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Brazillionaires, by Alex Cuadros

For readers of Michael Lewis comes an engrossing tale of a country’s spectacular rise and fall, intertwined with the story of Brazil’s wealthiest citizen, Eike Batista—a universal story of hubris and tragedy that uncovers the deeper meaning of this era of billionaires.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE FINANCIAL TIMES

When Bloomberg News invited the young American journalist Alex Cuadros to report on Brazil’s emerging class of billionaires at the height of the historic Brazilian boom, he was poised to cover two of the biggest business stories of our time: how the giants of the developing world were triumphantly taking their place at the center of global capitalism, and how wealth inequality was changing societies everywhere. The billionaires of Brazil and their massive fortunes resided at the very top of their country’s economic pyramid, and whether they quietly accumulated exceptional power or extravagantly displayed their decadence, they formed a potent microcosm of the world’s richest .001 percent.

Eike Batista, a flamboyant and charismatic evangelist for the country’s new gospel of wealth, epitomized much of this rarefied sphere: In 2012, Batista ranked as the eighth-richest person in the world, was famous for his marriage to a beauty queen, and was a fixture in the Brazilian press. His constantly repeated ambition was to become the world’s richest man and to bring Brazil along with him to the top.

But by 2015, Batista was bankrupt, his son Thor had been indicted for manslaughter, and Brazil—its president facing impeachment, its provinces combating an epidemic, and its business and political class torn apart by scandal—had become a cautionary tale of a country run aground by its elites.

Over the four years Cuadros was on the billionaire beat, he reported on media moguls and televangelists, energy barons and shadowy figures from the years of military dictatorship, soy barons who lived on the outskirts of the Amazon, and new-economy billionaires spinning money from speculation. He learned just how deeply they all reached into Brazilian life. They held sway over the economy, government, media, and stewardship of the environment; they determined the spiritual fates and populated the imaginations of their countrymen. Cuadros’s zealous reporting takes us from penthouses to courtrooms, from favelas to extravagant art fairs, from scenes of unimaginable wealth to desperate, massive street protests. Within a business narrative that deftly explains and dramatizes the volatility of the global economy, Cuadros offers us literary journalism with a grand sweep.

Praise for Brazillionaires

“A wild, richly reported tale�about Brazil’s recent economic rise and fall, and some of the biggest, most�colorful characters�in business in Brazil who now have a global reach. . . . Cuadros’s story really takes off when he focuses on Eike Batista, an over-the-top one-time billionaire who became the country’s corporate mascot, only to go bankrupt in a�dramatic unraveling.”—Andrew Ross Sorkin,�the�New York Times
�
“In this�excellent book [Cuadros] has managed to use billionaires to illuminate the lives of both rich and poor Brazilians, and all those in between.”—The Economist

“Brazillionaires [is] journalist Alex Cuadros’s compelling tale of Brazil’s superrich, which deftly weaves lurid soap opera with high finance and outrageous political skullduggery. . . . If Brazil sometimes comes across as a circus in this compelling, thoroughly researched account, it is because it can be just that.”—The Wall Street Journal

  • Sales Rank: #817871 in Books
  • Published on: 2016-06-02
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 8.50" h x 1.02" w x 5.31" l, .93 pounds
  • Binding: Paperback

Review
“Brazillionaires [is] journalist Alex Cuadros’s compelling tale of Brazil’s superrich, which deftly weaves lurid soap opera with high finance and outrageous political skullduggery. . . . If Brazil sometimes comes across as a circus in this compelling, thoroughly researched account, it is because it can be just that.”—The Wall Street Journal
�
“The rise and fall of Batista is dramatically rendered in Brazillionaires, Alex Cuadros’s enjoyable, deeply reported account of Brazil’s outsize collection of tycoons.”—Eduardo Porter, The New York Times Book Review
�
“A clear-eyed and often funny travelogue through the operatic lives of the country’s ultra-wealthy and their baneful relationship with the state . . . Ten years ago, [Brazil] was feted as a country that could do no wrong. Poverty and inequality were falling and businesses boomed. But the wheels have fallen off. The country is mired in its worst ever recession. . . . Cuadros’s blend of memoir, expos� and historical narrative provides a wonderful vehicle to explain how this state of affairs was reached.”—The Financial Times
�
“Riveting . . . it’s a testament to Cuadros that he just doesn’t cover Brazil from his desk at Bloomberg but makes a point of immersing himself in the culture of corruption, and that’s what makes his book such a great, and at times hilarious, read.”—New York Post
�
“Cuadros’s book, far from being rendered obsolete by the political and economic crisis, has become more relevant than ever. It serves as both a playbook and a who’s who for the seismic shift in power that just occurred here. . . . Brazillionaires is vital—and accessible—reading for anyone trying to decipher what just happened, and what may yet come, in Latin America’s largest country. . . . Cuadros proves to have a gift for elegant and straightforward explanations of some of the most befuddling aspects of the country’s politics and economics. . . . The real beneficiary however is his reader—he’s just the right mix of knowledgeable insider, and arch, critical outsider, and Brazillionaires is a welcome addition to the very sparse canon of good books about Brazil.”—The Globe and Mail

“A wild, richly reported tale�about Brazil’s recent economic rise and fall, and some of the biggest, most�colorful characters�in business in Brazil who now have a global reach. . . . Cuadros’s story really takes off when he focuses on Eike Batista, an over-the-top one-time billionaire who became the country’s corporate mascot, only to go bankrupt in a�dramatic unraveling.”—Andrew Ross Sorkin,�the�New York Times

“Well-rounded and -researched portraits of the staggering chasm between rich and poor in Brazil.”—Kirkus Reviews
�
“Part memoir, part expos�, and part historical narrative, this fascinating look at wealth in Brazil is a strong debut for Cuadros. . . . Power is clearly the real impetus for the driven individuals profiled in the book. Readers will be eager to see what topic Cuadros tackles next.”—Publishers Weekly

“In this excellent book he has managed to use billionaires to illuminate the lives of both rich and poor Brazilians, and all those in between.”—The Economist

“There is no way to understand Brazil, the world’s fifth-largest country, without understanding how a handful of billionaires shape the country’s politics, media, and economy. With his profound insights and deep reporting, Alex Cuadros is an indispensable voice in telling this story of excess, corruption, and a society torn between hope and turmoil.”—Glenn Greenwald, author of No Place to Hide
�
“Brazillionaires is an essential guide to understanding modern Brazil: its ups and downs, its flaws and lasting allure. But what makes it exceptional is that Cuadros uses his insights into how a particular set of exceptionally wealthy individuals in a particular historical context made money to ask a broader question: Why? What drives them? How are they different from the rest of us—or are they? This turns a unique feat of reportage into something even more fascinating: an exploration of wealth, what fuels our desire for it, and how it transforms us.”—Juliana Barbassa, author of Dancing with the Devil in the City of God

