2 comments about Kellie's Book: The Art of the Possible.

1. "Kellie's Book" is an inspiration! I've purchased several copies for gifts as well as show-and-tell. Kellie's art work brings each page to life, offering encouragement and wisdom to children and adults alike. Thanks Kellie!



2. Kellie's Book: The Art of the Possible is the children's picturebook autobiography of Kellie Greenwald, born with Down syndrome and a hole in her heart, now age twenty-nine with a successful career, friends in her group home, a cat she takes care of, and a loving family. Kellie's Book is a positive affirmation of love, hope, and the joy of life, told in Kellie's own words and illustrated with her color artwork. "I used to work at Roush's Drug Store. I helped with customer services. I would take them to the aisles to get products from A to Z." Since Kellie's Book uses a direct transcript of Kellie's printing by hand rather than a typeface, very young children might need a little help reading the words aloud. Enthusiastically recommended for personal and library children's collections.

1 comments about Thirty Years of Sausage, Fifty Years of Ham.

1. A great insight look into the life of Jimmy Dean. The king of sausage! Jimmy is responsible for the success and exposure of Jim Henson and The Muppet's. Big Bad John is jimmy's most famous hits. Read his life and you will be amused and entertained.

5 comments about The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson, Sr. and the Making of IBM.

1. It is a very easy-to-read book. You find yourself goin' on and on readin' and you can finish the book in a couple of days. I recommend it to everybody. It is very interesting, even if you don't like or have never read a biography. Thomas Watson Sr was such an interesting man and such a succesful businessman that it is more than worth reading this book. On top you get to know a lot of the son of Thomas Watson, Tom Watson Jr and of the IBM history which is as much interesting as its creator's.
   The only negative aspects are the quality of the paper, which is poor, and the margins, too narrow for the size of the font(a little bit big I think)



2. Before I get to the review, let me say that this book gets a 10 for content. It gets only a 2 for style.
   
   I was drawn to this book shortly after reading Lou Gerstner's "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance" (truly an excellent book, esp since it was written without a ghost writer), who makes many references to the old IBM. This book certainly paints the complete picture of what old IBM was.
   
   Manney begins by talking about Watson's upbringing, then draws you into his times at NCR and quick rise to the top. He makes many pauses to describe the nature of character of the folks that would become major influences on Watson's business sense. He even throws in a few amusing anecdotes along the way. Then he dives into the incitement and the flood that would convince Watson of true value of integrity.
   
   The first chapter or so on C-T-R, how Watson got the job, started off and some initial challenges are good. Then the book goes into non-linear time line and starts to loose you. For instance, Maney divides chapters into sections. One section could end in 1934 talking about Watson's big break, the next would be a personal anecdote from 1920s, the next would start off in 1917 and talk about events that lead to Watson nearly bankrupting the company. The next chapter would be a repeat, and you would again seemingly randomly jump from 1930s to 20s for no apparent reason. I found myself going back and forth many times trying to figure out how this even in '34 relates to the other event in '34 five pages ago.
   
   Still, if you are a fan of start-from-nothing-climb-to-the-top stories, this is an absolute must read. Maney captures the essence of Watson, like very few authors could. He gives a balanced view of his personal and public lives, and most importantly, he understands that IBM's success was dependent on many people, not just Watson and so he gives them a significant amount of screen time as well.



3. Kevin Maney's book on Thomas Watson Sr. describes a prideful, egotistical man driven to succeed. Very informative and well researched- Maney yaks as well as he always has.



4. This book is generally pretty good, as evidenced by my 4 stars I quite enjoyed it. There is a lot of insight into what the biographer believes Tom Watson was, and I put it that way because there is a lot of interpolation by the author on what the goings on were around the company. It's an enjoyable read, but very repetitive and you can tell by the writing that it is written by someone not accustomed to writing books (the writer is a journalist). It lapses in and out of formal and informal narrative, repeats itself constantly, the author has a particular fondness for describing Watson's diatribes as "cuttingly" (which is a word?).
   
