Reading Fanatic Reviews
BusinessForex Trading for Beginners by Bill Sykes and Timothy Gibbs
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Forex Trading for Beginners*
Great Introduction to Forex Trading
While I don’t know a lot about trading currencies, I believe this book is a good initiation for people who are looking to go into that. The authors talk about what Forex is, defining terms and giving a little history. They share the mindset that you need to have to successfully trade in this market, or at least be comfortable with it. They go over the practical ideas, like the different platforms you can trade on and analytical software that you can use to help you figure out your plan. They get down to brass tacks, looking at different ways that you can analyze the market. The book gets completely hands on in the section where they tell you step by step how to set up your first trade. This book is chock-full of easily understandable information that can start you on your way to successful, or at least more informed, Forex trading.
What Million-Dollar Brands Know by Lisa N. Alexander
Available at Amazon (eBook, paperback), Barnes & Noble (paperback), Thalia (paperback)
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What Million Dollar Businesses Know*
Mostly Meant for Medium- to Large-Size Businesses
Perhaps because I work with so many entrepreneurs in my own entrepreneurial business, I tend to think about creating personal, solopreneur brands. This book does have some information that will help very small or one-person businesses with their branding and marketing, but the bulk of the book is truly about marketing for medium- to large-sized businesses. There definitely are nuggets here for a business of any size, and certainly, small business owners will find ideas that they can use as they scale their business to include more people. I think the author depends too much upon the words of other people, making the book seem like it is not her own insights or conclusions but rather a compilation of others’ business and marketing ideas. At times, this makes the book not as readable as it could be; there are lots of quotes–some of the long–that aren’t really pulled together by a topic sentence or framed for easier digestion. I think ideas could have been summarized better. Some content seems like generic marketing ideas that you could find anywhere. I do like the million-dollar questions at the end of each chapter; they are meant to get you thinking and working with the ideas of the book.
Day Trading for Beginners By Bill Sykes and Timothy Gibbs
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Day Trading for Beginners*
OK as an Intro to the Topic, But Lacks Depth
This book is full of hints and strategies for day traders. I don’t know enough about the markets or day trading to know if what they give is actually good advice. I always place a more substantial burden on books that claim to be for beginners. I do not think that this book alone will allow a beginner to start day trading successfully. While some terms are defined, the authors use other ones that are not as well explained, which would make the book confusing for some beginners. Plus, the book lacks the depth of explanation that a beginner needs. I definitely think there is some useful information here that would help somebody interested to start day trading, but they will need more to truly get them going. One bizarre thing, too: the names of the authors in the blurb are different than the names on the cover or inside the book; one author has a different last name, and the other has a different first name!
100 Stocks that a Young Warren Buffett Might Buy by James Pattersenn, Jr.
Available at Amazon only
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100 Stocks that a Young Warren Buffett Might Buy*
Interesting Analysis of Historically Winning Stock Strategy
In this rather long book, the author first gives some background on both Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, his right-hand man, before giving a brief analysis of their investing style. The author then goes on to provide just a little bit of advice about how to manage your portfolio and other stock advice. But the bulk of the book by a large margin is the hundred stocks mentioned in the title. The author does give his choosing criteria based on his analysis of Buffett and Munger’s investing style. This is definitely not a book that you sit and just read straight through. You can do that with the first part, the more theoretical part, but the section on each of the specific stocks themselves should only be taken in small doses. The author made me curious enough that I think it would be interesting to follow these companies to see if he is correct in his assessments. All in all, I found it to be an interesting glimpse into two men who have amassed such wealth, as well as into the mind of the author—whom I’ve read before. I find books were people make analyses like these to be fascinating.
Homepreneur by Amanda Brown
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Homepreneur*
Good Information, But Subtitle Doesn’t Match the Content
This book has some reliable, straightforward information about becoming an entrepreneur who is based at home rather than having an office or a store to conduct business. I found the subtitle to be misleading, though, as it states that the book will be about running a home-based business for optimal work-life balance. Very little is actually said about work-life balance. There is a chapter that’s specifically about that, and within a few chapters, there are a few nuggets that could be seen to be about that topic. Really, the book is about setting up a successful home-based entrepreneurial business. I do think that informational nonfiction needs to be super clear and on point; the title and subtitle should actually reflect what is in the book. In this case, it does not, but the book does still have useful information. There were some issues with grammar, punctuation, spelling, and usage, the one jumping out at me at first was a mix-up of waiver and waver.
