Benjamin Graham on Value Investing: Lessons From the Dean of Wall Street

Title: Benjamin Graham on Value Investing: Lessons From the Dean of Wall Street
Author: Janet Lowe
Publisher: Dearborn Financial Publishing, Inc
Copyright: 1994
ISBN O-7931-0702-4

I highly recommend “Benjamin Graham on Value Investing: Lessons from the Dean of Wall Street”, a biography by Janet Lowe.

Benjamin Graham practically invented the securities analysis profession. He literally wrote their book, “Security Analysis” first published in 1934 - still in print after multiple updates.

Graham’s even more popular book, “The Intelligent Investor” brought the value investing concept to individual investors; In that work Graham popularized terms that remain core to value investing; “intrinsic value”, “margin of safety”, and “Mr. Market”. Warren Buffet called “The Intelligent Investor” the best book on investing he ever read.

Janet Lowe’s treatment of Graham’s life and his life’s work is interesting, easy to read, and presents Graham’s core investing principles in simple terms.

I enjoyed “Benjamin Graham on Value Investing” and I also learned a good bit from it.

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The Tau Ceti Agenda

Title: The Tau Ceti Agenda
Author: Travis Taylor
Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises
Copyright: 2009
ISBN 13: 978-1-4391-3315-6

I recommend “The Tau Ceti Agenda”, Travis Taylor’s second science fiction novel in the “One Day on Mars” series.

“The Tau Ceti Agenda” continues the story of the rebellion of Elle Ahmi’s Martian Separatists and the now global United States of America defended by Alexander Moore and a great many soldiers, sailors, and marines.

Threaded with military action, intrigue, and mystery, “The Tau Ceti Agenda” is a fun read. I’ve added the third volume in the series, “One Good Soldier”, to my buy list.

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One Day On Mars

Title: One Day On Mars
Author: Travis Taylor
Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises
Copyright: 2007
ISBN 13: 978-1-4165-9157-3

I recommend the science fiction novel “One Day on Mars”.

“One Day on Mars” is the first novel I’ve read written exclusively by Travis Taylor. He co-authored several SF books with John Ringo that were very good. So, I decided to give his solo work a try.

It was worth the price of admission. Travis Taylor tells a good story with plenty of SF military action mixed with a bit of mystery. For the most part his technological world is believable, though I had to work a little to suspend disbelief on the whole “transformers” thing.

Still, he writes an entertaining story. “One Day on Mars” is the first in a series and I look forward to reading the series to completion.

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Nolo’s Quick LLC

Title: Nolo’s Quick LLC: All You Need to Know About Limited Liability Companies
Author: Anthony Mancuso
Publisher: Nolo
Copyright: 2001
ISBN 0-87337-573-4

I recommend “Nolo’s Quick LLC” to those interested in incorporating a small business in order to protect personal assets from liabilities connected to the business.

“Nolo’s Quick LLC” is an excellent reference book with sections covering many aspects of setting up and maintaining a limited liability company legal structure. You can easily find the parts that apply to your own situation without reading the entire book.

Creating an LLC is fairly easy, relatively inexpensive, and doesn’t require a lawyer. “Nolo’s Quick LLC walks you through the process.

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Karate-Do: My Way of Life

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Title: Karate-Do: My Way of Life
Author: Gichin Funakoshi
Publisher: Kodansha International
Copyright: 1975
ISBN 0-87011-463-8

I recommend “Karate-Do: My Way of Life” to martial artists of all styles.

Gichin Funakoshi, the author of “Karate-Do: My Way of Life” was instrumental in bringing Okinawan karate to the Japanese mainland and popularizing his martial art among the Japanese people.

Essentially, he devoted the first half of his ninety years to studying karate in his homeland of Okinawa. He devoted the second half of his life to teaching the art on the Japanese mainland.

Along the way, Master Funakoshi founded the Shotokan style of karate. Although, clearly, he was opposed to the development of various styles of karate and would be appalled to be called the founder of a style. He wanted Karate-Do to develop as a single unified martial art that would remain open to change and evolution.

“Karate-Do: My Way of Life” is his autobiography. In it he outlines his life, he summarizes his understanding of the spirit of karate-do, and he relates formative events in his life with their lessons for him and for you.

Gichin Funakoshi was an admirable man. His character and his book radiate humility, respect, responsibility, and gratitude. He was a man with a mission and he accomplished his mission; overcoming great hardships with the help of great friends.
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Dawn of Empire

Title: Dawn of Empire
Author: Sam Barone
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Copyright: 2006
ISBN 10: 0-06-089244-7

I recommend the novel “Dawn of Empire”.

There was a time, long ago, when the very first town built the very first sturdy defensible wall and for the very first time successfully prevented a marauding tribe for sacking a town.

