Book Reviews

I was reviewing this blog site and notice I have a favorite books section, but only the list. I like good books a LOT. I think I cherish good books because I've read (or at least started) a lot of bad ones. I hated reading until after undergrad. I'd been forced to read a lot of terrible fiction in my formal education days (except for "Lord of the Flies") and it just really turned me off. So, I have a developed hatred towards fiction. I'm more of a realist anyways. My book list is made up of all non-fiction and the only fiction I've read that a teacher hasn't required me to read is "DaVinci Code". I just HAD to see what all the hubbub what about.
Here are my reviews (just what I pulled from personal notes I put into a word document as I finish each book) on several of the books I have on my list (and I few I don't).

What Jesus Meant
Interpretation of bible from Northwestern professor
Very good. I liked his simple take and translation on things

Rome Inc.
Rise and fall of the Roman Empire… parallel with rise and falls of big corps
Awesome book, I'm not even a history guy and I loved it
Very cool parallels between big business and Rome

Why I am a Catholic
Wills
Same guy as “What Jesus Meant”
Did not finish… very long and SLOW!!

From Good to Great
Comparison of co.’s in diff. industries and the commonalities of their successes of going from being a good co. to a great one
Very Good book and great read for anyone in leadership
A bit repetitive, but not in an annoying way (like Wiki-Nomics)

Jesus CEO (Recomended by Millionaire Republican)
Much lamer than I expected
Don’t know what it was, but just kinda blah!

Wiki-nomics
Made it most of the way through, got slow and repetitive (VERY)
First 100 pages or so are very good, good concepts and ideas
Repeats itself like no other. Could have ended after 150 pages and saved a lot of people a lot of time.

Bringing Down the House
MIT black-jack team… AWESOME!!
I love this book. Couldn’t put it down and read it in 3 nights. That’s impressive for me!!!
If you like fun, excitement, and just cool stuff then you HAVE to read this book!!

Leadership (Rudy Giuliani)
Really cool book. He started writing this before 911.
Just very interesting to hear him describe not only 911 stuff, but his leadership style

Rich Dad, Poor Dad
EVERY teenager should read this book. It should be a mandatory piece of the national curriculum for financial literacy that I think should exist (I’ll blog about this soon)
I don’t agree with everything in here, but it’s a great book!! MUST read for anyone over 15 who hasn’t read it!!

Fair Tax Book
Total propaganda and very interesting proposal.
Most propaganda bothers me, but this doesn’t. I like how it’s written and it’s ideas for taxing spending instead of income.
Most interesting piece is how this method would end up taxing illegal income, because it’s spent legally.

Great Gatsby
Yes, I know this is fiction, but I’ve read this twice now. Just re-read it because some of my “at-risk” students were reading it for class. I told them I’d read it again with them to help them get through it along the way.
I am glad I did. I knew I loved the book. I realized I had forgotten why.
Man, what a classic. Will ALWAYS uphold the test of time. I hope I re-read this book at least every 5 years!!

The World is Flat
Kick-ass book. I read it before it became popular and I’d like to think I helped make it popular.
Man, I told everyone I knew to read this book. I’ve used so many excerpts from this in class. I love when he says that when he was a kid and didn’t eat his dinner, he was told “There are kids in China starving” and now he tells his children “There are kids in China starving for your job”.
Love it… Read it!!!