Imperium, by Ryszard Kapuscinski

Finished mid-March 2012.
Fascinating, compelling & often harrowing account of one man's experience of the former Soviet Union. From hellish personal WWII experiences through to survivors stories from the gulags & famines the horror of the former communist state is described through the people it affected & killed. The futility of its efforts at imposing ideologoy for the benefit of a few is tragically exposed through the disastrous consequences it had for the many. Its collapse could not come soon enough & hopefully we'll never see the likes of an empire like this again. 5/5.

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.