While not quite as good as Volume 1, The Digital Photography Book Volume 2 still packed in quite a few tips for amateur photographers. I'd recommend buying both volumes since they're so quick and easy to read.

One suggestion: take notes as you're reading. Between the two books, I jotted down several dozen things to try.

While The Reformation gave me a much better understanding of the history of Europe and of religion, it was exactly as exciting to read as you might imagine.

The plethora of names and locations mentioned was at times overwhelming. It's obviously hard to condense such a large event into a relatively short book and I probably would have better enjoyed a book that covered a bit less ground.

Understanding Exposure is a must read for anyone interested in taking better photos with their SLR camera. This book is so good that I now actually feel comfortable using the full manual mode on my Canon Rebel XT.

Bryan Peterson does a great job explaining aperature, shutter speeds, back lighting, front lighting, depth of field, filters, light metering.. you get the idea. Every question I could think of was covered.

Automatic Wealth is one of the better wealth building books I've read. Michael Masterson reinforced many of my existing thoughts and provided some new points of view.

In general, Automatic Wealth advocates that you learn an essential and valuable skill, excel at your job to earn a superstar income, keep your expenses under control as your income rises, use that extra income to buy and sell properties or side businesses, and then create many streams of passive income.

The book spent a little too much time on real estate flipping and renting for my tastes, but the concepts were sound.

Masterson suggests real estate and side businesses in place of stock market investments, at least in early to mid stages of wealth building. Pretty good advice considering the book was written just before the current market downturn! Stock investments take too long to grow and are akin to gambling since you can't control them. It's smarter to invest conservatively and in equity-building properties and side businesses.

Anticipating the thousands of pictures I'd take of our new baby, I decided I should learn how to make them turn out well. The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby was exactly what I was looking for.

Kelby doesn't spend time on theory or explanations (my next book Understanding Exposure is best for that), he just tells you exactly what you need to know to take various shots. He also covers what gear to buy (and budget alternatives!), techniques of the pros, and even a few Photoshop tips.

The Americas was a pretty interesting book that covers the combined history of North and South America. It contrasts the various regions before discovery by Europeans, during colonialism, and all the way up to the modern era.

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto does an impressive job covering such a wide timeframe and range of topics in a relatively short book. At times, I found his choice of words strange and his language too academic, but perhaps that's just because he's British.

The New Father is Armin Brott's follow up to The Expectant Father. It's written in the same down to earth language and is packed with lots of good info for new dads.

Like The Expectant Father, it's arranged by month and I found that to be the most helpful part. Since I haven't spent a lot of time around young children, I really had no idea when they're able to sit up, crawl, walk, or talk.

The New Father starts each month's chapter by going over what's happening physically, intellectually, and emotionally with your child. Then it goes into detail on various issues new fathers might be facing around that time.

The book is a bit repetitive in some sections if you've just read The Expectant Father like I did, but overall I'd highly recommend it to new fathers.

I happened to watch a show on National Geographic about the development and birth of cats and dogs before I started reading Husband-Coached Childbirth. Conveniently enough, it turned out that Dr. Bradley refers to the natural birth processes and instincts of these domesticated animals throughout the book.

I found it very reassuring to understand how childbirth works without medical interventions. If you're not a believer in natural childbirth when you start the book, your only options are to stop reading or start believing.

Bradley is in fact so insistent on supporting the natural processes at work that he once had a patient who went nearly three months past her due date. He said she and her husband were content to keep waiting, but friends and family thought it was criminal not to induce labor. After nearly twelve months of pregnancy, the woman gave birth to a six and a half pound, perfectly healthy baby.

We'll soon see how delivery goes for our first baby, but I at least feel much more prepared after reading this book.

I started getting worried the baby would arrive before I finished The Expectant Father, but fortunately my luck held out.

I highly recommend this book to other expectant fathers since it covers everything you could possibly have questions about. Most importantly, Armin Brott's writing is very conversational and he even makes learning about childbirth pretty entertaining.

Just because this book is for future dads and it's easy to read doesn't mean it's Childbirth for Dummies. I was able to share quite a few facts and tips that Megan hadn't read in her seventeen other pregnancy books.

I'm definitely purchasing Armin Brott's follow on book that covers newborns through their first year of development.

I picked up To America after being thoroughly impressed with Citizen Solidiers, also by Stephen Ambrose. This was different kind of book. Well told history packs each chapter of course, but To America contains the author's opinions and personal insights, too.

To America covers key events and people in American history. It explains their significance, why things happened (often imperfectly) the way they did, and how opinions have changed over time.

Ambrose covers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, slavery, treatment of American Indians, the transcontinental railroad, the world wars, Dwight Eisenhower, the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon, civil rights, and more.

He seemed to pack in all the bits of research and insight he's had over the years that didn't quite fit into any of his other books. Of course, now that I've sampled many of the topics he's written about I plan to add the rest of his books to my reading list.

Foundation is the first Isaac Asimov book I've read and I was not disappointed. It's hard to believe such a great science fiction book was originally published in 1951.

The story starts with Hari Seldon predicting the demise of the Galatic Empire and setting in motion a plan that will greatly shorten the coming dark ages. Foundation starts as a scientific colony to preserve galactic knowledge, but it must use political, religious, and economic leverage to survive and advance Seldon's plan.

I'm getting ready to order Foundation and Empire to find out what happens next.

A Short History of World War I was okay, but just like the war, the middle section seemed to drag on forever with not much to show for it at the end. To other readers, I'd recommend reading the first few chapters, the last few, and the well done epilogue.

I picked up Prey in the airport on the way to Colorado and finished most of the book during the plane flights out and back. It's a fast-moving, nanotechnology-gone-wrong thriller that's quick to read. I thought the plot left a bit to be desired and of course it ends in typical Michael Crichton style (read a few of his books and you'll understand), but it's a good book overall.

The Gunslinger provides an intriguing start to Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I'll definitely have to read the next book to find out more about the world that has "moved on."

