Alexander the Great: His Life and His Mysterious Death by Anthony Everitt
A fairly straight biography except for some early chapters setting the scene. Keep things interesting most of the time. 3/5
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
“The secret to outstanding achievement is not talent, but a passionate persistence. In other words, grit.” . Usual pop-psych with the usual good stories 3/5
100 Side Hustles: Unexpected Ideas for Making Extra Money Without Quitting Your Day Job by Chris Guillebeau
100 small businesses and their story. With lessons learnt from each and some themes. Told with lots of puns. 4/5
How The Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone by Brian McCullough
Covering the big internet events and companies between 1993 and 2008. Mosaic, AOL, Ebay, Amazon, Yahoo, Napster and ending with the Ipod. Lots of good stories some new angles. 4/5
Diamonds are Forever by Ian Fleming
James Bond infuriates a Diamond smuggling operation run by American Gangsters. Lots of period detail and violent set pieces. 4/5
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson
A nice short biography that attempts to highlight neglected areas such as Franklin’s family and friends his scientific work. Fun without missing too much detail. 4/5
My Scoring System
- 5/5 = Brilliant, top 5 book of the year
- 4/5 = Above average, strongly recommend
- 3/5 = Average. in the middle 70% of books I read
- 2/5 = Disappointing
- 1/5 = Did not like at all
