Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America

Pekka Hämäläinen

Reviewed December 23. The premise of this book is that the history we normally get of North American is from the viewpoint of the Euroepans trying to conquer/colonize North American. The indigenous people who were here before the Europeans are often depicted very shallowly and as if they were very backwards. Hämäläinen asserts that the indignous population was pretty sophisticated and both cooperated and resisted the Europeans in an intentional fashion. The book is a history of North America from the viewpoint of the indigenous people and did, indeed, depict them as more sophisticated. Although I liked the book, I had two issues with it. First, it was a little boring. It covered a lot of depth with various indigneous groups and it was difficult keeping trackof the players and issues. It was written as a detailed chronology. It would have benefitted from better storytelling to put people/places into context and keep me more engaged. Second, it was heavy on the east coast. While there is no doubt, a lot of indignenous history there, I felt that everything west of the Rocky Mountains got shortchanged. I'd like to see a little more balance across the continent. There was also no mention of Alaska or Hawaii - which I felt was an omission.

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The Dead American: An Inspector Samuel Tay Novel - Book 3

Jake Needham

Reviewed December 18. The third Sam Tay novel starts with Sam on suspension from events at the end of the second novel when a Wall Street Journal reporter asks him to help investigate the suicide of a young American programmer. She believes it is not a suicide but a murder. Against his better judgement, Tay gets involved and finds that the political and police hierarchy are desperate for him to stay away from the case. That just gets him more involved. Like the first two novels, this one developed Tay's character more and his relationship with the shadowy August.

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The Umbrella Man: An Inspector Samuel Tay Novel - Book 2

Jake Needham

Reviewed December 18. The second Sam Tay novel starts with a series of large explosions at some of the big western hotels along Orchard Road, the biggest terrorism event happening to Singapore. Tay expects to get assigned to the investigative team but instead gets sidelined to investigate an obscure murder. He finds out a bunch of things about his past and finds that the murder is connected to the terrorist act, after all. This book builds on The Ambassador's Wife and develop's Tay, Robbie Kang (Tay's sergeant) and August, the shadowy intelligence operative, further. This ending was better and clearly set up the beginning of the next story in Book 3.

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The Ambassador's Wife: An Inspector Samuel Tay Novel - Book 1

Jake Needham

Reviewed December 18. Samuel Tay is the Harry Bosch of Singapore. He is an aging Singaporean police inspector who is pretty cynical. This book is first in a series of six. I read the first three in rapid sequence. Tay is a lifelong bachelor, smoking, slightly overweight, native Singaporian police inspector who gets involved in trying to solve several murders of American women connected to the US State Department. He ends up connecting with some shadowy intelligence operatives who help him out in unexpected ways. Tay and the intelligence operative, August, thread through all three novels I read (and, I presume, the entire six novel series). In many ways, this is a candy novel but I gave it a thumbs up because it was well-written, engaging, and entertaining. As a bonus, we were just in Singapore and the book highlights many of the places I know so it was fun following along with the geography of the Singapore as the book unfolds. I also learned more about the geography, history, politics, and culture of Singapore. The ending was kind of unsatisfying but I liked the book anyway.

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Desert Star: A Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch Novel

Michael Connelly

Reviewed December 4. This is a pretty formulaic Connelly novel. Ballard is assigned to run an unsolved crimes unit and recruits retired office Bosch as well as some others for her unit. They go about tracking down a connected set of long unsolved crimes. The characters are developed a bit more from previous novels. The story itself was OK but – like many Connelly books these days was pretty mediocre and formulaic. Mildly entertaining but not the story quality Connelly produced in his heyday.

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Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America

Maggie Haberman

Reviewed November 27. Haberman is a veteran White House reporter for the New York Times. This book, like many other covers the dysfunctional White House during the Trump years. Haberman knows Trump quite well and the first half of the book covers his background so the reader can see and understand the forces that made him what he is. She chronicles the shambolic and random way he ran the white house and it is clear that he had no interest or expertise in governing - just in stoking his own ego. Trumps relationhip with Haberman is interesting. On the one hand he disparages her - his nickname for her is "the Maggot" -- and is critical of what she writes about him. One the other hand he grants her multiple interviews. Just shows that his thirst for attention trumps his judgement in who to talk to.

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Singapore: Unlikely Power

John Curtis Perry

Reviewed November 7. This is a facinating history of Singpore, from a tiny, little inhabited island to a global shipping hub. I read after visiting Singapore (and while reading a Singapore detective novel) and the book brought Singapore to life. It really emphasized the importance of Singapore's location in the throat of the Malacca Straights midway between China and India. It chronicles the role of the British and the uneasy relationship with Malaysia. It talks about Singapore's efficiency at the expense of political freedom. The book concludes with some salient questions about Singapore's future. This book is well worth the read if you want to understand Singapore better.

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Adrift: America in 100 Charts

Scott Galloway

Reviewed October 24. I am normally a bit skeptical about Scott Galloway but I liked his latest book. He covers that state of American in, as the title says, 100 diagrams. My beliefs are pretty aligned with his - but it is nice to see data-based diagrams illustrateing his points. He believes we are in deep trouble - political division, income inequality, poor leadership, etc. and illustrates all of those points with is diagrams. At the end he offers prescriptions - most of which I agree with. Not a lot new here but a good packaging and presentation of both the state of the union and what to do about it. Galloway is an American exceptionalist - which makes, despite a lot of pessimistic data - for an overall optimistic book. If only we can get on with making the country live up to its potential.

