Review: Lucky Bastard: My Life, My Dad, and the Things I'm Not Allowed to Say on TV

Lucky Bastard: My Life, My Dad, and the Things I'm Not Allowed to Say on TV by Joe Buck
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So I know of Joe Buck through occasionally catching him on baseball broadcasts, but mostly through the complaints I hear -- on the radio, at the office, online – about the way he calls games. I lived in St. Louis for a while, and knew of his dad, legendary Cardinals announcer Jack Buck. I always thought he was good, with a good radio voice. Joe seemed more brash. And after listening to Joe Buck narrate this audiobook, I still consider his voice brash. But I understand better how he approaches broadcasting, and appreciate that professionalism. I always felt when he covered Chicago Cubs games he spent more time fawning over the opponents than speaking well of the Cubs, but I think that comes with being raised in St. Louis. There’s something in the water. Besides spilled Budweiser. I listened to Buck’s book as I was reading a book written by Harry Caray about his career. They were both interesting in what they talked about, especially the career paths and the approach to broadcasting. But they were also both felt a bit different in personality. Harry comes across as a truly unique character. Buck, it seemed to me, is more a typical frat boy, though humorous, self deprecating, and with a well spoken charisma. Buck comes across, though, as more relatable – he did a good job at that in his book. I enjoyed it

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Review: 2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything of Everything

2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything of Everything by Mauro F. Guillén
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The big issue with writing a futurist book is actually writing down predictions. With the written prediction, the reader, as time passes and the world changes, can sense the abilities the author has. Are his predictions turning out to be more or less likely over time? That’s the simplest metric. But readers of many of these kinds of futurists books tend to go another level deeper, to determine if the nuances of the prediction are on target or off. Or if there was an interaction with another prediction that had an impact that the author missed. The exercise is left to the reader. This book was written in a friendly, approachable way, and focused on some bigger changes, as well as the business aspects of change. I didn’t really have any “I didn’t see that coming” moments while reading this book, but I did have a number of “I can see that happening” moments (often followed by a quick consideration of impacts on stocks I follow). This, as well as many other futurist books, is valuable for promoting thought and reflection.

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Review: Call for the Dead

Call for the Dead by John le Carré
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A younger Smiley combines analysis with a bit of action, such as it is. Enjoyable for the writing and the short intro to Smiley.

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Review: Find Your Why: A Practical Guide to Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team

Find Your Why: A Practical Guide to Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team by Simon Sinek
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book is divided into a section on finding your personal WHY and finding a business’ WHY. I found the entire process obvious. A good reminder to rethink your purpose, both personally and throughout your organization.

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Review: Field of Thirteen

Field of Thirteen by Dick Francis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this collection of Francis’ racing related short stories. Having read most of his novels, and noting that the novels tended to have a kind of formula, I wondered how he would approach his short stories. He seemed to have dropped his formula, making these more O Henry in revolving around a twist. Instead of focusing on the hero, some of these stories revolved around the villain. You can tell Francis was having some fun trying things out, and that made these fun to read.

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Review: Herzog

Herzog by Saul Bellow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

One of those books where the writing was wonderful, but the story didn’t grab me. I think part of it was the pace. Herzog covers a lot of ground in the span of a couple days, physically. But we are always in his head, where he is thinking, and writing imaginary letters to people, at lightening speed. Another depressing bit was that this was about many different low points in life, divorces, arrests, allegations. It was a bit heavy, not what I was looking for at the time I read it. Still, quite masterful writing.

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Review: You Can Buy Happiness (and It's Cheap): How One Woman Radically Simplified Her Life and How You Can Too

You Can Buy Happiness (and It's Cheap): How One Woman Radically Simplified Her Life and How You Can Too by Tammy Strobel
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Not quite what I expected. I thought this would be more a memoir of building a small house, something you could take notes on for your own journey down that path. There wasn’t really enough detail here to do that. I thought maybe, based on the title, that this would be about a woman simplifying her life. Not really – this is about a couple simplifying their lives. I’ve read a lot of life simplifying books over the years. It seems they are either a couple both doing the same thing to simplify their lives, or one does the work, with the other continuing to make the money. This felt more like the latter. When you get a couple where one takes the interesting new tact in their life while the other maintains their career, you see the value of insurance. I much prefer when there is no insurance, and a person or couple step off the deep end without visible backups. This was more relatable and repeatable, but less interesting. I’d consider this book more an inspirational book than a how-to guide. Overall, OK, but similar to others.

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