“Richistan: A Journey Through The 21st Century Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich,” by Robert Frank

“Richistan: A Journey Through The 21^st Century Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich,” by Robert Frank (New York: Random House; 2007), 277 pages.

Richistan is a new spin on an old story: how the rich are different from the rest of us. The new spin on this old claim is that there is a separate country populated entirely by rich people within the United States. The country of Richistan has no borders, but has some well-identified traits and characteristics and unusual anthropological features. Robert Frank reports like a brave explorer in the mold of Captain James Cook in that he goes out on numerous journeys to explore and chart this strange place called Richistan, and its inhabitants. This book is the report of the findings of Frank’s journeys to the locations and lives of the rich.

Frank’s book tells us that the citizens of Richistan have butlers, but they don’t use the antiquarian term of the landed leisure class, preferring the more modern and professional title of “household manager.” The new breed of butler has all the good sense and knowledge of P.G Woodhouse’s Jeeves of yesteryear, but also possesses the latest knowledge of personal and electronic security, human resources, computers and electronics, wine, jewellery, and all other things of interest to the citizen of Richistan.

The citizens of Richistan earned their wealth from a variety of means: salaried wealth; selling their business; managing money; being beneficiaries of their private employer (in which they hold share options) going public; and founding companies. The Richistani did not inherit wealth. They are what used to be called “new money,” and they possess all the vulgar trappings of “new money” that include ostentatious displays of their new wealth, such as expensive cars and boats, high profile chairing of philanthropic charity balls, ownership of private jets (both outright ownership and fractional ownership), exclusive residential estates, rich people only vacation resorts, exclusive artworks, competitive altruism and philanthropic donations, and their participation in politics. The Richistani also deal with problems peculiar to the rich, such as their worries about simply being rich, and how to prepare their children to cope with becoming beneficiaries of large inheritances.

Richistan is an interesting analysis of the new rich. It shows just how different the rich are from others. The inhabitants of Richistan are not the modest and unsuspecting millionaires that were the subject of The Millionaire Next Door. The Richistani the polar opposite of the “millionaires next door:” they are not modest or unassuming; they are not afraid of displaying their wealth, and appear neither humble nor circumspect. Detailed explanations and examples of Richistani traits and features tend to tax the reader’s patience. Unless you are particularly interested in the subject matter, it is possible that Richistan may not grasp the attention of the average reader for all 277 pages. It’s neither uplifting nor inspiring, and rather than grab the reader’s attention and fail to let it go, it tends to drone on about things that are of interest to a narrow range of reader. The book, to its credit, makes no judgment on the ways of the rich: it is neither accusatory of blaming, but rather is explanatory. It shows us who the new rich are, how some of them became rich, and what they do with their wealth, and leaves it us to us to decide what we will of it all (if we can get through to the end of the book).

"The Story of Ernie Pyle," by Lee G. Miller

“The Story of Ernie Pyle,” by Lee G. Miller (New York: The Viking Press; 1950), 439 pages.

The biography of a writer is rarely full of action and excitement. The writer’s life is in one sense solitary, consisting of lonely hours with pen and paper, or paper and typewriter, activities that do not make for exciting reading. Lee G. Miller’s biography of columnist and war correspondent Ernie Pyle is somewhat unusual in that it records the life of a man who spent most of his life reporting on his findings in the field. Pyle travelled widely in the United States and other parts of the Americas, and most famously as a war correspondent during World War II where he travelled to North Africa, Europe and the Pacific and observed and reported the wide range of human events he witnessed. Miller’s book is the report of the life of an active and well-travelled man who spent his life researching and telling other people’s stories during some of the most momentous years of the 20^th century.

Miller’s biography of Ernie Pyle, published over 60 years ago, was written when Pyle was relatively well known. Pyle’s work was well known to the newspaper reading public. He was widely read before World War II and became even more widely read as a war correspondent on the North African, European and Pacific campaigns. Miller’s biography nonetheless tells of Pyle’s childhood, youth, college years in Indiana, military service during World War I, career as a newspapers journalist and later columnist at a mid-western and later Washington D.C. newspapers, and his marriage. Pyle was one of the first aviation columnists and was well known among the early aviation community. He subsequently took to the road as a travelling columnist filing columns from all parts of the country, as well as reports from his trips to central and South America. Much of this book is devoted to chronicling Pyle’s life as a travelling correspondent and as a war correspondent.

Unfortunately, this book hasn’t passed the test of time all that well. To this reader, too much time and space is given over to the matters of Pyle’s personal life (i.e. the contents of personal letters, opinions, conversations and recollections of friends and acquaintances) and too little space devoted to Pyle’s views and opinions of the fantastic events he witnessed and reported. For example, the author mentions, on separate occasions, that Pyle met General Dwight Eisenhower and General Omar Bradley, yet we never know Pyle’s recollections or opinions of these meetings. Perhaps such things weren’t disclosed in those days, or perhaps Pyle’s reading public already knew his views from reading his columns, so Miller chose not to include them. The modern reader doesn’t know. The book also suffers from Miller’s practice of rarely quoting from Pyle’s famous columns; but when he does, it’s with terrific effect. For example, Pyle’s column describing his walk on Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day, his survey of the wrecked material, equipment and dead servicemen is very moving. Miller’s use of this quotation is done with so great effect that this reader wonders why he chose to quote Pyle’s columns so infrequently. Miller’s failure to use Pyle’s greatest works left this reader with a thirst to read more of Pyle’s original columns rather than continue with this biography. By reading this biography of Pyle, I became more interested in Pyle’s work, than in the Miller’s biography of his life. So, if you are interested in what made Ernie Pyle so revered in the United States, I suggest that you bypass this book and instead peruse some of Pyle’s books, such as Brave Men, Here Is Your War, Men of Iron, or Ernie Pyle in the American Southwest. If you must read a biography of Pyle’s life, you may want to consider more contemporary works that may place Pyle’s work and legacy into context, such as James Tobin’s Ernie Pyle’s War: America’s Eyewitness to World War II, or Ray Boomhower’s The Soldier’s Friend: A Life of Ernie Pyle.

