You Can't Be Too Careful, by David Pryce-Jones

When my mother gave me this for Christmas there was a note on it that read, "Darwin Awards, Part 2!" I've often chuckled at the idiocy demonstrated by these awards and looked forward to reading it. The book is a collection of true, very short anecdotes—often a single sentence—that describe the ironic deaths of individuals from all over the globe. Many were funny and shared the appeal of the Darwin Awards, such as the man who shot himself demonstrating how Russian roulette works or the German pensioner that dies of a heart attack after hiring a stripper to perform in his flat. Others were of the just-desserts variety such as the faith-healer that died after tripping over his healing stool or the bank robber crushed by a security screen during a hold-up. A great many were simply sad though, giving a depressing feel to the book that overwhelmed the humorous aspects. The heavy drinker trying to cut back that dies of a heart attack caused by alcohol withdrawal is a good example, or the tragic tale of the python kept as a family pet that escapes and kills the seven-month-old daughter. A quick, light read, but it left me more melancholy than amused.

First Sentence:

A plumber died after jumping naked from his girlfriend's third-floor apartment near Salonika, Greece, to escape from the enraged husband who caught them in bed.

Jackdaws, by Ken Follett

Set in World War II in the week before D-Day, this is an uneven espionage story about an all-female group of Allied saboteurs. Only two characters—the main heroine, Flick, and the main villain, Dieter—get any degree of depth; the rest are cardboard cutouts that fill a role: the ditzy aristocrat, the gutsy gypsy, the perceptive boyfriend, the sadistic torturer, the dense Gestapo Major, and so on. The action takes place over ten days (minus a short afterward that gives the happy ending), and during that time Flick shows an unbelievable array of traits: loving, faithful wife that suddenly takes a new lover, heartless leader yet compassionate trainer, and stalwart soldier to cold-blooded executioner. A quick read and a rollicking story, but shallow characterization and an over-accelerated plot keep this from being memorable.

First Sentence:

One minute before the explosion, the square at Sainte-Cécile was at peace.

Beer School, by Steve Hindy & Tom Potter

The two founders of the Brooklyn Brewery wrote Beer School so I was expecting a straightforward corporate history describing how a couple of home brewers hit it big. Instead, I found a thoughtful look at entrepreneurship and business partnerships.

The chapters are written by one of the two founders, with the other weighing in at the conclusion often with a different point of view. Neither of these guys had ever started a business before; one was a foreign correspondent for the AP and the other was a middle-tier banker. They cover how they decided to go into partnership, writing their business plan, collecting funding, publicity, managing a staff and performance reviews, and deciding when to cash out among other things. It is an honest portrayal, covering mistakes as well as successes, and refreshingly the pair doesn't always agree.

The writing is uneven, with the styles of Hindy and Potter being quite different. Hindy is the better author (not surprising as he was a reporter); Potter's chapter on raising money was especially repetitive: "venture funding" is defined three times in four pages. Potter also has some odd ideas about management. "People who read lots of resumes, just like people who read lots of resumes, aren't looking for a creative format. They want something familiar and comprehensible." As someone that has been a people manager for over a decade I can't disagree more. I love when I see an original CV; even if it is terrible I appreciate that someone tried something different and the break from monotony it brings. When Potter discusses writing a business plan and mission statement, though, he comes off much more polished. Clearly when the topics skew closer to his comfort zone his writing improves.

The insights into starting a business were enlightening, and being set against the rise of the craft brewing industry in America over the past 25 years made this a surprisingly difficult book to put down. Much like beer itself!

First Sentence:

My head was thumping and I was drenched in sweat when I was jolted awake on a fresh sunny morning in May 1984 by the blasts of two mortar shells in the parking lot outside my second-floor room at the Alexander Hotel in East Beirut.