By the time you read this, it will be the end of April. I am so far behind I can see myself. My trip in March, in spite of good intentions, set me back considerably in terms of blogging and reading. The trip and the conference in San Diego were wonderful. But, right now, I am behind my pace to meet my goals. I hope to get ahead this summer when I have some extra days off. Nonetheless, this is what I had planned for April.
For April, I will split my attention between a couple of books I have been asked to review and what is still on my reading shelf. It is definitely an eclectic collection. There is a history book, a book about innovation, another on business, and a work of fiction.
Here is what is on my reading list for April 2019:
I was asked by the publishers to review this book. The topic immediately grabbed me. Anything to help me move my business forward is welcome advice.
Via Amazon:
Sourced from over twenty years of firsthand experience working with entrepreneurs, new ventures, and high-growth startups, author Ken Colwell, PHD, MBA has the answers.
In his comprehensive Starting a Business QuickStart Guide, Ken Colwell concisely presents the core fundamentals that all new entrepreneurs need to know to get started, find success, and live the life of their dreams.
Business and entrepreneurship students, small business owners, managers, and soon-to-be entrepreneurs will all find a wealth of value within the pages of the Starting a Business QuickStart Guide.
From the very first steps conceptualizing your venture to winning your first customers, delivering value, and turning a profit, this book acts as an invaluable blueprint for your path to entrepreneurial success. Colwell’s clear voice, extensive experience, and easy-to-understand presentation come together to make this book a must-have resource in the library of every budding entrepreneur!
Wrath and Ruin: A Chilling Anthology by C.W. Briar
I picked up Wrath and Ruin at a Barnes and Noble near Corning, NY. The author was doing a book signing. After talking with him, I decided this would be an interesting book to read.
Via Amazon:
Some monsters are nightmarish beasts with fangs and grotesque bodies. Others come in the form of bad decisions we dread or regret. Both kinds haunt and stalk us while we are alone at night.
Wrath and Ruin is a collection of nine stories with a focus on fantasy and sci-fi threaded with quiet, traditional horror. Monsters, both literal and figurative, lurk in the shadows of this diverse anthology.
- Hunters pursue a ghoul in Victorian-era Pennsylvania.
- A psychologist interrogates the lone survivor of a mysterious shipwreck.
- Astronauts investigate a derelict alien spacecraft loitering in Earth’s solar system.
- A man flees powerful enemies in a bizarre, hostile land.
These stories and more are included in this debut book by author C.W. Briar.
Briar continues a tradition established by fellow Binghamton, NY writers like Rod Serling and Kevin Lucia: fantastical-yet-grounded stories with subtle horror.
A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan
This is a book that has been sitting in my library for decades. I kept seeing it while I was eating dinner. It was time I read this important glimpse into the history of an important battle.
This is a book that has been sitting on my shelf for a couple of years. I am interested in innovation and change management. I will be curious to see what this book has to offer.
Via Amazon:
Not long ago, Americans could rightfully feel confident in our preeminence in the world economy. The United States set the pace as the world’s leading innovator: from the personal computer to the internet, from Wall Street to Hollywood, from the decoding of the genome to the emergence of Web 2.0, we led the way and the future was ours. So how is it, bestselling author and leading expert on innovation John Kao asks, that today Finland is the world’s most competitive economy? That U.S. students rank twenty-fourth in the world in math literacy and twenty-sixth in problem-solving ability? That in 2005 and 2006 combined, in a reverse brain drain, 30,000 highly trained professionals left the United States to return to their native India?
Even as the United States has lost standing in the world community because of the war in Iraq, Kao warns, the country is losing its edge in economic leadership as well. The future of our prosperity, and of our national security, is at serious risk. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Based on his in-depth experience advising many of the world’s leading companies and studying cutting-edge innovation “best practices” in the most dynamic hot spots of innovation both in the United States and around the world, Kao argues that the United States still has the capability not only to regain our competitive edge, but to take a bold step out ahead of the global community and secure a leadership role in the twenty-first century. We must, though, take serious and concerted action fast.
First offering a stunning, troubling portrait of just how serious is the erosion in recent years of U.S. competitiveness in innovation, Kao then takes readers on a fascinating tour of the leading innovation centers, such as those in Singapore, Denmark, and Finland, which are trumping us in their more focused and creative approaches to fueling innovation. He then lays out a groundbreaking plan for a national innovation strategy that would empower the United States to actually innovate the process of innovation: to marshal our vast resources of talent and infrastructure in the particular ways that his studies of innovation have shown lead to transformative results.
Innovation Nation is vital reading for all those Americans who are troubled by the great challenges the United States faces in the ever-more-competitive economy of our twenty-first-century world.
That’s it for this month — I want to hear what good books YOU’VE read lately! Please share in the comments below.
If you missed previous months in 2019, you can still check them out: January | February | March
My Reviews for This Reading List
- Books Review: Innovation Nation: How America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do to Get It Back
- Books Review: Wrath and Ruin
- Books Review: Starting a Business QuickStart Guide
Keep on reading!
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