BOOKS READ
Approximately 2018-2020, in order of least recent to most recent
China’s Asian Dream: Thorough analysis of China’s goal of making widespread infrastructure investments throughout Central and South Asia and the many political and cultural ramifications of this series of plans.
Why They Did It : Criminology and the criminal justice system, decision-making and morality, evolution of attitudes toward white collar criminals. Specific stories about several in this category.
Fortune Makers: Written by professors in a pedantic style, discussion of how entrepreneurs have come to be in a society, China, that is a unique hybrid of Communism and capitalism, with the latter being a different variety than evident in the West.
Locked In: Detailed examination of the set of interlocking jurisdictions and responsibilities that constitute the criminal justice system. Little data on how/why prosecutors make their decisions; suburbs electing prosecutors whose jobs are dominated by urban situations. The collateral damage of being imprisoned. Cities pay for police, the state for prisons. Cost/benefit of reforms are disconnected. Certainty of punishment more important than severity. Loaded with data; should be a course textbook.
The Case against Sugar: In the last couple of years, I had become leery of sugar. This book provides all the scientific and practical inputs to support the hypothesis that sugar consumption represents a health hazard, a silently creeping, addictive substance producing an epidemic of illnesses.
The Firm: History of management consultant McKinsey and its wavelike shifting of priorities.
What the Dog Saw: Another Gladwell book, actually a series of columns on an amazingly wide range of subjects. A good read, as always.
The Billion Dollar Spy: Captivating chronicle, a true story, of the most important inside Russia spy ever “run” by the USA. Like many of his native counterparts, he was driven by total antagonism toward the communist regime and its butchery, etc.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist: Young, Princeton educated Pakistani conflicted about success in USA, expresses glee at 9-11-01, Pakistan vs. India issues, American intrusion into Afghanistan. His valid points about arrogance are mixed with significant omissions, e.g. shortcomings of his own area of the world.
The Nixon Years: Insider Pat Buchanan tells all, with particular emphasis on himself. Interesting read, especially during a Trump administration. The latter obviously should cease using Twitter; decades back, differing points of view within the president and the staff could be argued out internally, with outright leaks and violation of fiduciary duty being the primary concerns, not 140-word outbursts.
Basic Income: An incredibly thought-provoking proposal for an unconditional basic income to be paid to every individual. Sounds implausible, but the logic path weaves through freedom, justice, practicality, and the inevitable: any proposal for substantive change must be weighed, not against some ideal, but against what is already taking place, in this case the dynamics of low-paid employment and welfare.
Janesville: Another book which Hillary should have read during the campaign. It tracks the changes in identified individuals and the city itself from the time GM closed its huge assembly plant and Parker Pen was sold and resold multiple times. Again the unfolding impact of not having a strong economic base that is tied to the community and its services … and culture.
Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: completely depressing story of a brilliant kid done in attempting to be all things to all people, straddling the dual worlds of dysfunctional neighborhood and Yale. Must reading for those attempting to make a difference to inner city youth.
The Righteous Mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion.
*Different exercises show how people lead with intuition and follow with strategic reasoning
*care/harm … fairness/cheating …. liberty/oppression … loyalty/betrayal …. authority/subversion … sanctity/degradation:
*liberals high on first two, conservatives high on last three, which has not been understood or validated by liberal politicians
*cultural evolution of moral values (impacted by technology in recent times); formation of groups
*more to morality than harm and fairness
*at birth, not blank page but a working draft
*people both selfish and groupish; morality binds and blinds/harm
*WEIRD: western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic — a minority of the world’s population is hampered in seeing other cultures with their own metrics
*new atheist model of religious psychology is Being and Doing; Durkheimian model adds crucial element of Belonging. Note that secular communes do not last, religious do.
*religious people give more time and money
*Durkheim: society without shared moral order becomes normless
*pre-Newt Gingrich dictate, congressmen brought families to live in DC, fostered cross party interaction. Now they stay home, less interaction, more angst of all kinds
Betancourt Affair: The world’s richest woman and her travails. If one was not cynical about big money and politics and Swiss bank accounts, this would be a conversion experience.
Ministry of Utmost Happiness: sexual identity, political, and familial issues in a particular section of India. Remarkable scope and substance: an awesome accomplishment.
