top of page
1-50
KING OF THE WORLD: MUHAMMAD ALI AND THE RISE OF AN AMERICAN HERO
David Remnick
Highly Recommended
Summary​
-
If you want to know more about Muhammad Ali I would definitively start with this book. David not only captures in great detail the era in which Ali became famous but also presents him as a human being (with weaknesses and mistakes). I enjoyed that he started the book talking about Floyd Patterson.
Memorable Parts
-
"The losing fighter loses more than just his pride; he loses his future."
-
"The history of fighters is the history of men who end up damaged. Liston knew he could expect no better."
-
"Cassius had eyes that could take in anything."
-
"He and Bundini shouted 'Float like a butterfly! Sting like a bee!'"
-
Ali scored an IQ of 78. He then said "I told you I was the greatest, not the smartest"
​
NOTICIAS DEL IMPERIO
Fernando del Paso
Altamente Recomendado
Resumen
¿Por qué no enseñan historia en la escuela con libros como estos? Este libro es una joya. Relata la historia de México durante la época de Maximiliano, Carlota y Benito Juarez. Cada capítulo es una obra maestra con diferentes personajes muy bien desarrollados.
Partes memorables
-
"Pero sucedió que nadie sabía, en Veracruz, la fecha exacta de la llegada de Maximiliano y Carlota."
-
"Las calles de Querétaro estaban vacias."
-
"Yo soy Maria Carlota...Princesa de la Nada y el Vacio, Soberana de la Espuma y de los Sueños..."
​
SHOGUN
James Clavell
Highly Recommended
Summary
I LOVED this book. I rarely read fiction but this is novelized non-fiction. It is set in Japan in 1600s and follows the adventure of Blackthorne (English boat pilot) and the daimyo Toranaga. Mad respects to the Jesuits who had the only book to translate to Japanese and therefore were key elements in the trade routes (China - Japan - Europe).
Memorable Parts
-
"Why didn´t you piss in his face?" Yabu asked.
-
"Blackthorne saw the rutter on the table. He knew it was a way for the Dutch to crush the Christians that now ruled the world."
-
"Lord, I am hatamoto. I wish to ask a favor as a hata -."
-
"Japan depended on Chinese silk in order to tolerate the hot and humid summer months."
​
THE SWEET SCIENCE
A.J. Liebling
Recommended
Summary
I finally understood what they meant by the golden era of boxing. A.J. was an American Journalist and avid boxing fan. Every chapter is focused on a particular fight and I enjoyed that almost 50% of each chapter focuses on what happened before the fight. You get a great glimpse of NYC in the 50s and 60s.
Memorable Parts
-
"I went and a got a drink at Sugar Ray´s in Harlem just before the Joe Lous fight." =)
-
"Herman wa a great infighter because he was practically blind in both eyes."
-
"Jackson drank five bottle of Coca-Cola before getting in the ring with Slade."
-
"Lewis and Britton fought twenty times of the welterweight championship."
​
HOW WILL YOU MEASURE YOUR LIFE?
Clayton M. Christensen
Highly Recommended
Summary
Harvard professor, Clayton wanted to write a book to provide insights and reflections on his life. He was diagnosed with cancer and this prompted him to write this book. Definitively a book written "from the heart" and with many valuable lessons.
Memorable Parts
-
"Behind the facade of professional success, there were many who did not enjoy what they were doing for a living."
-
"Children need to have more and more experiences to solve hard problems and develop values. Don´t outsource that to other people."
-
"The safest road to Hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope..."
-
"As Henry Ford once put it, "if you need a machine and don´t buy it , then you will ultimately find that you have paid for it and don´t have it."
​
TEAM OF RIVALS: THE POLITICAL GENIUS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Highly Recommended
Summary
A superb biography of Abraham Lincoln but at its core it is a book about perseverance, optimism and leadership. This man endured some of the worst hardships and was always able to keep moving forward. (I had no idea that the murder plot included member of his cabinet).
Memorable Parts
-
"Lincoln had tasted so many disappointments."
-
[On the Founding Fathers]: "They did not mean the obvious untruth , that all were then actually enjoying equality...The meant to set up a standard maxim for free society."
-
"In the crowd that evening was a Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. The younger brother of the famed Shakespearian actor Edwin Booth, whose performances Lincoln so admired..."​
​​
PRESIDENTS OF WAR
Michael Beschloss
Recommended
Summary
A US President cannot declare war without the approval of Congress. What history has shown is that the Presidents take certain actions that force Congress to declare war. Otherwise, members of Congress will seem unpatriotic or even traitors.
Memorable Parts
-
[Madison]: "Taxes are the known instruments for bringing the may under the domination of the few. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
-
"Polk insisted that the Mexicans had already provided ample cause of war and that the country was excited and impatient for it."
-
"McKinley used the Spanish-American to launch the United States as a global power, extending its territory in the Pacific and western Atlantic and the reach of its troops to China."
