5 comments about Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary.

1. This is the story of Linus Benedict Torvalds, the creator of Linux OS in what seems like his own words (well 90% of the book is written as if Linus himself is narrating it). What interested me most and kept me reading the book was knowing how Linus pursued his self-learning of computer science. He started with writing games and toy programs in assembly language then taught himself C and kept doing projects to master his skills. One of the projects was a terminal emulator which he authored on Minix OS. He went on adding features to it and gradually ended up making an OS in a matter of months. He got started with Minix after reading Andy Tanenbaum's book on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (3rd Edition) (Prentice Hall Software Series) which was the book Linus says changed his life.
   
   A good reading for all programmers who like Linux. As Bertrand Russel says - There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge - so even if this book is not talking about any technical details of the OS but the knowing of how it came to be what it is is interesting and pleasure giving in itself. Highly recommended.



2. I bought this book for a presentation in class about Linux, and I got quite a bit of information out of it. The book goes into the personal history of Linus, his experience with computers, why he first started coding Linux, and it also mentions a few other topics closely associated with Linux, such as open source.
   If you're looking for a book that gives the technical ins and outs of Linux, this one will not do you much good, but it's a good book for those interested in the author of Linux, and the start of his project.



3. "Just for Fun" may just as well be the real-life version of "Spider Man" - a tale of how a computer geek went from a social recluse to an everyday celebrity. Now, don't get me wrong, my friends are the first to brand me as a 'computer geek' also, and I wouldn't change anything about it. "Just for Fun" is an interesting introspective into the story and the mind of Linus. You'll learn about the early day of Linux, the philosophy behind it, and how both the author and the creation burst onto the scene. With a good mix of historical introspective and narrative passages - everything from the birth of GPL to Linus's philosophy of life - it makes for an easy and an entertaining read. If you've ever been exposed to Linux, Unix, or open-source, this is a book you won't regret picking up.



4. Once you read this book you get a better idea of who Linus Torvalds is, what his background is, what led him to write an operating system, where the name Linux comes from, where Tux came from, and all kinds of other tidbits. The book portrays Torvalds as definitely a rare breed. but it also paints him as a real person with real interests - albeit mainly technical ones. Linus does have a family and this book does cover a little bit about his family. If you want to know both the common and uncommon pieces of information about the guy who wrote an operating system, "Just For Fun", this is the book to get; it is definitely teh definitive book about how Linux came into being and about the man who made it happen.



5. This is really eye opening stuff. If you are even remotely interested in Open Source Software, this will give you some insight into the mind of Linus Torvalds. On top of being informative it is a really fun read.

No comments about Legacy: Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes Trust and Rhodes Scholarships.

5 comments about Godfather of the Kremlin: The Decline of Russia in the Age of Gangster Capitalism.

1. This is a great book by a good author with a fantastic approach to the subject at hand.Even with all the warnings about some of the things being to good to be true ( or bad for that matter) the reality has surface just by watching the news about Russia.I like the fact that the author was able to track all the corrupt corporations in countries like Great Britain,Switzerland and USA.The author mentions names,dates and places with accuracy.Also i enjoyed his explanations and the political and economic ramifications that the corruption in Russia has brought.It is very sad to see how Boris Yeltsin drove Russia to the ground while pretending to be a good president.The Book shows how Yeltsin is as guilty as anyone in Russia of its problems.He was just a mummified puppet with a stupid smile.Anyone with interest in recient history of Russia should read this book.



2. I personally witnessed the outcomes of the corrupted rule of the culprits portrayed by late Paul Klebnikov.
   Many Russians believe that the truths revealed in this book were the cause of author's murder.



3. This book tells a powerful story that most Americans are, sadly, unfamiliar with. Mr. Klebnikov outlines in impressive detail the history of Russia during the very turbulent times of the 1990s. The development of gangster capitalism under the Yeltsin regime in an environment of political corruption was a tragic episode in Russian history and an example of an opportunity squandered. This book outlines the rise of the mafia in Russia in the post-glasnost time period and the links they had to the Chechens and to the political leaders of the time.
   