Antifragile: anybody who can put Aristotle and Fat Tony from New Jersey in the same sentence is a writer to be reckoned with. Pro-nature, small, local; anti-medical, large, central, big debt. Content often above my pay grade; maybe, to be prosaic and simplistic, his financial advice would be put a lot of money in low risk and a little money in possible high reward. The middle is fragile.
The Namesake: simple, richly detailed story of acculturation, family (Indian); like so many others, makes me jealous of those with close-knit families/positive emotions and those with great groups of peers, always ready for a dinner party of good food and conversation.
Stronger: the mostly inspirational story of Jeff Bauman, who lost his legs in the Boston Marathon bombing and who identified the bomber as the person who had been standing right near him.
The New Urban Crisis: Author Florida’s follow-up to “Creative.” Income, educational, occupational segregation as part of the urban scene, which also includes entrenched poverty (50 million people) either living around the corner from the affluent, educated whites who have moved back to the city for its access to amenities or who are struggling in the spreading depressed pockets of suburbia.
Sing, Unburied, Sing: Poignant picture of poor, racially mixed family in Mississippi.
Still Alice: A brilliant mind is gradually lost into the world of Alzheimer’s.
Reset: Ellen Pao’s side of her unsuccessful discrimination lawsuit versus Kleiner, Bell, in time leading to the formation of a non-profit aimed at tackling the issues she faced.
You Don’t Own Me: Mattel vs. MGA, intellectual property rights issue. Huge legal bills, reversed decision, Barbie fights dirty!
The Glass Castle: miraculous story of survival and success in a dysfunctional family.
Refugees: Syrian, Jewish German, and Cuban young people tell their (blend of actual and fiction, including composites) stories. Well done.
Built: incredibly helpful book in understanding how structures are planned and constructed, by a female civil engineer.
Ramp Hollow: Provocative analysis of Appalachia, with historical comparisons, and delineation between makeshift existences and the world of money/capital/loss of personal control.
The Givers: Description of the various routes being taken by big, relatively new, relatively active money people and the foundations, etc. they create. Flip side of declining role of government services, means that power is being transferred by the many to the few.
Rethinking School: Well-regarded writer who home-schooled, attacks the factory model of K-12 education, advocates treating each student as an individual with his/her own set of capabilities and personality. Good, basic information throughout the book.
You had a Job for Life: Chronicled life and death of a paper mill in New Hampshire, based on interviews of the employees, management, and ownership. Community impact as a key focus, seconded by “avaricious capitalists,” with light treatment/analysis/understanding of macro trends.
The Line becomes a River: Mexican heritage USA border patrol guy quits after much inner angst.
A Fine Balance: A phenomenal work of fiction, set in India in the late 70’s, with two of the leading characters being untouchables who became tailors. Incredible working up of key individuals to the point where you can readily envision them and how they react to situations, some of the latter being as horrible as one could conjure up in a nightmare. The book is compared with Dicken’s masterpieces.
Kareem: A simple rendition of the life of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, formerly Lew Alcindor. Because of my tracking basketball all these years, little that was factually new. Could be considered inspirational.
The Stranger in the Woods: Amazing story of a true hermit, 27 years without human contact, provisions for his camp in Maine courtesy of a lifetime of thievery.
In Chocolate we Trust: Hershey and the trust that controls the company, its assets dedicated by a legal document to be used for the benefit of a large school for disadvantaged kids (as defined). Numerous twists, including the relationship with the community it virtually built and controlled at one point.
The Phenomenon: Rick Ankiel, and how the next Sandy Koufax caught the yips and never overcame them. A second act as a power-hitting outfielder had moments of success, but not sustained. Lots of stuff on the psychological side of sports, particularly for early age stars.
My Father’s Business: the story of Dollar General as it evolved from an entrepreneurship to a public company of great size. The warts are there, as is a periodic reference to the writer, Cal Turner Jr., being a backsliding Methodist, hence “father” has a double meaning.
AIQ: An explanation of Artificial Intelligence written in a way that is understandable; the math is kept to a reasonable level and the examples are those of the real world.
Factfulness: A must read – data and how to use it; the frequency of experts being really wrong.