Ready for Anything is somewhat of an I'm-still-here book like Stephen Covey's The 8th Habit, but fortunately David Allen didn't forget to include some good content. The book covers much of the Getting Things Done system, but it's told in a more anecdotal format that may actually be easier for some people to remember and apply. It's a good refresher course for those who have already read Getting Things Done.

I highly recommend Without Remorse. The story covers how John Clark/Kelly got started in the CIA and doesn't touch on Jack Ryan at all. It was so good I couldn't put the book down and get to bed at a decent hour many nights.

I listened to Spanish III-A and III-B back to back and remain impressed by the quality of the Pimsleur lessons. My only problem now is that my local library doesn't carry any higher level Spanish audio books.

The 4-Hour Workweek is a quick and enjoyable book that just may change (or confirm) your outlook on life. In it, Timothy Ferriss goes over many techniques for taking control of your life, breaking out of the rat race, and actually doing all those things you wish you were doing right now. For me, much of the book was like reading a well written version of much of what I've been talking to my wife about for years.

The themes of The 4-Hour Workweek will likely strike a cord with many in their twenties and thirties. For example, the idea of working all the time until retirement is just plain stupid according to Ferriss (and me). Instead, mini-retirements throughout your life can keep you on an even keel and help you experience and enjoy much more. Likewise, many readers will agree with the need to work on your own terms, from anywhere, and as efficiently as possible rather than from 9-5, at an office, for about 50 weeks a year.

Highly recommended.

From a blog post I wrote recently: I have been amazed on a daily basis by the quality of the Citizen Soldiers and D-Day audio books I've been listening to by Stephen Ambrose. For many people, history is a subject concerned with the memorization of disjointed facts, names, and dates, but Ambrose makes it personal. He has an incredible ability to weave together stories from interviews, letters, and official records into a captivating narrative that tells the bigger picture. It's history from the bottom up, just like those involved would tell it to their children and grandchildren.

Learning the Allied invasion of Europe took place on June 6th, 1944 is much more memorable when you hear from soldiers who boarded ships on June 5th only to endure twenty-four hours of seasickness while the invasion was delayed a day due to bad weather. The often incredible acts of heroism are more easily understood when you read letters home saying soldiers were most concerned about letting down the men who had become like family to them. You start to see individuals among the millions of soldiers when you hear stories like about the paratrooper who jumped out of the plane and dropped a baseball on which he had written "We're coming for you, Hitler." And you get a genuine feel for the young men wanting to fit in and show solidarity when you hear about one pre-invasion squad shaving their heads bald and seeing the practice spread to thousands of men.

Stephen Ambrose sets the standard for how history should be written.

You Need to Be a Little Crazy was a pretty interesting book about entrepreneurship, not because it gave a recipe for success, but because it covered what's hard and what can go wrong. It's this sort of shared wisdom that is often lacking from successful entrepreneurial books, but exactly what's needed to help others avoid making the same mistakes. That said, the book felt unorganized and a bit repetitive, so I have some reservations with recommending it.

Citizen Soldiers was simply fantastic! In it, Stephen Ambrose tells the history of the European part of World War II through stories about individual soldiers and units. Let me tell you this is far and away better than any of the high level histories you may have read before.

The invasion at Normandy takes on a whole new feel when you hear how a single paratrooper, Waverly Wray, on a lone patrol behind enemy lines managed to kill eight German officers and two entrenched machine gunners. It turns out those officers were to lead the German counterattack against the allied beach landing. A single, amazingly tough American soldier had left them leaderless and confused. Members of Wray's unit confirmed each of the dead Germans had been killed by a single shot to the head, some from over 100 meters away. Wray had been shot in the ear and he still insisted on personally burying each man because he believed it was his responsibility.

Citizen Soldiers covers the history of World War II through dozens if not hundreds of similar stories told in much more detail. Stephen Ambrose conducted forty years worth of interviews with veterans on both sides and is truly a master of the World War II history. You're missing out if you don't read this book.

The Evolution of Useful Things analyzes inventions, how they come to exist, and how limitations or even fashions necessitate changes over time. The author examines the proliferation of competing designs as well as factors that determine the success of one over another.

The book was pretty interesting, but I found the author's writing style hard to read at times. Henry Petroski, an engineering professor, wrote as if he were trying to impress someone in the English department with his mastery of complicated sentence structure and general wordiness. The use of arcane vocabulary and phrases made me think the book was written long before the 1992 copyright.

That said, I sure learned a lot of interesting anecdotes about the development of modern silverware, bottles, cans, paperclips, and other common items. The Evolution of Useful Things is a great book for adding to "cocktail party chatter", as my college history professor used to say.

The first half of The Colorado Kid was fantastic. Unfortunately, Stephen King forgot to write the second half.

Despite an ending that leaves you hanging with all sorts of questions, I remain amazed at Stephen King's ability to weave together an entirely believable and interesting plot. The characters, the way they speak, and all the surrounding details are simply perfect.

The Colorado Kid is basically a short murder mystery. I listened to the audio book in only five days, so check it out if you want a quick book with an interesting story.

President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination is one thorough book. I think I now know every single thing that happened during Reagan's presidency with particular emphasis on anything that went wrong.

Unfortunately, Richard Reeves seemed torn between telling stories about Reagan's great strategic thinking, negotiating prowess, ability to get things done, and wit on one hand, while on the other hand portraying him as a tired, incompetent old man.

Had I known in advance about Reeves' reputation as a self-professed elitist liberal, I would never have read his biased interpretation of Reagan's presidency. If you're a liberal who wants to read a lot about Reagan (all seven of you), you'll probably enjoy this book more than I did.

Debt of Honor is a good Tom Clancy novel about a modern day war between the U.S. and Japan. The story was incredibly detailed and realistic like other Clancy books, but I frankly thought this book was on the slow side until the very end.

