BUYING GUIDE.
Nestled into a long holiday weekend with family and friends, why not sneak away for some reading time? Among the works that our editors and writers have chosen are a memoir from former Alaska governor and VP candidate Sarah Palin’s memoir, a Wall Street Journal reporter’s examination of the characters involved in the collapse and cleanup of the real-estate bubble, and an exploration of quality-vs.-convenience among companies and their products. In thrillers, we review Vince Flynn’s latest takedown of terrorists, while the late Michael Crichton brings us 17th-century pirates of the Caribbean.Going Rogue: An American Life
By Sarah Palin
Reviewed by: William Swarts
As has been widely chronicled, Sarah Palin’s political memoir describes the 2008 presidential campaign — and Palin’s rebellion against the strictures imposed by John McCain’s staff. With the help of a five-writer team, headed by Lynn Vincent, the former governor of Alaska names names and points fingers. Her disillusionment with the American political process is palpable as she describes the disorienting experience of being subjected to “the blood sport known as presidential politics.” That experience seems to have hardened Palin, who loudly discounts the role of compromise in electoral politics, and perhaps accounts for her resignation as governor.
This genre of memoir/manifesto of course makes minimal allowance for personal introspection, so it’s hard to fully understand the evolution of her thinking — or if "Going Rogue" is a book-length exercise in 2012 fundraising or simply the cultivation of a powerful populist brand.
The Greatest Trade Ever
By Gregory Zuckerman
Reviewed by Alexandra Scaggs
Ever wonder how a single trade can create a legend? Gregory Zuckerman outlines how just such a thing happened with John Paulson and the rest of the characters who profited wildly from the collapse of the real estate bubble.
"In The Greatest Trade Ever," Zuckerman, who writes The Wall Street Journal’s "Heard on the Street" column, focuses as much on the personalities and characters of the investors as on the bubble and collapse that increased their wealth exponentially. (Smartmoney.com is a joint venture between Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal and the Hearst Corporation).
Players here include Paulson, whom Zuckerman characterizes as a reformed playboy and true skeptic; Paolo Pellegrini, a Wall Street outsider who went to Paulson for his last shot at a career; Jeffrey Greene, the Hollywood version of a big-shot investor; and Andrew Lahde, the young West-Coast investor who cashed out and left finance for good.
The book addresses how deals are made and how personality counts just as much as the financial mechanics behind the trade, which may be why Paulson has come out with a statement saying he is “disappointed” with the book. But Zuckerman shows that in finance, office politics can matter as much as smarts.
Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don’t
By Kevin Maney
Reviewed by Jami Makan
Kevin Maney believes new products should focus on delivering either quality or convenience — and his new book explores the tension between the two. What makes something more convenient (i.e., cheap and easy to get), he argues necessarily diminishes its overall strength and cachet, and vice versa. Products that fall short on both fronts get stuck inside what Maney calls the “fidelity belly” — the state of being neither loved nor needed — and slowly fade away.
Most of this 202-page book is devoted to dissecting real-life companies such as Tiffany, Apple, Kodak and Amazon.com, as well as people who embody Maney’s concepts. He singles out James Cameron, the director of the upcoming 3-D film, "Avatar," as attempting the high-quality route in an era of commoditized movie fare. India’s Tata Motors, in contrast, is opting for convenience with its ultra-cheap Nano. Starbucks tried to balance both fidelity and convenience and paid a heavy price: When it expanded too rapidly, “excessive convenience dragged down the brand and made it commonplace,” concludes Maney.
Maney even manages to categorize rocker Ozzy Osbourne, Yuengling beer and Harvard University in terms of quality vs. convenience. He argues that a version of his thesis can also apply to individuals, even entire nations, in addition to ordinary goods and services.
But despite his profusion of examples, Maney’s book lacks depth. Maney says that figuring out how different groups define quality and convenience can help identify target markets, yet he provides only a few examples and little practical guidance to offer companies that face serious competition and need a clear path forward. So "Trade-Off" itself becomes a trade-off: It succeeds as an entertaining read about some interesting companies and products, but fails as a manual for entrepreneurs.
Pursuit of Honor
By Vince Flynn
Reviewed by Robert J. Hughes
The newest thriller from Vince Flynn picks up shortly after the end of his previous bestseller, "Extreme Measures," when a terrorist attack in Washington, D.C., left almost 200 people dead.
Now, despite the fast-thinking efforts of agents Mitch Rapp and Mike Nash, who helped prevent further destruction at the scene, several of the terrorists remain on the lam. At the same time, Rapp – with his hair-trigger temper and no-holds-barred approach to nabbing bad guys (think 24’s Jack Bauer, minus the charm) – is dealing with CIA renegades as well as myopic politicians who refuse to accept the realities of the terrorist world: that terrorists don’t follow America’s rules of fair play.
The novel shifts back and forth between the terrorists as they wreak havoc in America’s heartland, and Rapp as he tries to locate them while figuring out which government official will be the next traitor to his country (it’s a long list; apparently the CIA breeds as many greedy turncoats as it does selfless patriots).
The action of the novel is dragged down a bit here and there by Rapp’s self-righteous moralizing, and a subplot involving his partner Nash who is suffering a crisis of conscience about his work. But Flynn remains a very good storyteller whose novel starts out fast and keeps running until its hair-raising conclusion.
Pirate Latitudes
By Michael Crichton
Reviewed by Robert J. Hughes
Bestselling novelist Michael Crichton died last year, leaving a gaping hole in the techno-thriller genre he helped create (think of "Jurassic Park" and "The Andromeda Strain"). But Crichton was also a fan of old-fashioned historical adventure tales as in "The Great Train Robbery" (set in Victorian England) and "Eaters of the Dead" (set in the 10th century and concerning Vikings and Muslims). So fans of those earlier works should welcome this new one, which was discovered on Crichton’s computer after his death. It’s a 17th-century seafaring yarn.
The plot concerns Capt. Charles Hunter’s pursuit of Spanish gold from an anchored ship in the Caribbean, his assembling a band of wily adventurers (including a woman), and the storming of a virtually impregnable island fortress.
As usual, Crichton provides historical data that show his love of research: “In 1755, logwood cutting was considered legitimate commerce by the English… The wood of the logwood, Hemtoxylin campaechium, was used in making red dye as well as certain medicines.” And so on, in short info bytes that don’t detract from a ripping tale.
While some of the writing is a bit clumsy (“aboard his own ship, he was distantly aware that the crew was no longer jubilant”), as might be expected of a novel that the author didn’t live to polish, "Pirate Latitudes" while perhaps not on the level of "Jurassic Park," still reads with the narrative verve fans can expect from a Crichton thriller.
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