Give People Money: A complete scream in favor of a UBI.
The War on Regular People: Robots will eliminate millions of jobs, a UBI will be needed.
Dopesick: Analysis of the Opioid situation: “dealers, doctors, and the drug company behind OxyContin.” Linkage of RX drugs and identification of pain as a separate health category.
Our Towns: Husband (a small plane pilot) and wife, co-authors, fly into small towns and cities to see what is working. Thematically, success and obliviousness to Washington, D.C. are correlated.
By an Addict, for an Addict: The title says it all, a must read for addicts and those involved with them.
Tailspin: A deep dive into the decline in the validity of the American narrative, with special emphasis on the income gulf which ties to protected lives for the super-affluent and those who cater to them, e.g., lawyers and accountants and advisors and lobbyists.
American Prison: Depressing history of evolution to private ownership; another chipping away at the idea that we are good guys, honest.
Deep Work: Focus on important items to build a marketable skill set.
I Can Stand: Depressing tale of ethnic identity, orphanages, prisons, ability to write poetry.
Principles: Ray Dillio’s exhaustive rendition of everything that is spoken or written in his hedge fund.
Last Pass: Bob Cousy, at 90, has regrets about not coming to the aid of Bill Russell (84) when the latter was being subjected to abominable racist actions when they both ruled the basketball world.
Founders Mentality: The stages of an organization, how to recognize them, how to react successfully.
Coddling of the American Mind: Over concern with safety, both physical and mental, weakens young people and hampers their preparation for adulthood.
Lost Connections: A must read for anybody interested in the phenomenon of depression. Again, the arrow moves from the individual to the collective, from treatment that is brain gene based to a number of social and employment variables that affect people and their reaction to life.
Amity and Prosperity: Family has health ruined by fracking and no government agency cares.
Rebound: Innovative poetically written story of young African-American male; basketball as backdrop.
The Adjunct Underclass: Not only is the niche category of adjunct professor thoroughly explored, but there is a great analysis of the limitless shortcomings of the higher education system.
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Still at it: Secretary Paul Volcker’s interesting memoir.
Booked: Innovative poetically written story, with soccer as the backdrop.
Strength in What Remains: Incredible story of escapee from the genocidal fighting in Burundi.
The Tatas: Horribly written book about a hugely important family in India; 200-year history.
Dragonflies: Beautifully written evocative novel about the coming of age of a young woman on an island off the coast of Kenya.
Andre Iguodala: Interesting story of the NBA star.
Home Boy: Autobiography of NFTE founder, Steve Mariott.
Liquid Church: Fascinating story of the creation of a modern church, with multiple water metaphors, including from the Bible itself. Has drilled over 200 water wells in Rwanda.
Spying on the South: Writer tracks the paths taken by Frederick Olmstead when he was a New York Times correspondent traveling throughout the South shortly before the Civil War. This is the same Olmstead who co-designed NYC’s Central Park and numerous other compelling landscapes.
Teach me to Forget: a heart-in-your mouth novel about teenage suicide ideation.
Swing: another Alexander novel of young people in love and in deep friendship. The title plays on three levels: baseball, jazz, and the need to take risks.
Peace in Every Step: Meditation treatise by long-time Vietnamese author and guru.
The Falconer: Female basketball star on the playgrounds of NYC; a fun read.
How the Other Half Learns: A reporter is embedded in Success Academy for a year, sees all the positives and negatives.
Perfumer: Unreal book about a guy with a really good nose who, uh, kills people for the smell of it.
The Distance between Us: Immigration story, divided family, love and abuse.
Hoffa’s Shadow: The flunky who was close to Hoffa and accused, probably falsely, of his murder, which has never been solved.
Stolen: Troubling/fascinating story of three young African-American boys during the slave-trading days.
Open Veins: A decades-old scream against all those in the West who robbed Latin America of everything.
Sold on Monday: Intriguing tale of poverty-driven decision-making in the Depression.
Born a Crime: The life story of Trevor Noah.
Immortality: Really smart and successful people tackling the issue of aging.
The Invisible Man: Ralph Ellison’s classic of a Southern African American coming to Harlem and the various interactions which ensued. Thought-provoking to say the least.
Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia is the accurate subtitle. Stories centered on individuals bring all the issues together, nicely written.
The Girl with the Louding Voice: Totally wonderful read of the coming of age of a 14 year-old Nigerian girl who has to fight through gender discrimination and lots of abuse to finally – as the book closes –win her opportunity to get the schooling necessary to realize her dream of being a teacher. Written in the dialogue appropriate to a lightly schooled girl in a small Nigerian village.
The Glass Hotel: Clever story of a Ponzi scheme character and the various people involved, both guilty and innocent.
Station Eleven: Same author as above, incredibly prescient about a lethal virus.
Just Mercy: The story of the battling civil rights lawyer particularly focused on already incarcerated individuals, became a movie.
Feminist Fight Club: A glossary and a how-to book for women seeking true equality.
Race Against Time: Enterprising reporter in Alabama who was instrumental in the reopening of famous civil rights cases where the perpetrator had gotten off because of a crooked, racist system.
Dali Lama: The biography of a revered man somewhat more controversial than assumed, because of his approach to the tensions between China and Tibet.
Stamped: Unique racist history of the United States; became must reading in the 2020 of social justice protests following the murder of George Floyd.
Eat the Buddha: Through stories of several Tibetans, provides background for the immolations.
No Visible Bruises: Definitive study of domestic violence; must read for anybody in the field.
A Burning: Politics, terrorism, a young person simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Island of Sea Women: Overly long and excessively richly written story of women who are exceptional divers, gathering sea creatures for sale.
Ghost Boys: The many innocent black young men rendered dead by police action.
An American Marriage: Dynamics in an African-American family, unlawful imprisonment, love triangle.
Slay: clever story of virtual reality game developer, a teenage African American girl, as her secret passion and skill and belief structure becomes public; multiple opportunities for commentary on black-white situations, plus considerable angst when a gamer is killed.
From Here to Equality: A deeply researched, calmly written analysis of America’s missteps regarding slavery-Jim Crow-discrimination, ultimately building the case for reparations.
Know My Name: The victim in the famous Stanford sexual assault case writes her story, in great detail, inclusive of the eventual recall of the judge who gave the perpetrator a ridiculously light sentence.
Blended: Cleverly written book of an 11 year-old girl whose black father and white mother get divorced.
The Cubans: The life story of some ordinary Cubans during the Fidel Castro era and ensuing.
APPROXIMATELY 2013-2017
The Patriots A remarkable, beautifully written panorama of family, country, politics, culture. In the 1930’s, a young Jewish woman from Brooklyn turns her back on America and goes, dewy-eyed, to the “future,” as represented by the wonderful new concept of Communist Russia. Over time, through multiple situations, she is embroiled in the very essence of totalitarianism, where truth is defined by power, terror, and convenience, causing even her own values to be subverted.
Man for all Markets Life story of Edward Thorp, blackjack and early quant investor, both based on lots of math and invent-your-own mentality. Useful additionally as a primer on many aspects of Wall Street.
The Upstarts Engaging life histories of Uber and Airbnb. Should be on the syllabus for every MBA candidate.
The Undoing Project Two extremely heavy Israeli thinkers, tied at the waist for most of their lives, explore decision making, probability thinking, human error, the role of regret, loss avoidance versus reward capture. Interplay between psychology and economics, including antagonism.
My Grandmother…Sorry By Ove author, fantasy and real world intermixed, mostly through the eyes and mind of a precocious girl who is not yet eight years old.
Wonderful commentaries on life as Elsa pulls out the stories of each person in her apartment complex, and how they connected to her beloved Grandma.
House of the Dead The strategy of exiling people, for multiple reasons, to Siberia during the reign of the tsars. Heavy, dense book where skimming was done. One can see the groundwork laid for the Communist Revolution of 1917.
A Man Called Ove Wonderful story of a lovable (despite himself) curmudgeon who is thwarted from suicide over the death of his wife.
The Gardener and the Carpenter Raising children should use the former, not the latter, model as kids come in all varieties. Another plea for lighter touch parent roles.
Playing through the Whistle Well-done story of a steel town (J&L, Aliquippa), football, drugs, violence, and racial interactions.