“Brazil’s shocking rise and even more shocking fall is one of the biggest stories of our young century. Alex Cuadros tells it through the stories of its billionaires—whose genius, hubris, and (in some cases) utter folly come through in vivid, human detail throughout this book.”—Brian Winter, co-author of The Accidental President of Brazil

“Alex Cuadros has written a splendidly original book. Brazillionaires gets into the heart and soul of present-day Brazil through the fascinatingly operatic lives of its billionaires, while also explaining the country’s unresolved battles in overcoming poverty, corruption, racism, and a great deal more. Written with verve, as well as a merciless eye for the truth, Brazillionaires is as engaging as it is timely.”—Jon Lee Anderson, author of Che Guevara
�
“The lunatic, insular world of Brazil’s ultra-rich is opened up for scrutiny in Brazillionaires. Alex Cuadros’s skillful reportage and vivid prose illuminate the ideology of the some of the richest people anywhere, providing a meditation on the meaning of wealth and inequality not only in Brazil but in the United States and around the world.”—Kim Phillips-Fein, author of Invisible Hands
�
“Brazillionaires should be required reading for anyone seeking to understand Brazil’s one percent: the billionaires who wield so much influence in Latin America’s richest country. Cuadros, a diligent and gifted reporter, does not shy away from asking tough questions as he digs deep into the country’s economic and social history to chronicle how these outback entrepreneurs got rich in the first place, and how they continue to support the culture of corruption that has led to Brazil’s most recent implosion. Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop.”—Isabel Vincent, author of Gilded Lily
�
“Not only does Brazillionaires provide a perceptive and entertaining look into the rarified world of Brazil’s super wealthy elite, it also opens a window of insight into an utterly bewitching land of stark contrasts and colossal dimensions. From the grit of the Amazon rainforest to the lilting laughter of cocktail parties in the penthouse condos of S�o Paulo, Alex Cuadros brings all his journalistic and storytelling talents to bear in this important and highly readable book.”—Scott Wallace, author of The Unconquered

About the Author
Alex Cuadros has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Awl, Slate, The Nation, and Mother Jones. After six years living in S�o Paulo, he recently moved back to New York City.

Excerpt. � Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter 1

God Is Brazilian

The New Brazil, Miami, and Hidden Wealth

“I follow the rules that I built for myself.”

—Abilio Diniz (4 billion)

A helicopter descended from the sky, its glossy body catching the oblique winter light. As it drew closer to me, a machine hiss overwhelmed that familiar deep faraway chop. Its little wheels perched gingerly on the roof of the S�o Paulo Sheraton. A pilot wearing wraparound sunglasses and pilot’s headphones hopped out, slid open the back door, and set up a three-�step ladder for us to board. He clasped his hands in front of him, waiting for us to get in, a chunky metallic watch on his right hand. It was 4:25 p.m. His punctuality was English, as Brazilians like to say.

The helicopter wasn’t for me. It was for a top editor visiting from New York, whose time Bloomberg News judged more valuable than the fifteen hundred dollars an hour it cost to hire a chopper to ferry him around. I was a twenty-�nine-�year-�old reporter tagging along to meet a big newsmaker. I climbed aboard with three other colleagues, my knees touching theirs in the backseat. Everyone put on a pair of those headphones.

As we rose into the air, the helipad retreated, S�o Paulo shrank. The Pinheiros River dwindled to a dark stripe, tiny cars filling up six lanes of freeway on either side. We left behind the Oct�vio Frias de Oliveira Bridge, a concrete X intersected by yellow cables supporting two crescents of road. We passed over office towers of gleaming dark blue glass, luxury condos of imitation granite, new buildings copying many architectural styles at once. I took photos on my BlackBerry, craning to see a city whose chaos seemed from this height to reorder itself in neat rows. The Bloomberg editor also sneaked a shot or two. Then, almost as soon as it had begun, the trip was over.

From the helipad we tromped downstairs into an office of many beiges—�the carpets, the desks, the filing cabinets. We were in the headquarters of a company known as Brasil Foods, BRF for short. It was surprisingly quiet given that BRF was Brazil’s biggest producer of packaged foods and the world’s biggest exporter of poultry, feeding millions of Russians and Arabs and Chinese. We settled into a conference room to wait for the company’s new chairman, Abilio Diniz, one of Brazil’s richest men. He owed his four-�billion-�dollar fortune to his family’s supermarket chain, Brazil’s largest—�another superlative. It was called P�o de A��car, Sugarloaf, after the iconic mountain in Rio.

Abilio Diniz famously worked out several hours a day, running, lifting weights, boxing, and playing squash, even at seventy-�six years old. He ate like a stereotypical Californian, avoiding the Brazilian staples of rice and beans and red meat. I’d seen a picture of him in a tank top doing the pectoral fly, and his face, lined and tan as a leather shoe, looked Photoshopped onto the body of a much younger man. Now here he was, bounding over to shake our hands, wearing khakis and a simple white button-�up shirt, no tie. He sat down, and the Bloomberg editor jumped straight into the interview. This was a mistake. In Brazil, you can’t cut straight to the chase. You need to ease into business, glide through some small talk, something about soccer, the weather, traffic. The other mistake was hitting him with the most obvious and least comfortable question first: How can you possibly be chairman of two public companies that do business with each other? P�o de A��car bought BRF’s TV dinners and yogurts and smoked turkey. “In all my time as a journalist, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a thing,” the editor later said.

Abilio wasn’t just chairman of both companies, he owned stock in them. This had led to a clash between him and his French partner at P�o de A��car, Jean-�Charles Naouri. Alleging that Abilio’s dual roles made for a glaring conflict of interest, Naouri had filed for international arbitration. The dispute permeated the business press. For Abilio, though, it was just his latest messy public battle. In the early eighties, his father had decided to hand out shares in P�o de A��car based on his children’s performance in the company. Abilio got a sixteen percent stake while each of his two brothers got eight percent and their three sisters got just two percent each. Fights ensued, and as the alliances shifted, the siblings spilled their woes to a series of delighted journalists. In 1993 Abilio finally persuaded most of his family to sell their shares to him, cementing his control.

Abilio spoke halting English as he explained to us that the legal issues existed exclusively in Naouri’s head. There was no conflict of interest because Abilio felt there was none. “I follow the rules that I built for myself,” he said. He bounced in his chair, looking from one to another of us as though being interrogated. Now and then he squinted at his PR people with a look of pained incomprehension, and they helped him explain what his English couldn’t. Pressed on his dual roles, he snapped at last, in Portuguese: “Did you come to interview me, or did you come to provoke me?”