“The Road from Coorain,” by Jill Ker Conway

“The Road from Coorain,” by Jill Ker Conway (New York: Vintage Books; 1989), 238 pages.

It’s not uncommon for autobiographies to read as boastful summaries of the author’s achievements and successes. Such books contain large tracts of recollection where the author places himself/herself at the center of everything, and takes sole credit for their successes. These books also tend to be critical of rivals and competitor’s, pointing out the splinters in their rival’s eye while failing to notice the beams in their own. The Road from Coorain is not such a book; rather it’s a journey of discovery (or coming of age) of an unusually bookish girl in the 1940’s and 1950’s in Australia. Her early years were spent as a home-schooled child on a remote and vast sheep station (ranch). In recalling her early life, she describes the stunning beauty of remote rural Australia, its bountiful appearance after soaking rains, and its slow and relentless decline into drought, where life is slowly strangled from plants, animals, and ultimately from the people that try to farm it. Ker Conway writes of the people that live in these wretched places and how isolation, biblical droughts and loneliness tend to breed hardy people. Not all can take the harshness and remoteness of rural Australia and seek refuge in the bottle, or for more desperate people, suicide. Ker Conway beautifully describes her family’s struggle farming their drought-stricken property, the death of her father, and her mother’s decision to move to Sydney and employ a manager to run their station “Coorain.” 

Ker Conway writes of the difficulty of county kids, such as her, to fit into life in the city. She quickly settles down and with a persistent and increasingly fragile mother, hunger for learning, and a bit of luck blossoms into a confident student at an exclusive high school. Her high school success propelled her to the University of Sydney, where she achieved notable academic success, and slowly realized after a few set backs and travel, that to achieve success in her chosen academic field that she would have to leave Australia for the United Stated.

The Road from Coorain gives us an insight into the Australia of the 1950’s, and all of the not uncommon prejudices, discriminations and disappointments of that time. It also shows one person’s encounter with this world, and one ambitious woman’s response and reaction to it. This beautifully written narrative is both particular and universal for it provides the lovely story of growing up in both rural Australia and the city, as well as the universal theme of how one uses their talents to find their way in the world.

"That’d be Right: A Fairly True History of Modern Australia," by William McInnes

"That’d be Right: A Fairly True History of Modern Australia," by William McInnes, (Sydney: Hachette Australia;  2008), 320 pages.


That’d be Right by William McInnes is labeled as “a fairly true history of Australia”, a history viewed through the author’s eyes, with a particular emphasis on sport and politics. The author approaches Australian “history” through recollection, primarily his recollections of various sporting and political events, and what he was doing when those events occurred in Australia from the 1970s through to today. McInnes narrates a series of loosely related political and sporting stories. The only relationship or connection that these political and sporting stories have with each other is the author. He connects them via a chain of recollections, observation and anecdotes, that are at time humorous, to attempt to add color and interest to what many people would ordinarily be a rather thin gruel of politics and sport. For example, he recalls his family and friends’ activities during some of the events of his youth (the 1975 Australian Federal election), a famous cricket match (the 1977 Centenary Test), events he watched was in college in the 1980’s (political rallies and other sporting matches/races) through to political and sporting events and cultural events he attended as a spouse and father.

McInnes should be lauded for writing about sport and politics from the vantage point as an interested opinionated outsider, and the impact and influence of these events on people’s lives. Many books about sport and politics are written from the vantage point of the privileged insider (journalists), participants (politician or sportsman), or historians. McInnes’s departure is that he writes about these events that span a period of at least 35 years from his perspective, while liberally garnishing it with side stories and anecdotes, much in the same way that made his earlier book such an enjoyable read. The effect is to produce humorous insights, emotional events and sentimental recollections of people’s lives during momentous events in Australia’s recent past. Unfortunately, the attempt at a so-called “fairly true history of Australia” (which may just be a marketing ploy) comes across, at times, as half-baked. At times it reads as a quickly cobbled together collection of stories loosely woven around a theme of sport and politics in a way to cash in as a follow-up to his superior first book.

McInnes is a fine storyteller and should be applauded for memorializing his recollections; however, given that McInnes places himself in the center of events (and his recollection of events) in this book, it is surprising that we know so little of our author. He comes across as somewhat two dimensional. Apparently McInnes is a well regarded actor, and has had some success on both the stage and screen (both movie and television). This success is alluded to but never addressed; it’s as though it’s assumed or taken for granted that if you read William McInnes’s books, you know who he is, and of his acting career. Many readers do not, and may even wonder aloud when reading this book, who this author is and why his views are important enough to read, if at all? Maybe it’s modesty that keeps McInnes from writing about his career achievements in his chosen profession. Or maybe it’s a wish for privacy, or a male preference to discuss manly things like politics and sport. It seems odd though that in a book about essentially about his recollections of major sporting and political events of the past 35 years that he fails to tell the reader about his rise from struggling acting student in Western Australia to established and accomplished stage, film and television actor.

Despite these minor quibbles, McInnes has written a fine book that should resonate with every lover of good, fresh stories based on the observations and conversations of ordinary suburban people. The only thing that this book lacks is the story of McInnes’s career. No doubt he could have enhanced this book with the details of how he became an expert in his chosen profession. No doubt it would be a story worth telling, and when told by McInnes, be entertaining and a useful guide as well as an account of lessons he learned in establishing himself in a most competitive profession. I suspect that he is leaving those stories for another book. Let’s hope he takes the time to writes it one, because if it is like this book, and his previous book, it would be a humorous and enjoyable read.

"The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine," by Michael Lewis

“The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine,” by Michael Lewis, (New York: W. H. Norton & Company Ltd; 2010), 266 pages.