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What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets

Michael J. Sandel

Reviewed October 15. This is a nice little by Harvard political philospher and author of The Tyranny of Merit. It describes how we have evolved to a point where everything has "market price", even things that should not. Using examples like organ donation, stadium naming rights, and corporate sponsorships Sandel shows that things which were once moral choices become economic choices. He urges us to move away from purely economic point of view, back to one with a balance between economics and morality. Although I liked this book, it was a little disappointed. I thought he would make a stronger case for moving beyond pure economic measures. I liked the thesis - I wish Sandel had taken it further.

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The Divider: Trump in the Whitehouse 2017-2021

Peter Baker and Susan Glasser

Reviewed October 15. By a husband and wife team who are part of the Washington press corps, this is yet another book about Trump in the presidency. This is a crowded field, but the authors approach it with freshness and some new insights. It continues to astonish me how dysfunctional Trump and the Trump white house were. This book shows just how far he and his minions were out of their depth. Trump is depicted as a childlike figure with little real policy interests. Those aound him spent most of their time trying to control him. Most failed. Although this is a crowded genre, this book is worth reading. It exposes the incredible weakness of Trump and his minions (and that is how Trump saw and treated them). Let's hope this book is a reflection of the past - a history - and not a reflection of the future.

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Supertall: How The World's Tallest Buildings Are Shaping our Cities and Our Lives

Stefan Al

Reviewed October 3. This book is ostensibly about Supertall skyscrapers and the technology that enables them - new structural systems, elevators, and air conditioning. It covers all of those topics but also ranges further into general urbanism topics - zoning, transit, green space, retail, mixed use, etc. The author travels to various cities for examples - London, Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore. I quite liked this book. The coverage of Supertall buildings was interesting and the general urban topics provided a good and fresh overview of issues facing urban development today. Having been to all of the cities used as examples, I found the content pretty relatable.

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The 6:20 Man: A Thriller

David Baldacci

Reviewed October 3. This is a complex murder mystery with lots of improbable twists and turns. Travis Devine is a former Army Ranger now working for a Wall Street investment firm - which has some strange ownership and businesses. He takes the 6:20 train each morning from Mt. Kisco, NY (hence the name of the book). He is recruited by another former military officer to figure out what is going on with his firm. At the same time, a series of murders of young women happens and the owner of the firm is involved in various nefarious activities. Devine has to figure this all out and does so with a lot of convoluted plot twists and turns. Not very realistic but entertaining.

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Visual Grammar

Christian Leborg

Reviewed September 25. This is a nice little book that catalogs the elements of visual grammar. It sytematically outlines the various kinds of visual elements used in graphic design as well as their relationships. It touches on visual systems as well. Nicely done and very straightforward.

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Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism

Erwin Chemerinsky

Reviewed September 25. Chemerinsky is the dean of the UC Berkeley College of Law and a constitutional scholar. The title of this book says it all. Chemerinsky believes that "originalism" has no place in the Supreme Court and claims that it is is a "fig leaf" for conservative justices trying to hide their political preferences when ruling in ways that support their political believes. He claims that originalists claim to hew to the exact text of the the consitution (and its amendments) when it is convenient and ignores it when not. He uses lots of examples and arguments and makes a pretty compelling case. The book gets a little pedantic at times but it does make a compelling argument against originalism.

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Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century

J. Bradford DeLong

Reviewed September 19. DeLong is a UC Berkeley economist who is frequently referenced by Paul Krugman. This book looks at world history through an economic lens. DeLong asserts that life was pretty brutish until the industrial revolution when productivity began to outpace population growth. He describes a "century" of phenomenal economic growth (an resulting growth in wealth and quality of life) in which the human condition moved in fits and starts toward utopia. He defines this "century" as the 140 year period from 1870 until 2010. He claims that the industrial research lab, large corporations, and globalization were drivers of progressive growth in this period. DeLong depicts a weaving the ideology of two Vienna-born economists - Friedrich August von Hayek - who belived in unfettered free markets -- and Karl Polyani - who believed that markets exist to meet human wants and needs. DeLong sees the pendulum of dominent economic thought swinging back and forth between these two ideologies. DeLong is clearly more sympathetic to Polyani as a driver of progressive growth. There were several periods of progressive growth - notably 1870 until the civil war and post WWII until the 1980s which drove economic growth, well being, and more equality. After such periods of progressive growth (with Polyani's ideas dominant) there is a backlash of neoliberalism - with von Hayek's ideas dominant. DeLong clearly a center left social democrat and is crtical at the end of his twentieth century that the Obama administration did not go big on infrastructure spending by borrowing at almost free rates. He fears that this set up the Trump administration and wonders what next. This is a very big and sweeping book that covers a lot of ground. It connects economic ideas with the events that happened in history. It is well worth reading and connects the dots with a bunch of other thing I have been reading. It does not have a crisply articulated point of view. It does have a strong point of view but it is expressed through well-crafted storytelling of what actually happened in the world.

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Inventor of The Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller

Alec Nevala-Lee

Reviewed September 17. I have mixed feelings about this biography of Bucky Fuller. On the one hand it is a comprehensive life story of a seminal thinker who influenced me and influenced many of my generation. Nevala-Lee exhausively covers Fuller's life, accomplishments, ideas, and relationships. It was astonishing to read about the people he knew and encountered - from 60s and 70s counter-culture types to establishment characters throughout the world, to world-class designers. It was also interesting to read abou this personal foibles - although not surprising, he had a huge ego, wa a womanizer and big drinker. He was always in finanical trouble and seemed to have relationships - both professional and personal, that were fraught with drama. I learned a lot about fuller the person. The disappoinment was that I learned less about Fuller's ideas. Specifically, it would have been great if Nevala-Lee provided some insight into the influences and catalysts for Bucky's ideas. Instead - the book is like a dutifully reported news article - just the facts of his life - which were fascinating - but I would have liked more opinion and syntheis. The book dragged at the beginning - telling the story of Fuller's early life as a marginally successful salesperson - but got better toward the end - when he became a world figure and catalytic thinker. Bottom line is that Nevala-Lee produced a well-researched chronology of Fuller's life - but the book would have been far better with some storytelling of why Fuller was the way he was.

