Matt has
57 books
—
compare books
|
stats
| # | cover | title | author | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages | avg rating | num ratings | date pub | date pub (ed.) | rating | my rating | review | notes | recommender | comments | votes | read count | date started | date read |
date
|
date purchased | owned | purchase location | condition | format | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0307408841
| 9780307408846
| 3.75
| 56,167
| May 10, 2011
| May 10, 2011
|
Erik Larson starts his acknowledgements by saying "what I did not realize as I ventured into those dark days of Hitler's rule was how much of the dark...more
Erik Larson starts his acknowledgements by saying "what I did not realize as I ventured into those dark days of Hitler's rule was how much of the darkness would infiltrate my own soul." If there is a line of baloney in this book, that is probably it. No one immerses themselves into the archives of 1933-34 Berlin without expecting some heebie jeebies, and indeed, that is what you get here. About 75 percent of my reading happens right before I fall asleep, so I enjoyed a couple weeks of dreams that were definitely on the weird end of the spectrum. The politics alone make the story compelling enough. It reads a bit like a bad horror film in that every reader knows who the killer is, and the protagonist seems to have no idea. But Larson does a great job of bringing out the fact that history tends to be a lot more interesting and nuanced than we realize in retrospect. The disagreements in Washington about how to handle the new German regime and anti-Semitism in the State Department. The Nazi hold on power in Germany, continually in question. And even the Nazi power elite are clearly not all sadists. Larson seems to capture the uncertainty of the era fairly well, always reminding his readers of the issues of the moment, allowing us to step away, if briefly, from our hindsight-informed understanding that appeasement was a catastrophic strategy. Above all, you empathize with the tragic figure, Ambassador Dodd, whose diplomatic approach can hardly be faulted. My recollection from reading Larson's The Devil in the White City was that the author was prone to a bit of embellishment. I absolutely did not get that impression from this book, which is copiously footnoted. The star of the book is the young, politically uncommitted and single daughter of the U.S. ambassador, whose romantic entanglements include a Soviet agent and (at the time) the head of the Gestapo. Best of all, Larson was able to mine the memoir of Martha Dodd for material, so the story really writes itself. But credit Larson for tying it all together in a way that is not exactly a beach read, but definitely a digestible page-turner. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| May 11, 2013
|
Jun 10, 2013
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 1591844894
| 9781591844891
| 3.56
| 238
| Aug 02, 2012
| Dec 27, 2012
|
This is a smart book. But first and foremost, let's get one thing out of the way. Olen isn't going to tell you where to invest your money. The point of...more This is a smart book. But first and foremost, let's get one thing out of the way. Olen isn't going to tell you where to invest your money. The point of this book isn't to clarify what constitutes good investment advice, or to directly blame the financial services industry for being an army of snake oil salespersons. The point of this book is to make a critical statement about the financial environment we have created for ourselves in the US. In the 1950s and 1960s, we had a system of corporate and government support. Pensions placed the risk burden on corporations to take care of their employees. The G.I. Bill allowed veterans to go to college and buy low-cost housing at fixed and minimal interest rates. But this was followed by a movement toward a self-funded retirement, pushing more financial responsibility on individuals. In today's financial environment, people are far more empowered than ever before. But empirically, we have a lot more people who don't end up with enough money saved for retirement. The result has enriched the financial services industry but it hasn't done much for most Americans. "The unwillingness or inability of both government and corporations to look at the fees their employees were paying to save their money ensured this; so too, did the culture of commission, where so-called financial advisers made their best money not by offering up the best advice for their customers, but the best advice for their own bottom line." Whether the reader agrees with Olen's conclusion that consumers need more protection from the financial services industry (as well as themselves), it is certainly clear that a lot of Americans are not faring well in our existing environment. (Olen likens the problem to the obesity epidemic. Whether you believe people are fatter because they are fat and lazy or because our health environment is flawed, everyone can agree we have a societal-level problem.) Olen would like to see more people avoid poverty in their old age. When push comes to shove, she is vague with respect to how she would reform the system. Her main point is that the system itself is broken, and that the financial service industry is making a lot of money while (frequently) not helping those they purport to help. In that respect, she does tell you who you should not listen to. And plain and simple, the average Joe is ill prepared to face the existing system in several different respects. 1. Consumers aren't saving enough to prepare for retirement. Some analysts are quick to criticize people for not socking away enough for old age, and consequently their problems are of their own making. But Olen makes a strong case that the main culprit here is the growth of wealth inequality in the last 40 years. Buying televisions isn't the issue for most Americans. The problem is the fixed costs, the things it's hard to cut back on. Housing, health care, and education cost the average family 50 percent of discretionary income in 1973, but that figure is up to 75 percent in the 2000s. The rising cost of medical expenses is now the most common route to bankruptcy court. So it's not a simple matter of consumers not setting aside enough money. The middle class has been squeezed. Most polls show a solid majority of the public believes the current retirement system is going to leave them destitute in old age, and unfortunately, they are mostly right in this assessment. Empirically, shifting responsibility to workers and bullying them from the pulpit to save like professional money managers has encouraged the high income, not the low, to save in individualistic ways and created a whole industry of vendors. Sure, more lower income people have individual retirement accounts than they did in the past, but too many have too little saved because they can't afford it. As for the individual control over the investments they do have, is that really a good thing? That brings us to Olen's next issue. 2. Consumers aren't protected in the marketplace from making poor choices, and many are making poor choices. The meat of the book is really here: the interest of the consumer is very different from the interest of brokers and mutual fund companies, and it's certainly different from most sales people. On the skeezy side, there are the televangelists like Suze Orman, the Rich Dad Poor Dad guy, Jim Cramer and the other yahoos on CNBC. She describes Suze Orman's appeal this way: "personal finance as self-affirmation. Discussions never get very complicated or technical, and are usually as much about feelings as money management." And the advice is typically not very good. Suze Orman has the incentive to sell you her products and her licensed prepaid debit card. Stocks touted on Jim Cramer's show tend not to perform well in the long run. So who can consumers rely on? There are people in the "financial advice arena" that a consumer movement can broadly claim, including Jane Bryant Quinn. But they are not often strictly "independent" either. In the media, where there is personal finance coverage, there is a vast industry of financial services advertising to be appeased. ("How many people are going to watch a program which opens up with Jim Cramer screaming night after night, 'You need to get out of the game!'?" How many financial services firms would advertise on that network?) Even on the more professional side, there are mutual fund companies and the plan providers, and they don't necessarily have your interests at heart either. Thanks to the magic of compound interest, an additional 1 percent of fees and expenses can reduce your account balance at retirement by a substantial amount -- in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if your contributions are high enough. "Think your 401(k) provider is offering up the best of the mutual funds? Well, sometimes that is true. But it's just as likely a mutual fund company has agreed to take over a portion of the administrative fees on the funds and, in return, the record keeper lists their products in front of the 401(k) captive audience." In effect, 401(k) plan providers are bookies. They don't necessarily get a larger cut if consumers pick winning portfolios. Instead, they have the incentive to steer consumers to high-cost active management over lower-cost and more efficient funds. And most consumers don't pay close enough attention to how large a cut they lose, in no small part because the mutual fund world is confusing. John Bogle, the force behind Vanguard's low-cost index funds, has said that the mutual fund and retirement industries collect so much money in fees that the entire system is a "train wreck". But fees are only one piece of the puzzle. She cites studies that show that brokers frequently don't correct client investment biases, and they almost always recommend massive portfolio changes, even if none is called for. And consumers can't even tell if they are getting bad advice. We are sheep at a slaughterhouse, and we don't even realize it. What about investors who avoid brokers, commissioned salespeople and other shysters? The news isn't always great for them either. She cites the work of Barber and Odean, behavioral finance experts who report that individual investors (1) underperform standard benchmarks (e.g., a low cost index fund), (2) sell winning investments while holding losing investments (the "disposition effect"), (3) are heavily influenced by limited attention and past return performance in their purchase decisions, (4) engage in naive reinforcement learning by repeating past behaviors that