The conversation kept on like this for twenty minutes, until Abilio glanced around and asked, “Okay?”—�indicating our time was up. This was a man with a hierarchy of attentions. Journalists ranked low, though possibly above his press people. These he addressed without ever quite meeting their eyes, making offhand orders—�“I’ll take a water”; “You’ll send me that article later?”—�in the way of someone who rarely repeats himself.

But there was more to Abilio than conflict. In recent years he’d become a champion of healthy living. He wrote a best-�selling self-�help book, translated into English as Smart Choices for a Successful Life, and created a sports research center to advise Brazil’s Olympic athletes (and himself). Prepping before the chopper ride, I’d explained this to the Bloomberg editor. And so as Abilio began to hover from his seat, the editor’s last question was “What about health?”

Abilio settled into place again. His demeanor shifted entirely, his voice growing soft, quiet. His wife was forty-�one, younger than all four children from his first marriage. With her he had a six-�year-�old daughter and a three-�year-�old son. He believed these were signs he’d been blessed, literally, with special vitality, and his duty as a Catholic was to share this gift with the world. “The thing inside Abilio is my faith in God,” he said. “Okay?” Then he stood up, thanked us, and hurried off to other battles.

The helicopter returned to whisk the Bloomberg editor to the airport, an eleven-�minute flight that could take three hours by car during rush hour. I didn’t get to join him this time. Instead I walked to the nearest bus stop, an island in the middle of six lanes of frenzied traffic. There was an aerial walkway, but a half-�dozen people stood by the side of the road waiting to leap through a gap in the oncoming cars. They wore jeans, springy old running shoes, and puffy jackets whose color had faded in the strong sun of subtropical winter. In erratic dashes a few at a time, they surged across. Brazil was booming, but people still risked their lives just to get to work and back.

Brazil sounded more idyllic when I was growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My parents told me stories about coming to Brazil in 1980. They had met by chance while traveling in Guatemala earlier that year, and made their way to Rio de Janeiro together. They went to a party with Jorge Ben Jor, the funk musician, and my dad first told my mom he loved her at a caf� in Copacabana. In their yellowing snapshots, they have long hair.

I heard another kind of story from my godfather, a private investigator named David Sullivan. He lived in Brazil off and on in the seventies and eighties and married a Brazilian who became my sister’s godmother. They later divorced, but he went on visiting the country up until his death in 2013. He used to tell me wild tales that ended with him greeting the morning sun on the beach, bleary-�eyed after a night of adventure. Once he told me how, when he first arrived in Brazil as a twenty-�something quasi-�drifter, he met a woman on the street hawking apartments for rent. He made as though he had more than a few dollars to his name, a fiction she didn’t even believe, he said, and she agreed to show him one of the units. Within moments, they were making love on the bare floor. Samba implicitly played in the soundtrack to these stories.

David dismissed S�o Paulo as a secondary attraction, a place you go to work, so I skipped it the first time I came to Brazil. It was 2005, and David had invited me to the house he’d built on an island near Paraty, down the coast from Rio. I’d just graduated from a small liberal arts college, and I decided to spend a month down there with my college girlfriend. Since I already knew Spanish, I figured three hours of Portuguese lessons would be enough to prepare me. I was wrong. The taxi driver at the airport seemed to speak solely in nasal vowels, breaking here and there into a theatrical falsetto. I could barely understand a word.

David received us in Rio. In Copacabana we walked the cal�ad�o, the promenade whose white limestone and black basalt sidewalk forms geometric waves mirroring the waves offshore. Bronzed dudes in Speedos on the beach passed a soccer ball from head to chest to foot to knee without ever letting it drop to the sand. We passed the Copacabana Palace hotel where Brigitte Bardot stayed, and then we passed a nightclub called Help, and David told us stories about the prostitutes there. In the street, a ragged minivan burped along with the sliding door ajar and a dark-�skinned kid hanging out, shouting out destinations to potential fares. Past the city, from the top of Corcovado Mountain, Christ the Redeemer spread his white stone arms to us. East was P�o de A��car, Sugarloaf, a giant thumb of rock poking up from the sea, with tiny tramcars creeping up and down distant threads of tramline. Corner shops offered the juice of dozens of fruits we’d never heard of, delicious flavors that just can’t be compared to anything up north: jabuticaba, acerola, caju. Of course we couldn’t help but notice the favelas. They crawled up the hills jutting from touristy neighborhoods, dull red cinderblock shacks stacked upon one another, crawling upward till they couldn’t crawl farther.

Along the way I meandered into Portuguese. I learned words with no English equivalent, like saudade, a nostalgic longing, and cafun�, the act of lovingly stroking someone’s hair. Malandros are tramps who live off the occasional swindle—�a category that, by consensus, includes most Brazilian politicians. But the malandro can also be a kind of antihero, because he gets what he wants in a country where most people struggle just to get by. My godfather told me about a malandro nicknamed O Cag�o—�The Big Turd—�who seduced a whole town’s married women yet always skirted retaliation from their husbands. The malandro’s talent is jeitinho. If jeito means “way,” then jeitinho is the “little way” around society’s rules. A word like that suggested a culture very different from the one I’d grown up with. I was hooked; I wanted to learn more.

In 2008 I quit my job at a publishing house in New York. My girlfriend had broken up with me, and I decided to take off backpacking around South America. I meant it as a salmon-�like repeat of my parents’ trip, except that I hoped to stay somewhere along the way and try my hand at journalism. I spent a month and a half in Brazil but ultimately settled in Colombia, which was much cheaper for a fledgling reporter.

I’d been freelancing for a year in Bogot� when someone from Bloomberg called me up and offered me a gig in the bureau there. My idea of the company was so vague that I didn’t even connect it to Michael Bloomberg, its billionaire owner and then the mayor of New York. Bloomberg News turned out to be the media appendage of Bloomberg L.P., which makes most of its billions by renting out financial-�data terminals to bankers and investors for twenty-�four thousand dollars a year. I knew nothing about finance and next to nothing about economics, and I was way more interested in writing about the poor. But I imagined the job would give me good reporting experience. More urgently, my savings had run out. So I accepted. With a few embarrassing errors along the way, I figured out the basics of quarterly profits, stock prices, bond yields. Surprising myself, I ended up fascinated by what I learned. Since I’d picked up some Portuguese while traveling, Bloomberg eventually offered me a job in S�o Paulo, Brazil’s financial capital. I took it for a simple reason—�I wanted to live in Brazil.