   While I sometimes became a bit lost in all the details and Russian names with which I was unfamiliar, the story came through well as Mr. Klebnikov built, step-by-step, a solid and well-documented case. This story is an important one for Americans who wish to better understand what happened during this time period and how it affected, and still affects, Russia. From political assassinations to presidential elections - the book tells a compelling and sadly disturbing story.
   
   Since I have several Russian friends, I felt I owed it to myself to become more familiar with recent Russian history. And this book did not let me down. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in understanding Russia better and I suspect it will in time become a classic for the detailed description it provides of this time period in Russian history.
   
   Highly recommended!



4. Everybody should read this book - it helps to put the entire Litvinenko killing in perspective ; the dead Russian spy worked for Berezovsky - given Berezovsky long criminal history it would not be surprising at all that he was directly involved in murdering his own employee as part of his long ongoing campaign to overthrow the democratically elected president Putin and thereby illegally regain control of all of Russia's natural resources including in particular Russia's oil and gas wealth.



5. Paul Klebnikov is a modern Russian hero. He was assasinated because he tried to show the world how corrupt Russia had become at the hands of the oligarchs. "The Decline of Russia in the Age of Gangster Capitalism" is well written and organized. It follows not only the "rise" of Berezovsky but also illustrates how the majority of the Duma (Russian Congress) was in fact acting on behalf of the gangsters or were in fact gangsters themselves holding seats in the house.
   It is a reavealing look into the saddest chapter of Russian history. A must read for anyone interested in politics or modern history. It is a shame and loss to us all that Paul was killed. Who knows what other truths he could have recovered had he lived. It is also a shame that in our modern age of information, only a few speak the truth - and if they speak to loudly they are silenced, as was Paul. May he rest in peace.
   If you enjoyed this book, Paul also did an interview called "Theft of the century: Privatization and the looting of Russia." If you google it, you will find it on the net.

5 comments about The America We Deserve.

1. One the regular of trump. No doubt an excellent reading. His reviews on the present american system seems one sided. However its definately worth reading once to get into the mind of the great trummmmmmpppppp



2. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I can say I was very surprised, captivated and motivated into action after reading this book. With the many different sides of Donald Trump in the public eye, this side may be one you have never seen nor heard completely. This isn't a book about The Donald, this is a book about The America We Deserve and should be living in today. A must read for everyone who believes that things aren't going the way they should be and looking for something actionable to do about it.



3. I had heard such great things about this book that I had to read it. I was about 7 years too late, but I still think the book is good and worth reading. My only debate was Trump's weak argument to correct the school system. He really didn't have a plan to correct it other than stop feeding more money into the system. Other than that one area, the book was very appealing. I think his idea of having our country run the way a successful business CEO operates is worth a shot.
   
   The best idea in the book is Trump's plan to impose a one time 14.25% tax on individuals whose net worth exceeds $10 million, which is a mere 1% of our population. This tax money would be used to pay off our national debt and restore the social security program. I know this tax would probably not be able to pay off our national debt today, but this is the kind of idea that would only evolve from the CEO of a company that has goals to meet in terms of the overall bottom line of their company's annual performance. Ideas of taxation on the richest individuals in America are far better than creating additional debt for our country, so that's why I agree with Trump that someone with a great business mind should run for President.
   
   Another interesting chapter in the book was his prediction of another terrorist attack that would make a previous one in New York look feeble. A lot of the chapter mentioned the bioterrorism that we would encounter (i.e. anthrax), and I actually had to check the copyright on this book when I read this chapter.
   
   I do recommend reading this book, but be aware that it's a bit outdated. The plans for national debt, social security, freedom from terrorists are outstanding. It makes you wonder how things might have turned out different for America had Trump run for President.



4. I think most anyone would agree with Mr. Trump that the America he describes within this book would be an ideal nation. The problem is, Donald Trump does not know anymore than anyone else about how to achieve the problems he very practically identifies. The math of what's lacking in this book could be described with an equation like this: A+X=C. A is where we are today in the America we have, C is the "America we deserve" now what is X that would get us to C? I have no idea. I wish someone knew.
   