   In any case this is the first book I've read about either of the Tom Watson's and IBM and I assume that it has done a good job of dispelling some of the myths of other books which were written about him. It's an intriguing book because the subject was so utterly obsessed and consumed by his company and his outrageous luck and "bet the farm" gambles.
   
   Good read, I recommend it but I don't think is top class.



5. This book seems to have been written primarily because the author learned about the existence of boxes of Thomas Watson's papers that had never been read by any biographer or journalist. In some cases, the author's access to these new materials does help fill in some minor gaps in the existing accounts of Watson's life. And cumulatively, they take some of the shine off the legend, impressing upon one how humdrum the daily life of even a business titan must be. This book is reasonably well written and packed with memorable anecdotes. While it doesn't offer stunning new insights, we commend it as a readable, accessible and balanced introduction to one of the greatest executives of the twentieth century.

1 comments about Sound Wormy: Memoir of Andrew Gennett, Lumberman.

1. Being raised a few miles from one of the first Gennett sawmills, I found this to be one of the most interesting books I have ever read. Gennett describes in fair detail various logging practices, and the technical vernacular is even footnoted to assist the reader with terms he/she has probably never heard.

   The brothers' Gennett certainly had a knack for making money, but it was always after much investigation and hard work, and certainly risk. It was interesting to me how Andrew, from the upper crust of society, rolled his sleeves up and learned the art of cruising timber and sawmilling. Accounts of the long nights in the cold camping or boarding with mountaineer families while on timber cruises and logging operations were fascinating.

   Gennett's views of the long arm of Uncle Sam and issues regarding private property rights are still echoed today.

   I highly recommend to this book to anyone interested in the history of the Southern Appalchians, natural resource management, logging, or the American entreprenural spirit.

No comments about Ross Sterling, Texan: A Memoir by the Founder of Humble Oil and Refining Company.

5 comments about Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters; The Definitive Biography of the First American Billionaire.

1. Very interesting, depressing book. Can't help think about all the women that guy used. To say he got what he deserved is an understatement! Such a sick, manipulative man...Everyone he used, to get ahead, also deserved what they got! Such devotion to this man...and just for money!
   His eccentricities were amazing & made me want to wash my hands every time I put the book down. BUT....Do I have the only copy of this book where pages 325 to 348 were repeated? Then starting again, on page 373?
   Pretty dissapointing, with the Author the Publisher or BOTH! Would like to fine pages 349 to page 372!!!!!!!!!! Can anyone help?



2. "Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters", by Richard Hack, New Millennium Press, CA 2001. ISBN 1-893224-35-X, HC 444/391 pages includes Prologue 18 pgs., Source Notes etc., 35 pgs., Index 19 pgs., 35 B & W photos, 9 1/4" x 6 1/4".
   
   Hack, an established biographical writer is also a columnist. His profligate "Hughes" is an obvious work of love, having woven an intricately enmeshed & alive chronicled narrative composed of myriads of infinitesimal minutiae which unfold to reveal profound intimate particulars of a legendary uncommunicative man known for privacy, secrecy and excesses.
   
   The book's organization is superb, in some respects resembling that of "Citizen Kane" and beginning with a Prologue entitled "Death by Neglect" and followed by 20 chapters narrating Hughes' life, with a final chapter "And the Winner Is..." detailing his Will, the myriads of ludicrous & bizarre circumstances which ensued thereof, some obviously fraudulent. All in all, many rumors about Hughes are herein shown to have been on target, i.e. his need for absolute control, obsession with Hollywood's stars/starlets underaged or otherwise, secrecies & phobias; -- but the book's inestimable value is its exposition on his early childhood development, erratic education, circumstances behind his wealth & revealing unpropitious events shaping his bizarre lifestyle, including a misguided smothering maternal overprotectionism.
   
