This interesting, readable, unauthorized biography of George Soros traces the life of a successful money manager across two continents.  A blue-eyed, blond boy who enjoyed playing a Hungarian version of Monopoly in Budapest soon was delivering deportation notices to other Hungarian Jews after the Jewish Council of Budapest recruited children for that task. After WWII, Soros waited tables in London before enrolling in the London School of Economics. He came to New York in 1956 armed with a competitive edge?a knowledge of the European financial markets. This insight and his ability to discern long-term trends enabled him to become a successful investor and later  successfully manage the Quantum Fund, according to Slater, a reporter  for Time magazine. The life and times of George Soros are indeed  interesting, but the "trading secrets" of the title are based more on his intuition than on objective evidence. An example: when choosing stocks in an industry, pick two?the best and the worst. The reader is left without further guidance in applying this rule (e.g., what is the  worst software company?). Read this biography to learn about the interesting life of a successful financial manager rather than specific steps on how you too can successfully manage money.

During the 229-year period from 1485 to 1714, England transformed itself from a minor feudal state into what has been called "the first modern society," and emerged as the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world. Those years hold a huge story. The English people survived repeated epidemics and famines, one failed invasion and two successful ones, two civil wars, a series of violent religious reformations and counter-reformations, and confrontations with two of the most powerful monarchs on Earth, Louis XIV of France and Philip II of Spain.But they did much more than survive.