B-rad's blog

Working Backwards: Insights, Stories and Secrets from Inside Amazon by Colin Bryar & Bill Carr

My Rating of “Working Backwards: Insights, Stories and Secrets from Inside Amazon” by Colin Bryar & Bill Carr: 10 / 10 There are plenty of people that sit on the edge of their seats waiting for the next Letter to Shareholders from Jeff Bezos. The same could be said for Warren Buffet. Learning about how an organisation thinks, acts and manages is facilitating. It’s why Working Backwards is one of…

Queen of the World: Elizabeth II: Sovereign and Stateswoman by Robert Hardman

My Rating of “Queen of the World: Elizabeth II: Sovereign and Stateswoman” by Robert Hardman: 9 / 10 Let me put this straight out there that I’m a royalist. I blame my Mum for this. My brother and I grew up watching the royal weddings and tuning into the yearly Christmas message from the Queen. I’ve even had the opportunity to sing for the Queen when I was a young choirboy; however that is…

The Practice: Shipping Creative Work by Seth Godin

My Rating of “The Practice: Shipping Creative Work” by Seth Godin: 8 / 10 After reading (and reviewing) a few books by Seth Godin I can’t help but think that they are an extension of his daily blog (URL). Godin’s written wisdom is endless. He leaves you thinking for hours at a time on the implication of his ideas within your world. That’s essentially the problem Godin tries to solve with this…

Being Mortal: Medicine and what matters at the end by Atul Gawande

My Rating of “Being Mortal: Medicine and what matters at the end” by Atul Gawande: 9 / 10 “In the past few decades, medical science has rendered obsolete centuries of experience, tradition, and language about our mortality and created a new difficulty for mankind: how to die.” — Atul Gawande Recently I flew back home to Australia to be with my family. Unfortunately within a period of six months…

Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility by James Carse

My Rating of “Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility” by James Carse: 8 / 10 This is the kind of book that either a reader will thoroughly enjoy or come out hating. Many reviews I’ve read from other readers certainly prove this theory. The reason is due to the topic itself and how deep Carse takes it. We all play games – mostly in the finite realm. Yet Carse takes…

Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline

My Rating of “Ready Player Two” by Ernest Cline: 6 / 10 The release of Ready Player Two was certainly a surprise to me. The first book, Ready Player One, is one of my favourite fictional reads. It is hard to find books like that which I cannot put down. Between the release of this book and the first one, Hollywood adapted Ready Player One into a movie. It was directed by Steven Spielberg and…

Thicker Than Water by Tyler Schultz

My Rating of “Thicker Than Water” by Tyler Schultz: 7 / 10 The exposure of Theranos is a great case study for technology start-ups, company culture curation and board of director governance. It’s a case study that I keep referring back to. I originally read Bad Blood by Jon Carreyrou in early 2019 (my review is here). Next I watched the HBO Documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon…

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

My Rating of “A Promised Land” by Barack Obama: 9 / 10

A promised land is a book I’ve been looking forward to reading. I heard about its pending release a few years ago and as per usual Obama took his time to finish and publish. Perhaps the timing was on purpose given the election period? Either way it was a nice review of his career as a fundraiser, politician and president – especially…

Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto

My Rating of “Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle” by Tom Venuto: 7 / 10

One of my favourite discoveries this year is the ability to share audio to multiple sets headphones (e.g. headphones). This meant that my wife and I can listen to the same audiobook at the same time. We are both passionate when it comes to health. She suggested listening to this book (it was the second time for her) given she…

The Millennial Money Mindset by Neil Doig

My Rating of “The Millennial Money Mindset” by Neil Doig: 8 / 10

2020 has been a turbulent year for many people. Job security, health, access to family/friends and finances are some of the issues our population is dealing with. Neil Doig’s The Millennial Money Mindset book is a timely release given how much the world has changed since 2019. Its purpose is to help millennials think differently…

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson

My Rating of “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant” by Eric Jorgenson: 10 / 10

It’s not often that I rate a book ten out of ten. Yet this Almanack isn’t really a book in its true sense. Rather, it is a collection/transcription of Naval Ravikant tweets, podcasts and interviews. Over the years Naval has dispensed his learnings, wisdom and perspective on all things wealth and happiness. The best part…

Battle of Brothers: William and Harry (The Inside Story of a Family in Tumult) by Robert Lacey

My Rating of “Battle of Brothers: William and Harry (The Inside Story of a Family in Tumult)” by Robert Lacey: 6 / 10

Let’s be clear that this book is not the typical memoir / biography I would read. It’s a somewhat “trashy” book that will get the reader up to date on all Royal Family current affairs. The title does say it all!

What I liked about this book is that it provides the history…

The Craft: How the Freemasons Made the Modern World by John Dickie

My Rating of “The Craft: How the Freemasons Made the Modern World” by John Dickie: 6 / 10

The history of Freemasonry has never been on the top of my priority list. It wasn’t until I had to help my Mum move house while in Australia this year. She cleared through a lot of clothing and came across my Grandfather’s mason apron.

This book was released around the same time and therefore perfect…

The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III by Peter Baker

My Rating of “The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III” by Peter Baker: 8 / 10

The Man Who Ran Washington was an unexpected book – given its release just before the 2020 Presidential election. James A Baker has both written multiple biographies and others have written about his career. Yet this one is relevant as it wraps up in a bow a holistic and open view on…

The Smartest Guys In The Room by Bethany McLean

My Rating of “The Smartest Guys In The Room” by Bethany McLean: 7 / 10

The Smartest Guys in the Room is one of those books (and documentaries) that everyone in business should read. For example, Drucker writes consistently that businesses are created for the customer; it’s not created to make a profit. Here is a classic modern day case of greed that manifests in a crisis that hit the US very…

Undaunted: My Fight Against America’s Enemies, at Home and Abroad by John O. Brennan

My Rating of “Undaunted: My Fight Against America’s Enemies, at Home and Abroad” by John O. Brennan: 8 / 10

Recently I’ve been picking up political and government biographies. For example Churchill, MBSetc. have been a couple of political biographies this year I have reviewed. John Brennan’s book “Undaunted” happened to be next one on my list. All political biographies typically follow the…

FIber Fueled by Will Bulsiewicz

My Rating of “FIber Fueled” by Will Bulsiewicz: 9 / 10

Over the years I’ve read many health books more nutritionally focused. Whether its paleo, keto or fasting related I’ve kept up to date on the latest and greatest in wellbeing. With that said, it is always exciting when you pick up a book that results in many ah-huh moments!

Fiber Fueled is one such book. I’m a big believer of gut…