Bill Bryson is one of those writers whose books I buy sight unseen - so I can't really understand how I missed this one. I got it as a very welcome Ch...moreBill Bryson is one of those writers whose books I buy sight unseen - so I can't really understand how I missed this one. I got it as a very welcome Christmas gift and read it in small portions over the holiday - the book is ostensibly a walk through an old English house, room for room, but that framework serves only to very loosely organize a barrage of anecdotes and historical trends.
It is obvious that Bryson enjoyed this book - perhaps more than any other he has written. As one reviewer noted, it seems written in the pajamas. Many, if not most, of the stories he retells I have read before, but that doesn't take away any of the pleasure of hearing Bill Bryson tell them again.
And sometimes you find a local connection - I currently live in Brookline, MA, and liked the story of John Longyear, who moved his whole 65-room house from Marquette, Michigan to Brookline in 1904. Longyear, of course, is the same business magnate who founded Store Norske Kulkompani and gave his name to Longyeartown at Svalbard. The enormous house is just a few blocks up from where I live, now part of a condominium complex.
Like his "Short History of Almost Everything", this book is neither short nor a traditional history book, but it is immensely enjoyable. Preferably at home, with your feet up in front of the fire.(less)
Very straightforward and practically oriented - with lots of good examples. Search log analysis - seeing what customers are looking for and whether or...moreVery straightforward and practically oriented - with lots of good examples. Search log analysis - seeing what customers are looking for and whether or not they find it - is as close to having a real, recorded and analyzable conversation with your customers as you can come, yet very few companies do it. Rosenfeld shows how to do it, and also how to find the low-hanging fruit and how to justify spending resources on it.
This is not rocket science - I was, quite frankly, astonished at how few companies do this. With more and more traffic coming from search engines, more and more users using search rather than hierarchical navigation, and the invisibility of dissatisfied customers (and the lost opportunities they represent) this should be high on any CIOs agenda.
Concise and well-written (like most O'Reilly stuff) book on basic social network analysis, complete with (Python, Unix-based) code and examples. You c...moreConcise and well-written (like most O'Reilly stuff) book on basic social network analysis, complete with (Python, Unix-based) code and examples. You can ignore the code samples if you want to just read the book (I was able to replicate some of them using UCINet, a network analysis tool).
REAMDE is a techno-thriller in the traditional sense, i.e., technology plays a part, but so does gunfights, teamwork and hardship. Not one of Stephens...moreREAMDE is a techno-thriller in the traditional sense, i.e., technology plays a part, but so does gunfights, teamwork and hardship. Not one of Stephenson's strongest (that would be Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Trilogy), it has some of the nomadic quality of Anathem but, since it is not a science fiction book (the events take place in modern times, the only technological stretch maybe the quality of the T'Rain World of Warcraft-like multiuser game, which differs from WoW primarily in that it is designed with a working economy (again, one of Stephenson's fascinations - who do you establish a currency in a virtual world.) This means that a lot of what happens stretches the limits of what is possible - you get a bit of the feeling that you get in a run-of-the-mill detective show or war fil, that the bad guys can never shoot straight unless they are aiming for one of the less central characters, preferably those with already life-curtailing afflictions.
The plot is convoluted and centers first on the hunt for some hackers holding important documents hostage (through cryptography), but an inadvertent stumble on a bomb factory in China turns it into a fight between a Jihadist band of terrorists and a collection of technologically astute, well balanced (in terms of gender, ethnicity and geographical starting point) group of hackers, mercenaries and survivalists. Fun, but if you are looking for Stephenson's best stuff, start with the other books here. Or just relax and treat this as a bit of a diversion, not to be taken too seroiously.(less)
Lent to me by my daughter, and like her, I admired the writing and story-within-story interconnectedness, but was left with a nagging wonder - what wa...moreLent to me by my daughter, and like her, I admired the writing and story-within-story interconnectedness, but was left with a nagging wonder - what was really the point? Siri Hustvedt, Paul Auster's wife, has written What she loved, and that is really a better book for this kind of intertwined, dramatic New York story, where violence and mystery happens in a chamber play of mysterious and sometimes amoral characters. But by all means, a good read.(less)
Matt Ridley, science writer and commentator, delivers a blistering attack on the pessimists of the world, who extrapolate their way to doom and gloom,...moreMatt Ridley, science writer and commentator, delivers a blistering attack on the pessimists of the world, who extrapolate their way to doom and gloom, whether it be a new Ice Age, overpopulation, markets rather than hierarchies, energy crises, food scares and epidemics. He shows, with a wealth of examples (not always well referenced - especially the statistics) that the human race, due to its unique in its ability to trade goods, services and ideas with people outside the family or other small group, will succeed in overcoming challenges - including global warming.
