Book Reviews: Cocktail Parties and Dinner Tables

While slaying the business media with one hand, The Business Press Maven simultaneously began using his spare hand on book publishers two weeks ago.

My premise is that newspapers, looking to outrun their financial demons, have been dropping book reviews like bad habits, and, besides, newspapers never looked at books through an investor's eyes anyway. So here I am, reporting for duty again.

Whether it's an investment advice book, CEO autobiography, business history or financial thriller, The Business Press Maven has one measure: Does the book add to or detract from your ultimate understanding of investing? If it adds, then the book earns a coveted "Help" label. If not, it gets cursed with a dreaded "Hindrance" sticker. Ties, mind you, get lumped into "Hindrance," because if authors and publishers are asking for investors' time, the book better be good.

Speaking of what's good, let's start with what's not.

Oh, was I ever disappointed with Cocktail Economics: Discovering Investment Truths From Everyday Conversations (FT Press) by Victor A. Canto, which earns the "Hindrance" designation. Why the disappointment? From the title, I thought the book would be about possibly one of the most worthy business book subjects out there: how to hear, identify and act against cocktail-party talk about investments.

Any experienced investor knows that there may be no better contrary indicator than cocktail-party talk. All conventional wisdom about investing -- from bunk about real estate never going down because no one's building any more land to the latest in false takeover talk -- seems to spring from lips over dirty martinis in a social setting. I always keep my ears perked (at least until the sixth dirty martini) so I'll know exactly what not to do and think.

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