false 2 83 81 true 6048819 read 1 true 1086466 currently-reading 1 true 1086465 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/10946903 to: The Last Samurai (Paperback) by Helen DeWitt
This is one of my favorites! I love Seven Samurai and how could I pass up a book whose protagonist is obsessed with the movie and has seen it more times than me!

This is brilliant book - I read it twice. There is so much to it - you just can't absorb all of it.

When the movie of the same name came out, I first expected it to be based on this book but alas it was not! ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/10946894 to: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Paperback) by Mark Haddon
really great book. entertaining. very different. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/10946760 to: The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game (Hardcover) by Michael Lewis
Great book. Two stories here - one is about a kid from the wrong side of town in Memphis who does good (Michael Oher) - that was excerpted a NYTimes Sunday magazine story. The other is about football and the emergence of the left tackle (who protects the QBs blind side) as an important position. Good writing as always by the author.

Here is an excerpt I liked because I often run into people who disparage strategy and strategy consultants. While strategy is not everything, it is important and it is not easy.

"Three punts and two interceptions later Mississippi State led 21-7. Rather than try a different strategy, say, the surprising pass play that worked the first time they had the ball - the Ole Miss coaches tried different players. First they switched their fifth-string running back for their sixth-string running back. (Between them they ran the ball 25 times for 31 yards.) Then they switched their first-string QB for their second-string QB - the fellow who started the season as the first-string QB. (between them they threw four interceptions). The frantic search for the right combination of players reflected their general football worldview: they believed in talent than strategy. They placed less emphasis on how the players were used than who they were. Whoever had the best players won: it was as simple as that.

It was a bleak and deterministic worldview, implying, as it did, that there was little a strategist could do to rise the value of his players. More to the point, it was the false view, at least for running a football offense. The beauty of the football offense was that it allowed for a smart strategist to compensate for his players' limitations. He might find better ways to use players, to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. He might even change the players' sense of themselves. But Ole Miss not only lacked a smart strategist, it lacked a coach who understood the importance of strategy."
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/10946687 to: The World Is Flat: The Globalized World in the Twenty-first Century (Paperback) by Thomas L. Friedman
This book could be revelation to someone who lived in a cave in Afghanistan throughout the nineties (wait, even that guy knows about the internet).

I found it made the same point 25 times with copious quotes (some as long as one or two pages) and anecdotes. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8008391 to: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (Hardcover) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
This book will change your life. The only reason I don;t rate it a five stars is because the quality of the writing itself is not great. It could use some good editing but I suspect Taleb is not an easy man to work with as an editor. This book makes my Top 5 of the year and Top 50 all time books lists. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8053097 The Change Function: Why Some Technologies Take Off and Others Crash and Burn (Hardcover) by Pip Coburn
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8008710 Santosh's review of Digital Medicine: Implications for Healthcare Leaders (Management Series (Ann Arbor, Mich.).)
by Jeff Goldsmith

disappointing. not much depth in ideas - sloppy or inaccurate characterization of technologies. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8008715 Santosh's review of Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results
by Michael E. Porter

great ideas. too long. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8008702 Santosh's review of Easy Spanish Storybook: Little Red Riding Hood (Book + Audio CD) (McGraw-Hill's Easy Spanish Storybook)
by Ana Lomba

I really like the concept of this series but they changed the stories from the original. That makes it difficult to read these to Mina because she insists on correcting me... ]]>