Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

If you think Economics is for the boring geeks, Freakonomics will be a great book to dispel that myth. Economist Steven D. Levitt is not the typical number-crunching Economics professor (he even self-proclaims that he is poor in mathematics). He posed interesting, if not wacky questions that could be solved using an Economics sense.

There is no unifying theme in this book. Here's a sneak peek:

Introduction: The Hidden Side to Everything
What do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common?
How is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents?
Why do Drug Dealers still Live with their Mums?
Where have all the Criminals gone?
What makes a Perfect Parent?
Would a Roshanda by Any Other Name Smell as Sweet?

Although some of Levitt's points are controversial (such as Legalisation of Abortion caused a reduction of crime in America), they have their due merits. Levitt simplifies Economics by emphasising on fundamentals of the subject (i.e. Humans respond to incentives; holding all other variables constant when comparing; causality, etc.)

Refer to the Freakonomics Blog for ongoing wacky questions and solutions.

Overall Rating: 9.5/10

Secrets of Millionaire Investors by Adam Khoo & Conrad Alvin Lim

If Rich Dad, Poor Dad is all about building hypes around your dreams and imagination, this book by Adam Khoo & Conrad Alvin Lim is definitely a practical book for beginners to pick up investing.

The usual investment book would just cover the basics and fundamentals of stocks, options, funds, etc. But Secrets of Millionaire Investors goes one step further by including snapshots of graphs for analysis as well as online broker sites where beginners can just log into and start investing.

Secrets of Millionaire Investors covers investment in stocks, different strategies (sometimes contradictory) in the buying and selling of stocks, and options.

I would seriously recommend anyone who is interested in investing to start off with this book as it is easy, little hype and very practical.

Ratings: 9/10

Further Readings:
Online Trading For Financial Freedom. Online Stock Trading, Daytrading And Short Term Investing Strategy For Beginning And Experienced Traders Alike.

Parties and Politics - A Study of Opposition Parties and the PAP in Singapore by Hussin Mutalib

This is a holistic analysis on the 4 significant political parties in Singapore -- namely, the Barisan Socialis, Worker's Party, Singapore Democratic Party and PKMS by Associate Professor Hussin Mutalib of Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore.

The Author gives a brief description on how local politics evolved from a 2-party rule into a 1-party dominant political system. From the historical ontext of politics before 1963, the Author moves on to case study Singapore's opposition parties. He then gives his analysis on the impediments to a viable opposition in Singapore and concludes with the future prospects for these opposition parties.

Barisan Socialis was, at one time, the strongest opposition to the PAP government when it splintered off from the latter. Worker's Party is the longest opposition party to exist in Singapore. Singapore Democratic Party is a relatively new political party formed in 1980 but won a seat (by Chiam See Tong) in 1984. PKMS, a Malay-first Political Party surviving in a Chinese-dominated society.

Your Future, My Faith, Our Freedom by Chee Soon Juan

This book by Dr. Chee Soon Juan, Secretary-General of Singapore Democratic Party, once again highlights the lack of democracy in the political system of Singapore. Dr. Chee argues that there had been many problems and more to surface in economic crisis due to the lack of democracy in Singapore.

The author covers The Political System, The Economy, Distribution of Wealth, Social Security, The Media and Censorship, Society and the People.

In each scope of writing, he gave alternatives to improve the situation by instilling greater openness and democracy.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

The Hatchet Man of Singapore by J B Jeyaretnam

ISBN: 981-04-8513-1

Joshua Ben Jeyaretnam (JBJ), a veteran politican and former Secretary-General of Worker's Party of Singapore is the author of this book. He refers Lee Kuan Yew as the Hatchet Man of Singapore.

JBJ was a trained lawyer before he entered politics. After defamation suits from Cabinet Ministers such as then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, JBJ was made bankrupt and hence unable to enter parliament or stand for elections. JBJ had recently announced that he would be setting up a new political party.

This book featured details of the defamation lawsuits that were imposed upon the author, including cross-examination of then PM Goh. JBJ would describe what should be the normal procedures for handling certain issues, and what actually happened in his case which stood biased against him.

This book is easy to read and understand even if you are not familiar with legal procedures.

Overall Rating: 8/10

Dare to change : an alternative vision for Singapore -- Dr. Chee Soon Juan

ISBN: 981-00-5853-5

This book is authored by the Secretary-general of Singapore Democratic Party, Dr. Chee Soon Juan.

In this book, Dr. Chee sought to dispel the existence of "Asian values" and that a more open and democratic society would be more beneficial to Singapore.

He criticised the ruling PAP government's policies and then gave alternatives to them. Some of his criticisms are in the streaming of Primary 4 students at a young age, the Internal Securities Act as irrelevant in this era, healthcare, social aspects, etc.

In my opinion, some of Dr. Chee's alternatives to government's policies are too idealistic and might not be implementable in our local context. However, in retrospect, some of his ideas were actually fulfilled by the PAP government albeit over a long period of time.

Overall Rating: 5/10

The Anthony Robbins Life Story by Michael Bolduc

Michael Bolduc was the Vice-President of Anthony Robbins & Associates, before becoming the CEO of Guaranteed Success Strategies. He was living in poverty, but with the help of Anthony Robbins, he moved from poverty to financial independence.

Anthony Robins, affectionately called "Tony", is currently rated top ten speakers in the world by Toastmasters. The sales of his recordings exceeds those of Michael Jackson's. He charges millions for individual coaching.

The book traces from Tony's childhood to present. When he was young, he already had in mind what he wanted in life. He was popular among girls as he always provided solutions for them. While his peers were into alcohols and drugs, he abstained from them.

He was greatly inspired by Jim Rohn at one point. He joined Jim Rohn's company as a salesman to sell his tickets so as to get other people to benefit from his speech. Soon, he was the best salesmen and then given a position as Area Sales Director.

He later started up giving speech himself. He went through numerous sets of ups-and-downs, getting into loans or being cheated. But he rose again and become this powerful speaker.

Sneak peek: Summary of Secrets to Success

Secret #1 : Ask good questions
Secret #2 : Intelligently ask for what you want
Secret #3: If you want to become a success, care deeply about what you want -- enough to do whatever it takes
Secret #4: Never be interested in achieving success. Instead, find compelling reasons that motivate you
Secret #5: Develop passion in your life
Secret #6: Learn from other people
Secret #7: Create value for people
Secret #8: Believe in the impossible and it will happen
Secret #9: Associate yourself with successful people
Secret #10: Take responsiblity and make things happen
Secret #11: Always look for ways to make things work
Secret #12: Master the secrets
Secret #13: Make the habit of making decisions more often

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

Why We Want You To Be Rich -- Donald Trump with Robert Kiyosaki

This is a book written by a billionaire and a millionaire. It seeks to explain the reason why this both individuals are actively writing books and creating games to get people to be rich.

The book started off with how Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki got together to pen the book. In each chapter, both of them use different font types to indicate the author for that portion of words.

From this book, you can actually understand their background and how they became rich. They state the problems that the US and most of the world are facing. Why We Want You To Be Rich also gives pointers as to what you should start doing or embarking on.

To me, this book also sought to promote their own products and trainings. It also acted as a platform for them to retaliate their critics. But all in all, it was informative enough for someone who hadn't finished the Rich Dad series. There are snippets from each of the Rich Dad books.

Overall, I would rate this book 7/10