Hillbilly Elegy JD Vance’s love/hate relationship with the hillbilly culture from which he came. Graduated Yale, in investment business. A clear read which without trying explains much of the Trump appeal.
The Rise and Fall of Nations A list of ways to look at countries economically, socially, and politically. Must read by MBA classes.
ADHD Nation Overprescribing, often by docs getting money from big pharma, of Ritalin, Adderall, et al. Perfect fit with the entitlement mentality of today’s society, coupled with the instant gratification associated with multiple social media devices.
A Truck full of Money Story of the bipolar, brilliant serial entrepreneur who built Kayak.
Game Over Former finance minister of Greece tells all concerning its crisis.
Look Homeward Angel The Thomas Wolfe classic, richly descriptive of coming of age, family and life in a mountain town (“Asheville”) a century ago.
Chaos Monkey Readable account of super-smart and super-candid Cuban fellow who went from Goldman Sachs to his own start-up to Facebook. Lots of inputs concerning the latter.
A Square Meal The changing dynamics of food/nutrition/issues of self-reliance/role of government at multiple levels — during the Great Depression. As stated by many, the latter only was ended by preparation for WW II, which drove unemployment down from 17% to 10% in the 1939 to 1941 timeframe. Over 40% of enlistees were rejected, lack of nutrition, changed resolve centered on “need to be fit to fight the Nazis.”
Behold the Dreamers Nice story of immigration pressures, Cameroon to USA.
The Architect’s Apprentice Wonderful book of love, deception, architecture, politics in the Ottoman Empire of the late 1500’s..
Night Elie Wiesel’s classic memoir of the Holocaust.
Street Smart Insightful examination of urban transportation issues/trends.
Homegoing Fantastic multigenerational (spanning three centuries) story of Ghanian families, slavery, and being black in both African and American cultures.
Holograph for a King Interesting tale of sales team attempting to get business from an Arabian chieftain building a new city in a new area.
The United States of Jihad A totally on-point analysis of domestic jihadists; was finishing the book when Orlando happened; the shooter could have been in the book without the need for amending any of the analytical points made.
Grit Having some background regarding the subject, I thought the book would be a skim situation. Wrong. Instead, I am marking it up; its insights are that on-point to interactions with students.
Narconomics A highly interesting and clever analysis of the criminal drug trade in terms of normal business terminology. The conclusion is clear: drug policies should be attacking the demand side, not the supply side.
Evicted A thoroughly researched chronicle of an outsider living with and getting to know the poor and their travails. Allusions to policy – drugs, police, modus operandi are brief. Passed over for examination elsewhere are issues of missing males, number of babies, educational options, perils of good ideas, unintended consequences, governmental messiness.
Mindset A book which can easily be skimmed once you know, from the author beating you over the head, that a fixed mindset is bad and a growth mindset is good.
Flash Boys Dark pools, HFT – all with an eye to gaining a micro-second informational edge cf. with the clients supposedly to be served. A good guy in the picture tries to right the wrongs with a new exchange.
A Mother’s Reckoning Columbine mother of one of the killers puts her angst in print. Whether her son could have been stopped well ahead of the rampage is debatable. What is not in dispute is that Mom and Dad did not know he was being bullied at school, that he smoked, that he drank, that his diary was full of thoughts of depression and suicide. Ironically in a way, they did know of his criminal activity (B&E), which came suddenly after all those years of being the proverbial “good kid.” She pleads her case of personal innocence and points the finger at undiagnosed brain illness as being behind situations (including her son) of murder-suicide.
The Beautiful Struggle Ta-Nehisi’s Memoir, the tone (alternating between vitriolic and reflective) as expected from “Between the World and Me.” No attempt to connect the dots of the black struggle, whether in general or with respect to himself, with social policy insights.
The Only Game in Town Refers to the role of central banks as the world approaches a T-junction, wherein there are equal probabilities for both good and bad outcomes. Clearly written for a broader audience than academicians.
How to Raise an Adult Lots of great insights and information relevant to getting parents to cut back on over-involvement with their kids, allowing the latter to learn valuable life lessons and be prepared for adulthood.
Evolution of Everything Amazingly detailed historical discussion of numerous topics; bottom line is that inventions and progress occurs incrementally, combining contributions by many. Top down design does not work.
