A Wealth of Common Sense, by Ben Carlson

Mr. Carlson's book is intended to convince investors that simplicity trumps complexity. It is a fast read, and for folks who are well read on the topic there isn't much new news. For those who are trying to figure out how to manage investments, or if it is worth paying an investment firm a significant percentage of their assets for expert advice, this book can provide substantial value.

The net net messages are: most of the expert advice you might pay for is not, in the long term, all that useful. You should buy and hold (if you aren't likely to need the cash flow for several years) in the least expensive asset vehicles (e.g., ETFs). Don't sell just because the market crashed (it simply locks in your losses); ride it back up over the next few years.  Etc.

If Wes Gray's "DIY Financial Advisor" (which I highly recommend) is the advanced college class on getting the best results for the least cost and effort, then Mr. Carlson's book is the "investing 101" course on the topic.  For the right person, it will return value far in excess of the cost.

The Explorers Guild: Volume One: A Passage to Shambhala, by Jon Baird

I really wanted to enjoy reading this book. I like the concept: an old-fashioned adventure novel. I like that the book intersperses panels of graphic novel into the text. I like that it feels written a hundred years ago and yet current.  I like the writing style with its rich and textured tone.

I'm not crazy about it being set in the late 1910's. But I do like the concept of searching for the mysterious city Shambhala.

You know at this point that there's a "but" coming your way. Here it is: but I just couldn't read this book. I made it to page 363 out of 763, not even half-way through. And I realized that I just do not care about what happens next.

I wasn't even curious enough to skip to the back pages to see what happened at the end.

For the right reader, this might be a fabulous story. Alas, not for me.

The Explorers Guild

Six of Crows, by Leigh Bardugo

You'll want to read this book.

You'll want to read it because all your friends will have read it at some point, and because it will become a movie, and everyone will talk about it.

But mostly, you'll want to read it because it is just quite good.

But my label says, "fiction / suspense / fantasy." What's up with this fantasy thing?  What if you're not a "fantasy novel, unicorns and X-men" kind of person? Not to worry. The novel's setting is a different place than ours and also features folks with odd powers. But that's not really the story, or at least not all of it. Mostly it is the setting, and after just a few pages you won't notice that there are oddities here.  The story is about love and honor, revenge and greed, and the complex plot twists that amuse a reader.

It is just super fun; really a wonderful novel.  And great news: there will be a sequel!


Six of Crows

We Learn Nothing, by Tim Kreider

I must become more particular concerning taking advice about books to read. Case in point: Mr. Kreider's collection of essays. One was insightful: "Lazy: a manifesto" does a good job arguing against over-scheduling one's time, and that the phrase "I'm so busy" is nothing about which to be proud.

Mr. Kreider is also a cartoonist. I'd not known that. Had I seen his drawings first, I'd not have read the book; I enjoy them even less than his writing.

There's a blurb on the cover of the paperback edition of this book. Judd Apatow (whose movies I don't love, so wasted on me, but still...) exclaims: "Heartbreaking, brutal, and hilarious." Bah, it was none of the above.


We Learn Nothing: Essays

Little Sister, by Giles O'Bryen

What a quirky little spy novel! The hero is the typically absurd brilliant PhD inventor slash special forces operator now retired and causing stress for the British secret service. The spy masters are believably cast as venal. A prototype device that enables heretofore unimagined levels of surveillance was mistakenly sold to an arms dealer, and our hero goes after it on his own in the clumsiest of ways. Meanwhile, the sales placement person who organized the deal also goes after it, hoping to sell it at a profit to the US NSA. Nothing goes well.

It was a pretty good novel, but not great. If you see it on the sales rack, pick it up for a long airplane ride or for the next time you're in a doctor's waiting room.

Little Sister (A James Palatine Novel Book 1)

End Game, by John Gilstrap

This is another novel starring Jonathan Graves as a wealthy special forces type, now in private security, focused on helping kidnap victims.  It was good, held my attention, but... was awfully complex in terms of communicating its complicated plot lines effectively.  It isn't his best work. Still, I'll keep reading Mr. Gilstrap's novels.


End Game (A Jonathan Grave Thriller Book 6)

The New Strategic Selling, by Robert Miller

This book addresses complex sales situations: where many approvals to purchase may be required, where there's a complex power base at your client's shop that must be navigated. It is not about how to close a deal so much as how to pursue a deal.

I found the book to be moderately interesting but long: it would have been better at half the pages.


The New Strategic Selling: The Unique Sales System Proven Successful by the World's Best Companies

The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield

This little book comprises three littler books, each of which would make for a fine magazine article. The first identifies "resistance" -- the underlying energy sucking force that is behind procrastination and failure to attempt. The second is about fighting resistance, mostly through accepting oneself as a professional versus amateur at whatever it is one wants to accomplish. The last is least clear to me, about allowing one's muse to guide one artistically.

This is absolutely worth reading for free. It probably is worth reading at deep discount.


The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

The Girl in the Spider's Web, by David Lagercrantz

In 2005 Stieg Larsson died of a heart attack, leaving behind three novels that were published after his death, beginning with "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."  I wasn't a big fan of his second book, but quite enjoyed his last.

Mr. Lagercrantz, like Mr. Larsson a Swedish author and journalist, has chosen to continue the series of books. So this one features the characters and settings of Mr. Larsson's.

So how did he do at it? Just okay. It is an interesting book, and the writing was fine. But that's it; if he continues to write in this series, I will not bother to read it. What's over is over; the excitement and energy that Mr. Larsson managed to imbue in (at least two of) his books has not been replicated here.

The Girl in the Spider's Web: A Lisbeth Salander novel, continuing Stieg Larsson's Millennium Series

Orphan X, by Gregg Hurwitz

I've been a fan of Lee Childs' "Jack Reacher" character, but after 20 novels, that hero is getting a bit worn out. David Baldacci stepped in to fill the void with his "John Puller" series, and while one could accuse Mr. Baldacci of a blatant rip off of Jack Reacher, his books are pretty good. In "Orphan X," Mr. Hurwitz provides a really interesting character that is far from a clone of Reacher or Puller but fits in the same genre. Our hero, Evan Smoak, similarly helps out people who are in trouble. But he's definitely his own character.

The back story on Smoak is his having been recruited as a child to be trained to become a government assassin. He left that role when his orders began to confound him, and having stashed away plenty of money, is able to make helping others a full time hobby.

The plot was interesting, the character development solid in general and very good in terms of setting up Smoak as a hero one will want to follow through future novels.