Category Archives: Literature

Book Reviews, Literature

Book Review: Good to Great by Jim Collins – A Timeless Blueprint for Enduring Business Success

Jim Collins’ Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t remains one of the most influential business books of the 21st century—and for good reason. More than two decades after its publication, the book continues to be a go-to resource for executives, entrepreneurs, and management consultants seeking clarity on what separates truly exceptional companies from the merely competent.

Built on a rigorous five-year research study that analyzed 28 companies over several decades, Good to Great distills the consistent traits of businesses that achieved sustained, superior performance. Collins and his team focused on publicly traded companies that beat the market by at least three times over 15 years, uncovering common patterns that defied prevailing business myths. Continue reading Book Review: Good to Great by Jim Collins – A Timeless Blueprint for Enduring Business Success →

Book Reviews, Literature

“Shoe Dog” by Phil Knight: The Reluctant Tycoon Who Just Did It

Phil Knight didn’t want to be rich. He didn’t want to be famous. He just wanted to make something. To build something. Something that felt… alive.

Shoe Dog, his memoir about the early days of Nike, is not the polished corporate origin story you’d expect from a multibillion-dollar brand. It’s raw. Restless.

Full of bad decisions, existential dread, and occasional brilliance. It reads less like a CEO memoir and more like a confessional travelogue of a man trying to outrun his own uncertainty.

And it’s magnificent.

Knight begins the story in 1962, a 24-year-old with no business plan, just a crazy idea he calls his “Crazy Idea”: to import Japanese running shoes and sell them in the U.S. That first order?

He places it using money borrowed from his dad and lies about having a company.

He calls it “Blue Ribbon.”

Nike doesn’t even exist yet. Continue reading “Shoe Dog” by Phil Knight: The Reluctant Tycoon Who Just Did It →

Book Reviews, Literature

Why Never Split the Difference Might Be the Only Negotiation Book You’ll Ever Need

If you’re tired of the same old corporate-style negotiation advice—“be reasonable,” “find common ground,” “compromise and collaborate”—then Chris Voss’s Never Split the Difference is going to hit you like an espresso shot to the brain. Voss, a former FBI hostage negotiator, throws out the polite win-win playbook and replaces it with something far more powerful: real tactics for high-stakes negotiation, forged not in boardrooms, but in kidnappings, crisis calls, and life-or-death situations.

And yet—it works just as well when trying to get a raise, close a business deal, or convince your teenager to clean their room. Continue reading Why Never Split the Difference Might Be the Only Negotiation Book You’ll Ever Need →

Authors & Writers, Literature

Interview with Eva Dillon, Author of the Gripping Memoir “Spies in the Family”

In this fascinating interview, author Eva Dillon talks about researching and writing her highly acclaimed, fascinating true-life thriller Spies in the Family.

About Spies in the Family

A riveting, true-life thriller—as well as a moving memoir—from the daughter of an American intelligence officer, Spies in the Family is the astonishing story of two spies and their families on opposite sides of the Cold War.

Spanning fifty years and three continents, Spies in the Family is a deeply researched account of the lethal espionage campaigns of the Cold War, and two men whose devoted friendship lasted a lifetime, until the devastating final days of their lives.

Both a gripping tale of spy craft and a powerful personal story, Spies in the Family is an invaluable and wholly fresh look at one of the most extraordinary episodes in American history.

“A beautifully written, profoundly moving account of one of the most important U.S Intelligence sources ever run inside the Soviet Union. A cliff-hanger from beginning to end, Dillon’s account is filled with espionage tradecraft and family drama—essential reading for anyone fascinated by how spying really works.” – (Peter Earnest, Executive Director, International Spy Museum)

 

Buy “Spies in the Family” on Amazon.

Visit Eva’s website here.

Continue reading Interview with Eva Dillon, Author of the Gripping Memoir “Spies in the Family” →

Book Reviews, Business, Literature

Atomic Habits Isn’t Just About Habits—It’s About Rewriting Who You Are

James Clear’s Atomic Habits is the rare business/self-improvement book that doesn’t just give you a handful of tips and a list of “hacks”—it hands you a new operating system. And yes, it’s about habits. But more importantly, it’s about identity, momentum, and the quiet, compounding power of tiny changes.

The premise sounds simple: small changes lead to big results. But Clear manages to take that idea—one you’ve probably heard before—and build an entire framework that feels both startlingly fresh and instantly practical. At no point does he ask you to overhaul your life. Instead, he asks you to make a 1% improvement. And then another. And another. Because, as he keeps reminding us, systems beat goals. And direction beats intensity.

What sets Atomic Habits apart from the self-help crowd is how well it balances science with storytelling. Clear draws on behavioral psychology, neuroscience, and real-world examples without ever slipping into jargon. Continue reading Atomic Habits Isn’t Just About Habits—It’s About Rewriting Who You Are →