Leglessbird Reading guide

The McKinsey Way (buy from Amazon) by Ethan M. Rasiel
Type: Business
Author: Ethan M. Rasiel
My rating: 3

Book introduction:
A book on the McKinsey's way to management consulting.written by an McKinsey Alumnus.

My review:
This could be an interesting reading for those who want to become a management consulting. McKinsey or the Firm as we call it (as a McKinsey alumnus myself), is almost a religious. In a way, this book is documenting what we "believe" in.

Afterglow of Creation: From the Fireball to the Discovery of Cosmic Ripples (buy from Amazon) by Marcus Chown
Type: Science
Author: Marcus Chown
My rating: 4

Posted by Dominic
Book introduction:
This book talks about the "Big Bang" - the creation of the universe. The after effect and how we detect the "background" radiation. Also the history of these scientic discovery.

My review:
Very interesting if you are a scientist or you are facinated about science :-)

The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization (Collins Business Essentials) (buy from Amazon) by Douglas K. Smith
Type: Business Self-improvement
Author: Jon R. Katzenbach, Douglas K. Smith
My rating: 3
Book introduction:
This book talks about how to create the high-performance organization and the secret lies in the team.

My review:
I once heard TEAM stands for Together Every Achieve More. Sounds easy? Well, can be if you need how to motivate, delegate and with a clear common goal.

Beyond the Black Hole: Stephen Hawking's Universe (buy from Amazon) by John Boslough

Type: Science
Author: John Boslough
My rating: 4

Book introduction:
A book that summarises Stephen Hawking's work on the Black Hole.

My review:
As a Cambridge graduate, I was able to see Prof. Hawking in person in seminar or even the common area the applied mathematics dept. It is remarkable that he is such an outstanding scientist with such a devasting diseases.

Modern Competitive Analysis (buy from Amazon) by Sharon M. Oster
Type: Business
Author: Sharon M. Oster
My rating: 3

Book introduction:
How strategic planners can use powerful ideas from economic analysis in making business decisions?

My review:
Interesing business ananlysis with plenty of real industry research cases.

Posted by irene

An Introduction to Modern European History, 1890-1990 (Access to History - Context S.) (buy from Amazon) by Alan FarmerType: History
Author: Alan Farmer
My rating: 3
Book introduction:
Published by Hodder & Stoughton. Content covers:
1. The Domestic Scene 1890-1914
2. The Orgins of the First World War
3. The Impact of the First World War
4. The Soviet Union 1917-41
5. Germany 1918-39
6. Italy, Spain and France 1918-39
7. The Causes of the Second World War
8. The Second World War and the Holocaust
9. Europe and the Cold War 1945-90

My review:
It is a good book for students. The historiographical biography boxes, "points to consider" sections, "key issues" boxes, and source material help you to follow more easily.

The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist (Helix Books) (buy from Amazon) by Richard Phillips Feynman
Type: Self-improvement Science Leisure
Author: Richard Feynman
My rating: 5
Book introduction:
A collection of the seminar notes of Prof. Richard Feynman letures on the meaning/definition of science, how to be scientific, what is unscientific, how to keep pushing the research front, the conflict between benefit that science brings and the potential damages that it caused; between science/religious and between science/politics.

My review:
Well written and delivered seminar. I particularly enjoyed reading the conflict between science and religious, how religious can be defined into 3-parts

Meta-physics: Who we are and how we come about.

Ethic: How we should behave

Spirtual: Meta-physics and ethic alone are not enough to pursuade people to behave, we need a spirtual link to inspire people to behave as defined in ethic part of religious.

He further explained how meta-physics has been challenged many many times and has been modified, such as how man came to this earth, how the Sun didn't go round earth. How ethic has been upheld most of the time. The link meta-physics and spritual means that each time meta-physics is shaken, the spirtual part is shaken also.

Science Vs. politics:
Voters want to hear someone to tell them a "solution" instead of someone to tell them ways to find a practical solution. Politicians end up promising unachieveable goals/solutions and end up being called liars, and people have lost trust in politicians and they seek a new "liar" to tell them lies. This is very unscientific as Prof. Feynman puts it.

Prof. Feynman has also defined what it means to be scientific, and how people today have been very unscientific in many many ways.

Very interesting reading and it helps you to solve problems and everyday tasks in the scientific way. Highly recommended.

The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate (buy from Amazon) by Gary Chapman
Type: Relationship
Author: Gary Chapman
My rating: 4

Book introduction:
This book talks about the 5 different ways of communicating and pleasing your partner. According to the book, each of us has a specific preference towards one of the five ways, if the partner "speaks" the right language, the relationship will work very well, if the partner doesn't "speak" the right one then no matter how well he/she speaks the other four languages, the relationship will have much problems.

So the five languages of love are:
1) Quality Time: Undivide attention and quality communications
2) Words of compliments: Sincere compliments
3) Gifts: Well thought out presents
4) Physical assistance: Help dealing, resolving matters
5) Physical touch: Hugging, hand holding and else

It is also easy to find out what works well on your partner and what is lacking, e.g.
"He always bring me very nice gifts", "We don't talk anymore", "He used to help me with many things". Well, you can figure out the rest.

My review:
A very interesting book that structurely catogorises the different ways to treat each other. For new lovers, they "speak" all 5 languages on a very frequent basis, and they are also very receptive to all 5 languages, but when the honey moon period is over, we need to pay more attention to find out which of the 5 languages that our partner really likes to "hear".

A good friend of mine introduced and explained this book to me and immediately I thought of the language that worked well on my girlfriend and I "spoke" a little more along that dimension :-) Highly recommended.

Kafka on the Shore (Vintage International) (buy from Amazon) by Haruki Murakami
Type: Fiction
Author: 村上春樹 Haruki Murakami
My rating: 3
Book introduction:
A 15 year old boy leaves home to escape his fate, his father predicted that this 15 year old boy is going to kill his father, and mate with his sister and mother. He embarks on a strange journey and slowly, all the predictions slowly come true in the most bizarre way.

My review:
Haruki is one of the most internationally reknown Japanese writers, and his fictions stretch readers' imagination to the wildest extend, the strange association of events and storylines never stop to amaze me. In Kafka on the shore, the 3 seemingly unrelated storylines merge in the unexpected way. Though the young man in the story couldn't escape his fate, he comes out stronger as a result. Haruki often like to include sex in his fiction, but actually, strange as it may seem, in a non-sexual way, it seems detached.

The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History (buy from Amazon) by Michael H. Hart
Type: History
Author: Michael Hart
My rating: 4
Book introduction:
This book attempts to rank the 100 most influential people of mankind of all time.

My review:
You may or may not agree with the author, but it is a very interesting book. Reading through this book is like reading the world history in just one book.