​
DIAS DE COMBATE
Paco Ignacio Taibo II
Altamente Recomendado
Resumen
Detective Privado Héctor Belascoarán Shayne en el DF en los 70s siguiendo la pista de un estrangulador que está matando mujeres. ¿Qué más tengo que decir?
Partes Memorables
-
"Belascoarán Shayne. Hijo de un capitán de marina vasco y de una cantante irlandesde de folk."
-
"Absurdo: Nadie sospecha de un hombre distinguido en el interior de un Dodge Dart."
-
"Investigar un problema es resolverlo. MAO TSE TUNG."
-
"Entre gitanos no se leen las manos, pensó Hector."
-
"¿Usted anda buscando a Emiliano Zapata?"
​
ENDURANCE: SHACKLETON'S INCREDIBLE VOYAGE
Alfred Lansing
Highly Recommended
Summary
1914. "MEN WANTED for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success." Ernest Shackleton 4 Burlington St.
Memorable Parts
-
"Here endeth another Christmas Day. I wonder how and under what circumstances our next one will be spent. Temperature 30 degrees."
-
"The animal - a sea leopard - sprang out of the water and came after him, bouncing across the ice with the peculiar rocking-horse gait..."
-
"Of all the enemies - the cold, the ice the sea - he feared none more than demoralization."
-
"It was five o'clock on the tenth of May, 1916, and they were standing at last on the island which they had sailed 522 days before. All six were on their knees."
​
LONGITUDE: THE TRUE STORY OF A LONE GENIUS WHO SOLVED THE GREATEST SCIENTIFIC PROBLEM OF HIS TIME
Dava Sobel
Highly Recommended
Summary
Latitude is nature-made based on the position of the sun. Longitude is man made and before clocks it was almost impossible to measure accurately at sea. Therefore, few voyage routes existed, leading to piracy and conflict. Most empire's (George III and Louis XIV) had set massive rewards for those who could solve this measurement problem. It took 400 years. One camp felt that astrology was the answer. In fact, French and British observatories and scientific progress in the field was due to this effort. Others, successfully thought that accurate clocks would be the answer.
Memorable Parts
-
"Each hour's difference between the ship (every day set at local noon) and the starting point is equal to 15 degrees."
-
"In the struggle to calculate longitude , scientists struck upon other discoveries that changed our view of the universe: weight of the Earth, speed of light and distance to the starts."
-
"One of the clock that Harrison made, completed in 1722, has told time time continuously in Brocklesby Park."
-
"One of the innovations Harrison created can still be found today inside thermostats, bi-metallic strip. It compensates temperature differences using two opposite metals."
-
"The most accurate clocks at that time drifted off about one minute per day."
​
LONG WALK TO FREEDOM
Nelson Mandela
Highly Recommended
Summary
Mandela wrote part of his book in prison. The book covers every aspect of this life and I really enjoyed his description of his time building the political organization ANC and addressing the terrorist label. "But, My Lord, if it needs to be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
Memorable Parts
-
"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love."
-
"A leader. . .is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind."
-
"As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison."
​
WRITER, SAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY
Nichola Reynolds
Average
Summary
Theory: Hemingway was a spy. He travelled to Spain, China (meeting with it's future premier) and Cuba during key moments of transition. Working with both the USA OSS agency (pre CIA) and USSR's NKVD (pre KGB) to defeat Hitler. There were also detailed stories about him hunting Nazi submarines with his boat Pilar off the cost of Key West. He committed suicide because of the mounting pressure of having being a spy for Russia.
Memorable Parts
-
"On August 19, 1935, at the time that literary critics made him feel under appreciated at home, Hemingway received a package from Moscow containing a copy of his selected stories translated into Russian."
-
"Hemingway returned to Spain three times after Joris went to China."
-
"A man named Jacob Golos (Bolshevist) urgently wanted to see Hemingway before he left for China."
-
"Ten years later in letters to his best friend he would write that he had done 'odd jobs' for the Soviets in Spain and and stayed in touch with the 'Russkis' who had shared secrets with him - though he would not elaborate."
​​
SAPIENS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND
Yuval Noah
Highly Recommended
Summary
I am a big fan of this genre of book. Exploring how evolution has formed us into who we are and, despite our technological advances, we are animals guided in our daily life by our evolutionary traits. Actions and decisions that helped us survive for thousands or millions can't suddenly be "forgotten" by recent technological advances, changes in social norms, etc.
Memorable Parts
-
"Even when experiencing pleasure, the mind is not content, because it fears this feeling might soon disappear, and craves that this feeling should stay and intensify."
-
"We did not domesticate wheat. It domesticated us."
-
"Lasting happiness come only from serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin."
-
"One of history's iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations."
​​
STUMBLING ON HAPPINESS
Daniel Gilbert
Highly Recommended
Summary
The best way to summarize this book is from a quote directly from the book: the human being is the only animal that thinks about the future.
Memorable Parts
-
"Our inability to recall how we really felt is why our wealth of experiences turns out to be poverty of riches."
