Recent Readings: Steve Jobs & Mindy Kaling

Q: Hey, Guy Bannister.  You have not posted any updates lately on books you have been reading.  Does that mean you are not reading lately??

A: Hello no!!   I have been knocking out books but just been too lazy to give reviews.  But that stops today.  Below you will find my thoughts on some books I have recently completed and may help you decide on which to purchase for your loved ones this holiday season.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Everyone (slight exaggeration) was talking about this book when it came out so I figured that I had to read it.  And am glad I did so.  A really well-written examination of a man considered to be this generation's genius.  I knew very little about who Steve Jobs was a person yet much as the head of Apple.  I mean, they made the iPod and iPhone.  That was pretty much his legacy.

But there was a lot more to know about him.  First of all, he was pretty much a raving asshole.  An asshole who treated everyone around him poorly, who belittled family and friends at will, who was completely incapable of empathy and yet was able to change the modern consumer's world as we know it.

This book does an amazing job of not putting any spin on who Steve Jobs was.  There are plenty of those around him who gave their honest opinions for this book.  Even his wife is brutally honest.  It's not a quick read but definitely worth it.

Many of you are familiar with Mindy Kaling as Kelly Kapoor on NBC's "The Office" and I am one of them.  I did not know much about her other than the fact that she is one of the writers/producers of the show.  What better way to cash in on having a witty personality and national exposure??  Write a book.

As a fan of "The Office" and of Mindy's acting skills, I got a copy of this book and knocked it out in a few days.  A quick read if there ever was one.  Kaling even makes a reference to that fact at some point in the book, she questions the brain power of anyone who needs more than a week to complete it.

Kaling has a great sense of humor and uses it thorough-out the chapters.  She mixes in laughs with a serious message of "just be true to yourself."  I highly recommend it for any teenage girl who feels peer pressures to "be cool."

Small factoid:  I had no idea she spent a few years living in Brooklyn's Windsor Terrace neighborhood.

I just started the new Stephen King "11/22/1963"

Keep reading, folks.  It grows your minds.