   But as far as Trump's observations go, he is frequently correct and in his "idealistic pragmatism" he has an observant eye when it comes to citing certain less than ideal, even intolerable, situations.
   
   I liked Trump's comment that money is not the key to fixing America's education system. He demonstrated how in real dollars we spend more on education these days than in the recent past and yet see less achievement in return. His biting, dead-on observation that the teachers' union's position that salary increases for classroom instructors would elevate teachers' performances is akin to them saying, "Bribe us more and we'll agree to put more effort into the job we're already taking money to try our hardest at now."
   
   VERY good point!
   
   Trump was also correct in this 1999 book in foreseeing another terrorist attack on New York City that would make the 1993 World Trade Center attack seem minor. That predicition came tragically true on September 11, 2001. His warnings to prepare for further attacks are more true in 2005 than they were in the Clinton Years. As I'm writing this, Hurricane Katrina is in the headlines and the lack of coordinated management in helping its victims shows how unprepared this mighty nation truly is for disasters of a monumental scale. I'm sure our ever-patient foes are learning from this and I hope we Americans are as well.
   
   But lest I come across as doling out more praise to Donald Trump than his book, sound though it is, merits, I have to come around to the fact that Trump's critial troubleshooting does not contain enough suggestions of how to improve the things he says are wrong. He's a smart man, not without faults, but he understands how business operates and I wish he had provided more insights in this book into how we can reach the hypothetical point C that would be the United States he takes delight in describing in his writings.



5. It's about time a guy like Donald Trump published this book. Whether you love him, hate him, or want him to fix his hair, The Donald presents fresh takes on age-old arguments and explains why he has what it takes.

   While every other candidate in 2000 was writing books about their youths, military service, or whatever else, Trump uses his get-down-to-business style to attack issues (and people) and offer quick-witted solutions. The fact that I disagree on a few points does not take away from the quality of the book. If you want a straight-shooting tome from a guy who takes care of things himself, The America We Deserve is a must-read.

5 comments about Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr..

1. John D. Rockefeller Sr. was probably the biggest, baddest robber baron in 19th century America, and also its leading philanthropist. Many writers scorned his ruthlessness, notably Ida Tarbell, who wrote two books on Rockefeller and his company, Standard Oil. Author Ron Chernow digs deeper, through masses of Rockefeller family documents, to present the founder of the Rockefeller dynasty as a "man of flesh and bone and soul." He covers Rockefeller's ugly, dramatic and even shameful aspects, while concurrently demonstrating his business acumen and his philanthropic leadership amid a remarkable generation of business barons, including William Randolph Hearst, Jay Gould, William Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan. An amazing portrait emerges of an almost invisible, rather megalomaniac ascetic who wanted to fulfill God's will. He became extremely wealthy, gave millions away, and believed that he brought the benefit of inexpensive oil products to all mankind. getAbstract highly recommends this multifaceted biography.



2. This is a really excellent book on Rockefeller. It made me laugh; it helped me to understand who he was as a person; it showed how he became who he was; and it gave me a true and complete understanding of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Sr. in an unbiased way.
   
   I read the negative reviews on here, and I want to refute them. Some say the author clearly favored Rockefeller; I felt quite the opposite at some points and think a really objective depiction was achieved. Others say the editing was poor; I didn't find a single spelling or grammatical error during the read. In terms of its editing, it was fine.
   
   If you want to know who Mr. Rockefeller, Sr. was, this is the book for you.



3. Hopefully it is good, Kinda Long but I am looking foward to having time to read the whole novel.



4. Rockefeller is reported to have searched endlessly for golf balls lost in an attempt to recover them, yet could nearly buy the world - why?
   
   Objective biographies are important to show that it is rarely money or greed that inspires the mind of man; it is the pursuit of the solution to the particular problem that he has defined worthy of solution. Both great inventions and great works of art have been formed as a result of the tiny seeds of construction or of destruction that engage the human spirit.
   
   Without it, are we not all merely reduced to automated machine status, the robots of today for the future of tomorrow?
   
   Is the mind of man made for the pursuit of money, or for the pursuit of satisfaction of what he perceives is worthy of addressing, focusing his attention upon the manner and the object of his passion?
   