That impression may be totally my fault, though, since it took me six months to finish Debt of Honor. I started reading and then kept putting it down for weeks (or months) on end. That's definitely not the way to read a book as detailed or as long as Debt of Honor, so read it for yourself if you're a Tom Clancy fan and let me know what you think.

Spanish Plus is the last audio book in Pimsleur's excellent Spanish language series. I'm planning to use it again later as a refresher course since it covers pretty much everything you need to remember. Unfortunately, now I need to find a more advanced level language lesson to continue improving my Spanish.

While a bit lighter on background and character development than other books I've read by Stephen King, I liked the way Cell started out with a bang and jumped right into the action.

The story follows Clay Riddell as he travels to save his son after a "pulse" goes out over cell phones that causes people to go completely insane. I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic plots and this one left little to be desired. What starts out like a standard zombie movie steadily becomes weirder and creepier in ways only Stephen King could dream up.

Like every other one of his books that I've read, I'd definitely recommend this one, too.

Blink was a great audio book that was even read by the author, Malcolm Gladwell. The writing was fantastic and his thorough analysis of the "adaptive unconscious" was even better.

Gladwell looks at the amazing ability the human mind has to make accurate decisions in only seconds. Such decisions may have involved no conscious thought and the person may not be able to explain his or her decision afterward. One example from the book is an art appraiser who could only explain he felt sick after seeing a statue that turned out much later to be a fake.

There's a lot we don't know about how our own minds work, but Blink gives us an insightful glimpse at some of its hidden capabilities. I'd suggest that you to read it yourself, but your adaptive unconscious probably already decided one way or the other several sentences ago :)

The Shining was another great book by Stephen King. King writes so descriptively and convincingly that I think seeing the movie at this point would make the story seem less real to me. I continue to be amazed by his writing skill and I plan on reading many more Stephen King books.

That's right; I listened to an audio book about salt. What's more surprising is it was actually very interesting. Mark Kurlansky delivers a unique history of the world centering on the use, production, and trade of salt.

Salt contains a nearly endless stream of interesting facts. Did you know, for instance, that ancient Chinese salt miners discovered and learned to harness natural gas to boil brine thousands of years before Europeans? How about that Basque sailors were likely fishing for cod and salting their catch off the coast of Newfoundland long before Columbus discovered the Americas? I'll leave the history of ketchup and pasta as a reason for you to read the book yourself.

My only complaint with Salt was that it contained too many recipes. Especially with the audio book, there's nothing more boring to me than listening to recipe after recipe for various salted meat dishes.

Don't even bother with foreign language lessons that aren't done by Pimsleur because I can assure you they can't compare. I can get by in Spanish already, but even this Spanish II audio book taught me a few things about how to put together certain phrases. More importantly, the Pimsleur method subtlely drills each lesson into your head so it's ready when you need to use it. Finally, this audio book provided a good amount of real world pronunciation practice. Pimsleur always deals with phrases instead of single words, so you can practice pronouncing words back to back like in normal speech.

You might remember Zell Miller as the democratic senator who spoke at the Republican National Convention before the 2004 presidential election.

A National Party No More is partly a biography with lots of detail about Zell Miller's upbringing and pursuit of politics. Throughout the book he makes it clear that he's a democrat through and through, but that the modern democratic party has been hijacked by the far left that's out of touch with common sense Americans. Zell Miller had a lot of success as governor of Georgia, but the radical, partisan, and unethical behavior he discovered when he joined the Senate sickened him.

Miller pulls few punches in this interesting look at how the modern democratic party is alienating some of its lifelong members.

State of Fear is really an exposé about the madness of the radical environmentalist movement dressed up in entertaining novel form. The book was extremely interesting and filled with facts about global warming in particular. Michael Crichton certainly did his homework for this one. Anyone interested in cutting through the hysteria surrounding global warming will enjoy this book.

Like Kilo Class, Nimitz Class was a good, entertaining audio book. Anyone who likes Tom Clancy will enjoy Patrick Robinson's books, too. I think this book actually comes before Kilo Class, but it really didn't make any difference reading them out of order.

Bruce Catton's history of the Civil War is simply fantastic. I've never studied the Civil War before and I found this book to be very easy to follow and full of memorable anecdotes. I rank this book on par with James Stokesbury's Short History of World War II and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in American history.

One aspect of the book that made it so good was the way Catton worked the thoughts and moods of the north and south into the description of the war itself. As the book and war progressed, I felt like I could understand the motivations for war, the excitement of victory, the crushing defeats, the momentum turning against the south, and the general war weariness that affected the nation as the war came to a close.

Since the Civil War is still a sore subject in the south, it was also nice that Catton presents a very balanced view of events. He explains why events happened the way they did and, most interesting, he describes the key decisions that could have changed everything.

Some interesting anecdotes: Did you know there was a riot against the war in New York City that killed well over 1000 civilians, many black? Did you know that the South much more effectively centralized government and miliary control than the North despite being the more ardent supporters of states' rights? Did you know the South initially withheld cotton shipments to Europe in hopes of forcing England and France to support them militarily? Did you know John Wilkes Booth killed Lincoln in an insane plan to help the South, but it resulted in the "bitter ender" radicals gaining control of the government and inflicting years of punishment on the South?

Sell Your Way To The Top is two CDs worth of Zig Ziglar speeches that are both entertaining and enlightening. I'd recommend this audio book to just about everyone even if you aren't interested in sales. Zig Ziglar is simply an amazingly good speaker and, after hearing him, it's no longer any wonder to me why he's the first name you hear when anyone talks about sales.

Maybe some of Donald Trump's earlier books were more interesting, but this one, although funny at times, turned to complete crap after the first two sections. Even out of these two sections, I only took away two lessons.

The first lesson is do what you love which Trump explains something like, "Don't take vacations. Who needs them? If your work isn't what you love, you're wasting your time."