Bloomberg was one of scores of foreign companies expanding in Brazil. Commodity prices were soaring, and the economy had just about doubled in size in a decade. In the wake of 2008’s global financial crash, the GDP had stalled only briefly before revving up again. Some analysts predicted that, any day now, Brazil would surpass France and the UK to become the world’s fifth-�largest economy. The Brazil my godfather had seen in the eighties and early nineties, when prices at shops could double in a single month and forty million people barely earned enough to eat, seemed distant now. In a sign of its newfound credibility, Brazil had won its first-�ever investment-�grade credit rating from Standard & Poor’s. The Economist summed up the mood with a cover that showed Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue rocketing skyward with the headline Brazil Takes Off.

Most helpful customer reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Kudos to Cuadros on his remarkable first book!
By Tim Schnabel
If you want to read one book on what Brazil is like today and how it has evolved to the level of acute disparity between the super wealthy and the poor, Brazillionaires is the one! Its author, Alex Cuadros, not only learned Portuguese, but also immersed himself into the intricacies of this complex culture, living in Brazil for six years. \

As a former Peace Corps volunteer who served in Brazil many ago, I would have much preferred a book like Brazillionaires as required reading in addition to being exposed to the romance of this remarkable country during my Peace Corps training. The picture of the super wealthy using helicopters for a 12-minute flight that saves three hours in traffic is powerful. Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city has more helicopters has more helicopters than any other city in the world including New York!

One billionaire and his family are a major theme illustrating the power of privilege and decadence, and what happens when that wealth disappears.

Cuadros accurately describes the social cost of the less fortunate, those living in favelas (slums). There were tens of thousands displaced for construction of venues for both the World Cup in 2014 as well as the recent Olympics.

What is evident in his writing is that Cuadros, like this reviewer, fell in love with Brazil and its inhabitants. He won the hearts and trust of many along the way.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Turns out Brazil's billionaires explain a lot about Brazil
By talktobrent
A great starting point for those interested Brazil. The writing was intelligent and visual but still accessible and engaging. He provides sometimes sobering insight on Brazilian culture and inequality from personal observations, but also goes all the way back to its Portuguese roots. The author doesn't hide his own beliefs or political inklings, but they aren't central to the writing or imposed on his research. My only gripe might be that the author is inconsistent in a few spots on his assumptions of the readers knowledge of finance terms and Brazilian history, sometimes explaining things, and sometimes not. A browsing of Brazilian history may help a bit beforehand. The interesting revelations and conclusions in this book all pretty much occur in the middling chapters, and the ending is a bit stunted. If you are still interested afterwards, I'd also recommend checking out the book the author references several times, Roots of Brazil.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
True insights into Brazilian society, people and culture
By Amazon Customer
Alex Cuadro's narrative gives a wide and deep spectrum on Brazilian culture, society and history. He explains so many things that are omni-present in Brazilian society but that are difficult for an outsider to grasp and understand. It is by far the best book about Brazil that I have read by a contemporary writer.

Having lived several years in the country myself, I can confirm that Mr Cuadro has a very sensitive and accurate way of describing the society and its people. The book gave me numerous insights into the Brazilian society and culture. Many things I had not previously understood about Brazil, became clear when reading the book. It is a very personal narrative with true insights into the Brazilian soul and culture.

For anyone having lived, visited or just having an interest in Brazil, this is a must read.

Yours sincerely,
Joakim Olofsson, M.Sc. Economics Stockholm School of Economics. Programa de Mestrado de Fundac�o Getulio Vargas, S�o Paulo.

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Building Skills for the Toefl Test (BSTE), by Carol King, Nancy Stanley

This course teaches the skills and examination techniques required by students preparing to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and includes material for the Test of Written English. The course contains short, timed practice exercises throughout and two TOEFL practice tests.

  • Sales Rank: #2337679 in Books
  • Brand: Brand: Addison-Wesley
  • Published on: 1999-06
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 10.50" h x 7.50" w x 1.00" l,
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 480 pages
Features
  • Used Book in Good Condition

Most helpful customer reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
A Valuable Book for ESL TOEFL Teachers
By Blaine Snow
I've always enjoyed teaching from King's book. The book begins with eight test-taking tactics. The rest of the book is organized by learning objectives for each of the three main TOEFL sections, listening, grammar/structure, and reading, as well as a section on the TWE. The book ends with two complete TOEFL practice tests.
I've found the exercises for each learning objective to be very innovative and different from most other TOEFL texts. For example listening objective #8 helps students avoid sight-sound confusions and provides numerous exercises where students must focus on the meaning of a sentence containing four closely related sight-sound words such as "shows," "chose," choose," and "shoes." In reading objective 1, which helps students focus on the main idea, students work through related sets of sentences to determine which one is the most general in meaning. Each set increases in length helping the student to extract generality, broader/lesser scope, and main and subordinate ideas, out of increasingly complex meaning. I will say that even with the most advanced ESL students some of the exercises in the reading section are extremely difficult.
If you're looking for a TOEFL text for your students that is different from the rest, this is it.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
THE WORST YOU COULD BUY
By Adrien Guerra
Well I gave one star for the only reason I couldnt give less...
First I had no tapes (don't know if the librarian fooled me..) but without any tape you can forget the listening comprehension you don't even have the questions in the book!! (122 pages of the book completely useless)
But this is not the worst part: the real problem is not in the missing questons but in the missing answers!! There is absolutely no answer for any of the question of this book not even for the "complete" pratice test; and I am not speaking of detailled answers just the basic "the good answer is choice A" so there is no way you can know that your answers were correct or not and consequently no clue on what part you need to improve.
Adding that the "lectures" are short and unclear and their "step by step" preparation impossible to follow (you are asked to identify problems in the begin of the book that you will only learn about at the end...) there is absolutely nothing positive about this book (not even the price)
For the ones that are still thinking of buying: it was so useless that it made me write my first review...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
quality of this book
By Banky
I have used this book. I think it is a good book to practice cuz it has a lot of exercises to practice(Sturcture and Reading)., but when I practice with listening comprehension section, I found out that it is more and more diffecult than the real test. I know the practice exercise should be difficult than, so it will be easy on the real test. In my view, The audio used with this book make me upset because it is 50-50North American and British accent and it is difficult to catch the words authough I tried to listen many times.In reality, the voice from the real test will clear. All in all, I think it is useless to practice listening with the unclear sound in this book. it also will make the practicer more confused. So, Let try the Longman set by Doborah Phillips. It is a very good set and make my score raise up to 100 point.

