Enchantress

This was one of the first books I got under Kindle Unlimited. There is a monthly charge, but not a per book charge. I really liked this book. Felt like it was a lesser Lord of the Rings. Brother Milo and Sister Ella live in a world divided by "houses". That is, the people are split up by clan. Although their clan is known for its magic, Milo is an expert swordsman. Ella dreams of uses magic.

Milo and Ella are raised by an uncle or something. Their parents were allegedly killed in a great revolutionary war. They are dirt poor. But Milo shows promise in the fighter training school. Ella sells flowers and works hard to save up to enroll in magic school. Both of these siblings excel in what they do.

We meet the other clans, and also other races that live nearby. It seems that there is treachery afoot. The enemies of Milo and Ella's clan are joining forces to take over the world. And while they think the emperor is behind this, it is actually something else. Something more wicked.

This is the first novel in the Evermen Saga. I am already reading the sequel.

To Pixar and Beyond

This book was written by Lawrence Levy. He was recruited by Steve Jobs to be Chief Financial Officer at Pixar. When Levy was first summoned, he did not know much about Pixar. It was far away from his home. And he knew about the bad rumors about Steve Jobs - got kicked out of Apple, failed with his NextStep company, and was known to be a ruthless leader.

Levy did join. He found out that Pixar was involved in a lot of projects. Most of them were not making money and were not good choices to grow the company. Steve Jobs was funding the company out of his own money. The people at the company were worried that Jobs was going to come in and screw up their magic. Plus the employees were grumbling because they were promised compensation in the form of stock options that never showed up.

The big thing going on when Levy arrived was that Pixar was under contract to produce Toy Story for Disney. Levy studied the situation and came up with a plan to grow the company and take it public. Steve Jobs wanted to do that to make his investment return some value to him. Taking a firm public is a tough job, and only works if people want to buy into your company. Not many people knew about Pixar. And Jobs/Levy were not experts in the Hollywood industry.

As history knows, Toy Story was a smash hit. Pixar did go public at a high price making Jobs a billionaire. And then Jobs went on to return to Apple, get cancer, and die. Levy did spend a lot of time working closely with Jobs. But that is not the entirety of this book. In fact, Levy also traces his path after he left Pixar.

This book was really a slam dunk. It gave many details about what it was like to be at Pixar after Steve Jobs essentially bought the company. There was a lot of dealing with Disney, especially since Pixar was already wrapped up in a multi-movie deal with Disney once Levy arrived. Luckily, the success of Toy Story allowed them to renegotiate go to infinity and beyond with the company.

The Radioactive Boy Scout

This book tracks the tale of David Hahn. He was a boy in Michigan who was on his way to building a nuclear reactor in his back yard shed. The amazing thing was that David was just a below average student. He had trouble spelling relatively simple words. But he somehow got ahold of some books on chemistry and radiation and went to town.

David's first inspiration was the story of Marie Curie and the experiments she did with her husband. He was able to collect items and extract radioactive elements to use in his experiments. Of course he had to do a number of suspicious activities, such as stealing and misrepresenting himself to assorted companies and agencies.

Things came to light when some cops pulled him over one night and found his the trunk of his car filled with strange items. They thought he might be building a bomb. Specialists came in and determined the items were radioactive. Eventually a tiger team came to dismantle the shed in the back of his house where he conducted his experiments.

The real crazy thing is that he has stashed a lot of his materials inside his parents' house. They were worried that the federal agencies involved in the removal might fine them or even take their house away. So they go rid of much of the radioactive evidence into the local trash collection. Fail. Still the book was a great insight in the live and activities of eagle scout David Hahn.