Two New Books

I realize I haven't really been participating in this blog since it was first incepted by Tim several months ago. I would love to make excuses about how busy my life is, but I'm not going to because quite frankly I just forgot about it. Now I do actually have more time at work though, so over the past week I've caught up on all of the recent postings and see what I've been missing. I'm looking forward to contributing more going forward.

To start, I just wanted to throw out the names of two books I bought last night on my walk home from work. I was in the mood for something totally new and I came across these by chance while browsing the display tables at Borders. I haven't read either yet, so I can't offer a review, but I wanted to know if any of you have read or heard about the books and what your thoughts are.

"Mergers + Acquisitions" by Dana Vachon - A fictional novel, based loosely on the author's life, about a fresh-out-of-college Investment Banker living the good life as a young, rich socialite in New York City. It supposedly exposes and analyzes the life of the young, money hungry members of the I-Banking world in a humorous, "smartly-written" story. What caught my eye initially was the review on the front cover, "If Holden Caulfield had stuck it out at a good school and landed on Wall Street, he might have written Mergers+ Acquisitions...It rocks." - The Wall Street Journal. As a huge "Catcher in the Rye" fan, I couldn't resist. Also, Bloomberg News wrote, "Some of the best worm's-eye views of Wall Street yet penned...told with humor and verve...Nobody involved in finance should miss it."

"The Economic Naturalist" by Robert H. Frank - Non-fiction: shows how simple economic cost/benefit and supply/demand principals explain a plethora of everyday questions that at first glance may seem unexplicable. (Eg. Why does a $500 tuxedo rent for $90 a day while a $20,000 car rents for only $40? and Why do keypad buttons of drive-up cash machines have Braille dots?) Many of the questions I'm sure we could explain ourselves through economic theory, but I'm interested to see how Mr. Frank approaches these answers. From my 3-second flip through of this book, it seems to be a much less detailed (and probably not as good) copy-cat of Steve Levitt's "Freakonomics" which I think many of us have read. The answers are all only several paragraphs long and the questions are similar to the examples above...more of an every man's real-world economic theory book rather than the deep analysis that Levitt's book provides.

Again, if anyone has read either book I would love to hear your thoughts. Also, if my blurbs have inspired anyone to go out and pick up a copy, I'd love to discuss after we finish.

Happy Friday!