Leglessbird leisure guide

A Brief History of Time : From the Big Bang to Black Holes (buy from Amazon) by Stephen W.; Sagan, Carl Hawking
Type: Science
Author: Stephen Hawking
My rating: 5

Posted by Dominic
Book introduction:
How does the Universe begin or is there a beginning? Was it big bang? Is there going to be a big crunch? How does human fit in? What is the meaning of time? Must it too has a beginning and will it end? Is black hole really black? What is the history of modern science? How do we get to know so much about the universe? What more to learn? How close are we to the final goal "a grand unification theory"?

My review:
A masterpiece by Stephen Hawking that covers all the above questions. I truly enjoyed reading this book and there is so much more to learn.

Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types (buy from Amazon) by Marilyn Bates
Type: Self-improvement
Author: David Keirsey, Marilyn Bates
My rating: 4
Book introduction:
This book attempts to classify people along 4 preferences (with 2 possibilities in each preferences), hence 16 types of character. The 4 preference pairs are:
- Extraversion Vs Introversion
- Intuition Vs Sensation
- Thinking Vs Feeling
- Judging Vs Perceiving
How do different group of people interact? What are the sources of misunderstanding? How can people communicate better?

My review:
I was given this book during a McKinsey training on people's skills. This is an interesting book. We did a test to find out our own preferences and we played some games to illustrate how we interact and ways to improve team communication and dynamics. It made us more aware/sensitive to other people's preference too.

The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living (buy from Amazon) by Howard C. Cutler

Type: Self-improvement
Author: Dalai Lama, Howard C. Cutler
My rating: 3

Posted by Dominic
Book introduction:
A Dalai Lama's view on happiness and how to achieve it with Howard Cutler adding his own intepretation.

My review:
The book suggests the purpose of life is to seek happiness, the true kind of happiness is not the selfish kind and true happiness can be inspiring to other people. It has some suggestion on how one can achieve happiness by becoming more compassionate. Prety interesting views and with some analysis on factors that affect happiness i.e. why people are not happy at times.

101 Philosophy Problems (buy from Amazon) by Martin Cohen
Type: Philsophy
Author: Martin Cohen
My rating: 3
Posted by Dominic
Book introduction:
This book discusses some elementary questions in philosophy, it forms a good base of questions for beginners in philosophy.

My review:
Although the book has already mentioned that there is no right/wrong answers to the questions in this book, but nonetheless, more guidance that will help facilitate the discussion. The Chinese Translated version was unfortuntately not a very good translation...

The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership (buy from Amazon) by James C. Hunter

Type: Leadership, Business
Author: James C. Hunter
My rating: 4

Posted by irene
Book introduction:
John Daily, a businessman who heads up a company and has a family and good life style, is failing miserably in each of his leadership roles as boss, husband, father, and coach. What went wrong?Find out from his weeklong retreat at a remote Benedictine monastery.

My review:
Is leadership born? or trained? This book explains the simple principles of a good and successful leader. One of the concepts is:
POWER = The ability to force others, by virtue of your position over them, to do what you wish them to do.

AUTHORITY = The ability to have others voluntarily do what you wish them to do as a result of the nature of your relationship with them and the example you set in front of them.

The principles can be applied to different situations of our life.

The Da Vinci Code (buy from Amazon) by Dan Brown
Type: Fiction
Author: Dan Brown
My rating: 4
Book introduction:
The curator of The Louvre Museum, Paris was murdered inside Louvre and he left behind bizarre clues at his own murder scene. The Harvard Symbologist Robert Langdon who happened to be in Paris was called in late at night to assist in solving the murder. He was deeply puzzled why he was asked to assist.

A beautiful French Cryptologist, Sophie Neveu warned Robert that he was in great danger. As they slowly unfold the secret left behind by the curator, they realised all the clues lead to Da Vinci and a two-thousand year old secret society called The Priory of Sion that Da Vinci was once the grand master. Robert and Sophie were about to revealed a secret so big that it would rock the very foundation of the Church as we know it.

My review:
The Da Vinci code is an very interesting fiction piecing a lot of the historical facts together and turned into a conspircy theory. A conspircy so deep and important that the church would do anything to stop it from being revealed. True or not, it is your pick. It is a very intense story and once you start reading the book, you can't put it down until you have read the whole book! True or not, the book raised many many questions about the bible and its accuracy, and it will definitely raise your interest in Da Vinci, his work and the secret society Priory of Sion (Issac Newton, Victor Hugo were also once the grand master of the society).

Veronika Decides to Die (buy from Amazon) by Paulo Coelho
Posted by Joanna
Type: Fiction
Author: Paulo Coelho
My rating: 5

Book introduction:
This is another excellent book by Paulo Coelho. Don?t be misled by the title ? this is not some dark fiction about Veronika committing suicide. In fact after reading it, one will appreciate living even more. It is very thought-provoking. Coelho uses the characters at Villete, an asylum to which go they escape from soulless routine and conformity, to convey his message. To quote:

"Each human being is unique, each with their own qualities, instincts, forms of pleasure, and desire for adventure. However, society always imposes on us a collective way of behaving, and people never stop to wonder why they should behave like that....You're someone who is different, but who wants to be the same as everyone else. And that, in my view, is a serious illness." -Dr. Igor

My review:
The book is short, which makes it more incredible how it gives you many profound insights. Whether you?re ?normal? or experiencing some kind of quarter-life crisis like Veronika, I highly recommend this book.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't (buy from Amazon) by Jim Collins
Type: Business
Author: Jim Collins
My rating: 3

Posted by Dominic
Book introduction:
From the author and research team that brought us - Build to last - comes a book focusing on the key factors of how some companies were able to jump a leap and went from GOOD companies to GREAT companies.

My review:
Good is the enermy of great. To become a great, one must not get too comfortable with being just good. Although I find the stories in the book interesting, there is little practical tips that one can follow. The concept of a level-5 leader is too abstract.

Returner (buy from Amazon)

Type: SciFi, Japan 2002

Director: Takashi Yamazaki

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Takeshi Kaneshiro .... Miyamoto
Anne Suzuki .... Milly
Kirin Kiki .... Xie
Goro Kishitani .... Mizoguchi
Yukiko Okamoto .... Dr. Yagi

Story:
A young girl came from the future to present time, human race at her time was almost wipped out by aliens. Her task is to stop the first incident of alien encounter and the chain of reaction that happened there after. Would she succeed?

My review:
Pretty entertaining, this is the Japanese's answer to ET, independence day, time travel and else. Quite entertaining, nevermind about the logic of the movie,just enjoy the story.

Osama (buy from Amazon)
Type: Drama, Afghanistan 2003

Director: Siddiq Barmak

My rating: 4
Key actors/actresses:
Marina Golbahari .... Osama
Arif Herati .... Espandi
Zubaida Sahar .... Mother

Story:
Another movie about Afghanistan during the Taliban regime. A woman who worked at the hospital that was closed, so she lost her job and the only way to continue to feed the family is to ask her 12-year old daughter to pretend to be a boy and work. It was no easy and soon she got caught...

My review:
A poor country in a turbulent time. This is the second movie about Afghanistan that I watched recently. I can't help but feel really sorry for what this country is going through and how thankful that we are living in a comfortable stable society.