Hitler (An Illustrated Life)

Hitler... as according to Gregor Strasser: "He doesn't smoke, he doesn't drink, he eats almost nothing but green stuff, he doesn't touch any women! How are we supposed to understand him across to other people?"...

At times, I hate to read historical biography... Most of the time, this kind of books might end up as half histories plus half biographical stuff. "Hitler, an illustrated life" is more than that.. perhaps 60% of history stuff plus 40% of biography stuff, LOL. Well, I understand the difficulties in writing historical biography. The author needs to be precise about historical facts. At the same time, he/ she needs to give his / her opinion in regards to biographical stuff! Tough? Of course...

In terms of facts, I thought this book reveals a lot of great stuff. However, a book with only 224 pages surely has its limitation. In fact, I think the author over-emphasize the historical parts. At the end, readers may find it boring (Well, history itself is boring enough, isn't it? LOL) and find it hard to pick up any interest part. For myself, I was initially looking forward to know more about the personality of the said fanatical dictator. Unfortunately, I found very little of that.

Overall, I love and hate this book... I love the "simplicity" by the author (simple yet precise!). A small book (with only 224 pages) to tell the story of a dictator did enough to proved my point! I hate it as I am a reader who prefers more biography stuff. After all, Europe histories no longer attract me these days.

Having said that, I am not going to rate highly on this book. Out of 10, I am giving 4 points based on my personal expectations in exploring this book. Like I said above, I do not hate this book. But, I do not like it too... 

The Fundamentals Of Hedge Fund Management

A friend of mine recommended this book... and I thought since I am so "academical" lately, why not? LOL..

Ok, this is basically a simple book on the fundamentals of hedge fund. For those who know nothing about managing hedge fund, this book serves as a good introduction. It gives you a basic outline of everything you need to do to start and run a hedge fund.

I personally love the chapter of "Marketing" and the chapter of "Perception versus Reality". One statement in that chapter of "Marketing" clearly pointed out the real situation in real life: "In terms of getting assets, 1. the people you think will give you likely won't. 2. the people who you will never imagine in a million years giving you money might be where you get the money from." Interesting fact, right?  On the chapter of "Perception versus Reality", the case studies provided are really some great stuff to ponder about... After all, managing a fund is not really as easier as many peoples think...

My only criticism of the book is that it is slightly out-dated. Those who follow hedge fund regularly will realize that certain rules were changed ever since this book was published. As such, readers might be confused with certain regulations as mentioned in the book. My advice is... check through with respective parties if you have doubts. After all, this is a book published in year 2007. Hence, out-dated issues are something unavoidable.

Overall, this is a nice book to explore. Although simple... but details enough for newbies. I will recommend this book for beginners. However, for those intermediate or advance levels, perhaps this is not the best choice of resources. As such, "intermediate" reader like me only rates this book at 5/10. Nice book, easy to digest but too simple in my humble opinion... 

The Ten Day MBA

I hardly go into this... I mean, academically books.. To be frank, since I graduated from university, my focus was more on books that I failed to read during my university time. After all, a three straight years of degree life did just enough for me to find excuses into exploring non-academic books, LOL. So, I guess it is time to refresh a bit into what I studied 15 years ago, LOL.

MBA is something attractive to me all the while. I know I may not have the chance to further my studies into this (at least in short term) . As such, I am very curious with this book... Well, a MBA to complete in 10 days' time.. Why not? LOL...

At the end, this is the only book for me for the past 10 days. To be honest, I really enjoyed it. The past 10 days proved to be educational (although academically too, LOL). My curiosity was satisfied with the author's creativity in writing this book. After all, we are talking about the "secrets" taught at Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Chicago, Northwestern and Virginia. So, what is there to complain about?

The only setback perhaps lies with the simplicity. MBA holder and prospective MBA holder may not like it... The fact is, the author needs to fit in 9 major courses plus a series of MBA minicourses in a book! As such, certain details may not be adequate and readers need to read further in other resources. However, if a local university degree holder like me can understand and appreciate the whole book, I guess the so called "simplicity" is not an issue to any other readers.  After all, I am not reading for academic purpose. I am reading it to sharpen my competitive edge, expertise and performances in certain area. In fact, most of the topics were covered (although not 100%) in my university time. Hence, the said book also acts as a good "refresher" course to a busy man (ahem!!!LOL) like me.

Overall, I love this book so much. In view of that, I am going to rate 9/10 for this book. An excellent academically book and an excellent "refresher"... no doubt!

Contents:

Day 1: Marketing

Day 2: Ethics

Day 3: Accounting

Day 4: Organizational Behavior

Day 5: Quantitative Analysis

Day 6: Finance

Day 7: Operations

Day 8: Economics

Day 9: Strategies

Day 10 MBA Minicourses