frankly, I didn't find Big Data all that insightful.

The writing was very repetitive. I thought the authors did a poor job coming across with any significant takeaways. Even the flow of the book seemed scattered, as if random musings were fused together. About the only thing I learned was some historical technological innovations.

One thing that I want to share is in Big Data, written at the beginning of this year, they disclose the NSA is recording e-mails, phone calls, and other communications. They site a 2010 Washington Post investigation. Interesting how it took nearly three years for the entire thing to blow up and become part of the mainstream media.

Overall, the book is a waste of time. If you are interested in data, there are better books out there.

My rating for Big Data: 1  star out of 5. Get it here!

P.S. It's hard to insert pictures or links on the tablet. Hoping to find a computer before next Sunday. I'll update this post for that stuff once I get a laptop.

Updated on Saturday, July 13th (pictures, links, italics)

Changing the Game by William Hall

Changing the Game was referenced in Trading Bases as a source of understanding the concept of value in gambling. Trading Bases caught my attention and I wanted to dig deeper. I actually started reading this book right after Trading Bases, but it took me a while to finish. And a while to blog about it.

The beginning of the book is for the novice gambler as the author explains basic terminology. The most annoying part was how William Hall constantly pitches his "game analysis system" that he is selling. He references it every other sentence (that may be a bit sarcastic, but it is probably every paragraph). Very annoying. That is the reason I put down the book for a few weeks. Frankly, I didn't understand why anyone would want to read a sales pitch.

The last third of the book gets into the good stuff. Value is how much return you will get for the riskiness of your bet. A way to think about it is the difference between what you think the price should be and what the line is. The bigger the difference, the more value. Even if you think you can pick a winner, it may not be financially worth it. The author actually does a great job explaining this concept. He digs much deeper into this, mentioning distributions (Poisson, anyone?) and other mathematical references. Exactly what I was looking for.

Frankly I wouldn't suggest this book to anyone. I think it is misleading in how easy it portrays making money from betting. It truly is a sales pitch. However, I am glad I read it. Once I finish studying for my next exam, which is in two weeks, I'm going to spend some time pondering all of this gambling stuff. For my own sake and for a friend who is getting into gambling. The concept of value and predictive analysis is right up my alley. Don't be surprised to see a few more gambling or investing books on the blog in the summer.

My rating for Changing the Game: 1 star out of 5. Get it here!

Movie Review: Silver Linings Playbook

Haven't done one of these movie reviews in a while. It's kind of random too. I haven't actually read The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. I prefer to read the book before watching the movie but the movie looked really good, it was nominated for and won a bunch of awards, plus it had Jennifer Lawrence.

The story starts with Pat getting out of a mental health facility after an eight month stint. He ended up there after an incident stemming  from walking in on his wife cheating on him. When he gets out, he is determined to win back his wife, who has a restraining order against him. Pat meets Tiffany at a dinner party, who is a recent widow with her own set of crazy problems. She tells Pat she's willing to help him win back his wife if he enters a dance competition with her. That's the gist of the story.

The first thing that stands out is the acting. Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence were phenomenal. She won an Oscar for Best Actress, but frankly I thought Bradley Cooper was even better. The movie is mostly a drama, but there is some comedy and definitely the romantic angle. The characters speak without any filter, often times leading to uncomfortable situations. But as the movie progresses, you find yourself rooting for both of them and hoping neither screws up.

Given that I didn't read the book, I can't say much about the comparison between the two. I may give it a read though. If I do, I will probably reference some stuff from the movie.

My rating for the movie Silver Linings Playbook: 4.5 stars out of 5!

Until I Say Goodbye by Susan Spencer-Wendel

Susan Spencer-Wendel was a normal woman. In her early fourties, married with three kids, a steady job as a journalist. Then her body started to slowly deteriorate. Her muscles stopped working. After months of visiting various doctors, she was diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. The disease systematically destroys the nerves that power your muscles. There is no cure. She did not want to be part of an experimental drug. She did not want to be stuck in a bed with tubes. She wanted to live as much as she could in the time she had left. When it was time to go, she would go.

The book is about her last year. She tells all about the final trips she took with the important people in her life. A trip to see the Northern Lights with her best friend. A trip to Budapest with her husband. A cruise with her sister. A trip to New York City to take her fourteen year old daughter wedding dress shopping, knowing that is the closest she'll ever get to seeing her daughter get married. She tells about her drive to find her birth parents, as she was adopted and wonders if she could have ALS because of genetics. She builds a Chickee Hut in her backyard as a sanctuary for her final days.

I guess I never realized what it means to have ALS. Susan writes about some of the everyday struggles. Like going to pick her son up from school only to fall down because her legs gave out. Other parents asking her what is wrong with her. Is she drunk. Not being able to drive anymore. Not being able to put on makeup (she got "makeup" tattooed on her face). Not being able to feed herself. Not being able to go to the bathroom herself. To the point where she could barely speak.