“Dawn of Empire” is a very readable account of how Orak, a town in Mesopotamia, became the first successful walled city and the core of the first great empire.

It’s both believable and a fun read.

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Wikinomics

Title: Wikinomics
Author: Don Tapscott & Antony D. Williams
Publisher: Portfolio
Copyright: 2006
ISBN: 978-1-59184-138-8

I recommend Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything.

Collaboration is going new levels through the use of Internet-based tools and by the attitudes and skills brought to the workplace by the Net Generation - the children of the baby-boomers. This is the thesis of Wikinomics.

Competitiveness will increasingly be determined by the ability to harness creative energies available through mass collaboration within the company and, even more so, from external sources.

The authors site many companies using one or more of the principles of Wikinomics: openness, peering, sharing, and acting globally. IBM, Proctor & Gambol, Goldcorp, Google, Sun Microsystems, and others provide concrete examples of mass collaboration. These organizations are finding ways to create value for their shareholders through mass collaboration while at the same time creating value for external customers, partners, academics, researchers, and other temporary collaborators.

The methods of mass collaboration include:

(a) Participation in joint “open architecture” development projects;
(b) Intentionally releasing proprietary intellectual property to the public domain;
(c) Publishing functional criteria and offering open monetary incentives to any developer who creates a design successfully meeting the functional specifications;
(d) Encouraging internal and external employee communication through blogging and wiki web sites.

The key to wikinomics is figuring out how an organization can open itself to the world or a significant portion of it, and generate a real return on investment. Clearly, the potential rate of innovation rises exponentially as the number of external collaborators increases. At the same time, the company gives up some of its valuable intellectual property rights.

Companies that find a way through this monetization maze supercharge their ability to innovate.

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Claws That Catch & the Looking Glass Series

Title: Claws That Catch
Author: John Ringo & Travis S Taylor
Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises
Copyright:
ISBN:

I recommend “Claws That Catch” and the entire Looking Glass series.

“Claws That Catch” is the 4th Looking Glass volume. The entire series to date is listed below. John Ringo authored the 1st volume and then teamed up with Travis Taylor for the next three.

The series originates in our time with a huge explosion on a college campus that opens a door to another place and contact with a decidedly unfriendly alien species.

Contacts with other species follow with alliances and technology transfer in classic space opera fashion.

I‘ve enjoyed all four volumes and I will certainly read the next.

Into the Looking Glass (Looking Glass, Book 1)
Vorpal Blade (Looking Glass, Book 2)
Manxome Foe
Claws That Catch

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A Desert Called Peace & Carnifex

Title: A Desert Called Peace
Author: Tom Kratman
Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises
Copyright: 2007
ISBN 13: 978-1-4165-5592-6

And



Title: A Desert Called Peace
Author: Tom Kratman
Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises
Copyright: 2007
ISBN 13: 978-1-4165-9150-4

I highly recommend this two-volume science fiction and military adventure novel.

By the year 2150 the progressives had won. They’d taken control of the entire Earth and set up a global government based on a hereditary caste system with the progressives, of course, as the ruling caste.

Progressives were able to establish themselves as the hereditary rulers of the planet because another earth-like planet was discovered. It was used as a dumping ground for the undesirables of Earth – those who opposed the progressives.

The new world developed on a path parallel to Old Earth until the progressives recognized these undisciplined, rapidly procreating, and increasingly powerful people would eventually threaten their rule.

So, they meddled in the affairs of Terra Nova. But the law of unintended consequences prevails and progressives created an implacable enemy – they changed Patrick Hennessey into Patrico Carrera, the Duque.

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Chain of Destiny

Title: Chain of Destiny
Author: J.D. Lock
Publisher: Wheatmark
Copyright: 2007
ISBN-13: 978-1-58736-716-8

I highly recommend this novel.

JD Lock is a West Pointer, a US Army Ranger, a retired Lieutenant Colonel, and the author of three previous non-fiction volumes tracing the history and training of the American Rangers. “Chain of Destiny” is his first foray into fiction. And it’s a success.

Lock’s protagonist, Nathaniel Ames, is a modern day U.S. Army Ranger Captain; commander of an infantry company in the 75th Ranger Regiment. His unit deploys to capture and remove nuclear weapons from the hands of the Russian Mafia.

In the process, Captain Ames is injured and transported to 1863 and the American Civil War battlefield of Chancellorsville - the day after the battle. After a short convalescence he returns to duty an as infantry company commander, but in Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

His adventures and attempts to change history are a joy to follow. Along the way you get a taste of Civil War combat and a direct comparison with the modern Ranger experience.

The book is well worth the read. I was reluctant to put it down.

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Night of Thunder

Title: Night of Thunder
Author: Stephen Hunter
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2008
ISBN-13: 0-978-14165-6511-6

I highly recommend this novel.

