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kyscg's reviews
227 reviews
Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes
adventurous
funny
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow
When you read a book of this magnitude, you always have a moment when something profound strikes you. It was when I was nearing the book's midpoint, and I read that John D. had retired, or more like, gave away most duties to Archbold. So that meant that more than half of the book was dedicated to his life after Standard Oil. I wasn't expecting this, but now that I've finished reading the book, I realize how much more should have been there.
Titan, derived from the Greek Τιτάν, initially referring to the offspring of the sky and the earth, were larger than life, primordial to the gods, all-encompassing, all-powerful beings. You tend to lose sight of Rockefeller's status as you read episode after episode of him conducting history-making events. When Chernow addresses him as the Titan a few times in the book, you pause to think about it, and it hits you.
John D. Rockefeller evokes so many conflicting emotions in you; you alternate from admiration to perplexion, to alarm, to wonder, and then back to respect. You can tell what drove him; he made money for the sole purpose of making money and then gave it away with pinpoint precision, aimed at the best causes of his times. He was adamant about his name not going to anything he gave to, which led to me being surprised throughout the book that he was the cause for so many great institutions to rise. To my frustration, he evades all attempts to stereotype him. He makes it even more complicated by being evasive and secretive on purpose. He worked with feverish devotion and made every move after being frustratingly slow and careful; his schedule was rigid, he had no impulses, and he was obsessively pedantic about his money. On the other hand, he retired very young and spent the rest of his life with youthful energy with his family in the estates he built.
There were so many big names sprinkled throughout his life that I did not know that he founded the University of Chicago or was the first to start funding large-scale medical research (the vaccine against hookworm and malaria treatment research). Names like Helen Keller, who was partially given financial assistance by Rockefeller, Ida Tarbell, who was Rockefeller's kryptonite and successfully brought to light the unsavoury aspects of his rise to the top, and Mark Twain, I learnt that the MoMA was founded by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, wife of Junior, Carl Jung who treated his daughter Edith in Europe and then got funded by Rockefeller money, Frederick T. Gates who helped Rockefeller invest and give away his money wisely and Teddy Roosevelt, who was a master politician, and always seemed to get away with double-crossing Standard Oil.
Chernow writes this biography with all the colour of a novel; he takes care to psychologically delve into Rockefeller's early days, which leaves us wanting more. However, I wasn't too fond of all the discussion about Rockefeller's minor satellites, like his work with the Baptist church or Junior's life and heirs. While they were essential to his life, I wanted more of John D. than the others. There's also an unnecessary theme throughout the book that Rockefeller was not as sinister as Tarbell made him out to be, which felt too much like "the lad doth protest too much".
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
He was methodical to an extreme, careful as to details and exacting to a fraction.
When you read a book of this magnitude, you always have a moment when something profound strikes you. It was when I was nearing the book's midpoint, and I read that John D. had retired, or more like, gave away most duties to Archbold. So that meant that more than half of the book was dedicated to his life after Standard Oil. I wasn't expecting this, but now that I've finished reading the book, I realize how much more should have been there.
Titan, derived from the Greek Τιτάν, initially referring to the offspring of the sky and the earth, were larger than life, primordial to the gods, all-encompassing, all-powerful beings. You tend to lose sight of Rockefeller's status as you read episode after episode of him conducting history-making events. When Chernow addresses him as the Titan a few times in the book, you pause to think about it, and it hits you.
John D. Rockefeller evokes so many conflicting emotions in you; you alternate from admiration to perplexion, to alarm, to wonder, and then back to respect. You can tell what drove him; he made money for the sole purpose of making money and then gave it away with pinpoint precision, aimed at the best causes of his times. He was adamant about his name not going to anything he gave to, which led to me being surprised throughout the book that he was the cause for so many great institutions to rise. To my frustration, he evades all attempts to stereotype him. He makes it even more complicated by being evasive and secretive on purpose. He worked with feverish devotion and made every move after being frustratingly slow and careful; his schedule was rigid, he had no impulses, and he was obsessively pedantic about his money. On the other hand, he retired very young and spent the rest of his life with youthful energy with his family in the estates he built.
There were so many big names sprinkled throughout his life that I did not know that he founded the University of Chicago or was the first to start funding large-scale medical research (the vaccine against hookworm and malaria treatment research). Names like Helen Keller, who was partially given financial assistance by Rockefeller, Ida Tarbell, who was Rockefeller's kryptonite and successfully brought to light the unsavoury aspects of his rise to the top, and Mark Twain, I learnt that the MoMA was founded by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, wife of Junior, Carl Jung who treated his daughter Edith in Europe and then got funded by Rockefeller money, Frederick T. Gates who helped Rockefeller invest and give away his money wisely and Teddy Roosevelt, who was a master politician, and always seemed to get away with double-crossing Standard Oil.