The book is split into four parts, and the author uses a construction model as a framework for the book. So, the Blueprint section discusses being a home-based entrepreneur in general, the Foundation section goes over key points like finances and routines, the Build section looks at ideas about marketing in a networked world and coping with change, and finally, the Interior Design section has topics that cover mindset, isolation, and habits. All in all, this book is full of good information, but it does not adequately address what it is promised in the title and subtitle.
Work Ethic: The Lost Credential by Michael R. Hogan
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Scribd, Smashwords, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)
Work Ethic*
Odd Combination of Topics
This book is a strange combination of what should probably be two separate books and one pamphlet. It is split into three sections: work ethic and related ideas, how to get a job, and what do after you have a job (surprise answer here).
The bold line in the blurb suggests that something is inherently wrong with today’s workforce that makes getting and keeping a job difficult. The answer, it would seem, is that we have lost our collective work ethic, and the author purports to address that issue in this book. This rankles me to some degree because I do not see the problems in contemporary business to rest solely on the back of the rank-and-file employee; if workers have abandoned the work ethic (which I do not believe they have), the argument can be made that businesses have abandoned the worker with slash-and-burn policies that are focused solely on the bottom line or covering the company’s posterior.
For a book that is supposedly all about the work ethic, that topic itself is a small fraction of it. Part one of the book does have a small section that is specifically labeled “work ethic” and then goes on to explore what might make that up, like attendance and accountability. I found this section to be rather generic and quite banal. The author made broad, sweeping statements, usually about how terrible workers are, but didn’t back it up with any sort of research or quantifiable facts. Part two gives details on the standard way of getting a job, like a cover letter, your resume, and the interview. Having participated in the job-getting process at various times over the last 30 years, I find his examples to be mired in the distant past. In this age of online job applications, even for higher-level positions, cover letters and resumes are a wholly different beast. Part three seems to come completely out of left field. After all the previous writing in the book had been about being an employee and getting a job, these few throwaway pages seem to be about becoming an entrepreneur.
While I don’t know much about the author beyond what he stated in his Amazon bio, I get the impression that he has been an entrepreneur for a long time, and while he might have worked with businesses, he has not truly been an employee in one for some years. So I don’t think he actually has any great authority to speak on this topic, and this is borne out by what is actually in the pages.
2 Dangerous Things in a Year by Terry Williams
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2 Dangerous Things a Year*
Not Quite Cohesive Enough
The title of this book intrigued me. The subtitle suggests that the book is all about change and how to become better at rolling with the changes that work and life often bring. Unfortunately, I found this book to be somewhat scattered, and it did get off the target message more than once. While the author has done two dangerous things a year for some time, the book really isn’t about that. So, perhaps he should have had a title that had more to do with what the book was really about. A good part of the first section of the book describes people’s different reactions to change along with ideas that further explain or augment the concepts. That is an excellent start to a book on change. Following from that, the second part should have been about moving from being change resistant (no matter what your degree) to be more accepting and even a champion of change, but that was not how the second part unfolded. It felt too generic; it really wasn’t as much about change as it was about basic ideas like gathering resources and support or troubleshooting. The book seemed repetitious in parts. This seemed like a loosely cobbled together set of articles rather than a cohesive whole. I’ve enjoyed other works by this author, but this one fell short and did not deliver on its title or subtitle.