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American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony

Samuel P. Huntington

Reviewed September 15. I've read several books by Huntington and found him a provocative thinker on how our political world works. I read this book after hearing David Brooks mention that it described how our political environment moves in 60-70 year cycles. Brooks said the last cycle ended in the 70s and we were due for another disruption. This idea intriqued me. Huntington does indeed say our political environment moves in 60-70 year cycles. He describes a gap between the promise of American's political ideals, which he calls the American Creed, and the performance of the American government. This gap creates disharmony which manifests itself in political uprising every 60-70 years. The American Creed includes the values of liberty, equality, individualism, democracy, and the rule of law under the constitution. When the perception of the gap between promise and performance gets too big (roughly every 60-70 years), the populace rises up to drive political change. Huntington identifies the revolutionary, Jacksonian, progressive, and 60s-70s as eras of political upheaval driven by this gap. Interestingly, he does not identify the New Deal as a time of government reform. Rather, it was about making government better to restore prosperity. The end of the book covers the 60s and 70s (the book was written in the early 80s). What is sad is that many of the reforms of government driven by the 60s and 70s seem to have reversed in the time since then. Perhaps we are now due, as David Brooks said, for another political upheaval. We can only hope that it moves government and society in a positive direction.

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The Fifth Act: America's End in Afghanistan

Elliott Ackerman

Reviewed September 8. Ackerman is a former Marine Special Operations officer (and later CIA paramilitary officer) who served in Afghanistan. The book weaves together stories of missions in Afghanistan with modern-day real-time stories of trying to help people evacuate from Kabul (while doing so on vacation in Italy with his young family). I've read Ackerman before and liked what he had to say. The underlying theme in the book is that although the "war on terror" was a success in that few American lives were lost (at least on American soil) after 9/11, the Afghanistan war was a failure - in as much one can even define what success looked like. Ackerman qustions why we were there, why were there so long and what we acheived. He ends with questioning why we get into wars and the now somewhat weak connection between the military and civil society. He worries (as I do) about the politicization of the military. This is a pretty compact and easy to read book, which raises some important questions about why and how politicians send us to war - and in recent times - painlessly by eliminating the draft and funding through deficit military spending.

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After the Ivory Tower Falls: How College Blew Up the American Dream and Broke our Politics and How to Fix It

Will Bunch

Reviewed September 7. This a great book. It looks at American society and politics through the lens of higher education. While its focus is on the role of higher ed in shaping (or misshaping) society and politics, I found the book much broader than that. Bunch's fundamental premise is that post WW-II, the US saw publicly funded higher education as a way to promote economic equality and create and engaged and informed citizenry. But starting with Reagan, conservatives defunded public education - this caused even public colleges to privatize by entering an arms race for facilities and amenities - attracting out of state (and out of country) students who could pay exhorbitant tuitions. Those who attended college often went into debt to afford tuition. All of this exacerbated the divide between those with college degrees and those without - leading to many of the political divisions we see today. After the Ivory Tower Falls is complementary to the ideas of Michael Sanndel in The Tyranny of Merit and covers a sweeping arc of modern history similar to Kurt Anderson's Evil Geniuses. It addresses the student debt crisis but looks at higher education and its role in society in a very holistic, systemic way. Bunch sees the student debt crisis as a symptom of larger dysfunction, not a cause. He also addresses the anti-intellectualism of the conservative movement and its catalysts in the higher education system. Bunch's solutions are to get back to seeing higher education as a public good and to broaden education to include a lot more than four year colleges - experimenting with many forms - that are appropriate for many types of students. He advocates a system of public service that can teach live and work skills as well as mixing people of different types. Bunch us a good writer. His thesis is very clear and he uses storytelling of real people to make his points tangible. As with many books like this, the diagnosis is stonger than the prescription. That said, Bunch does offer ideas for fixing higher ed - I just wish he'd said more. I highly recommend this book.

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The Mueller Report: The Final Report of the Special Counsel into Donald Trump, Russia, and Collusion

Robert S. Mueller

Reviewed September 5. This is the report of Robert Mueller, special conunsel investigating Donald Trump and his campaigh for collusion with the Russians to interfere with the 2016 presidential election and obstruction of justice in the investigation itself. There is a lot of precise and arcane legal analysis and terminology as well as very detailed chronicles of what happend. It is very clear that the Russians did interfere with the election and tried to work with the Trump administration and various hangers-on. Even though there might not have been sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against Trump and his enablers, the amount of sleaze and corruption documented makes it clear that unethical if not illegal activities were engaged in by Trump and his campaign. This is a pretty dry and laborious read but it is worth reading and skimming some of the more ponderous analytical sections to get a sense of the amateurish and corrupt administration Trump ran.

