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A truly important book with one problem

Revisado: 05-05-22

The book was everything I had expected it to be. Excellent. However, how is it possible that no one thought to provide the narrator with phonetic spellings of the Chinese names? It’s not his fault but the pronunciations were awful and that is just inexcusable forgot a book like this in the day and age. It was so distracting to hear each Chinese name mispronounced to the point of absurdity. Again, I don’t blame the narrator rather it’s the publisher and producer who somehow think this is OK which is disappointing.

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Interesting but naive conclusions

Revisado: 08-24-17

The author could not have foreseen how Donald Trump would undermine pretty much everyone one of the proposals for a strong U.S. role in Asia. That said, I cringed a bit when the author sees the U.S. political mode as the world's role model which is laughable today. Had the author brought in more diverse points of view in the conclusion rather than such a Washington centric point of view the book would have far more compelling.

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Underwhelming.

Revisado: 03-14-17

Would you try another book from Sydney Finkelstein and/or Mel Foster?

No. I was disappointed in their findings as I had wanted to hear more about how Superbosses truly manage their companies rather than anecdotes about how wonderful it is to be the select few proteges. I also think the author was not critical enough of their subjects. For example, both Larry Ellison and Hillary Clinton are extremely controversial leaders and all we got was how everything they do is great great great. For Clinton, the authors talked about how the loyalty built up over years created a huge asset for the former Secretary of State whereas others could have seen this as a liability because she did not venture out of her circle for talent. The book was too rah rah rah about these Superbosses and did not offer a well-rounded view of their performance.

Has Superbosses turned you off from other books in this genre?

No. Not at all, however I will not read another from this author.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Throughout the book I was always left feeling like I wanted more. More precision. More nuance. More practical, actionable information that I could apply to my own management style. I kept thinking that the author is clearly an academic who has not actually spent much time working in a corporate environment because he seemed to be awed by the grandeur of the corner office rather than the real challenge in leading complex organizations and how the Superboss mystique can filter down throughout the entire company structure rather than just among a circle of elite aides.

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A truly wonderful listening experience

Revisado: 03-08-16

Every so often a book comes into your life that totally changes your worldview and understanding of a particular issue. This is one of those books. The title is absolutely befitting of the history as it was laid out by the author: truly "the half that has never been told." It is misleading to suggest this book is about African-American history. It is American history. Our history.

This was a truly wonderful listening experience. I can't recommend it enough.

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Indispensable reading

Revisado: 06-09-15

This is one of those rare books that can change so much about how you think about a topic as complex as Africa. Burgis did an excellent job of covering a broad swath of the continent without falling in to the usual traps of stereotypes and overs simplification that plague so many other authors. His insights on Sam Pa and the growing Chinese role in the "Looting Machine" was particularly interesting.

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Interesting book (except for last chapter)

Revisado: 04-17-15

What did you love best about The End of Copycat China?

Rein has a lot of very compelling anecdotes and insights from his years of market research that are very engaging and informative.

Any additional comments?

While the author's insights into the Chinese market are invaluable, he is clearly out of his comfort zone when he went abroad in the last chapter to talk about China's relations with SE Asia. It is painfully obvious that he lacks the background to speak competently on Sino-Vietnamese, Cambodian and Filipino relations. Take his description of the US relationship with Vietnam as "rocky." That is so far off it's laughable. Moreover, he greatly misread the importance of the 2014 anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam. Ultimately, I don't hold this against him as I know it's not his expertise which is why I highly recommend the book up until the last chapter.

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Mind opening on so many different levels

Revisado: 03-23-15

Would you listen to Ghettoside again? Why?

Absolutely. Levy's writing style was so smooth that it was hard to put down and stop listening.

What other book might you compare Ghettoside to and why?

I kept thinking about The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander while I listened to Ghettoside. The two books share a lot of common themes.

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Good but not great

Revisado: 07-27-14

What did you like best about The Last Magazine? What did you like least?

The media narrative was a lot of fun. It really highlighted just how mediocre so many people are within this business (I speak as a 25+ year news veteran) and how arrogant the legacy media was to the surging threat of online news.

What was most disappointing about Michael Hastings’s story?

The repetition of graphic sex really became a distraction towards the end of the book. Don't get me wrong, I am not a prude but from a narrative point of view it was just too much. OK, we get that one of the central characters has a messed up sex life but I would have much rather Hastings focused more of the story on the media side rather than Peoria's sexual fetishes.

What about Ramiz Monsef’s performance did you like?

10 years of listening to Audible books and no one comes even close to Ramiz Monsef's performance. He is amazing!

Did The Last Magazine inspire you to do anything?

No. I struggled to get through it. I really felt it needed a better editor to slim it down a bit and drive the story forward with a bit more focus.

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Simplistic and awful

Revisado: 06-14-13

Would you try another book from Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen and/or Roger Wayne?

This was a huge disappointment. I had big expectations when I first began listening to the book and then one "imagine one day in the future" after another really began to grate on me. After listening to the entire book it was readily apparent that the authors engaged in little more than a thinly veiled infomercial for Google while avoid so many of the complexities that come with our lives' data now living both on Google's servers and in the cloud in general. For anyone who has even a basic understand of global technology issues, this book will likely seem underwhelming.

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Moyo's writing is excellent, narrator is terrible

Revisado: 07-17-12

What made the experience of listening to Winner Take All the most enjoyable?

Moyo is explaining an incredibly important trend. She bases her argument in fact and avoids the oft used cliches that are so common to this issue.

Would you be willing to try another one of Ken Perlstein’s performances?

My critique is not personal to Ken but his delivery was not up the usual standard at Audible. He read in a such a halting manner that it really did interfere with the book. I am so disappointed with this purchase because of the difficulties I had following the narrator.

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