Rating: 
Summary: Funny and Sadly True
Review: An insider's look at the inside of an investor banking firm, with no holds barred. I enjoyed the descriptions of the characters particulary The Human Piranha, who sounds like Joe Pesci, Alexander the boy wonder trader, and Lou Ranieri who rose from the mailroom to the head of mortgage trading. Well written and great use of humor!
Rating:
Summary: A must read within the genre!
Review: A well balanced book as it is both funny, surprising and astonishing without loosing it's focus. It remains a very comfortable read at the same time as it portrays a company culture and ways of doing business that are as incredible as they are destructive. If you are going to read one book within this genre, this is it! It is a definitive classic within it's genre and a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome book
Review: If you want a glimpse into the 1980's world of institutional equity trading/sales, this is the book. Captivating! I worked on a trading floor for several years, and this book is right on!
Rating:
Summary: This really is a home run - a great read and FUNNY
Review: This is a great book. A home run. While I am not an industry insider, I did read it while I was getting an MBA from the Michigan Business School and enjoyed it a great deal. It provided a great deal of background to what I was learning in various finance classes. Mr. Lewis helped me see the people who make these markets work and move and that it isn't faceless formulas free of emotion finding perfect prices; rather it is ambitious men (and women) ferociously and sometimes crazily pursuing their own financial interests.The book is amazingly funny without being slapstick. There are some amazing images - not only the Meriwether games of Liar's Poker, but the food being delivered to the physically rotund mortgage bond traders, the bond trader who felt like the price would rise and then kept buying billions of dollars in bonds to prove himself right. I loved reading about the training he received and what he was taught about selling bonds and how those folks really do view their customers. Some of the institutional stuff is a bit dated (but still valuable as history), but the human stuff still rings fresh and true because people and still, well, whatever it was they were back then. If you just want an entertaining read - read this book. If you want to read about the early go-go years in the bond trading and the pre-boom boom years on Wall Street - read this book. If you want to learn about some of the big names in finance and what they did - read this book. You get the idea. I am saying you should read this book and you will be glad you did. Really.
Rating: 
Summary: A little melodramatic, but still a classic
Review: Michael Lewis's ten-year-old account of his two-year stint as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers has become a literary classic in the world of finance, and has probably stroked aspirations in more Wall Street-bound MBAs than any other book. I know many an individual who, after reading the book, become so enamored with the culture described therein that they take it upon themselves to act like the "human piranha" or any of the other clownish characters from the book. Having worked on Wall Street in various client-facing capacities over the years, especially as a trader with a volatile fund, I feel the book is a bit over melodramatic and over-sensational. Are there such personas on Wall Street? Absolutley. In fact the real people on Wall Street -- the traders, the whiteshoe i-bankers, the jewish deal-makers and deal-breakers -- can be even meaner, nastier than Lewis describes. But the clownish characters he creates are probably more fiction than real. Still, his observation that most traders have huge egos and are among the most despicable human beings (despite their MBAs, Ph.D.s, or MDs) to ever walk on earth, is deadly accurate. The constant politicking is captured vividly by the author, although, again, his writing seems to border on fiction quite often. Don't take me wrong; I think this is a must-read for anyone interested in how Wall Street breathes and works. Lewis does a fine job at exposing the disgusting nature of greed, the only thing that feeds Wall Street's daily existence.
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Summary: Bullies in the Playground
Review: When you were young, your parents probably instilled you with a respect for adults. Michael Lewis performs a public service by showing that adults don't always deserve this respect, and sometimes even behave worse than children. Indeed, as Michael puts it, Wall Street is a vast playground where corporate executives can be bullies and rob people of their lunch money. The truth is that young people accepting their first job on Wallstreet probably have no idea what they're getting into. After four years in the meritocrasy that is academia, most college students are unprepared for the brutal darwinian slugfest that awaits. College professors do not offer instruction on how to deal with abusive managers, back-stabbing coworkers, and double-talking executives. New hires (i.e. geeks) are beaten and kicked until they either learn how to fight or perish. Life is cheap on Wallstreet. This book is a definitve recount of the madness which typified the 1980s. Michael lets us rid shotgun with him on his journey through the capital markets. Along the way, we meet strange indigenous animals like the Human Piranha, Sangfroid, and Dash Riprock. We learn the native language (i.e. f---speak) and observe a tribe of bond traders engaged in ritualistic gluttony. Michael does not try to shield our eyes. Rather, he provides the reader with an uncensored look at Salomon Brothers and life in the trenches. Michael's sketch of John Gutfruend, Salomon's then CEO, is both droll and insightful. In so many words, Gutfruend was a king without clothes. He smoked cigars and affected a british accent to convey the image of an English gentleman. He worked very hard to give the impression that money was secondary to the "contributions" that Salomon made to the business community. Yet, the minute that Gutfruend ascended to the throne he initiated an IPO that would both line his own pockets and enrage the founders. Gutfruend was also responsible for a number of disasterous mistakes, like trying to open an office in London in an effort to become an international bank. By the end of the book, there is no doubt that Gutfruend is naked. If there is a message to Liar's Poker, it's that finance is a zero-sum game. What this implies is that your broker is not necessarily looking out for your best interests; he may be looking out for his own. As the E*trade commercial so aptly put it, "if you're broker is so smart, why does he work for a living?"
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Summary: Excellent biography
Review: First, this book is a biography of a chapter in Michael Lewis' life. It is NOT a book about increasing your personal wealth or about Wall Street high finance. That being said, this book is wonderfully well written, full of surprises, and the reference to the game of Liar's Poker carries well as a vehicle throughout the book. It was scary and comical to see what brokers and traders are actually doing with my money once I hand it over to them. I am glad that Michael Lewis survived his time on in the stock market and lived to tell us all about it. I will undoubtedly reread this book some time.
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of time
Review: Probably, I misunderstood that I would learn something from this book about finance or markets in general and would be able to use these ideas to add to the bottom line - make more MONEY. But it seemed like my goal behind reading this (or any other) book was too clearly defined and this book did not help at all. If you have too much time, nothing to do, and are looking for something to pass time then read this. But if you want to achieve something such as gaining insight into trading, selecting, analyzing stocks or securities etc then do not waste your time. This book has no direction, no substance, and not much to learn from it which can be used to produce results.
Rating:
Summary: Liar's Poker
Review: This book is hilarious. You don't need to have a Wall Street or business background to enjoy it. Think of the movie "Wall Street" if it had been a comedy instead of a drama. Michael Lewis relates his personal experiences with wicked humor mixed with thoughtful insight.
Rating:
Summary: I agree with reviewer who said "Gold Standard"
Review: Funny, educational, intelligently written. This led me to Moneyball and on to New New Thing, none disappointed. Lewis is the Tom Wolfe of his generation. MUST READ
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