Review: The Girl Who Lived Twice

The Girl Who Lived Twice by David Lagercrantz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There were multiple points while I was listening to this audiobook that I realized that the characters were narrating action that happened off-screen for an extended period of time. It is like listening to someone describe a movie in excruciating detail, even though you know most of what happens to begin with. The action seemed more limited than previous Salander books, replaced by dialog on past events. I am sensing a downward spiral. The ending involves superhuman physical activity and extreme pain thresholds. I don't think Fonzie has jumped the shark quite yet, but we are in that season.

View all my reviews

Review: One Native Life

One Native Life by Richard Wagamese
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book contains a number of short reflections of the author on his life. It has the feel of a local journalist writing in a small town paper about their life. I found the stories interesting as personal reflections, much as I would a favorite local columnist. When I think back on my reading of this, I don't believe it was as focused on portraying a "native life" as I would have assumed from the title. The stories that had the most impact were of the author as a foster child, and the difficulties he had in life based on his upbringing and the physical issues he had. I will most remember these stories from this book, and the author's style that I would call gentle reflection.

View all my reviews

Review: Big World

Big World by Mary Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this short story collection. The author puts you into the head of a number of characters. Most, if not all, were women. Most, if not all, had thoughts that were a mix of bizarre, petty, and humorous. Do people really think this way?

I listened to the audiobook version. The multiple narrators were excellent. I only wish I had a good way to capture some of the many pithy lines Miller wrote. Quite fun. I would read more by Miller.


View all my reviews

Review: Your Money or Your Life

Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read “Your Money or Your Life” when it first was released in late 1992, based in part on a quick review I read in “Whole Earth Review”. I found it life changing in tying earned and spent money to the time a person uses to earn that money through work and investments. It made me realize that life could be considered an optimization model, and given my propensity to enjoy numbers, I took that message to heart. I recall the simple steps that Dominguez and Robin defined to understand the simple concepts and integrate it into your life. I also recall the author’s dedication to using government bonds as his only investment. Having taken a few finance classes in college, I could see the flaws in that tactic, and lived my life with a much broader investment portfolio than this book originally promulgated. But I also lived my life considering how time equals money.

Here, 27+ years later, Vicki Robin has updated the book. I wanted to reread the new version to see if Robin’s recommendations had changed, and if I had changed. I sensed some of both. Robins rewrote sections of the book to make them sound different and to offer some different specific advice, while maintaining the original short list of steps. The changes that struck me were the broadening of recommended investments to be more compatible with modern “financial independence” thought, focusing more on low cost broad market index funds including stocks and bonds. I also sensed the earlier sections of the book contained more philosophical content than the original edition. Perhaps it’s just my failing memory, but I seemed much more “new age-y” this time around. I also noticed that Robin includes a number of specific things to try to reduce expenses that, after I’ve read dozens of FIRE (financial independence, retire early) books in the past decade, were nothing new.

But those steps still resonate, they are still practical and usable. But I ask myself if I would have taken so much of the books message to heart if I had first read it today to start my path to optimize personal finances, and I believe so. The basis of the book – measuring your real earnings and determining the real cost of things, then deciding if the thing you are buying is worth the time you put into earning the money for it – that’s still valid and key. And the long term measurement of the growth of your assets and the ability to live off of your assets is also the basis of thought of any working person who dreams of retiring, early if possible. As a starter book, this is still one of the best. For those already on the path to financial independence, this is likely just a good discussion about how you already live. I’ll maintain my 5 star ranking as this is one of the handful of books that have greatly impacted my life.


View all my reviews

Review: Why Digital Transformations Fail: The Surprising Disciplines of How to Take Off and Stay Ahead

Why Digital Transformations Fail: The Surprising Disciplines of How to Take Off and Stay Ahead by Tony Saldanha
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The author’s answer to the title question is “Because you didn’t plan well enough”. And he lists and goes through some of the steps to plan for transformation coming at it from a top-down strategic perspective. I liked that there were not too many steps called out. I also liked that the author included some reasonably interesting examples of companies that have competed (or failed to complete) steps in a transformation process. Many of the examples revolved around the author’s experiences in a large company with a “shared services” to manage. I didn’t find much new here – these are the same kinds of recommendations I recall from re-engineering books from decades back, adding an essence of Tom Peters. Also, I listened on audio, and found this book was built around some lists. Lists are difficult to follow on audio, and this book was no exception – the author included lists within lists so at times it was hard to determine where in the “stack” of advice the discussion was focused. This also felt very “big company” focused. Most examples and even the advice was aimed at large IT shops. Overall, a good (and not too long) reminder of what “digital transformation” means, with interesting examples – many from the author’s tenure at P&G.

View all my reviews

Review: Sweet and Lowdown: Woody Allen's Cinema of Regret

Sweet and Lowdown: Woody Allen's Cinema of Regret by Lloyd Michaels
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I haven't been a big movie watcher, but I have enjoyed Allen's movies from his "classic" period. And I always enjoy the music. There are scenes in his movies that get etched in my mind, and are memorable years later. I can't say that for most other movies, or for most other directors. And I haven't ever read a book about Allen's films. I enjoyed this one. The author does mostly what you would expect here. He categorizes Allen's films into different styles and periods, then provides some description and some analysis tied to that classification. After you are done reading, you feel you could hold your own in a coffeeshop discussion of Allen movies. Or better, in line for a movie in the city. The miss here was on expectation given the title - Sweet and Lowdown was but one of many films analyzed here and it didn't seem to stick out in comparison to the rest. Another nit to pick is that there are few photos, although the author seems to have sensed that and discussed the few photos he includes at length. Overall, if you don't read many books on film and want to get some of those inside references and see how a career's worth of films adds up to more than it's sum, this is a good book.

View all my reviews

Review: Nevada

Nevada by Zane Grey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm glad I read this one after the first one in this two-book series. In the first book, you learn that Nevada has a secret past, but the book shows he can be a good fellow, not just a devil-may-care gunslinger. Here he comes across as a too-cool-for-school type as he goes undercover to, in effect, right all wrongs in his part of Arizona. It's a kind of spy story in Western garb. On audio, I found it a bit confusing to keep up with the players and the curious plot, but the action, once it got going, kept going. I see from looking at the "inside look" on Amazon that the author uses vernacular with non-standard spelling for some of the dialog. When I read that I usually don't like that it slows me down, but the audio didn't have that problem. It was understandable throughout. I found it interesting in the use of some words and phrases in this book from the 1920s. Those words today would denote a book considered "racy". Use the alternative, dated definitions for highest enjoyment of this (mostly) chaste story (although there is some kissin' -- after all this is a Western).

View all my reviews