Review: The Return of the Dancing Master

The Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Having finished the Kurt Wallander series a few months back, I was hankering for a depressed (and depressing) detective with health issues and bad personal habits working on a gruesome case. And Mankell provides. This was much like a Wallander story, except our detective is a little more sick and more whiney. And, as in a few of the Wallander stories, there is a lecture, in this case about how neo-Nazis are bad. Mankell rarely misses an opportunity to lecture his readers on the world’s ills. I found the plot somewhat fun, but somewhat a confusing mess. But I do enjoy the characters Mankell writes. They grow on you throughout the book as they get fleshed out. OK as a standalone mystery.

View all my reviews

Review: Playing with FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early): How Far Would You Go for Financial Freedom?

Playing with FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early): How Far Would You Go for Financial Freedom? by Scott Rieckens
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Reading a book on Financial Independence nowadays is a combination of pleasure and pain to me. It happens the same way with many of these recent crop of FIRE (financial independence, retire early) books. I start reading and have an immediate negative reaction. Why? I’ve been on this path for roughly 30 years, and I haven’t hit the finish line yet. It’s because I tend to the conservative in investing, and it’s because I have lived life and found that my wants and needs are constantly evolving, and I’ve experienced the occasional unexpected setback. I’ve found these FIRE books to mostly ignore hedonistic adaptation, or increases in standard of living. They also tend to ignore some of the inflation to things you buy or will be buying in the future, which sometimes isn’t reflected in official numbers. And I’ve not run into one that handles risks in a thorough manner. In this case, life insurance isn’t mentioned, making me wonder if they’ve thought through any future scenarios including children. Disability isn’t mentioned. Atrophying of job skills, which makes the option of returning to well-compensated work difficult, isn’t taken into account. And the possibility of an inheritance, which is like a kind of insurance on FIRE, isn’t mentioned, and you can’t tell if it has been taken into account. When you’ve considered, or analyzed FIRE for any length of time, you hope to see these topics discussed in FIRE books as a validation of thoroughness. They had only been at it for less than a year when the book was being written, so you get limited reflection. I’d have to give this an “incomplete”. These books, with this one as a good example of the genre, drive me nuts when I start to read them.

If I can get over my initial disbelief that the authors didn’t take what I consider common issues into account, I often get to where I enjoy the story. This happened with this book. As long as I totally disregarded the “how-to” aspects of the book, and instead regard the book as documenting someone learning from scratch, I can enjoy it. Here, I was able to enjoy the journey. Part of that enjoyment is that the author is making a documentary of his family’s journey, and I enjoyed the description of his research and the process. If you are farther along in thinking about FIRE, I don’t think you’ll learn much with this book, but if you are new to the concept, this explains the basics and provides an example of a path, but makes it look a bit too simple.


View all my reviews

Review: Small Fry

Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I reviewed Walter Isaacson’s book on Steve Jobs, I noted how Jobs came across as petty and manipulative, and in my review I said that I was glad I never worked for him. After reading “Small Fry” I am doubly glad I was not in his family. At times, you feel you are reading a real life Cinderella story, but without a prince to change the world. The mindset of the author seems too forgiving, though. I can buy that, despite the obvious business intelligence, Jobs was truly, as Trump might say, a bad hombre when it came to dealing with people. He seems to operate on a different plane, seeming much like the narrator in Kurt Vonnegut’s “Breakfast of Champions”. That dichotomy, between Jobs heinous way of treating people, and his daughter’s relatively steady and low-emotion description of her life with her father, is intriguing. I checked my Facebook feed during the time I was reading this, and a friend posted a quote attributed to Steve Jobs, which was actually Apple’s advertisement copy that starts “Here’s to the crazy ones”. It implies that crazy geniuses should be forgiven for the craziness while celebrating the genius. After reading his daughters book, this made me cringe.

View all my reviews

Review: Taming the Sun: Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet

Taming the Sun: Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet by Varun Sivaram
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was pleasantly surprised by the width of topics covered in this book. It isn’t aimed at individual home owners, but describes the technology and its use at a high level. I found the discussion on the economics of solar in comparison with other energy sources, and the outcome that wasn’t black or white, but gray, was refreshing. The author explains how solar works well with other sources of energy filling in when the sun’s down. Obvious, yes, but it leads to conclusions that aren’t always talked about when talking about solar. The author also provides some background into the march of solar technology into more efficient materials and more usable substrates on which those materials can be used as a coating. I haven’t kept up with the solar industry in decades, so this was a good update.

View all my reviews

Review: Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I remember decades ago I read William Whyte’s book on, among other topics, urban design. The book was called “City”. “Happy City” seems to be cut from similar cloth. A difference, though perhaps only in my selective long-term memory, was that Whyte’s book had a lot of observations tied to corporations’ benefits brought about by the designed and built environment. “Happy City” covers very similar topics, but from the built environment’s impact on individuals. And I recall that “City” was quite 1950s boosterish on urban planning, “Happy City” carries more of the environmental mindset you’d expect nowadays. At times, this becomes like one of the many pop science books on happiness, describing the research on how different situations regarding the built environment and transportation impact emotions. I enjoyed the topics covered, although I did find parts repetitive.

View all my reviews

Review: Come with Me

Come with Me by Helen Schulman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

In the end this was a standard family drama. There are a lot out there, so why pick this one? I was intrigued by the blurbs on the book identifying this as strong on location and employment, focusing on the families of Silicon Valley. What was different about those living in the tech bubble? I suspected a good story. In addition, there seemed to be a bit of a sci-fi angle here. Having enjoyed some books recently that sounded in a similar vein I tackled this one. I enjoyed the story to a point, and I enjoyed the characters, though none could be thought of as all positive. What disappointed me was the technology aspect of the story. The author positioned a technology that forecast alternative life paths given details of the history of a person. There isn’t an attempt to explain this technology, and it receives very little play in the story. In fact, the technology aspect could have been replaced completely with, say a fortune teller to the same effect. It’s magical realism, with software as the delivery mechanism. The problem is the magical software angle was too far out given the expectations of the sci-fi label on the book. The book begs for something a bit more believable, and a bit more part of the story. But given this is mostly a drama, I’d consider this on the whole ok.

View all my reviews

Review: Own Your Future: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur and Thrive in an Unpredictable Economy

Own Your Future: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur and Thrive in an Unpredictable Economy by Paul B. Brown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book starts with the belief that the best way to get ahead in your career is to apply entrepreneurial skills, either within your job working for someone else, or running your own business. The book then gets a bit repetitive, covering typical career advice mixed in with describing a process for creating new businesses. The combination of those two facets of work is interesting, but as both are very well covered in other books, you look for things that really stick out. I didn't find anything incredibly unique here. I did enjoy the author's personality in the text, and would consider reading others by him on a more specific topic.

View all my reviews