Professionals & Academics Books - Page 3

The First Billion Is the Hardest: Reflections on a Life of Comebacks and America's Energy Future

T. Boone Pickens

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Editorial Review:

With a Plan for Reducing U.S. Oil Dependency

It’s never too late to top your personal best.

Now eighty years old, T. Boone Pickens is a legendary figure in the business world. Known as the “Oracle of Oil” because of his uncanny ability to predict the direction of fuel prices, he built Mesa Petroleum, one of the largest independent oil companies in the United States, from a $2,500 investment. In the 1980s, Pickens became a household name when he executed a series of unsolicited buyout bids for undervalued oil companies, in the process reinventing the notion of shareholders’ rights. Even his failures were successful in that they forced risk-averse managers to reconsider the way they did business.

When Pickens left Mesa at age sixty-eight after a spectacular downward spiral in the company’s profits, many counted him out. Indeed, what followed for him was a painful divorce, clinical depression, a temporary inability to predict the movement of energy prices, and the loss of 90 percent of his investing capital. But Pickens was far from out.

From that personal and professional nadir, Pickens staged one of the most impressive comebacks in the industry, turning his investment fund’s remaining $3 million into $8 billion in profit in just a few years. That made him, at age seventy-seven, the world’s second-highest-paid hedge fund manager. But he wasn’t done yet. Today, Pickens is making some of the world’s most colossal energy bets. If he has his way, most of America’s cars will eventually run on natural gas, and vast swaths of the nation’s prairie land will become places where wind can be harnessed for power generation. Currently no less bold than he was decades ago when he single-handedly transformed America’s oil industry, Pickens is staking billions on the conviction that he knows what’s coming. In this book, he spells out that future in detail, not only presenting a comprehensive plan for American energy independence but also providing a fascinating glimpse into key resources such as water—yet another area where he is putting billions on the line.

From a businessman who is extraordinarily humble yet is considered one of the world’s most visionary, The First Billion Is the Hardest is both a riveting account of a life spent pulling off improbable triumphs and a report back from the front of the global energy and natural-resource wars—of vital interest to anyone who has a stake in America’s future.

Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

Muhammad Yunus

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Total reviews: 75 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

It began with a simple $27 loan. After witnessing the cycle of poverty that kept many poor women enslaved to high-interest loan sharks in Bangladesh, Dr. Muhammad Yunus lent money to 42 women so they could purchase bamboo to make and sell stools. In a short time, the women were able to repay the loans while continuing to support themselves and their families. With that initial eye-opening success, the seeds of the Grameen Bank, and the concept of microcredit, were planted.

After earning a Ph.D. in economics at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Yunus returned to Bangladesh to settle into a life as a professor. But a famine in 1974 ravaged the country, leading Dr. Yunus to alter his thinking and his life profoundly: "What good were all my complex theories when people were dying of starvation on the sidewalks and porches across from my lecture hall?.... Nothing in the economic theories I taught reflected the life around me." Armed with little more than a lofty dream to end the suffering around him, he started an experimental microcredit enterprise in 1977; by 1983 the Grameen Bank was officially formed.

The idea behind the Grameen Bank is ingeniously simple: extend credit to poor people and they will help themselves. This concept strikes at the root of poverty by specifically targeting the poorest of the poor, providing small loans (usually less than $300) to those unable to obtain credit from traditional banks. At Grameen, loans are administered to groups of five people, with only two receiving their money up front. As soon as these two make a few regular payments, loans are gradually extended to the rest of the group. In this way, the program builds a sense of community as well as individual self-reliance. Most of the Grameen Bank's loans are to women, and since its inception, there has been an astonishing loan repayment rate of over 98 percent.

