Book Reviews

Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook – A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, And Betrayal by Ben Mezrich

With Peter Hiddema’s launch into Facebook, it seems only fitting we talk about Ben Mezrich’s account of how Facebook itself came into existence. His book is entitled Accidental Billionaires, and tells the story of a genius of an idea, and two best friends: Mark Zukerberg, a computer whiz; and Eduardo Saverin, a young monied scion, both of whom were socially-awkward Harvard undergrads back in 2004.

Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller by Jeff Rubin

Transit fares in Canada’s largest city recently increased by $.25 per ride. As an infrequent user of public transit (short distances in off-peak hours), I already do a calculation to compare the cost of parking with the cost of my TTC fare. I don’t factor in the cost of the gasoline my car uses, I figure I’m not going too far, it can’t be that much. If Jeff Rubin is correct, those days are almost over.

Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis

About 10 years ago, I was living in California and decided to pay someone from an investment bank to provide advice on where to invest my hard earned savings. I figured the investment bank had been around for a long time and since it was making money, I would too. Oh, if only I had [...]

Getting to Resolution Turning Conflict into Collaboration by Stewart Levine

According to Stewart Levine, "Many people have difficulty accepting that life is filled with surprises, conflict, disappointment, and unmet expectations. These things happen-consistently and predictably." It's easy to fall into the conflict is 'bad' trap and in his book, Getting to Resolution, Turning Conflict into Collaboration, Levine reminds us that conflict and problems are opportunities: [...]

Persuasion by James Borg

It’s always a delight to find a book that can be useful to so many people regardless of the type of work they do. James Borg’s Persuasion, the art of influencing people is one such book and well worth reading. As Borg says, “The book will show you how to put yourself and your thoughts [...]