Category: Book review
-
[2024-BOOK REVIEW] Upheaval: How Nations Cope with Crisis and Change
![[2024-BOOK REVIEW] Upheaval: How Nations Cope with Crisis and Change](https://haphuongpham.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/image-17.png)
Reading this book left me with a profound sense of gratitude. I feel fortunate to be a Vietnamese citizen born in an era of peace, free from the devastation of falling bombs and without being dependent on another power. Interestingly, while Jared Diamond’s work doesn’t focus much on Vietnam, reading…
-
[2024-BOOK REVIEW] Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need To Know About Global Politics
![[2024-BOOK REVIEW] Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need To Know About Global Politics](https://haphuongpham.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/image-16.png)
I have been following the analytical style of Kathryn Read, and this book is as gripping as a novel, except it isn’t fiction; it is the brutal truth. This is the first book on geopolitics I have ever read, and I was immediately struck by Tim Marshall’s sharp insights. Geopolitics…
-
[2024-BOOK REVIEW] Thinking Fast And Slow
![[2024-BOOK REVIEW] Thinking Fast And Slow](https://haphuongpham.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/image-15.png)
My goal for this review is to clarify the core knowledge of this book and explain why you actually need to read it. Many people buy Thinking, Fast and Slow because of the hype, but few have the drive to finish it. Most reviews just push people to “buy” it;…
-
[2024-BOOK REVIEW] The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics
![[2024-BOOK REVIEW] The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics](https://haphuongpham.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/image-13.png)
When I first picked up The Data Detective, the title and cover led me to expect a noir-style mystery where we’d use data to hunt down clues and crack a cold case. It wasn’t quite that. Instead of a narrative “whodunit,” the author uses inductive reasoning, sharing real-world stories and…
-
[2024-BOOK REVIEW] Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It
![[2024-BOOK REVIEW] Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It](https://haphuongpham.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/image-12.png)
I’m on the fence about whether to recommend this one. While it’s a global bestseller and has some undeniable truths, I struggled with the application. Chris Voss is a former lead FBI hostage negotiator who also studied at Harvard. This “bullets-to-boardrooms” background makes his advice feel a bit extreme. If…
-
[2024-BOOK REVIEW] Measure What Matters: How OKRs Drive High-Stakes Success
![[2024-BOOK REVIEW] Measure What Matters: How OKRs Drive High-Stakes Success](https://haphuongpham.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/image-9.png)
Measure What Matters by John Doerr was my inaugural read of 2026. If you feel like your career or business is drifting in a sea of “busy-ness” without true progress, this isn’t just a book, it’s a diagnostic tool. Many professionals suffer from “Execution Paralysis”: My take? If you’re constantly…