Changes in the Land, by William Cronon

Finished end of Feb 2012.
Excellent read on a different than usual topic about the interactions between New England's colonists & the native people, fauna & flora. Also discusses the change Native Americans themselves made on the land & how the European settlers took advantage & made further changes. Some fascinating voices from that period are included as well as the author's non-judgemental arguments about the reasons & results of the transition from native to colonial. Consequently many of the descriptions were particularly vivid & have made me view the landscape in which I now live through newly updated eyes.
4/5.

Professional Team Foundation Server 2010, by Ed Blankenship, MartinWoodward, Grant Holliday, Brian Keller

Finished end of Feb 2012.
Thorough treatment of Microsoft's TFS & how to administer it for maximum benefit. It includes from how to install it down to creating customised work item templates. Although obviously 100% technical the book was structured in such a way it wasn't overly boring, & after completing it I was felt confident enough in the knowledge it had given me to consider taking the Microsoft administrators exam. 4/5.

Leadership Insights: 15 Unique Perspectives on Effective Leadership, by Various

Another Harvard Business Review article collection about leadership & management, with results of various studies over the years & tips on how to apply the theory to practical situations:

• The Manager's Job, by Henry Mintzberg Managers & Leaders: Are They Different?, by Abraham Zaleznik.
• What Leaders Really Do, by John P. Kotter What Makes a Leader?, by Daniel Goleman.
• Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?, by Rob Goffee & Gareth Jones.
• Narcissistic Leaders, by Michael Maccoby.
• Good Communication That Blocks Learning, by Chris Argyris.
• A Survival Guide For Leaders, by Ronald A. Heifetz & Mark Linsky.
• Where Leadership Starts, Robert A. Eckert.
• Leadership: Sad Facts & Silver Linings, by Thomas J. Peters.
• Leadership in a Combat Zone, by William G. Pagonis.
• The Hard Work of Being a Soft Manager, by William H. Peace.
• We Don't Need Another Hero, by Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr.
• The Job No CEO Should Delegate, by Laurence A. Bossidy.
• Are You Picking the Right Leaders, by Melvin Sorcher & James Brant

As with the previous compilation the articles could merge into each other, possibly due to some overlap in the research findings or maybe because there's not all that much to know about leadership & management. Certainly towards end I felt that using one's own instincts & experience were probably more valuable than any number of 'how to be a great manager' books would be. In which case the best advice from one of the articles was to 'be yourself, only better', which seemed fair to me!

Available from Google Books or WorldCat.
Finished mid November 2011.
3/5

Decisive Leadership, by Various

A selection of Havard Business Review articles about leadership, what it is & how do be more effective in a leadership role.

• Harvard Business Review Article Collection: Stop Wasting Valuable Time, by Michael C. Mankins.
• Delusions of Success: How Optimism Undermines Executives' Decisions, by Dan Lovallo & Daniel Kahneman.
• What You Don't Know About Making Decisions, by David A. Garvin & Michael A. Roberto.
• How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight, by Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, Jean L. Kahwajy, & L.J. Bourgeois III

Not bad but they tended to blend in together so maybe best to read them separately as the need arises rather than all in one go.

Available via Google Books or WorldCat.
Finished early November 2011.
3/5

Moving to the United States of America and Immigration, by Mark A. Cooper

Dreadful attempt to cover a useful topic, so bad it's almost unreadable. Just about every sentence has grammatical errors & every section has factual errors so that whatever is being discussed is drowned out by its awfulness. Obviously no editor ever read this before publication which leads me to think it must be self-published, & the author apparently never bothered to proof read his own book either! The less infantile sections of English on display read suspiciously like they have been cut & pasted in from various websites or copied verbatim from company advertising brochures. There are also huge gaps in what the book covers, for example no mention on the US's infamous & complicated healthcare system, nor a single line about the US's history or government structure & function, which is relevant because of the inclusion of a citizenship exam at the back. Other topics are covered in far too much detail, for example buying a house in the US, presumably because the author is a real estate broker!
But it's impossible to escape from the awfulness of the grammar, factual inaccuracies & lack of any quality control, for example the chapter on sport had baseball sections that were repeated 3 or 4 times, & the chapter on driving stated that the US drives on the left! By the end I couldn't trust a word of it & felt duped that I had bought the book in the first place. Now it's best use is probably as kindling because I'm even too embarrassed to donate it to a charity shop! If you're thinking of buying this travesty of a book please just look on the internet & use one of the numerous forums out there, or best of all use the US government's own guide, Welcome to the United States: A Guide for New Immigrants. Finished 03/11/11
0/5

The Big Year, by Mark Obmascik

Entertaining true story detailing how three avid birders ended up unintentionally competing with each other to see as many birds in one year as possible. The differences in personality & list-building methods are described as well as their epic travels. There are also numerous sections which nicely describe some of the target birds including one excellent chapter on migration including one bird's-eye-view whilst actually making its migration flight. In short, enough birds for birders & enough human interest for non-birders, & for me a lot of dreams of travelling to the locations mentioned to build a list of my own. Finished October 2011.
4/5.