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The Sopranos Sessions: A Conversation With David Chase

Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall

Reviewed August 24. This book is a big mis-named. While it does, indeed, contain conversatons with David Chase, creator of the Sopranos, it also has reviewed of many of the key episodes of the series as well a conversations with other relevant players. The authors are TV critics for the New Jersey Star-Ledger, the hometown paper for the Sopranos (it is the paper Tony came down the driveway in his bathrobe to collect). I have not read much TV analysis so this was pretty interesting. The book was not as gripping as Woke Up This Morning, but still painted a great picture of The Sopranos. Since the authors are TV critics, I got a better appreciation for the importance of the Sopranos and the many ways it was a groundbreaking series. The reviews of the key episodes were particularly interesting because I remembered most of the episodes. I can't say that for any other TV series. This book was a good addition to my Sopranos knowledge.

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Thank You For Your Servitude: Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission

Mark Liebovich

Reviewed August 7. Liebovich is basically a political gossip columnist. His previous book is This Town, about the various players and hangers on in Obama-era Washington. This book is similar for the Trump administration. Liebovich paints a very snarky picture of Trump-era Washington. For example, he refers to Jared and Ivanka as "the interns". A lot of this is inside information from people surrounding Trump. It sounds like there was a lot of chaos and a lot of effort going in to keeping Trump from coming off the rails. Many of the political figures secretly disrespected Trump but sucked up to him for political gain or to further their careers. It is a very lightweight book but entertaining and a bit frightening. Particularly to think it could happen again.

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Back to Blood: A Novel

Tom Wolfe

Reviewed August 7. This is a novel about a Cuban police officer in Miami and a big art scam in Miami society as a part of Art Basel. It was an OK book but pretty lightweight. Entertaining but not deeply so. This is said to be Tom Wolfe's least popular book. I can see why.

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Rebellious Aging: A self-help guide for the old hippie at heart.

Margaret Nash

Reviewed August 4. I had high hopes for this book but it was just another tepid and formulaic self-help books. Although it purported to be about aging for those of us who came of age in the 60s and 70s, it really was not. It was very superficial and formulaic. A disppointment and not recommended.

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The Tyranny of Merit: Can We Find the Common Good?

Michael J. Sandel

Reviewed July 29. Michael Sandel is a Harvard political philosopher. I saw him speak and was intrigued so I read his book. Sandel claims that our culture of merit has led to the fracturing of society. While, on the surface, a meritocracy, sounds appealing - those with the most talent and skill rise to the top. It is, according to Sandel, debilitating for society for two reasons - those who do not rise to the top feel depricated (maybe a reason for so many disaffected working class workers) and those who do rise suffer from hubris - an unjustified sense that they are "the best". Sandel talks a lot about how to value everybody and unwind the meritocracy in our educational system, government, and private sector. His talk is clearer than his book but I think he is on to something. Our meritocracy has led some very poor societal outcomes and perhaps a broader-based and more inclusive view of the world is necessary. As a graduate of both a state university and an ivy league one, I have seen the contrast first hand. Sandel has some good policy prescriptions - drawing from both the left and right. Some of my favorites were dealing with unwinding the financialization of the economy. The financial sector has been driven by the meritocracy Sandel describes - lots of complex technocracy invented by elites to enrich themselves without contributing to the greater good. Sandel's view of dismantling the meritocracy is based in a search for the common good, not just the good of the individual. It is ironic that Sandel is a professor at Harvard, the exemplar of meritocracy. Nevertheless, his ideas have merit and may provide some insight to getting out of the fractured society and politics we suffer from.

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The Four Ages of American Foreign Policy: Weak Power, Great Power, Superpower, Hyperpower

Michael Mandelbaum

Reviewed July 23. This is good book that traces the development of American foreign policy from colonial days - when the country was very weak - to a modern-day hyperpower. It outlines lots of detail of the various wars and attempts to stop wars (League of Nation, UN, etc.). Mandelbaum did a great job explaining the forces behind the policies and why the US did what it did with foreign policy. The book ended with the Trump administration. I wish he had kept going a bit. I'd lvoe to hear his point of view on the last several years of foreign policy. This is a very readable and informative book. Hightly recommended.

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The Lightning Rod: A Zig and Nola Novel

Brad Meltzer

Reviewed July 9. This is a sequal to The Escape Artist - with many of the same characters. Zig gets drawn into investigating the murder of an Army Colonel and Nola is involved. The books is not quite as much of a page turner as The Escape Artist but gives more background into some of the charcters. Good, candy reading. The book leaves an open end for Zig to return to Dover AFB as an investigator and for Nola to join him there. I expect there will be more in the series.

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The Escape Artist

Brad Meltzer

Reviewed July 3. A thriller/page-turner about a mortician at the Dover Air Force Base, where the US military processes all of its service members killed in action (or accidents). This is a thrller about Zig, the mortician, trying to solve a mystery that started with a mis-identified victim of a military plane crash at an obscure base in Alaska. Although this is a candy book, Meltzer did a great job of developing the characters and keeping the reader on edge. It was great vacation reading and I have already started his next book - which is a sequal to this one.

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City On Fire

Don Winslow

Reviewed July 3. I've read several of Don Winslow's other books, including >The Border and Power of the Dog. Both are about Mexican drug cartels and are interesting but somewhat rambling. In City on Fire, Winslow switches his attention to the New England mob. The story is about to rival gangster groups in Providence, Rhode Island - one Italian, and one Irish. I found the story and characters intresting but the story seemed to amble around and never get to the point. Perhaps I am spoiled by The Sopranos, but this book was a disappointment.

