Books
Title | Author | Rating | Date reviewed |
---|---|---|---|
Never Split the Difference | Chris Voss | 5 | 2020-03-10 |
I will write a separate review for the book, but it's an early candidate for being the best business book I'll have the opportunity to read all year. It's remarkably good stuff. | |||
Obelisk Gate | N.K. Jemisin | 5 | 2020-03-05 |
It's difficult to convey how much I loved the *Obelisk Gate*, the second book in N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy. In fact, I had to look at another review to capture my own reaction: "It feels in many ways presumptuous and patronizing to applaud the maturation of a writer's work, as if I, the reviewer, stand beyond some literary finish line prepared to award a novelist her laurels. But I don't know how else to speak to the awe I feel, having followed the unfolding of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms series — which I thoroughly enjoyed — into this. Every insight is deeper, every observation sharper. Beyond the meticulous pacing, the thorough character work, and the staggering ambition and revelations of the narration, Jemisin is telling a story of our present, our failures, our actions in the face of repeated trauma, our responses to the heat and pressure of our times. Her accomplishment in this series is tremendous. It pole vaults over the expectations I had for what epic fantasy should be and stands in magnificent testimony to what it could be." Yep. Basically, that. | |||
Powerful | Patty McCord | 3 | 2020-03-01 |
I love a good business book. And I love the Netflix Culture Deck. But I didn't love the business book that is about the Netflix Culture Deck. McCord's basic thesis is that employees want to perform at a high level, if you let them, and that it's best for a company to set a direction and get out of the way. It's a good approach! And throughout the book, there are interesting ideas and tidbits about things like strategic planning, recruiting and hiring, and the silliness of traditional performance evaluations. That said, the book left me cold and cynical. For example, for all of the exuberant talk about freedom, there is the harsh reality in the actual Netflix policies' fine print that the "fight [against] the python of process" doesn't apply to hourly employees "due to legal requirements." That McCord never addresses this sort of incongruity is both a missed opportunity, and suggests that behind soaring rhetoric, there is still an army of lawyers. Similarly, there is simply too much survivor's bias suggesting that Netflix won *because* of their approach to things like internal debate. I mean, *maybe* Netflix is the company it is today because the technical culture was so great. But maybe it was, like, late fees? Ultimately, I don't dislike *Powerful*, but it didn't speak to me the way that the original culture deck spoke to me. Incidentally, the culture deck with the boring fonts and the hacker-culture feel is no more; it has been replaced with a corporate website. | |||
Forever Across the Marsh | Jeff Pearson | 4.5 | 2020-03-01 |
Jeff Pearson and I went to law school together, and I knew that Jeff was hilarious and that he was a strong writer. So I had relatively high expectations when I started *Forever Across the Marsh*. What I didn't expect was that I would find myself laughing uncontrollably during some of the events surrounding Melvin Scott's move with his family to Georgia. And what I also didn't expect was to feel such strong emotional connections to the characters in the novel. The narrative structure and picaresque nature of the book worked to create tension in surprising ways. Admittedly, there were some themes that didn't quite resonate with some of my more northern/midwestern sensibilities. But I thoroughly enjoyed the read and recommend Forever Across the Marsh for anyone looking for a heartfelt, uproariously funny southern novel. | |||
White Fragility | Robin DiAngelo | 5 | 2020-02-17 |
My blog post review. | |||
The Dragon Republic | R.F. Kuang | 3.5 | 2020-02-12 |
Coming off the heels of the *Poppy War*, I had high expectations for the *Dragon Republic*. The good news is that Kuang is setting up for an incredible finale in the next book. In the Dragon Republic, Kuang allows us to go deeper into the minds and hearts of the lead characters of the book. Fang Runin is no longer simply a military version of rags-to-riches, she is a character that struggles, matures, and rages in fascinating ways. The bad news, though, is the book often felt like a military campaign, a routine slog punctuated by action and emotion. Characters with promise come and went; and yet, there are narrative retreats that hold promise for book three. By the end of the Dragon Republic, I was glad to have made it, because I am eager to read the last in the trilogy when it comes. | |||
This is Marketing | Seth Godin | 4 | 2020-01-24 |
For more than 20 years, Seth Godin has written about and championed the idea of "permission marketing," which turns on the insight that in our modern economy, peoples' attention is a scarce resource, and therefore that *earning* attention is essential to business success. His books are a model for this type of marketing. He consistently offers useful insights, practical suggestions, and encouragement on how to approach marketing in today's market. In *This is Marketing*, Godin delivers another excellent contribution to his collection. He introduces concepts such as the "minimal viable audience," helps us understand the central significance of "status" in change, and teaches about how creating and relieving "tension" is core to successful marketing. He argues that marketing is change, and that successful marketing is essentially leading culture change for the community we wish to serve. In the end, Godin demonstrates firsthand how successful marketing isn't a crass act of commercialism; instead, it is a generous act of service. | |||
The Peripheral | William Gibson | 4 | 2020-01-22 |
My blog post review. | |||
The Entrepreneurial State | Mariana Mazzucato | 4 | 2020-01-04 |
When it comes to maximizing innovation, what's the right role for government? Conventional wisdom is that government should avoid "picking winners and losers" and instead stick to addressing market failures and helping the innocent victims of Schumpeterian creative destruction. Mazzucato takes the conventional wisdom head on, and persuasively argues that the most innovative companies in the world owe their origins to state-sponsored industrial policies and research & development. For example, Mazzucato documents how "nearly every state-of-the-art technology found in the iPod, iPhone, and iPad is an often overlooked and ignored achievement of the research efforts and funding support of the government and military." She also takes on macroeconomic trends associated with private-research expenditures, and argues that publicly held corporations increasingly have relied on publicly funded research while seeking tax breaks and engaging in share buybacks. The book is provocative and challenging (she forced me to reconsider a few of my own assumptions and beliefs), although faily repetitive and sometimes dense reading. I'd recommend the first and last three chapters if remotely interested in innovation or growth policy. | |||
The Kingdom of Gods | N.K. Jemisin | 5 | 2019-12-30 |
It's been a long time since I read a science-fiction/fantasy trilogy, and I'm kicking myself for not learning about N.K. Jemisin years ago. Better late than never, though, and the Inheritance Trilogy is just excellent. By the end of the third book, I found myself marveling at the unique personalities, politics, science, and social structures on display throughout the trilogy. Each character flawed, each character beautiful, each doomed and destined according to their nature. I already look forward to reading my next Jemisin trilogy. |