coincided with pleasure while avoiding past behaviors that generated pain, and (5) tend to hold undiversified stock portfolios. Yikes! Most people will not beat the stock market indexes. Period. We are underinformed and overconfident. "Only half of Americans aged fifty and above have an accurate understanding of how compound interest and inflation interact with their savings." But brokerages are happy to entice people to do their own trading. "Capital One is offering lessons in financial literacy [to students]. Meanwhile, the company is notorious for targeting the least credit-worthy among us for high-interest, high-fee credit cards." "When it comes to money, the vast majority of us are nuts. Bonkers. Batshit crazy. We are natural born fuckups. We engage in so many self-defeating behaviors it's impossible to list them all. We don't open our 401(k) statements. We 'forget' to pay our bills or file our taxes until the last minute. We spend decades trading individual stocks, convinced the next one is going to be 'it.' We got so into extreme couponing that people like childless Lauren Liggett of Carthage, Missouri, bought thirty cans of infant formula because, thanks to coupons she saved up, she earned a $1.22 store credit on each container she purchased." In sum, we have salespeople who aren't properly incentivized to care for their clients' welfare. We have a system that puts consumers at a significant informational disadvantage when it comes to understanding what the products they are buying. And the stakes - the lifetime savings of pretty much every American - couldn't be higher. If you add consumers' cognitive biases to the equation, it's something of a perfect storm. But for Olen, the bad news doesn't end there. 3. Even for those consumers who do save and make "safe" investment decisions, there are still no guarantees of success, since the market can't be predicted. Olen keeps coming back to emphasize that the past can be a poor indicator of the future. Stocks don't always win. Bonds don't always win. Gold doesn't always win. Real estate can have a bubble too. Either in the short-term or the longer-term. During the thirty-year period between 1981 and 2011, in the United States, bonds beat stocks by almost a full percentage point. Bad things did happen to good savers and investors in the 2000s. No amount of personal initiative and savvy could guarantee anyone an exemption from broader negative economic and social trends. This isn't to say that she is advocating that we all put our money in our mattresses. But she is telling us that there is no such thing as a sure thing. Anything that promises returns of 7 percent, even in the long run, is high risk. If anything, she seems to agree with Barber and Odean, who say that we'd be better off placing our funds in an assiduously diversified set of index funds (with low management fees) and leaving it alone. All told, I really enjoyed this book, considering how freaking depressing it all is. It's a quick read, and for any of her claims she offers copious citations. I'm sure Olen has burned a few bridges. I'm sure she will be called a socialist. But I'm equally sure that this book is sitting on a few bookstore shelves alongside a lot of much crappier books. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Apr 24, 2013
|
Apr 25, 2013
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 1595581030
| 9781595581037
| 4.36
| 3,323
| 2009
| Jan 05, 2010
|
This book pretty much blew me away. I'd have finished it a lot more quickly if it weren't for the fact that every time I picked it up, it gave me a co...more
This book pretty much blew me away. I'd have finished it a lot more quickly if it weren't for the fact that every time I picked it up, it gave me a colossal stomach ache. The basic premise sounds like a conspiracy. Jim Crow and legal racial segregation has been replaced by mass incarceration as a system of social control in this country. It has the scent of the stuff you see from Marxist presses. It's the sort of theory of society that appears to require much greater orchestration than is even possible in American society. Our government couldn't have faked the moon landing or planned the 9/11 attacks if it wanted to. But the thing here is that Michelle Alexander connects all the dots distressingly well. Society has been complicit in efforts to get tough on crime and fight the war on drugs, and our prison populations have swelled. The courts have been complicit in allowing the police to overwhelmingly disproportionately target blacks and black neighborhoods. And few members of society -- the black community included -- come to the defense of felons in their efforts to re-enter society. Whether planned or not, our system of laws has resulted in a society that acts the same as if a conspiracy was masterminded. The bottom line is that Alexander points to a lot of aspects of criminal justice that are flat-out broken in American society. And awareness of the problem is a start. Alexander is a very articulate writer and she absolutely comes across as a professor of law. Now that I've finished this book, my brain hurts almost as much as my feelings. I think I'm going to go read a coloring book now.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| May 23, 2012
|
May 25, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0618680004
| 9780618680009
| 3.90
| 74,431
| Oct 18, 2006
| Oct 18, 2006
|
On the whole, better than I anticipated. I resisted reading this book for a long time mainly because it struck me effectively as being a philosophy bo...more
On the whole, better than I anticipated. I resisted reading this book for a long time mainly because it struck me effectively as being a philosophy book written by an evolutionary biologist. I'd much rather read a biology book written by a biologist, a history book written by a historian, and skip reading most anything written by a philosopher. And as far as religion goes, I prefer to read historical or anthropological scholarship absent any such philosophical discussions. But Dawkins has a fair point when he says, "What expertise can theologians bring to deep cosmological questions that scientists cannot?" In any case, I'd rather read this book than read what the Pope has to say about evolutionary biology. So, I finally picked it up because the book seems to have only grown in stature, and it appeared as a free Kindle Lending Library read. And it tackles almost everything under the sun. It dutifully pokes fun at the Bible for prescribing the death penalty for adultery. It parses the concept of "miracle" and what that might mean to someone who believes the physical world only operates through the principles of science. Where it gets more interesting is when he discusses the concept of God as believed by a man like Einstein ("To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness. In this sense, I am religious.") And when he carefully parses an idea about God from the perspective of someone who thinks a literalist interpretation of the Bible is absurd. ("The deist God is a physicist to end all physics, the alpha and omega of mathematicians, the apotheosis of designers; a hyper-engineer who set up the laws and constants of the universe, fine-tuned them with exquisite precision and foreknowledge, detonated what we would now call the hot big bang, retired and was never heard from again.") At its very best, the book takes a stab at discussing probabilities. Dawkins' background and understanding about evolutionary biology and general knowledge about physics probably makes him as qualified as anyone to tackle the question about how unlikely life on earth may have been. Still, it's a pretty unknowable thing. Above all, I think this is a successful book not because Dawkins is entertaining and feisty (though I love the moniker "Darwin's Rottweiler"). It's a good book because Dawkins both (a) doesn't shy from the third rail and (b) has a lot of thoughtful things to say in the process. Dawkins is fair in saying that religion, in its purest form, discourages questioning. And questioning is exactly what this book sets out to do. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| May 18, 2012
|
May 25, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0802717934
| 9780802717931
| 3.46
| 490
| Jan 01, 2011
| Sep 27, 2011
|
A fine read about Copernicus. First and foremost, it paints a clear portrayal of the forces Copernicus faced in the Europe of his time: the tensions be...more A fine read about Copernicus. First and foremost, it paints a clear portrayal of the forces Copernicus faced in the Europe of his time: the tensions between Catholic and Protestant forces, small and large powers; the nature of scientific inquiry in the day; the blurred line between astrology and astronomy; and above all, Copernicus's hesitancy to publish, given fears over the public reaction. Copernicus did his best to avoid controversy, but there was no pretty much no chance he could both publish and avoid scrutiny from the Church. He even dedicated his book to the Pope when he did finally publish his findings as he was near death. But the Bible offers a passage indicating that Joshua commanded the Sun to stand still, and only the Holy Fathers of the Church were empowered to probe the meaning of these passages. Sure enough, In 1616, a panel of theologians deemed the "quiescence of the Sun in the center of the world" to be "formally heretical" because it contradicted Scripture. They further found the heliocentric universe philosophically "foolish and absurd". It's also amazing to imagine that only 400 years ago, the science elite in Europe still publicly believed the arrangement of the stars on the day of their birth could predict the fate of their lives. But that's the way it was. So needless to say, it captures the spirit of the day. Capturing Copernicus The Man was a more monumental task. His lifetime of correspondence comes down to just seventeen surviving letters. Sobel does a good job throughout to be clear about what might aspects of his character we can be more certain of, and what items we can only speculate about. The most interesting strategy the author takes on is to turn the middle third into a play, essentially the author's imagined characterization of Copernicus and interaction with others, particularly his student Rheticus. I'm still not sure how I feel about this decision, but it made for easy and somewhat memorable reading. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Mar 30, 2012
|
May 20, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0805091599
| 9780805091595
| 3.37
| 308
| 2010
| May 11, 2010
|
Glanville seems a natural to write a baseball book like this one. He had a very successful career, tallying over 1000 hits in 9 seasons, but is also a...more
Glanville seems a natural to write a baseball book like this one. He had a very successful career, tallying over 1000 hits in 9 seasons, but is also a good writer, a graduate of Penn (systems engineering) and a color commentator for ESPN. He also seems to be a very well-grounded human being who understands that the life of a professional baseball player is a peculiar one. And while he was very successful, staying in the league for so long, he also wasn't so good that he doesn't fully appreciate the tenuous situation most pro athletes face in order to stay on top. So I'm a bit sorry to say I wasn't as drawn in as I hoped to be in reading this book. I started it during the season last summer, set it down at some point, and never finished until I found some time during the off season. Oddly enough, Glanville's greatest strength – that he is thoughtful, sensible, understanding, and always diplomatic – makes the book a little dull. I'd still rather read what he has to say over what Jose Canseco has to say. And he does have a unique perspective, dealing with the stereotype that comes with being highly educated in a world that doesn't necessarily admire that quality. He's observant enough to write things like, "I spent a lot of my minor league career shaking off the exhausted 'black athlete' labels of laziness, natural talent, and nonchalance." Or "our uniform is our patch on the arm, a badge that becomes our ticket to social acceptance, fame, financial security (maybe) and admission to an elite club of 'success.' But it's also a ticket into the theater of self-doubt. A doubt that turns most players into awkward Clark Kents without their Superman costumes." It's not exactly rocket science, but it's not the sort of thing you would see most ballplayers write or perhaps think. The best parts of the book are probably where he cares to offer insight into how the social and professional life of a single ballplayer can be dramatic or lonely, rewarding or difficult. Above all, Glanville is a stand up guy who offers some nice insight into what it's like to live an existence in that strangely privileged and highly competitive universe. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Jan 09, 2012
|
Feb 22, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0226983358
| 9780226983356
| 3.84
| 591
| Jan 01, 2011
| Sep 15, 2011
|
I liked reading this book, and I think so did many retroviruses I carry. I've read a lot of Zimmer's blogs and magazine articles, and I've even seen hi...more I liked reading this book, and I think so did many retroviruses I carry. I've read a lot of Zimmer's blogs and magazine articles, and I've even seen him at a symposium, but this is the first of his books I've tackled. I like his work because he takes on difficult subjects and explains them to the masses in a very approachable format. I actually didn't expect this to be quite as short and easy a read as it was, but this was practically airplane reading – many short vignettes enabling easy stopping and starting, and over in a few short hours. Essays, each about 6-8 pages, take on different facets of the virus world. It's mostly human-centric, with individual chapters covering the common cold, influenza, smallpox, West Nile, HIV, papillomaviruses. It's not entirely so – he's also very interested in how viruses fit more generally in the grand scheme of life on earth, and how they operate. But it's mostly a very good (as far as I know) overview of how viruses impact our lives. Zimmer has written a much denser book about parasites, but I'm a little squeamish and I haven't yet had the courage to try that one yet. But given that this was a very positive experience, I may have to step up. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Feb 21, 2012
|
Feb 22, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 1847920837
| 9781847920836
| 3.88
| 123
| 2009
| Sep 03, 2009
|
This book is fascinating from several different points of reference. I expect that the title draws people who are interested in depression and antidep...more
This book is fascinating from several different points of reference. I expect that the title draws people who are interested in depression and antidepressants specifically, and that question is certainly an important part of the story he's telling. Clinical depression is a particularly difficult disease in many respects. There is no consensus on its causes, although there are clear environmental and genetic factors that make people more prone to depression. Consequently, there is no one-size-fits-all solution either. Kirsch emphasizes that the widespread idea that depression is caused by chemical imbalances in the brain is unproven. And as you might expect from the title, he argues that the effectiveness of antidepressants is a myth as well. But what makes this story especially compelling is that he's not arguing that they don't work. On the contrary – they do work. The problem is that they don't work very significantly (meaningfully) or very reliably, and more to the point, they don't work better than a placebo. And because antidepressants are expensive and frequently cause unwanted side effects, it means Kirsch is telling us that we've made a pretty big mess of things. Kirsch didn't start out interested in antidepressants. His interest is in placebo studies. And that is really where this book shines. The power of the placebo is fascinating on its own. A placebo won't make someone grow taller and it won't prevent HIV, but for certain diseases – like depression – it offers the potential to make a difference. A key part of the story here is that antidepressants can act as an "extra-strength" placebo, because patients suffer side effects like nausea and drowsiness. And because they are certain they are getting a drug and not a sugar pill, it makes it even more likely to work. According to Kirsch, drug trials of medication that doesn't cause side effects tend to fail because the side effects make a big difference in activating that placebo effect. The implication is that we have a lot of approved drugs on the market that work, but none work as well as they should, and all offer negative side effects. From a bioethical standpoint, this causes a great dilemma. Ultimately, Kirsch argues that psychotherapy is a much more advisable route, since it works as well as existing medications but without side effects and without the questionable ethics. By far the most disturbing part of this book is what it suggests about the drug approval process and about medical testing in general. On the one hand, it offers a good logical explanation as to why we have approved all of these drugs: Antidepressants produce more side effects than a standard placebo, so patients in clinical trials typically know they are not getting a standard placebo, so consequently, those drugs 'work' as an 'active' placebo, better than a standard one. But on the flip side, these active placebos don't work so much better than standard ones that they should have been approved by the FDA. There are several things about our current process that are extremely disturbing. First, not all studies are appropriately designed as double-blind. Even in cases where the active drug has side effects, those side effects could be replicated for the control cases. Second, not all studies are published. This is a very big and more general problem we have in that most research only gets published if it produces a positive result. Consequently, there is pressure on researchers to get positive results, and most meta-analysis of published studies would give a result that would be biased in favor of positive results. Finally, the FDA doesn't solely have consumer interests at heart when it comes time to decide whether the drugs should be approved for the market. Even with all the relevant data available to it, the FDA tends to act more in the interests of the drug companies than the consumers, which is unfortunately a story that's pretty easy to believe. The book is pretty short, considering the number of things it touches on. Like many science-centered books, you don't exactly get raw data to chew on when you read an account meant for popular consumption. But what Kirsch does offer is a lot of sensible, compelling, and intuitive arguments and explanations, which is enough in this setting. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Jan 24, 2012
|
Feb 19, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 039915857X
| 9780399158575
| 4.27
| 397
| Jan 05, 2012
| Jan 05, 2012
|
College team sports can make for great drama. I think I learned this mostly from reading John Feinstein books over the years. Sure, you have guys who...more
College team sports can make for great drama. I think I learned this mostly from reading John Feinstein books over the years. Sure, you have guys who are good or great athletes, and to compete at that level, they have to be unusually driven. And you also have competition – in this case, at a level that's highly visible. Add to that mix the fact that these are effectively young kids who inevitably have a lot of learning and growing to do, the storyteller can follow several dramas unfolding, on and off the playing field. Finally, you have the famous coaches, the great mentors, who teach the kids how to work together and make the most of themselves. The story writes itself. For me, this was a trip down memory lane to my college years, and I very much enjoyed it as a guilty pleasure, much the way my girlfriend enjoys watching "Glee". Wojciechowski did a lot of interviews with a lot of people all over the country to get this book right, and he put it all together to tell a great story of human drama. People familiar with this era will certainly get a nuanced perspective on some of the people involved. The background stories about Pitino and Newton, Davis and Laettner, are really well spun. The timing on this book is perfect, since everyone involved is still around and of sound mind, but enough time has passed to allow some additional inside story to be revealed. If I have a criticism, it's the awkwardness of the presentation of that Duke-Kentucky matchup. The part the author gets right is that these two teams were very compelling stories. Throughout the book, chapters alternated between the Kentucky story and the Duke one, and it does so effectively. The setup works so well in part because the paths the programs took to the game were in many ways so different. But he continued to follow that pattern once the game began – alternating perspectives between that of Duke and that of Kentucky. It didn't quite feel right. It wasn't linear, and there was very little discussion of the first half. And believe it or not, it actually felt a little anticlimactic. I might have been happier setting the book down at the tip off and just putting in the game DVD. I might also criticize the absurd title, "The Last Great Game" along with the subtitle "the 2.1 seconds that changed basketball". This game was exceptional for a lot of reasons, but it's reasonable to argue that Laettner's bucket (uh -- spoiler alert?) really only changed the narrative of the legacies of the players on those benches. But nostalgia is a funny thing. College basketball came of age as a big-media televised sport in those years, and Laettner's buzzer shot capped a great game in a way no others did. It wasn't Fred Brown throwing away the ball. It wasn't Lorenzo Charles cleaning up a prayer. And even Keith Smart hit his jumper in '87 with several seconds to spare. Laettner's shot was great drama, the climax in a game when both teams continued raising the stakes throughout, and we see it on television again every spring because it's such a great clip. And the legend grows. So, I still liked the book. I remember distinctly that I jumped so high I put my fists through the drop ceiling in the dorm commons room that day, 20 years ago. I can't say I've done anything quite like that since then. So, yeah, the book also made me feel old. Which I am. So it goes. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Feb 10, 2012
|
Feb 13, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0312267177
| 9780312267179
| 3.86
| 2,260
| 1999
| Sep 02, 2000
|
I just got home from a two-week vacation in Vietnam, and as much as I loved the trip, the lasting memory of having read this book is a testament to th...more
I just got home from a two-week vacation in Vietnam, and as much as I loved the trip, the lasting memory of having read this book is a testament to the great power of books to take you to another culture and a greater understanding than touring a country itself. I would never suggest that a person can become more worldly by sitting and reading rather than experiencing things first-hand, but there are limitations when you travel. When you account for language barriers, cultural barriers, time limitations, and the fact that you're going to be as busy sightseeing as you are trying to gain a grasp of a place, a good travel book can frame the pictures you see in such a way as to make the trip that much more enriching. This particular book is not so much a travel journal or a bicycle trip as it is a memoir, and it is a really powerful story. Pham found himself lost in his adopted country, the U.S., and lost among his family and community, and ultimately lost when he tried to visit and re-experience the nation of his youth. But he certainly has found himself as a writer. His family history is compelling on its own, but the book really shines in its description of characters and culture in Vietnam. I only wish it seemed he enjoyed his trip more than he did, because I sure enjoyed reading it. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Feb 10, 2011
|
Feb 28, 2011
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0425089517
| 9780425089514
| 3.91
| 407
| Jan 01, 1985
| Jun 01, 1986
|
As "war" books go, this is a great one. The authors took one slice of the Vietnam war and painstakingly interviewed and researched everything about it...more
As "war" books go, this is a great one. The authors took one slice of the Vietnam war and painstakingly interviewed and researched everything about it. The result is a very dense and complete discussion of the tunnels. I imagine this is a favorite for anyone who studies this war in particular. For my purposes, it may be a little much. There is one big reason to read this book, and that's the fact that the story itself is impossibly remarkable. You read some books for their style and others for their content, and this one is squarely in the latter category. The writing is dry and a bit rambling, but the details of the tunnel-building and life in the tunnels is incredible. The Vietnamese who spent years underground and the American teenagers who came after them are both groups whose stories should be told. That said, it seems to go beyond the ridiculous sometimes, sticking with the theme of high melodrama. The writing is heavy in intrigue and symbolism, laden with language contrasting the high-tech west with the rag-tag east. A literal underground railroad. Coke cans turned into hand grenades. "The knife, the pistol, and the flashlight were to be the basic tools of combat and survival inside the tunnels of Cu Chi. Indeed, the very reverse of high-tech weapons development took place within the tiny ranks of the tunnel rats." Admittedly, the contrast is hard to exaggerate, but sometimes I might as well have been reading about ewoks taking on Darth Vader and the Empire. ("The most precious currency below ground was the plastic or steel containers the Americans left as litter on the battlefield above us.") Napalm versus coconut mines and crossbows. There's a whole section devoted to the baby born in a tunnel. And a whole chapter about the bugs and vermin. "They rediscovered the satisfaction of old-fashioned unarmed combat, where individual strength, guts, and cunning counted for more than massive air and artillery support." It's an amazing story, and the treatment here is fairly balanced and decidedly thorough. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Jan 19, 2011
|
Feb 07, 2011
| Mass Market Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0805091742
| 9780805091748
| 3.95
| 7,876
| 2009
| Dec 22, 2009
|
My having read - and enjoyed - a 200-page book about using checklists suggests that I'm a cocktail party nightmare, but I found this to be very much a...more
My having read - and enjoyed - a 200-page book about using checklists suggests that I'm a cocktail party nightmare, but I found this to be very much a worthy read. At the heart of it, this is really a book about management and efficiency. It's got a lot more "manifesto" in it than "how-to" though, which makes it both easy to plow through and easier for mass consumption. I actually wish it were more scientific and systematic than it turned out to be, but even as it rambles, it's thoughtful and interesting, with many good anecdotes. I really do think this guy is onto something. A 200-page book about checklists will really get you to think about checklists. What makes it interesting is that it's not quite like you're reading "The Hammer Manifesto", where everything improves if it's pounded by a hammer. The devil is in the details, and improperly specified checklists are more a hindrance than a benefit. A checklist can't be too cumbersome, or you'll lose efficiency. It also mustn't be authoritarian. Gawande's idea of effective checklists are those that free decision-makers up to use their expertise and will make for a more "democratic" decision-making procedure. The basic puzzle Gawande wants to solve is that in his field of medicine, as medical knowledge has advanced, the field has become so complex that no single individual is likely to both possess all the cutting-edge knowledge and expertise required for every contingency as well as be mentally prepared to take the right action all the time. Errors in communication and inconsistencies in preparation are proportionally more responsible for more fatalities these days than in the past. He compares being a physician to two jobs that rely heavily on checklists and procedure, airline pilot and building engineer. For example: "Determining whether a structure … is built to code and fit for occupancy involves more knowledge and complexity than any one inspector could possibly have. So although inspectors do what they can to oversee a building's construction, mostly they make certain the builders have the proper checks in place and then have them sign affidavits attesting that they themselves have ensured that the structure is up to code. Inspectors disperse the power and the responsibility." This is not necessarily what I expected when I picked up the book. "That routine requires a balancing a number of virtues: freedom and discipline, craft and protocol, specialized ability and group collaboration. And for checklists to help achieve that balance, they have to take almost opposing forms. They supply a set of checks to ensure the stupid but critical stuff is not overlooked and they supply another set of checks to ensure people talk and coordinate and accept responsibility while nonetheless being left the power to manage the nuances and unpredictabilities the best they know how." Not being a doctor or pilot, this stuff was a bit beyond useful for me, but still fascinating. Speaking more generally about the details of checklist-writing, he advocates certain principles. "Bad checklists are vague and imprecise. They are too long; they are hard to use; they are impractical. They are made by desk jockeys with no awareness of the situations in which they are to be deployed. They treat the people using the tools as dumb and try to spell out every single step. They turn people's brains off rather than turn them on. Good checklists, on the other hand, are precise. They are efficient, to the point, and easy to use even in the most difficult situations. They do not try to spell out everything -- a checklist cannot fly a plane. Instead, they provide reminders of only the most critical and important steps -- the ones that even the highly skilled professionals using them could miss." If I have any specific complaint, it's that after reading 200 pages about checklists I still feel like I've only grasped the tip of the iceberg, although I'm not likely to run out and clamor for the footnoted version just yet. Still, I'd have loved to see an appendix with a few good checklists in there. Yep, I'm pretty much a cocktail party nightmare. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Dec 07, 2010
|
Dec 08, 2010
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0316051640
| 9780316051644
| 3.89
| 9,988
| 2010
| Jul 12, 2010
|
I am probably like a lot of people in that everything I learned about the periodic table, I learned in the span of a single year at the age of 15, and...more
I am probably like a lot of people in that everything I learned about the periodic table, I learned in the span of a single year at the age of 15, and I had forgotten the vast majority of that three months later. This book didn't exactly make up for my lifetime of neglect of this subject, but I must give it a lot of credit. I was plenty entertained, I learned a lot (much of which I promise I have already forgotten even as I type this), and I was rarely lost on any concepts the author tried to convey. In short, this short book was probably every bit as successful in teaching me basic chemistry as my year in 10th Grade, and at much smaller taxpayer expense. In fact, one of my more distinct memories from 10th Grade chemistry was the occasional stare I'd give the periodic table and the realization that while we had learned some of the basics (atomic numbers, masses, number of electrons), the class plodded along slowly enough that some of its features (the placement of the lanthanides, for example) remained a mystery. This easy read really filled those gaps, but happily as a secondary motivation. Its primary concern is to tell stories, mostly involving history and many involving scientists, and it generally pitches the stuff you could get from the Wikipedia entry for the periodic table at moments in-between. Spoiler alert! Here are some cool things I learned (or re-learned). This will give you a feel for how ignorant I was going in, and the sort of joyful topics this volume covers: * Electrons drive the periodic table. The elements that share a column tend to take on similar characteristics in part because they have the same number of unpaired electrons, and consequently are likely to pair with other elements (to form compounds) with the same amount of vigor. So you have "peaceful" noble gases (argon, helium) not far from the "poisoner's corridor", which is next to radioactive poisons. But from there, it's still amazing how the complexity builds. "Just as you could never guess, unless you'd seen it, that individual carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen atoms could run together into something as useful as an amino acid, you'd have no idea that a few amino acids could fold themselves into all the proteins that run a living being." * There are a lot of wild stories about scientists, a lot of which is about seeking personal glory, and a lot of which is about feeding massive egos. A guy I never heard of, Fritz Haber, was both the father of chemical warfare for his work developing and deploying chlorine and mustard gases during World War I, as well as the man responsible for the technology to create ammonia, the precursor to all fertilizers, which is largely responsible for the global population explosion in the 20th century. (There is probably a lesson in morals in there someplace.) Then there is the guy who missed a press conference for his Nobel Prize in Physics because he couldn't figure out how to get his new electric garage door to open. * Peppermint (menthol) tricks your mouth because it seizes up cold receptors. Copper is used in most coins because it neutralizes most bacteria or fungi (without hurting us). Titanium, for some unknown reason, triggers zero immune system response and even cons the body's bone-forming cells into attaching themselves to it, which is why all implanted teeth and replacement hips are made of the stuff. Iodine was first added to salt (as a cheap and easy measure to prevent birth defects and mental retardation) in the early 1900s. Helium and neon have never bonded with another element. Aluminum, abundant in the earth's crust but rarely found in a pure form, used to be extremely difficult to extract from oxygen, until a process was identified in 1888 dropping the metal from $550/pound to $18/pound in seven years, and 25 cents per pound five decades later. Elements also don't simply come in gaseous, solid, liquid, and plasma form, but can rather come in multiple crystallized forms, such as chocolate's chalky color change following a temperature shift (a phenomenon Robert Scott's failed Antarctica expedition suffered from because it stored fuel in tin, which leaked due to a change in solid form). Monte Carlo simulations came out of the Los Alamos nuclear testing experiments. Shark teeth litter the ocean floor because they're about the hardest biological substance known, the only part that survives. And the universe is 99.96 percent hydrogen and helium. We, being composed of vastly different materials, are the happy result of ancient supernova explosions. And we write nifty books to crow about how we know this. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Nov 14, 2010
|
Nov 16, 2010
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0743457579
| 9780743457576
| 4.13
| 244
| 1972
| Dec 31, 2002
|
This is a great book. You can probably count the number of combat stories I'll read in my lifetime on one hand, but I'm very glad this is one. (In fac...more
This is a great book. You can probably count the number of combat stories I'll read in my lifetime on one hand, but I'm very glad this is one. (In fact, I've now read it twice.) It is less a story about individuals than it is about groups of people - the Marines, the villagers, the Vietnamese armed forces, and the Viet Cong. But that doesn't imply the human element isn't fundamental to this history. The author portrays the drama of the Vietnam War in recounting the experience of a platoon with a semi-permanent station in a small central Vietnamese hamlet. It is told almost entirely from the perspective of the Marines (one of whom was the author). I have no idea if the story is an important or groundbreaking one for people well-versed in military planning, but beneath the everyday drama it seems to tell a tale about how to fight effectively. For one thing, the Marines are not alone in their fight. Their platoon is a "combined" platoon, fighting alongside a group of native Popular Forces members. For another, they remain stationed in the small village of Binh Yen Noi, where they can become familiar with the terrain and the local population. Finally, they fight their battles without air support or massive weaponry. And despite a number of great tragedies along the way, they are largely successful. So this is a very different (and in some ways much more compelling) story than that which is told in, say, Oliver Stone's "Platoon". They take ownership of - and responsibility for - the village. They are invited into the homes of the villagers, who became familiar with the soldiers. The soldiers became part of the community. In a sense, it's a tale of winning "hearts and minds." The courage and character of many of these Marine enlistees is surely an element in a lot of war stories. But I supect "The Village" is probably otherwise not a very typical tale of the Marines. But best of all, it's very compelling. The author relates the drama in a very distant, neutral tone throughout, relying on the action to move the story along. And the story is, of course, heart-wrenching in that it's a war story, so a lot of young people die. At the same time, the book lacks several elements. You don't get a feel for the politics underlying the war effort (either in Vietnam or in the United States). You don't get much of anything from the perspective of any Vietnamese. And, as I already wrote, you don't really do much more than scrape the surface of the main characters. But in some ways, this is a strength of the work. It keeps the focus more on the events and the tactics and the environment. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Oct 13, 2010
|
Oct 14, 2010
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0520023617
| 9780520023611
| 3.46
| 24
| Jan 28, 1972
| Mar 23, 1973
|
Long winded, sometimes meandering, and ending with a rather whimpering conclusion, this book reads like the dense dissertation it is, meant more to be...more
Long winded, sometimes meandering, and ending with a rather whimpering conclusion, this book reads like the dense dissertation it is, meant more to be skimmed by a handful of unfortunate committee members than published for a wide audience. But the details are often very interesting, and the analysis of the situation in one small but pivotal province in 1960s Vietnam is very thoughtful. Rush made a great effort to dissect the political and security situation in 1960s Long An by interviewing countless figures of all backgrounds and ideologies to create this work, and what makes it worthwhile in the end is that his interpretation goes well beyond a simple notion that the U.S. mission in southeast Asia failed because of the anti-imperialist preferences of the population there. Government officials he interviewed bemoaned the fact that "the communists are inhumane and bound by no moral demands, hence they can terrorize at will; the government cannot terrorize for humane reasons." But Rush discounts this argument, instead saying that the wholesale cooperation of the peasant class could not be a consequence of fear alone. He concludes instead that the Diem government (and the U.S.) failed in Long An because they failed to gain the support of the population (and what he calls existing "social conditions"). Better land reform measures, more concessions and programs that favor the poor, and more democracy would have helped their cause if not turned the war. Instead, the Vietminh stoked the cause of class resistance and brought an antifeudal revolution. And his evidence bears this conclusion. In the first paragraph of his preface, Rush writes "the reader will find few evil or incompetent characters in this book," a statement that offers insight in two respects. First, it shows why he was so successful gaining an audience with such a wide range of parties in his research. But more importantly, he hints at the failure of the South Vietnamese government and its treatment of both the rural population as well as its adversaries. I don't want to discount too strongly the reality that terrorism and fear can be powerful weapons. I suspect that much of the population of Long An that was complicit in the undoing of the government in Long An were, in fact, fearful of the communist insurgents there. But it is too easy to demonize the enemy without recognizing that they might be offering more positive incentives to sway public opinion as well. At the very least, Rush offers analysis that demonstrates well that the policies and actions of the Diem government were unpopular, undemocratic and inept at best, and corrupt, authoritarian, and oppressive at worst. In other words, war is the continuation of politics by other means. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Oct 05, 2010
|
Oct 05, 2010
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0375700021
| 9780375700026
| 3.41
| 849
| 2003
| May 11, 2004
|
The personal history of le thi diem thuy is certainly one worth telling. She was born in Vietnam at the height of American involvement in their war. T...more
The personal history of le thi diem thuy is certainly one worth telling. She was born in Vietnam at the height of American involvement in their war. Two of her siblings drowned during her childhood. Her oldest brother drowned in the ocean in Vietnam, and a sister drowned in a Malaysian refugee camp. At the age of six, le and her father were picked up by an American naval ship and placed in a refugee camp in Singapore. Eventually they would be reunited with her mother and a sister in southern California, where she spent the rest of her childhood. "Gangster" is, in a sense, her memoir, in that the narrator's story very closely mirror's le's story. But she chose not to tell events as they happened to her, instead constructing a story from her own reflections about her family and other people she has known or met. After I finished reading the book, I found it telling to see her describe it this way: "It's a novel about memory, the memories these characters hold onto of their lives in Vietnam while they are in San Diego. 'Gangster' is not my personal active recollection; it is the personal recollection of the narrator of the book as she tries to face the death of her brother." Normally, I find work that closely resembles real events, but chooses to tailor them to suit the wishes of the narrator, to be unsettling. From the standpoint of telling the story of actual people and actual histories, it's too easy to distort real events and real characters in such a way as to distort reality. But le's story is "honest" in the sense that the author is inspired by her own story and her own feelings and not constructing them from her idea of someone else's experience. And the author is clearly telling her story in such a way as to reflect well her own talents. This book is a beautiful piece of work. I was blown away at a couple points during the book, moments that were less about plot development and more about expressions of emotion. I'll leave it at that. San Diego's public library and public radio station team up each year to choose one book to promote in the "One book, One San Diego" program. The event series seeks to unite San Diego through book chats, author and scholar lectures, and film screenings that relate to the themes of a single book. This book was chosen for 2011, and it seems they have really picked a winner. It's more a story of Vietnam than it is one of San Diego, but both places are very much characters in the book. It's also the first selection in five years to be a work of fiction. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Sep 26, 2010
|
Sep 27, 2010
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 1594487502
| 9781594487507
| 2.96
| 157
| 2010
| Apr 15, 2010
|
This book badly needed to be written. May it please be put on library shelves, replacing dull histories of the Yankees, Red Sox, and Brooklyn Dodgers....more
This book badly needed to be written. May it please be put on library shelves, replacing dull histories of the Yankees, Red Sox, and Brooklyn Dodgers. Mark Kurlansky, meanwhile, ain't Walt Whitman, and no disrespect to Whitman, but that's a good thing. Baseball lovers will be disproportionately attracted to the book, but it notably is not about baseball, and it's not geared toward baseball fans. It's more about the surrounding society and the history of how this small island has changed and been impacted by global forces. I've personally been fascinated with the Dominican Republic since I was baseball-obsessed and three apples tall, a time when the only Latinos I'd ever seen were on big league rosters. Eastern Stars offers a portrait of the Dominican Republic, and San Pedro de Macoris in particular, and its evolution in becoming the cradle of baseball stars. I'm not sure Kurlansky is the ideal writer for this subject, but he is an excellent historian and his perspective is very sober and balanced, good with big-picture perspective. And given that he is someone who is clearly more at home thinking about political economy matters than sports, he's probably written a book that's a lot more interesting than whatever Mike Lupica or Rob Neyer might have put together. (I also am not sure if Kurlansky has ever written a book that doesn't include a few recipes. The man must love to eat, and that can't be a bad thing.) I read somewhere that the book doesn't effectively humanize the people of San Pedro, and that's a fair criticism. But from his emotional distance we are nonetheless given what I take is probably a pretty accurate perspective on the country and on baseball's role in the community. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Sep 22, 2010
|
Sep 22, 2010
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 1400031362
| 9781400031368
| 3.93
| 20,155
| 2001
| Nov 12, 2002
|
I am not an authority on detective stories. I've read a little Sherlock Holmes, but I've only seen Agatha Christie through the eyes of the BBC. But wh...more
I am not an authority on detective stories. I've read a little Sherlock Holmes, but I've only seen Agatha Christie through the eyes of the BBC. But when I pick up books from this series and always see the New York Times Book Review quote on the front, "The Miss Marple of Botswana," I start to think that Mma Ramotswe belongs in the discussion – not because she fits the mold, but because she seems to offer a different perspective within the genre. In a sense, I think these are classic detective stories. Precious Ramotswe runs an agency, and she generally solves everything that comes her way. And like most classic detectives, she is somewhat no-nonsense. Mma Ramotswe's favorite reference on private detection says, "There is very little drama in our calling; rather a process of patient observation, deduction, and analysis." But these stories are not so mystery-driven. They are more character-driven. We don't get the classic Poirot confined-space interrogations, clues, and revelations. There aren't the great twists and turns of plot. And Mma Ramotswe doesn't seem to solve any puzzles using extraordinary skills of observation or show of brilliance. What she does instead is embody a reasoned approach to solving cases, and embody a traditional African morality. Character is not a red herring in these stories. Character is the driving force and generally determines guilt. A typical insight of Mma Ramotswe is to say, "There was the old Botswana morality, which was simply right. If a person stuck to this, then he would be doing the right thing and need not worry about it. ... Most morality was about doing the right thing because it had been identified as such by a long process of acceptance and observance." I think this is something that makes these stories particularly compelling. She's the anti-Holmes in that she is fallible and ordinary. But she is also thoughtful, reasonable, and unabashedly traditional. (In fact, she is "traditionally built.") And her intuition is generally right, leading her to ask the right questions of the right people.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Sep 06, 2010
|
Sep 22, 2010
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0349116652
| 9780349116655
| 3.92
| 24,184
| 2000
| 2003
|
Whenever I read or hear about the benefits and drawbacks of using an e-reader, inevitably it's brought up that no one can see what you are reading, en...more
Whenever I read or hear about the benefits and drawbacks of using an e-reader, inevitably it's brought up that no one can see what you are reading, enabling the sophisticated-but-self-aware to engage in "guilty pleasure" reading. And I do understand there are people who like to read trashy novels. There are a lot more copies of crap on bookstore shelves than works of Tolstoy or Kafka. But then again, there are book series like The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, which seemingly fits the guilty-pleasure bill. For one thing, it's written so a seventh grader should be able to read it. For another, you can plow through one of these in an afternoon. The books are compelling and story-driven, but not so intense that you can't put them down. The characters are charming. And best of all, it's hardly embarrassing. I can think of nothing better to have while lounging at the beach or stuck on an airplane. This book series is wonderful. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Sep 03, 2010
|
Sep 22, 2010
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 1934137197
| 9781934137192
| 3.33
| 13,606
| 2009
| Jan 01, 2009
|
This is no Hollywood story. There are several storylines and perspectives, but the central characters are a clockmaker, George, and his epileptic fath...more
This is no Hollywood story. There are several storylines and perspectives, but the central characters are a clockmaker, George, and his epileptic father, Howard. Most of what we learn about George comes from his muddled thoughts as he lies on his deathbed, awaiting impending renal failure, in the last week of his life. And George is not finding dying to be a very lucid experience, having no real hold on his own senses. But we don't really ever get a nuanced picture of any character, and the story itself doesn't evolve in a particularly compelling way. What powers this book is the author's language, and the shifting narration and perspective. In the end, it's still more a series of snapshots and landscapes than it is plot. One of the characters imagines at one point, "My memories of them are atmospheres." And this is kind of the way the whole book reads. And it's clearly where all the fuss about Tinkers comes from. It's frequently more poetry than prose: "Skin like glass like liquid like skin; our words scrieved the slick surface (reflecting risen moon, spinning stars, flitting bats), so that we had only to whisper across the wide plate. Green drakes blossomed powder dry among the stars, glowing white, out of pods, which rose from the muck at the bottom of the pond and broke open on the skin of the water. We whispered across the galaxies." In that respect, it's kind of wonderful. I don't often treat myself to this sort of writing. Most of the time, I don't have the patience for it. I read a lot of non-fiction and when I pick up a work of fiction, I usually wish it to be lighter reading. But it's fun every now and then. On a side note, I have to mention that I've recently learned a bit about writing good cumulative sentences. Cumulative sentences start with an independent clause, followed by a series of subordinate constructions. As with any type of sentence, cumulative sentences can obviously can vary in quality, but it's been pressed upon me that if it is done artfully and thoughtfully, sentences can get extremely long and yet remain effective. Well, it turns out that Harding is rather fond of writing cumulative sentences. I'll close by quoting a particularly masterful one: "In actual truth, his wife was soothed by the sound of ticking clocks and their chimes, and for many years after her husband's death, in the condominium she bought at a retirement complex with the cash he had hidden away for her in the basement and in half a dozen safety-deposit boxes located around the North Shore, she kept a dozen of the finest pieces from his collection running and arranged around her living room in such a way that they seemed, in their precise alignment, with which she fussed and fine-tuned for months, to strike a chord that nearly conjured her dead husband, almost invoked him in the room; he always seemed just out of sight among the ticks and tocks and, at midnight, when she lay alone in her canopy bed and all of the clocks struck twelve at the same time, she knew without a doubt that her fastidious ghost of a husband was drifting around in the living room, inspecting each machine through his bifocals, making sure that they were all even of beat, adjusted and precise." (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Aug 25, 2010
|
Aug 25, 2010
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0393325571
| 9780393325577
| 3.62
| 121
| 2003
| May 17, 2004
|
I love Stephen Jay Gould, and I love baseball. But this haphazard collection of baseball-related clippings from the last two decades didn't do it for...more
I love Stephen Jay Gould, and I love baseball. But this haphazard collection of baseball-related clippings from the last two decades didn't do it for me. Gould is a thoughtful and brilliant man, a big fan of the game, and a good writer. But this volume is unsatisfying. I can identify three primary for it. First and foremost, it's just not his area of expertise. In his lifetime, Gould forgot more about hen's teeth and horse toes than I'll ever know, but baseball is comparatively just a diversion for him. He's obviously a fan, but he's no Roger Angell or John Updike or Roger Kahn or John Feinstein. I'd recommend The Flamingo's Smile or Bully for Brontosaurus, or any of Gould's other essays in natural history in a heartbeat. Just not this. Second, it's mostly a lot of dated musings about the Yankees and Red Sox, which means it doesn't exactly unearth the untapped material of the baseball world. Where he deviates from this pattern, it's a lot of hero-worshipping of Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds. And it's not the insightful stuff a beat writer could tell you. It's the sort of material a smart person might come up with after watching a lot of ball games on television, nothing more. Third, there is nothing to tie these essays together (not even an essay by Gould, since the volume was published posthumously). Basically, if Gould wrote the piece sometime during his lifetime of being published, and if it mentions baseball, it made the cut. An entire third of the book is reprinted book review essays, one after another. I have to emphasize again that I love the man, and even in this flawed book there are some wonderful nuggets. But there is an endless list of better baseball-related (or Gould-written) books out there that are better choices. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Jul 21, 2010
|
Jul 26, 2010
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0375823352
| 9780375823350
| 4.01
| 113,604
| Oct 10, 2000
| Nov 13, 2001
|
None
| Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Jul 13, 2010
|
Jul 14, 2010
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0679879250
| 9780679879251
| 4.07
| 153,975
| 1997
| Jul 22, 1997
|
I do like the introduction of Will. But this book stands alone just like the 2nd story of a building stands without the first story. Not to be read on...more
I do like the introduction of Will. But this book stands alone just like the 2nd story of a building stands without the first story. Not to be read on its own. (In fact, you better be prepared to climb to that 3rd story.)(less)
| Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Jul 09, 2010
|
Jul 14, 2010
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0679879242
| 9780679879244
| 3.87
| 501,747
| 1995
| Apr 16, 1996
|
First, a disclaimer. Fantasy is not really my thing. I read this series because of my lovely girlfriend's enthusiasm for these books, and as usual, he...more
First, a disclaimer. Fantasy is not really my thing. I read this series because of my lovely girlfriend's enthusiasm for these books, and as usual, her eye for quality is excellent. But in writing a review for something like this, I feel a bit like a bluegrass musician writing a review about the latest in hip hop. That said, this still was a lot of fun for me, especially since real-life drama in my workplace has given me a need for some escapism. The story is very creative, although a bit on the weighty/serious side of things. It's not really a light read in that sense. But it is a page-turner. And it had to be a page-turner, because despite the three different titles in the story, and the three different bindings, this is not a story in three parts. It's a 1000-page novel. Don't pick up the first book unless you're prepared to read the other two. It's also interesting to see how the ideology plays itself out in these books. In that respect, the writing seems to get more ideologically clear as the story unfolds. In the first book, it's hardly clear that the Church is bad at all, but by the third novel, everyone on the side of the "Authority" is portrayed as power-hungry and soul-crushing. But while he does seem to want to emphasize his anti-authoritarian message, it doesn't come across as all that heavy-handed because while there is a definite anti-Catholic element, his fantasy world is sufficiently far removed from reality that one can look past it and just enjoy the story for its own sake (kind of like C.S. Lewis, as I remember it, although we're going back 30 years on that one). To that end, it's a fantasy novel, plain and simple. Talking armored bears. Witches and angels. Dust and shadows. I wonder what I would have thought if I'd read these at 16. Probably a lot of the same things, but I suspect I wouldn't have seen the Ayn Rand in Pullman, the strong ideological positions couched in an otherwise fantastic story. Still, I'm aware that I'd rather read Pullman than Ayn Rand any day of the week. Even if it's soft-pedaling a message, I don't really find the message offensive, and I find the vehicle to be entertaining enough. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Jul 05, 2010
|
Jul 14, 2010
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0375424695
| 9780375424694
| 3.68
| 1,004
| 2010
| Mar 09, 2010
|
A fun, quick summer read about major league baseball culture. Turbow interviewed a whole lot of former and current big leaguers to put together this ve...more A fun, quick summer read about major league baseball culture. Turbow interviewed a whole lot of former and current big leaguers to put together this very solid overview of everything from the etiquette of hitting a batter to the hazing of rookies to the acceptance of cheating. Frequently we read about a pitcher getting caught with a foreign substance on his glove or a hitter getting criticized for trying to break up a no-hitter by bunting. This book is probably the most complete reference to date about such topics. That said, its coverage is more broad than it is deep. Further, with our contemporary media (which conceals practically nothing from us) most of these subjects are understood at a very basic level by the casual fan. Still, I suspect even the most ardent fan would glean some knowledge from the book. At the very least, there are a ton of good stories. I'm a sucker for learning about how the Royals ended up with the gong from The Gong Show and how Dock Ellis started a game against the Dodgers with the explicit goal of hitting everyone in the lineup. Even if this were a badly written book (which it is surely not), the anecdotes are awesome. I'll offer two complaints. I would have really liked to see some discussion of how baseball compares to other sports or other organizations. It's taken as an assumption that the game is uniquely quirky, which is probably to some extent true. But it's certainly not unique. There are surely a lot of people who study organizations out there that might have offered some interesting comparisons. I wouldn't ask Turbow to turn this into a sociology or anthropology book, but a little expansion on the matter might have made it that much more interesting. He does finish the book with a short discussion of the evolution of baseball etiquette, but it's a bit half-hearted. And it's the same old drivel about how the big paychecks young players get have impacted the way they approach the game and the respect they pay to it. Even if there is truth to it, it's boring. Also, I really enjoyed the work the author put into the code of cheating, and what sort of cheating is considered fair versus what is considered out of bounds. But how could he not discuss the defining cheating method of our era, steroids? Clearly this must have occurred to Turbow, and he chose not to go down that well-worn path. But since so much of the cheating discussion was so interesting, I thought it would have made an obvious addition. Furthermore, the use of amphetamines has gone on for generations, so it's not like he couldn't have just asked some old timers about the issue and left it at that. I think he really dropped the ball here, since he already had such fascinating information about the culture behind the illegal ways players can get an edge, and the way it's acceptable to many who have been in baseball all their lives. Either way, I'm really glad I picked this up. Easy to plow through. A great thing to pick up in May (if there is no baseball on television). (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| May 22, 2010
|
May 22, 2010
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 156512569X
| 9781565125698
| 3.99
| 24,533
| Mar 04, 2008
| Mar 04, 2008
|