The Fallout: How a guilty liberal lost his innocence, by Andrew Anthony

Fantastic bit of politics regarding how the author's previous lifelong leanings to left-wing politics took a battering up to & particularly after the terrible events of 9/11. It sounds straightforward but it's much more subtle than that as the author describes his upbringing that formed his politics & how many things began to change his opinion culminating in a revulsion of how the so-called liberal intelligentsia reacted, or didn't, to the terrorist attacks. I found myself nodding in agreement at the well-thought, rationally explained & often politically un-correct arguments as I too have been appalled at some of the opinions & attitudes which now seem to define modern liberalism. It is no longer the kind of open-minded liberalism that I grew up with, for example it apparently condones authoritarianism at home & abroad, & has an evident hatred of anything from the West, as well as an apparent guilt-induced self-hatred. All in all a valuable wake-up call for many people that unfortunately wouldn't dream of reading it despite (another point the book makes) their politics supposedly being one of an accepting open-mind. Finished end of September 2011.
5/5

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

Intriguing but sad story of one woman's tragic contribution to science & the devastating impact it had on her family. The book is written from a very personal point of view by the author as she sets about telling the woman's story so that it often reads almost like a diary. Nonetheless it's a compelling read from both a science & human interest perspective & I'm not the first nor likely to be the last to recommend it. Finished September 2011.
4/5.

Malay Archipelago, by Alfred Russel Wallace

 Wonderful account of Wallace's travels through South East Asia, detailing the amazing sights, sounds & smells that he saw as he collected as many animal specimens as he & his hired helpers could shoot, including several Orang Utans. Obviously any account of the natural world as it was over a century ago now feels like a lost world but the sense of adventure & wonder is timeless, & the region's remoteness may ensure that much of what Wallace saw is still there even now. For me the highlights were the chapters describing the notorious Orang hunting & Wallace's marathon boat (more like a raft!) trip out across the Banda Sea to the remoter parts of the archipelago near Papua New Guinea in search of birds of paradise. As well as the natural wonder detailed Wallace's skill, intellect, resourcefulness & fortitude in the face of great travails & ill health come through vividly to make this one of the all-time great reads about one of science's greats.
5/5

Debunking History, by Ed Rayner & Ron Stapley

Starts off well, dissecting various episodes from history to assess their accuracy against what's considered today's facts, but by the end of book a lot of what's discussed seems a bit mean-spirited & a bit pointless. Yes the legend isn't totally based in historical fact but that's the point: the stories are often an allegory to act as a warning or to celebrate down the ages. The main areas covered are the American & French Revolutions, World War 1 & 2, in particular Hitler & the Nazis feature prominently. The most disappointing aspect was the inclusion of a few contemporary "historic", not "historical" items including a couple of items featuring Tony Blair’s decision to invade Iraq for example. This seems to have been shoe-horned in to give it some additional selling power when it was published in mid-2000s. Reading it now that Blair is long gone it seems particularly tedious & unwelcome (as were the last days of his premiership) and it felt more like current affairs than history. Quite a few of the items overlapped, particularly the many on Hitler & WW2. However for me there were enough items of interest, in periods that I hadn’t read much about before, to keep me going until the end of the book.
2/5.

The Rise & Fall of the British Empire, by Lawrence James

Absolutely brilliant page-turner that for this Brit read like one of the greatest stories ever told. Although 600+ pages in length the author’s erudite & concise writing whips you along so that it feels like the book is barely 200 pages in length. Indeed the story ends in 1995 just before Hong Kong was handed back & it cries out for an update. The story could have been a litany of battles on faraway shores & there is inevitably a great deal of this but what makes this book so good is how the author weaves British politics into the story, & it was the politics of the day that was ultimately responsible for the actions of its fighting men. It also details the wider aspects of the empire's impact on British society, how the empire was viewed throughout its history & how this has been reflected down the generations. It does not pay too much attention to those that were colonised; it's a story from the British perspective though there are some wonderful touches lent to it by quotations from contemporary sources & often from those that were colonised. The exhilaration from the sense of adventure during the empire's rise is followed by jingoism, bigotry & racism but throughout there was a keen sense of morality which was ultimately reflected in the mostly peaceful way that the empire was dismantled. The author then perfectly captures some of the feelings that occurred during the decline which particularly resonated with me. Once again I cannot praise this book highly enough for it's flowing & concise style, information packed & often moving story, one that should be taught in all the country's schools. I certainly wish I had been taught this sort of history at school!
5/5

Refactoring, by Martin Fowler

Seminal book, like a lot of Martin Fowler's books are, providing inspirational advice on writing better software from the software that's already been written. Key concepts are explained lucidly & often with humour, which is very difficult to do with a quite dry subject matter, but this is what makes Fowler's books invaluable for the time-pressed developer. There is much to be learned from this book even for a seasoned IT professional & as such it should appear on the reading list of everyone who is involved in the software profession.
5/5