The second lesson is that attention to detail and quality makes all the difference. This lesson is throughout the book, but is best illustrated by his insistence to immediately fix even minor problems at his properties and keep everything looking pristine.

The rest of the book degenerates into a horribly boring, rambling account of the products Trump likes, a drawn out description of his events for a week, and a boring preview of season two for The Apprentice. I had to fast forward through The Apprentice hype because I couldn't care less about that show.

Don't waste your time with this book; I wasted enough for both of us.

Treason was a fantastic audio book that left me wanting to read more of Ann Coulter. Unlike her columns consisting of non-stop jabs at liberals, Treason was more of a historical summary of the struggles for and against America during the past seventy years. There are, of course, jabs at liberals, but they are sparsely sprinkled around an enormous amount of interesting research and background about the issues. Most impressive is that just about every quote and fact is paired with a citation of the source - the New York Times could learn a thing or two.

Ann Coulter covers the presence of confirmed Soviet agents in high levels of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations (both Democrats), the appeasement of Stalin, the cut-and-run strategy in Vietnam that led to the slaughter of millions of Vietnamese and Cambodians, and Reagan's defeat of the USSR - that Gorbachev got the Nobel Peace prize for.

The latter part of the book deals with more recent events such as President Carter and President Clinton's 1994 appeasement deal with North Korea. Given current events, the fact that North Korea admitted developing nuclear weapons as early as 1995 certainly makes you wonder why the media thinks Bush caused the mess.

Most disturbing is example after example (all cited) of how liberals and the press have aligned themselves against America during the War on Terrorism. A great book for conservatives, but liberals will probably prefer to proclaim it full of lies without reading it.

Buy this book, study it, and contact your congressmen. The FairTax Book presents a great plan for a complete overhaul of the current ridiculous tax system in the United States.

As dry as a book about taxes sounds it was actually very interesting throughout. Boortz and Linder provide a great history of our current system of taxation and lay out a compelling argument for creating a new system based on the FairTax concept.

If you don't want to read it for yourself, the basic idea is to replace all taxes in the United States with a simple national retail sales tax. No favoritism for people with enough money to hire lobbyists, no more hiding income off-shore, no one gets off untaxed by being paid in cash, tourists pay tax, and everyone gets refunded their tax on purchases up to the poverty line. Business and personal financial decisions can finally be made based on logic rather than our 60,000+ page tax code.

A Time to Kill is John Grisham's first book and is surprisingly good. The book centers on the trial of a black man who kills the white men who raped his young daughter. All of the characters are extremely well developed and really stuck with me thanks in part to the memorable voices in the audio book version I listened to.

Inventing Japan provides an interesting look at Japan's transformation from an isolated, feudal country to a modern democracy. I found the parallel rise of powerful government bureaucracies and of emperor worship to be particularly insightful for understanding World War II.

Germany invaded its neighbors, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Germany carried out genocide, the Allies landed in Normandy, and the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Japan. That's the history lesson we all got in school, but A Short History of World War II fills in the details of the war that shaped the modern world.

James Stokesbury does a fantastic job explaining the build up to war, the effects on and actions of the countries involved, heavy descriptions of strategic and tactical decisions, and much more including analysis of the war's aftermath. Since this book covers so many aspects of WWII, it gives readers a great framework for learning more (and for watching the History channel). I found this book fascinating and would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about how we got where we are today.

Freakonomics is a popular book because it supplies readers with memorable tidbits that can be brought up in many conversations. As the authors freely admit, there's no overarching theme, just a series of interesting looks at various sorts of data.

What I found most interesting is how Steven Levitt (the economist) comes up with interesting ways to analyze raw data. For instance, given Chicago's school system testing data, he devised a way to conclusively determine which teachers were cheating to boost their students' scores on standardized tests.

Overall, Freakonomics is an interesting, fast-reading book that makes some controversial claims, but backs them up with real data.

Other than Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, I haven't read much Christian literature. Wild at Heart says "over 1 million copies sold" on the cover, but I'd never even heard of it until I got it as a gift from my soon-to-be-brother-in-law. Despite these facts, this book connected with me in a strong way right from the start.

Wild at Heart makes it clear that somewhere along the way, churches got the ideal image of a Christian man all wrong. He explains how following your dreams, having adventures, facing danger, and being true to yourself are all desirable and even necessary for a man to fulfill his potential. We innately know this to be true, of course, but taking the safe, stable, and secure route keeps seeming like a good idea.

John Eldredge covers many issues men face in their lives and consistently gives great advice. One of my favorite quotes is "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." That's a great idea from a great book.

The Cardinal of the Kremlin is a fantastic Tom Clancy book that takes place right after The Hunt for Red October. Like a typical Clancy book, several seemingly disparate plot lines come together to form a completely believable story. The action covers arms negotiations between the Americans and Soviets, political maneuvering within the U.S.S.R., lots of CIA and KGB spy activity, SDI (Star Wars) research, and even the war in Afghanistan. The Cardinal of the Kremlin is definitely my favorite book by Tom Clancy so far.

John Hedgecoe's Photography Basics is a good book to get you thinking about photography. The book covers a broad range of topics such as lighting, focus, filters, and different types of photo subjects in a series of two page spreads full of lots of example photos. Each page is filled with useful tips and recommendations about how to achieve the best effect. I think the full value of this book will come when I use it later as a reference for ideas.

Getting Things Done is a great book about how to get organized and reach new levels of productivity. David Allen describes how to handle all sorts of tasks from incoming emails, reference materials, appointments, ongoing projects and much more. He even includes flowcharts for how to implement his system.

The system for getting and staying organized is remarkably simple. In fact, I recognized most components of his system as things I already do with varying levels of consistency. It's the way David Allen pulls everything together and describes the benefits of each process that makes this book a must-read. I've certainly gained a new understanding about getting and staying organized and would highly recommend this book to everyone.