Stephen Hunter is one of my favorite authors. I anxiously await each new novel and his latest, “Night of Thunder” is a good one.

Bob Lee Swagger, Mr Hunter’s finest character and protagonist of this and many other Stephen Hunter novels, is getting long in the tooth; but not too long in the tooth to find out who injured his grown up daughter, Nikki and why. He’s still at heart the Marine Corps sniper with 87 kills in Viet Nam; tough as nails and deadly accurate with a gun.

As always, with Stephen Hunter’s novels, I loved every second of it.



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The Corporate Blogging Book

Title: The Corporate Blogging Book
Author: Debbie Weil
Publisher: The Penguin Group
Copyright: 2006
ISBN: 1-59184-125-9

I recommend this book.

As you can tell – I’m into blogging. “The Corporate Blogging Book” is an introduction to the world of corporate blogging - as in blogging as marketing, blogging as customer service and blogging as communication; and, internal corporate blogging – as in project management and employee communication and feedback.

Blogging is still relatively new but its growing fast. This 2006 book is dated in many respects, but as an introduction to how and why blogging is being done by corporations it was an eye opener. I’m looking at ways to incorporate blogging into my job as a direct result of reading this book.

If you have an interest in blogging, or perhaps in developing a new marketable skill within your current organization, “The Corporate Blogging Book” is worth the read.



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Red Lightning

Title: Red Lightning
Author: John Varley
Publisher: The Berkley Publishing Group
Copyright: 2006
ISBN: 0-441-01364-3

I recommend this novel.

John Varley is a solid science fiction writer and “Red Lightning" does not disappoint. It’s the provocative story of a colony on Mars that achieves political independence and the critical exploits of one prominent Mars colony family in making that happen.

It was fun to read.



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Mind Over Muscle

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Title: Mind Over Muscle
Author: Jigoro Kano
Publisher: Kodansha International Ltd
Copyright: 2005
ISBN: 978-4-7700-3015-3

I highly recommend “Mind Over Muscle” to martial artists and those curious about the martial arts.

After training in various other martial arts Jigoro Kano created Judo in 1882. He assembled Judo by picking, choosing and modifying techniques to make Judo effective yet safe to practice at full speed and power.

Once he’d defined the physical essentials he gave considerable thought to the philosophical and social underpinnings of his new martial art.

“Mind Over Muscle” is a collection of Jigoro Kano’s writings on the founding of Judo, the philosophical and social underpinnings of Judo, and the individual and social virtues developed through the practice of Judo.

I found Professor Kano’s thoughts applicable to my life outside martial arts and worthy of study and contemplation.

The collection was complied and edited by Naoki Murata and translated from the original Japanese by Nancy H Ross.
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The Road to Damascus

Title: The Road to Damascus
Author: John Ringo & Linda Evans
Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises
Copyright: 2004
ISBN: 0-7434-7187-3


I highly recommend “The Road to Damascus”.

The title references the Apostle Paul’s encounter with the risen Jesus while Paul was on the road to Damascus. It’s an apt title.

Sonny, a 20,000 ton sentient war machine called a Bolo, is on a mission during which he encounters a four-year old child armed with a pop gun. Sonny stops and is unable to move for a time while he reviews his memory banks recalling the events that led him to be at this time and place and he reconsiders his mission and the purpose of his creators.

In recounting twelve years of history from Sonny’s perspective, John Ringo and Linda Evans present a timely and prescient discussion of a political party, PAPPA, which wins control over all three branches of the representative constitutional republic of the planet Jefferson.

PAPPA, motivated by strong populist socialist ideology proceeds to disassemble the capitalist economy justifying each incursion as a response to a new crisis. In the end, the economy is destroyed and a major portion of the population is in open armed rebellion. Sonny, by historical accident, is on the wrong side.

That the book was published in 2004 precludes the possibility that they wrote it in response to the current lurch to the left we are experiencing under Barack Obama. But while reading “The Road to Damascus” one wonders which of the authors is the prophet.

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The Last Centurion

Title: The Last Centurion
Author: John Ringo
Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises
Copyright: 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4391-3291-3


I highly recommend “The Last Centurion”.

John Ringo has become my favorite author. Mostly he writes science fiction with a military bent and he is very good at it. “The Last Centurion” can’t be called science fiction (not be me at least) because it is set in the near future of 2019 - 2021.

Published in 2008 the novel combines military adventure with serious social commentary. Ringo explains how the world works in many ways. He explains the difference between organic and industrial farming methods. He explains the spread of a flu epidemic and vaccinations. He explains socialism and capitalism.

“The Last Centurion” is a useful addition to conservative literature. He only missed the target on two points; (1) he guessed wrong on who would win the Democrat primary and the subsequent general election in 2008; and (2) he uses the “F” bomb too much for comfort – not too much for his professional solder protagonist mind you, just too much for the reader’s comfort.

