# 7: Ugly Americans

Ugly Americans : The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions by Ben mazurka.

Well, I guess I read mazurka every time I fly to or return from Argentina. The last time it was "Bringing Down the House" and this time it was "Ugly Americans".

This book is about people taking really big bets in the financial markets and living the investment banker/trader lifestyle. Partying like there is no tomorrow and making (or losing) large amounts of money. It is not as good as Liar's Poker, or Bringing Down the House, and supposedly has a certain level of inaccuracies, but does make for a quick and fun read. A true page turner.

Other interesting tidbits:
- fasincated by the Tokyo lifestyle and the difference in culture, made me think about "Lost in Translation" may want to watch that one again.
- The book focused quite a bit on the water trade and the way the Japanese think about sex. The is linked to the geishas of old, the hostesses of today, and the club which mimics a subway car with hot school dressed girls that can be groped. Pretty bucked up.
- Also: all the drinking and work. What is up with that?
- Nick lesion, the rogue trader who brings down the baring Bank makes an appearance. He has a book out ...
- the whole Japanese Mafia (yoke's) part in the book seemed a bit weak. Also the main character had his apartment trashed and then the issue was never mentioned again. The book got a little weak in the end as mazurka tried to build everything up to a great finale.

# 6: October Men

October Men: Reggie Jackson, George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, and the Yankees' Miraculous Finish in 1978 by Roger Kahn

A baseball book, written by the great Roger Kahn (Boys of Summer). Lots of it is about Roger Kahn and all the ballplayers, managers, executives, and sportswriters that he knows. And the rest of it is about the 1978 New York Yankees. I got the book for my Dad, a huge baseball and Yankees fan, and read it on the way down to Buenos Aires.

It was a light, good read. I am fascinated by sports and getting an inside glimpse into such classics as Billy Martin, Reggie Jackson and Thurman Munson is always good fun. It reminded me quite a bit about when I first learned about baseball from my dad - I mean the year after this one was the seminal one in my baseball history: the 1979 World Series champ Pittsburgh Pirates! "We are a family"

# 5: The Dante Club

A Novel by Matthew Pearl.

I was looking for a page-turner, a Da-Vinci Code type book. So I heard about Rule of 4 and the Dante Club. Finally got around to reading the latter.

Summary: A disappointment.

First of all it took forever to actually get into the book. I had to force myself to focus, the first 70 pages are really rough. Finally managed to push ahead and then entered a reasonable rhythm and was able to knock it out.

I'll remember the relaxing weekend in Wedbley island much more than the book itself. Except for the dogs, but that is a whole other story.

Anyway, not much to say about the book - I was not seduced by the historical characters, especially since apart from the existence of the Dante Club, everything else was fictionalized. The murder mystery was also sort of poor, I guess that at the end I didn't really care who did it.

However, it did make me want to pick up Dante once again, but with my own personal (on-line?) Virgil, or else most of the references get lost in the shuffle.