   What makes people tick is a source of inspiration often overlooked in the attempt to idolize or endow humanity, and far too often, misconstrued by mistaken others who aim to profit from that misinterpretation.
   
   Molded soles, like molded fingerprints, rarely sit anyone else. Why then do we not concentrate upon the perspective of what men aim for, and why, rather than what they accomplish, and its yield?



5. 
   This book is the best biography I've read thus far.
   Ron Chernow has a deep understanding of
   economics and history. He uses this understanding to
   paint an accurate, balanced and complete picture of
   the Rockerfeller dynasty with J.D. Rockerfeller as the
   center of their powerful universe.
   
   
   To emphasise just how well this book was written,
   consider the fact that I spent my whole
   Christmas weekend reading it! I couldn't move from my
   library or sleep until it was done. Though the book
   weighs in at approximately seven hundred pages, it is
   reads like a novel, a trait which makes it both
   palatable and pithy.
   
   

   Synopsis

   
   Rockerfeller has all the traits of a classic self made hero. His
   antecedents are not amazing. He grew up in a poor
   family featuring a bigamist foot-lose father who was
   hardly ever around. His father taught John painful
   lessons in business and human behaviour. John's father
   would regularly tell John to jump from his high chair
   into his father's arms. Once, in order to teach John
   never to trust anyone, he told John to jump. He then
   walked away, leaving John to slam painfully into the ground.
   John's mother was the backbone of the family; quiet,
   anassuming and hardworking. He assumed the role of
   surrogate father and dedicated his life to ensuring his
   mother and the rest of his family were safe, secure
   and happy.
   
   
   When Rockerfeller got into the business world, he
   began as a book keeper. It was from these early
   beginnings that he showed the traits that would be the
   core of his success. He was meticulous and diligent
   when keeping financial records and accounts. He would
   manage his own funds as well as the company's money down to the
   decimal point! Like Warren Buffet after him,
   J.D. Rockerfeller would emphasis that "numbers are
   everything."
   
   
   J.D also proved that discipline is more important than
   intelligence. In school, he wasn't the sharpest blade
   in the set but his slow, diligent, determined and
   disciplined approach to study ensured his success. He
   emphasised this in his business dealings as well. With
   this method, he created the jaggernaut monopoly of
   Standard Oil. He began by consolidating the mass of oil
   refineries and wells in Cleveland under his umbrella.
   Later, after recruiting his alter ego, Henry Flagler,
   they would proceed to dominate the oil industry
   thoughout the world.
   
   
   Rockerfeller also exemplified a reticence that would
   inspire respect and fear in his enemies while planting
   admiration and loyalty in his friends. At board
   meetings, he was often known to lie back in a settee
   with his eyes closed as he let his leiutenants debate.
   Later, he would discuss these issues in great detail,
   as though he had absorbed and understood everything
   without skipping a beat. Within his company, he was a
   ghost. Employees would never see him arrive or watch
   him leave. However, they were made acutely aware of
   his presence when he popped up at some underlings desk
   and discussed their jobs and records in great detail. He
   knew everything and everyone.
   
   
   Later on, Standard Oil would become the focus of the
   anti-trust movement. The Spellman Act was passed in
   order to curb its power. In later years,
   Rockerfeller's juggernaut would be split up with
   unforseen results. Instead of destroying his wealth,
   as his detractors and politicians had hoped, his
   wealth and that of his shareholders trippled!
   Rockerfeller's success was enduring and could not be
   stopped or limited.
   
   
   Rockerfeller dedicated the first half his life to becoming the
   richest man on the planet. He then dedicated the
   remaining half to becoming the greatest philanthropist
   in the planet. His medical foundations brought
   back the disciplined approach he applied to business to
   the medical field that had erstwhile been dominated by
   quacks and homeopaths. Were it not for Rockerfeller's
   contributions to medicine, modern health might not be
   as advanced as it is now.
   
   
   After living to the ripe old age of ninety eight,
   Rockerfeller had achieved more than most people achive in a
   hundred lifetimes. He was one of those individuals so
   powerful that he forever changed the destiny of
   humanity forever.
   
