Excellent Reviews of Excellent Books

Review: Recently I reviewed some books on acquiring wealth (this and this and this and this). Acquired Tastes explores some opportunities to spent large amounts of it. Being a famed author with a generous advance, Peter Mayle sets out to indulge in extravagances and vanities to write about them. From Cuban cigars over french truffles to British taylors, Acquired Tastes tells a charming and colorful story detailing the peculiarities of each pleasantry. Good tips how to get the best hotel rooms, too.  It’s interesting how little has changed since the early nineties. The rich still wallow in bespoke cloths, luxury food items and posh accommodation. Just add some technological baubles and you have the upstart millenial’s wishlist. If you want a book on the nicer things of life that is a bit witty, a bit silly, a bit funny and a bit inspirational, Acquired Tastes is for you.   Key points: Some expensive things are really nice. Some expensive things are nice, but difficult. Some expensive things are boring. Enjoy!   Author affiliations: Peter Mayle had a career in advertising before he became an author. He is was known for his autobiographical novels about life in Provence as a British…

It’s time for a special review, where I have a look at other media, and this time I want to talk about crowdfunding. I did support some projects in the past, so I wanted to look into Kickstarter.com,  the biggest crowdfunding website, to see if there are some interesting books to be found. For those of you who don’t know what crowdfunding is, here is a short introduction. A creator initiates a project by opening a project page on Kickstarter (or another crowdfunding platform). There, he or she presents a pitch and every information that they think will get people to fund (“back”) their project. The backers decide if they want to pledge some money, to receive rewards. These rewards usually come in tiers, where a higher pledge means a better reward. Typical reward tiers range from adding the backer to a mailing list (for a very low amount of money pledged) over the thing that the project is about (like a pair of shoes or a book or tickets for a performance) to special editions, meetings with the creators and other goodies at a higher price. The creator will get the backers money if, and only if, the specified…

Key points People need things from you, and will value your ability to provide these things What you are inside is important, but other people can’t see it Learn, train and improve to make your inner qualities shine   Author affiliations David Wong is an executive editor and writer at Cracked.com.   Review copy free online article   Review It’s April Fool’s Day, but instead of a hoax I decided to do some kind of special edition. So today we’ll have a look at an online article instead of a book. Cracked.com is a very dangerous site if you are the tiniest bit nerdy. Its main content, list-based humour heavy on pop culture references, is presented with just the right mixture of clickbait and substance to prompt hour-long reading binges. Between the fun, however, lurk some more serious pieces of actual journalism, just to add some flavour to the mix. And then there is one article that they repost every year since 2012, titled “6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You A Better Person”, and that’s what we will talk about. Staying true to its host site, “6 Harsh Truths” is a list counting down six behaviors and attitudes that…