business - Book Reviews

The Score Takes Care of Itself

This book exists at the intersection of the two worst genres in all of literature: business and sports, yet manages to transcend the typical drivel and self-glorification of these sorts of books. Walsh's perspective is thoughtful and self-aware.

4-stars

Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power

Coll clearly delineates the boundaries between ExxonMobil's profit-focused, engineering-driven enterprise and the messy, internally-conflicted, and constantly shifting world of official US geopolitics.

4-stars

The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals

Partnoy helps us untangle Kreuger's intricate international web of hidden bank accounts, secret deals, bond issues, and government monopolies to understand how Kreuger pulled off one of the greatest swindles in history.

4-stars

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Carreyrou goes beyond gossip by making us take a hard look at the "fake it 'til you make it" mentality of the Bay Area. While Holmes may have been at the extreme end of the pathological ambition spectrum, her attitude and tactics were not unusual.

5-stars

Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel

Treating the global narcotics industry "as if it were a business like any other," Wainwright delves into how drug dealers have to deal with supply chains, HR issues, and digital disruption just like everyone else.

3-stars

Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter

If you can get past the nuttery, Adams makes clear recommendations for how to apply insights from behavioral psychology to develop a "weapons-grade" persuasion capability. The main takeaway is that we're way less rational than we think we are and that visual persuasion is most powerful.

5-stars

Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into A Sales Machine

I've been thinking a lot about how we build out our sales team at SilviaTerra. I asked a friend whose company is a few years ahead of ours if he had any relevant book recs and he immediately suggested Aaron Ross's "Predictable Revenue", calling it "The Bible&

3-stars

Timberland Investments: A Portfolio Perspective

"Timberland Investments" is more interesting than useful. Written in 1992 before timberland investing had become as mainstream as it is today among pension funds and endowments, Zinkhan's book offers a perspective from an interesting point in time. However, the landscape has become significantly more crowded and the world

3-stars

The Very, Very Rich and How They Got That Way

"The Very, Very Rich and How They Got That Way" feels like reading a late night self-help informercial but redeems itself with a few gems. Great literature, this is not. Occasionally entertaining and mostly tedious, this is. Profiling 15 men who made over $100 million (before the 1970's!

2-stars

What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars

I have mixed feelings about giving "What I Learned Losing A Million Dollars" a 2 star rating. One one hand, it's full of (admittedly entertaining) cavalier boasting and rambling. On the other, my return-on-investment from reading this book could be huge if I follow his advice and don't

fiction

A Whole New Mind

"A Whole New Mind" takes one reasonable idea and then panders and blathers for six hours about it. This is a book that should have been a tweet. It's a shame because this could have been an interesting book - the question of "what do humans do

4-stars

Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger

"Poor Charlie's Almanack" got on my list because Drew Houston of Dropbox said it was one of the best books he had ever read. After blasting through it... I can understand why he said so, but I’m not sure I agree with him. This is a book

business

The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation

"The Idea Factory" is a fascinating look at the lives of some of the key men who shaped Bell Labs and created its greatest inventions. The scale of Bell Labs’ impact is truly incredible and this book does a good job of explaining the history of the institution