I have been truly impressed by Pimsleur's method of teaching foreign languages. Rather than start with brute force memorization of vocabulary, the Pimsleur method teaches how to build up phrases using authentic pronunciation and conversational speed. The result is that what you do remember, you can say correctly instead of knowing lots of individual words that you can't put together or pronounce.

In addition to this short version of Pimsleur French, I picked up the short version of Italian along with the complete versions of German and Spanish from the library. My goal is to establish a basic knowledge of each language so I have something to build on next time I'm in Europe. Pimsleur's's method seems like a great way to get to that point.

I'll admit it. This was a desperation selection at the library, but, unlike Moby Dick, this one actually turned out all right. In fact, The Company was quite interesting.

Micklethwait and Wooldridge, both contributors to The Economist, succinctly summarize the many twists and turns in the development of the modern company, the corporation. They move from ancient times through the development of joint stock companies in Western Europe all the way to multinational corporations like Wal-Mart. Examples from history and from real companies still around today make the book engaging and easy to relate to. Their insight into how the differences in the cultures and politics among Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States affected the development of companies in each country was fascinating.

I found it particularly interesting how each stage of the company's development required a paradigm shift that left some behind and others highly prosperous. For instance, although Ford revolutionized manufacturing, GM gained enormous market share from him by implementing seemingly basic concepts such as a company hierarchy, middle managers, and performance reviews. This, of course, gave rise to the gigantic, bureaucratic companies of the 60s and 70s that couldn't imagine small upstarts like eBay and Amazon eating their lunch thirty years later.

Right now the company increasingly takes the shape of small entrepreneurial startups or entrepreneurial teams within a larger company, but what new innovation does the future of the company hold?

Red Storm Rising is the third Tom Clancy book I've read and my favorite one so far. It is one of his early books that takes place outside the world of Jack Ryan, his future leading character.

Red Storm is a Soviet plan to neutralize NATO that a series of events leads them to carry out. With his usual level of realistic detail, Clancy tells the story of the ensuing war, its buildup, and its aftermath from both the NATO and Soviet points of view. At times, I felt like I was listening to a historical audio book and had to remind myself it was just fiction.

For military novel fans, this book has it all. There's high-level strategy, dogfights, submarine warfare, bombing, naval battles, tank battles, hand-to-hand combat, and even attacks against military surveillance satellites!

My mom went ahead and read Magic Street before giving it to me. I shouldn't have asked her what she thought since she nearly killed my interest when she truthfully told me she didn't really like it. Over 400 pages later, I came to the same conclusion.

Magic Street kept my interest and had some good aspects, but it was just too weird overall for me to like it. The truckloads of A Midsummer Night's Dream references and themes were completely lost on me, too, since watching Dead Poet's Society is the closest I ever came to that play. Oh well, I'll just stick to science fiction by Orson Scott Card and stay away from modern-day fantasy like Magic Street.

Although there were interesting bits of information about the years during Napoleon's rule, The Age of Napoleon was quite boring. The book had a generally unorganized feel to it, jumping around between events, places, and years and returning to them again haphazardly throughout the book.

The heavy use of French was a severe problem for me, too. French words are in virtually every sentence and it was not uncommon that a paragraph would build up only to make its point with some French quotation without a translation. Je ne parle pas francais!

Overall, it has some interesting details about the Naploeonic Age, but it reads like an unorganized French lesson. Not worth the late fee I'm going to have to pay at the library.

The Firm is the first John Grisham book I've read (well, listened to) despite having seen most of the movies based on his books. The Firm is a fantastic novel about a young lawyer who is unwittingly recruited by the mafia to work at a law firm he cannot leave.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book even if you've already seen the movie. I saw it years ago, but it seemed different enough that I did not know what was going to happen next in the book. I believe the endings were quite different, actually. Now I've talked myself into renting the movie again... Anyway, the book was great and I was glued to it from the start.

<a href="http://sapventures.typepad.com/main/">Jeff Nolan</a> sent me FAB for free when I was the first person to respond to a post on his blog. I had no idea what the book was about, but I figured I might like it since my interests seem to line up well with his.

Once I started FAB, I knew it was going to be good. Neil Gershenfeld, MIT professor and the book's author, explains how it is quickly becoming possible for individuals to invent, design, and build virtually anything with a few tables worth of modern tools. If Industrial Revolution factories were the mainframes of fabrication, fab labs will be the PCs. He tells a compelling story about the new era of customization and creativity that will result.

FAB is replete with examples of today's early fab labs taking root in all corners of the world. With these stories as a backdrop, Gershenfeld describes current fabrication tools ranging from laser cutters to 3D printers to tiny microcontrollers on custom circuit boards.

Although I wish he would have gone into more detail about the various technologies, FAB provides an eye-opening look at fabrication capabilities our children will probably view as commonplace.

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus was another library selection that turned out to be decent. The book does a good job getting you to think about how men and women communicate differently and have different needs and expectations. The main lesson is simple: we are different. John Gray does a good job presenting lots of examples, so while I didn't identify with them all, there were some that hit pretty close to home.

Although I'd recommend this book to others, I did not like a section that went on and on and on about writing "love letters" to your spouse. These letters are supposed to explain why you are upset, what you need from the other person, why you still love them, etc. Frankly, I'd rather sit down and talk about problems instead of writing letters that he suggests you sometimes don't even share. Of course, this is coming from someone who needed a time extension to finish copying the honor pledge paragraph (in cursive!) on the SAT.

The book picked back up after the love letter mess, but then Gray snuck in a plug for seeing a therapist and coming to terms with unresolved issues from your childhood just before the end. If you think like me that blaming problems on your childhood or your parents is absurd, just skip that part.

Anyway, the other parts of the book are pretty interesting and do get you thinking about our differences. Not as good as I expected, but interesting nonetheless.

I picked up The Teeth of the Tiger for a long plane flight way back in mid-July, but rest assured the two months I was reading it are more of a reflection on me than the book. For much of the time I didn't even read a single page per week.

