Humanity’s Last New Year’s Eve – Niccolò Ammaniti

In 1996 — when he was just starting out — Ammaniti published a collection of short stories titled Fango. This particular story (which was also made into a movie) is one of the stories from Fango published as a separate book in 2010 and it’s absolutely vintage Ammaniti. Being one of his earliest stories, it’s […]

Human Kind: A Hopeful History (De Meeste Mensen Deugen) – Rutger Bregman

I don’t know what the English title translation for Rutger Bregman’s latest book will be. But I do know two things. One: there will be one. And two: it will be a bestseller. I do know now, and yes it will be a bestseller: The title will be something along the lines of: Most People […]

Me and You – Niccolò Ammaniti

It’s probably fair to say Niccolò Ammaniti is one of my favorite writers at the moment. This being his third book I read since last year. He has a gut stomping way of describing the human condition in a funny, recognisable and smart way. His dialogue, characters and plot ooze effortlessly from the pages. And […]

The Black Swan – Nassim Nicholas Taleb

When The Black Swan came out in 2007 it caused quite a stir. And understandably so. Taleb has a distinctive and fresh view of looking at the world through the lens of an emperic skeptic. He also likes to write, think out loud, and argue why he is right (and others are wrong). He greatly […]

Churchill – Sebastian Haffner

Writing a Churchill biography is not an easy assignment, even though it would be difficult to butcher the job. Churchill lead an unprecedented rich and varied life and just writing down the bare facts would already be enough for a great story. But it would also be a massive undertaking. Haffner took a different route. […]

Capitalism without brakes – Maarten van Rossem

In his highly distinctive ‘tone of voice’, Maarten van Rossem provides the most succinct available lecture on the root causes which lead to the 2008 financial crisis. From the change in Keynes thinking (after the 1920s) to the Hayek and Friedman ideology — embodied by the neoliberal policies of Reagan and Thatcher. Van Rossem explains […]

Dream Dare Do – Ben Tiggelaar

Dare Dream Do (Dromen Durven Doen) is one of the all-time bestselling Dutch self-management books. Tiggelaar is a popular figure and he has a charming, personal and pragmatic writing style. There are few new concepts in the book (at least for me). Practices like visualisation, goalsetting, checking goals, taking responsibility and being grateful. These are […]

The Unicorn Project – Gene Kim

When I read The Phoenix Project last year, I was smitten. I loved the combination of using fiction to describe how to apply — management and DevOps — theory to true to life situations. So when the publisher asked if I wanted to review the follow-up, I didn’t hesitate. And I can safely say The […]

Foster: how to build your own bookshelf management web application

foster/ˈfɒstə/verb 1. Encourage the development of (something, especially something desirable). “the teacher’s task is to foster learning” TLDR: I made a personal bookshelf management web application and named it Foster and you can find it here. Here’s what I did — with gifs–, so you might build your own. Name I named it Foster. Because […]

Iedere dag vrij – Bob Crébas

I remember exactly where I was when, in 2004, I heard that Dutch ad site marktplaats.nl was sold for a staggering 224,5 million euros to eBay. A polder Cinderella story. This success was, however, no accident. Of course, luck was involved, but this is true of all successful businesses. A few years after this deal […]

A Moveable Feast – Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway, the writers’ writer, is famously known for having spent his early years in Paris. Freshly married, this struggling and then unknown writer was honing his craft and subsequently defining what it means to be a writer in a vibrant post World War I Paris. Where he wrote his first big novel. In later life […]

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey

When I started college in 1998 this was literally one of the first books I had to buy. It was part of a — cheaply thrown together — five-pack of paperback management book ‘classics’. And my particular copy is printed on recycled paper, with boring frugal typesetting, and even has a Dutch translation error on […]