Suggest A Good Read...

[Larry]

Ugly Americans and Bringing Down the House both by Ben Mezrich

 

Both are non-fiction with Mezrich's writing style really bringing it to life.

 

"Ugly Americans documents the "Wild East" of the mid-1990s, where young, brilliant, and hypercompetitive traders became "hedge fund cowboys," manipulating loopholes in an outdated and inefficient Asian financial system to rake in millions. Using a concept called arbitrage, they made their fortunes mainly on minute shifts in stocks being sold on the Nikkei, the Japanese stock market, collapsing banks and nearly bankrupting the Japanese economy in the process. Other schemes were also concocted, most of which were technically legal, though certainly unethical. This true story revolves around "John Malcolm," who, in exchange for anonymity, agreed to give Ben Mezrich all the access and information he needed to write this book. As a recent Princeton graduate in the mid-1990s, Malcolm accepted an undefined job offer from an American expatriate in Japan to work in the investments field. Though he had no prior experience, he facilitated 25 million dollars worth of trades on his first day on the job, and it just got more exciting from there. He soon joined a small group of expatriates, all in their twenties and mostly Ivy League graduates, who lived like rock stars, thriving on the stress and excitement of their jobs to create their own steroid versions of the American Dream half a world away. Mezrich tells this riveting story well, incorporating elements of the culture into his narrative, including the infamous and pervasive Japanese "Water Trade," or sex business, romantic intrigue, and even run-ins with the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia. Though there is little real analysis of their financial dealings and how they ultimately changed the rules of finance in Asia, this entertaining page turner does offer a glimpse into a world little explored in print until now. --Shawn Carkonen"

 

-----------------------------------

Bringing down the house

 

""Shy, geeky, amiable" MIT grad Kevin Lewis, was, Mezrich learns at a party, living a double life winning huge sums of cash in Las Vegas casinos. In 1993 when Lewis was 20 years old and feeling aimless, he was invited to join the MIT Blackjack Team, organized by a former math instructor, who said, "Blackjack is beatable." Expanding on the "hi-lo" card-counting techniques popularized by Edward Thorp in his 1962 book, Beat the Dealer, the MIT group's more advanced team strategies were legal, yet frowned upon by casinos. Backed by anonymous investors, team members checked into Vegas hotels under assumed names and, pretending not to know each other, communicated in the casinos with gestures and card-count code words. Taking advantage of the statistical nature of blackjack, the team raked in millions before casinos caught on and pursued them. In his first nonfiction foray, novelist Mezrich (Reaper, etc.), telling the tale primarily from Kevin's point of view, manages to milk that threat for a degree of suspense. But the tension is undercut by the first-draft feel of his pedestrian prose, alternating between irrelevant details and heightened melodrama. In a closing essay, Lewis details the intricacies of card counting.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc."

[elke_weis]

The Mossad - the inside stories

 

For those who like spy books, this is a great reak. The exploites of the Mossad. There success and there failures. A real page turner.

 

> the kidnapping of Adolf Eichman in Argentina

> the perfect spy - well almost; mossad agent who almost became Syria's minister of Defence

> How they stole the plans for the mirage planes. They had to because of the French embargo of offensive weapons even if they had paid it already.

> How a French fleet of warship was hijacked from its most secure harbor.

> how a beautiful jewish Mata Hari inspires an Arab air ace to defect with his ultra secret Russian MIG.

> How they planted a bomb inside the cellphone of the chief bomb maker of PLO. Blew his head off.

great book!

 

how a female mossage agent convinced iraqi pilot munir redfa to defect with his mig-21 ---the first mig-21 to fall in western hands.

 

eli cohen (your perfect spy), along with sorge, is one of the greatest spies of the 20th century.

 

the story of the swiss engineer, alfred fraunknekke(sp?) and the theft of the plans for the mirage was funny.