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Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love

David Talbot

Reviewed July 2. This is a history of San Francisco from the 1960s to the early 1980s. It starts around the summer of love and ends with Jonestown and the assasination of mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk. Care and I both loved this book. It explained a lot about San Franciso and covered characters we know of - Willie Brown, Diane Feinstein, Bill Graham, Dan White, Rose Park ... He even mentions some people who were very young but would rise up in San Francisco politics like Ed Lee, Tom Amiano, ... He explained a lot of the forces that shaped modern-day San Francisco and the tensions inherent in the city and its citizens. Not only did it cover material which was interesting and personally relevant to us, it was a real page-turner. At the end of every chapter we did not want to put the book down and were eager to get to the next chapter. The only criticism is that it ended too soon. We would love to see a sequal that has the same depth and insight covering the early 1980s to the present day.

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How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We Are Going

Vaclev Smil

Reviewed July 2. Vaclev Smil is an academic who writes very rich and deep books on a varity of topics to illuminate the history and reality of how the world works. I have read one of his books, and want to read more. His critique of a lot of writers is that they deal very superfically with topics and don't have a clear understanding - often a quantiative understanding - of how the world works. His previous books have been deep dives around a particular subject. This one is different. In How the World Really Works, Smil goes broad and tries to address a number of topics and get at some underlying themes. For example, he covers climate change and the need to get off fossil fuels. He is sympathetic to the cause and reasoning but chronicles how deeply, deeply embedded oil, in particular, is to our economy. Disentangling ourselves from oil will be a long, daunting process. He covers other topics similarly. Smil is an optimist and feels we will adapt to challenges such as climate change but he provides a sober view of that it will really take to change the world. I really liked this book and it left me with an appetite to read more of his books.

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Machine Learning: Architecture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Phil Bernstein

Reviewed June 14. Phil is a friend and former colleague who is passionate about the role of technology in architectural practice. He tackles machine learning and artificial intelligence in this book. The central question he addresses is whether AI/ML will replace architects. Not surprisingly, the answer is "NO!". Phil asserts, correctly, that machine learning will augment the creativity of architects not supplant it. This is basically the same argument as Nicholas Negroponte made in The Architecture Machine, almost 50 years ago. While Negroponte approached computation as a computer scientist, Phil approaches is as a practitioner. He has a pretty pragmatic approach to technology - perhaps not as provocative as Negroponte but more useful. The central questions - which Phil does not really address - in my mind is whether the profession will adapt to a changing world to stay relevant or more importantly become more relevant. Some of that has to do with the technology aspects that Phil discusses but much of it has to so with the profession itself. Will the architecture profession make changes to adapt to new challenges - technology among them - or will it be supplanted by another means of designing places and spaces?

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The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment

Edited by Julian E Zelizer

Reviewed June 5. This is a compendium of essays about Trump's presidency by a group of presidential historians. Each essay covers a particular topic - such as race relations, climate change, COVID-19 response, foreign policy, ... - a pretty thorough set of topics -- and dissects both the context for the topic and how Trump and his administration addressed the topic/issue. Two things become pretty clear: 1) most of the issues have a deeper and richer context that the Trump administration was mostly responding to and 2) for the most part the Trump administration was ham-handed amaterish and chaotic (several of the historians used the term "shambolic"). Not muuch of a surprise. The historians did give some credit for things the administration did (e.g. development of vaccines, recognizing the threat of China, pushing NATO parners to pay their fair share) but mostly they were pretty critical of the administration and of Trump himself. It was interesting at the beginning of the book, when Trump got wind that they were going to write it, he met with the authors because he thought it would be congratulatory book on his wildly succesful presidency. I guess he lacks self-awareness.

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Democracy In Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America

Nancy MacLean

Reviewed May 31. Democracy In Chains is a work of history that focuses on the work of a bunch of libertarians to rig the constituion and legal system to favor property rights over majority rule. Their thesis is that the marjority will vote for government spending on services that benefit them, thus raising taxes for the elite property owners. MacLean is a historian who traces this line of thinking from slave-holding plantation owners in the deep south all the way through to the Koch brothers. She chronicles the rise of the Mercatus Center and George Mason University and their extreme libertarian views to disempower majority rule. This book had the feel of a conspiracy theory but it was a book of history. It was a bit dry and historical. I would have liked more analysis of what this movemement means and its impact on modern-day life and politics. In particular, I would have liked to see the connection to the tea-party - which is a very populist movement. I'd like to understand the connections between these elite libertarians and the populist tea party and how the contradictions and tensions are resolved - if they are. This book was OK, but I feel that Dark Money covers the topic more lucidly.

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Overruled: The Long War for the Control ofthe U.S. Supreme Court

Damon Root

Reviewed May 30. This was a long and somewhat tedious history of the U.S. Supreme Court focusing on the battle over "judicial restraint", in which the courts defer to elected legislatures enacting the will of the majority or "judicial activism" in which the courts assert individual rights defined or implied in the constituion. I expected these positions to fall along political lines but it is clear that both the right and the left use both approaches when it serves their interests. I thought this book got at important quesitons but it was too much rehashing history and I did not come away with a definitive point of view.

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The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations

Daniel Yergin

Reviewed May 24. I expected this to be mostly about oil and its influence on geopolitics and the economy. It certainly was - but I was pleasantly surprised to see how expansive and comprehensive it was. Yergin covers geopolitical history of Russia/Ukraine, China, the US, and the Middle East. Oil is an omnipresent backdrop but it is not always front and center. One surprising thing was how the shale revolution created US energy independence. I was not aware how much shale and fracking added to oil production. Although his career has been as an oil expert, Yergin is clear-eyed about climate change. He is very pragmatic when it comes to energy transition. It must happen, yet has to happen in a measured fashion. I really liked this book - it has lots of relevance to our world today.

