false 2 8 7 true 6178937 read 1 true 4062951 currently-reading 0 true 4062950 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68520561 to: Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life (Hardcover) by Robert B. Reich
It's by Robert Reich, the thinking man's liberal. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/61297591 to: The Longest Day: The Classic Epic of D-Day (Paperback) by Cornelius Ryan
This book is a historical account of the twenty-four hours of the first day of the invasion of France. The author chronicles the events through the stories of German and Allied soldiers and officers, and French civilians in Normandy.
It is a very balanced read - no cheer-leading, no "dirty Nazis" or "honorable Americans". He writes of the cruelty, desperation, irony, luck, and tragedy that struck both sides during the invasion. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58700198 to: When Giants Fall: An Economic Roadmap for the End of the American Era (Hardcover) by Michael J. Panzner
This is an excellent book to read if you enjoy sloppy research, lousy editing, half-finished thoughts, and authors that churn out dreck in order to make their next boat payment. And I'm being kind.

His argument - a generous noun at best - is that the whole world will go to hell and you should protect yourself from it. Too bad the author couldn't be bothered to defend this with a well-reasoned essay.

Panzner writes that resource scarcity, ideological extremism, and a deteriorating economic situation will lead to extreme violence, ecological disaster, and a fragmentation of social and political bonds. To support his argument, he cites articles in popular publications like the NYT, Economist, WSJ, &c., most which were published since 2006. All - and I mean all - of his citations are simply articles about unfortunate events that occurred in the world in the past several years. This proves nothing, except that "bad things happened over the past several years". He offers no analysis, no trend plotting, nothing to show that what we have today - admittedly not a good situation - should devolve into a global disaster, other than his skimpy research. Look - just because a newspaper publishes an article that states, for example, that Iran doesn't like the United States, doesn't mean that we'll re-enact scenes from the "Road Warrior" in a few years.

Another point the author may want to consider: editorials are not sources. They are opinions. And: "de-globalization" is not a word. "Regionalism" and "isolationism" are two perfectly serviceable words that exist to describe those things your made-up word tries to do.

The second part of the book tries to show how to protect oneself from the coming apocalypse. This section, as amazing as it is to say, is worse than the first section, reaches no useful conclusions, and regularly contradicts opinions made only a few paragraphs earlier. For example, the author states that people will leave the countryside to move to cities where jobs, school and shopping are close by and require less fuel (which will be dear). Then a few paragraphs on he says that people will flee cities because of increasing violence and destructive social pressures. Well, which is it? He recommends that investors buy commodities because of pending shortages of all goods. A few paragraphs later - you guessed it - he says this might not be a good idea. Groan.

The entire book has the feeling that he wrote it over a week, with a word processor and a Google search. What complete junk.

And one more suggestion. Have you heard of footnotes? Writers employ them so that the body of the text is free of frequent citations. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53199829 to: WEB OF DEBT: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System -- The Sleight of Hand That Has Trapped Us in Debt and How We Can Break Free (Paperback) by Ellen Hodgson Brown
This is an excellent book to read if you want misleading, incomplete and confusing information regarding this history of banking and finance.
Her core argument is that a fractional reserve banking system is dangerous and that the federal reserve system in the United States does not operate in the best interests of the citizenry - topics that could be effectively argued. But the author fails miserably in this poorly researched, confusingly-argued screed.
On basic theory she is simply wrong. She confuses the gold standard and the gold currency standard. She gives simplistic explanations of specific financial crises that turn reality on its head. For example she argues that the inflation during Germany in the 1920's was caused by international short-selling of the currency, and not the deliberate and massive injection of large quantities of bank notes into the economy by the government in their effort to pay off the reparations from WWI.
She finds conspiracy and cover-up in all corners of history. Any episode in history that benefits a particularly evil group of men, i.e. bankers - must have happened because of a giant conspiracy. Did you know that President Abraham Lincoln may have been shot as revenge for issuing Greenbacks that challenged the hegemony of the British banking cartel? She offers little evidence to back up these assertions, because they're conspiracies. Give me a break.
The majority of her references are secondary sources that constantly juxtapose opinion and fact. For example, to confirm that the Federal Reserve is evil, she quotes congressmen and senators who say that it is evil. Knocked out that chapter before breakfast, eh Ms. Brown? The author also manages to cite Wikipedia - extensively - as a source. Blogs, political speeches, fellow conspiracy-theorists - these are passed off as factual sources. Classy, eh?
The whole book has the feel that it was researched and written with a few Internet searches over the course of a few months. Any historical episode that promotes her "Federal Reserve = Bad" argument is thrown in the mix. You would need another book just to correct all the errors in this book. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43066752 Envisioning Information (Hardcover) by Edward R. Tufte
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/41517091 to: Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative (Hardcover) by Edward R. Tufte
Beautiful Evidence is a more engaging read. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/41516890 to: Beautiful Evidence (Hardcover) by Edward R. Tufte
One of those books that takes a seemingly dull subject - the display of information - and turns into a fascinating tour of the topic. If you ever made a presentation or suffered through a dreadful one, this book will enlighten you. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/41516447 to: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (Mass Market Paperback) by Mark Twain
Mark Twain has very little regard for the Catholic Church and for social status. The book starts out light-hearted, and about half-way through turns dark, without becoming 'preachy'. He's a riotously funny writer. ]]>