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1632 (The Ring of Fire Series)

Title: 1632
Author: Eric Flint
Publisher: Baen Publishing
Copyright: 2000
ISBN: 0-671-31972-8


I highly recommend The Ring of Fire series starting with the original novel “1632”.

Eric Flint is the creator and guiding light of this very collaborative science fiction alternate reality series. He authored “1632” but all other books in the series so far are collaborative efforts with an entire “bull pen” of stand out SF writers.

The short stories in the anthology volumes were entirely written by others - Eric Flint serving as editor. In all cases, in Eric Flint’s words, the contributions of the other authors have been integral to the main story lines of the series, including characters and events.

With so many contributors to this growing alternate history universe, and with Eric Flint’s guiding hand, The Ring of Fire is easily becoming the most rigorously complete “Future History” compilation I’ve seen.

The key event in this alternate universe is the sudden and unexplained transposition of the town of Grantville, West Virginia from 2000 AD to the hinterlands of the German principalities in 1632 - the height of the Thirty Years Wars. 21st Century Americans’ effects on 17th Century culture, beliefs, science, medicine, warfare, politics, and power structures give the authors a nearly infinite variety of themes, plots, characters, and surprises to keep this series going for many more years – I’m looking forward to them all.

I’ve not yet read all of the currently published volumes in The Ring of Fire series. Those I have read are without exception fun and interesting. At the bottom of this post are listed (with links) the volumes I’ve read over these past eight years.

Enjoy!

Novels:
1632 (The Assiti Shards)

1633

1634: The Galileo Affair (The Assiti Shards)

1634: The Bavarian Crisis (Ring of Fire)

1634: The Baltic War (The Ring of Fire)

1635: The Cannon Law (Assiti Shards)

Anthologies:
1634: The Ram Rebellion (The Assiti Shards)

Ring of Fire (The Ring of Fire)

Ring of Fire II (v. 2)

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Links to Book Reviews

1632 (The Ring of Fire Series)
A Boy and His Tank
A Desert Called Peace
A State of Disobedience
Benjamin Graham on Value Investing: Lessons From the Dean of Wall Street
Carnifex
Catastrophe
Chain of Destiny
Claws That Catch & the Looking Glass Series
Code of Honor
Dawn of Empire
Karate-Do: My Way of Life
Max: A Maximum Ride Novel
Mind Over Muscle
Nolo's Quick LLC
One Day On Mars
Night of Thunder
Persuader
Red Lightning
Red Phoenix
Steel Beach
The Corporate Blogging Book
The Kite Runner
The Last Centurion
The Proper Care & Feeding of Marriage
The Road to Damascus
The Tau Ceti Agenda
The Theory of Constraints and its Implications for Management Accounting
Trilogy - Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen, Kushiel's Avatar
Trilogy - Kushiel's Scion, Kushiel's Justice, and Kushiel's Mercy
Twitter Power
Wikinomics

Links to My Library Categories:

Investing Library

Catastrophe

Title: Catastrophe
Author: Dick Morris & Eileen McGann
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2009
ISBN: 978-0-06-177104-0


I recommend “Catastrophe.

Subtitled “How Obama, Congress, and the Special Interests are Transforming a Slump into a Crash, Freedom into Socialism, and a Disaster into a Catastrophe and How to Fight Back”, Catastrophe lives up to its subtitle.

Dick Morris & Eileen McGann present chapter by chapter the catastrophe that is the Left and its Messiah, Barack Obama.

Here is a selection of Chapter headings for flavor:

Chapter 1: “Obama’s War on Prosperity”
Chapter 4: “Obama’s Health Care Catastrophe”
Chapter 5: “Obama’s Blueprint for Political Domination”
Chapter 12: “Pay to Play: No-Bid Contracts Exchanged for Campaign Cash”

The authors include a recommendation for you to take specific action at the end of each chapter.

Catastrophe is an important resource for Americans motivated to stop the Socialist takeover of the United States.
Catastrophe

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Steel Beach

Title: Steel Beach
Author: John Varley
Publisher: The Berkley Publishing Group
Copyright: 1992
ISBN: 0-441-78565-4

I recommend “Steel Beach”.

Why do people kill themselves? Should humans be cloned? Could a person’s personality and memories be transferred into the body of his own clone? What if a sentient supercomputer developed a mental illness? Would or should people allow themselves to be governed by the ultimate philosopher-king?

These are issues John Varley tackles in “Steel Beach” where Luna is one of eight surviving human communities exiled from Earth after a short but successful alien invasion.

Hildy Johnson is a complex character at the heart of the conflict when CC, the sentient supercomputer in charge of Luna, goes split-personality schizophrenic. Hildy with her internal questions and struggles for answers is far more interesting than the plot. They make this book worth the read.

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