Augmented Mind by Alex Bates
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Augmented Mind*
Gets You Thinking about Artificial Intelligence… and Beyond
Like most of us in the modern world, I imagine, I am both intrigued and wary about the concept of artificial intelligence. So, when I found this book at a book review site that I use, I was curious, as the title seemed to suggest something more than straight-up artificial intelligence would be discussed. I am delighted to say that I was right. The book is written by an author who is a pioneer in artificial intelligence, and in this book, he offers a different and potentially heartening future of AI and IA. The book first details his own history with the concept, starting with finding an intriguing article on neural networks when he was a teenager to the sale of his AI firm and beyond. The first part of the book is a collection of his thoughts on why we need to see a broader role for both humans and machines in the future of AI, a future in which he sees as a hybrid of both that could allow for more than we can even envision today. The author decidedly does not want us to be wary of the future, and he thinks that intelligence augmentation is the path to that better future. He details the history of both artificial and human intelligence in a way that is both compelling and fascinating in what it could mean for the future both artificial and human intelligence. As one who is somewhat skeptical by Nature, I found myself drawn to his vision of the future. A cracking good read for anyone who is intrigued (or leery) about the future of AI… or who simply likes to future think.
Me, Myself, and Ideas by Carrie Anton and Jessica Nordskog
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)
Me, Myself, & Ideas*
Some Ideas about How To Brainstorm by Yourself
In these modern times of solopreneurs, freelancers, and those who are interested in developing side hustles, this book means to guide the reader about how to do solo brainstorming. This might seem like an impossible phrase, but it is really about finding the ideas and answers within yourself to problems you might face in your solo business career since you don’t have the support of a group. The authors are like cheerleaders, using bright colors, nonlinear page design, and sometimes wacky ideas in an attempt to get you to dig deep for them.
The first couple of chapters are about what to do before you brainstorm: setting ground rules, thinking about your personality in regard to brainstorming, setting up your space, and getting out of your common work-a-day headspace. The longest chapter is the one on brainstorming itself, where the authors set up models for how to structure your approach to brainstorming in the guise of assignments. The last two chapters are about what to do after your brainstorming session, letting it mellow and then coming back to decide what you might want to work with.
I thought the book was at times a little too over-the-top. Some ideas are so zany that I couldn’t see the practicality of them. There are certainly nuggets here that will help you as you try to come up with ideas, but it does take some work to separate the wheat from the chaff. I think a shorter book would have been better, forcing the authors to drill down and write in a focused fashion.
That said, if you are working for or by yourself and needing to come up with ideas, this book could give you some structure in how to best approach this.
Jane Hates Her Job by Tim Wilke
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Free with Kindle Unlimited
Jane Hates Her Job*
Guide to Getting Better Employee Engagement
In this book, author Tim Wilke discusses 24 strategies that will help improve employee engagement. The first part of the book has the manager do some assessment about the current level of engagement that the staff has. In this part, he also discusses the cost of disengagement as well as giving the big picture of the 24 strategies and how to apply them. Part 2, the bulk of the book, lays out the 24 strategies. They range from very simple (like saying hello to your staff every morning) to ones that are a little more vague about how to implement (like showing respect to employees) to ones that would require corporate culture change (like doing away with annual performance evaluations).
In each chapter about a strategy, he discusses research sometimes and also has you ponder your own experience or made-up scenarios that give insight into the strategy. He often tells what’s in it for management regarding the strategy, and he always ends by showing what personal needs of the employee are addressed by the particular technique. Sometimes, he gives detailed descriptions about what to do, and other times, they are more general.
For the most part, the strategies he suggests should be common sense for managers. Having worked in several larger organizations myself, I know that common sense is not so common, particularly with certain managers and typically more apt to be absent in a large organization. There are definitely dangers in misinterpreting or poorly implementing some of these strategies; the author does caution about some of these pitfalls. I’m particularly thinking about the “management by walking around” strategy. I had a manager who did this, but she used it to micromanage and belittle employees; the author does mention this as a “don’t.”
I would have liked to have seen more consistency in the way each strategy chapter was arranged. As you read through the strategies, except for knowing the end needs-met list, there’s no expectation about what you might learn about the topic. I think each chapter should have had a structure like this, if possible: any research that backed the idea up, case studies, imaginary situations, reflecting on your own knowledge of this strategy from your own life, what management gains, what employees gain, how to implement the strategy, and the needs list.
I think the cover and title of this book aren’t appropriate. The picture is shocking to look at, but it isn’t professional and doesn’t reflect the serious nature of the book. The title seems irrelevant; one should have been chosen that reflected what was within.
By the way, for the American readers out there, the writer is Australian, so some of the quotes, research, and facts reflect that. However, the concept of employee engagement is universal in its application.
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