Homo Deus

I really enjoyed Harari's book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind so I was excited to read his latest, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. It was good, but not out of this world.

Hillbilly Elegy

Yale Law graduate JD Vance grew up poor, in a neighbourhood full of abuse and irresponsibility. In Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, he tells the reader what it was like to grow up in Middle America.

Preferred Shares of Dundee

Dundee is a holding company involved in a lot of businesses in Canada: real-estate, energy, wealth management and other investments. The market cap of the company is currently $160 million with a tangible book value of about 800 million.

Dreamland: Opiate Epidemic

I didn't quite know what to expect when reading Quinone's book about America's drug epidemic, Dreamland, but probably the last thing I would have anticipated is that it felt very much like a business book. The suppliers of drugs have evolved to emulate something like a highly efficient pizza delivery business, and this is their story.

Harvey Nash Goes Smash

Harvey Nash Group (HVN) is a recruitment business. The company is diversified (no customer concentration risk) and operates in a number of geographies (e.g. UK, Europe, US). It trades for 56 million pounds, and I expect them to earn (based on their history) about 7 million per year. Since they have a net cash position of 5 million, this gives them an adjusted P/E of just over 7.

Canam Goes Private

It feels like just last month that I was discussing Canam Group (CAM) as a new potential value investment - because it was. Thanks to extraordinarily lucky timing, I no longer own any shares, as last week the company's management (in concert with private equity) decided to take the company private.

Destiny of the Republic

Relative to what I'd like to know, I know very little about American history. But I plan to spend the rest of my lifetime fixing that! Fantastic books like Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President really help.