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Monday, January 19, 2015

[A847.Ebook] Ebook Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters, by Lenore Look

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Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters, by Lenore Look

Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters, by Lenore Look



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Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters, by Lenore Look

Here's the second book in the beloved and hilarious Alvin Ho chapter book series, which has been compared to Diary of a Wimpy Kid and is perfect for both beginning and reluctant readers.

Alvin, an Asian American second grader who's afraid of everything, is back, and his worst fear has come true: he has to go camping. What will he do exposed in the wilderness with bears and darkness and . . . pit toilets? Luckily, he’s got his night-vision goggles and water purifying tablets and super-duper heavy-duty flashlight to keep him safe. And he’s got his dad, too.

From Lenore Look and New York Times bestselling illustrator LeUyen Pham comes a drop-dead-funny and touching series with a truly unforgettable character.

“Shares with Diary of a Wimpy Kid the humor that stems from trying to manipulate the world.” —Newsday

“Alvin’s a winner.” —New York Post


From the Hardcover edition.

  • Sales Rank: #66750 in Books
  • Brand: Yearling
  • Published on: 2010-05-11
  • Released on: 2010-05-11
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 7.69" h x .50" w x 5.25" l, .30 pounds
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 192 pages
Features
  • Great product!

Most helpful customer reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Great Characters in a Cute Middle Grade Book
By Julie Peterson
I am so glad that I'm getting to relive my youth through my daughter! Don't take that wrong because I'm not one of those parents....I just love reading books that are geared towards her age range. What I love even more is when we both read the same book and then discuss it! That is the case with ALVIN HO: ALLERGIC TO CAMPING, HIKING, AND OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS by Lenore Look and pictures by LeUyen Pham. I just don't remember there being this many good middle-grade books out there when I was ten years old.

My daughter is probably a little on the older side for this book because it is really aimed for children ages 6 through 10; however, I still think many 10 year olds will enjoy the book as a quick, funny read. Alvin Ho is absolutely hilarious as a young boy who is afraid of almost everything. In this book, his father wants to take him camping and poor Alvin is just terrified of everything that could possibly go wrong. Maybe one of the reason that I liked this book so much is that I can so relate to his feelings about the great outdoors!

This book is really perfect for those kids who are ready to read chapter books, yet aren't quite ready for a book with a lot of pages. This book is a little over 150 pages, but the print is large and there is lots of white space on each page. There are also a few very cute (and funny) illustrations thrown into the body of the chapters. I especially liked that there is a glossary (Alvin Ho's Very Scary Glossary) at the back of the book with definitions of some possibly "new" words.

Kids are going to love Alvin and his adventures. I thought his paranoia was so funny, and I found myself laughing a lot at his insecurities. Even if your child isn't quite ready to read this book on his or her own, it's also a great book to read with your child. This book is being sold as "ideal for any father and son to read together before braving the untamed wilderness. Or, a perfectly manicured trail." Each chapter is just about the perfect length for a bedtime story.

I really thought Alvin Ho was a great character, and I want to go back and read the first novel in the series ALVIN HO: ALLERGIC TO GIRLS, SCHOOLS, AND OTHER SCARY THINGS. If it's anything like this book, I'm sure Booking Daughter and I will both enjoy it! I am looking forward to more Alvin Ho books, and I'm betting that Booking Son is going to love them in a few years.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
full of laughs and touching moments
By Great Kid Books
Alvin is still getting into mischief and wriggling his way out of sticky situations in the second book in this series: Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking and Other Natural Disasters. While it didn't tickle me as much as the first in the series, it was a fun read. In the second chapter, Alvin receives a package at the front door.

"I ripped open the kit right there in the driveway. Inside, there were pencils, stickers, handcuffs, and handcuff key, a rope, a Houdini's Greatest Escapes DVD and a gold card.
'Alvin Ho -- GOLD MEMBER OF HOUDINI-IN-A-BOX -- do it yourself escapes'
Calvin whistled. 'Dude!' he said."

How great would it be for a second-grader to get a Houdini-in-a-box kit?! Funny situations turn into funnier situations, as the kids make a straight jacket and then Alvin volunteers to be trapped inside his sister's time machine. I liked how Lenore Look was able to turn funny situations into more poignant ones. Alvin got really, truly scared as his sister left him trapped in the box and forgot about him.

"My dad isn't a superhero, but he can pull me out of anything, even from long, tangled boa constrictors that were squeezing the last wheeze out of me.... 'You're my best friend, Dad. You saved my life.' "

This book has more touching moments like these. It isn't full of quite as many laugh-out-loud moments as the first in the series. But it will still make kids happy reading it. It would make a good family read aloud, especially talking about how Alvin learns to be brave during his camping trip.

I really like how Alvin's Chinese-American culture is simply a part of who he is. His favorite meal is vegetable wontons and noodles. His grandfathers are GungGung and YehYeh. His culture is not a pivotal part of the story, it's just part of the texture that makes Alvin feel like a real kid.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Well liked, but a bit short
By Jim Pyke
Good follow up to the first book (Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things) in what I looks like will be a continuing series (Alvin Ho: Allergic to Birthday Parties, Science Projects, and Other Man-made Catastrophes). Made great bedtime reading for my 3rd grade son - fun and interesting, but NOT scary or overly suspenseful. Nice illustrations too. My only complaint is that it was a bit short. The characters are all really engaging and likeable, and it would be nice if the book had run them through their paces in some additional situations to flesh the book out a bit more.

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Thursday, January 15, 2015

[F127.Ebook] Fee Download Practice of Poetry, by Robin Skelton

Fee Download Practice of Poetry, by Robin Skelton

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Practice of Poetry, by Robin Skelton

Practice of Poetry, by Robin Skelton



Practice of Poetry, by Robin Skelton

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Practice of Poetry, by Robin Skelton

hardback

  • Sales Rank: #3164674 in Books
  • Published on: 1971-05-03
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 184 pages

Most helpful customer reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Hippo Books advertised Robin Skelton's "The Practice of Poetry" as ...
By G. J.
Hippo Books advertised Robin Skelton's "The Practice of Poetry" as "very good" condition.
The book has a strong, moldy smell as if it has been badly stored. It makes it virtually unusable.
I do not call this "very good".

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
The Best Book on Writing Poetry Ever
By J.R. Nald
This is the best book on writing poetry that you will ever find. I've tried tons of them over the years, and they are all disappointing in the same Mickey Mouse way. But this book is meaty, sinewy, subtantive. Skelton knows how to draw the evocative patterns out of your imagination and get them on paper. One warning, if you are a Christian (I am): Skelton was a witch. It doesn't really show in this book in any way. And besides, "To the pure all things are pure." But I thought it considerate to say so. Otherwise, this book is perfect and indispensible for any serious amatuer/autodidactic poet.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
The very best poetry primer
By Robert Tuomi
The very best poetry primer. This text takes a beginner to an intermediate level of understanding of what makes good poetry. All one needs is this book and the passion.