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Girl In Ice: A Novel

Erica Ferencik

Reviewed May 5. This is an interesting thriller about a young girl who is found frozen in arctic ice. At first she is thought to be from modern times but later found to be hundreds of years old. The protagonist is a linguist who goes to the arctic research stations to establish communications with her. The linguist's twin brother was at the same research station and died, ostensibly by suicide. The premise is interesting and the book engaging. The only quibble is that teh book ended kind of abruptly with a number of story threads left unresolved.

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Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand

John Markoff

Reviewed April 30. This is a biography of Stewart Brand, author of the Whole Earth Catalog, member of the Global Business Network, and founder of the Long Now Foundation - among lots of other things. The book is a typical bio that starts with Brand's childhood and ends with the present day. One of the interesting things about Brand was that he was there at the beginning of so many thing that shaped our society - summer of love, environmental movement, computer revolution, ... but always got bored and left just before they were mainstream. It was fascinating reading about the arc of his life and all of the people and events he was connected with. A pretty amazing person - and he lives just down the freeway in Sausalito. The book was good - a bit long in places, and I wish Markoff had spent a little more time on present-day Brand and the Long Now Foundation.

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Woke Up This Morning: The Definitive Oral History of The Sopranos

Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa

Reviewed April 20. I loved this book. I read it while I was bing-watching The Sopranos. It is an oral history of a great TV show as told by the actors who played Christopher Moltisanti and Bobby Baccalieri respectively in the series. They also interview many of the other actors as well as guest stars, and production staff. The Sopranos was pretty confusing with a complex cast of characters coming and going (and often getting whacked) so the book was helpful and it gave a lot of color and texture to the show. It was a great companion to watching the show. It was a challenge, though, because the book is organized by season and I did not want to read ahead and give away what was happening in episodes I had not seen. The book was so good and interesting that it required a lot of willpower not to read ahead.

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After The Fall: Being American In The World We Made

Ben Rhodes

Reviewed April 14. Rhodes was Deputy National Security Advisor in the Obama administration. This book covers his travels with Obama and his first-hand account of rising nationalism in places like Russia and China. At the very end, he ruminates on what went wrong after Obama left and Trump took office. The book is very timely. I found the sections on Russia and China interesting but even more interesting was his trying to get at the root cause of what went so wrong that the country elected Trump. He just scratched the surface there and I wish he had delved deeper.

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Show and Tell: How Everybody Can Make Extraordinary Presentations

Dan Roam

Reviewed April 13. This is another book in Dan Roam's series on visual thinking - about presentations. Dan uses his visual style to tell some pretty straightforward stories about how to make compelling presentations. He also discusses a little about how to do visual thinking. Nothing profound here, but kind of fun.

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Deep Sleep

Steven Konkoly

Reviewed April 2. Deep Sleep is about a CIA agent whose mother, also a CIA agent, discovers a deep Russian sleeper spy network in the US. He recruits some former CIA officers - their exact status is unclear - to hunt down and destroy the network. He also recruits a former Marine helecopter pilot - who is his erstwhile girlfriend. The action takes place around Washington, DC and Lake of the Ozarks/Branson, MO. This is a spy thriller a little reminiscent of The Americans - Russian sleeper spy TV series. After a big firefight which damages but does not eliminate the sleeper network, the story is left unresolved. That provides and entre' for the next book in the series - due out this fall. This is an easy candy read - entertaining but not too difficult - a good complement to the heavier stuff I have been reading.

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Spirits of San Francisco: Voyages Through The Unknown City

Gary Kamiya (author) and Paul Madonna (illustrator)

Reviewed March 28. Like Kamiya's previous book, Cool Gray City of Love, he writes a series of vignettes about quirky aspects of San Francisco history. The books is described as a "graphic novel" because Madonna illustrates the vignettes with really nice pencil drawings. I found myself keeping Google Earth open as I read so I could find where the vignettes occurred in present-day San Francisco. This was a very readable book with lots of great stories of San Francisco's past.

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The Raging 2020s: Countries, Companies, People - and the Fight for our Future

Alec Ross

A good description of the deliterious effects of shareholder capitalism, capture of government by business lobbiests, and our distorted tax system. THe author grew up in West Virginia so he has some sense of how all of this affects everyday people. I liked the book - it is consistent with much of what I have read lately. One of the things I liked is that he had a clear-eyed view of labor unions. Many books like this talk about reviving labor unions as the solution - but ignore the corruption and ossificiation plagues the US labor movement. I inadvertantly re-read parts of the book and it still seemed fresh and relevant.

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There Is Nothing For You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21^st Century

Fiona Hill

Reviewed March 21. I read this book because I heard Fiona Hill on a podcast talking about Russia and Putin's mindset just after Russia invaded Ukraine. Althought he book covers that topic, it is more focused on inequality and opportunity. Hill was the daughter of a coal miner in Bishop Auckland in northern England. That is the equivalent of the US rust belt - with lots of parallels. The mindes closed when Margaret Thatcher tried to modernize the British economy and Hill's father and all of his peers lost their jobs. The book is Hill's autobiography and chronicles her struggles to get an education at St. Andrews and ultimately a masters and PhD at the Kennedy School at Harvard. She talks a lot about discrimination she experienced - both gender and class. Hill serve on Trump's national securiuty council and she vividly describes the chaos of the Trump administation and his tendencies toward authoritarianism - quite familiar to her due to her focus on Eastern European affairs. I liked the book, but for a different reason than I expected. Given the circumstances today, I would like her to write more on Russia, Ukraine, and the mindset of Putin.