Farm life - Mississippi - World War, 1939-1945 - Race Relations - African American veterans - Veterans. Are you bummin' yet? Ah, you will be. For a slow...more Farm life - Mississippi - World War, 1939-1945 - Race Relations - African American veterans - Veterans. Are you bummin' yet? Ah, you will be. For a slow-motion train wreck, this was a page-turner. The point of view constantly shifts, as you get six narrators - three whites and three blacks - all of whom are "mudbound'. And the storytelling is good. We shift every several pages between the six, who tell their own stories in bits. Interestingly enough, however, the extent to which these characters reveal themselves in their own narration varies. Some characters, like Laura and Jamie, reveal a lot about themselves, while others do not. In some ways, this itself is telling of the characters. But in another sense, it felt like they all told their stories with a similar voice and cadence, only with changing dialect. It reads like a series of diary entries written long after the events had passed. But I would say that the plot drives the story more than the characters. The book moves sequentially, with the exception being that the first several pages recount some details of the tragedy at the end of the story. You learn right off that Pappy is going to die. And as the book moves along, you find yourself anxiously awaiting that happening. (I wished I could wring Pappy's neck myself.) The characters are not incredibly complex. Neither is the story, for that matter. But the writing is very good and compelling. I'm not really revealing much in saying that the majority of the book foretells doom, with the cast unable to stop its inevitability. But I will say that the last several pages were great, a very satisfactory (if perhaps depressing and unjust) ending. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| May 06, 2010
|
May 07, 2010
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0385522037
| 9780385522038
| 3.83
| 1,907
| Jan 01, 2009
| Apr 21, 2009
|
If Disney got its hands on this would, the script would look a lot like a true-story Bad News Bears or Mighty Ducks or Major League. Rag-tag Bunch of...more
If Disney got its hands on this would, the script would look a lot like a true-story Bad News Bears or Mighty Ducks or Major League. Rag-tag Bunch of Misfit Kids Ruffle the Establishment and Win the Championship. Fortunately, that's not actually what this book is about. And fortunately (as far as I know) Disney doesn't yet have its hands on this one. What makes the book engaging is that it presents several good narratives. The author is at his best in presenting the social turmoil brought about in the small Atlanta suburb, where the good-natured but xenophobic mayor and the ideologue police chief are cartoonishly unprepared for the new settlers. Some people and institutions in Clarkston embrace change, while others retreat from the community or resist outright. But the transformation story of Clarkston, Georgia, resulting from the dramatic influx of resettled refugees from every imaginable contemporary conflict, is topic enough for a book. These stories are captured wonderfully. The bigger challenge for the writer, a white American (and a grown man), is capturing the lives of the refugees themselves, and the kids in particular. This is still done as well as one might be able to hope. Many of these children find the soccer team to be critically important for them. They learn to take responsibility for their own actions and play together. But more importantly, the team and its unlikely coach give them structure and friendship, an outlet for youthful aggression, and a role model. The author particularly focuses on the growth of the under-13 soccer team, since those kids work together, grow, and best embody the hope and spirit of their coach. But the most compelling storyline centers on the under-15 team. These kids endure chaos in the form of a perfect storm. Many are from single parent families whose head-of-household has to work long hours to keep the family afloat. Many arrived in the country at an age advanced enough to make the language and cultural transitions particularly difficult. And to top it off, they are at an age that proves to be awkward even for the most well-adjusted of our species. Some of the kids cope well, but many others do not. As a result, the team fares poorly. Each year, San Diego's public library and public radio team up to choose a contemporary book to promote as the city's book for the year in a program called "One Book, One San Diego", and this is the chosen volume for 2010. (And this is why I read the book at all.) Cynically, I was disappointed when I first saw their choice this year. For the fourth year in a row, it's nonfiction, and I was afraid I'd get too much of a dose of that feared Disney pic. But this book really was much more fun than I'd feared. And given that San Diego is every bit as common a destination for refugees as Atlanta, it's a very relevant choice.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Feb 17, 2010
|
Feb 18, 2010
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 1596433752
| 9781596433755
| 4.20
| 1,083
| May 12, 2003
| May 12, 2009
|
The concept used here - part graphic novel, part photo essay - is brilliant, and I hope the model is copied by others. The bounty of a French photogra...more
The concept used here - part graphic novel, part photo essay - is brilliant, and I hope the model is copied by others. The bounty of a French photographer's work in 1980s Afghanistan is put together with colored artwork to complete a narrative of his adventure. The best travel writing out there tends to stand out because it's written by great writers. This is just the opposite. Didier Lefevre is no writer, but his very other-worldly experience and his excellent photography are entertainment enough. What is recounted is Lefevre's experiences traveling covertly through Afghanistan from Pakistan, over incredible terrain, as a photographer whose mission it was to document the efforts of a courageous Doctors Without Borders group during Afghanistan's war with the Soviet Union. The narrator does not -- and can not -- really dig beneath the surface of the Afghan society. He speaks only the crudest Arabic, and spends most of his time with the doctors, not the locals. But he does rub elbows with enough Afghans, good and bad, to make a good story. You certainly get a sense for the hopelessness of that war and how remote the rural areas are from the influence of the West. My biggest bone to pick, however, is that the vast majority of these amazing black and white photos are printed way too small in this volume. These photographs are the centerpiece of the book, but many are too small to appreciate! Only a handful of pictures are printed larger than a few square inches. It's a shameful oversight. I'm still very glad they compiled this book. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Feb 16, 2010
|
Feb 16, 2010
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0307266303
| 9780307266309
| 4.30
| 43,556
| 2009
| May 05, 2009
|
Really fun. When I picked it up, I was wrongly anticipating a book about the Tarahumara people, the indigenous natives of Mexico whose running habits...more
Really fun. When I picked it up, I was wrongly anticipating a book about the Tarahumara people, the indigenous natives of Mexico whose running habits are somewhat mythical. Instead it's really about endurance running and human physiology couched in several narratives about the people who choose to live the lifestyle. Far from being a good work of science or anthropology, its tenor is better described as part Kerouac, part Hemingway. But it does do well what you might hope a book about ultramarathoning would do. It tries to explain the mentality and philosophy of the crazies who do it, as well as – through the eyes of research scientists and runners alike – a philosophy of why humans might be well suited for a running lifestyle. And not the Just-do-it Nike running lifestyle. Not only does it tell you, gentle reader, the story of a crazy white American who flees society to live his days on a rock pile in the middle of the most remote part of Mexico, it offers a convincing case why his lifestyle is better than yours. As someone who dealt with a couple of nagging injuries last year, I'm particularly intrigued by the idea that I should scrap my modern running shoes, strengthen my feet, straighten my back, shorten my stride, listen to my body, and otherwise stop thinking about anything more than running with great joy. So I'm now finding myself doing something I wouldn't have imagined a book would make me do. I'm going to try to start running in flimsy sandals. I should also add that an evolutionary biologist at Harvard has been in the news a lot recently espousing the barefoot strategy as well... http://www.barefootrunning.fas.harvar... I have no intention, however, of ever running more than a few hours (or 26 miles) at any given time. We modern humans have to draw the line somewhere. (Or at least this one does.) But it's always comforting to know that someone else out there has more loose screws than yourself, doesn't it? (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Feb 13, 2010
|
Feb 14, 2010
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 074326004X
| 9780743260046
| 4.00
| 22,171
| Mar 29, 2005
| Jan 31, 2006
|
Funny + learning = awesome. Let's put it this way. I read most of this book during weekday work breaks, so it had to be light and airy enough to make i...more Funny + learning = awesome. Let's put it this way. I read most of this book during weekday work breaks, so it had to be light and airy enough to make it feel like my brain was resting. On the other hand, Vowell spends a lot of time writing about the likes of politics in the days of Presidents Garfield and Arthur, which is only riveting to the geekiest of the geeks. ("Just for fun, I decided to take a self-guided tour of Garfield's Washington D.C. ...") So I think I pay it high compliment in saying that it works. Bottom line is that Sarah is funny and quirky and bright and sensible and it all just makes me wish I could vacation with her. What really makes the book fly is its balance. Sure, she writes about the assassination of presidents. But she is also writing about architecture and historical and cultural memory (the importance of relics and sacred icons connecting us to our past). There are the various levels of the historical events themselves, the resulting monuments, and her (and the public's) reaction to it. And she's writing about the odd people she runs into and how people react to reading old bronze plaques. And how one edits justifications for violence down to a length suitable for tee shirts. And her three year-old nephew obsessed with "skeletons" and "crypts". And it's fun, because she makes the history interesting and puts in humor wherever appropriate. I'm sorry I'm finished. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| not set
| Jan 30, 2010
|
Jan 31, 2010
| Paperback
|
Loading...