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Wednesday, January 14, 2015

[R379.Ebook] Ebook Free Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet 2000, by Dav Pilkey

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Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet 2000, by Dav Pilkey

When the Incredible Robo-Plunger defeated the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, George and Harold thought their toilet troubles were over. Unfortunately, their porcelain problems were only beginning . . .

Just when you thought it was safe to flush . . .

The Turbo Toilet 2000 strikes back! The carnivorous commode known for devouring everything in its path has built up a real appetite . . . for REVENGE! Join Captain Underpants for another epic showdown of Wedgie Power vs. Potty Power as our tighty-whitey-wearing superhero GOES TO ELEVEN!

  • Sales Rank: #3762600 in Books
  • Published on: 2014-08-27
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 7.99" h x .83" w x 5.31" l, .60 pounds
  • Binding: Hardcover

Review
"Pilkey's sharp humor shines, and is as much fun for parents as their young readers." - PARENTS' CHOICE FOUNDATION

The critics are CRAZY about UNDERPANTS!

"A triumph of irreverence." --NEWSWEEK

"Call Pilkey . . . the savior of the 'reluctant reader.'" --USA TODAY

"For every downtrodden fun-seeking kid who never wanted to read a book." --SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

"Subversively hilarious." --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"Celebrates the triumph of the good-hearted." --The Educational Book and Media Association

"It'll make kids laugh until soda comes out of their noses." --BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS

About the Author
Dav Pilkey has written and illustrated numerous popular, award-winning books for children, including the Captain Underpants and Dumb Bunnies series; Dog Breath, winner of the California Young Reader Medal; and The Paperboy, a Caldecott Honor Book. He lives with his wife in the Pacific Northwest. Visit him online at www.pilkey.com.

Most helpful customer reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Another winner!
By Keri
This book was released today and I just spent three hours reading it to my seven year old son. We actually re-read the entire series, which we own, in anticipation of this sequel, and finished book 10 last night before starting this one tonight.

If you are a fan of Captain Underpants then this book is a sure bet. In fact, I think it may be his best work yet in terms of plot development and amusing moments. My son laughed out loud SO many times and I have to admit I did, too!

There was a possible discrepancy between this book and the previous one. In the previous book, the time travel was stated as 30 years in the future (and the adult George and Harold were 39 3/4 and 40yo respectively) but in this book it was stated repeatedly as being forty years in the future. It did not seem to be a plot development issue, just a mistake. I went back and reread it to try to figure it out but I was left a little confused. If I am incorrect, please comment!

In any case, the book was amazing, and my son never would have noticed the 30years/40years thing on his own! Thanks Dav for another really funny, well put together book that encourages kids to be kids, as obnoxious and as loud and with all the potty humor that it entails. You outdid yourself on the Uranus jokes in this one, though the potty song in the last one was pretty hilarious to my seven year old, too. I am always amused at seeing him so amused. :) you keep making them and we will keep buying them, as we read them repeatedly. This one is no exception, and in fact I think it is one of your best. Thank you!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
This latest book was super good! I laughed and laughed
By Amazon Customer
This latest book was super good! I laughed and laughed. Thank you, Dav Pilkey! I can’t wait for “Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks A Lot” to come out!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Good Formula, But I Couldn't Get Into It
By A. D. Lum
First the good. I think that this type of book is great for getting kids interested in reading "chapter books". The illustrations are funny-looking (that's good), the story is lighthearted, and there are built-in amusements (two frame crude animations, for lack of a better term). So we have a great formula here.

But here's where it falls short of its potential:

I loved Mad Magazine as a kid. It was zany but easy to understand and follow. This book is zany, but difficult to follow. Also there is a good amount of humor that I would not expect children to understand. For example, the name Miss Anthrope. A kid would think it was just a meaningless zany name. One who understands the "punny" name would probably not find it funny. I found it mildly funny. There is also adult humor (no, not that kind). That is to say, humor that only an adult *might* find funny, simply because they can understand the zaniness. I'm referring specifically to such things as the mention of biological concepts (lipids, RNA, etc.) that would likely be understood only by advanced high school students or college students taking introductory biology classes. As a kid, I could appreciate zaniness only when I understood it. I still don't laugh at quantum mechanics jokes.

In addition to things that go over a kid's head, there is the story itself. Now this is a toss up. Some kids might like stories that are just jam packed with off the wall zaniness. I don't. Even as a kid, I would enjoy it much better if the story relied more on funny situations for laughs.

This style of book has great potential. I think funny illustrations of funny situations would knock the ball out of the park.

While the book in its current form, misses the mark for me, if you are the type of person who likes my general description of the contents of the book, by all means, buy a copy to "test it out". Taste in humor is sometimes like taste in music - unexplainable from one person to the next.

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Sunday, January 11, 2015

[X861.Ebook] Free Ebook A Call to Souls: Words of Our Lord from The Way of Divine Love, by Sr. Josefa Menendez

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A Call to Souls: Words of Our Lord from The Way of Divine Love, by Sr. Josefa Menendez

Striking words of Our Lord from The Way of Divine Love. Awakens the slumbering human heart to the mysteries of God's love and mercy. Shows how to return His love each day and how we can help save many souls from Hell. Beautiful and sublime, these words of Our Lord will move you to serve Him ever more faithfully. Excellent for meditation, spiritual reading, or retreats.

  • Sales Rank: #760889 in eBooks
  • Published on: 2015-06-21
  • Released on: 2015-06-21
  • Format: Kindle eBook

About the Author
Sister Josefa Menendez was a Coadjutrix nun and author of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Born in 1890 to humble parentage, she was received into the Reparatrice Convent at the age of twenty-two, and thereupon embraced the religious life earnestly. She was a loving, sacrificing woman who also knew how to be both serious and lively. Her written works include A Call to Souls, Christ's Appeal for Love, I Wait for You, and The Way of Divine Love. Sister Menendez died in 1923.

Most helpful customer reviews

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Five Stars
By lovesknowledge
Very Beatiful

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Purchased to help someone prepare to go to Confession
By Joseph T.
Great little booklet on the love that God has for us and the abundance of His mercy.

I purchased this booklet to help someone as they prepared to receive the Sacrament of Penance after over 40 years away from the Sacraments.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Incredible Word of our Lord
By Donna Sue Berry
This was such an amazing book giving snippets from the words of our Lord to Sr. Josefa. Gave me hope. Simple little acts of Reparation to the Sacred Heart is showing our love for Christ through many things.