The Teeth of the Tiger is an interesting story about an off-the-books agency that does the government's dirty work when it comes to retaliating against terrorists. This book mostly serves as an introduction to a new generation of Tom Clancy novels about up and coming intelligence analyst Jack Ryan Jr., the previous leading character's son, and two brothers who make up the tactical side of the covert agency.

As is the norm for Tom Clancy, The Teeth of the Tiger seems to give readers an inside look into a subject which, in this case, is the world of Islamic terrorists targeting the United States. The main terrorist attack in the book certainly hits very close to home with its realism.

While not the most captivating of Tom Clancy's books, The Teeth of the Tiger introduces a great new set of characters and tells an interesting story that is hopefully setting the stage for his next generation of books.

Carrie has turned me into a Stephen King fan. This audio book is a fantastic story about a tormented high school girl who discovers telekinetic powers when she's pushed to her breaking point.

The believable characters, events, and vivid description make it seem like you're hearing about something that really happened. I always thought of Stephen King as a horror book writer, but this book has exactly the right mix to satisfy just about anyone. Now I just have to decide what my next Stephen King selection will be.

Call me exhausted. Herman Melville spared no quantity of words in his unbelievably flowery use of language, his sometimes chapter long tangents (such as one about the color white), and his thorough descriptions of the science, tools, and techniques of whaling. Who would have thought that around eleven hundred and fifty minutes would separate the two most famous lines of "Call me Ishmael" and "There she blows".

To be fair, many of the descriptions about whaling during the first half of the 19th century were quite interesting. The book certainly spares no detail. It was also interesting and somewhat amusing to hear how important and valuable whale oil was when this book was written several years before crude oil was discovered.

While the characters and the structure of the story leave a lot to be desired, the language of Moby-Dick borders on genius at times. It's simply amazing how Melville strings together such a large vocabulary of words.

I cannot imagine reading the print version of Moby-Dick anymore than I could imagine reading straight through the King James Bible. I do, however, recommend the audio version to anyone who likes classics and would enjoy climbing the literary equivalent of Mount Everest. I'm not sure I fall very far into either of those categories, so while I feel a sense of accomplishment at having read such a classic, I'm mostly just glad to be done with it.

Like the first book I read by Steve Alten, Domain, Meg was a decent page-turner novel that was easy to read. The story focuses on the existence of some prehistoric megaladons (giant sharks) that have survived near thermal vents deep in the ocean, but now manage to surface. As can be expected, they cause all sorts of havoc.

I would not recommend this book, nor will I be reading any more books by Steve Alten. His books are entertaining enough, but his science and research is questionable at best. In Meg there are also a couple subplots that border on ridiculous.

Rules for Revolutionaries is an easy-to-read guide to coming up with new products, bringing them to market, and creating a bond with customers. Like the Art of the Start, the first book I read by Guy Kawasaki, this book is filled with great information that's easy to remember and well organized.

Although written in 1999, the timeless concepts within are especially applicable today. Throughout the book, Guy Kawasaki emphasizes the need for openness, transparency, and personality in businesses which just in the past year has taken root in the form of corporate blogging. Unfortunately, the now common practice of outsourcing customer service call centers runs directly against all the book's customer relationship concepts.

My single complaint is that in 1999, Guy Kawasaki, former executive at Apple, apparently was not quite over his bitterness against Microsoft and includes too many digs at them throughout the book. Of course, if in 1999 he was running Windows 98, I think we can all empathize and let it slide.

Rules for Revolutionaries is a must-read for anyone interested in product development, marketing, or even business in general.

I picked up Stephen King’s On Writing audio book from my local public library because it was just about the only audio book they had that you wouldn’t find at a grocery store. I couldn’t bring myself to leave the library empty-handed and figured eight CDs about writing would at least be more interesting than a book with Fabio on the cover.

On Writing pleasantly surprised me when it turned out to be very good. The book is half autobiography and half a non-nonsense guide to writing fiction and launching a writing career. Although I have always enjoyed writing, I am by no means an aspiring fiction writer, so I found the autobiographical portions most interesting.

Stephen King is a masterful storyteller and the many stories throughout the book are what make it so enjoyable to listen to. He even narrates the book himself which gives the stories a personal touch. Starting with his childhood and some funny stories, Stephen King describes how he got to where he is in the writing world and how he comes up with stories and puts them down in novel form.

The only problem I had with the book is that it twice nearly made me throw up while I was driving, but that is really more my problem than the book’s. True to form and vivid in his description, the stories about his frequently infected ears being drained as a youth and washing maggot-infested hospital sheets as a down and out young man pushed the limits of my weak stomach.

If I knew any aspiring writers or Stephen King fanatics, I would heartily recommend On Writing although they would have probably already read it. For everyone else, it is an entertaining read that you’ll likely find you enjoy like I did.

Shadow of the Giant is the fourth, and I assume last, book in the excellent parallel series to Ender's Game.

Like the other books in the series, this one details the political and military strategies of the genius Battle School graduates as well as the establishment of a world government by Peter Wiggin.

Shadow of the Giant wraps up the loose ends and bridges the gap between the other series that followed Ender's Game starting with Speaker for the Dead.

While parts of Shadow of the Giant didn't seem to jump off the page like the others in the series, the last twenty pages are fantastic. If you're an Ender's Game fan, it goes without saying that you have to read this book.

Kilo Class is the first book I've read by Patrick Robinson and I must say I'm impressed. His writing style and attention to detail can fool you into thinking you're reading a Tom Clancy book.

The basic story is that China is attempting to buy Kilo Class submarines from Russia so they can blockade the Taiwan strait and eventually re-take the island. This book follows military decision-makers in four countries, details multiple submarine missions, and tells a great story about a series of Navy SEAL missions deep in enemy territory. The facts in the book were plausible and well-researched which helped add realism to the plot.

