Review by Id rather read -- Burn Zones by Jorge P. Newbery
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- Latest Review: Burn Zones by Jorge P. Newbery
Review by Id rather read -- Burn Zones by Jorge P. Newbery
[Following is a volunteer review of "Burn Zones" by Jorge P. Newbery.]
3 out of 4 stars
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Burn Zones Playing Life’s Bad Hands by Jorge P Newbery is the autobiography of a high school drop out and self made businessman who made and lost vast sums of money in the field of distressed real estate. His business model involved using loans and government programs to buy struggling public housing buildings. In the later part of the book he describes his current project, American Homeowners Preservation, a hedge fund which purchases mortgages people have defaulted on.
The book begins with stories of his early business endeavors and brief time as a competitive cyclist. The author frames his life in the trope of the young man who starts with nothing and through a combination of ingenuity, courage and hard work achieves stellar success. Mr Newbery has no issues with self promotion and is prone to exaggeration almost to the point of hyperbole. For example, the chapter describing his project creating a cassette of music and interviews of punk bands is titled, “Paperboy to Record Mogul”. While this was an impressive accomplishment for a teenager I hardly think it qualifies him as a mogul. The stories of his youthful experiences and his first job as a mortgage broker are brief sketches ment to illustrate his character and do not go into much detail. The tone shifts as he describes his experience as the owner of several large public housing developments. He describes in much greater detail the events, challenges, successes and failures associated with this period of his life. Personally I enjoyed this second half of the book much more than the early stories which seemed oversimplified.
This book is a fast read and is 278 pages long. The book seems professionally edited but not professionally written. I was distracted by awkward grammar and an almost remedial writing style. Here is an example, “My preparation included Thursday long rides alone up the Pacific Coast Highway and into the Santa Monica Mountains, which extended to 140 miles, all rode at a heart rate of 130 or greater.” I also did not like the total lack of information, character or point of view of anyone else besides Mr Newbery. He seems to be an exceptionally self involved man.
The thing I disliked most about the book was his relentlessly self absorbed point of view, preachy tone and naive belief that character traits such as “my extraordinary determination, focus and work ethic” are all that are required to succeed. The book is presented as an inspirational how to guide to success while totally ignoring the fact that his biggest successes were, not going to jail and never paying back massive amounts of debt.
My favorite thing about the book was that It genuinely conveyed what it is like to be the author. In that regard I would consider it to be a successful autobiography. I struggled to decide between a rating of 2 and 3 and in the end decided that I’d rate it 3 out of 4 stars because it was an easy read and it really made me think about my own values and definition of success. I chose the book because the summary mentioned taking big risks and I wondered what it would be like to live that kind of life. Now I believe I know. I think this book would appeal to fans of autobiography and those interested getting some insite into the factors and banking practices that led to the financial difficulties of the early 2000s and the collapse of the real estate market bubble.
******
Burn Zones
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
3 out of 4 stars
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Burn Zones Playing Life’s Bad Hands by Jorge P Newbery is the autobiography of a high school drop out and self made businessman who made and lost vast sums of money in the field of distressed real estate. His business model involved using loans and government programs to buy struggling public housing buildings. In the later part of the book he describes his current project, American Homeowners Preservation, a hedge fund which purchases mortgages people have defaulted on.
The book begins with stories of his early business endeavors and brief time as a competitive cyclist. The author frames his life in the trope of the young man who starts with nothing and through a combination of ingenuity, courage and hard work achieves stellar success. Mr Newbery has no issues with self promotion and is prone to exaggeration almost to the point of hyperbole. For example, the chapter describing his project creating a cassette of music and interviews of punk bands is titled, “Paperboy to Record Mogul”. While this was an impressive accomplishment for a teenager I hardly think it qualifies him as a mogul. The stories of his youthful experiences and his first job as a mortgage broker are brief sketches ment to illustrate his character and do not go into much detail. The tone shifts as he describes his experience as the owner of several large public housing developments. He describes in much greater detail the events, challenges, successes and failures associated with this period of his life. Personally I enjoyed this second half of the book much more than the early stories which seemed oversimplified.
This book is a fast read and is 278 pages long. The book seems professionally edited but not professionally written. I was distracted by awkward grammar and an almost remedial writing style. Here is an example, “My preparation included Thursday long rides alone up the Pacific Coast Highway and into the Santa Monica Mountains, which extended to 140 miles, all rode at a heart rate of 130 or greater.” I also did not like the total lack of information, character or point of view of anyone else besides Mr Newbery. He seems to be an exceptionally self involved man.
The thing I disliked most about the book was his relentlessly self absorbed point of view, preachy tone and naive belief that character traits such as “my extraordinary determination, focus and work ethic” are all that are required to succeed. The book is presented as an inspirational how to guide to success while totally ignoring the fact that his biggest successes were, not going to jail and never paying back massive amounts of debt.
My favorite thing about the book was that It genuinely conveyed what it is like to be the author. In that regard I would consider it to be a successful autobiography. I struggled to decide between a rating of 2 and 3 and in the end decided that I’d rate it 3 out of 4 stars because it was an easy read and it really made me think about my own values and definition of success. I chose the book because the summary mentioned taking big risks and I wondered what it would be like to live that kind of life. Now I believe I know. I think this book would appeal to fans of autobiography and those interested getting some insite into the factors and banking practices that led to the financial difficulties of the early 2000s and the collapse of the real estate market bubble.
******
Burn Zones
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Burn Zones by Jorge P. Newbery