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Tuesday, January 6, 2015

[D494.Ebook] Get Free Ebook Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street, by William Poundstone

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Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street, by William Poundstone

In 1956 two Bell Labs scientists discovered the scientific formula for getting rich. One was mathematician Claude Shannon, neurotic father of our digital age, whose genius is ranked with Einstein's. The other was John L. Kelly Jr., a Texas-born, gun-toting physicist. Together they applied the science of information theory―the basis of computers and the Internet―to the problem of making as much money as possible, as fast as possible.

Shannon and MIT mathematician Edward O. Thorp took the "Kelly formula" to Las Vegas. It worked. They realized that there was even more money to be made in the stock market. Thorp used the Kelly system with his phenomenonally successful hedge fund, Princeton-Newport Partners. Shannon became a successful investor, too, topping even Warren Buffett's rate of return. Fortune's Formula traces how the Kelly formula sparked controversy even as it made fortunes at racetracks, casinos, and trading desks. It reveals the dark side of this alluring scheme, which is founded on exploiting an insider's edge.

Shannon believed it was possible for a smart investor to beat the market―and Fortune's Formula will convince you that he was right.

  • Sales Rank: #78598 in Books
  • Brand: Poundstone, William
  • Published on: 2006-09-19
  • Released on: 2006-09-19
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 8.17" h x 1.11" w x 5.51" l, .82 pounds
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 386 pages

Amazon.com Review
Fortune's Formula is a fascinating study of the connections between such seemingly unrelated topics as gambling, information theory, stock investing, and applied mathematics. The story involves the stunning brainpower of men such as MIT professor Claude Shannon, who single-handedly invented information theory, the science behind the Internet and all digital media; Ed Thorpe; and John Kelly of Bell Laboratories, who developed the "Kelly criterion," a now-legendary investment strategy for maximizing growth while controlling risk. Initially, Shannon and Thorpe took Kelly's theory to Las Vegas and applied it to roulette and blackjack. Later, they took it to Wall Street and cleaned up--Shannon made a personal fortune while Thorpe created the highly successful hedge firm Princeton-Newport Partners. They both discovered that Kelly's system was particularly effective when applied to arbitrage (minute price differences that result from market inefficiencies). As Poundstone ably demonstrates, the merits of Kelly's criterion are still hotly debated today.

Poundstone has a tendency to meander in his writing, but his asides are so revealing and interesting that they add, rather than detract, from the narrative. The book also includes a cast of fascinating and colorful characters as varied as Ivan Boesky, Warren Buffet, Rudolph Giuliani, and notorious mobsters such as Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky. In explaining the lasting impact of the work done by Shannon, Thorpe, and Kelly, Poundstone even explains Kelly's system for those wishing to follow his formula, offering readers both theoretical and practical lessons. Whether viewed as a how-to guide or straight scientific and financial history, Fortune's Formula proves an entertaining and illuminating analysis of "the most successful gambling system of all time." --Shawn Carkonen

From Publishers Weekly
In 1961, MIT mathematics professor Ed Thorp made a small Vegas fortune by "counting cards"; his 1962 bestseller, Beat the Dealer, made the phrase a household word. With Claude Shannon, the father of information theory, Thorp next conquered the roulette tables. In this prosaic but fascinating cultural history, Poundstone (How Would You Move Mt. Fuji?) tells not only what they did but how they did it. For roulette, Poundstone shows, Thorp and Shannon used a betting scheme invented by Shannon's Bell Labs colleague John Kelly, eventually applying Kelly's technique to investing, resulting in long-term records of extraordinary return with low risk. (Thorp revealed the secret in 1966's Beat the Market, but investors proved harder to persuade than blackjack players.) Many other characters figure into Poundstone's entertaining saga: a forgotten French mathematician, two Nobel Prize–winning economists who declared war on the Kelly criterion, Rudy Giuliani, assorted mobsters, and winners and losers in all types of investing and gambling games. The subtitle is not a tease: the book explains and analyzes Kelly's system for turning small advantages into great wealth. The system works, but requires unusual amounts of patience, discipline and courage. The book is good fun for the rest of us.
Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“Seldom have true crime and smart math been blended together so engagingly.” ―The Wall Street Journal

“An amazing story that gives a big idea the needed star treatment . . . Fortune's Formula will appeal to readers of such books as Peter L. Bernstein's Against the Gods, Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Fooled by Randomness, and Roger Lowenstein's When Genius Failed. All try to explain why smart people take stupid risks. Poundstone goes them one better by showing how hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management, for one, could have avoided disaster by following the Kelly method.” ―Business Week (four stars)

“'Fortune's Formula' may be the world's first history book, gambling primer, mathematics text, economics manual, personal finance guide and joke book in a single volume. Poundstone comes across as the best college professor you ever hand, someone who can turn almost any technical topic into an entertaining and zesty lecture.” ―The New York Times Book Review

Most helpful customer reviews

349 of 365 people found the following review helpful.
Ed Thorp is a true investment and math genius.
By Abacus
This is an excellent book about the discovery of the Kelly formula that is unknown outside gambling. This story has three protagonists. Two of them were scientists working at Bell Labs: Claude Shannon, a genius polymath who developed information theory; and John Kelly, a maverick genius, who is directly responsible for the development of Kelly's formula. The third one is a brilliant MIT mathematician, Ed Thorp.

Ed Thorp tested the Kelly formula in both gambling and investing. Also, he came up with an options formula before Fischer Black and Myron Scholes. His formula missed a risk-free rate component due to the structure of the market at the time. As a result, Ed Thorp remained in obscurity while Black and Scholes became famous.

Ed Thorp succeeded in deriving superior returns in both gambling and investing. But, it was not so much because of Kelly's formula. He developed other tools to achieve superior returns. In gambling, Ed Thorp succeeded at Black Jack by developing the card counting method. He just used intuitively Kelly's formula to increase his bets whenever the odds were in his favor. Later, he ran a hedge fund for 20 years until the late 80s and earned a rate of return of 14% handily beating the market's 8% during the period. Also, his hedge fund hardly lost any value on black Monday in October 1987, when the market crashed by 22%. The volatility of his returns was far lower than the market. He did this by exploiting market inefficiencies using warrants, options, and convertible bonds. The Kelly formula was for him a risk management discipline and not a direct source of excess return.

Ed Thorp's career as a hedge fund manager was temporarily cut short. This was due to his fund being involved in a tax-avoiding securities scheme with Drexel Burnham. Thorp was not guilty; but, the fund had to be liquidated. The author stated many of Milken wrongdoings. One included getting large equity positions attached to the junk bonds he issued. The companies thought they were issuing convertible bonds. However, the equity component went straight into Milken's pocket as he sold the bonds to investors as high yield debt with no equity attached.