The Big Short tells the story of a select group of individuals that foresaw and profited from the 2008 collapse of the United States’ property bubble. Lewis identifies the cause of the collapse as cheap housing finance funded initially by reckless bank lending, where loans were converted into mortgaged-backed securities (bonds) and a variety of derivative products designed to enable “Wall Street” to profit from over indebted lower and middle class Americans. Lewis’s book tells the story of certain individuals that saw the long term foolishness (at best) or insanity (at worse) of this behavior, and how they were able to profit handsomely, both for themselves and their investors. Lewis tells the story from the vantage point of a number of such investors. We learn of the lawyer turned investor who was once an equities analyst specializing in sub-prime lenders who figured out how to short specific mortgage-backed bonds. We read about the west-coast physician who gave up practicing medicine to run a hedge fund and make hundreds of millions of dollars for his investors by almost single-handedly discovering a way to profit from the collapse of house prices. We learn of the man responsible for selling derivatives to investors, such as the ex-lawyer and former physician, and how the salesman’s own firm let him sell what was basically insurance on mortgage-backed bonds without any company capital backing the risks (i.e. they never thought the housing bubble would burst, and therefore not have to pay any claims). We also learn of two friends in California who go from part-time investors to multi-millionaires as they identified and profited from the mortgage bond collapse. Lewis also shows how some other smart investors saw the pending collapse in sub-prime mortgage bonds, and were able to profit very handsomely and the expense of “stupid” banks and other financial institutions, and benevolent regulators that permitted such activity to occur (there was nothing apparently illegal so they were unable to regulate what was beyond the scope of the regulations they enforced).

Lewis’s style of writing tends to be to tell a big story by focusing on a number of individuals and explain the big picture by explaining the actions of a these few participants in the bigger story. In The Big Short, he does an excellent job of showing how some smart people made fantastic fortunes (some as great as tens of billions of dollars) by basically betting that house prices would fall, thereby profiting by the collapse of mortgage backed securities by purchasing derivative contracts that exponentially increased in value with the decline in value of the mortgage back bond from which they were “derived”. We all now know how these activities threatened the solvency of numerous money center banks and the stability of the entire financial system. Lewis shows how the nimble, smart hedge fund guys who went against the herd mentality of the bumbling, establishment institutions, won the day. Hooray for them!

As an analysis of how the smart guys won big, The Big Short is a first rate story told very well. But one has to wonder of the effect of this book on the reading public, particularly those he seeks to influence. Lewis, at heart a moralist; he admits that his first book, Liar's Poker, may have been an attempt to say something like, “I hope that college students trying to decide what to do with their lives might read it and decide that its silly to phony it up, and abandon their passions or even their faint interest, to become financiers.” Lewis admits that his message in Liars Poker was mainly lost on his readers, and that most students read Liars Poker as a “how to" manual. One wonders, given his failure to get his message across in Liar’s Poker, whether The Big Short will be read as a "how to" manual for aspiring contrarian hedge fund managers, rather than a vindication of Lewis’s views that the boom era of high finance (and its associated excess and insanity) is over. Like a dog returning to its own vomit, Lewis covers the same fertile ground in The Big Short that he covered in Liar’s Poker, and in some instances the same people he used to work with. I wonder if the sins of Liar's Poker are being repeated on a larger scale in The Big Short (except with much larger sums of money). I wonder whether the bright kid from Ohio State who reads The Big Short will be encouraged to become, say, an oceanographer and spurn the offer from Goldman Sachs and set out to sea. It would take an exceptional young person to reject such temptation. When given a choice between a bucket of money and ocean spray in the face, most young people would chose the bucket of money. But our scorn for the choices made by young college graduates could equally be made against successful authors. Lewis is free to write about anything he wants. He has written about the grubby “low-art” of finance, as well as comparatively more noble and uplifting subjects in Moneyball and The Blind Side. Perhaps Lewis will return to sharing the uplifting stories he is clearly capable of writing, and avoid the temptation to return to the field of finance, which, according to his past experience, seems to encourage bright young kids from Ohio State to go to work at Goldman Sachs. 

"Sheetrock and Shellac: A Thinking Person’s Guide to the Art and Science of Home Improvement,” by David Owen

Sheetrock and Shellac: A Thinking Person’s Guide to the Art and Science of Home Improvement, by David Owen, (New York: Simon and Shuster; 2006), 303 pages.

Sheetrock and Shellac is the reminisces of the lessons learned by David Own in almost 30 years of home improvement projects, home renovation projects, and home construction. Owen recalls the lessons learned, mistakes made and general improvements he and his wife made o their New York City apartment, and later to their 200 year old house in Connecticut. Having learned many lessons, Owen also tells the story of how he and his wife built a cabin, from site location and land purchase through to the final finishing touches.

The book is arranged somewhat chronologically. Owen starts with his recall of alterations they made to their New York apartment as newly-weds through the arrival of their children. Owen then tells the story of their purchase of a 200 year old house in Connecticut, and the various renovations they made (e.g., yard and house exterior, basement, office, and kitchen). Having learned much along the way by asking questions and watching experienced contractors, Owen does more of the renovations and, where necessary, with the help of experienced tradesmen. Almost half of the book details the construction of their cabin. Owen explains the reasons for his compact and economical design (no McMansion in the woods for him) and the reasons behind every construction decision. In providing such detail, he also explains why certain construction methods are used (and not used) why specific techniques have to be followed, and demonstrates how his decision to build a well constructed cabin was the culmination of information and knowledge acquired over the years.

Owens’s Sheetrock and Shellac is an entertaining book that combines memoir, lessons learned in home improvement, and precautionary advice for potential home renovators and builders. It’s the story of how home owners with no formal training in the manual arts can, with curiosity, interest and initiative learn and acquire the skills necessary to maintain, improve and build a home. Owen demonstrates how homeowners can achieve such feats, not be overconfident in their own abilities and know when to pay an expert to do specialist jobs. Neither encyclopedic nor instructional in the manner of how-to books, Owen’s book contains a wealth of practical information learned through experience, and to our benefit, he shares them with us. His hand on tips, canny insights and interesting stories (such as the history of Portland cement and concrete) entertain both the budding handyman and curious observer. 

Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett’s Omaha,” by Jeff Matthews

“Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett’s Omaha,” by Jeff Matthews, (New York: McGraw Hill; 2009), 298 pages.

Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett’s Omaha is hedge fund manager Jeff Matthews’s account of his trip to the 2007 and 2008 Berkshire Hathaway Annual General Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. The book is an expansion and revision of Matthews’s reports previous made on his blog, “Jeff Matthews Is Not Making This Up.” Matthews’s book expands on more than just the Berkshire Hathaway Annual General Meeting. He also writes about his difficulty in getting to Omaha, his impressions of the city, events in Omaha secondary to Annual General Meeting, the comparatively unexciting procedural matters of the Annual General Meeting, and what everyone was in Omaha for, the famous five hour question and answer session presided over by Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Warren Buffett, and his friend and business partner Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charles Munger. Much of Matthews’s book is Matthews provides a detailed reconstruction of the question and answer session, where Buffett and Munger answer questions from shareholders, unscripted, and without assistance from lawyers, public relations people, or other types of people you normally see at annual general meeting who seem to have the job of filtering out uncomfortable or embarrassing questions for management. Matthews not only reconstructs the question and answer sessions, but adds considerable background, analysis and commentary based on his extensive knowledge of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett and Munger, and the various Berkshire Hathaway businesses that he has come to know and study during his three decades as a professional investor. The every-curious Matthews also includes many of his own findings and observations of Berkshire Hathaway gained during conversations with managers, discussions with shareholders, and a visit to one of Berkshire Hathaway’s famous subsidiaries, the Nebraska Furniture Mart. Matthews also includes some difficult and uncomfortable questions that came to him during his 2 visits to Omaha, questions about the entire “Woodstock for Capitalists” experience (a euphemism coined for the Berkshire Hathaway Annual General Meeting) such as the divergence between Buffett’s speeches and sayings and his actions, and the performance of various business units within Berkshire Hathaway and what this says about Buffett’s way of doing business.

Matthews’s great strength in Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett’s Omaha, and what sets it apart from nearly all other books is that he hasn’t bought into the cult of personality that surrounds Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett and Charles Munger. Many books on Buffett tell the story of Buffett’s success (i.e. how to invest like Buffett, how Buffett made his fortune), but few, if any, take a rational and clear eyed view at the subject. Don’t be mistaken in thinking that Matthews’s book is an attack on Buffett: it isn’t. Matthews is full of professional praise for Buffett’s success in achieving unparalleled investment returns, the unique way in which he and Munger handle annual general meetings, and their willingness to identify irrational and foolish conduct in the business community. Nonetheless, Matthews raises some questions of his own that other shareholders failed to ask (in fact, Matthews is somewhat curious that some shareholders ask Buffett and Munger questions unrelated to the performance of the Berkshire Hathaway Businesses (such as “what should I do with my life”). Matthews’s questions include the following.

• Has Buffett’s tight-fisted or thriftiness impeded the growth of the businesses he owns? How come Nebraska Furniture Mart, a company Buffett purchased about the same time that a one-store Minnesota company changed its name to Best Buy, and since then, Best Buy has grown to 1000 stores with $40 billion in sales whereas Nebraska Furniture Mart has 3 stores and $1 billion in sales?

• Buffett, who is critical of board executive compensation committees, has been on many boards, but no executive compensation committees. Why hasn’t he asked? What company would risk the publicity of refusing to have Buffett on their executive compensation committee?

• How has Buffett managed to escape any collateral damage from scandals that occurred on his watch (i.e. the “gallon pushing” accounting anomalies while serving on the board at Coca Cola in the 1990’s, and the criminal prosecution of managers he praised at Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary General Re?

• How does Buffett, the very rational conservative investor, explain his well-known social progressiveness/liberalness to his predominantly lily-white shareholder audience of ageing baby-boomers?

• Will Berkshire Hathaway survive in its current form when Buffett passes away?

• Is Buffett a hypocrite by outwardly praising meritocracies, and opposing inherited dynastic wealth, yet when he buys family businesses he retains family business managers? Did Nebraska Furniture Mart fail to become a national business because it is family run?

• How can Buffett call derivative financial instruments “financial weapons of mass destruction,” yet he has purchased numerous derivative contracts and claims he will make money on every contract?

• Buffett likes businesses that aren’t capital intensive, so why has he recently purchased capital-intensive companies such as power utilities and railroads?

Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett’s Omaha is an essential book for the student of Buffett and any person interested in the unique company that is Berkshire Hathaway. Matthews is both full of praise for Buffet and Berkshire, yet does not shy away from raising some difficult and legitimate questions that while acknowledge Buffett as an exceptional or even unique investor, recognize that he too is prone to human foibles, frailty and error. Few books on this subject have done this, and for this reason alone is a reason to buy this book.

West of the West, by Mark Arax

West of the West, by Mark Arax, (New York: Public Affairs Books; 2009), 347 pages.

West of the West is a collection of essays written by former Los Angeles Times journalist Mark Arax about the lives of some of the Golden State’s least known residents. Arax doesn’t write about the lives of the glamorous or the famous, but the lives of some of the forgotten or overlooked peoples of the vast population patchwork that is California. Arax combines journalism, essay, and memoir to capture the lives of Asian immigrants seeking to make a better life for their families in the United States, and in particular, one family in Los Angeles’s San Gabriel Valley. He also writes on the varied lives of people in California: the life of the United States’s largest pomegranite grower; the lives of hippies (both old and young) using their entrepreneurial skills in the marijuana capital of the United States; a somewhat disturbing F.B.I. investigation and prosecution of a terrorist suspect in Northern California; and, among other stories, the deeply personal epilogue to the murder of his father in California’s Central Valley more than 30 years ago.

This book is the first book in some time that I’ve failed to finish. The stories are well written, and at times tend to emphasise the bleak, troubling and disturbing sides of life. This may be the author’s intention, to alert the reader that like anywhere, life in the Golden State is not all glamor and glitz, or peaches and cream. My choice not to finish this book is not a reflection of Arax’s skills as a writer and the quality of this book. Rather, its a reflection on me and the fact that at the moment, I’d rather read something a bit lighter. Plus, I have a large pile of other books to read, and I have to get this one back to the library to avoid the overdue charges.

Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell, (New York: Little, Brown and Company; 2008), 309 pages.

Outliers is an explanation of why statistically different or statistically significant observations and results occur, in particular, super or exceptional successes. Gladwell identified some common features of successful people:

• They have about 10,000 hours of practice or experience in their chosen field that raised their skills so that they would be universally recognized as being at the top of their field.