Banker to the Poor is an inspiring memoir of the birth of microcredit, written in a conversational tone that makes it both moving and enjoyable to read. The Grameen Bank is now a $2.5 billion banking enterprise in Bangladesh, while the microcredit model has spread to over 50 countries worldwide, from the U.S. to Papua New Guinea, Norway to Nepal. Ever optimistic, Yunus travels the globe spreading the belief that poverty can be eliminated: "...the poor, once economically empowered, are the most determined fighters in the battle to solve the population problem; end illiteracy; and live healthier, better lives. When policy makers finally realize that the poor are their partners, rather than bystanders or enemies, we will progress much faster that we do today." Dr. Yunus's efforts prove that hope is a global currency. --Shawn Carkonen

The Year of Magical Thinking

Joan Didion

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Total reviews: 494 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

"Let it go." 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

In "The Year of Magical Thinking," Joan Didion chronicles the death of her husband, author and screenwriter John Gregory Dunne. One evening, Dunne died of a severe heart attack while the couple ate dinner. The day had seemed like any other, aside from the fact that they had just returned from a hospital visit with their grown daughter, Quintana, who was in a coma from an unidentified illness. Didion found herself lost, coping with the trauma of her husband's death at the same time that she faced the uncertainty of her daughter's recovery. This stress manifested itself in numerous ways, including the "magical thinking" from the title. Specifically, Didion talks about wanting her husband back so badly that she tries to trick herself into thinking it possible, such as convincing herself that if she kept his clothes, then he would come back for them. Or vice versa - if she gave away his clothes, this meant that he couldn't come back in the future.

Anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one will likely find something in this superb book that hits them - something that describes their grief perfectly. As is typical, Didion goes through various stages of grief and finds herself wanting answers. She wants to know how her husband died, and she goes about it like an author would - researching the topic. Didion also recounts bits and pieces of their life together as she attempts to piece together a new life. At times, she is a bit of a name-dropper, chronicling her fabulous Hollywood life and her friendships with famous authors. However, in the end, she was a widow grieving a loss, just the same as anyone else; death affects us all, is universal. Didion's beautiful writing and the way she discusses her grief is universal as well.

Overall, "The Year of Magical Thinking" is a sublime work of non-fiction that deservedly won the National Book Award. However, I was slightly annoyed by one aspect of the book - the lack of details about Dunne's age. At the beginning of the book, I assumed, based on how Didion writes about her husband, that Dunne was in his 50s. I haven't read anything else by Didion, so I didn't know much about her life. In actuality, Dunne was 70 years old when he died. Gradually, Didion acknowledges that his death was somewhat expected - Dunne had had heart problems for years. Perhaps her neglecting to tell us that earlier about his heart problems and his advanced age is part of her "magical thinking." If one doesn't acknowledge the heart problem, even when writing about it after his death, then said heart problem does not exist. Of course, the age of a loved one is fairly irrelevant to the person left behind; one is still alone. It's a minor point, perhaps, but one that affected my reaction to this otherwise amazing book.

This review is of the audiobook version, which consists of 4 CDs. The reader is Barbara Caruso, who does an amazing job of embodying the "voice" of Didion. The reading is simple and straight-forward, with very little accompanying music, which really suits the tone of the book.

Editorial Review:

From one of America’s iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage--and a life, in good times and bad--that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa

Peter Godwin

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Total reviews: 47 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Hailed by reviewers as "powerful,""haunting" and "a tour de force of personal journalism,"When A Crocodile Eats the Sun is the unforgettable story of one man's struggle to discover his past and come to terms with his present. Award winning author and journalist Peter Godwin writes with pathos and intimacy about Zimbabwe's spiral into chaos and, along with it, his family's steady collapse. This dramatic memoir is a searing portrait of unspeakable tragedy and exile, but it is also vivid proof of the profound strength of the human spirit and the enduring power of love.