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From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life

Arthur C. Brooks

Reviewed March 16. I have read Arthur Brooks previously as a counterpoint to the more liberal authors I frequently read. Until 2019, he was president of conservative think-tank - The American Enterprise Institute. In this book - echoing his transition as presdident of a large and visible organization to a professor at Harvard Kennedy School and Business Schook, Brooks talks about transitioning from an early life based on "fluid intelligence" - that which propels professional success to "crystallized intelligence" - which affords a different kind of success. Brooks asserts that fluid intelligence declines more quickly than we expect and - particularly for successful strivers - creates a trap of denial. He described "crystallized intelligence" as less analytical and based more upon wisdom and offers a way out of the fluid intelligence trap. I liked his overall characterization of the problem and felt it applied to my life and career. His prescriptions were a bit less satisfying although helpful. He put, in my view, too much emphasis on religion as a solution and not enough on using crystallized intelligence for fullfillment in the second half of life. Overall I liekd the book but wich he had dialed back the religious focus.

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The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World

Robert Kagan

Reviewed March 14. Kagan is an international relations expert who's this is that the past 70 years have been an abnormal time in history. Since WWII, even with the cold war and some localized wars, the period has been abnomrally peaceful. Kagan asserts that great power conflict prior to WWII was the norm. What created the 70 years of relative peace are the international insitutions and norms established by US leadership - Nato, the EU, globalization, democracy economic liberalization, etc. Kagan fears that as these unravel, the world will revert back to great power conflict. Like a lot of successful experts, Kagan's solutions harken back to the past and he does not really have a new approach. The book was written in 2018 and his insights on China and Russia and the role of the west are very timely.

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Wildland: The Making of America's Fury

Evan Osnos

Reviewed March 8. Osnos is a journalist who spent some of his adult life in China and returned to the US in 2013 after a decade away. He chronicles the changes in American he saw with a focus on three placed he lived. Greenwhich, Connecticut; Clarksburg, West Virginia; and Chicago. He tries to explain the schisms in society that have led to our present polarization and political dysfunction. The contrast between Greenwich (home of many ultra-wealthy hedge-fund managers, and West Virginia is particlarly stark. Osnos mixes very human stories with political commentary and an attempt to parse what is really going on with society. Very readable and informative.

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Soft City: Building Density for Everyday Life

David Sim

Reviewed March 8. This is an architecture and urban planning book about how to create livable density as exemplified in the Nordic countries - particularly Denmark. It is a marked contrast to the modernist tradition which advocated separation and mono-use. Instead it harkens more to the Jane Jacobs tradition of mixed use and integration. It covers principles of mixed use, integration of functions and mobility, and sustainable design. It has lots of case studies and examples - mostly, but not exclusively drawn from the nordic countries. Although there were some US examples, there were markedly more from Europe, Australia, and a few from Asia.

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The Infographic Guide to American Government: A Visual Reference for Everything You Need to Know

Carissa Lytle and Jara Kern

Reviewed March 2. Inspired by the book on the constitution below, I found this one which is a very simple explanation of the US government - including relationships to state and local governments in infographic form. An easy peruse - takes less than an hour - and probably a handy reference. Very accessible if a bit simplistic.

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OMG WTF Does The Constitution Actually Say? A Non-boring guide to how our democracy is supposed to work

Ben Sheehan

Reviewed March 1. Sheehan has a comedic bent but this book has a serious purpose. He feels (as so I) that most people do not understand the U.S. Consitution or how the federal government is supposed to work. His book goes through the Constituion, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence with the actual text, his interpretation of the text, and lots of irreverent (sometimes funny and sometimes annoying) commentary. He has a clear point of view - informed by knowledge. He takes a dry subject and makes it entertaining and informative. He also gives some color as to the people and intent behind these seminal documents. One thing that really struck me is how much slavery (and the denial of slavery) shaped our early history. This book is available in Kindle or hardback form. Get the hardback edition because it is physically well designed and presented.

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Common Good Constitutionalism: Recovering the Classical Legal Tradition

Adrian Vermeule

Reviewed February 22. Vermeule, a constitutional and administrative law professor at Harvard Law School claims that both originalism on the right and "progressive constitutionalism" on the left, are flawed concepts. Instead, he proposed common good consitutionalism - in which law is based on the concept of "the common good". He says that law is not just a bundle of individual rights but instead is based on classical legal principles of the common good. He claims that the judiciary should not define the common good - rather, that is the purview of the legislature. Although he claims the book is not for legal scholars but for everday readers (like me) there is a lot of arcane language and a presupposition that the reader understand legal concepts and theory. I was able to wade through but felt like I only got a part of the argument. Vermeule is also a controversial figure at Harvard - being accused of promulgating Christian nationalsm and 2020 Trump election fraud. He is a conservative Catholic and I expect his definition of the moral foundations of "the common good" are quite different from mine. Nevertheless I like his classical legal framework.

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Signals: The 27 Trends Defining the Future of the Global Economy

Jeff Desjardins

Reviewed February 22. This is a fascinating book from Visual Capitalist, which depicts 27 trends and the signals which reveal them. It covers:

1. Society and Demographics
2. Environment
3. Digital World
4. Technological Innovation
5. Money and Markets
6. Consumer Behavior
7. Geopolitical Landscape

Each trend and its associated signals is visually illustrated with data-driven diagrams. The book is accessible and digestible. It is very similar to the work my team did at Autodesk in the Strategic Foresight team. Highly recommended for those who want to understand the future and see how to depict information in an accessible fashion.