Let it Rain Coffee Dominican Republic and NYC experiences in Trujillo and later eras.
Toxic Charity Live in the community you want to help, most of charity is voyeuristic.
White Man’s Burden Planners—no, Doers—yes; keep projects small, local, doable, money to those who are truly in need, not the politicos/functionaries in between.
My Promised Land Israel, from the late 1800’s to now, warts and all; excellent primer.
Engaging the Muslim World Balanced view of the Muslim world, importance of cultural nuances.
Visual Aids Quirky collection of one-two pages of information on diverse subjects.
The Circle Over-the-top satire of the digital world of Facebook and Google.
Breakout Nations Analysis of factors differentiating third-tier countries. Data points used in assessing the current situation and growth potential of a country:
Per capita income: traditionally, certainly one of the most watched barometers
The natural resource situation, which is usually a double-edged opportunity and challenge
The existence of a good network of paved roads
Availability of adequate port facilities
Level of corruption and the rule of law
Turnover in the richest person list, an indicator of mobility
Cell phone penetration; newly-formed houses are not putting in land lines
The level of debt, both individual and governmental
Overlap of family & ownership, indicator of whether power and economics have been diversified
Escape from Camp 14 Ex-prisoner in the inhuman penal system of North Korea.
The Smartest Kids in the World Three American students go to Finland, Poland, South Korea; comparison and contrast of different educational systems.
David & Goliath Another Gladwell compilation of stories which poke holes in conventional thinking. Highly useful concept: the upside down “U.”
Degrees of Inequality College professor finds two villains behind higher education problems:
for-profit schools and the government; she did not look in the mirror.
Capital in the 21st Century Landmark study of wealth inequality, leading to proposed capital tax.
Savage Harvest The culture of the indigenous people of New Guinea and its relationship to the murder and eating of Michael Rockefeller fifty years ago.
Fighting Chance Attack on banks, especially in the areas of credit card abuses and bankruptcy procedures which unfairly penalize those involved; relationship to the dwindling middle class in America.
The Great Derangement The inimitable Matt Taibbi, skewering the right (fundamentalists) and the left (Truthers), lamenting the lack of issue discussion and the inability to discern the similarities of the two parties, while “19 people take all the money.”
Strange Stones Series of essays by an American who lives in China. His writing captures the essence of people in mundane occupations.
On The Run On-site ethnographic examination of the interplay among young criminals, drugs, police, and the fatherless black urban community which is disproportionately incarcerated. A young white woman discovers all this by living in the affected area and concludes that the criminal justice system is the bad guy.
The Evolution of a
Corporate Idealist A woman working for BP and eventually for a UN committee as she learns about CSR both directly and in interaction with peers.
Stress Test Timothy Geithner’s rendition of his decision-making during and after
the 2007/08 financial collapse.
Gifted Hands Life story of Ben Carson, from inner city kid to famed neurosurgeon.
Bosnia List Muslim escapee from the war (as a child) returns with his older brother and father to find his own peace.
Divide A Matt Tiabbi book; comparison and contrast of the two different “legal” systems in this country—one for the affluent and one for the poor and undocumented.
Factory Man The history of Bassett Furniture, and one man’s fight against predatory pricing by Chinese competition.
Claire of the Sea Light Another wondrous story by Edwidge Danticat; Haiti is the setting of her artistry with words.
A Long Way Home Five year-old boy gets lost somewhere in a poor area of India, gets adopted by Australian family, uses Google and Facebook to find way back to his Indian family after 25 years.
Brain on Fire Young reporter for NY Post is rendered “mad” for a month by a difficult to diagnosis attack on her brain, which had numerous ramifications and was life-threatening .
Heroic Leadership A paean to the philosophy of the Jesuits, with an attempt to link its lessons to the world of corporate life. Energized themselves with heroic goals; leadership springs from within, is a way of living and is always learning. Core beliefs are non-negotiables; a shared vision frees people to embrace change as to means. Intellectual rigor, which is not synonymous with highest IQ.
The Bankrupt Conman Highly intelligent Irishman with all kinds of illegal involvements; good description of how scams can happen.
Parkinson’s Law Classic work on bureaucratic growth, timeless in its application.
