I received numerous requests for book recommendations in the last few weeks. The rise in the mercury clearly correlates with an increase in reading under umbrellas on the beach. Here are a few boo...
After my strong recommendations for Ready Player One, Star Force and Old Man’s War, it’s probably obvious to most than I am a big fan of sci fi and of space operas in general. The Bobiverse ser...
I am partial to science fiction books set in the near future where the technological improvements are in a way understandable and expected in light of where we stand today. For anyone who has been fol...
I was told to check out Mark Manson’s book because it supposedly encapsulates a lot of my personal beliefs, philosophy and approach to life. I was very skeptical of the gimmicky title and the fact t...
The Tome of Bill book series has made me laugh out loud so hard, so much, that I can’t keep track of how many times it happened. That is saying a lot given that I can’t remember the last book that...
I loved Ready Player One. Sadly, Armada, Ernest Cline’s follow-up book proved disappointing. Harmon Cooper fills that void with The Feedback Loop. The book is essentially Groundhog Day meets Ready P...
In a simple and elegant series of letters written to a hypothetical student, Christopher Hitchens makes an incredibly compelling argument for thinking independently. While showing how important it is,...
As you know, I am a huge fan of B.V. Larson’s Star Force and Undying Mercenaries series. While I really enjoy Ryk Brown’s The Frontiers Saga and to a slightly lesser extent Jay Allan’s Crimson W...
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari is incredibly ambitious. It covers the history of humanity starting with modern cognition. It covers everything from why Sapiens ended up on top relative to other hominids...
I am a fan of Aziz Ansari’s standup comedy routine and his TV show Master of None. Having experienced the travails of dating in the digital age, I looked forward to Modern Romance. The book surprise...
I absolutely LOVED this book. Randall Munroe’s scientifically accurate answers to ludicrous questions are absurdly funny, well written and extraordinarily well researched. I laughed out loud through...
Freakonomics and Superfreaknomics - the bestselling books of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner are no longer news to the readers of this blog. However, their new work – Think Like a Freak is worth ...
Andy Weir’s book gripped me from the start. I typically don’t like books written in the first person, even more so when the entire book is a series log entries without dialogue. Obviously, I was...
It’s also the best book he co-wrote with Mark Greaney. I suppose the bar is not very high given the quality of their latest books, but I really enjoyed this one. The topic is uncannily timely give...
By Otilia Aionesei Humans tend to be very optimistic about their individual lives – for instance we buy lottery tickets, but we are fundamentally pessimistic about the future of the world. The se...
By Otilia Aionesei When I think about sixteen-century European writers, I think of a heavily ornamented writing style and grand themes such as history, religion and ethics. I had no reason to believe...
Jim Holt deftly tackles one of most profound questions in philosophy: “why is there something rather than nothing?” To tackle the question of existence he deftly takes us through the history of ...
As I reviewed Inferno I criticized Dan Brown for the poor writing and character development. The same cannot be said of David Morrell’s writing. While Inferno was merely good entertainment, Murder...
I am a big fan of thrillers and loved The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. Dan Brown’s books typically have poor writing and character development, but he makes up for it with fascinating plot...
I had never read a Gillian Flynn novel or heard what Gone Girl was about when I started reading the book. At first I thought it was a love story gone wrong, akin to the movie Blue Valentine, as Nick...
The book is a fun portrayal of the tension, dichotomy and yet relationship between traditional print publishing and technology. The story centers on Clay, a down on his luck web designer, who ...
[gallery link="file" columns="5" ids="3246,3247,3248,3244,3245"] After read Arthur C. Clarke’s sci-fi masterpiece Childhood’s End, I became more open minded to the sci-fi genre in general. I decid...
I was in the mood for a fun “beach read” when I came across Matthew Quirk’s The 500. It’s superficially like John Grisham’s The Firm – and that’s a great thing. The story covers the li...
Arthur C. Clarke managed a tour de force with Childhood’s End. I could not believe the book was written in 1953. I now know where the inspiration for the opening scenes of V & Independence Day with ...
I have been hearing of George R.R. Martin for many years, but never checked out his books because he was always described to me as “the American J.R.R. Tolkien”, and I am not a fan of fantasy. Fro...
