Category: Books
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Review: Perkin’s Confessions of an Economic Hitman
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man John Perkins This is garbage. Worse than that, it’s dangerous. First of all, I think Perkins is a total liar. I don’t doubt that there are people out there that make their living by betting against developing countries, and I don’t doubt that there are people who have an…
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Review: Prins Other People’s Money
Other People’s Money: The Corporate Mugging of America Nomi Prins Often, left leaning books on finance are poorly informed. Not so with Prin’s awesome Other People’s Money. Prin is a former Goldman Sachs director turned think tank progressive and she knows her stuff. Her critique here of the excesses of finance capital is now a…
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Review: Barnett’s Pentagon’s New Map
The Pentagon’s New Map Thomas P.M. Barnett I was dialing around cable at my parent’s house years ago and ran across the most incredible power point presentation being given by a dude from the Naval War College on CSPAN about how the U.S. should think about security threats in the future. Basically his point was…
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Review: Mieville’s Perdido Street Station
Perdido Street Station China Mieville The first in Mieville’s acclaimed New Crobuzon series. A “weird fiction” novel set in a kinda of steam punky city featuring monsters, weird machines, solid character development and very good writing. If this is your kind of thing, you’ve probably alreayd read it. If not, you should. Recommended for the…
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Review: Mieville’s The Scar
The Scar China Mieville I think this is my favorite of Mieville’s trilogy of novels set in the world in and surrounding New Crobuzon. I can’t say why I like this one best, I think because the monsters in Perdido Street Station were too… monstery, and the socialism in the Iron Council was too… socialist.…
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Review: Lowenstein’s When Genius Failed
When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management Roger Lowenstein The death of Longterm Capital Management (LTCM) is one of the biggest collapses in modern financial history. So big, the Fed stepped in and made a number of major banks pony up serious dough to cover LTCMs loses so that the world…
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Review: Clark’s Food Guide for Marathoners
Nancy Clark’ s Food Guide for Marathoners: Tips for Everyday Champions Nancy Clark For a while at least, this was the definitive book on nutrition for endurance athletes. We’ve come a long way from the days of eat a ton of pasta the night before the race. Here, Clark discusses the timing of carbo-loading, the…
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Review: Kurosawa’s Something Like An Autobiography
Something Like An Autobiography Akira Kurosawa Its funny what you remember about books. When I started thinking about writing this review the first thing I remember from this book (I read it about two and a half years ago now) was that Kurosawa sure did drink a lot. Besides that, I remember this one as…
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Review: Sach’s The End of Poverty
The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time Jeffery Sachs You, being a smart person who is up on contemporary debates in economics and development and/or are a reader of Vanity Fair, probably already know all about Jeffrey Sachs. Sachs made his name giving “shock therapy” to various third world economies. He recommended they…
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Review: Johnson’s To The Edge
To the Edge: A Man Death Valley and the Mystery of Endurance Kirk Johnson An early example of what has become a bit of a mini-genre – the middle age man with little athletic background who goes on to compete in a profoundly grueling endurance event along the way learning about himself, and the chosen…
Milo and the Calf 