   
   
   Something in the nature of J.D. Rockerfeller had to
   occur in America, and it is all to the good of the
   world that he was tight-lipped, consistent and
   amazingly free from vulgar vanity, sensuality and
   quarrelsomeness. His cold prsistence and ruthlessness
   may arouse something like horror, but for all that he
   was a forward-moving force, a constructive power.
   
   --H. G. Wells. The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind.
   
   
   

   Conclusion

   
   This book is mandatory reading for all students of
   success. It teaches the nature of the monopolist, the
   spirit of the leader, the hunger of the rich, the
   ambition of the visionary, the structure of a dynasty
   and the soul of the innovator.
   
   
   I've idolized Rockerfeller my whole life. Reading this
   biography gave me an understanding of both his faults
   and his virtues. It humanised him. The fact that
   Rockerfeller is so much like a next door neighbour
   leads the reader to a very important conclusion:
   success is not about nature, it's about nurture. It
   is not about intelligence but of intent. It is not
   about destiny but of decision. It is not about magic,
   it is about method.
   
   Each of us can make the decision to be successful. All
   we have to do is practice the method by mimicking that
   of the giants who have come before us. That is the
   Billionaire Way.

No comments about How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else.

5 comments about Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams.

1. The only thing I really knew before reading this book is that Hershey chocolate has been around a long time and there is a town themed after it somewhere in Pennsylvania near Amish country. Boy was I undereducated in this realm.
   
   Milton S. Hershey or M.S. as he was later known was the epitomy and poster-boy for American capitalism at it's grandest hour. Starting off as an apprentice to a Confectioner he was able to start learning the tricks of the trade. He found his life's calling and tried his hand at a few candy businesses primarily focusing on caramel chews. At this time in America, chocolate was not like the chocolate we have today (which is due almost entirely to M.S.) it was a rough texture that wasn't that tasty. The only people in the world that understood how and mastered the making of milk chocolate at the time was the Swiss and they guarded their secret with a passion. Eventually, after a few failed attempts at businesses in both Philadelphia and New York, he returned to his home to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was then that he started experimenting with trying to master milk chocolate. In fact after he had begun construction on his new factory in what would be known as the Town of Hershey, he still had not gotten it right, he was experimenting with a chemist up until the time the factory was completed when he got it right.
   
   The book is wonderfully written, It makes you really take a step back and think about not only the history of Hershey, but America itself. A time when companies and products were an explosion onto the American scene more than any other time in our Country's history. The book also takes a very intricate look at Hershey and his drive to support the Orphans that were taken in by Hershey's Industrial School, that, on paper own the Hershey company which has been a major issue over the years.
   
   I was so enthralled by this book that I am going to be picking up another book on the same industry called "The Emperor's of Chocolate" about the wars between Hershey and the Mars Candy Company. If you are looking for a great read and knowledge of corporate American history this is a wonderful book to read.



2. Michael D'Antonio has given us a serious biography of a complicated, but highly admirable, man. A "chocolate king" who founded a town and created and endowed schools and home for orphans is not a figure to be treated lightly, and D'Antonio does not fail. While there is no question that D'Antonio likes his subject, Hershey is not given a free pass. His enormous philanthropy is described right alongside irrational temper tantrums and firings. Spying on worker's drinking habits is described alongside his own gambling habits. The rise of the Hersey empire, and the town he founded, is described in great detail. The book opens with the drama of a challenge to the Trust of his school for orphans and the reality of business in this day and age. "What would Milton do?" is the question. What the book tells us is that it is by no means certain what Milton would do. He had contemplated selling his empire at more than one point, ensuring the resources for the continued care of the orphans in his charge. We see the rise and life of the Hershey empire, and Milton's relationships with others. The possibility of the true nature of his wife's illness is mentioned and described. Some have been offended by this, I'd suggest they get over it. It has no bearing on what type of person she was, or how much he loved her. We see the evolution of the business, the international interests, the town and school. It is a satisfying read. The only additional material I would have liked is some more description of Hershey's interactions with some of the other business and political leaders of the day. We are told of a feud with Wrigley, and the suspicion that Wrigley had cheated in gambling, but little else. We know of TR's trust busting, and that Hershey was considered to be quite apart from the Robber Barons of the day. Did TR and Hershey ever interact beyond the one or two mentioned invitations? If so, how? This historical information may not exist in the archives, but was the only gap I felt while reading.



