If you are searching for book recommendations or something new to read, I am sharing here my list of books. Most of them I’ve finished in the kindle version and I am also sharing some of my views about them. I hope you enjoy. Also feel free to share your recommendations with me at edge@superedge.net
In case you’re interested, here’s my reading list from 2012
 | Coraline 05-October-2013 After being wowed by "Stardust" I decided to go for another Neil Gaiman and yet again I found another great story. Gaiman writes great stories for kids, however this one is a bit too much for young hears I think. I love the fact that Coraline is an amazing inspirational tale for young kids. Always polite and always well-mannered. In a flat with 21 windows and 14 doors, one door is locked but this door occasionally opens up to a parallel world like ours where Coraline finds her other mother, other father, and even other neighbors. All look great at the surface but there are horrible things underneath it as she will discover. I took this book to read for my daughter, but soon I realized the content was a bit too strong for a 5yo girl. Yet Coraline is an excellent role model for kids between 8-12 years old. Teaching about courage, love and priorities. |
 | Stardust 15-August-2013 Loved it! Loved it! Loved it! A fantastic story about following your dreams, a falling star who becomes a gorgeous woman, the son of an adventurer with a magic gipsy. Everything Gaiman wrote here takes us to a beautiful world of fairies, dreams, adventure and fantasy. I absolutely recommend, specially if you like to read with your kids. |
 | Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead 16-July-2013 I've seen Sandra's TED presentation and I think it is one of the best ones. She definitely is smart, speak well and direct to the point. Her ideas about female inclusion into the IT workforce certainly resonates with me. When I read this book however I felt disappointed. In the book she has the opportunity to expand her concepts of the TED talk and that's when the challenges become clear. All her ideas are perfect, no problems with that; the issue is that she's not the average working woman/mother/wife. She has vast resources, namely money, that allowed her to fulfill her career. From a "busy mom" point of view she will ask "how come she found time to do this?". Great ideas, but unlikely to be a boiler plate for women to follow. |
 | Transformational Speaking: If you want to change the world, tell a better story 12-June-2013 I started reading this book with 2 assumptions in mind: 1) to develop my public speaking skills 2) to hear from a business perspective how to tell a "better story". Disappointed, the book is not one of the other. From early on you start to see how little practical information is provided and a lot of spiritual talk. A lot of discussion about shamans, inner cure, invisible beings, energy within etc. I do not have absolutely nothing against it, but then the author should have been clear about the purpose of the book. This is misleading readers. Too much talk about mystics and nothing about what we can do to deliver/sell a compelling story. This is not a public speaking book, this is not a business book, this is not a story-telling technique book. This is a spiritual/mystical/religious book. (I put in bold so others don’t fall in the same trap I did) |
 | Lord of the Flies 8-May-2013 Lord of the Flies is not a new book, according to my kindle version its 1st publication was in the 50's. A plane crashes on an island, all the adults die, all the kids survive. The main plot is about these kids stranded in a desert island and how their relations go about. Then the author it goes in a discussion about the human nature, which is supposed to be brutal and ruthless. I can even see a lot of influences from The Hunger Games coming from this book. Whilst I don't agree with that we are that brutal, it is an awesome book which can be told as a morality tale or a parable. If you read the Hunter Games and is ready to go to the next level, or to the deeper roots if I may, I can really recommend. You wont be disappointed. |
 | Caçadas de Pedrinho (Portuguese Edition) I read this when I was a young bloke, now I am reading this book with my kids (5 and 3 years-old) and the story is already a success with them. Highly recommended for adventurous toddlers. Something a few people know is that Monteiro Lobato was one of the most important South-American Philosophers. Food for brain! |
  | The Best You: Managing Your Time 16-Apr-2013 I am a big fan of time-management techniques and I got this book on a free- offer from Amazon. There are a lot of good ideas, but ultimately they fail to sell to the reader the purposes of “why” time management is important. A lot of self-promoting talk and predictable stories. 2.5 stars. |
 | The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs 16-Apr-2013 I've got this book after a friend's recommendation. I was a bit reluctant because most of all I know Steve Jobs was not the best role model out there. Many rated him as a "first class CIO, third class human being". Yet one has to recognize his talent to deliver presentations. (sometimes a bit overrated by the Apple-fans), and that aspect of his life is what I am most interested at the moment. I did not like the book, too many common places and a lot of content repetition. Save your time and money. You can find the same tips from this book by searching the internet. Overrated! |
 | Democratizing Innovation 13-Feb-2013 The premise of this book is that user innovation has a positive impact on social welfare, and the proposition is that government policies should be realigned to eliminate biases against it. The goal is a democratized user-centered innovation system. His research explain a major paradigm shift in innovation where users are displacing manufacturers to become the dominant force of innovation in many fields. It is a very concise book, only 200 pages, and definitely offers a lot of food for thought. It is not an average read; I do recommended for executive drivers and decision makers to enhance their discussion positioning on the topic. |
  | How We Decide 24-Jan-2013 Why do we take the decisions we take? is there a rational process, or emotional, or both? How serial-killers think, entrepreneurs, football players, writers…do they have something in common? There is a very thin line dividing our choices between rational and emotional and this book talks about this line. Excellent read. I recommend. |
  | It’s not a glass ceiling, is a sticky floor 17-Jan-2013 I was recommended this book by a friend who was being coached by a professional. Apparently this book is targeted to women and talks about the barriers stopping the individuals to reach full their potential. Unfortunately the message in this book did not resonate with me, I found the topics too basically, the messages too obvious, the concept too shallow, and one of the things I try to avoid the most: Author self-promotion. |
By Edge Pereira
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