My only suggestion to Patrick Robinson would be to put more focus on a leading character, so his books could be more easily made into movies like so many of Tom Clancy's.

If you liked The Da Vinci Code, you'll like Angels and Demons and if you haven't read either, you'll like them both.

This is Dan Brown's first book about Robert Langdon. It's a great adventure/mystery filled with interesting details and symbology related to the historical clash between science and religion.

Although, Angels and Demons comes before The Da Vinci Code, I read it second and I don't feel like I missed anything in either book. Both books are fun, fast, and interesting reading.

Like Stephen Hawking's first widely popular A Brief History of Time, The Universe in a Nutshell is a book for those of us interested in the concepts but not the complex mathematics of modern physics. This book mostly covers the substantial advances that have been made in the search for a grand unified theory since A Brief History of Time was written in 1988.

Unlike the Brief History of Time I read several years ago, this book included lots of diagrams and margin notes to help readers visualize the concepts being discussed in the main text. It's hard to draw multidimensional spacetime on a two-dimensional page, but some of the drawings helped a lot.

Anyone that enjoyed A Brief History of Time will enjoy this book, just don't get too distracted by all the drawings and make sure you concentrate very hard while reading. :)

I didn’t know what to expect when my dad handed me The Wailing Wind audio book he had checked out from the library – especially considering his previous selection was a sixteen hour audio book history of salt! – but it turned out to be pretty good.

The Wailing Wind is a murder mystery that takes place in the Navajo land near the border of New Mexico and Arizona. Tony Hillerman does a great job of weaving Navajo traditions, terms, and a bit of history into the story so you learn about the region throughout the story. It starts out a little slow as the characters are introduced, but after all the pieces to the mystery started coming together I found myself sitting in the car listening for a few extra minutes whenever I got where I was going.

Clocking in at just under six hours, it’s a quick audio book to listen to and it fits on a single MP3 CD if your car supports them. The narrator’s old cowboy voice enhances the southwest feel of the book, especially when he’s speaking for Joe Leaphorn.

Although it's not really the kind of book I normally read (or listen to), I enjoyed The Wailing Wind and would recommend it.

Now I know what all the fuss is about... The Da Vinci Code was excellent!

Dan Brown (who I now need to read more of) weaves a very believable story about secret societies, religion, symbology, and history that had me captivated from the very first chapter. The story is so well done, many a reader (including me) will be left trying to figure out what was really true and what was made up or embellished for the book.

As if the book wasn't already good enough, I listened to the audio book version which was simply amazing. I still can't understand how Paul Michael, the narrator, did so many distinct voices complete with French, American, and British accents.

I highly recommend this book to everyone.

They say the mark of a good philosopher is that he puts into words what you already know to be true. In this case, Dale Carnegie is a great philosopher. How to Win Friends and Influence People covers thirty topics you can instantly relate to and it leaves you with a better understanding of each one.

The book is divided into four sections: Fundamental Techniques in Handling People, Six Ways to Make People Like You, How To Win People to Your Way of Thinking, and Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment. Each section is further divided into chapters that cover a single principle through the use of many real world examples.

Dale Carnegie makes it easy to remember and apply the principles by ending each chapter with a one sentence summary. At the end of a section, he includes a summary of all its chapters. Once you've read the book, just looking at those summary pages can refresh all the principles in your memory.

How to Win Friends and Influence People is very interesting and extremely easy to read. My only complaint is that the book was originally published in 1936 and I read the revised edition which was published in 1981. It seemed bizarre to be reading first hand accounts about Thomas Edison and Teddy Roosevelt in one chapter and then read an obviously revised example mentioning television in the next chapter.

Guy Kawasaki's Art of the Start is destined to be a classic book for entrepreneurs. He covers all the topics such as coming up with an idea, attracting people, bootstrapping or getting funding, sales, and marketing from a common sense, experienced perspective. In particular, he puts a lot emphasis on creating a product and getting it out the door rather than dealing with business plans and looking good on paper.

As the first director of the Macintosh division of Apple and the current CEO of a venture capital firm, Guy Kawasaki has great examples and experience to draw from as he explains how to start something. The book focuses on starting companies, but Kawasaki also makes sure to keep the book relevant for people and groups starting new products or processes within larger organizations.

The Art of the Start is probably my favorite business book so far. It's just so easy to read and it's even indexed to make it easy to refer to in the future. The great content, writing style, and touches like the index make this a great book for anyone starting anything.

Conscious Business is a good audio book that primarily focuses on the idea that you can and should take a more active role in your work, your interactions with others, and ultimately your success in life. It's about having an internal locus of control and taking personal responsibility for the outcome of every situation. Fred Kofman teaches that it is your choice whether you let something upset you or whether you react negatively when someone wrongs you. Conscious Business is an eye opening book that transcends the business world and applies equally well to your personal life.

The Richest Man in Babylon is a set of parables that take place in ancient times and illustrate fundamental concepts for becoming wealthy. This book should be required reading for every working person.

One of the lessons this book teaches is to live within your means and constantly invest ten percent of your income in endeavors to create more income. Rather than spending the profits, George Clason teaches to keep reinvesting so the money will compound rapidly.

If you're interested in becoming wealthy (who isn't?) or just want to improve your financial situation, this should be the first book you read. Highly recommended.

The saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", comes to mind when I think about The 8th Habit. Instead of calling this book by its subtitle, "From Effectiveness to Greatness", Stephen Covey chose to hitch this book to the coat tails of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

While The 7 Habits were concise, easy to remember, and easy to apply habits that we all probably need to work on, The 8th Habit is long and meandering. It's supposedly about finding your voice and then helping other people find theirs, but I can't concretely explain what that means even after finishing the book. The 8th Habit did contain some interesting examples, but I found it easier to relate them to the original seven habits than any of the new material.

While I would enthusiastically recommend The 7 Habits, I'd suggest you pass on the 8th.

