Strategy and the Business Landscape: Pankaj Ghemawat (2009)

This is not one off coffee table management books for your bookshelf to decorate. This is all serious stuff if you are really keen in reading a book on strategy that summarizes 40 years of strategy literature in less than 200 pages. It expects you are at least exposed to business strategy as a discipline understand Porter's five forces, a bit of game theory principles and lots more. Presents all these in six chapters of rigorous drill on strategy and organization competitive sustenance theory. As part of the book a good refresher to the subject after 5-6 years and more importantly I found the chapter on corporate strategy very nicely dealt with. How companies on completely diversified portfolio of businesses come of with a  corporate strategy is a definite eye opener. This could be due to the fact that I was not exposed to these as part of my formal education.

A great book for academically inclined as a refresher. If you are not please avoid.

Think: Why Crucial Decisions Can't Be Made in the Blink of an Eye - Michael R. LeGault (2006)

A good summary review can be found on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_(book)

However, what I will like to write here is what I found about the book which are different than what is mostly commented. Think is not a true refutal for Blink. Blink says decision making can be made in a blink for people who are exposed to the field so much that it becomes habitual to their decision making process. Even other cases taking a decision is more important than an analysis paralysis.

Think has definitely something we need to seriously think about. There are some classic examples cited which looks like so much of a common sense that you tend to realize it every part of your day-to-day life. Politically Correctness (PC) behavior is a classic example of the same. Similarly, lots of cases have been described which in true sense someone needs to ask but no one would just because it will make you look like a rebel and leave you fight a loner's battle. Towards the end the book becomes a bit monotonous when the author proposes to suggest solutions for American society of the future to break the vicious circle. It's aparent as the real problem is who will bell the cat. I guess the author has definitely expressed his frustration in expressing the lack of a society which has degraded in its ability to make critical thinking as a way of life.

The only unfortunate part to it is, what has been written about USA is probably happening in India as a much rapid pace. The complete lack of respect for education, mushrooming of technological institutes all over the place and simplifying admission processes as some institutes are trying to create a barrier in pushing mediocrity into technology education are just a few to talk about.

A Colossal Failure of Common Sense - Larry McDonalds (2009)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Colossal_Failure_of_Common_Sense

The book seemed a bit biased. The author has brought out some instances which definitely will not pass a common sense test. But was it all to it is questionable though. However, there is no doubt that success leads to corporate hubris among the high level execs and definitely get them blinded. Does that mean Lehman could have been saved? Not sure if that was true when every well known bank had gone through the same fate till they exposed themselves to govt. intervention. I think the viewpoints expressed should be respected but there needs to be an alternate view which needs to be given some thoughts to as well. 

Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict - Amy Dockser Marcus

This is a perfect coffee table history book. The times of Arab-Israel crisis is discussed from various sources known at that point in time. More than book it has been made to represent in a journalistic style where the history is depicted as in a first person account. The good part is you can always understand the text easily and bad part is you never feel like reading a real history book. The 2004-06 section in the book is not quite an important read. It's more like what happened to various people and places described in the book when the author was doing research.

Overall, a good read but in the end of it you still will not get a real understanding of the history per se. But you will definitely enjoy reading the book like a novel.

The Idea of Justice - Amartya Sen (2009)

You can read a wikipedia review.

Unfortunately, I did not feel wikipedia review is justified by stating the book is a critique and revision of Rawl's ideas. Rawl's has been used more like a central theme to which other concepts are compared with to make the complex theory understandable. However, just a few word of caution on when you start reading the book. This is not your one other coffee table books. Very detailed and thought provoking in style and content. Needs extreme patience and concentration to really make sense of the book. Definitely, gives a thorough understanding of justice, reasoning and principles behind them.

If you have serious appreciation for the concepts of justice and reasoning no book can be better to get a wide perspective.

The Mind of the Maker - Dorothy L. Sayers (1941)

One of the hardest books I have read to make meaning out of. The concepts and thoughts presented around trinity and comparison of that to a creative professional's mind is definitely interesting and thought provoking. But at places I find the book is way to complex to follow. I would read ten to fifteen pages at a time and rumage over it for sometime and then read the next couple of pages. When it comes to last two chapters I just could not keep my flow with the author and had to resort to my own interpretation. Definitely a great thought provoking book but needs real focus to make maximum out of this book. Unless you have a serious interest in Christianity and Theology, you will not make mcuh gains from this book.

inside the tornado: marketing strategies from silicon valley's cutting edge: Geoffrey A Moore (1995)

The biggest problem with management books are there are very small number of books that stand the test of time. I feel "Inside the Tornado" proves it all wrong. The examples are dated. At least from the time when I had stepped into the tech industry. Some companies who ruled when the books were written have ceased to exist in today's times but you can always make a good mapping which companies exist in the race and where in the technology adoption cycle. I personally liked the description of the Main Street. A phase most technology companies miss out while planning and always prefer to be on the staircase S-curves. Some succeed and most fail. But I think it will be of significant value if someone clearly carves out a main street strategy. I think that's where the maturity of management comes to play than technology value. The real customer focus. In some sense the book has done such a great job of that part of adoption cycle I will probably like the in the Main Street as the name of the book.