"In the tradition of Rian Malan and Philip Gourevitch, a deeply moving book about the unknowability of an Africa at once thrilling and grotesque. In elegant, elegiac prose, Godwin describes his father's illness and death in Zimbabwe against the backdrop of Mugabe's descent into tyranny. His parent's waning and the country's deterioration are entwined so that personal and political tragedy become inseparable, each more profound for the presence of the other" -- Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon

"A fascinating, heartbreaking, deeply illuminating memoir that has the shape and feel of a superb novel." -Kurt Anderson, author of Heydey

Never Surrender: A Soldier's Journey to the Crossroads of Faith and Freedom

Jerry Boykin

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 1978, Jerry Boykin joined what would become the world's premier Special Operations unit, Delta Force. The only promise: "A medal and a body bag." What followed was a .50 caliber round in the chest and a life spent with America's elite forces bringing down warlords and war criminals, despots, and dictators. In Colombia, his task force hunted the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar. In Panama, he helped capture the brutal dictator Manuel Noriega, liberating a nation. From Vietnam to Iran to Mogadishu, Lt. General Jerry Boykin's life reads like an action-adventure novel. Boykin's powerful story will keep you riveted as he reveals how his military duty worked in tandem with his faith to bring him through the bloody storms of foreign battle-and through the political firestorm that ambushed him in his own country.

Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World's Most Coveted Handbag

Michael Tonello

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Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

An insider's hilarious, whirlwind account of his years spent globe-trotting in search of the holy grail of handbags: the Birkin

For more than twenty years, the Hermès Birkin bag has been the iconic symbol of fashion, luxury, and wealth. Though the bag is often seen dangling from the arms of celebrities, there is a fabled waiting list of more than two years to buy one from Hermès, and the average fashionista has a better chance of climbing Mount Everest in Prada pumps than of possessing one of these coveted carryalls. Unless, of course, she happens to know Michael Tonello . . .

Michael's newfound career started with an impulsive move to Barcelona, a vanished job assignment, no work visa, and an Hermès scarf sold on eBay to generate some quick cash. But soon the resourceful Michael discovered the truth about the waiting list and figured out the secret to getting Hermès to part with one of these precious bags. Millions of dollars worth of Birkins later, Michael had become one of eBay's most successful entrepreneurs—and a Robin Hood to thousands of desperate rich women.

With down-to-earth wit, Michael chronicles the unusual ventures that took him to nearly every continent, from eBay to Paris auction house and into the lives of celebrities and poseurs. Flirting with danger, Michael recounts the heady rush of hand delivering his first big score to famed songwriter Carole Bayer Sager in Paris; how he had to hire thugs to rescue a bag that one of his "shoppers" held for ransom; and the story of the Oscar-worthy performances that allowed him to snag "reserved" bags from other, less dogged Birkin seekers.

Whether he's relating his wining and dining, buying and selling, dodging and weaving, laughing and crying, or schmoozing and stammering, Michael is a master raconteur who weaves together tales of hunting Birkins in the world's most posh locales, memories of meals that would make any gastronome salivate, anecdotes of obsessed collectors with insatiable desires, and sweetly intimate stories about his family, friends, and finding true love. The result is a memoir that is distinctive, fun, page-turning, and as addictive as its namesake.

Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America

Brigitte Gabriel

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Total reviews: 332 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Her writing is eloquent and her passion tremendous."

--Publishers Weekly

“Brigitte Gabriel's words should be read, and studied carefully, by all the law enforcement and government officials of the West -- as well as by everyone who values freedom.”

-- Robert Spencer, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)

Brigitte Gabriel lost her childhood to militant Islam, when militant Muslims from throughout the Middle East poured into Lebanon and declared jihad against the Lebanese Christians. Because They Hate warns that the US is threatened by fundamentalist Islamic theology in the same way Lebanon was— radical Islam will stop at nothing short of domination of all non-Muslim countries.

Fiercely articulate and passionately committed, Because They Hate tells Gabriel's personal story as well as outlines the history, social movements, and religious divisions that have led to this critical historical conflict.

BRIGITTE GABRIEL is a US-based journalist and news producer who started her career as an anchor for World News, an evening Arabic news program. As a terrorism expert and the founder of the nonprofit organization ACT! for America, Brigitte Gabriel travels widely and speaks regularly on topics related to the Middle East. She has addressed audiences at the FBI, the United States Special Operations Command, the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Joint Forces Staff College, among others.

Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History

Ted Sorensen

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Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this gripping memoir, John F. Kennedy's closest advisor recounts in full for the first time his experience counseling Kennedy through the most dramatic moments in American history.

