August Book Reviews

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink A very interest book that looks mostly at what motivates us to create and build and work. One of the major story lines in this book is the open-source software movement and what causes someone to create software and give it away for free (see: Linux). The take-home-message, in my mind, is that we all require a 'minimum' salary to do a job, and, beyond that, we need to feel that the work has value and is appreciated. (If that sentence doesn't make sense, just read the book, Mr. Pink is a much better writer than I.) Great book; highly recommended. Grade: B+

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick M. Lencioni Last month I read another book by Mr. Lencioni, Death by Meeting. This book has a similar style -- teaching a series of lessons through a narrative, and is another book that I really enjoyed. In fact, I would recommend this book over Death by Meeting because it covers some of the same material on meetings and goes beyond it in many other important ways. Great book; also highly recommended. Grade: B+

The Cancer Chronicles: Unlocking Medicine's Deepest Mystery by George Johnson It is difficult to describe this book, but I guess my description would be that this book summarizes and highlights the history of cancer research and the history of cancer as a disease. I learned a fair amount about cancer and even a little about medical research. A good book about a difficult topic. I think this grade would be higher if I hadn't read so many great books this past month. Grade: B

The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance by David Epstein It takes guts to write a book on this topic, and I thought Mr. Epstein did an excellent job. He basically summaries most of the relevant research that looks at the role of genetics and train in sports -- i.e., nature vs. nurture in determining athletic performance. The book is very interesting and filled with fantastic anecdotes. Great book; also highly recommended. Grade: A-