By Anne Hamilton If you are anything like me, when you first heard of The Hunger Games two years ago you pictured a group of hormonal teenage vampires playing paintball while eating attractive young ...
Ready Player One takes place in the mid-21st century. The world has essentially gone to hell and most of humanity spends its time working, playing and essentially living in OASIS which is an immersive...
I loved How We Got Here, Andy Kessler’s last book. That book was essentially the entrepreneurship and capitalist equivalent of Bill Bryson’s A Short Story of Nearly Everything. I was really lookin...
Peter Heather has managed the inconceivable: to displace Gibbons (for me at least) as the reference when it comes to explaining the fall of the Western Roman Empire. He very convincingly argues that t...
Given my blog post on How to minimize human misery in recessions or the macroeconomic implications to hedonic adaptation, this review should not come as too much of a surprise. I had loved Dan Ariely...
As a self-styled Roman history buff who has always considered Augustus to be my role model because he essentially singlehandedly created the Roman Empire, I had to read his biography to get the detail...
I am a bit at a loss for words when it comes to describing my liking of The Metropolis Case. I am not a huge fan of music, dislike opera and don’t particularly care for gay male leads. Yet, somehow,...
I had heard great things about The 4-Hour Workweek and actually met its author, Tim Ferriss, a few times, but the gimmicky title always kept me from reading it. Rave reviews for his new book The 4-Hou...
Non-Fiction:Why the West Rules--for Now by Ian Morris The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip Zimbardo The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely Augustus: The Life of Rom...
I was in the market for a good thriller or detective story when I came across a glowing review of The Sherlockian in Entertainment Weekly. The concept of a dual track detective story one taking place ...
Ron Chernow is one of my favorite authors. He wrote amazing epic biographies on Alexander Hamilton and Rockefeller amongst others. He recently released a biography on George Washington called Washingt...
I had not come across a great fun thriller since The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons a few years ago. The Garden of Betrayal was a welcome surprise. I had read the review in The Economist and was ...
I had read that The Passage by Justin Cronin was the must read beach book of the summer. After one too many raving review, I downloaded it in the Kindle store to read on my iPad during my crazy busine...
I grew up loving Jeffrey Archer’s epic books – Kane & Able, A Mater of Honor, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, As the Crow Flies… I read all of his books including all of his fantastic short ...
Michael Lewis’ books have been hit or miss for me. Liar’s Poker provided a great social commentary on the insanity of Wall Street and was a great introduction, in my teens, to the world of high fi...
As a self styled Roman history buff, I should have loved Robert Harris’ Conspirata. It tells the story of Cicero’s year as Consul written from the perspective of Tiro, his slave secretary. The boo...
It’s rare for nonfiction books to read like thrillers, but Gregory Zuckerman manages the feat in The Greatest Trade Ever. The book tell the story of how John Paulson realized the real estate and sub...
Open is not only the best sports autobiography I ever read, it’s one of the best biographies I ever read and one of the best books I read in the past few years! As I am in Buenos Aires for three we...
I have a confession to make: I love chick lit and chick flicks! I suppose that beneath the hardened exterior of the busy Internet entrepreneur, I am a big softy on the inside and easily fall for chees...
After I read a collection of Tim Hartford’s Financial Times articles in Dear Undercover Economist, it was only logical to follow up with a collection of Malcolm Gladwell’s articles in the New York...
I was already a fan of Tim Hartford’s previous books The Undercover Economist and The Logic of Life. It should not surprise you to hear that I loved Dear Undercover Economist – a collection of Tim...
Readers familiar with my book reviews already know of my keen appreciation for books relating to behavioral economics – including the original Freakonomics, The Undercover Economist, Predictably Irr...
Over 10 years ago, Bryan Ellis, one of my best friends, McKinsey alum, multi-sport enthusiast and executive extraordinaire, recommended I read the book. I was skeptical about how thrilling a climb up ...
It’s hard to believe anyone could weave together a history of all the scientific fields – cosmology, astronomy, paleontology, geology, chemistry, physics and more! – into a compelling narrative....
