Review: The Gig Economy: The Complete Guide to Getting Better Work, Taking More Time Off, and Financing the Life You Want

The Gig Economy: The Complete Guide to Getting Better Work, Taking More Time Off, and Financing the Life You Want by Diane Mulcahy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The author could have taken this book in many different directions, and she caught most of what I was expecting. The book focuses on living the life of a person living gig to gig. The feel is rosy, perhaps too rosy. The audience appears to be those that have safety nets in working spouses, insurance coverage, family support, existing business relationships, marketable skills, and the like. For those looking for validation of value in a gig economy, and an explanation of the paths needed to compete in this area, I believe there are other books that would be a better use of time. This is just too cheerleader-ish, and with a lot of content that is common sense. The variety of content I found pretty good.

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Review: Higher Returns from Safe Investments: Using Bonds, Stocks, and Options to Generate Lifetime Income

Higher Returns from Safe Investments: Using Bonds, Stocks, and Options to Generate Lifetime Income by Marvin Appel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

To the good, the book packs a lot of information and financial strategies into a short length. It covers a variety of strategies that tend to the conservative – investing in bond ladders, bond funds, munis, TIPS, preferred stocks, writing covered calls, and ETFs for dividend income. The author suggests specific investments. The book was written soon after the last bear market, and takes the results of that event into consideration.

To the bad, the book is a bit dated. Those specific recommendations might not make sense currently, but at least the author includes his reasoning behind those picks so you can plug in your own current numbers to pick investments. The tax changes will likely also impact the author’s recommendations were he to update them. The current global financial environment, with rising interest rates and their possible negative impact on bond and stock prices at the same time, is not really considered.

Overall, a nice combination of topics for those looking for investments that tend to be more conservative than all-equity portfolios. As with all books that provide specifics, the advice is dated and should not be followed without research.


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Review: Tara Road

Tara Road by Maeve Binchy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While I realized on reflection I got a lot out of this book, I wish I could say I liked this even more. I read this following a prompt from the 2018 Read Harder Challenge to read an Oprah pick. I enjoyed a number of other Binchy books for their friendly, Irish charm and storytelling about family and community, and expected this to be a great example, given Oprah’s blessing. It felt long and a bit flat, and a bit overwhelming if you identified with the American, which I did. The story, revolving around an old house in a gentrifying area of Dublin, felt a bit too familiar. At least the house didn’t catch fire like in an earlier Binchy book revolving around a building (“Firefly Summer”). I enjoyed the concept of house swapping described here, with the American visitor to Tara Road learning about how life works in Ireland, and I found this the most unexpectedly interesting part of the book – the compare and contrast between Irish and American life. The plot felt more like a background to build this comparison on. In reflection, I did enjoy this more than many of the Binchy books I’ve read (about half so far), but I’m expecting more. I have enjoyed the narration of other Binchy books, often with an overwhelmingly Irish sound to the narrator’s voice. The narrator for the unabridged version of this book didn’t strike me as “Irish” as the others I’ve listened to.

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Review: Freemasonry: A Very Short Introduction

Freemasonry: A Very Short Introduction by Andreas Önnerfors
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As one who has enjoyed many fiction books that include secret societies including the Freemasons, I thought this book would provide me with new and interesting background on these societies. While I learned a lot about the Masons, much was as expected. The book explains this by pointing out that the Freemasons have been of interest to people for centuries, and books have been written about them for centuries. In addition, items from this “secret society”, including books and furniture, have been made available to the public over the years, further reducing the secrets of the society. I was very surprised as this book was describing the most recent major changes to the Freemasons and many of those occurred in the 17th century. I was also surprised in that this book included sections focusing on women membership in the Freemasons, which I had not realized was allowed in the distant past. The book overall focused on the organization of the Freemasons as the society spread across the globe. It also covered the secrets of the organization, including the protocols and rituals. I found it interesting, and the book was short enough to maintain my interest.

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Review: The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory

The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

To evaluate a review of this book, you must know about the background of the reviewer. I had college physics classes in the early 80s, and have read a number of “modern” pop physics books in the past couple of decades. I understand, in many aspects, the basics of physics pre-string theory. But this new stuff? I understand some of the definitions, but that’s about it. Greene’s book is very good at giving descriptions and examples and analogies for aspects of physics it is trying to explain. And for the older concepts, it does a great job. The newer concepts, string theory and beyond, are explained in the same way, with the same care. I found these concepts more difficult to understand, but I suspect that’s my problem, not the fault of the author. I found the book well organized, and the examples often memorable. However, I didn’t get the level of understanding I was hoping for concerning recent advances in physics. I would consider reading more by this author, but may be looking for a lower grade level.

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Review: I Must Say: My Life As a Humble Comedy Legend

I Must Say: My Life As a Humble Comedy Legend by Martin Short
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve always liked Martin Short as a comedian. But he wasn’t ever in my mind in the same class as my favorites, including many stand ups. Short just seemed a bit different, approaching comedy from a different base, and always trying hard while sometimes showing how hard it can be. Kinda like the Tony Danza of comedy. But I liked his book.

The book really didn’t hit me until Short started dropping names, like Gilda, and Paul Schaeffer. This happens early on, as Short was part of the Toronto comic actors that became SCTV and populated SNL. I greatly enjoyed his stories of other comedians. I also found his extended description of his Christmas parties to be quite funny. This isn’t all fun, though, as Short describes the loss of his wife to cancer, and the impact to his family and his own life that has made. Very touching and sincere. (And Short’s story makes me kinda wish I had a friend like Kurt Russell.) I listened to this an audio, and Short’s narration, with impersonations and character voices that you are familiar with, really added to the presentation.


