Staff Picks Book Reviews
Porchlight is a company filled with voracious readers—talented, creative individuals who know books, and who excel at moving them. Whenever we can, we like to do that by telling you about the books we’re reading.
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Blog / Staff Picks
Two Google, or Not Two Google
Book Review by Sally Haldorson
Most of our employees have hidden talents. We're a creative bunch and while we love business books, we also love to dabble in various other art forms. We have musicians, collectors, writers, performers.
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Blog / Staff Picks
The Female Vision
Book Review by Porchlight
The following review was written by our owner, Carol Grossmeyer, and first appeared in our monthly newsletter, the KeenThinker. ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ It’s been a long time since a book has come across my desk that made me instantly stop in my tracks, so I was thrilled when The Female Vision: Women’s Real Power at Work did just that. I was captured first by the arresting cover, a closeup photo of a woman’s eyes and then intrigued by the simple but powerful title, The Female Vision.
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Doing Both and the Importance of Getting Your Feet Wet
Book Review by Porchlight
Inder Sidhu's Doing Both was number one on the Inc. /800-CEO-READ Business Book Bestseller List in July. Jon recently sent him three questions he asks of all our best-selling authors, and I really enjoyed his answers: What's the most influential book you've read?
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High Financier
Book Review by Porchlight
Niall Ferguson writes big books about really big topics—The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World and The Cash Nexus: Economics and Politics from the Age of Warfare Through the Age of Welfare, 1700-2000, just to name a few. At first blush, his latest book, High Financier, seems different. It focuses on "The Lives and Time" of just one man, Siegmund Warburg.
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Seth Godin's Insubordinate
Book Review by Porchlight
Seth Godin is a revolutionary—in the best sense of that word. Consider his message at the beginning of Insubordinate—his new(ish) addendum to Linchpin. The opportunities to make change are bigger and more attractive than ever before.
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Steak and Fish
Book Review by Porchlight
Sitting in the midst of summer, food is generally a hot topic as cooking becomes more of a regular occasion (grilling out, picnics, etc. ). Two books landed on my desk that admittedly made my mouth water, while imagining the business implications likely addressed within.
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Fortune's Fool
Book Review by Porchlight
A lot of business is not only getting back on it's feet, some companies are even downright starting to thrive. Except, it seems, any involved in the music industry. While there's certainly some interesting things happening in the independent realm, the major labels are struggling hard, and it's very questionable if they'll ever get back to where they were.
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The Zeroes
Book Review by Porchlight
Just when you think the stories of excess and insanity on Wall Street can't get any more unseemly, along comes The Zeroes: My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane by Randall Lane, released today by Portfolio. In particular, there is the chapter entitled "Nails" about his business relationship with Lenny Dykstra. If you've never heard of Mr.
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Oil: "A Uniquely Human Story"
Book Review by Porchlight
Very timely, Tom Bower's eighteenth book, Oil: Money, Politics, and Power in the 21st Century, was released by the Grand Central Publishing house today. It is a riveting story of the last twenty years in oil exploration and speculation. I don't often quote press releases, but this book's is spot on: Oil is a story of intrigue, of greed, of arrogance, and extreme risk.
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The Genius of the Beast & Creation Stories
Book Review by Porchlight
Tell me a creation story, from the Sumerian Enuma Elish to Tolkien's Ainulindalë in the The Silmarillion, and you've probably got me hooked. So I am reading Howard Bloom'sThe Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism with considerable interest. As the author writes in the prologue: Every Culture needs a creation myth, a vision of how it came to be.
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