Executive Times

Volume 10, Issue 12

December 2008

2008 Hopkins and Company, LLC

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Thanks

Thanks to revenue from Executive Times subscriptions, buyers of books through our amazon.com links, and clients of Hopkins & Company, we’ve continued our annual practice of making a donation to a not-for-profit organization as a special holiday thanks to our clients and friends. This year’s donation was made to Homes for Our Troops, an organization that aggregates donations of funds, building materials and labor to build or rehab homes for severely injured or disabled veterans. If you’d like to join us in supporting this fine organization, you can send your contribution to:

Homes for Our Troops

37 Main Street, Taunton, MA 02780

You can check out this organization on www.guidestar.org. GuideStar is a national database of nonprofit organizations. You can also visit the Homes for Our Troops website at www.homesforourtroops.org.

Triage

This month we present our annual book issue, which many readers use to purchase holiday gifts through our online links to amazon.com. (Another gift idea is a subscription to Executive Times.) We read, reviewed and listed a total of 180 books in Executive Times during 2008, including recent reviews beginning on page 5. Starting on page 2, we recap the best books we read this year. These books, plus 30 others we read but did not review, close out our 2008 bookshelf at http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/2008books.html. There were only five books that we felt a little guilty for not reading in 2008, and those are listed at http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/2008 Shelf of Reproach.html. We gave up entirely on 132 books this year for one reason or another and feel not a twinge of guilt. All of them are at http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/2008 Shelf of Ennui.html. We’ve filled our 2009 bookshelf with 88 books, including 13 added in November to the Shelf of Possibility, and 17 that have been read, but not yet reviewed. All are at http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/2009books.html. You can also check out all the books we’ve ever listed at http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/All Books.html.

Thanks for being an Executive Times reader. Happy Holidays!

Best Books of 2008

Title (Link to Review)	Author	Rating	Review Summary	Purchase
The Reserve	Banks, Russell	****	Truth. Finely written novel, set during the Depression on a private refuge for a few wealthy families in the Adirondacks, replete with contrasts, complex characters, and insights about behavior and relationships.
A Demon of Our Own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils of Financial Innovation	Bookstaber, Richard	****	Complexity. A well-informed exploration of the consequences of the financial instruments created in recent decades by one of the students, creators and risk managers of these products.
People of the Book	Brooks, Geraldine	****	Transported. Fictionalized account of a real illustrated manuscript, the Sarajevo Haggadah. Through the Australian conservator restoring the manuscript, Brooks transports readers in a suspenseful narrative across hundreds of years in multiple locations to the people who made the book, those who used it, and those who protected it.
A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father	Burroughs, Augusten	****	Brutal. Superb writing presents the author’s memories of his alcoholic disturbed, and brutal father, and the ways in which a little boy longs for affection that he never receives.
America America	Canin, Ethan	****	Contradictions. Deeply developed characters presented over three decades by an everyman narrator reveal the complexity of behavior and the tension between continuity and change. Finely written and intricately structured.
When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change	El-Erian, Mohamed	****	Transformations. Great insights into the impact of the structural changes transforming the world’s economies, and ways to mitigate the impact of disruptions.
The Gathering	Enright, Anne	****	Falling. Superb novel uses the occasion of the death of the narrator’s brother to present a freefall experience of the lives and losses of a large Irish family, the memory, the drink, England, and more.
The Other	Guterson, David	****	Friendship. A carefully written and unrushed exploration of an unlikely friendship and the consequences of the choices made by these two friends.
Exiles	Hansen, Ron	****	Hop. Finely crafted novel of the return of Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins to poetry following his reading of the fate of other exiles, six German nuns, in a shipwreck that inspired Hopkins’ epic poem, The Wreck of the Deutschland.
Doing What Matters: How to Get Results That Make a Difference - The Revolutionary Old-School Approach	Kilts, James M.	****	Effectiveness. Former Gillette turnaround CEO (also Nabisco, Kraft and General Foods) shares his practical and disciplined approach to management. Readers will find useful advice and behavior to emulate.
The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation	Lafley, A.G. and Ram Charan	****	Inquisitive. Procter & Gample CEO collaborates with management guru to present theory and practice of managing innovation. Packed with plenty of examples from P&G and other companies and reflective questions for readers.
Unaccustomed Earth	Lahiri, Jhumpa	****	Family. 8 finely written short stories with well-developed characters, settings that come alive through perfect description, and the tension of family relationships to present the struggles of life.
While America Aged: How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial Crisis	Lowenstein, Roger	****	Promises. Chilling description of the pension mess throughout America and ideas on how to mend the ways of corporations, unions and government to allocate resources more effectively.
The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash	Morris, Charles R.	****	Leverage. Confused about the current credit situation? Morris unravels much about the policies and practices that led to recent outcomes, and the likely swing of the pendulum in another direction.
What Now?	Patchett, Ann	****	Commence. The award-winning novelist’s 2006 commencement address for Sarah Lawrence College soars with great prose, thanks to her last minute rewrite. A great question for all ages to consider.
In Defense of Food	Pollan, Michael	****	Pleasure. Author kept getting questions about what to eat from readers of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. This book answers: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Read it and bring some pleasure to your diet.
The Halo Effect: ... and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers	Rosenzweig, Phil	****	Duped. IMD professor pokes fun at management advice books, shows the scientific errors and shortfalls of their methods, offers no success formulas of his own, but helps executives examine more critically the advice they get from others.
Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts	Tavris, Carol and Elliot Aronson	****	Justification. Psychologists present solid research and readable examples and illustrations of why we justify our actions. Readers may not accept culpability more easily, but we can understand why we deceive ourselves and others.
Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls	Tichy, Noel M. and Warren Bennis	****	Framework. Leadership experts describe an approach to three key areas for judgment: people, strategy and crisis. In addition to their approach, they use many examples, and include a handbook should you want to pursue their recommendations.
The Bush Tragedy	Weisberg, Jacob	****	Junior. Shakespearean quotes begin each chapter of this reflection on George W. Bush, with heavy doses of superb writing and amateur psychological insights into Bush’s behavior, especially family relationships.
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle	Wroblewski, David	****	Shakespearean. A boy, his dogs, his family, and rural Wisconsin combine into a Hamlet-like tragedy. Among the best novels of the year, a major feat for a debut.