• The successful are not the brightest or most gifted, but are those who were given opportunities, took them, and practiced (and practiced, and practice some more).

• The successful were placed in close proximity to, or in, an environment conducive to success.

Gladwell illustrates his points through case studies. Soccer and Canadian ice hockey players have a better chance at becoming all-stars if they are born in January. The Beatle’s success was, in part, due to their time working in Hamburg where they played music for at least 10 hours per day. Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, said his success had a lot to do with being born in the 1950’s and having almost unlimited free after-hours to a university’s programmable computer, and later the gift of a computer terminal while in junior high school. Attorney Joe Flom was born at a time when people from his background were excluded by the establishment law firms from practicing commercial law. He practiced the kind of law that establishment firms tended to avoid and after 20 years dominated his field of takeover law. Conversely, Korean Air turned around its poor safety record (i.e. a polite way of saying too many crashes) by giving its pilots the opportunity to escape its cultural legacy which included subservience and deference.

This book’s strength is the case studies on what it takes to be a success. These are what make the book worth reading. None of Gladwell’s work is new or earth-shattering. While at times long winded (I found myself skimming paragraphs, and later sections and chapters), Outliers is, overall, an entertaining selection of case studies. Look at other books if you are seeking specific help on how to change your life: this book does not provide specific or personal advice. It provides great case studies on success and the common features that contribute to attaining success: commitment, opportunity, and proximity to an environment conducive to success. If we remember these things, it’s probably worth laboring through the 309 pages.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell, (New York: Back Bay Books / Little, Brown & Company;  2000),  301 pages.

Gladwell best summarizes this book in the introduction.

"The Tipping Point is the biography of an idea, and the idea is very simple. It is that the best way to understand the emergence of fashion trends, the ebb and flow of crime waves, or for that matter, the transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth, or any number of mysterious changes that mark everyday life is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.”

Gladwell uses examples to convince us of the validity of his theory. Key to his argument is his 3-part explanation of how viruses or epidemics spread: the Law of the Few; the Stickiness Factor; and the Power of Context. The Law of the Few is that epidemics/viruses are driven by a handful of exceptional people who find about the “new thing/trend” and through energy, enthusiasm, and personality spread the word. They are like apostles or missionaries who have heard The Good News and enthusiastically win converts.

The Stickiness Factor is what makes a message memorable – think a slogan, jingle or image. The Power of Context says that people are a lot more sensitive to their environment than they may seem. These 3 laws apparently explain how various  changes occurred: how Hush Puppies became cool, and the fall in New York crime rates.

The Tipping Point presents a fairly convincing argument for Gladwell’s theories. He supports his theories with appropriate facts and does his best to convince his reader. While entertaining, for a while, I wonder whether Gladwell is trying to apply theoretical and scientific methods to things best explained through commonsense. Do we need laws and rules to explain how things spread? Do we need to give pseudo-scientific names to commonsense and ordinary things? This giving complex names to simple things is all pervasive: what used to be called soap is now a “cleaning system,” a simple fence is now called a “fencing system.” Gladwell’s explanation of how things changed is very enjoyable; it’s compulsive reading. But we all know that ideas spread, fashions change and people evangelize others to new ideas using clever marketing techniques. Do we really need a pseudo-scientific theory and explanation for something as commonsensical as that?

No Bull: From the Bush to the Baggy Green, by Andy Bichel

No Bull: From the Bush to the Baggy Green, by Andy Bichel,

(Sydney, Australia: ABC Books; 2009), 246 pages.

No Bull is a light and breezy account of Andy Bichel’s life as a cricket player. The book is a recollection of the author’s rise from school boy player in the Lockyer Valley west of Brisbane Australia, through various State and national representative teams. The author recalls his struggles, as well as the help he received from kind souls along the way, and, once he reached the highest levels of the game, the difficulties he faced in staying competitive at that level.

Bichel’s book is an easy-going read, accessible to young and old alike, but, on balance, perhaps unlikely to hold much interest for people not interested in cricket, especially Australian cricket in the 1990’s and 2000’s. The most engaging aspect of Bichel’s book is his demonstration that success can come from persistence. Bichel was regularly disappointed when left out of the starting and touring line-ups of various teams. On the occasions when he was unexpectedly brought into the team due to another player suffering an injury, Bichel often had stand-out and match-winning performances. Bichel was persistent and patient so that when an opportunity came along, he made the most of it. This perhaps is the most compelling aspect of Bichel’s book: persistence, patience and opportunity, when combined, can produce outstanding, spectacular and often career-best results.

Sydney, Cipher and Search: Solving the Last Great Naval Mystery of the Second World War by Captain Peter Hore

Sydney, Cipher and Search: Solving the Last Great Naval Mystery of the Second World War, by Captain Peter Hore, (Naval Institute Press: 2009), 320 pages.

Captain Peter Hore has written, arguably, the definitive book on the “mystery” of the sinking of the Australian cruiser H.M.A.S. Sydney by the German raider Kormoran in November 1941 with the loss of all 645 hands. It has long been acknowledged that the Australian light cruiser H.M.A.S. Sydney was sunk by the German raider Kormoran off the coast of Western Australia. Survivors of the Kormoran (disabled in battle and subsequently scuttled) captured and interred in Australia reported individually to investigators that they engaged H.M.A.S. Sydney at a range of about half a mile, causing great destruction that eventually caused her to sink. The “mystery” referred to in the title is how the Kormoran, a converted freighter with guns and torpedo armaments equivalent to that of a cruiser, could cause the loss of the pride of the Australian navy with the loss of its entire crew. To his credit, Captain Hore presents all of the facts from primary sources, including some that he discovered, to explain what happened. Captain Hore's sources include re-constructed and newly translated (by the author) battle logs written in code in a German-English dictionary by the Kormoran’s captain; Australian, German and British naval archive material; the author's interviews of surviving Kormoran crew members in Germany and Chile; and photographic evidence of the wreck of H.M.A.S. Sydney, located for the first time in 2008.