-
"If you are like most people, the like most people, you do not know you are like most people."
-
"The fact that we judge the pleasure of an experience by its ending can cause us to make curious choices."
-
"We cannot feel good about our imaginary future when we are busy feeling bad about an actual present."
​​
THE STRAIN: TRILOGY
David Lapham and Guillermo del Toro
Highly Recommended
Summary
I LOVED this trilogy. I think the author's do an amazing job of giving background and explanations to how vampires were created, why they are vulnerable to silver, etc. All these small details add up and make the whole story much more enjoyable. All main characters are extremely well crafted, except Zack.
Memorable Parts
-
I will avoid this section since it will likely contain spoilers. If you are undecided in reading the books I will say that one character is an Mexican former wrestler "El Angel de Plata."
​
12 RULES FOR LIFE: AN ANTIDOTE TO CHAOS
Jordan B Peterson
Average
Summary
Quoting Sam Harris in one of his podcasts: "I still have no idea what Jordan is saying half of the time." I felt the same way reading the book. I still place is as Average because the 50% that I did understand I truly enjoyed and found very interesting, particularly the chapter on lobsters (no joke).
Memorable Parts
-
"Rule 1 is to stand up straight with your shoulders back. Don't be a pathetic lobster."
-
"Rule 2: Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping." [The % prescription fill rate for our pets is much higher than for ourselves.]
-
"Assume ignorance before malevolence. No one has a direct pipeline to your wants and needs - not even you."
-
"If a child has not been taught to behave properly by age four, it will forever be difficult for him or her to make friends. Peers are the primary source of socialization after the age of four."
​
ENDER´S GAME
Orscon Scott Card
Average
Summary
Really solid sci-fi novel. It reminded me of mix between Starship Troopers (world at war with aliens) and The Hunger Gams. The ending has all the elements of an M. Night Shyamalan movie but with a solid story to deliver it (even though I believe the "game" did lack excitement.
Memorable Parts
-
"Sometimes lies will be more dependable than the truth."
-
"They call us children and they treat us like mice."
-
"We´re trying to understand if your scores are a miracle or a mistake."
-
"The computer is also not famous for having mercy."
​
IT MUST BE BEAUTIFUL: GREAT EQUATIONS OF MODERN SCIENCE
several authors
Average
Summary
Enjoyable book that provides great insight and explanation of 11 famous modern equations. They range from the Planck-Einstein Equation to the Molina-Rowland Chemical Equation (ozone depletion). A great read for any science enthusiast.
Memorable Parts
-
"Einstein´s field equation this tells us how space-time curvature (left-hand side) is directly related to the distribution of mass in the universe (right-hand side)."
-
"Of all the equations of physics, perhaps the most magical is the Dirac. It is the most freely invented, the least conditioned by experiment and the one with the strangest consequences."
-
"Rowland began to work with Molina, a thirty-year old Mexican who had joined him as a postdoctoral fellow."
-
"For Sagan, the clearest insight offered by the Drake equation was the SETI could be seen as a way to measure the likelihood of human survival."
​
THE NAME OF THE WIND
Patrick Rothfuss
Highly Recommended
Summary
Fantasy novel, book 1 of the "The Kingkiller Chronicle." I would recommend this novel to people looking for fantasy novels with "grounded" elements and explanations (i.e. why is there magic?). The characters are well rounded and lots of plot twists in the entire book.
Memorable Parts
-
"You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way."
-
"There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in a storm, a night with no moon and the anger of a gentle man."
-
"As names have powers, words have power."
-
"We all become what we pretend to be."
​
OUTLIERS: THE STORY OF SUCCESS
Malcom Gladwell
Average
Summary
Interesting stories about how people (groups) became successful. This book includes the now famous "10,000 hours to become master" story. I really enjoyed story about the Beatles. I found a lot of similarities to the recent (2020) book I read: Grit. The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes chapter is amazing.
Memorable Parts
-
"Practice isn't the thing you do when you are good. It's the thing you do to become good."
-
"Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning."
​
LIAR'S POKER
Michael Lewis
Recommended
Summary
I read this book my senior year in college as I was deciding whether to work in Banking or Consulting. The author narrates his experience working investment banking in NY in the 80s at Salomon Brothers. Hilarious book!
Memorable Parts
-
"But everyone wanted to be a Big Swinging Dick, even the women. Big Swinging Dickettes."
-
"A dollar out of my customer's pocket was a dollar in ours. It's a zero sum game."
-
"The Puerto Ricans had the real power since they controlled the copy room."
-
"As Buffett says, any player unaware of the fool in the market probably is the fool in the market."
-
"He worked straight through most nights and weekends. He pretended to be constipated - in case someone noticed how long he left."
​
MONEYBALL
Michael Lewis
Recommended
Summary
After reading Liar's Poker I immediately bought this book when it came out in 2004. I was blown away by it. How the power of numbers, analysis and statistics can be applied to the most unusual of places. Also, enjoyed learning the vast amount of data that fans record from baseball games.