Susan doesn't describe any of that in a sad way. She is optimistic and even humorous. She jokes about a lot of the things going on in her life. Some of the stuff she does makes her somewhat crazy in my opinion. Her candidness will strike the reader. She talks about dark days of suicidal thoughts and ending life early. But she is also incredibly insightful, truly understanding what it means to live.

From a writing standpoint, it is very easy to read. My only issue is the book is scattered, meaning it's not exactly in the order as things progressed. I really shouldn't be too nit-picky though. She wrote the entire book on her iPhone using only her right thumb.

My rating for Until I Say Goodbye: 5 stars out of 5. Get it here!

P.S. In case you were wondering, Susan is still alive (as of this posting).

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

I know Malcolm Gladwell has a few good books out there. I've just never thought the topics were all that interesting. I'm not sure what really stood out when I picked up The Tipping Point. After reading it, I can say for sure that I am going to read more of Gladwell's books.

The Tipping Point is based on a simple concept. It's the point where an idea, trend or epidemic turns from being nothing into an overnight sensation, spreading like fire. It seems simple, but the author digs into how and why things "tip". He breaks it down to three things: the law of the few, the stickiness factor, and the power of context. The law of the few is that there are a certain few who can influence the majority. The stickiness factor is that there needs to be something about the trend that makes an impact and sticks in your mind. The power of context is about the environment when the few deliver that sticky message. The author goes incredibly deep on these three pieces.

This may not seem all that revolutionary. The book was written more than a decade ago, but even without the book you could probably come up with something similar to his three points. What makes his book stand out is how he intertwines examples with his points. The examples he uses are thoroughly explained and continually referenced in the book. Not in the sense that it's repetitive, but more so in order to reinforce certain thoughts. And I loved how in the last chapter he offered specific examples of how his three points could be applied to current issues.

Honestly I thought this was one of the better books I've read in a long time. While the concept seems straightforward, the examples and the way everything came together makes this a worthwhile read.

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

P.S. I wanted to share a passage that I thought was incredibly insightful:

...dismiss as Band-Aid solutions. But that phrase should not be considered a term of disparagement. The Band-Aid is an inexpensive, convenient, and remarkably versatile solution to an astonishing array of problems. In all their history, Band-Aids have probably allowed millions of people to keep working or playing tennis or cooking or walking when they would otherwise have had to stop. The Band-Aid solution is actually the best kind of solution because it involves solving a problem with the minimum amount of effort and time and cost.

Trading Bases by Joe Peta

Three posts in three weeks. Batting 1.000%! Pun intended. You see, this book is about baseball, gambling, and wall street. Baseball, 1.000% batting average. Get it?

Corny jokes aside, let me explain how I found this book. I've been doing a lot of studying for my next actuarial exam at Barnes and Noble. Each night on my walk out, I pick up a few books and read the back cover to see if I can find any interesting books. Trading Bases is one that caught my eye. So much so that I started reading it in the store.

The beginning of the book is captivating. Joe Peta was a stock trader with a seven-figure job when an ambulance ran him over one January morning. Confined to a wheelchair with a broken leg and other injuries, he began watching baseball, something that reminded him of his childhood. Soon he was laid off from his job and found he had a ton of time to kill. He decided to start reading some of the analysis on the upcoming baseball season. Then an idea spawned.

Why not apply his skills from the trading desk to a model to predict baseball games? He would use various sabermetrics in an attempt to beat the Vegas betting lines. He bet most of the games every day, varying the amount of the wager depending on the confidence of the model. Long story short, he ended up with a return of 41% in 2011 and 14% in 2012.

Trading Bases is not for everyone. If you don't like sports, don't even pick this up. You don't have to be a baseball fan, but it probably helps to be familiar with the sport given all of the terminology he uses. The author goes into detail about his methods and some of his calculations (there are some formulas and a lot of tables). If you enjoy math and statistics, you'll really like these parts of the book. Joe Peta shares a lot of stories about his days as a trader and his personal life. Some of the trading stuff was pretty cool, but I skimmed over all the family stuff. I should also say that the author shares a bunch of personal stories in footnotes, most of which are pretty funny.

If you're into the subject matter, you'll fly through the book. Personally I found the book entertaining and have recommended it or discussed it with a bunch of friends.

My rating for Trading Bases: 4 stars out of 5. Get it here!

Wooden by John Wooden

Two posts in two weeks. I'm getting back on track. This one is going to be short because I'm tired, but that does not take away from the book. I've owned Wooden for quite some time and this was probably my tenth time reading it. It's one of those books that I can read over and over and still enjoy it every time.