   We learn of his STD (Lues), OCD, microphobia, codeine & Valium addiction, recluse behavior and eventual demise. Surprising to everyone, the bulk of his estate per Will, as early as 1925 and again in 1938, provided for the charitable, Howard R. Hughes Medical Research Laboratories. While attending Harvard Medical School, I witnessed on two occasions Hughes' late night limo arrivals to PBBH for medical evaluation, learning only of a kidney ailment (medicinal) and appointment with Dr. G. Thorn then studying "electrocortin" (later renamed cortisone) and who also treated some Hollywood's stars with newly discovered 'cortisone'. This book is a treasure trove of intimacies once privy only to the FBI, CIA and sealed court testimony files. A very good, intimate and stimulating read, but lacking much detailed information on aerodynamics. Even an encounter with Amelia Earhart is noted for one of his speed trial events.



3. I've read several books on Howard Hughes, but this one by far is the best.
   
   Richard Hack really looks beneath the surface and into the very soul of Hughes, painting a disturbing yet realistic human portrait of him along the way.
   
   Highly recommended!



4. What a life Hughes Led! The author did a wonderful job of writng so that I couldn't put the book down. Hughes was the ultimate wheeler dealer. I felt sorry for him as a child with his parnoid mother who raised him to fear all illness. But when he grew up he had no excuse for his behavior in treatment of women. He was fortunate in business, always thinking in larger terms. This book was overall as interesting as Tutankhamun by Hoving; it was as thrilling as riding on a roller coaster driven by Hughes.



5. This book gives good insite on the life of Howard Hughes. If you are interested in specific information on business or aviation this may not be the book for you. But Howard Hughes was much more than business and aviation. He was a psychoanalyst dream. A very interesting case study in Obsessive Compulsive disorder also another overlooked aspect of his psyche was the relationship he had with women. He would sometimes keep women all over town on payroll to be on call at all times; these women would be on payroll for years sometimes perhaps outliving their best years (hollywood being youth orientated). Women he pursued who never showed interest were seen as conquest. Such as Ava Gardner who by her own definition could never love him because he smelled. However they remained lifelong friends. Yet interestingly when the women he was interested in were married he made it his personal problem to see that they got divorced to the extent of hiring private investigators and such. Howard could have also been considered a voyuer. He would hire investigators for the women he was interested in (some may not have been mutually interested) and spy on them to the point that bugs were planted in their bedrooms. Those who turned him down like Elizabeth Taylor (who was still a teenager were offered money. What is the saddest is his last years. You work your whole life so that you can enjoy your wealth in your golden years but for Howard his golden years consisted of self imposed imprisonment. This was a detriment because the people who were his true friends such as Dietrich (who was loyal and saved him from economic ruin many times)and his aunt Annette (who was there for him in his early years after his parents death)he kept away. So he was neglected at the end. Surrounded by people who never really cared about him just his money.

No comments about Industrial Genius: The Working Life of Charles Michael Schwab.

5 comments about Disney's World: A Biography.

1. I found "Disney's World: A Biography" very informative. New little known facts that I did not know. Leonard Mosley humanized Walt Disney, which isn't bad. Did not change my opinion of the great Walt Disney at all. His legacy will always be with us. A great man.



2. This book has a bit of a reputation is scholarly circles, an infamous one at that. This is due to the fact that many of the more sensational items have been exposed as inaccurate since its release by respected historians of our day such as John Canemaker, Paul Anderson, Disney family members, co-workers, and employees. Much of the true material in his book is in other books, but then he trots out some old negative rumors without citing their sources. Anonymous comments don't cut it in this type of book. No source documentation or supporting material is included to support his wild tale about cryogenics, an old red herring that has been proven false in recent times. He has a story about an attempted suicide that never occurred and he seems to tie it time-wise to the well documented nervous breakdown that Walt had at that age. Big difference.
   
   If you like books that bash famous people just for the sake of doing it, you may enjoy this. But for historic accuracy there are much more balanced biographies of Walt Disney available. I prefer to read a bio that is neither sugar-coated or harsh. This book is at one end of the spectrum, in my opinion using sensationalism to sell books. There are other books I would recommend in it's place. The Bob Thomas biography is considered by many to be the most accurate and complete available, and I highly recommend one of his other books, a bio of Roy Disney (Walt's business partner and brother). In Thomas's case he carefully documents and quotes all of his sources, who are reputable people that were there for the incident in question. Then he confirms that person's version with others and quotes them as well, in the normal journalistic process known as confirming and double checking. That is not too much to expect, but I didn't find it in the book for sale on this page.
   Some animators and studio employees have their own bio books that include some of their interactions with Walt Disney, like Shamus Culhane, Charles Show, Bill Peet, Ub Iwerks, or Harry Tytle. Roger Broggies son, Michael Broggie has a good book on Walt Disney's love for trains. These books take the time to include the interactions of identified people with Walt rather than some unnamed source. In these books I got the impression that Walt as a boss was a demanding perfectionist, a genius, but a human being. I can recommend a book about his personal philosophies he used in life in his own words, "Quotable Walt Disney", tracks over 30 years of his comments on just about everything. You can tell a lot about a person with their own words. Another book, "Remembering Walt: Memories of Walt Disney", with hundreds of direct quotes by people from all walks of life about their personal encounters with Walt. While the vast majority of the comments in that book were good memories, there are some bad ones too, but they were at least comments from people that were identified. In many ways your legacy in life is really in what people that knew you thought of you when you are gone and unable to defend yourself.
   I would also like to comment on this business of the author's negative criticism of Mr. Disney's relationship with his family, he was anything but a good family man, loving husband, and father . The comments in this book fly in the face of what Walt Disney's own daughters, his wife Lillian, brother Roy, and nephew Roy Jr. have all said about him. In all their characterizations he was a good family man, loving husband, and father. In summary, this book should be reclassified as fiction, but I don't recommend reading it to find out about the real man, Walt Disney.



3. The author either did very little research or just didn't care for the truth. He chose to present many rumours surrounding Walt Disney's name as facts. Mosley provides no source for his statements, other than to assert that Disney's "closest colleagues and advisers" were "confident" that Walt Disney "eventually became convinced of cryogenesis as a viable medical process and was persuaded that, even in 1966, it was possible for a human being to have himself brought back to life after death". In fact, these "close colleagues" of Disney's turned out to be a few employees on the periphery of the Disney organization who had never spoken to Walt about cryonics, and were merely repeating the same decades-old rumor for Mosley's benefit.



4. This is a great biography of Walt Disney, and in many ways it is similar to Bob Thomas's biography "Disney: An American Original." Both books emphasize Walt's early Midwest childhood, his strict father and good-natured mother, and his experience in WWI in shaping the young man he became. The two biographies are different in their perceptions of Disney, and it could make a difference for you, dear reader, regarding which one you want to read first.

   I would describe Mosley's biography as "more realistic" than Thomas's, but I would say that Bob Thomas's was more inspiring to read. Mosley doesn't hesitate to describe Walt as an ill-tempered ringleader who suffered from emotional instability in his early adulthood, whereas Bob Thomas's portrays such behavior in a more favorable light and seems to grant that it is the stuff of genius. One very clear example: Mosley describes Walt's suicide attempt at 31 where Lillian Disney found her husband out cold with sleeping pills and booze, called a doctor, and had Walt's stomach pumped. In Bob Thomas's book, there is no mention of this incident whatsoever.

   Both books describe Disney as an inspiration to the people around him, but I think Mosley's goes more in-depth into Walt's character and describes more thoroughly some of the difficulties associated with working with him. What Mosley describes as "overbearing," Thomas would call "entrepreneurial." What Mosley would call "unstable," Bob Thomas would call "emotionally invigorating." The point is: the subject is the same; it's the perception of the subject that's different in the two biographies.

   I think both do a great service to the world in representing quite possibly the most influential voice in 20th century entertainment. It's a fascinating reading, and it will excite you to explore your own creativity. Walt Disney was a man that would risk everything to make people laugh, to entertain, to push the medium of film, cartoons, and theme parks to a level unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. He truly was an inspiration, and, of course, I hope this review is helpful to you!