Captain Hore’s book is neither emotional, nor accusatory; he neither evangelizes his reader to a particular explanation or theory, nor attributes either praise or blame to the crews of H.M.A.S. Sydney nor the Kormoran. Rather, he simply collects evidence from all sources to explain what happened and lets the facts speak for themselves. The facts are that H.M.A.S. Sydney failed to follow established naval wartime procedures for identifying suspicious freighters, and brought herself broadside to the Kormoran at a range of approximately half a mile. When H.M.A.S. Sydney (which was not at battle stations) challenged the Kormoran, the captain of the Kormoran removed her disguise, ran up her German flag and commenced firing on H.M.A.S. Sydney with all of her guns and torpedoes causing catastrophic damage that caused her loss, and the loss of all crew. H.M.A.S. Sydney’s counter fire disabled Kormoran, which her crew subsequently abandoned and scuttled. These facts were found to be consistent with photographs of the wreck of H.M.A.S. Sydney. Captain Hore’s book presents all of the known facts, which leaves this reader with the opinion that the Kormoran should be solemnly recognized as having achieved something quite extra-ordinary: this was a major success for the Kormoran – something never before achieved where a raider (a converted freighter with significant weaponry) sank a cruiser with the loss of all hands. Conversely, for H.M.A.S. Sydney, it was a complete and total disaster. What is not known, nor will ever likely to be known, is why H.M.A.S. Sydney’s captain disregarded established wartime naval procedures and placed his ship and the lives of all of the crew in such a vulnerable position.

Captain Hore has written a fine book that explains all of the facts on the loss of H.M.A.S. Sydney. The book reads like a novel: it is interesting and fast-paced mixing discovery, de-ciphering and code breaking, travel, and first person interviews on multiple continents. The final product is an excellent story accessible to both experienced armchair naval experts interested in relatively obscure naval battles, and civilians who simply enjoy a good story well written. At the same time, this book could rightly be considered the definitive or authoritative book on this subject, which in itself is quite an achievement.

Boomsday: A Novel by Christopher Buckley

Boomsday: A Novel, satirist Christopher Buckley, (New York: Hachette Book Group; 2007), 318 pages.

In Boomsday: A Novel, satirist Christopher Buckley turns his attention to the excesses of the baby boomer generation, and their negligent handling of the looming insolvency of Social Security and Medicare. Buckley’s book imagines an inter-generational public policy war between profligate, entitled, self-indulgent baby boomers and the younger generations that will be stuck with the bill for funding the ponzi schemes known as Social Security and Medicare. The major character in the novel is the aptly named Cassandra Devine, an exceptional student that gained admission to Yale, only to find out after her admission that her father had spent her tuition money on a business start-up, and that she would be forced to pay for college through joining the army. After a brief time in the army, and 10 years in Washington D.C. as a public relations specialist, Cassandra spends her nights as a blogger who campaigns against the excesses of the baby boomers. One night she suggests that baby boomers be given financial incentives to kill themselves by age 75 so as to save their country from the financial burden of caring for them. The idea catches on among the younger voters stuck will the bill for funding baby boomer Social Security and Medicare, and becomes a major public policy issue during a Presidential election.

Buckley’s well written satire again exposes the ridiculousness and comical ways in which Washington D.C. operates. Nonetheless, as entertaining as Buckley’s book is, we should ask ourselves what becomes of the chaos that the main character causes? What does she achieve by proposing such an outrageous policy that becomes the focus of an election campaign? Apart from creating chaos and humorous satire, Buckley seems to say that very little is resolved. Sure, there are interesting and outrageous political debates, and many conflicts and arguments, but in the end, the only thing that has improved is the career prospects of the participants while the issue of the solvency of the major entitlement programs is “kicked down the road.” Most of the characters have better jobs in the end. Perhaps the greatest irony is what happens to Cassandra: in the great tradition of solving political problems, she is appointed to the position of Commissioner for Social Security and thereby made responsible for the running of the system she vociferously opposed. The chief critic is made responsible for administering the system she criticized.

Buckley’s gift is his ability to shine a light on the looming financial calamity facing the U.S.A. in a quick-witted, humorous, and outrageous manner. He’s again written an enjoyable book that mocks American political institutions in a manner that only an insider can, while making “Cassandra-like” warnings of a potential fiscal calamity.

Final Impact by John Birmingham

Final Impact by John Birmingham, (New York: Random House; 2008), 413 pages.

Final Impact by John Birmingham is the third book in the series of three novels in the so-called “axis of time” series. The premise of the series could be summarized in the form of a question: “What do you get when a 2021 military experiment transports an American-led multinational naval armada `back through time to 1942, and relocates the armada to the middle of the U.S. naval task force heading towards Midway Island and the battle of Midway?” John Birmingham answers this question over the course of the three novels.

In Final Impact, the axis and allies make use of their acquired knowledge of the future to prosecute World War II to its conclusion. The impact is both significant and devastating. Each side develops more devastating weapons, such as the jet aircraft and a form of cruise missile, with the intent of using them to defeat their opponents. New military campaigns emerge in this new and alternative history: the Japanese are defeated at Hawaii and in other Pacific naval battles; and, the allies liberate Europe by an invasion started at Calais rather than Normandy. These changes from the history we know, while novel, do not change the result of the war with both Germany and Japan suffering crushing defeats at the hands of the allies; same result, but slightly different means.

Birmingham's clever and innovative series of novels is extremely engaging, fast paced and entertaining for all lovers of fiction, not just war buffs and technology and science fiction geeks. The major entertainment comes from what was once called "culture shock" of each of the peoples, in this case, the shock experienced by people from 2021 having to live and work during the Second World War, and the shock experienced by people from 1942 having to deal with the "more enlightened," "liberated," de-segregated, and “broad-minded” military personnel from the future. To each, the other appears barbaric and crude, but nonetheless hey put these differences aside for the purpose of achieving their goal of winning the war.

Final Impact is a fitting conclusion to the axis of time series. It's a more tightly written book when compared with its predecessors, with a greater emphasis on the tightness of the story with fewer detours down interesting subplots. Its a fine conclusion to the series and will inevitably leave the reader wanting more. One suspects that Birmingham will revive these characters some time in the future because they are simply too good to only be the protagonists in three books. We should all look forward to future installments.