Memorable Parts
-
"There was a tendency from everyone who had played the game to generalize their own experience."
-
"The A's survived by finding cheap labor. In 1991 it actually used to have the highest payroll in baseball."
-
"Players see themselves exclusively in their statistics. If they are bad, he sees himself as having zero self-worth. What we did is find a way to combine players into the best team possible."
​
THE KIDNAPPING OF EDGARDO MORTARA
David I. Kertzer
Skip
Summary
For several months I had seen in IMDB that Spielberg's next movie would be based on this book so I decided to read it first (as of today he hasn't filmed anything). This book is based in Italy (Papal states at the time) during the 1850s. If any person, not just a priest, claimed that they had baptized someone then that someone was considered immediately Catholic and had to be removed from their home (!) This book is focused on a particular story, the handling of this by Pope Pius IX and its effect on the territorial lose afterwards.
Memorable Parts
-
"Jews were high in the clergy's consciousness since they were seen as the killers of Christ."
-
"There lived the Inquisitor. Among his tasks was ensuring that the restrictions imposed on the Jews were obeyed."
-
"Bologna was an autonomous city - state, battling, amongst others, papal forces that sought to subdue it."
-
"Both parents got down to their knees, begging him in the name of humanity not to take their child away."
​
Nudge
Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein
Summary
This was the first book I read on behavioral economics. I recommend you first read "Misbehaving" in order to get a detailed history of that field and then read this book which goes into more of the practice and theories. The authors use the word "nudge" given that they provide recommendations on how to influence individuals (or society) into certain actions (i.e. increase the # of organ donors).
Memorable Parts
-
"Suppose the thermostat in your home was programmed to tell you the cost per hour of lowering the temperature a few degrees during a heat wave."
-
"Governments can apply the RECAP (record, evaluate and compare alternative prices). For example, in cell phone industry they would not regulate the prices but the disclosure practices."
-
"Our attitudes toward risk depend on the frequency with which the investors monitor their portfolios."
-
"Self-control issues are most likely to appear when choices and their consequences are separated in time."
​
Average
MOONWALKING WITH EINSTEIN: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF REMEMBERING EVERYTHING
Joshue Foer
Summary
Tells the author´s journey into the world of competitive memory - tournaments where you need to remember the numbers, suits and order of a deck of cards in record time.
Memorable Parts
-
"The Greek poet Simonides was able to remember names and faces using the Memory Palace technique."
-
"It is forgetting, not remembering, that is the essence of what makes us human."
-
"Life seems to speed up as we get older because life gets less memorable as we get older."
​
Average
THE NEW CHILDHOOD
RAISING KIDS TO THRIVE IN A CONNECTED WORLD
Jordan Shapiro
Average
Summary​
-
What effect will technology have on new generations? What can parents do to calm their own anxiety and guide kids thru this new world?
Memorable Parts
-
"The greatest burden a child must bear is the unlived life of its parents."
-
"Established in early 1800s, dinner came into fashion along with factories and office buildings."
-
"The reason we return again and again is we receive lots of random dopamine hits."
-
"The old Pintubi man spoke really fast and we could not understand. We late figured out it was the truck. He was used to tell the story by walking that landscape, not by riding a fast truck."
-
"Learning to read without any context is like trying to put together a giant jigsaw puzzle without knowing the final picture."
​
THE WHOLE-BRAIN CHILD: 12 REVOLUTIONARY STRATEGIES TO NURTURE YOUR CHILD´S DEVELOPING MIND.
Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
Average
Summary​
-
Children need to integrate their mind (left and right, upstairs and downstairs). Parents need to (1) provide opportunities for children to develop this and (2) communicate in such a way that takes this into account (i.e. do not start with rational thinking if children are communicating with the emotional side of the brain).
Memorable Parts
-
"The wire-and-rewire process is what integration is all about: giving our children experiences to create connections between different parts of the brain."
-
"Left brain (logical, literal, linguistic and linear). Right (big picture, meaning and feel of an experience)."
-
"This type of left-brain logical response ("Of course I do nice things for you") will hit the child´s right brain wall and create a gulf between them."
-
Name it to Tame it. Don´t underestimate the power of stories.
-
"Downstairs brain (anger, emotions, primitive). Upstairs (logic, control and self-understanding.")
​
PARENTING FROM THE INSIDE OUT.
Daniel J. Siegel & Mary Hartzell
Recommended
Summary​
-
Exactly what the subtitle says "How a deeper self-understanding can help you raise children who thrive?". Parents need to reflect whether their actions are caused/related to prior childhood experiences.
Memorable Parts
-
"Unresolved issues are similar to leftover issues. As parents we are especially vulnerable to responding on the basis of our past issues during times of stress."
-
"One way that young children process their lived experiences is through pretended play...they are able to practice new skills and assimilate the complex emotional understanding of the social world."
-
"When we join children in attuned communication we support them in developing an integrated and coherent study of their own lives."
