Steve’s Blog

I have disclaimers for this review. Jason has joined me for a podcast episode before, and after reading this book, I invited him on again. It’s an excellent business book. There’s no wasted space in it. It’s about 200 densely packed pages. It’s truly a slow read because every few sentences you stop to jot down ideas. I also had an AI tool open while reading. Jason would explain a business metric or idea, and I’d use AI to follow on. For example, in an early chapter, he talks a lot about sorting customers by profitability. By the end of…

I’ve started a lot of Robert Harris books, but not finished many of them. He’s written nearly 20 novels, so it’s not surprising that some fit my taste better than others. Agrippa was one I finished, and quickly. It has the same style as his Cicero trilogy: a fake biography Agrippa was the right-hand man of Augustus, the first Roman emperor, and this story is written from the point of view of Agrippa at the end of his life. The best word I have for Harris’s writing style is “punchy”. The book opens like this: I came into the world…

Some people are going to hate this book. I can hear the complaints already. Emma Southon’s writing is an acquired taste. Here’s a typical quote: “Historians have read the statements of slave owners as truthful and objective, rather than the self-conscious constructions of those justifying slave ownership. I’m sorry but: Fuck that.” Yep, this is a very different approach to history. The author is deliberately provocative and writes for people who might not normally be interested in ancient history. The author is also taking a different approach with her topic. I’ve never seen a book on Roman slavery before. I…

I have disclaimers for this review. Jason has joined me for a podcast episode before, and after reading this book, I invited him on again. It’s an excellent business book. There’s no wasted space in it. It’s about 200 densely packed pages. It’s truly a slow read because every few sentences you stop to jot down ideas. I also had an AI tool open while reading. Jason would explain a business metric or idea, and I’d use AI to follow on. For example, in an early chapter, he talks a lot about sorting customers by profitability. By the end of…

This is a travelogue where the author tries to re-create a journey that Henry Stanley took through the Congo in the 1870s. He mapped the river for the first time, starting oj the east coast of Africa, finding the source of the Congo, and traveling all the way to the Atlantic. Stanley then helped Belgium take over the region, which turned into a genuine disaster. I have mixed feelings about this book. It kept me turning the pages and gave a solid introduction to the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I’ve visited North Africa, grew up in…

This was my favorite pure biography in several years. I give it high praise because you don’t just learn about Václav Havel, but also the history of Prague and Czechoslovakia during the 1900s. I admit to knowing absolutely zero about the city and country before this book. The writer was Václav Havel’s press secretary during many of his years as a politician. But he doesn’t hold back on Havel’s flaws. Havel comes across as a very complicated man. He’s a successful playwright, a party animal, a womanizer, and the brave center of a network of opposition to the communist government.…