Review: Biopunk: Solving Biotech's Biggest Problems in Kitchens and Garages

Biopunk: Solving Biotech's Biggest Problems in Kitchens and Garages by Marcus Wohlsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very enjoyably written set of articles on home-brew biology as it exists in the early 2010s. Reading through this book felt like reading a long pop science magazine focused on this topic. There are lots of anecdotes about the people doing this. It actually starts off quite tame, describing people building diagnostic medical tests to test their own families and building inexpensive equipment or finding expensive equipment for sale second hand. Only as you go on in the book do you see DNA manipulation and the like. The book ends with a discussion of the risks involved.

I just attended a TEDx conference that included a speaker running a local biohacking lab. The talk focused on what they could do, how they share information with other researchers, and how they were using equipment that was home built for cheap or purchased for a fraction of what the functionality cost just a few years ago. Many of the advances talked about came about after this book was written (its copyright date is 2012). The cause of the strength of this area of “non-corporate” research, according to the speaker, is the continued lack of regulations. This continues to be a fast moving area, and on that will get more interest from the general public as time goes by and as “things happen”, good or bad, based on this research. “Biopunk” remains a good introduction.


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Review: Robicheaux

Robicheaux by James Lee Burke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have listened to the audio version of most of James Lee Burke’s Robicheaux books, narrated by Will Patton. Patton has become the voice of Dave Robicheaux for me, as well as the voice of the bayou country as described by Burke, in a way that can be called atmospheric, if that atmosphere is humid, hot, and kinda menacing. According to Amazon “Look Inside”, the word “mist” shows up 14 times in this book, mostly relating to seeing people appear or disappear. Moody. Robicheaux is having a bad time, more than normal, in this one, making this one of the more depressing stories in the series. The story is very similar to other Burke mysteries, as many of the recent books have seemed. But that doesn’t bother me yet, since what you are getting here is a more than plot, it is a mood that Burke knows how to impart very well. To the good is seeing Dave fall apart but hold it together enough to finish the story – there’s no grave injuries and superhuman recovery so prevalent in recent Robicheaux stories. Also, Clete is well-written comic relief (and is well performed by Patton). And you run across some inside jokey bits where you can sense Burke is winking at the reader, one bit playing off of earlier Robicheaux novel titles. I found this a refreshing entry into the cannon.

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Review: The Capitalist Code: It Can Save Your Life and Make You Very Rich

The Capitalist Code: It Can Save Your Life and Make You Very Rich by Ben Stein
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have an Uncle that I knew was an investor, along with his full time job as a draftsman. He owned stocks, and he was a partner in a fast food place in Fort Leonard Wood. He’d occasionally give my Dad old copies of Value Line, and I read those voraciously when I was in high school. I understood, in part from listening to my Uncle and my Father talk, that investing was the way to go. But my Uncle liked to invest in particular stocks, hoping to beat the market. Fast forward to today’s investment landscape shared on social platform Reddit, with the FIRE folks, interested in gaining financial independence. These folks have done the research, and seen the value of investing not in individual shares but in broad swaths of the market in low cost ETFs or mutual funds, diversifying away the risks of individual stocks and putting faith in the power of the market and compounded growth. If you mix my Uncle with the philosophy of FIRE, you get Ben Stein’s book “The Capitalist Code”. Lots of basic advice, lots of personal anecdotes. A fine introduction for a young person beginning investing. For those already dipped in this philosophy, this is just a nicely written, fun (or is the word "droll"?) reminder. And you get to relive a little of “Ferris Buehler’s Day Off” in the beginning.

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Review: The Magic of Tiny Business: You Don't Have to Go Big to Make a Great Living

The Magic of Tiny Business: You Don't Have to Go Big to Make a Great Living by Sharon Rowe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you’ve read a lot of Inc magazine articles, or other books are starting your own business, you will find this book trods familiar ground. The focus was on operating your business, not on the initial sparks of creation. So you learn it's not all magic. Then you learn about the "tiny" side of the title. The focus was also on “tiny business”, but while some of the book is about those tiny businesses you tend to call side-hustles, much of the book is about businesses that are larger. The book is short, so it has the feel of an extended magazine article or series. The author includes many anecdotes about her own experience of growing her business, an early eco business, which makes this interesting (although a bit dated) and more than a how-to book. A nice, short reminder of how to think about problems as you grow your small business.

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Review: Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street

Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street by William Poundstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Some interesting stories revolving around the science of information, investments sometimes using this science (and sometimes not), and the law revolving around RICO. These things fit together loosely, and the author does a good job of tying stories back to the scientists described early on in the book. But there is a lot of ground covered, in many directions. This is a book of stories related to information theory, not a how-to book. I did not pick up on enough science to be useful for my own investing and gambling, but this book does give you the basics on how it can be applied, and whets the appetite for learning more. I thought the variety of stories helped the narrative – I wasn’t expecting Rudy Giuliani to make such a large appearance.

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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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