Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.
Joy is an avid reader of nonfiction and frequents her local library several times a week. Most of what she reads and writes reviews about is related to international economics and development, business, and finance.
Deloitte’s Cathleen Benko and Anne Weisberg team up in their book, Mass Career Customization, to apply a common concept in the consumer products industry to a new field – human resources. In seven concise, well-argued chapters, the two introduce a modern dilemma – our workforce is evolving to include individuals with a new genre of principles and habits, but our... Read more
John Perkins makes a bold attempt to clear his heavy conscious in one confession after another in his book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman." In so doing, the author makes us privy to a sequence of events worthy of a twisted Alfred Hitchcock plot.
Perkins sets the stage by getting personal. He invites us into his psyche as an unhappy child in the prestigious... Read more
I received Timothy Ferriss’ hot bestseller “The 4-Hour Workweek” for Christmas and, cautiously optimistic, proceeded to read what I hoped would not be yet another rendition of a worthless get rich quick scheme. While at times a bit pompous for my taste, I found the author succeeded to deliver readers an ambitious, executable plan that, with the right amount of effort, could... Read more
Freakonomics garnered a lot of attention when it was published back in 2005. Steven Levitt and lesser mentioned co-author, Stephen Dubner, certainly succeed at getting their points across in an easy-going, story-teller fashion. In fact, about half of the book is incredibly enjoyable and interesting as a result. The introductory chapters are full of one light-hearted account after... Read more
Printed on 100% recycled paper, The Green Book reads more like an anecdotal children’s encyclopedia (minus the pictures) than it does a full-fledged book. The 12 chapters, each covering a common space or activity such as home, work, school, and travel, systematically present simple ways ways in which readers can decrease their ecological footprint in each space. Read more
Freakonomics garnered a lot of attention when it was published back in 2005. Steven Levitt and lesser mentioned co-author, Stephen Dubner, certainly succeed at getting their points across in an easy-going, story-teller fashion. In fact, about half of the book is incredibly enjoyable and interesting as a result. The introductory chapters are full of one light-hearted account after another, be it sumo wrestling jigging in Japan or real estate agent shenanigans. These anecdotes are intelligently crafted to definitively support the authors' main tenet that the incentives (whether positive or negative) driving many of our key decisions are often hidden, but can be unearthed by unconventional thinking and questioning.
The first real disappointment only comes in Chapter 3 when Levitt and Dubner try to apply their same light-hearted tactics to more serious and sensitive topics like race, gender, and economic status. To this end, the authors fail miserably, revealing naive, unsympathetic, and downright distasteful interpretations of the subjects they bring to life. For instance, an entire chapter is designated to the factors driving a child's success in school. Chief among the findings is that success in school is highly correlated with the level of education and economic status of a child's parents. While education is completely ignored in another obviously related chapter about what prevents crime. A stand-alone reading of the crime chapter may lead a reasonable person to believe the answers to our problems in the inner-city are not more educational programs, but rather more police and longer jail sentences aimed to control the lesser-educated, underprivileged populous. The book gets progressively worse culminating with an altogether useless chapter about "high-end and low-end white and black names." Overall, I would not call the authors ill-intentioned or spiteful, but rather astonishingly unaware.
Think of two gifted scientists who are bored with the classic experiments and decide to venture out into uncharted territory. Unfortunately, in this case, the kudos deserved of the two for taking a risk is overshadowed by their failure to really step outside the boundaries of their science and tap into the human element.