-
"We construct the narrative of our own lives based on the interactions we have had with others."
-
"When the parent is the source of alarm..the child is "stuck" because there is an impulse to run towards the very source of the terror from which he or she is attempting to escape."
​
PREPARED: WHAT KIDS NEED FOR A FULFILLED LIFE
Diane Tavenner
Highly Recommended
Summary​
-
Basically Michelle Pfeiffer´s character in "Dangerous Minds" with the extra that she founded the Summit Public Schools. 99% of graduating students get into a four-year college and graduate at twice the national average. I wish I had studied in these schools! Very interesting methods that mimic real-world jobs using project-based learning (self directed learning).
Memorable Parts
-
"If you got to where you are now with more time for exploration, interests and relationships, what else might you have been able to accomplish?"
-
"We based the schools on Pink´s research pointing to mastery, autonomy, and purpose as the underpinning of motivation."
-
"Group work goes wrong in two ways: the tasks isn´t worthy of group work and when the task is sufficiently complex but no adult is guiding or supporting."
-
"Habits of success, curiosity-driven knowledge, universal skills and setting concrete next steps are the measurable outcomes we want to teach students."
-
BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LEARNING: Healthy Development, School Readiness, Mindset for Self & School, Perseverance and Independence & Sustainability.
​
WHAT´S GOING ON IN THERE? HOW THE BRAIN AND MIND DEVELOP IN THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OF LIFE.
Lise Eliot, PhD
Skip
Summary​
-
One of those books that freaks out you out as a parent? "If I don´t stimulate my baby enough his neurons won´t fully develop? AHHHH." I would recommend this book more for new parents with medical background since it tends to skew more towards the technical / biological part.
Memorable Parts
-
"Darwin´s experiment revealed that domestic rabbits had smaller brains. He concluded that domestic rabbits cannot have exerted their intellect, instincts, senses and voluntary movements, so that their brains will have been feebly exercised and consequently have suffered development."
-
"...abandoned French boy named Victor spent virtually his entire childhood in the absence of contact with other people. One oddity is that he was seemingly oblivious to temperature. He would be described as pulling potatoes out of the fire with his bare hands. Like pain, this has a strong cognitive component and must be taught and experienced."
-
"Tactile contact, and not the fact of nourishment, that comforts these infant monkeys and bonds them to the wire mother instead of the surrogate that fed them."
​
EXPECTING BETTER
Emily Oster
Highly Recommended
Summary​
-
Nothing like an economist to calm new parents. Very data-driven book to debunk / confirm myths about pregnancy. Was one of the best books my wife and I read while she was expecting.
Memorable Parts
-
"Studied about alcohol drinking and child behavioral problems don't take into effect that children of even light drinkers are less likely to live with two parents than nondrinkers."
-
"All evidence supports 2 cups of coffee."
-
"Washing vegetables reduce toxoplasmosis riks by 50%."
​
CRIBSHEET
Emily Oster
Highly Recommended
Summary​
-
Same as above but now: What should I worry / not worry about once the baby si born?
Memorable Parts
-
"You can not use a normal blanket as a swaddle. Nurses in hospital can, buy not you."
-
"Around two months, there is a big jump in the average longest sleep night."
-
"Is this normal? Is everyone spending their lifetime savings on tissues with lotion? The answer is yes."
​
THE BABY SLEEP SOLUTION
Susy Giordano
Recommended
Summary​
-
She developed this plan while living in Brazil with twins, a two-year old, seven-year old, eight-year old and husband.
Memorable Parts
-
"Have a log. The days and hours will blend into one."
-
"It is not a matter of if your babies will develop colics or not. They will."
-
"Worse mistake parents make is growing tolerant of crying. They wait longer and longer. That teaches the baby that the longer they cry, the more likely they will be picked up."
​​
HOW CHILDREN SUCCEED: GRIT, CURIOSITY AND THE HIDDEN POWER OF CHARACTER
Paul Tough
Average
Summary​
-
I find that children´s books are most entertaining (and honest) when the author was expecting a baby and going thru the same journey you are of figuring out how to raise the best child possible. I rated it average because you can get a deeper insight into his main theme (grit maters) from the book Grit. The book also focuses too much on certain stories without a satisfying ending.
Memorable Parts
-
"What matters is not how information we can stuff into her brain in the first few years. What matters is to develop persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit and self- confidence."
-
"Acute stress raises blood pressure in order to respond to a dangerous situation. That is good. But repeatedly leads to atherosclerotic plaque."
-
"It wasn´t poverty itself that was compromising the executive function abilities, it was the stress that came along with it."
-
"Family turmoil and chaos did have a big effect on children´s cortisol levels - but only when the mother was inattentive or unresponsive."
-
"The students who persisted in college were those who possessed gifts like optimism, resilience and social agility."
-
"Regardless of whether intelligence is malleable, students do much better academically if they believe intelligence is malleable."