[Boysbe]

Memoirs of a geisha (Reading is better than watching it)

-Arthur Golden

 

 

Art of war

-tzu

 

 

Master of body language in negotiation

 

 

Secrets of the Ninja

-Ashida kim

 

The brainwashing manual

[roaddog z]

HOOP ROOTS - John Edgar Wideman

(playground basketball, love and race)

[CodenameV]

The Road Less Travelled by M. Scott Peck - a very difficult book to read but can be rewarding if you are into psychotherapy. One of the few books that allows you to go through difficult subjects like love, death, religion, etc. without being too rosy but with a rather pragmatic view. You may not agree with the conclusions but you will certainly develop your insights further. After reading the preface wherein one early reader mentioned that the book "talked about things people shouldn't or didn't talk about", I have to agree that some of the subjects were pretty much left for us to discover on our own until this book came along.

[Dr_PepPeR]

The Mossad - the inside stories

 

For those who like spy books, this is a great reak. The exploites of the Mossad. There success and there failures. A real page turner.

 

> the kidnapping of Adolf Eichman in Argentina

> the perfect spy - well almost; mossad agent who almost became Syria's minister of Defence

> How they stole the plans for the mirage planes. They had to because of the French embargo of offensive weapons even if they had paid it already.

> How a French fleet of warship was hijacked from its most secure harbor.

> how a beautiful jewish Mata Hari inspires an Arab air ace to defect with his ultra secret Russian MIG.

> How they planted a bomb inside the cellphone of the chief bomb maker of PLO. Blew his head off.

 

I'm currently reading a book about the Mossad but I'm still in the part where the Israel militants are using terrorism against the British. Will try to finish the book during the Xmas holidays and see if it covers the incidents you mentioned.

[naru2ako]

You should try reading "The Notebook"

[StoneRhino]

A Song of Ice And Fire - Series By George R. R. Martin. There's about four books out now, with the fifth installment due sometime this year. Just don't get too attached to your favorite characters.

 

The Dark Tower Series - Stephen King. Probably one of my most loved series since I grew up with the series. (I actually cried when Eddie bit the dust)

[notta101]

just finished all the books of bob ong (last one is stainless longanisa) however, somebody told me that he already came up with another book but can't find it in the bookstore yet and i don't even know the title, can anybody confirm this?

[nightingale]

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Love in the Time of Cholera

Of Love and Other Demons - - -Gabriel Garcia Marquez

 

Master of the Game

If Tomorrow Comes - - -Sydney Sheldon

 

The Phantom of Manhattan - Frederick Forsythe

 

Ermita - -Francisco Sionil Jose

[CodenameV]

How to Have a Beautiful Mind by Edward de Bono - basically a book on how a person can develop the conversation habits and practices that will make him/her more interesting to other people. By having respect for the views of others and also knowing how to respond to what is being said, you would become a more attractive person because of your mind. Well, that's what the book espouses. As with any theory or methodology, one has to validate and try it out if it works for them.

[StoneRhino]

I am reading Deus Vitae..

 

but i'll highly recommend Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake Series if you just want a good fantasy/romance/somewhat-erotica book without having to ponder the existence of man, etc.

[dyosah]

these are the list of books that i have read that i highly reco:

1. Purpose driven life- for the soul searchers

2. get better or get beaten - for those who have that competitive call

3. The Notebook- this made me cry

4. Rich dad Poor Dad

5. How to become a CEO

6. Sydney Sheldon's books

7. Harry potter series

8. Og Mandino's books

9. johanna lindsay's books

[2+2]

1. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - dubbed as "Harry Potter for grown-ups." It's a laborious read - but worth the effort!

 

2. The Historian - a new twist to yet another vampire story

 

3. Time Traveller's Wife - yeah, yeah, yeah - it's a love story. But not the sappy type. The plot is basically what the title says.

 

4. Freakonomics - an engaging read; a very entertaining way to waste your time. It doesn't claim to have one big thesis - you could say that these are vignettes c/o the dismal science.

 

5. Eleven Minutes - hihihi!

[Eddy Syet]

Anything by Sidney Sheldon esp. "Master of the Game"

 

Anything by Robert Ludlum esp. "The Bourne Trilogy" and "The Matarese Circle"

 

Anything by John Grisham esp. "The Firm" and "Runaway Jury"

 

Anything by Frederick Forsythe esp. "The Devil's Alternative"

 

Anything by Dan Brown esp. "Angels & Demons"

 

Colleen MacCullough's "The Thorn Birds"

 

Jacqueline Susann's "Once Is Not Enough" :evil: