Book Reviews
Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford’s The Phoenix Project isn’t your typical business book. Wrapped in a captivating work of fiction, it tackles the complex realities of IT and DevOps, offering valuable insights for anyone involved in the technology realm, regardless of their specific role. The story follows Bill Palmer, a seasoned IT manager…
From respected historian John S. D. Eisenhower comes a surprising portrait of William Tecumseh Sherman, the Civil War general whose path of destruction cut the Confederacy in two, broke the will of the Southern population, and earned him a place in history as the first modern general. Yet behind his reputation as a fierce warrior was a sympathetic man of complex character. A century and a half after the Civil War, Sherman remains one of its most controversial figures – the soldier who brought the fight not only to the Confederate Army, but to Confederate civilians as well. Yet Eisenhower, a West Point graduate and a retired brigadier general (Army Reserves), finds in Sherman a man of startling contrasts, not at all defined by the implications of total war. His scruffy, disheveled appearance belied an unconventional and unyielding intellect. Intensely loyal to superior officers, especially Ulysses S. Grant, he was also a stalwart individualist. Confident enough to make demands face-to-face with President Lincoln, he sympathetically listened to the problems of newly freed slaves on his famed march from Atlanta to Savannah. Dubbed no soldier during his years at West Point, Sherman later rose to the rank of General of the Army, and though deeply committed to the Union cause, he held the people of the South in great affection. In this remarkable reassessment of Sherman’s life and career, Eisenhower takes readers from Sherman’s Ohio origins and his fledgling first stint in the Army, to his years as a businessman in California and his hurried return to uniform at the outbreak of the war. From Bull Run through Sherman’s epic March to the Sea, Eisenhower offers up a fascinating narrative of a military genius whose influence helped preserve the Union – and forever changed war.
Daniel Suarezs New York Times best-selling debut high-tech thriller is “so frightening even the government has taken note” (Entertainment Weekly). Daemons: computer programs that silently run in the background, waiting for a specific event or time to execute. They power almost every service. They make our networked world possible. But they also make it vulnerable…. When the obituary of legendary computer game architect Matthew Sobol appears online, a previously dormant daemon activates, initiating a chain of events that begins to unravel our interconnected world. This daemon reads news headlines, recruits human followers, and orders assassinations. With Sobol’s secrets buried with him, and as new layers of his daemon are unleashed, it’s up to Detective Peter Sebeck to stop a self-replicating virtual killer before it achieves its ultimate purpose – one that goes far beyond anything Sebeck could have imagined….
If you had the opportunity to work where, when, and with whom you wanted – all while getting paid very well – would you take it? Self-made multimillionaire and best-selling author Michael Masterson did, and with Ready, Fire, Aim hell show you how to do the same. Whether youre thinking about starting a new business or growing an existing one, Ready, Fire, Aim has what you need to succeed in your entrepreneurial endeavors. In it, Masterson shares the knowledge he has gained from creating and expanding numerous businesses and outlines a focused strategy for guiding a small business through the four stages of entrepreneurial growth. Along the way, youll learn the skills needed to succeed in this dynamic environment. Discover how to: Start a business from scratch and make it profitable quickly Keep a growing business growing Get other people to do almost all the hard work for you, so you are free to do the fun stuff Position yourself as an indispensable business builder, so you can enjoy a big share of the profits – even if you are only working part time Duplicate your winning strategy in several businesses so you never have to worry about needing any one of them. Over the course of his remarkably successful career, Masterson has developed dozens of businesses, including one still growing at $300 million. Now he shows you how to outsell your competitors by implementing innovative operational procedures to reduce costs and using the power of the Internet to reduce customer complaints and increase profits.
The propulsive, shockingly plausible sequel to New York Times best seller Daemon. In one of the most buzzed-about debuts, Daniel Suarez introduced a terrifying vision of a new world order, controlled by the Daemon, an insidious computer program unleashed by a hi-tech wunderkind. Daemon captured the attention of the tech community, became a New York Times and Indie best seller, and left listeners hungry for more. Well, more is here, and it’s even more gripping than its predecessor. In the opening chapters of Freedom, the Daemon is firmly in control, using an expanded network of real-world, dispossessed darknet operatives to tear apart civilization and rebuild it anew. Soon civil war breaks out in the American Midwest, in a brutal wave of violence that becomes known as the Corn Rebellion. Former detective Pete Sebeck, now the Daemon’s most powerful – though reluctant – operative, must lead a small band of enlightened humans toward a populist movement designed to protect the new world order. But the private armies of global business are preparing to crush the Daemon once and for all. In a world of conflicted loyalties, rapidly diminishing human power, and the possibility that anyone can be a spy, what’s at stake is nothing less than human freedom’s last hope to survive the technology revolution.
I strongly urge you to read The Dao of Capital; even though the journey is a long one, it’ll be worth your time because of the distinctive perspective. It provides a much-needed fresh insight into the world of capital, and it helps to provide a broader context for understanding how things like globalization and technology…
