Michael Lewis can tell a story like no other. In fact, even before I finished reading his “The Big Short,” I wanted to work the book into every conversation I had. The story was that interesting and compelling. Anyone who can take the financial crisis of the last few years, find a story in it that […]
Review | 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann
2012-04-05 · by ·
“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” But what happened next? More than just the discovery of the new world that we call the Americas,Christopher Columbus set off globalization of ecology, trade, biology, and nationality beyond anything that preceded it, argues Charles Mann in “1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created.” The discovery of America did more than […]
Review | Chasing the Runner’s High by Ray Charbonneau
2012-03-25 · by ·
If there’s one thing Ray Charbonneau understands, it is runners. In Chasing the Runner’s High he may claim that he isn’t sure what a typical runner is, but if the proof is in the pudding, not only is Charbonneau a true blue, died in the wool, run in the sun, rain or snow runner, but he talks […]
Review | Grand Strategies: Literature, Statecraft, and World Order by Charles Hill
2012-03-21 · by ·
I’m always on the look out for new books to read (but what I really need is more time). Suggestions from friends, mentors, reviewers, blogs, and references in other books send me off on an endless cycle: hear about a book, find it on Amazon (or the library), purchase (or check out) said book, bring […]
Review | Drood by Dan Simmons
2012-02-09 · by ·
With Charles Dicken’s 200th birthday just passed, perhaps this is an appropriate homage to his work and his life. “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” was Charles Dickens last novel, but he died before it could be finished. Dan Simmons picks up the mystery, not to solve and finish Dickens’ work, but to provide a back story, the real […]
Review | A Free-Market Monetary System and A Pretense of Knowledge by Friedrich A. Hayak
2012-02-08 · by ·
I recently read the short brochure “A Free-Market Monetary System,” a compilation of Friedrich A. Hayak’s 1974 Nobel Prize speech “A Pretense of Knowledge” and a short essay on proposing a free-market monetary system (hence, the name, see?). Both are short, and neither waste any time proposing radical changes to what was then, and indeed what is […]
Review | How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
2012-01-27 · by ·
It’s a rare day that I’m willing to give a full five out of five stars to a book. It’s rarer still that I’ll give the five stars, and then put it back on my bed-stand for continual reference in my future reading. It’s just that kind of a book, and every bibliophile should read […]
Review | Anthem by Ayn Rand
2012-01-11 · by ·
If you’re looking for something from Ayn Rand that’s a tad bit shorter than “Atlas Shrugged,” but can still show you her philosophy in a nutshell, “Anthem,” her novella set in a dystopian world of the future, may be worth the effort. It didn’t take me more than a sitting and a half to flip through it. […]
Review | Heroes by Robert Cormier
2012-01-05 · by ·
For those of us who have never known war, there’s something chilling about the post-war experience of those who have. For all the bullet-dodging action heroes that Hollywood produces and America consumes, we rarely get a taste for the horrors that the scarred veteran must face upon return to the home-front. Even when a movie […]
Review | The Appeal by John Grisham
2011-12-24 · by ·
I read this in April of 2008 after Justice Nehring (of the Utah Supreme Court) told me he was listening to it on CD during his commute each day. Three quarters of my way through it, he told me it was not worth finishing. He was right. Talk about much ado about nothing. The novel starts […]