   Stacey Cochran




5. Walt Disney's name has become a household word. Wholesome entertainment and DisneyLand and Disney World come to mind. This book is a well rounded look at the man. Neither Saint nor Sinner this book sees Walt as a well rounded human being. Many pictures are included. Many celebrities were interviewed including Hayley Mills. The book seems to be well documented and is quite interesting..

5 comments about After the Ball: Gilded Age Secrets, Boardroom Betrayals, and the Party That Ignited the Great Wall Street Scandal of 1905.

1. Historians of the Progressive Era will appreciate this biographical sketch of Henry Hyde and the founding of the Equitable Assurance Co. during the latter nineteenth-century. In a period of liberal corporate empire building by Hyde, Morgan, Biltmore, et al., Patricia Beard profiles the Hyde's desire to establish a "sacred trust" life insurance company for investors and policyholders. As the author notes in her sub-title, that trust was riddled with financial scandal and power brokering. Henry Hyde's heir apparent, James, is cited as a flamboyant, underachieving vice-president of the company and ridiculed for a wasteful spending ball in 1905. In truth James Hyde's rivals Alexander and Harriman are the true culprits of the Equitable's indebtedness when they establish trusts with railroad magnates and wealthy stockbrokers.
   Some highlights of the book that readers might find interesting are Charles Evans Hughes establishment of anti-trust legislation as governor of New York which set the foundation for the Armstrong Commission and contemporary rules of conduct, for corporations. Biographical profiles of the Hyde family covers James' early proficiency at coach racing to his son Henry's "exact" purpose in life while he served in the OSS during World War II. Future reviewers may speculate about why James did not heed a lesson from the famous Bradley-Martin Ball (1897) which caused those families embarrassment and exiile. Perhaps the implicit meaning of the word "Gilded" is appropriate here in that the thin layer of ornamentation that covered the rich and haughty was only a cover-up for their flawed character.
   Overall, Patricia Beard does a fine job proving the primary sources she uncovered in newspapers and family correspondence. She writes with the narrative style of Barbara Tuchman and her personal encounters with Henry Jr. and surviving members of the Hyde lineage adds panache. A good read for history book discussion clubs and perhaps a welcome addition to business history curriculums.



2. "After the Ball" is a biography of James Hazen Hyde (1876-1959), Gilded Age aesthete, sportsman, patron of the arts and heir to the majority shares in The Equitable Life Assurance Society, which his father Henry Baldwin Hyde had founded in 1859. The emphasis is on the decisive event of James' life: His battle to retain control of his father's company that played out over the course of 1905 against Equitable's president James Waddell Alexander and its ruthlessly ambitious 2nd vice president Gage Tarbell. That battle commanded 115 front page articles in "The New York Times" alone and resulted in the passage of New York's Armstrong Laws in an attempt to regulate the insurance industry. Author Patricia Beard knew James Hyde's only son Henry Hyde -Henry was godfather to her son- which explains the late chapter dedicated to Henry Hyde's life.
   
   James Hyde became the majority shareholder in The Equitable at the age of 23 upon his father's death in 1899. Henry B. Hyde had planned that his son serve as 1st vice president under the tutelage of James Alexander before assuming the role of company president at age 30. But Henry had ill prepared his son for the murky realities and unbridled ambitions of the business world. And James was ill-suited to the job, being by nature a man of arts and letters and high society. James idolized his father and took his legacy seriously but didn't understand his responsibilities until it was too late. In 1905, frustrated by James' ability as majority shareholder to stifle his plans for the Society, unscrupulous, dogged Gage Tarbell recruited malleable and unstable James Alexander as his ally and launched a campaign to force The Equitable to mutualize (give shareholders voting rights) with the intent of ousting James. They expected James to resign, sell his stock, and move to France. Instead, he put up a fight.
   
