TheRicanReader

How to Make a Few More Billion Dollars" by Brad Jacobs Narrated by Brett Barry Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5) Reading time: ~4 minutes Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance audiobook copy for review. Most business books teach you how to build one company. Brad Jacobs has built eight — and this one is the playbook for what happens after you already know how to win. That's the promise of "How to Make a Few More Billion Dollars," the follow-up to Jacobs' bestselling "How to Make a Few Billion Dollars." Where the first book was about the mindset that gets a builder off the ground, this one is about what it takes to operate at scale — and having spent years on the receiving end of that exact challenge, I can say it delivers. Why it matters A lot of M&A guidance is either too theoretical to use on a Monday morning or too narrow to apply outside one industry. Jacobs — who's completed roughly 500 acquisitions across eight companies, severa...

Book Review: "New Black Cyclones: Racism, Representation, and Revolutions of Power in Cycling" by Marlon Lee Moncrieffe Rating: ★★★½ (3.5/5) Reading time: ~4 minutes Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy for review. A century after Major Taylor, nicknamed the Black Cyclone, became the first Black World Champion cyclist, riders still hear the same silent question every time they roll into a bike shop: "why are you here?" I know that question. I've been asked it without a word being said. That's the terrain Marlon Lee Moncrieffe covers in "New Black Cyclones," and it's a book I went into wanting to love completely — because this is my sport, and this is a story that has needed telling for a long time. Why it matters Cycling likes to think of itself as a meritocracy of legs and lungs. Moncrieffe, a former international track sprinter turned academic, makes the case that it never fully has been — that Black riders h...

"Rhythm & Fire: A Life in Harmony with Earth, Wind & Fire" by Ralph Johnson with Rory Pullens Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5/5) Reading time: ~3 minutes Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance audiobook copy for review. Fifty years, eight #1 hits, and not one drug-fueled cautionary tale — Ralph Johnson's memoir is the rock-doc plot twist nobody saw coming. That's the improbable pitch of "Rhythm & Fire," the memoir from Earth, Wind & Fire's longtime percussionist and vocalist. In a genre built on excess and implosion, Johnson tells a different kind of band story: one built on discipline, faith, and family — and it's just as gripping. Why it matters Music memoirs tend to follow a script: rise, ruin, redemption, repeat. Johnson breaks it. EWF's story is a rare case of a band that consciously swore off the drugs-and-sex mythology of its era, choosing spirituality and craft instead — and still became one of the best-sellin...