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April 15, 2017
Currently Reading
Recent Reading
Jon Palfreman: Brain Storms: The Race to Unlock the Mysteries of Parkinson's Disease
(3/2/2017) (****)Andy Weir: The Martian
(2/17/2017) One quibble: Given all the last-minute trajectory adjustments to rescue Watney, wouldn't it be worth explaining how the hell they'll get the ship back on course? (*****)Siddhartha Mukherjee: The Gene: An Intimate History
(7/29/2016) (****)Brian Garfield: Death Sentence
(6/22/2016)Death Wish II, sort of. He's lost control of himself, and now there are careless copy-cats. Something must be done.
There are some obvious plot holes here, but still worth four stars.
(****)Brian Garfield: Death Wish: A Novel
(6/18/2016) Paul Benjamin (not Kersey) is an out-of-shape forensic accountant, but in case you noticed the name, no, he isn't 'observant'. He hired a rabbi for his wife's funeral, but only given the lack of obvious alternatives. You pretty much know the rest. (****)Lynne Olson: Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941
(6/16/2016) The author draws some illicit conclusions about more recent history, but he's great on subject. (****)William H. Thomas Jr.: Unsafe for Democracy: World War I and the U.S. Justice Department's Covert Campaign to Suppress Dissent (Studies in American Thought and Culture)
(4/28/2016) A vital history, but the author's biases are obvious and the work is somewhat disorganized. (***)William Manchester and Paul Reid: The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965
(4/25/2016) Reid errs on some details that I doubt Manchester would have missed, but all in all an excellent end to the series. (****)Ian Kershaw: Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis
(4/5/2016) ‘I reject your reality and substitute my own.’ That could have been Hitler's motto. Sorry, Wolfie, but reality is non-negotiable. He was a lucky sob, though; I count three assassination attempts, well-enough planned, all thwarted by sheer happenstance. Too bad von Stauffenberg, et al., didn't better plan for the aftermath of the bombing. Hitler might have been deposed all the same. (*****)Frederick Libby: Horses Don't Fly: The Memoir of the Cowboy Who Became a World War I Ace
(3/8/2016) (*****)Samuel Hynes: The Unsubstantial Air: American Fliers in the First World War
(2/29/2016) (****)Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War
(1/28/2016) (****)Charles R. Morris: The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy
(1/20/2015) Very good in some places, but the author's analyses don't always seem to take full account of his own information. (***)Dakota Meyer: Into the Fire: A Firsthand Account of the Most Extraordinary Battle in the Afghan War
(1/19/2016) The ROIs were effed up, but for what it's worth two officers received reprimands for their dereliction. I would have been tempted to have them shot. (****)Kevin D Williamson: The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism
(1/6/2016) (****)Dan Rottenberg: The Man Who Made Wall Street: Anthony J. Drexel and the Rise of Modern Finance
(1/6/2016) (****)Dashiell Hammett: Red Harvest
(12/21/2015) I laughed out loud at Hammett's endlessly brilliant turns of phrase. Wonderful! And worth a second read, because good god I didn't follow all the twists. (*****)Charles G Koch: Good Profit: How Creating Value for Others Built One of the World's Most Successful Companies
(12/10/2015) (****)Matt Fitzgerald: Diet Cults: The Surprising Fallacy at the Core of Nutrition Fads and a Guide to Healthy Eating for the Rest of Us
(11/18/2015) Any diet that forbids certain ‘macronutrients’ (e.g., carbs) is bullshit. You can – in fact, you should – go ahead with the whole grains, legumes, and dairy. Your aromas may vary. (****)Ben Carson: Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
(11/12/2015) Ok, so the guy is a medical genius but, otherwise, a total whack job. Nuts. Out of his frikkin mind. Yike. (****)
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