   "After the Ball" provides a blow-by-blow account of The Equitable crisis and the attempts to resolve it, from James Hyde's lavish 18th century France-themed ball in January 1905 until his self-imposed exile in France a year later. Although it occasionally bogs down in minutiae, the battle for The Equitable is a page-turner. Histories of Henry B. Hyde, The Equitable, James' later life in Paris and New York, and his son's service in the OSS during World War II bookend the drama. Prominent industrialists and financiers from Wall Street's boom years of the 1890s-1920s are the cast, and The Gilded Age itself is a character. James' flamboyance, active social life, and ostentatious wealth exemplified the ideals of the era. He was praised for successfully juggling his business, social, and artistic pursuits. But he couldn't. "After the Ball" is the story of a doting father who gave his son an empire but neglected to teach him how to rule for fear that his image would be tarnished in the boy's eyes. It's the story of a son who inherited great wealth and power but little motivation to comprehend or exploit them and so fell victim to those more willing.



3. Well-written, interesting and sheds new light on a long-forgotten subject. The author has the gift of understanding and writing well about both Gilded Age high society and finance, and uses her gift to good advantage. Occasionally the inner manueverings in the Equitable drag a bit, but this is a hardly noticeable defect. Five stars +; buy and and read it with enjoyment.



4. 
   This is a well presented and gripping account of the clash of the titans of industry of a century ago. It shows them in their true, unsavory, colors, albeit a tad muted....
   
   We find the anything-but-poor, yet unsuspecting Mr. Hyde (heir in his 20s to the Equitable Insurance fortune) shaken from his elite complacency and thrust into the eye of a storm that is kept stirred by the machinations of Equitable board member Henry Clay Frick, one of the more amazing and alarming capitalists from Pittsburgh's steel days.
   
   In a bid to oust Hyde from control of the mega-insurance concern that his father founded with wit, skill and sleight of hand, Frick engineers a negative publicity juggernaut that calls Hyde's personal financial ethics into question and ends up in the courts. The Equitable goes into receivership-with some luminaries like George Westinghouse in temporary control-until, beset by the scandal, Hyde sells out, shakes the dust off of his well-heeled shoes, and departs for Pre-World War I Paris. He remains a Francophile expatriate for the remainder of his days.
   
   There is more to the story and some of it is here, and well worth the reader's time and attention, especially since Ms Beard had access to some privately held family papers and files that cast the story in a Schubert pink spotlight, with few shadows. The author, a personal friend of Hyde's granddaughters and a member of the same giltetry social set, goes easy on some of the tale. What is left on the cutting room floor is even more fascinating than what made it into this book.
   
   For, shadows there are, and there is oh so much more of the story to be told, ranging from the Johnstown Flood (this family is connected to the infamous South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club) to the crafty ire of Mr. Frick's European counterpart, the equally effective and furiously ambitious harridan, the Archduchess Isabella of Austria-Hungary (again, an extended family connection).
   
   What a yarn and all of it, true!
   
   Perhaps Miss Beard will muster the courage to follow up this book with a prequel about Mr. Frick's very similar, skillful machinations regarding Mr. Hyde's future father-in-law, and a sequel that more fully addresses the irony of World History that found Mr. Hyde's son among two generations of this extended family who served diligently, on both sides of W W I and W W II, some as top level spies. Then again, perhaps not.
   
   But if not, one hopes that other historians might take note, there is so much more to be told! This is a real life E Phillips Oppenheim novel. It would find as its centerpiece, Hyde's father-in-law, a rags to riches success - an orphan who rose to the top of the tree, on both sides of the Atlantic and who had his hands in many a pie, industrial and diplomatic....
   
   Now...The only question is: Who will be the first to tell it?
   
   Perhaps Martha Sanger, or Teresa Carpenter or Les Standiford or - of course - the incomparable David McCullough!
   
   If you find this review helpful you might want to read some of my other reviews, including those on subjects ranging from biography to architecture, as well as religion and fiction.



