Category Archives: Book Reviews

Book review: Uncommon Stock – Version 1.0

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Uncommon Stock: Version 1.0 by Eliot PeperI have had great success with reading recommendations from Brad Feld’s blog. The latest is Uncommon Stock: Version 1.0 by Eliot Peper.  It’s the lead title for a new entrant into the publishing industry – FG Press. They are an outgrowth of the Foundry Group venture capital firm where Brad Feld is a partner. According to FG Press, the book publishing industry will change radically over the next five years, and they want to be at the forefront of this change by “experimenting constantly in order to build a strong community around long-form written content in the domain of entrepreneurship.” With Uncommon Stock, they picked an excellent work to serve as their lead title.

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Book review: Resurrection

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Resurrection by Arwen Elys DaytonBecause I’ve been reading a lot of science fiction, Resurrection by Arwen Elys Dayton was recommended by my nemesis – the Amazon recommendation engine. After reading the synopsis and checking out the reviews, I decided to add it to my never-ending reading list. Shortly thereafter, it was featured as a Kindle Daily Deal. I went ahead and added it my library, and then moved it up in this year’s reading list.

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Book review: The Everything Store – Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

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The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad StoneA few months ago, I discovered a new blog via Seth Godin called A Learning a Day. It’s a great blog to follow, and I particularly liked a recent post on the site titled Being Human. There was one particular passage that resonated with me:

In the really long run (i.e. generations later), almost no one will remember us or know we existed anyway. What really matters is that we live a life that means something to us and brings us happiness. There’s nobody else we really need to please. So, let’s be ourselves, and always remember… to be human.

The passage had more impact than normal since I had just watched The Men Who Built America and was in the middle of reading The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone. It’s a passage that applies to all of these entrepreneurs, or capitalists if you prefer that term. They all have (or had) a desire to live a life that means something and to build something that is greater than themselves. They want(ed) to leave their mark on the world.

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Book review: Departure

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Departure by A.G. RiddleOne of the criteria I used to build my 2015 reading list was selecting books by authors I’d previously read and liked. Since I enjoyed the Origin Mystery Series by A.G. Riddle (all three books in the series made my Must Read list), adding Departure to my 2015 reading list was a no-brainer. I also liked that the book was stand-alone and not part of another series or trilogy.

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Book review: Red Rising

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Red Rising by Pierce BrownDuring lunch with a friend towards the end of last year, he mentioned how much he enjoyed reading Red Rising by Pierce Brown. Since recommendations from friends has become one of my top criteria for adding books to my reading list, I made sure that I put Red Rising at the top of my 2015 reading list.

As the website for the trilogy says, the book contains “…shades of The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, and Game of Thrones….” I couldn’t think of a better analogy for the characters and plot. It’s a really strong effort for Brown’s debut novel. The characters are well developed and he does an excellent job keeping the story moving and the reader guessing as to what will happen next.

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Book review(s): User Stories

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Running a software development business, I am always looking for ways that we can improve. We use agile development concepts to manage our projects, but I felt like we weren’t getting the most out of the agile methodology. In an attempt to get better , I decided to pick-up a book on user stories. It’s one of the basic philosophies of agile development that makes it different from other development methodologies such as classic waterfall and requirements method.

My quest to read one book turned into reading three. In this post, I’m going to do a brief review of each book, and at the end, I’ll share what I learned about user stories and the agile development methodology by reading all three books.
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Book review: The Mythical Man-Month – Essays on Software Engineering

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The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.Like a fine wine, some books just get better with age. Examples that I’ve read are Brave New World (Aldous Huxley – 1931) and Amusing Ourselves to Death (Neil Postman – 1985). Both books are just as relevant now as they were when they were written, if not more so. I recently completed The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering (Anniversary Edition) by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. It was first published in 1975, and updated in 1982. The anniversary edition, which I read, was published in 1995 and added four extra chapters. Even though material in the book is almost 40 years old, it’s just as applicable in today’s software development environment as it was back when it was written.

There are so many nuggets of wisdom in the book, that it would be impossible to cover them all in one blog post. I just wouldn’t be able to do them justice. However, here are a few points that I found quite interesting.

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Books to read in 2015

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In 2014, I read 27 books. I realize that some people may read that many over a month or two, but it was a lot by my standards. I had a goal to get through a list of 20. and I managed to finish 19 of them. Only 8 jumped the queue during the year.

Based on the books I read, here are my recommendation to seed your reading list for 2015. There’s a mix of fiction, non-fiction and business books on the list. The fiction books are going to tend toward the science fiction genre, and the non-fiction/business books will lean towards technology readings. Even if you’re not into science fiction, I’d still suggest picking up a couple of the books on this list. They’re just that good.

I’ve also segmented this year’s list into general recommendations, specific business book recommendations, books I found interesting that aren’t in my Must Reads category, and a couple of recommendation reminders from last year, just in case you didn’t read them yet.

With that out of the way, here’s my recommended reading list for 2015.

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Book review: The Case of the Wilted Broccoli

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The Case of the Wilted BroccoliWilliam Hertling is one of my favorite authors. His Singularity Series is one of my top Must Reads. I strongly encourage you to check it out if you haven’t already. Anyways, I recently discovered that Hertling had decided to write a book for kids – The Case of the Wilted Broccoli. I decided I needed to check it out and picked up a copy for my youngest daughter and me to read together.

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Book review: Robopocalypse

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Robopocalypse by Daniel H. WilsonA little over two years ago, I decided to start reading again. I put a heavy emphasis on science fiction as I wanted to develop better insight into where technology was heading. It’s amazing how much technology we use in our every day life has been depicted or foreshadowed in science fiction novels.

One of the first novels I read was Avogadro Corp by William Hertling. It’s a great novel depicting what happens when artificial intelligence (AI) runs amok. Since then, I’ve had an interest in reading and learning more about AI. It should come as no surprise then that Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson showed up in my Amazon recommendations. It fit with my science fiction and AI themes, so I added it to my 2014 reading list. It finally made it to the top of my queue last month.

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