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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