5. "After the Fall," Patricia Beard's clear-eyed look into the excesses at the tag end of the Gilded Age, focuses around a costume party thrown in 1905 by then 23-year-old James Hazen Hyde, who was expected to accede to the presidecy of the Equitable Life Insurance Company when he turned thirty.
   
   It never happened. Instead his enemies, in the company and outside it, used the ball as an excuse to start a power play that would bring him down. As sometimes happens, however, they brought themselves down as well.
   
   The book is almost like a musical comedy in structure. The title is somewhat misleading as the ball itself comes in the middle of the book (imagine the ball as the big production number that brings the curtain down on act one). It begins with James's father, Henry, skips quickly through James's adolescence and early manhood (there'll be a production number having to do with James's hobby, racing horsedrawn carriages), the premature death of his father, and his rise to the first vice presidency of the insurance company, where, or so his father had hoped, he would be tutored by the interim president, James W. Alexander, who was nearing retirement age.
   
   When the curtain rises on act 2, you will encounter an array of schemers, some driven almost batty as they struggle for power, and a parade of the gilded age financiers, J. P. Morgan, E. H. Harriman, Henry Clay Frick, and James Fortune Ryan, as well as President Theodore Roosevelt, ex-President Grover Cleveland, and Charles Evans Hughes, who would some day be, thanks largely to his investigation of the scandal, Chief Justice of the United States.
   
   You'll maybe hear patter songs in your head as the robber barons form committees, make deals, break deals, and leak their doings to the press, as they scheme to acquire the faltering company for themselves.
   
   And when the curtain comes down on the tale as the chastened but hardly impoverished Hyde leaves for France--saying his goodbyes aboard the ship that's about to sail perhaps--it comes down, as well, on the Gilded Age itself.
   
   Notes and asides: The afterword, about Hyde's later life and that of his son, who was in the OSS during WWII should not be skipped.

5 comments about The Silicon Boys: And Their Valley of Dreams.

1. "The Silicon Boys: And Their Valley Of Dreams" by David A. Kaplan is amazing. It tells of so many amazing stories of how technology has advanced so far, and of the people and companies that helped it happen. One great story is how MS-DOS beat out the CP/M operating system in the early days of computing. Another intriguing story told in this book is the rise and fall of Netscape, which was, at one point in time, the world's leading web browser software, and had an amazing history with its stock price. There is also a very interesting chapter in this book about the "KT Fund" which is now a prestigious and very successful investment fund that has many very wealthy people investing in it, such as Bill Gates, Steve Wozniac, Paul Allens, and more. A good read, though a little fast because you cannot put it down! Overall, I recommend this book strongly.



2. I believe this is the only book I have ever literally thrown across the room. Where to begin describing its offensiveness? Let's see....It purports to be about Silicon Valley (I think)and yet completely misses the point of the place. Silicon Valley did not become the place it did because wealthy VCs attended charity events and had breakfast at Buck's. It was a great deal of study and hard work that got us here -- topics clearly far beyond Kaplan's breezy competence.
   
   People who admire Paris Hilton will probably like this book, too. It's pitched to her level.



3. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from beginning to end. For anyone interested in the culture of Silcion Valley it is a must read. Yes, as other reviewers pointed out it jumps around quite a bit. Both in terms of pace and interest. However, taken as a whole it provides exciting stories of busines, personal flare, finance, and technology. A good read for anyone with at least a vague interest in the subject matter.



4. "The Silicon Boys and Their Valley of Dreams" is a well written description of Silicon Valley at it's peak. It describes the culture of the valley during the nineties. It is an interesting peek into the a world of driven software developers and venture capitalists and everyone else in their galaxies. It focuses on companies and names we've all heard of: Apple, Oracle, Netscape, Microsoft, Intel, and many more. For anyone in the technology industry, this book is a good window onto the 90s - pre dotcom mania.



5. This was one of the best Silly Valley stories I've read yet. Kaplan does a very good job offering a historical and chronological storyline that educates the reader while holding interest. Hence an educational book that also happens to be very unique and authentic.