I truly loved Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book on exceptional people. He argues that the largest reason those people succeeded is not because of their specific character traits but because they succes...
Andy Kessler's book is a fascinating and witty retelling of the story of technology of capital markets. It effectively walks you through the all the innovations that led to the technologies we now use...
Perez-Reverte came highly recommended as an author of well written intelligent thrillers. I also loved the movie The Ninth Gate based on The Club Dumas. I optimistically purchased all his books and ha...
Dan Ariely shares with his readers the results of dozens of experiments where he tested people’s decision making ability. Not only are people much less logical than they think they are, but they are...
When a friend of mine gave me this book saying I would love it, I was a bit doubtful. What could be interesting in the shallow gossipy tales of stars of yesteryears? Maybe I was influenced by the loc...
I expected a book in the line of Freakonomics or The Undercover Economist and the first chapter brilliantly set the stage for such a book. Unfortunately, Tyler Cowen seemed more interested in preachin...
Imagine a more dramatic Marley and Me written from the dog’s perspective and you get The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. A friend of mine picked it up at Starbucks and said I had to read ...
The Logic of Life is Tim Hartford’s second book following his fantastic The Undercover Economist. In this book he tackles why so many things that are seemingly irrational are actually the logical re...
Michio Kaku’s exploration of the science behind science fiction is a fascinating way of getting a snapshot of where we stand in science in almost every domain. I don’t think I learned so much in a...
After a long non-fiction binge, I decided to read a few fun thrillers while on my two ski trips. I picked up The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte and Special Assignments by Boris Akunin on strong re...
When I first read The Pillars of the Earth 15 years ago, I absolutely fell in love with it. I would have never imagined that the building of a cathedral in 12th century England could be fascinating, b...
Having read and enjoyed Richard Dawkins The God Delusion, I decided to check out the book that made him famous. It’s interesting to see that many of the themes from The God Delusion are already addr...
Tim Hartford is engaging and entertaining. His book and column on Slate show the reasoning of an economist as he interprets and explains the world around him. It’s much more compelling than any text...
Massim Nicholas Taleb’s new book is insightful and surprisingly entertaining. While it has no predictive value – black swans are by definition “unknown unknowns” – the book’s criticism of ...
Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of attending the book launch party organized by the Czech Center. The party included a fascinating reading of the book, an extremely funny preview of an upcoming doc...
Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea manages a rare feat – it’s a non-fiction story that reads like a thriller! It documents both the story of the SS Central America on its journey from Panama to New...
I just came across a book written about a 45 year old Frenchman. He owns a large studio with a beautiful view on a garden. He owns an Alfa Romeo and leads a simple and pleasant life. His job: unemploy...
Jamie Whyte’s angry and witty rant against the rhetoric, faulty reasoning and misinformation we are subjected to from all sources is fascinating, enlightening and fun. The book is a quick read and w...
Reading the book, I felt like I was reading about the first two years of almost every startup I have been involved with. The names of the people and product were different, but the ethos and spirit wa...
As good as I can be at certain things, I have to admit that I have absolutely no artistic talent. It’s not just that I am mediocre, I am terrible at it! I can’t dance, I can’t sing, I can’t pa...
Jack Weatherford provides an interesting and much more positive account of Genghis Khan’s life and legacy than I would have expected. Although his name is now erroneously associated with terror and...
I had heard of Richard Dawkins but had never read any of his books. The book is an extremely well argued case for atheism laying out the case for God’s existence, why there is most likely no god, th...
Alex Vilenkin does an amazing job at describing in laymen’s terms the recent findings in astrophysics and cosmology. His book traces cosmology’s emerging picture of the universe from the big bang ...
Her story as well as that of her parents and her husband deserves to be told. The book is the story of the business, political and intellectual elite in the 20th century America. It is also a vividly ...
Following Gary Smith’s amazing biography of Andre Agassi in Sports Illustrated I was inspired to buy Beyond the Game, a collection of the biographies he wrote. I was disappointed. Except for a few s...
This is a must read for all dog lovers and owners – especially, if like me, you have a large crazy yellow lab retriever who might very well take over Marley’s title as the world’s worst dog :) ...
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