3. "This book is almost as good as the chocolate bar. This biography of Milton S. Hershey and the chocolate company shows how hard work, ingenuity, and just plain luck produced the world's largest chocolate factory. The only thing that would have made this book better would have been a free sample of the product."



4. Michael D' Antonio has written a wonderful biography of Milton S. Hershey, the man who became a multi-millionaire by making milk chocolate a five-cent treat in the United States.
   
   Very much to his credit, D' Antonio delivers a biography of a complex man from another era without super-imposing contemporary politically correct value judgments. D' Antonio deserves a gold star or two for that.
   
   Milton Hershey's life is not an easy one to document; he was not an overtly public man. Rather, he led two lives. The first as reservd tycoon in his native Pennsylvania locale, the other as a a sometimes free-spending bon vivant traveling the United States, Europe and Cuba.
   
   D' Antonio chronicles Hershey's beginnings with his stern, no-nonsense mother with her Mennonite background and Milton's dreamy, never successful father. Backed with the unwavering faith of his mother and aunt and funds from his extended family, Milton pursued a career in confectionary. One business failure followed another, but Milton's faith in himself never faltered. Then he discovered caramels - and became the caramel king. Working with clearly limited resources, D' Antonio weaves an interesting story of an interesting man that becomes still more interesting when Hershey sees that the caramel market is limited.
   
   He sells out and could have easily retired to a life of luxurious ease.
   
   He had surprised everyone and married Catherine Sweeney, some fifteen years younger, whose actual background remains a mystery. She may, according to some, have been a "working girl".
   
   Though rich, Hershey pursued the dream of creating an inexpensive milk chocolate candy - and through native ingenuity and peristence succeeded. He built a multi-million dollar business that at one time controlled more than 90% of the U.S. market.
   
   The story of Hershey is fascinating. He built a town, Hershey PA, incorporating his utopian beliefs - and it worked. He created a sugar empire in Cuba that almost bankrupted him. He set up a unique orphanage and then endowed it with all his wealth. He was a mercurial man who could fire long-time employees in a moment of pique. He overlooked the failings of favorites.
   
   But no one (except perhaps some left-wing academics) could call Hershey a bad man. Almost alone among the mega-rich of the era, Hershey was animated by a true humanism and D' Antonio fully describes this without turning Hershey into a saint.
   
   Hershey is an exceptional biography. It describes an American original, Milton S. Hershey, a self-made man who shared himself with his workers, his community and his nation. Quite a guy and he has found himself in the hands of a very competent biographer.
   
   Jerry



5. The book provides a good description of Milton Hershey's life - his early struggles, his later success, the Cuban sugar business, his generosity and the building of the community in Pennsylvania and his relationship with it. Unfortunately, Hershey gave few interviews and wrote little so everything is one step removed and heavily filtered by the Hershey public relations machine. The author does a good job trying to dig for details and paint a balanced picture, but in the end the picture of Milton Hersey is blurry and the story is not engaging.

5 comments about The Pursuit of Happyness.

1. This book was very motivational and taught me a great lesson in humility, perserverace, and hope. I would recommend to everyone!



2. I have read a few reviews that where readers preferred the Disneyfied movie to the strong and honest look at a real human life that Chris Gardner exposits in his book. That's a bit sad. I find his honesty refreshing and courageous in a world where many look askance on the rougher edges of our humanness while ignoring the courage it takes to reveal warts.
   
   This book inspired me and is about to change my life. It is the portrait of a man who never succumbed to self pity in spite of many odds stacked against him. He did not give in to bitterness either. He blamed no one for his plight, simply pushed forward and found solutions to each crisis he faced. He has set an example for the many people of all races recovering from abusive childhoods.
   
