4 out of 4 stars
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Burn Zones; Playing Lifes Bad Hands by Jorge P Newbery is a memoir about Newbery’s experiences in the worlds of music, bike racing, and real estate. Newbery details his time running a punk rock record company and how he nearly went to the Olympics. However, the book mainly focuses on Newbery’s time running low-income housing in Ohio. After a natural disaster destroyed said housing Newbery was left millions of dollars in debt but with a little gumption and a lot of hard work he was able to improve his financial situation and turn his life around.
Overall I very much enjoyed Burn Zones. When I started the book I was nervous about the author as I often find that people who write memoirs about their own financial success tend to come off as jerks. However, there were only a few moments where the story felt like an excuse for Newbery to brag. There was also one moment that stood out to me where Newbery made some rude comments about a female coworker. When I read on they started to make more sense however I still felt that they were unnecessary. As I said, these moments were few and far between and overall they did not keep me from enjoying the book or sympathizing with the author.
Newbery tells a wonderful story of his life’s many ups, downs, and rough patches. He also offers some good life advice, often telling the reader to keep their chin up when life gets rough. Newbery’s passages about his parents and family are the most heartwarming part of the story. He details how supportive both of his parents were throughout his entire life and the time he spent with his father on his death bed will tug at your heartstrings. The book was also exceptionally edited and I found no typographical errors.
I would give the book Burn Zones by Jorge P. Newberry four out of four stars. I wouldn’t recommend the book to kids, not because it is particularly inappropriate, but because I don’t think most kids would find a book about business very interesting. That being said, I’m not a huge fan of business books myself and I really did enjoy the book. I think that anyone who likes a good story about overcoming life’s obstacles would as well.
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Burn Zones
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