Designated Targets by John Birmingham

Designated Targets by John Birmingham, (New York: Random House; 2005), 429 pages.

Designated Targets by John Birmingham is the second book in the series of three novels in the so-called “axis of time” series. The premise of the series could be summarized in the form of a question: “What do you get when a 2021 military experiment transports an American-led multinational naval armada `back through time to 1942, and relocates the armada to the middle of the U.S. naval task force heading towards Midway Island and the battle of Midway?” John Birmingham answers this question over the course of the three novels. The first novel covers the immediate impact of the emergence of the 2021 naval armada in 1942, and the race by allied and axis powers to apply the knowledge of the future, and “fast track new technologies.”

In this second volume the impact of the emergence of the technology and history from 2021 begins to change the course and prosecution of the war, and affect daily life. And why wouldn’t it: if you were engaged in a war and suddenly came into possession of weapons from the future and the history books from the future, wouldn’t you use these resources to your advantage? Much of this book focuses on this issue.

Armed with knowledge of weapons and technologies of the future, the axis and allies attempt to develop those weapons to ensure victory (in the case of the allies) and change the result (in the case of the axis).The race is then on the develop these new technologies before their time, weapons as varies such as the AK-47 through to the ultimate weapon, the atomic bomb. Savvy businessmen indentify sign up as then unknown musicians and actors that will in the future become stars. On the military and tactical level, we see a new history develop. It is new in that knowledge of future and its technologies changes the present. For example, we know from Weapons of Choice that the Battle of Midway die not occur. In Designated Targets, new campaigns emerge, like the Japanese invasion of Australia and later Hawaii, plus the important role of a ship from the future in protecting Great Britain from Axis invasion.

As this alternative history emerges, the reader must surely be asking, how this is all going to work out. Surely, he won’t let the axis nations get the atomic bomb before the allies? Things are now different: events that we know to occur have not occurred in this alternate history, and events in the alternate history only occurred there, not in reality, if you know what I mean. It also must raise in the reader’s mind the logical contradictions in alternative histories and time travel stories. Fortunately, Birmingham’s storytelling is so engaging, fast paced and action packed that we ignore the logical chasm over which be has built his story because it is such an interesting and fascinating story. Nonetheless we are left wondering that surely the allies must win? To his credit, Birmingham doesn’t let us know. The book is so engaging that we put aside all these concerns because we want to how the Second World War ends now that Birmingham has shaken everything up. Birmingham story creates a lot of interest in just how these events are going to play out, but to find out the answer, we have to read Birmingham’s conclusion to the series, Final Impact.

Schultz and Peanuts: A Biography, by David Michaelis

Schultz and Peanuts: A Biography, by David Michaelis (New York: Harper Collins; 2007), 655 pages.

David Michaelis’s Schultz and Peanuts: A Biography tells the story of the life of Charles Schultz, the cartoonist responsible for “Peanuts.” Like all biographers, Michaelis chronologically pieces together the life of Schultz, and appears to include all major milestones in his varied and successful life. Michaelis gives an extremely detailed account of his childhood, growing up as the son of a successful and respected barber in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Schultz spent most of his childhood in those cities, apart from a brief period when as a young child his family moved to Needles, California. He attended elementary and high school in Minneapolis, served in the United Stated Army in World War Two in the European theatre, attended art school and ultimately achieved his ambition to be a cartoonist through the newspaper syndication of “Peanuts,” an achievement that brought him considerable notoriety and financial success. Michaelis also provides us with detailed accounts of Schultz’s single and adult life in Minneapolis, Colorado, and later California. Michaelis gives very detailed accounts of his personal life including the death of his mother, his relationship with his father, his courtships, marriages, divorce, children, his illness and death. All such accounts are expected in biographies, however, Michaelis provides extraordinary detail and considerable insight to the reader as to what the influence of these events on Schultz and how they made them the man he was.

Michaelis achieves this on a number of levels. For example, he reveals how Schultz knew from a young age of his gift for drawing, and of his decision at a young age to establish a career as a cartoonist. What is notable is Schultz’s single-minded determination to achieve this goal, and, to continue in his chosen vocation throughout his life only to stop drawing prior to his death. Michaelis portrays Schultz as a single-minded, competitive and determined man.

Michaelis also reveals that Schultz’s life needed not be the subject of a biography because all of Schultz’s life had been revealed through the characters in “Peanuts.” Schultz’s loves, phobias, obsessions, fears, friends, relatives, and even his spouses are revealed through the characters in his cartoon strip. To demonstrate this point, Michaelis liberally sprinkles “Peanuts” cartoon strips through the book to demonstrate the point that Schultz used the experience of his life to form the characters of “Peanuts” and to establish their personalities and relationships. “Peanuts” is almost a metaphor of Schultz’s life. It is an effective and convincing effect that adds considerably to Michaelis’s narrative.

A third of many elements that Michaelis reveals about Schultz is his exceptional cartooning skill, including innovations that were instrumental in establishing him and propelling him to great success and accomplishment. An example of his innovation was his minimalist drawing style that focused just on the characters and their immediate surrounding, whereas his contemporaries used detailed shading with detailed backgrounds. Schultz other great innovation was to give adult personas and problems to his characters – small children. He later took this further by giving those attributes to the animal characters Snoopy and Woodstock.

A notable feature of Michaelis’s book it’s almost universally great and comprehensive detailed account of Schultz’s life, warts and all. Michaelis provides astonishingly exhaustive details of Schultz’s life from childhood through midlife. By comparison, the last 20 years of Schultz’s like are covered in much less detail; it’s almost a rushed-through light weight coverage of these latter years when compared with the rest of the book. This observable fact, perhaps pedantic, does not make the book flawed. Perhaps it’s a reflection that the most interesting part of a person’s life is the struggle to attain success, rather than continuing to do practice your success. Nonetheless, Michaelis has done a fine job in telling the story of a great American success. It’s a story of how a man from humble origins recognized his gift and through ambition and hard work became arguable the most successful and influential practitioner of is craft in his lifetime. In telling the story of Schultz’s remarkable life, Michaelis has written a remarkable book that for many years will be the definitive biography of Charles Schultz. That, too, is something quite remarkable.