   It is not so easy to get the demons of low self worth and self pity out of your head when they have been placed there by parental figures and communities either convinced of their own moral superiority or simply exercising their own brand of ignorance over a childhood span of 18 years. It is a struggle, daily, until it is rebuilt and often times depends solely on the kindness of strangers who may or may not be from the polished set.
   
   The fact that he prevailed from sheer dogged determination and a refusal to accept the labels others applied to him is a wondrous and beautiful thing and should spark hope into the hearts of those who know his story all too well from personal experience.
   
   If you prefer the pristine bubble of a Disneyified existence, stick to the movie. If you are not afraid of the grit of human life and are not easily offended, read the book. It is far superior and much more satisfying.



3. If you're interested in reading the book because you saw and loved the movie, you should be forewarned that you will find the effect of the movie somewhat diluted here, and also that the movie's version of events matches in very few particulars the actual events of his life as recorded in his autobiography.
   
   That said, the book provides much more background about Chris Gardner's life, and it is a fascinating and ultimately triumphant story--and, in the latter part of the story, his commitment to his son does shine through.
   
   His idol-worshipping meeting with Nelson Mandela at the end is a bit much, but otherwise Gardner's story is told with admirable sincerity and intelligence. And best of all, he's completely unapologetic about pursuing material wealth and prosperity, and saying that these are part of his pursuit of happiness. People who've been dirt poor are typically more honest about things like that than the self-righteous idiots who've been comfortable all their lives and never really had to work and then tell us sanctimoniously that "money can't buy happiness"--true, it can't, but it sure helps.
   
   And Chris Gardner's story is well worth the money.



4. If Chris Gardner had any morals I'm sure they wouldn't have come out in this book as he goes to great lengths to tell you every sexual exploit he's made in his lost, disgusting, immoral life. I couldn't finish it. Talk about all his sexual escapades! ...and his inability to keep his d**k in his pants, and worse still, his inability to keep a wife because of it! He's a moral black hole taking thousands of susceptible people with him into the depths of crude, rude, disgusting, immoral, sex addiction-type behavior. There's nothing HAPPY about this book!
   
   I just threw mine away. If it would have fit in the toilet I would have flushed it. I'm sure it would have gotten stuck in the u-bend causing me even more misery to add to the misery I felt reading this life-sucking black hole of a book.



5. Where the movie of the same name lifted me and inspired me, this book came crashing down on me. It crushed me because it turns out nothing in the movie was true. In fact, far from being the hero that Will Smith portrayed on film, the real Chris Gardner turns out to be a skank, a thief and a murderous thug. The fact that Gardner retains these attributes through to the end of the book and continues to defend them means there is no happy story of redemption and thus, no real happy ending (except that the man is now rich).
   
   Structurally, the book was supposed to be about a father's love for his child but Gardner's son doesn't enter the story until 2/3rds of the way through. Even then, the book continues on into exposition of the father's life, so it is more like a biography. I did like the writer's style but since the book was co-written, I doubt if it was Gardner himself that I was reading.
   
   If you loved the movie, do not buy this book. Continue to believe that Will Smith's character was an honest, moral man who deserved the success he got because he pursued it ethically and persisted against his hardships without complaint.

5 comments about Maestro : Greenspan's Fed and the American Boom.

1. ~Maestro: Greenspan's Fed and the American Boom~ is a rosy bit of economic subterfuge heralding Greenspan as an economic saviour when in reality we're paying the price for the Federal Reserve's inflationary scheme throughout the 1990s. If the markets set interest rates, we wouldn't see the vicious cycles of boom and bust, the subprime mortgage crisis, and the housing bubble. But such subversion is always attendant to fractional-reserve banking. A wiser more honest Alan Greespan wrote an essay entitled 'Gold and Freedom' in the 1960s. Therein, he observed: "In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation... The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard." Greenspan intuitively knew this was still true when Rep. Ron Paul of Texas grilled him in hearings before the House Banking Committee.
   
