Books I have read recently

Over the past few months, I haven't had too much time for leisure reading.  But I've read a bit - some for fun and some for work.  Here is a brief summary of a few books I've read recently:

Having Difficult Conversations (Douglas Stone et al.)  

And

The Academic Administrator's Survival Guide (C. Gunsalus)

Given my new role as Interim Dean, I wanted to read up a bit more on some issues that might arise.  They are good, but unless you are going into a managerial role, I couldn't recommend.

Verbal Poker Tells (Zachary Elwood)

I've played poker for many years, but most of my play has been online.  When I play live, I'm mostly quiet, but this has been interesting to understand how the words of others correlate with the strength of their poker holdings.

Thinking Tournament Poker - volume 1 and volume 2 (Nate Meyvis)

These two books contained hand-by-hand analyses of hands played by a top professional at the World Series of Poker main event.  I recommend for poker fans.

Brain Rules (John Medina)

This was recommended by my finance colleague, Peter DaDalt, who said it was like "Freakonomics about the brain".  It is in an interesting book and has some useful tidbits in there for teachers.

Doing Bad by Doing Good (Christopher Coyne)

Good book about how humanitarian aid can easily backfire and do more harm than good.  This has led me to think a bit more about the most efficient charities.  The ones that come to the top of my mind are anything that might improve the health of a poor country.  That should then increase the productivity in an area which should foster economic growth.  (As far as organizations - perhaps Doctors Without Borders, vaccine shipments, improving water quality.)


Stop Acting Rich: And Start Living Like a Real Millionaire (Thomas Stanley)

Interesting data about the consumption patterns of the wealthy.  (With more than $1 million in net wealth.)  Many millionaires are not flashy - and most consumption items are not correlated with increases in happiness.  Stanley finds that spending on experiences do increase happiness, confirming other research.

Order to Kill (Vince Flynn and Kyle Mills)

This is the latest book in the Mitch Rapp series.  Like the others, it is fantastic.