Review: The Psychology of Money

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hooter: A Layman overview of Financial Literacy and the softer aspects behind it

You aren't going to walk out as a financial whizkid reading this book but there really isn't a whizkid but lot of other factors around financial literacy and planning for oneself. Packed with wisdom and examples on why the author suggests something taking extreme examples to highlight his point. The book focuses more on the thought process for you as an individual rather than the actual process of investing.

Some key takeaways:
1) Freedom with your own time is the highest dividend money pays.
2) Saving is the gap between your ego and your income.
3) Defining "enough"
4) Noone is impressed with you and your possession as much as you are.
5) Every investor has a different timeframe and a goal in mind
6) You can be wrong half the time but still make a fortune.

For someone beginning their journey, for someone who needs a refresher in 2021, this book acts as a quick easy read. The brevity and the ease of structure of the narrative makes it an easy, insightful read. I'd recommend as a good handy book to question some of the thought process behind blindly investing especially based on time tested experiences of a prior generation.

View all my reviews

Review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: British wit captured through a series of letters and notes based correspondence post World War.

A random letter from someone who found their details from a book kicks off a series of letters that bring about the motley group of Guernsey residents part of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. How did they come up with the name? A concocted story in a whim when approached by officers for a group breaking a curfew brings the group to life filled with wit all over. You get a flavour of British way of life under occupation. Delightfully funny in a British way, the book is fun read though the format does get a bit repetitive.

I have heard the movie is a good watch, so will check it out to figure if movie adaptation has done justice to the book.

View all my reviews

Review: A Promised Land

A Promised Land by Barack Obama
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hooter: The first hand account of Obama's first term as President and the path to it.

I was trying out audible and was wondering which audio book to try and it just made sense to go with Oscar winning Barack Obama narrating his own memoir of his first term of Presidency and the run up to it. The Five stars aren't for Obama and what he has done as President but purely for the memoir and how it has been structured and narrated. The man really knows the power of communication and leverages it to make for a very engaging and witty long hear. Whilst it is chronological and a lot of facts, he is able to add emotion, drama without being over the top making you feel you are sitting right there with him in Air Force One or the Oval Office dealing with one disaster to another facepalming one moment or giggling the next.

He clearly mentions how if the problems he was being asked to solve had a precedent, was black or white or had a rule book, some one in the chain of command would have already solved it leading him to deal with probabilities and varying shades of grey. His attention to detail, background to certain conversations, the political climate - overall a well rounded insight into the world of one of the most powerful positions in the world. He makes all those names you read in the newspapers along the political landscape human, adds flesh and character to each of them as they deal with bad news which clearly doesn't follow a cycle and the balancing act of managing political capital.

I probably would have read the book faster than hearing it which is one of the drawbacks of audiobooks but I think this particular book deserves a listen rather than a read purely because of Obama.

View all my reviews

Review: In Other Words

In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: A series of journal entries in a foreign language that Jhumpa tries to make her own.

This is Jhumpa releasing her journal entries as she tackles with trying to tackle a new language and make her own. Whilst she wrote the entries in Italian, this is a translation of it and you can see the rudimentary flow adding a touch of authenticity of a nascent attempt at writing in a language. Though the set of entries focus on her longing to make Italian her own and the vulnerabilities she faces dealing with a strange language and land. It is an introspection exercise she has taken for herself.

There is a freshness to see an established writer share their desperation and vulnerabilities but it becomes a journal entry too many where she tries to share the same emotions from different perspectives. The obsession and the hard work she goes through to master Italian is a good reminder of the struggles.

View all my reviews

Review: Infinite Jest

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: The search for the master copy of a highly addictive movie whilst learning about the stoic and esoteric residents of a city between a drug rehab and a tennis academy.

The Infinite Jest took me back to my school textbooks. He has approx 100 pages of footnotes alone in this massive book. The language used tends to be a lil less obscure than Tharoorian English but you get the gist. I knew what I was getting into with respect to being a struggle to read this book but feels like an accomplishment to get through. Most glowing recommendations of this book talk about having truly understood it's worth in the 3rd or 4th reading, not sure I am going to get there anytime soon. First stab - if you get past the language and the construct, the book has wit and takes a lot of contemporary America anecdotes along the way. Unfortunately, I wouldn't say I am very well versed with contemporary America of his time except for the TV shows that gave me some insight so honestly, quite a few of the jokes probably went over my head. The Wheelchair assassins who are in the quest to find the copy to give their secret cult unlimited power add color to the proceedings but again DFW stays away from any flowery prose and keeps his writing very witty and objective, almost dry to a certain degree. Movies and tennis make for recurring themes through out.

I enjoyed the read in bits and pieces but not sure if it was worth the struggle hence the 3 hoots. Maybe I ain't intellectual enough for the infinite jest. The meta baseline of this work is mind blowing but the slog to get through it.

Example of the intellectual wit: The title comes from a line in Hamlet, "Alas, poor Yorick!—I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy."

View all my reviews