Category: Books I like
-
A good book for Christmas
A friend wrote a very good historical mystery book. It is a bit like the Da Vinci code but set in London. I paid a tenner for it but if you have a Kindle you can get it for 99p this week.
-
“The Checklist Manifesto” is a game-changing book
What is it about? The author’s key message is that the volume and complexity of knowledge today has exceeded any single individual’s ability to manage it consistently without error despite material advances in technology, boatloads of more training and super-specialization of functions and responsibilities. Yet, despite demonstrating that checklists produce results, there is resistance…
-
A review of “The Reckoning” by Jacob Soll
I have just read “The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the making and breaking of nations” by Jacob Soll. This is a brilliant walk though history seen through the lens of double entry accounting. Accounting is without doubt very hard work and to most people very boring but Soll shows how morally directed accounting is essential…
-
A review of Reformation Europe’s House Divided
I am a physicist by training and inclination and as the biologist Hans Zinsser noted in “Rats, Lice and History“, physicists often have a strong interest in theology or as he might have put it “often go off the deep end”. Reformation Europe’s House Divided 1490-1700 by Diarmaid MacCulloch is a magisterial review of European…
-
On national destinies
I am reading Peter Hopkirk’s “The Great Game” a brilliant book about the Russia’s conquest of the Near East and attempts to reach British India. The present conflicts in the region remind us of the importance of understanding history and national characters. This quote came to mind, Americans are born to liberty, Russians to oppression…
-
For twisted minds – Two Girls, One on each knee
The best book about cryptic crosswords ever written. (Full disclosure: Alan is my cousin) If you’ve ever had even a passing interest in cryptic crosswords but been unable to do them you will find this book invaluable. If you have been doing crosswords were several years then I suspect you will find Alan’s history of…
-
Books on innovation
Continuing my theme of useful books. Here a couple of very valuable books about managing innovation. The Lean Start-up Business Model Generation
-
Excellent book on management theories
I am presently doing research for a book that I am going to write called “How to be a Middle Manager” and I have found this excellent book that summarises a wide range of management theories in an easily digestible and usable way. Much cheaper than an MBA! The Little Book of Big Management Theories:…
-
Books about “Requirements Management”
In the frothy drive to all things “agile” formal requirements management is often forgotten. Requirements management is core to the waterfall/spiral development process but is often overlooked by agile teams. I believe that requirements management is a professional discipline that should be considered on a par with software programming and test. To my mind the…
Dr James Bayley 