Ed Thorp rebounded from this mishap and started a second hedge fund in 1994. Thorp continued reaping above market return. As the author states, Ed Thorp's genius consists in "...his continuous ability to discover new market inefficiencies ... as old ones played out." Ed Thorp closed this second fund in 2002. He is now independently exploring inefficiencies in gambling.

Claude Shannon amassed large wealth by recording one of the best investment records. His performance had little to do with Kelly's formula. Between 1966 and 1986, his record beat even Warren Buffet (28% to 27% respectively). Shannon strategy was similar to Buffet. Both their stock portfolios were concentrated, and held for the long term. Shannon achieved his record by holding mainly three stocks (Teledyne, Motorola, and HP). The difference between the two was that Shannon invested in technology because he understood it well, while Buffet did not.

John Kelly was a chain smoking, gun collecting brilliant physicist. He died young at 41 of an aneurysm. He worked closely with Shannon at Bell Labs. Besides being a charismatic character the author does not write much about his life compared to the other two (Shannon and Thorp).

The Kelly formula is Edge/Odds (as explained on page 72). In investment circles, this formula is not always useful because it is hard to quantify your Edge (value of proprietary information). However, Kelly's formula has intuitive practical implications. It entails you should focus on an investment internal rate of return (IRR) instead of its average yearly return. The IRR is always less. Another implication is that higher risk is not always compensated by higher return. There is an optimal risk level beyond which risk taking becomes destructive. The author mentions the Long Term Capital Management as a case in point.

I recommend other excellent similar books: "Fischer Black and the Revolutionary Idea of Finance" by Perry Mehrling, and "When Genius Failed. The Rise and Fall of Long Term Capital Management" by Roger Lowenstein. Both these books describe luminaries in finance and investment fields who were often in contact with Ed Thorp and Claude Shannon. Another excellent book is Sylvia Nasar's "A Beautiful Mind" about John Nash, the Game Theorist.

52 of 54 people found the following review helpful.
The Ongoing Epic of the Kelly Criterion for Risk Management.
By mirasreviews
"Fortune's Formula" tells the story of the Kelly Criterion -through the experiments, ideas, wins, and losses of those who have espoused it and who have derided it, at race tracks, black jack tables, sports books, and, finally, on Wall Street. The Kelly Criterion is a risk management formula published in 1956 by Bell Labs information theorist John Kelly, Jr. that dictates how much of your bankroll you should bet based on your edge divided by the odds so that you will have zero risk of ruin no matter how bad your luck is, while increasing wealth faster than any other betting system. It does not address what bets you should make, which is another matter entirely. Instead of writing a simple analysis of the Kelly Criterion, author William Poundstone brings this story alive by relating the histories of key figures who have used, promoted, or criticized the Kelly Criterion: information theorists, economists, traders, gamblers, and gangsters. Some readers may find this approach unfocused and unnecessary. But I think the personalities lend "Fortune's Formula" an epic quality and place the Kelly Criterion firmly in the context of real life, with real consequences, as opposed to the realm of abstruse theories that never leave the halls of academe.

The men whom "Fortune's Formula" casts as protagonists are Claude Shannon, the MIT scholar who invented information science and who amassed a small fortune as a buy-and-hold investor, typically making 28% per year on a small portfolio, and Ed Thorpe, author of 1962's gambling classic "Beat the Dealer", 1967's "Beat the Market", co-founder of Princeton-Newport Partners fund (1969-1988) and founder of Ridgeline Partners (1994-2002) quant fund. Ed Thorpe's transformation from MIT egghead to black jack sharp to Wall Street wizard in an ongoing theme, as Thorpe is an immensely successful advocate of the Kelly Criterion -and he is still alive. There is unfortunately little information on John Kelly, because he died in 1965 at the age of 41. The key Kelly challenger is 1970 Nobel Laureate economist Paul Samuelson, who probably overstates his case in calling the Kelly Criterion a "complete swindle" when the point of disagreement seems to be the concept of "utility" in long-tern outcome. Whatever one thinks of Samuelson's outspoken arrogance, he is certainly entertaining. Mobster Manny Kimmel makes an appearance, as do traders Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, and John Meriwether, as well as numerous information theorists.

William Poundstone obviously has a point of view. He is an advocate of the Kelly Criterion, believing that it produces better results than any other betting system over the long haul while withstanding even the most unlikely confluences of catastrophe that have a way of manifesting themselves periodically. He doesn't support efficient market hypothesis. He thinks people can, and have, made money consistently on the stock market. -But that you need a darned good method of managing risk to do it, a better method than Value at Risk reports. "Fortune's Formula"'s fascination is not only in its history of the Kelly Criterion, but in the realization that a risk management formula has so many seemingly disparate applications. As Poundstone says, "The idea pops up in the strangest places."

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful.
Mobsters, mathematicians and economists
By Grouchy Smurf
I found this to be a very exciting and informative book. Once I started, I was hooked: I couldn't put it down because I wanted to learn more -- not just about the formula but all the intellectual controversy surrounding it and the cast of characters involved. This book tells the story of the 'Kelly criterion' and how certain people used it to beat the casinos and earn consistently above-average returns in the stock market. The cast of characters extend from famous organized crime figures (Bugsy, Longy Zwillman, etc.) to Claude Shannon, father of information theory, to Milken, the junk bond king, and many more.

You can view this book as a study on the history of an idea, as a study of the financial markets, or as a social study of gambling and investing. There are many faces to it. I wouldn't say it is a book on finance, or a book on history, but a bit of everyhting really. It definitely is not a book on 'how to beat the market', don't look for that here. The book does give a good explanation of the Kelly formula, in my opinion, but the whole controversy surrounding it, as well as the story of Ed Thorpe, was much more interesting for me.

If you are interested in finance or financial history, math, or gambling, or how ideas evolve and why certain ideas are better known than others, you should read this book. I think that mathematically sophisticated readers can be a bit disappointed because there is no rigorous treatment of Kelly criterion. But the basic ideas of CAPM, efficient markets hypothesis, the essence of Kelly formula, and random walk, are explained quite succintly and clearly, in my opinion.

The only problem I had with the book was that the author went off in tangents quite a bit, which sometimes distracted from the main story. For instance, right after the description of Kelly formula, there is a discussion of Edgar Hoover's horseracing bets. It seems that the author had a lot of material, may be too much, that he did not want to cut, but also did not know where to put. That detracted from coherence somewhat, which is why I am giving this 4 stars. But at the end of the day, I am feeling better for having read the book -- I learned a lot, and it was an easy and interesting read. Definitely worth the money and time.

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