Latest Books Read and Reviewed:

(Note: readers of the web version of Executive Times can click on the book covers to order copies directly from amazon.com. When you order through these links, Hopkins & Company receives a small payment from amazon.com. Click on the title to read the review or visit our 2008 bookshelf at http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/2008books.html).

Title (Link to Review)	Author	Rating	Review Summary	Purchase
Nothing To Be Frightened Of	Barnes, Julian	***	Mortality. Clever and finely written musings about death, the one reality we all face. Whether a reader things about death a lot or a little, this book brings pleasure and thoughtful reflection.
America America	Canin, Ethan	****	Contradictions. Deeply developed characters presented over three decades by an everyman narrator reveal the complexity of behavior and the tension between continuity and change. Finely written and intricately structured.
Foreign Body	Cook, Robin	**	Deal. Prolific author applies usual formula to the subject of medical tourism, and presents poorly developed characters and a weak plot. Reprised characters from earlier novels save the day.
When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change	El-Erian, Mohamed	****	Transformations. Great insights into the impact of the structural changes transforming the world’s economies, and ways to mitigate the impact of disruptions.
The Fifth Floor	Harvey, Michael	***	Scandal. Novel reprises private eye and ex-cop Michael Kelly in a case that connects the past and present. Kelly’s interest increases when the Chicago mayor summons Kelly to his fifth floor office to warn him off the case.
Superdove: How the Pigeon Took Manhattan ... And the World	Humphries, Courtney	***	Adaptation. Vote for change? No species has changed more successfully than pigeons. Humphries loves her subject and writes well about how pigeons have adapted to urban life.
Liberty: A Lake Wobegon Novel	Keillor, Garrison	***	Constrains. While not as funny as earlier novels, this one encourages us to laugh at ourselves and the constraints we create on our own and in our relationships.
Unaccustomed Earth	Lahiri, Jhumpa	****	Family. 8 finely written short stories with well-developed characters, settings that come alive through perfect description, and the tension of family relationships to present the struggles of life.
Deaf Sentence	Lodge, David	***	Aging. Expertly written novel riffs on all the ways in which we are challenged as we age, with special emphasis on the misunderstandings that can entrap the hard of hearing.
The Dark Side	Mayer, Jane	***	Decisions. A shocking and disturbing presentation of many of the actions and decisions made by the Bush administration in fighting the war on terror.
The Monster of Florence	Preston, Douglas with Mario Spezi	***	Scary. That true life is often more bizarre than fiction is proven in this book that describes the author’s investigation into unsolved serial murders that includes his own interrogation by police, and his co-author’s arrest.
Goldengrove	Prose, Francine	***	Mourning. Finely written coming of age novel in which a thirteen-year-old narrator mourns the death of her sister while maturing into her own identity.
The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It	Shiller, Robert J.	***	Manifesto. A brisk 200 page manifesto of what the author believes should be done in the short and long term to restore confidence and stability to the financial and housing markets.
Planet Google: One Company's Audacious Plan To Organize Everything We Know	Stross, Randall	***	Everything. An interesting and entertaining description of where Google came from and where it’s heading in its plan to organize all the information in the world.
The Good Thief	Tinti, Hannah	***	Waif. Worthy debut novel set in 19^th century New England packed with the adventures and perils of an orphan after he departs the orphanage.

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