​
IT DIDN´T START WITH YOU
Mark Wolynn
Average
Summary​
-
Good theories from the author but a significant portion were not backed by data (at least not referenced in the book). Solid frameworks are presented in the book. I did find some parts "a little out there" (i.e. pain in your life can be traced back to your uncle who experienced x and y trauma).
Memorable Parts
-
"When your grandmother was pregnant was five months pregnant with your mother, the precursor cell of the egg you developed from was already in your mother´s ovaries."
-
"Freud identified this pattern as repetition compulsion - an attempt of the unconscious to replay what´s unresolved so we can 'get it right'."
-
"Regardless of the story we have about them, our parents cannot be expunged or ejected from us. They are in us and we are part of them - even if we´ve never met them."
-
"Hellinger believes that the mechanism behind these repetitions is unconscious loyalty [to the family]."
-
"I´ll go through it, too, so that you don´t have to go through it alone."
​
CHURCHILL: WALKING WITH DESTINY
Andrew Robets
Highly Recommended
Summary​
-
A masterpiece. This would be the first book I would recommend for anyone who wants to learn about Churchill. Most books focus on certain aspects of his life but this one covers birth to death. The bibliography alone is close to 200 pages.
Memorable Parts
-
"That Christmas night Churchill gave his godson, and the future 11th Duke of Marlborough, a gold watch, with the advice 'Never confuse leadership with popularity.'"
-
"[The Fall of France] Aged sixty-five, he was superbly prepared - in experience, psychology and foresight - for the coming hour and trial."
-
"The Fuhrer's advice to Lord Halifax when they met at Berchtesgaden in 1937 had been 'Shoot Gandhi.'"
-
"Napoleon could order, but Marlborough could never do more than persuade. It is hard to win battles on that basis."
​
THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE
Erik Larkson
Average
Summary​
-
It is a good about the focuses on the Battle of Britain and does a fantastic job of capturing what life was like during the intense German bombing campaign. It ranked it average for two reasons (1) some character were not fully developed and (2) I am not a of the author´s style of ending chapters with "cliffhanger" endings that are never resolved.
Memorable Parts
-
"Hopkins...recited a passage from the Bible: "Whither thou goest, I will go; and whether thou lodge, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God."
-
"Whatever Winston´s shortcomings, he seems to be the man for the occasion. His spirit is indomitable."
-
"The average age of a Luftwaffe fighter pilot was twenty-six; his RAF counterpart, twenty."
-
"Churchill´s resilience continued to perplex German leaders. "When will that creature Churchill finally surrender?""
​
HERO OF THE EMPIRE
Candice Millar
Recommended
Summary​
-
Winston Churchill became the highest paid journalist in his day. He usually preferred covering conflicts in different parts of the world (like Cuba and South Africa). He travelled in 1899 to cover the Boer War, was captured, became a POW and was able to make a dashing escape to freedom. His escape made him a hero back in England.
Memorable Parts
-
“The first time you meet Winston you see all his faults," Pamela would explain years later to Edward Marsh, Churchill's private secretary, "and the rest of your life you spend in discovering his virtues.”
-
"If it was not a good idea, it was at least an interesting one."
-
"But I half fear the gods love too much a man, only twenty-four years old, who... is that rare combination, the soldier, the reckless soldier even, and the bookman.”
​
HOW CHURCHILL WAGED WAR: THE MOST CHALLENGING DECISIONS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Allen Packwood
Recommended
Summary​
-
Packwood works at the Churchill Archives Center and had access to tons of firsthand material. Each chapter in the book poses questions like: "Britain or France?" and guides the reader through the decisions Churchill made. It starts in 1940 and ends with the 1945 election.
Memorable Parts
-
“He is overdoing himself and taking the strain by stoking himself unduly with champagne, liquers etc; Dines out and dines well almost every night. Sleeps after luncheon, then House of Commons, then a good and long dinner and doesn't resume work at the Admiralty till after 10pm and goes on till 1 or 2 am. He has a habit of calling conferences at 1 am."
-
"Imagine a small group of increasingly weary men meeting almost constantly, day after day, night after night, in the same smoked-filled rooms, receiving ever worsening news."
-
"No lover ever studied every whim of his mistress as I did of those of President Roosevelt."
-
"For Churchill, Tobruk was a symbol."
-
"If no other name springs to the lips [Churchill's replacement] it is because nothing can grow in the blighting shade of his oppressive ego."
​
THE GATHERING STORM
Winston S. Churchill
Recommended
Summary​
-
Book 1 of his WW2 saga. Great read and sets the stage for how / why WW2 started. It is important to read other books about Churchill in order to get different perspectives and know what things he deliberately left out of his memoir.
Memorable Parts
-
“Five times in a hundred years, in 1814, 1815, 1870, 1914 and 1918, had the towers of Notre Dame seen the flash of Prussian guns..."
-
"Great quarrels, it has been well said, arise from small occasions but seldom from small causes."
-
"If Czechoslovakia had refused to submit, and war resulted, France would have fulfilled her obligations; but if Czechs chose to give in, French honour was saved. We must leave this to the judgement of history."