Weapons of Choice by John Birmingham

Weapons of Choice by John Birmingham is the first in a series of three novels in the so-called “axis of time” series. The premise of the series could be summarized in the form of a question: “What do you get when a 2021 military experiment transports an American-led multinational naval armada `back through time to 1942, and relocates the armada to the middle of the U.S. naval task force heading towards Midway Island and the battle of Midway?” John Birmingham answers this question over the course of the three novels. In this first volume the story develops on a number of levels.

On the strategic level, the emergence in 1942 of a 2021 battle armada has the potential to vastly influence the conduct and result of World War II. The allies’ access to 2021 technology and 2021 history books enables the 1942 generation to learn from history by not making the mistakes that are yet to occur, so to speak, thereby changing the course of history. The same occurs with Germany, Japan, and (a temporarily neutral) Russia, who also obtain future technology and knowledge of the future. Birmingham’s book cleverly teases out the premise of the affect of knowledge of the future on current events. For example, the Battel of Midway does not occur. Germany and Russia make a peace (temporarily) to mutually explore the application of the new technology to their 1942 weapons programs. New military campaigns are pursued to achieve new military and political objectives that become apparent with the so called knowledge of history and new technologies.

Birmingham also develops the sub-plot of the political implications of the new technology and historical records. Hitler and Stalin, armed with knowledge of future treacheries, eliminate their rivals. In the United Sates, when faced with new technologies being used by a liberated and de-segregated population, the Government responds by establishing a special zone in the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles to use future laws, customs and technologies to enhance the 1942 war effort by bringing forward the development and adoption of new technologies.

The book also develops the sub-plot of the numerous cultural, social, and legal differences between the people from 2021 and 1942. For example, we experience the clashes between the 1942 politicians with a military from the future, and the clashes between military men and women from different eras, in particular, their viewing (in private) of each other as somewhat barbaric. In an era of segregation in the United States, a country fighting a war against a foe that believes in the wholesale extermination of so-called “inferior races,” the appearance of warrior from the future becomes disturbing to both sides when some of 2021 era commanding officers are African American, and women. This culture shock and culture clash is a recurring theme and source of tension throughout the story.

Weapons of Choice is the produce of John Birmingham’s very fertile imagination. He has written a fine novel that mixes historical fiction, science fiction/futurism and socially conscious storytelling. This fine novel should appeal to fans of military history and science fiction lovers, as well as any person that enjoys good and imaginative writing. It’s noticeable that Birmingham creates in the reader an appetite for more. After seeing these improbable events occur, you end up wondering how things are going to work out. We and up wanting to know how things are going to work out in this strange new past that reflects the future. It is fairly safe to say that if you end up reading Weapons of Choice, you’ll also want to read the other two volumes because it’s simply that good and that engaging.

First Tests: Great Australian Cricketers and the Backyards that Made Them, by Steve Cannane

First Tests: Great Australian Cricketers and the Backyards that Made Them, by Steve Cannane, (Sydney: Harper Collins; 2009), 231 pages.

First Tests is a book about how Australia’s greatest cricketers developed their unique and special skills at home in the backyard. The book contains a series of articles on how players developed individual strengths and skills playing in the backyard, and how the backyard’s location, design and the proximity of windows influenced the development of players’ skills. It is these skills developed over thousands of hours after school and on weekends in the back yard (rather than attendance at professional training camps and academies) that made them great players.

The genesis of this book was a suburban Sydney cricket match where the author observed a team mate make an unorthodox but effective batting shot that both infuriated the bowler and provoked conversation among his team mates. When questioned about the origin of the unorthodox batting shot, the team mate answered that he developed it as a kid playing in his parents’ backyard. In that backyard, the player had to adjust his batting shots to avoid breaking windows. The team mate played shots to avoid breaking windows in the backyard, and continued to play them on the cricket field. As the conversation went around the other players at that suburban cricket match, it seemed that every player had a similar story of a strength or weakness that could be attributed to backyard cricket. This got the author to think that if this is the case for ordinary suburban grade cricketers, then it must be the same for elite cricketers. In a sequence of chapters discussing one cricketer, the author explains in delightful detail how many elite cricket players down through the decades developed their skills in their backyard.

For example, Sir Donald Bradman’s unique batting grip, stance and back lift was developed during batting practice with a golf ball and cricket stump. These unique qualities were developed in response to the speed at which the golf ball rebounded off the water tank stand in his backyard. Greg Chappell’s trademark batting shot, a flick off the hip, was invented in his backyard, where the best opportunities for scoring were on the leg side. Alan Davidson bowled accurately because he had to; as a kid bowling in the backyard, if his bowling missed the stumps on his home-made pitch, he had to chase the ball down the hill into the scrub. Doug Walters played spin bowling with ease because his crushed ant bed home made cricket pitch spun like a top. Neil Harvey developed excellent footwork by playing cricket in the back lane where the ball bounced viciously off the cobblestones. Adam Gilchrist, a powerful and clean hitter of the ball, developed that skill in his backyard batting net where at the end of each daily practice he spent time doing what was natural to him, just hitting the ball.

Cannane also elaborates on the type of discipline needed to become an elite cricket (and buy implication an elite player or competitor in any sport). Those that reached the highest level of the game were veterans of thousands of hours of backyard games, often played against older and more experienced siblings and friends. In these contests players developed their competitive instincts and unrelenting desire for success.

Cannane’s book is an enjoyable and light-hearted reflection on the theme of how childhood habits, developed and practiced for thousands of hours in competitive and determined backyard matches developed skills that helped various players reach the highest level in the sport of cricket. These backyard matches played after school and on weekends (and even in winter) were essential in the formation of many fine cricketers. Cannane’s view is that backyard cricket matches will also be instrumental in the development of the future generations of great players. Cannane has also done a great service by including a detailed bibliography containing the publishing details of many biographies and autobiographies of Australian cricketers. This bibliography alone is worth the purchase price of the book because it gives any cricket lover an instant and accessible first reference source for book by and about Australian cricketers.