Chernow writes this biography with all the colour of a novel; he takes care to psychologically delve into Rockefeller's early days, which leaves us wanting more. However, I wasn't too fond of all the discussion about Rockefeller's minor satellites, like his work with the Baptist church or Junior's life and heirs. While they were essential to his life, I wanted more of John D. than the others. There's also an unnecessary theme throughout the book that Rockefeller was not as sinister as Tarbell made him out to be, which felt too much like "the lad doth protest too much".
The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie
adventurous
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
made me look at typewriters to buy, the writing is okay, some stories are better than the others. The foreword about typewriters is some nice writing, so are the chapters with Anna, MDash, and Steve Wong. The rest aren't that great
2.5/5
2.5/5
Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire by Brad Stone
challenging
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.25
I've always had a soft spot about Jeff Bezos and the Amazon story. I mean, starting an internet book store and turning it into a global empire worth more than one and a half trillion dollars using leverage, and the power of technology, is extraordinary. I bought a physical copy of Amazon Unbound from a local bookstore, back in 2021, and decided to finally read it this summer.
It's easy to read the book, partly because the story is captivating, but also because Brad Stone can spin a good yarn. So many times, I found myself stopping to think about how unreal what Amazon and Jeff Bezos were doing. Let us give the S-Team some credit too, so this means that the S-Team, and Jeff were working, more often than not, simultaneously, on the following things:
- Echo (Alexa)
- Go stores
- Fresh
- AWS
- Washington Post
- Expansion into India, China, Europe, and Mexico
- Fire Phone
- Kindle
- Primevideo
- Independent delivery system
- Advertisements
- Blue Origin
- HQ2
- Amazon PR
- COVID-19
While reading about Bezos' idea to sell steak on a truck by going around neighbourhoods, I realized that so much of Amazon's seemingly brilliant ideas would never have taken off if they didn't have the capital. So now, the question is, if you gave a lot of people (a statistically significant number) a lot of money, would they reproduce Amazon's results? Culture matters a lot, but are there other cultures that could achieve similar or greater levels of success?
Amazon opened up their store to sellers from China who flooded their market with low-quality ripoffs. So the question is, do you just give everything to the customer and let them make the choice or do you enforce a quality bar that all sellers have to cross? And on the next level, what does it mean for sellers that are making high quality originals if a Chinese clone will always take away their customer base?
Amazon Go and their "Just Walk Out Technology". How do you create the best store in the world?
I don't think Jeff was at his best with Blue Origin, maybe that was one step too much for the great man, maybe he was just unlucky. But Blue Origin should have done so much more.
What is the future of Amazon now? Can they afford to ignore structural and organizational inefficiencies and go innovating again? Or will Jassy have to iron out some kinks first?
These were questions I had, I will end with my favourite leadership principle from Jeff. Principle 8: Think Big. Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It's easy to read the book, partly because the story is captivating, but also because Brad Stone can spin a good yarn. So many times, I found myself stopping to think about how unreal what Amazon and Jeff Bezos were doing. Let us give the S-Team some credit too, so this means that the S-Team, and Jeff were working, more often than not, simultaneously, on the following things:
- Echo (Alexa)
- Go stores
- Fresh
- AWS
- Washington Post
- Expansion into India, China, Europe, and Mexico
- Fire Phone
- Kindle
- Primevideo
- Independent delivery system
- Advertisements
- Blue Origin
- HQ2
- Amazon PR
- COVID-19
While reading about Bezos' idea to sell steak on a truck by going around neighbourhoods, I realized that so much of Amazon's seemingly brilliant ideas would never have taken off if they didn't have the capital. So now, the question is, if you gave a lot of people (a statistically significant number) a lot of money, would they reproduce Amazon's results? Culture matters a lot, but are there other cultures that could achieve similar or greater levels of success?
Amazon opened up their store to sellers from China who flooded their market with low-quality ripoffs. So the question is, do you just give everything to the customer and let them make the choice or do you enforce a quality bar that all sellers have to cross? And on the next level, what does it mean for sellers that are making high quality originals if a Chinese clone will always take away their customer base?
Amazon Go and their "Just Walk Out Technology". How do you create the best store in the world?
I don't think Jeff was at his best with Blue Origin, maybe that was one step too much for the great man, maybe he was just unlucky. But Blue Origin should have done so much more.
What is the future of Amazon now? Can they afford to ignore structural and organizational inefficiencies and go innovating again? Or will Jassy have to iron out some kinks first?
These were questions I had, I will end with my favourite leadership principle from Jeff. Principle 8: Think Big. Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Gahh, I just finished the book and Carrie loses her record in the end. This is disgusting. No way Carrie would've been so comfortable with losing. No bloody way. Nope. I wish I can forget the ending.
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.25
Normal People by Sally Rooney
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I want to write like this