-
"I told him to come along and bring his pistol with him. I got out my own weapons, which were good. While on slept, the other watched."
-
"[Russia] It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That hey is Russian national interest."
-
"The destroyer is the chief weapon against the U-boat, but as it grows ever larger it becomes itself a worth-while target. The hunter becomes the hunted."
​
NINE LIES ABOUT WORK: A FREETHINKING LEADER´S GUIDE TO THE REAL WORLD
Marcus Buckingham & Ashley Goodall
Highly Recommended
CALL CENTER MANAGEMENT ON FAST FORWARD: SUCCEEDING IN TODAY´S DYNAMIC INBOUND ENVIRONMENT
Brad Cleveland & Julia Mayben
Skip
ON MANAGING PEOPLE
Harvard Business Review
Recommended
Summary
-
Magnificent book that dispels our common misconceptions about what "a great employee / company" should look like. More prose than data. It has been awhile since I read a business book that had this much impact on me.
Memorable Parts
-
"It ain´t what you don´t know that gets you in trouble. It´s what you know for sure, that just ain´t so." - credited to M. Twain
-
"It is not true that the best plan wins. It is true that the best intelligence wins."
-
"Taxi cabs hit their goal earlier in rainy days and the moment they do they vanish home."
-
"Facebook´s headquarters still have the Sun Microsystems´ posters hanging."
-
"The post WW2 jets had seats made for the average pilots (4,063) but everyone was uncomfortable because no average sized real pilots existed."
-
"Correcting someone´s grammar will not lead them to write a beautiful poem or telling someone a joke will make them funny."
-
"We want to feel part of something bigger than ourselves while, at the same time, feeling that our leader knows and values us for who we are as unique individuals."
​
Summary
-
Old and outdated book. I had in my shelf for many years and decided to give it a read to see if I could incorporate any ideas in my telemarketing sales team. Perhaps 10% of the book is relevant, the rest is too outdated (i.e. fax machines). Erlang C function for staff requirements was the most relevant thing I took from this book.
Memorable Parts
-
"Service Level should be defined as X percent of calls in Y seconds."
-
"Callers who have waited a long time in queue tend to 'dig in their heels' as they attempt to squeeze all the value out of the call that they can."
-
"The relationship between occupancy and service level is often misunderstood. In the worst scenario, occupancy is 100% because service level is so low that all callers spend at least some time in the queue."
-
"Things sure are busy today, just on call after another. and this caller sure is friendly. I wonder what the weather is like over there." - [Rep Mentality]
-
"Remember the Old Adage. If you improve service, callers will use more of it."
​
Summary
-
Managing people. Perhaps the most difficult (and impactful) part of running a business. No formulas. Every person is unique and each case is different.
Memorable Parts
-
"The authoritative leader is a visionary; he motivates people by making clear to them how their work fits into a larger vision for the organization. People who work for such leaders understand that what they do matters and why."
-
"When deprived of choice, the only freedom left is the freedom to say no."
-
"For first-time managers, 10% of the work might be strategic and 90% tactical. As executives climb the corporate ladder, however, those percentages will flip-flop."
-
"As long as efforts at learning and change focused on external organization factors the professionals were enthusiastic participants. And yet the moment the quest turned to their own performance, something changed."
​
THE ESSENTIALS
Harvard Business Review
Average
Summary
-
It is a collection of some of the "most enduring ideas on management from Harvard Business Review." It is worthwhile to read for the two articles: 'What is Strategy?' by Porter and 'The Core Competence of the Corporation' by Hamel.
Memorable Parts
-
"These are scary times for managers in big companies. Even before the Internet and globalization, their track record for dealing with major, disruptive change was not good."
-
"Furthermore, because disruptive products nearly always promise lower profit margins per unit sold and are not attractive to the company´s best customers, they´re inconsistent with the established company´s values."
-
"Analytics competitors seize the lead in their fields. Capital One´s Analytics Initiative, for example, has spurred at least 20% growth in earnings per share every year since the company went public. Make analytics your overarching competitive strategy."
-
"I refuse to see a pimp in the mirror in the morning when I shave. What kind of person do I want to se in the mirror in the morning?"
-
"improving operational effectiveness is a necessary part of management, but it is not strategy."
​
CHOOSE YOUR CUSTOMER: HOW TO COMPETE AGAINST THE DIGITAL GIANTS AND THRIVE
Jonathan L.S. Byrnes
Highly Recommended
Summary
-
Who is managing your company's profit on a day-to-day basis. For most companies the surprising answer is: no one. Departments can make their budget but still the company might fall short of hitting its numbers. Not all sales are profitable.
Memorable Parts
-
"Baxter built a bigger box around its business my managing it´s clients stock and ordering as well."
-
"You need to separate your clients into Profit Peaks, Profit Deserts and Profit Drains."
-
"In a crisis, the first step is to clear all inventories because selling prices will drop very fast, and demand will shrink even faster. Two months stock will turn into nine."
