Start-Up: What We May Still Learn From Silicon Valley Review

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(More customer reviews)This is NOT a book about why Silicon Valley is better than everyone else, and how to recreate it in Europe.
This is an in-depth analysis of Silicon Valley's success from historic, cultural, and financial viewpoints that until now has not been clearly and succinctly articulated.
Dr. Lebret is not a high-nosed scholar writing about innovation from a comfy desk in academia. He is in the trenches with the entrepreneurs, helping them get their business ideas clear, helping them get funding, and, most importantly, he supports students and scientists with seed funding to put them on the entrepreneurial path. The knowledge and understanding of the issues that face young entrepreneurs is clearly, and sympathetically, expressed in his writing.
This book is required reading for would-be entrepreneurs, people leading innovation, and policy makers. It is meant for Europeans, Americans, and those in emerging counties too. It will change the way you see entrepreneurs and the ecosystem around them.


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Although start-ups represent a major phenomenon in the USA, they also create skepticism and even suspicion, perhaps because of the excesses of the Internet bubble. Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Yahoo and Google were all start-ups and these success stories show that the phenomenon is not mere speculation. The goal of this book is to show start-ups from a different angle. Start-ups are created by individuals who are passionate and who have dreams. Therefore this work should not only be read by specialists of innovation or by high tech entrepreneurs, but also by anyone interested in the history and economics of start-ups. The book is presented in two parts: it begins with a presentation of Silicon Valley start-ups, which ends with a description of the ecosystem of this region. The second part is dedicated to Europe, where the start-up phenomenon has failed in comparison. The main message is that it is absolutely necessary to take more inspiration from Silicon Valley.

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America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It Review

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(More customer reviews)At least, that's how he signed my copy. I'd call Mark Steyn's essay the single best distillation of the challenge posed to the West by radical Islam that I have ever read.
Regular readers of Mr. Steyn will not be unfamiliar with his central points:
1) In the ongoing conflict between the West and Islam, both the demographics and the will to power favor the Islamists. That a country like Spain, with a birth rate of 1.15 children per adult women, will extinguish itself in a few generations, while immigrants from countries such as Pakistan (birth rate 4.53) will move in to fill the vacuum.
2) That as an aggressive, unassimilated minority edges closer to a majority (as in France, with an estimated 30% Muslim population in the under 20 age group), the character of the democratic institutions will become more closely aligned with Islamic law and culture.
3) That the post-Christian welfare state is largely to blame for the pessimism and failures of will demonstrated by Europe.
4) That America represents the primary exception to this trend, if only by degree, and that only a concerted effort to save our society stands a chance of reversing these trends.
That's a reasonable précis of Steyn's book, and he is certainly not unique in either his diagnosis or his prescription for the West. What sets this apart is his writing. The argument is made in a way that is the most engrossing and entertaining presentation of these ideas I've ever read. Steyn, as part of his superhuman writing regimen, is the obituarist for The Atlantic Monthly, and he puts that talent on display. This is not just a description of a set of demographic realities, but a loving, if premature (he hopes), obituary to a dying great culture. It's Steyn's ability to blend humor with the terminal diagnosis that sets him apart.
Take the following, from letting the book fall open at random (pages 60-61), where Steyn weaves together these seemingly disparate ideas: a photo of Lincoln with his future assassin in near proximity, the globalization at the root of a bird flu scare ("Any minute now there would be toxic cockatoos over the white cliffs of Dover, and the East End would be reeling under a blitzkrieg of sneezing parakeets"), the Black Death in Europe in the 1340s, the exportation of radical Islam from the Bedouin to the West, and finally a quote for Dean Martin's old nightclub act. I can't even describe it adequately; Steyn actually pulls it off, brilliantly.
Finally, I'd like to try to approach the book from the opposite direction. Invariably, political book reviews become contentious. It may be apparent that I came to this book predisposed to agree with the thesis, and I would not argue. That said, I think this is one of the rare political books that could be read and enjoyed regardless of personal politics. Dare I say it, but Steyn might even change some minds. Between his inventive turns of phrase, his references to pop culture and classic Americana, and his interesting digressions on topics as diverse as the heyday of French television and European history in the Middle Ages, Steyn offers something for everyone. And that's appropriate. Unlike many political books, this does not seem written to say "I'm right and you're wrong", but rather "we're all in this together".


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This title is the "New York Times" bestseller - now in paperback. In "America Alone", Mark Steyn uses his trademark wit, clarity of thought and flair for the apocalyptic, Mark Steyn to argue that America is the only hope against Islamic Terrorism. Steyn addresses the singular position in which America finds itself, surrounded by anti-Americanism on all sides. He gives us the brutal facts on these threats and why there is no choice but for America to fight for the cause of freedom - alone.

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The Imperfectionists: A Novel (Random House Reader's Circle) Review

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(More customer reviews)The Imperfectionists is flat-out one of the most enjoyable debut books I've read. This book has it all: writing that's so brilliant and astute that it's hard to believe this is Mr. Rachman's freshman effort, highly original and authentic characters, and a very timely theme: the demise of the printed newspaper.
The novel -- set in Rome -- is focused on the personal lives of various news reporters, executives, copy editors, and (in one case) a reader. Each chapter focuses on one individual and is a story all its own (think: Olive Kitteridge or In Other Rooms, Other Wonders); together, the whole is greater than the part of its sums and represents the trials, tribulations, and occasional rewards of those involved with an international English language newspaper.
All of these multi-faceted, interwoven stories sparkle in different ways. There is Lloyd, the down-on-his-luck Paris correspondent who is willing to play his own son for a byline. There's Arthur, the obituary writer and son of a famous journalist who sits on his laurels before his life is transformed by a heart-rendering tragedy. There's Abby -- aka Accounts Payable -- the financial officer who finds that one of her firings comes back to "bite" her in a most unexpected way. There's Herman, the overly hefty pussycat of a corrections editor with an 18,000-plus style guide he calls "The Bible"; woe is the unwitting writer who violates it! And Kathleen, the imperious and workaholic editor-in-chief who learns things about herself from a past lover that she would rather have not. And, in one of the most laugh-out-loud humorous of the stories, there's Winston, the naive Cairo stringer who is manipulated by his competitor Snyder, a middle-aged man with an over-the-top ego.
These and other "imperfect" characters come alive for the reader, often in unexpected ways. The situations portrayed are as real as life itself; it's obvious that Mr. Rachman cares about his characters and never sets them up as straw men to make a point or for comic relief. Between each chapter, the back-story of the newspaper is established, along with the everyday gripes of the employee -- a pitch-perfect backdrop for current events. The Imperfectionists is, in turn, poignant, strongly imagined, and endearing. I can't imagine it not being a winner.

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