Sorensen returns to January 1953, when he and the freshman senator from Massachusetts began their extraordinary professional and personal relationship. Rising from legislative assistant to speechwriter and advisor, the young lawyer from Nebraska worked closely with JFK on his most important speeches, as well as his book Profiles in Courage. Sorensen encouraged the junior senator's political ambitions—from a failed bid for the vice presidential nomination in 1956 to the successful presidential campaign in 1960, after which he was named Special Counsel to the President.

Sorensen describes in thrilling detail his experience advising JFK during some of the most crucial days of his presidency, from the decision to go to the moon to the Cuban Missile Crisis, when JFK requested that the thirty-four-year-old Sorensen draft the key letter to Khrushchev at the most critical point of the world's first nuclear confrontation. After Kennedy was assassinated, Sorensen stayed with President Johnson for a few months before leaving to write a biography of JFK. In 1968 he returned to Washington to help run Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign. Through it all, Sorensen never lost sight of the ideals that brought him to Washington and to the White House, working tirelessly to promote and defend free, peaceful societies.

Illuminating, revelatory, and utterly compelling, Counselor is the brilliant, long-awaited memoir from the remarkable man who shaped the presidency and the legacy of one of the greatest leaders America has ever known.

Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist

Roger Lowenstein

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Total reviews: 101 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Best of Buffett-Great Book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Lowenstein is one of the most delightful books I have ever read. It was difficult to put this book down. If you enjoy an enterprising adventure, you'll love this one. More than investment epic biography; it is an exciting light fun read. There are tidbits of investing genius around every corner. My connection came when I learned how enterprising Warren was even as a young boy and then it gets better and better. Our investment club, also selected this book to study in 2008 and it has been exceeding expectations. It is one of several books I have read on the topic of Warren Buffett and it is by-far-and-away, the best. This is one you will want to keep for your collection and share with your kids, friends and family.

Editorial Review:

Starting from scratch, simply by picking stocks and companies for investment, Warren Buffett amassed one of the epochal fortunes of the 20th century -- an astounding net worth of $10 billion and counting. That awesome record has made him a cult figure.

This illuminating biography reveals a man whose conscientiousness, integrity, and good humor exist alongside an odd emotional isolation. Buffett also masterfully traces his life: his enormously successful partnership; his early, inspired investments in American Express and Geico; his companionship and investment with Katharine Graham of the Washington Post; his role in the Capital Cities purchase of ABC; his unique relationship with his wife and mistress; and his rescue of the scandal-ridden Salomon Brothers.

The Prince of Frogtown

Rick Bragg

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Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this final volume of the beloved American saga that began with All Over but the Shoutin’ and continued with Ava’s Man, Rick Bragg closes his circle of family stories with an unforgettable tale about fathers and sons inspired by his own relationship with his ten-year-old stepson.

He learns, right from the start, that a man who chases a woman with a child is like a dog who chases a car and wins. He discovers that he is unsuited to fatherhood, unsuited to fathering this boy in particular, a boy who does not know how to throw a punch and doesn’t need to; a boy accustomed to love and affection rather than violence and neglect; in short, a boy wholly unlike the child Rick once was, and who longs for a relationship with Rick that Rick hasn’t the first inkling of how to embark on. With the weight of this new boy tugging at his clothes, Rick sets out to understand his father, his son, and himself.

The Prince of Frogtown documents a mesmerizing journey back in time to the lush Alabama landscape of Rick’s youth, to Jacksonville’s one-hundred-year-old mill, the town’s blight and salvation; and to a troubled, charismatic hustler coming of age in its shadow, Rick’s father, a man bound to bring harm even to those he truly loves. And the book documents the unexpected corollary to it, the marvelous journey of Rick’s later life: a journey into fatherhood, and toward a child for whom he comes to feel a devotion that staggers him. With candor, insight, tremendous humor, and the remarkable gift for descriptive storytelling on which he made his name, Rick Bragg delivers a brilliant and moving rumination on the lives of boys and men, a poignant reflection on what it means to be a father and a son.