-
"CRS at Dell had the authority to offer a discount on an upgrade that was makeable that day."
-
"Traffic flows poorly in Boston because the city fathers simply paved the cowpaths, making the ineffective more efficient. It´s much easier to navigate Back Bay, a part of Boston with gridlike streets, built on landfill centuries later."
​
ON LEADERSHIP
Various Authors
Average
Summary
-
Solid collection of articles on leadership. Nothing groundbreaking but a good reminder that there are no universal set of traits that leaders have. I much enjoyed the "Level 5 Leadership" and "Discovering your Authentic Leadership" articles.
Memorable Parts
-
"But problem solving, however necessary, does not produce results. It prevents damage. Exploiting opportunities produces results."
-
"Neoteny is a retention of juvenile characteristics in the adult of a species. It´s an appetite for learning and self-development."
-
"I never stopped trying to become qualified for the job."
-
"Rather than seeing themselves as victims, though, authentic leaders used these formative experiences to give meaning to their lives."
-
"The world can shape you if you let it. To have a sense of yourself as you live, you must make conscious choices. Sometimes the choices are really hard, and you make a lot of mistakes."
​
THE PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT
Peter F. Drucker
Highly Recommended
Summary
-
Written in 1952 and still relevant. This book is definitively in my top 10 business books of all time. Read it!
Memorable Parts
-
"It is not necessary for a business to grow bigger; but it is necessary that it constantly grow better."
-
"It would take only a few additional days of training for the worker to learn how to set up his own machine. Thus machine setup was added to the worker´s job."
-
"Responsibility - not satisfaction - is the only thing that will serve. One can be satisfied with what somebody else is doing; but to perform one has to take responsibility for one´s own actions."
-
"No matter what a man´s general education or his adult education for management, what will be decisive above all, in the future even more than in the past, is neither education nor skill; it is integrity in character."
​
BUILT FROM SCRATCH: HOW A COUPLE OF REGULAR GUYS GREW THE HOME DEPOT FROM NOTHING TO $30 BILLION
Bernie Marcus & Arthur Blank
Highly Recommended
Summary
-
A complete account of the founders and founding of the Home Depot. Sam Walton´s "Made in America" is still my favorite retail store business book but this is a close second.
Memorable Parts
-
"I tell a joke that it was so bad that they tore it down to build a slum."
-
"My mother told me that they way you handle and deal with life´s seatbacks creates the basis for what you´ll accomplish in the future."
-
"'Because it has to look like we had some real hard bargaining here [on why he chose $25.50 a share for the selling price]."
-
"We would have immense amounts of merchandise and great assortments, stacked to the ceiling, so consumers would be overwhelmed when they walked in, and they would virtually smell a bargain."
-
"The interesting thing is that if Perot hadn´t been so hung up on Cadillacs, his original 70 percent share of The Home Depot stock would be worth approximately $58 billion today."
​
ON CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Various Authors
Skip
Summary
-
I bought HBR´s "10 Must Reads" six-book box set. It´s been a disappointment. My biggest criticism would be that each book contains a handful of practical insights (if that many).
Memorable Parts
-
"A paralyzed senior management often comes from having too many managers and not enough leaders. Management´s mandate is to minimize risk and to keep the current system operating. Change, by definition, requires creating a new system, which in turn always demands leadership."
-
"If you can´t communicate the vision to someone in five minutes or less and get a reaction that signifies both understanding and interest, you are not done with the first phase of a transformation process."
-
"When employees came to him seeking his intervention on an issue or situation, he explained, he would 'review the process used by the lower court' to determine if it followed the rules. If so, the decision stands."
-
"He picked him up in a small car just like the ones that were ordered. He jammed the seats forward to let the general manager feel how little legroom a six-foot cop would have and then drove him over every pothole he could find."
-
"The biggest mistake is for companies to treat adaptive challenges as if they were technical problems."
​
THE GOAL: A PROCESS OF ONGOING IMPROVEMENT
Eliyahu M. Goldratt
Recommended
Summary
-
Enjoyable business novel. This is the second time I read this book (first was in college since it was popular in the Engineering Department). The book follows the character Alex and his journey to save his failing plant.
Memorable Parts
-
"So if your efficiency went up 36% than your company is making 36% more money from your plant just from installing the robots?"
-
"When you are productive it means you are accomplishing something in terms of your goal."
-
"Only 3 metrics matter. Throughput (the rate at which the system generates money though sales, not production). Inventory (all the money that the system has invested in purchasing things which it intends to sell. Operational expense (all the money the system spends in order to turn inventory into throughput)."
-
"The money we charge has to be greater than the combination of the investment in inventory and the total operating expense."
-
"Every time Herbie gets a step behind, he runs and extra step. He is actually expending more energy that Ron at the front of the line in order to maintain the same relative speed."
-
"Ever time a bottleneck finishes a part, you are making it possible to ship a finished product."
bottom of page