   People can mock the alarmists and goldbugs, but the U.S. Dollar is poised to fall over a precipice of hyperinflation in the twenty-first century. For years, it has enjoyed prestige as the reserve currency of central banks and reserve currency for OPEC exchange, but it is steadily starting to unravel. Too much public sector indebtedness, a 10-trillion dollar debt, trillions in unfunded federal liabilities, and an aging workforce will all point to American economic decline. In the 1990s, almost 65-70% of U.S. Dollars in existence were in circulation abroad. There is no telling how much it is today. The results will be catastrophic if a shockwave hits, and those Dollars come back home in mass. It doesn't necessarily entail a 1929 crash, but it will likely result in economic stagnation where inflation surpasses real economic growth and/or near-double-digit unemployment.
   
   There is nothing special about Greenspan. He had wisdom to get out and find a fall guy in the new Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke. Bernanke will take the hit for his mistakes. Bernanke is afraid to do any needed correction, or surgery in the form of tightening monetary policy, and will continue to prime-pump the economy and foment an inflationary shockwave and economic stagnation. The cure for inflationary woes is always more inflation. It's a melancholy fate, and the market correction will be devastating. His career will be short-lived and he will be the scapegoat. John Keynes, hardly a model economist, was prescient nonetheless when he observed: "By a continuous process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method, they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some....The process engages all of the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner that not one man in a million can diagnose."
   
   "The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the Principles and form of our Constitution. I am an Enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but Coin. If the American People allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the People of all their Property until their Children will wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered."
   --Thomas Jefferson



2. After reading this book I realized how fascinating a book can be when it is written by a washington insider like Woodword. Amazing book describes Greenspan, Fed, Whitehouse and the economics and politics behind it in the most lucid manner possible.
   
   Very true in nature expresses very candidly Chairman Greenspan's political manuevering and how Whitehouse makes a non political instituion political.
   
   Excellent and much more interesting to read compared to Mr. Greenspans own auto biography which in itself is a very good book.



3. The coziness of our nations politically elite always makes for interesting reading. While there are some interesting tidbits throughout, i.e. Alan Greenspans association with Ayn Rand; the familiar names of the politically entrenched and the precarious state of our nation's economic machinations, this book was a bit boring. With that said, there were two things I found fascinating about D.C. life. First, there is an extremely strong current of Ivy League uber-ambition in our nation's capital; along with an extraordinary confluence of academic uber-achievement (PhD's lawyers & double majored PhD's). Second, I didn't know Alan Greenspan, along with his longtime and classy arm-charm Andrea Mitchell, were such savvy political operatives on the so called D.C. cocktail circuit or what a critical role socializing played in the running of our country. Other than that, I was a bit disappointed with this effort.



4. Among collegiate literature which I have been exposed to, I have found Bob Woodward's Maestro to be one of the most informative and educational. With this simple and easy to understand narrative, I have been taken inside the doors of the Federal Reserve, and have been given a picture of how the FOMC truly operates. I feel more equipped to discuss and express opinion towards the operations of the Fed. Upon the completion of this book, I sat back with a sense of gratification, in my newly acquired, practical understanding of the U.S. economy. Woodward was able to portray Monetary Policy in a sense that really applied to my level of thinking.
   With an inside look at the decisions of Alan Greenspan and his role as chairman of the Federal Reserve, I was stuck with a sense of amazement watching this man operate mathematically and politically, still maintaining a sense of pure awareness and concern for the long-term affects of his resolutions. I would definitely recommend this book to any reader in search of a practical and realistic understanding of the economic engine which drives the U.S.



5. I read this book wanting to be better informed about how The Fed and Greenspan operate, and wound up being nicely informed and entertained. Understanding how banks, the White House and political appointments co-exist in the field of economics, I never thought I would ever use the phrase "hard-to-put-down" in connection with an economics/banking book but this one really did it for me. It is a genuine page turner and definitely Woodward's most underrated and under-discussed books. (No caller mentioned this work during his 3-hour C-Span interview a few months back.) Get your hands on a copy of this book and prepare for an interesting and enjoyable ride. My one complaint: I wish it were longer. Although this book answered all my "Fed" questions, I wished its time track would continue to the present, or perhaps delve a little deeper into the past. But this minor complaint notwithstanding, the book was an excellent and engaging read.

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