If you’re from Boston or went to school in the area, more than likely WBCN was in some way a part of the soundtrack of your youth. Carter Alan, former 19-year ‘BCN vet and current music director/midday host at sister station WZLX, has captured all of the glory in the excellent Radio Free Boston. Sure, Alan’s better known as a deejay than as an historian, but his book is wonderfully comprehensive, spanning…
Book Review – David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell has his vocal critics, to be sure. You don’t sell millions of books without taking some shots along the way, right? A few weeks back, New Republic blogger John Gray called Gladwell a fairy-tale writer, noting his “comforting tales of self-improvement and overcoming evil are given a thin gloss of scientific authority.” Gray, author and emeritus professor at the London School of Economics, comes off…
Book Review – Better Under Pressure by Justin Menkes
You may have heard that the Oxford Dictionary has identified its Word of the Year for 2013: selfie. Yup, snapping a photo of oneself has an official place in our lexicon and as well it might, what with its use being up some 17,000% in the past 12 months. So kids,imagine taking a selfie today and staring back at you is an image of you as a…
Book Review – To Sell Is Human by Daniel H. Pink
This marks the thirty-third book reviewed in this space since 2011 and the mission remains the same: to give you a quick snapshot and enough information to be dangerous. This is primarily meant for the busy professional who finds it difficult to make time for reading. In no way is the intention to create any guilt over not actually reading these books; life is increasingly crazy and we have to…
Book Review – The Outsiders by William N. Thorndike, Jr.
The winner of the dubious honor of following Decisive (reviewed rather glowingly in this space last month) is William Thorndike, author of the excellent-if-not-quite-as-Average-Joe-applicable The Outsiders. The title might bring you back to a rather popular piece of teen gangland fiction that was made into Ralph Macchio’sother 80’s movie, but focus people – it’s unrelated. The outsiders profiled here are eight renegade CEOs, you know, the type who operate outside…