Wooden is broken up into three parts. The first is about family and values, the second is on success and achievement, and the third is on coaching and teaching. The subtitle explains it well: "A lifetime of observations and reflections on and off the court." The book is written in short blurbs, sometimes a paragraph, sometimes a page. They are on a variety of topics. Coach Wooden shares numerous stories from his life and his teams. You can open the book to any page and start reading...there is no real story line throughout the book.

Obviously this is right up my alley in terms of basketball and coaching. But everything in the book applies to way more than basketball and coaching. It applies to all aspects of life. Coach Wooden was incredibly humble and smart. Everything he did had a purpose. Everyone should have their own values, but Coach Wooden's are a perfect example of what values should look like.

If I was stranded on an island for the rest of my life, this is one of the books I would want with me. (This hypothetical may be good for a post in and of itself.)

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

Quiet by Susan Cain

I'm back. It's been a full two months. Clearly I took some time off from reading. But I'm getting back into it. I recently finished two books that I was reading at the same time and I've ordered five more from Amazon that should be in any day now. With that being said, I'm going to take up writing reviews again.

Quiet has been on my radar for a while. I've never read it because I thought it was an uninteresting and somewhat depressing topic to read about. The book is about the power of introverts and offers a thousand reasons why being an introvert is not bad. The author does a wonderful job tying together the enormous amount of research that has been conducted on this topic over the years. She participated in classes and activities geared towards introverts. She met with numerous academics and leaders in the study of introverts.

The author admits she is an introvert, which maybe makes her a bit biased. However, according to research, one-third to one-half of people are introverts. Most would probably say I'm more on the introvert side of the spectrum. Although I'm in agreement with the author that you are not always an introvert or extrovert...it changes depending on situations.

I know this isn't the most exciting thing to read about, but the way the book is written is as entertaining as a knowledge-sharing book can be. It is not dry or boring. It provides a lot of insight into motivations and thoughts of both introverts and extroverts. I think it is really practical for considering other members of any team you may be on. Quiet was not marketed as a leadership book, but in my opinion this is one of the better leadership books out there.

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

P.S. For the longest time, I've tried to figure out a way to sneak a TED talk into one of my posts. Well, Susan Cain delivered a TED talk basically about her book. Check it out.

Killing Kennedy by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

I know I know. This blog has been inactive for the last few weeks. While I could make excuses like I was in Las Vegas or that I've been coaching basketball, the truth is I haven't been reading as much. I finished Killing Kennedy on the Vegas plane ride. A co-worker recommended it for me and it turned out it was right up my alley.

The book chronicles JFK's presidency and assassination. If you remember, I read a too-thorough JFK book a year ago that I didn't end up finishing. Killing Kennedy was more to the point and told a story. There were a bunch of random facts, such as JFK's friendships with stars like Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe. Or the more unnecessary details of JFK's womanizing. Shocking to hear but no one has ever made a stink about it.

There are many reasons while I liked the book. I love true stories. Recent history is interesting. The story was told in a way that made you want to keep turning the pages even though you knew the ending. I did like the background info on certain people and situations as I was a naive on some of that.

One thing I would have liked the book to do more is delve into some of the conspiracy theories. I'm not big on conspiracy theories, but I'm pretty sure there are some out there that have some substance to them. Killing Kennedy hones in on Lee Harvey Oswald and doesn't give more than a paragraph that conspiracies exist.

Also, books with two authors...who actually wrote the book? Like is Bill O'Reilly just using his name to sell copies? It's always one famous person and one true author. Always wondered about that.

My rating for Killing Kennedy: 4 stars out of 5. Get it here!

Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto

I'm trying to read all the books that somehow ended up on my wish list on Amazon. Some of them have been on there over a year. Frankly I'm not sure how others, like Weapons of Mass Instruction, ended up on there. But I decided to give it a shot.

John Taylor Gatto taught for nearly 30 years in New York City. He was named teacher of the year late in his career, and then quit because he had finally had enough of the school system. He has some radical takes on schooling. His main point his schools do not truly educate students. He spends the entire book trying to support this notion.

While I think some parts of his argument are right (and some parts are out there), I don't think he offers a real solution. The two biggest takeaways were to have students write on their tests "I would prefer not to take your test" or get home schooled. Not sure that is the answer. He says, "You either write your own script, or you become an actor in somebody else's script". Well, if everyone wrote their own script, there would only be monologues.

I will say that the book is filled with a lot of interesting facts. I actually used post it tabs to bookmark a few spots. And he was an English teacher, so the vocabulary is top notch and the grammar is spot on. I think it's good to read books you may not completely agree with. It is good to expand your knowledge on certain topics. Education is one of those topics considering its impact on life and society.

My rating for Weapons of Mass Instruction: 2 stars out of 5. Get it here.