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Review: Descent: My Epic Fall from Cycling Superstardom to Doping Dead End

Descent: My Epic Fall from Cycling Superstardom to Doping Dead End by Thomas Dekker
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I've read quite a few cycling books, including some by dopers. This one does a better than average job describing the parties, the excesses, the how-to of doping, but Dekker doesn't come across as a very likable guy after sharing all this. In fact, this reminded me more of "The Buy Side", a book on excesses of a Wall Street trader, more than other professional cycling books. The author obviously relished his bad-boy activities, and that's the focus of this book. There's also the bragging about his easy wins throughout his career. This also left a bad impression. I didn't get as much out of this as I expected going into it.

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Review: Catseye

Catseye by Andre Norton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I remember Catseye being one of the small collection of Sci Fi books that my high school had back in the late 70s. With my first reading, a few decades after I first saw the book, I understand why. Catseye is a sci fi book, but focused on a relationship with animals. It carries some of the same feel as classic Disney animal movies. I'm sure this is what attracted our high school librarians. The book also includes some typical boys adventure in the wilderness, albeit with aliens. I enjoyed the combination of that adventure, bits of mystery, and a kind of philosophy that required talking out thoughts by the various sides involved. Good for a classic sci fi book, with extra meaning for those that enjoy wise animal stories as well.

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Review: Work Reimagined: Uncover Your Calling

Work Reimagined: Uncover Your Calling by Richard J. Leider
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’ve read a few books on figuring out your “calling” recently, including a couple by the author of this book. While most of these books sound very similar, they differ in level of spiritual discussion and in the specific to-dos to find that elusive calling. This one had a Christian “work is good” message, but it wasn’t overwhelming. This book also featured an exercise to find your calling using “calling cards”. I found this a nice way to organize thinking. I went through this, and found it somewhat useful for organization of my thoughts. But I didn’t get to that next step to find that elusive calling. Not bad for what it is.

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Review: Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone

Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone by Satya Nadella
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found myself enjoying the first half of Nadella’s book more than the second, which is not what I would have expected given the topics. The first half covers Nadella’s rise through the ranks at Microsoft, his family life, and his work philosophy. The second half focuses more on the direction that Nadella is leading Microsoft toward, in terms of technology but also in terms of an organization. I found the history more interesting than I expected and the futures less interesting. That’s not normal for me, especially when I have some skin in the game with the company, holding a few shares in a retirement account.

In the first section, I enjoyed Nadella’s story of his rise within Microsoft. I also appreciated his mention of two books that I have always considered the cornerstones of my own career in technology – “Soul of a New Machine” by Tracy Kidder and “Young Men and Fire” by Norman Mclean. Nadella only mentioned a few other books as being instrumental in his career, so I found this coincidence personally fulfilling (at least someone took the learnings from these books and turned them into a megabucks career!). Nadella also introduces his family, including two special needs children. His experiences with his children color much of the direction and the interaction he has within Microsoft, so it was interesting learning of this. There were some points that were a bit below him – the discussion of his negative vote on buying out Nokia proved mostly correct given the failed buyout and subsequent large layoffs, but it comes across as Nadella saying “I told you so”. For this first part of the book, I thought I learned quite a bit that I could use in my career and investments, and in working with people.

The last part of the book was more about Nadella leading Microsoft. I was surprised that it was focused mostly on changing the culture of the organization. This would be a good read for organizational behavior and change classes, as well as HR. HR at Microsoft gets a lot of credit throughout. The technology future was more broadly brushed, and I didn’t get much out of this.

Overall, good as a business biography of Nadella and Microsoft during his career there. Not as good for those looking for tech futures.


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Review: Information and Society

Information and Society by Michael Keeble Buckland
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The title is expansive, but I found the text to be modest in its target. I was expecting a kind of primer on metadata, with broad implications. Instead, I found this more tied to how to use metadata to help people find related documents. I had also expected to read about technical innovation in metadata or tagging, but this didn’t go there. I work in software sales for tools that help categorize and find documents and looked to this book to provide some concepts that I could use to explain our software features, but this didn't really meet this need. OK as a guide for librarians and interesting for index creators, but quite academic.

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Review: Invested: How Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger Taught Me to Master My Mind, My Emotions, and My Money

Invested: How Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger Taught Me to Master My Mind, My Emotions, and My Money by Danielle Town
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I recently read Phil Town’s “Rule One”. In that book, Town repeatedly tells the reader that he has a simple system to pick winning stocks, but then describes the system using dozens of sub topics, optional research topics, and arcane history. Town’s one rule is actually a complex system, and while I enjoyed the way the system was presented, with history tied to famous value investors, it’s use seems quite time consuming.

I read this book, not initially understanding that this is a kind of walk thru of Town’s process, using his daughter as the voice. I found this much more compelling than Town’s original book. The process seems more reasonable when approached as a new investor, and in this case it doesn’t seem as involved. Mixed in with the story of learning how value investor’s invest is Danielle Town’s story – about her legal career and career re-think, her occasionally strained relationship with her father, and about moves. I enjoyed this book, even though I consider myself beyond this level of learning. I heard enough research suggestions that I can adjust my own process to add a few new ideas. In addition to investing books, I also enjoy books about entrepreneurs, and the story of how Phil Town, in effect, passes his business on to a daughter, was also quite interesting. It starts with the daughter being totally uninterested and uninvolved, but walks through her basic and advanced learning of his system, and her participation in an audio podcast on investing with her father. You can tell what happened at the end of the book, where you are given some advertisement for Danielle Town’s web site and investing services. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.


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Review: Mrs. Fletcher

Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perrotta
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Perrotta takes on the “night class” story, comparing a newly divorced mother’s growth in her night class with her obnoxious son’s first year at university. The book revolves around topics of sexuality and gender. I found myself enjoying the story, and Perrotta’s way of comparing the growth of mother and son in their new environments.

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