Snowblind 1974 account of a leading real life character in the world of cocaine, already could see stupidity/futility of government anti-drug programs
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Clever novel about a young naïve boy and the Holocaust.
Americanah Beautifully written book by Nigerian author, covering love, immigration, culture, education.
Aspiring Adults Adrift The follow-on to Academically Adrift; socially adept college graduates who are not well-versed in content knowledge.
The Valley of Amazement Amy Tan’s novel of family, especially mothers and daughters; culture, Chinese and American; sex and power, and the elusive search for love. An incredibly evocative multigenerational story.
Goldman Sachs History of the firm until IPO, mostly idolatry, but does detail specific fiascos which could have sunk the firm.
Redeployment Vivid accounts of the war in Iraq and its impact on those involved.
My Anxiety Incredibly afflicted author tells all, including heavy duty scientific research, historical and current.
The Sellout Satire by a skilled African-American writer on every aspect of race; obscene and funny.
A Brief Stop The erratic path of an Auschwitz survivor, as constructed by his son.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma Michael Pollan’s magnum opus, could make you a vegetarian.
A Curious Mind Brian Grazer, Hollywood producer, espouses the value of curiosity, having sought out people for decades for curiosity conservations.
The Shadow of the Wind Incredibly complex story of love, power, evil set in Barcelona, partly during the Spanish Civil War. Unreal piece of writing.
The Last Mogul Unauthorized biography of Jack Kent Cooke.
Crossover Fascinating book of poetry, with basketball and family as the context
Between the World and Me Maybe a contemporary James Baldwin, fiery attack on the history of the USA/slavery, nature of power, use of term race.
Pete Rose Thoughtful and exhaustive treatment of a baseball icon and the ethical issues surrounding his banishment from the game that was/is his life.
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana Account of amazing determination by an Afghan woman; with all the commentary on business/entrepreneurship, there is never a number on either the cost of materials, etc. or the selling price. Unreal.
Our Kids Somber, well-researched analysis of demographic and socioeconomic changes in past fifty years by the author of Bowling Alone.
The Road to Character David Brooks compiles illustrative life stories, differentiating the pursuit of selfness (contemporary America) from the path to better values, often through acceptance of a higher power.
Bodega Dreams Wonderfully written (and insightful) story, with a great ending twist, set in the street culture of Spanish Harlem.
Into the Beautiful North Funny, poignant, sad, real story of Mexican immigration and culture.
Basketball Junkie Memoir of Chris Herren, who briefly was on the Boston Celtics after stardom in high school. Could not shake a drug habit.
The Orchardist Interesting mid-19th century tale of solo man tending his orchards and his positive interaction with two children who had been abused.
IQ can be Taught Written in 1975 and amazingly on-point in today’s world.
Putin:
**Spying, lying, order, patriotism (mother Russia), indirectly corrupt, certainty, loyalty, tight circle of trusted friends from St. Petersburg days.
**Distaste for ex-USSR countries joining NATO. When party in Ukraine wanted to do so, with its democratic parties supported somewhat by Wester NGOs, Putin hit the roof. Believes that all Western influences with respect to supporting efforts at more freedom are part of plot by USA.
**”When Putin was young, “envisioned a new Soviet Union that offered justice and hope, a democracy, a normal, civilized state [with] no need to slaughter half the population to make the other half happy.”
**“We will not tolerate any humiliation to the national pride of Russia or any threat to [our] integrity.”
**Oil trades freely; natural gas requires fixed pipelines—therefore more vulnerable in conflicts.
**Yukos de facto nationalization—became model for state encroachment, ownership. 2006: revenues of state companies = 20% of GDP and 1/3 of stock market value: all controlled by P friends/allies.
**Poisoned person’s dying statement: “ You may succeed in silencing men, but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed….” Alexsandr Litvinenko
**Re the Great Recession, “the faith in the USA as the leader of the free world and market economy has been shaken…and it will never be restored. Things will never be the same again.”
**In that winter of discontent (when Putin extended the presidential term to six years from four, Solidarity was anti-Putin. “The opposition remained deeply atomized, consumed by personal rivalries and divided over tactics.” Some wanted to work within, others wanted a revolution, some did not join because of personal dislikes.