Born to Steal, by Gary Weiss

This book had great potential, but was ultimately disappointing. Louis Pasciuto was a punk that worked chop houses in the 1990's and got mixed up with the mob. I was expecting Boiler Room, but instead got 54. The text is largely quotes from Pascituo, sometimes going on for pages at a time—so much so that Pascituo should claim co-authorship. Pascituo comes off as a poorly educated thug, almost a caricature you'd see on The Sopranos. Weiss does a poor job of explaining how someone like this could successfully sell stocks over the phone, a job that requires considerable persuasion. The most glaring flaw, though, was that Weiss matches Pascituo's tone and language throughout, meaning even when not reading direct quotes we get profanity and off-color similes such as, "one of the firms he changed as often as whores changed tampons." While the actual story told is fairly interesting, the book itself is a bit of a mess.

First Sentence:

Louis always knew that Santa Claus was a crock of shit.

The Book of Fate, by Brad Meltzer

I am familiar with Meltzer from his work in comics such as Identity Crisis and Justice League and was looking forward to this. With the Masonic square and compass on the cover and the blurb on the back discussing a two-hundred-year-old secret I was expecting another DaVinci Code. I didn't get it. Don't get me wrong, this was a good story, but the Freemason angle didn't really factor into this—a bit of false advertising.

The plot is set in the world of post-office Presidential politics, and Meltzer clearly did his research. The details of how a former President lives and works had a very authentic feel; in an interview he tells of the access he was granted by Bush and Clinton to create this reality. It was a fascinating glimpse into this world that made me want to learn more about life-after-office. In any case, the story was pretty complicated, including a conspiracy, a guy once thought dead suddenly reappearing, a secret cabal of spies, and a plucky reporter. Like most frenetically paced novels, there are several plot holes and clues that fall into place a bit too easily, but there was enough action to keep it interesting. I thought the ending was somewhat predictable (although I admit I wasn't sure how the escaped lunatic thread was going to work out) but well worth the time.

First Sentence:

Six minutes from now, one of us would be dead.

10-Minute University, by Jim Becker, Andy Mayer, Bob Tzudiker, and Noni White

The world’s fastest-talking man is back! Here we are taken on a whirlwind tour of collegiate life, covering topics from physics to film appreciation, from philosophy to football. The humor is fast and furious, and unfortunately hit and miss as well. When discussing relativity: “So a child on Earth ages faster than her astronaut mother traveling at near-C speeds, Mom comes home young, refreshed, little Betty looks like a prune.” Evolution gets summed up as, “Natural selection sure is fun when you’re the survivor.” Eh. Comparative literature was my favorite, both for the content—everything from the Bible to Valley of the Dolls—and the structure: the world’s greatest books summed up in a 360 word run-on sentence.

First Sentence:

Welcome students.

Leading Change, by John P. Kotter

This is one of those books that resonates not because it is filled with insightful new ideas, but because it gathers a lot of common sense ideas and presents them in a memorable fashion. It is very formulaic, starting with a list of items that an organization needs to effect lasting change and then expounding on each item in turn. The explanations contain many anecdotes, illustrating both positive and negative reinforcing examples. Charts and tables are also liberally scattered throughout; many cite other books by Kotter which sometimes gave me the impression I was reading a summary of other books instead of something original. Not the most exciting book I’ve ever read, but the content makes it well worth the time.

I’ve been in several companies, some that were successful and some that weren’t. While the reasons some of these failed were obvious, in others it wasn’t as clear to me. Kotter would say that this is in part due to a lack of teamwork. In a slow moving world, teamwork at the top is not essential; in a fast moving world, teamwork is amazingly important virtually all the time. Another key to success is communicating a sensible vision to employees. “Communication comes in both words and deeds. Nothing undermines change more than behavior by important individuals that is inconsistent with the verbal communication.” Teamwork, vision, communication: the combination of these is what defines corporate leadership. Successful companies have it, unsuccessful ones don’t.

Just as organizations are forced to change, so are individuals. Lifelong learning and taking risks is what makes us successful. The keys to this are soliciting honest feedback, active listening, and an openness to new ideas. Why don’t more people do this? Because life is easier without negative feedback and failure. One of the reasons I read books like this is to force myself to learn and change. Introspection is hard, but necessary to grow. If change was easy, everyone would do it!

First Sentence:

By any objective measure, the amount of significant, often traumatic, change in organizations has grown tremendously over the past two decades.