For someone who grew up under the threat of nuclear annihilation (I remember thinking, as an 18-year old, that there would be little point in getting an education because we were all going to die in an atomic blast anyway) this is another of those books (Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate, Dan Dennett's Consciousness Explained and David S. Landes' The Wealth and Poverty of Nations being others) that convincingly reinforces by trust in science, innovation and knowledge's worth and ability to create the future - a future we have not chance of extrapolating ourselves into.
Enjoyable - a simple premise, well argued and organized. Recommended.(less)
This celebrated novel took me a long time to start - one of those I have had intentions of reading but never got around to. A birthday gift settled th...moreThis celebrated novel took me a long time to start - one of those I have had intentions of reading but never got around to. A birthday gift settled the matter - and it is a very good book, spending the first third drawing a large canvas and the rest ripping it apart. Following two families (the connection formed between art historian Leo Hertzberg and artist Bill Wechsler, their wives and eventually sons) in New York over 25 years, it opens slowly and then gradually accelerates into a thriller of sorts, told from the first person viewpoint. The groups' well-ordered lives and relationships gradually crumble as tragedy sets in and each person, all complexly dependent on each other, either exits or drifts into their own compartments.
This book is like a wine with a very complex and deep bouquet - shades of Robertson Davies (above all), Murakami, and Anthony Powell. There is symbolism and interpretations, both by the characters, by the narrator, and, in the background, by the author herself. This is not for everyone - the art environment of New York and the detailed descriptions of everyone's book and art projects can be a bit detailed, thought never pretentious - but the book should work both for those seeking a good story and for those of a more analytic bent, leading me to believe that this novel will be a favorite literature analysis choices.
But it deserves better - read it for the complex nature of the characters, and, once it gets going (line one, book two) for the tale itself.(less)
Interesting description of the hardships of Chinese laborers during the building of railroads in Western US in the 1800s, but the plot is contrived, t...moreInteresting description of the hardships of Chinese laborers during the building of railroads in Western US in the 1800s, but the plot is contrived, the coincidences sloppily building on one another, and the whole books seems written more as a call to arms against Chinese influence in Africa rather than anything resembling a crime novel.(less)
The (almost) definitive word on Christopher Hitchens? No - more of a set of quickly and deftly executed watercolors of a life that, at least in the mi...moreThe (almost) definitive word on Christopher Hitchens? No - more of a set of quickly and deftly executed watercolors of a life that, at least in the mind, defies any attempt at categorization. It is rather ironic, but perfectly in script, that Hitchens spends quite a bit in the book discussing impending death and ever-present knowledge that "the party will continue without me", and then, virtually on the day of the book's publications, discovers that he has contracted, if that is the word, cancer of the esophagus and will be "a very lucky man" if he lives another five years.
Anyway, read this, as much for the language and argument as for the story itself. It puts you in the presence of a mind that is not encyclopaedic (that would be rather boring) but uses literature, history, language and personal connections and experiences as an arsenal for painting the most multicolored, yet consistent canvases you can imagine.
(Incidentally, this is the first new book I bought for Kindle for PC, and the software works admirably, though I wish it was possible to clip out some text for citations.)(less)
Classic whodunnit with English country house, moth-eaten gentility and parlour-maid dead. Lots of suspects and Inspector Dalgleish, not yet with a dev...moreClassic whodunnit with English country house, moth-eaten gentility and parlour-maid dead. Lots of suspects and Inspector Dalgleish, not yet with a developed personality. Shows its age a bit, but good.(less)
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