The Crystal City is the sixth book in Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series. This series takes place in the early to mid-1800s and tells of an alternate history of America where ordinary people have small magical gifts called knacks. Unlike some fantasy books with trolls and dragons, this is an incredibly believable glimpse into the way things could have been.

What makes the Alvin Maker series so interesting is the way real historical events are woven into the plot of the book. In this book, for example, some characters are involved in the fight for Texas independence including the Alamo and the whole book is set against the backdrop of the coming civil war.

Ultimately, The Crystal City, like the other books in the series, is about the struggle between good and evil. Orson Scott Card shows this is a struggle most often fought with one's self and he shows the characters often can't be sure whether they're doing the right thing.

I am not a huge fan of fantasy books, but I have greatly enjoyed The Alvin Maker series. If you want to see if you'll like it too, the first book in the series is Seventh Son.

Originally written in 1937 and revised in 1960, Think and Grow Rich is a classic self-development book. Napoleon Hill studied Andrew Carnegie and many, many other successful people to pack this book with ideas and even steps for financial success.

Think & Grow Rich is an interesting book because it deals with so many aspects of success: thoughts, desire, faith, imagination, decision making, persistence, and networking. Many sections even have long lists of things you should or should not be doing if you want to be financially successful. These lists and other summarizations throughout the book, help the ideas stay with you and make the book easy to refer back to.

I found Napoleon Hill's authoritative, haughty tone to be somewhat annoying, but not as much as his frequent references to "Infinite Intelligence". He uses that term throughout the book to refer to some mysterious, non-religious version of God that could only be understood by a democrat running for office.

Overall, Think & Grow Rich is good and I'd recommend it after you've read The Richest Man in Babylon and Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

I own several Tom Clancy DVDs and I can't count how many times I've seen Clear and Present Danger, but Rainbow Six is the first Tom Clancy book I've read. Now I'm definitely planning to read more of them.

Rainbow Six is a detailed story about a multinational anti-terrorism force that must ultimately foil a well-planned global bioterrorism plot. Like all of his storylines, this one is frighteningly close to what could happen in reality.

Reading Rainbow Six, I could see how Tom Clancy books so often become movies or computer games. The plot was so well thought out and his description so detailed that it must be a piece of cake to adapt his books to other mediums.

If you're not scared off by the 900+ pages, this is an excellent book filled with tons of action, great detail, and insight into the world of anti-terrorism.

The Millionaire Next Door is a great book that takes a detailed look at millionaires: the lifestyles they lead, the cars they drive, the houses they buy, and the jobs they have. It provides a great look into what decisions lead some people to become truly wealthy.

This book is written by two Ph.D.'s and, if you miss that fact on the front cover, the TONS of research data throughout the book will clue you in. It's interesting, for example, to learn that most millionaires got that way because they're frugal and save over fifteen percent of their income -- only a small minority inherited money or took over family businesses. It's also surprising that the most common car driven by a millionaire isn't a BMW, Mercedes, or Jaguar, but an F-150 pickup truck.

The Millionaire Next Door is a very interesting read that may inspire you to reign in your expenses, exercise more financial discipline, and help you believe financial independence is within your grasp.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a must-read book that teaches the fundamentals of money management in a very casual, easy to read way. This book has been so successful it has spawned an entire line of books, courses, and even a board game about money.

Robert Kiyosaki shares the lessons he learned from his best friend's dad (Rich Dad) and his own dad (Poor Dad) when he was growing up. One of the most fundamental differences between the two is that Rich Dad spends his time and money accumulating assets while Poor Dad accumulates liabilities. That is, Rich Dad buys property and starts little businesses that will bring him more money and Poor Dad buys nice things and an expensive house. Kiyosaki challenges the dogma that a house is a great investment by noting how much money it ties up and how bigger houses result in bigger expenses.

Like The Richest Man in Babylon, Rich Dad, Poor Dad teaches that the key to wealth is to live below your means and continually invest as much as you can in money-making ventures. Robert Kiyosaki calls this "paying yourself first" because it's something that needs to be done BEFORE paying all your regular expenses. As most of us can attest, investing whatever is leftover at the end of the month doesn't work because the extra money often finds a way to get spent first. This "pay yourself first" concept led me to setup multiple direct deposit accounts, so I don't even see (or miss) money that's designated for purposes other than normal bills.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a must-read, enjoyable book that will lay the foundation necessary for long-term financial success.

Joe Girard is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's greatest salesman and you'll understand why when you read How to Sell Anything to Anybody. The sheer number and cleverness of the tips and tricks of Girard's sales system is incredible.

Most of the examples are taken from Girard's career as a car salesman, but most of the concepts could be applied to any sales job. He encourages detailed record keeping about every potential customer, staying in contact with customers that may not buy again for years, establishing a network of people who can refer business to you for a slight cut of the sale, and he offers much advice about closing the deal.

Since the heart of his career was during the 1970s, you'll notice several anachronisms like his detailed system of using note cards that could be greatly simplified with the help of a computer. Another sign of the times is the fact that he claims to have kept every brand of cigarettes in his desk so he could offer the customer's brand of choice if they needed to light up before the deal was closed.

How to Sell Anything to Anybody is probably required reading for car salesmen, recommended for other salesmen, and an interesting read for the rest of us.

Steve Alten's Domain is a pretty good sci-fi story set in the present day that ties into an ancient Mayan end-of-the-world prophesy. The story is very good and the book was a page-turner, so it's unfortunate that Steve Alten committed an unforgivable sin for a sci-fi book by demonstrating a lack of understanding of the speed of light.

At one point, he writes about a signal that is sent virtually instantaneously many light years while saying it would still take a ship a long time to respond to the signal. I can accept faster than light travel and communication (as in the Ender's Game series) if the author supplies some sci-fi explanation of how it was possible, but to not even address the obvious questions left me incredulous.

This and several other science errors barely prevented the excellent story from turning me into a Steve Alten fan. My wife loved the book, though, so I may just be too picky.