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Tennis For Life

Peter Burwash

Reviewed February 14. This is a classic from legendary tennis instructor Peter Burwash. The book is a pretty straightforward treatment of tennis - very down to earth and practical. I have worked with some Burwash trained instructors and much of the lessons are familiar. He presents tennis in a very approachable fashion.

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Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays

Joan Didion

Reviewed February 12. This is Joane Didion's series of essays from the early 1960s. It mostly tries to capture the flavor and texture of early 1960s California (although it also has essays about Mexico, Hawaii, New York, and Newport Rhode Island. I really like Didion's writing. Some of the essays were better and more interesting that others, but her ability to vividly paint a picture and tell a story is unparalleled.

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The Sopranos: A Family History

Allen Rucker

Reviewed February 6. Most of this book is written as if the characters in The Sopranos were real characters. It is a useful guide to all of the characters since there are many and the relationships between them are complex and opaque. A good companion to the TV show. THe biggest issue is that it only covers seasons one and two. There were six seasons in total.

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The Anomaly

Hervé Le Tellier

Reviewed February 3. This book apparently was the rage in France during the pandemic. It has been translated from French into English. It is kind of a reverse story of The Manifest. Instead of a plane going missing for 5 years and then suddenly reappearing, as in The Manifest, this story is about a parallel plane - with parallel passengers appearing. The book tracest the parallel lives of some of the characters but there is never any real resolution as to what happened. Very candy - entertaining but ultimately unsatisfying.

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Money Magic: An Economist’s Secrets To More Money, Less Risk, and a Better Life

Laurence J. Kotlikoff

Reviewed January 22. I have read Kotlikoff's Get What's Yours before and quite liked him. His previous book described the social security system and why you should maximize returns by delaying taking social security benefits. This book applies economic thinking (as in think like an economist) to a whole host of financial planning decisions – retirement, career, education, marriage, investment, … and sometimes contradicts the conventional wisdom of financial planners. Like his previous book I quite liked his pragmatic advice backed up by theory. The book is very readable (I read at the beach in Hawaii on vacation and could not put it down). I felt good that I’ve incorporated much of his advice in our finances but will tune up my thinking based upon some of his advice. Well worth reading.

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Never: A Novel

Ken Follett

Reviewed January 20. This was a great beach read – which I read on the beach and by the pool in Hawaii. Never is a modern-day thriller with multiple threads – a CIA officer stationed in Chad, a CIA filed operative, the Chinese intelligence service head, and the US president. All are working to head off a confrontation led by North Korea. The action gets more and more tense and interwoven as the plot thickens. It was well crafted – although with some trite and gratuitous sex/romance. Nevertheless, an entertaining summer read. I read in simulated summer in Hawaii.

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The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness: How Mindfulness Can Change Your Life in Ten Minutes a Day

Andy Puddicombe

Reviewed January 19. This is a great little, practical book on meditation and mindfulness. It accompanies Headspace website and apps with recorded meditations. Puddcombe has a very pragmatic approach to meditation and mindfulness. He tells you exactly what to do. The book covers some theoretical background but mostly to support meditation practice

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True Believers: A Novel

Kurt Anderson

Reviewed January 19. This is a big novel about the life of Karen Hollender – UCLA Law School Dean, former Supreme Court nominee, mom, grandmother, James Bond fan, and former ‘60s radical. The book is written from her present perspective – where she is a 60 something UCLA Law School dean writing an expose about a plot to assassinate Lyndon Baynes Johnson with tow of her best friends when she was a student at Harvard. It is also written from the perspective of her as a high school student then college student. The book bounces back and forth between these two perspectives. She is haunted by events surrounding her LBJ assassination plot and the book she is writing promises to excoriate her sins. I read this on vacation and it was great beach reading. Lots of great texture about growing up in the 60s and 70s. She was a bit older than me but I remember much of what she wrote about. A good story and great coverage of a pivotal time in history.

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Resilience By Design: How to Survive and Thrive in a Complex and Turbulent World

Ian Snape and Mike Weeks

Reviewed January 12. This is a well-designed and very readable book about intentionally cultivating resilience. It draws upon neuroscience, design, and thinking about thinking to describe strategies for becoming more resilient. It is well-organized and structured to be read and later re-sampled. I found it useful as a way to challenge thinking about adaptation and resilience.

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State of Terror

Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny

Reviewed January 12. This is a political thriller written by Penny with some help from Clinton - much like Bill Clinton's political thriller, The President's Daughter. Reign of Terror is about a Secretary of State, Ellen Adams. She, her daughter, and her best friend must defuse an Islamic terrorist bomb plot while dealing with an uncooperative President. She was appointed Secretary of State because of political expediency, not a strong relationship with the president. Adams engages in shuttle diplomacy between the US, Middle East, and Russia and - in a cliffhanger ending - foils the bomb plot. Of course the Secretary of State is a thinly veiled version of Secretary of State Clinton and the previous administration (which is often referred to as chaotic and incompetent) is a thinly veiled version of the Trump administration. This was an OK book, but definately a candy read.

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The Sopranos Family Cookbook: As Compiled by Artie Bucco

Allan Rucker and Michelle Scicolone

Reviewed January 9. I normally would not read and review a cookbook, but this is an exception. I am in the midst of binge-watching The Sopranos. I never watched when it was first aired but I am now a fan. The book is a series of Southern Italian recipes (Naples) interspersed with stories and writings by the various Sopranos characters. The recipes look OK, but not fabulous, but the Sopranos stories are fun.

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The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't

Julia Galef

Reviewed January 5. When I was about ¼ of the way through this book, I thought it suffered from something a lot of business and self-help books do - a concept best expressed in a short essay that was needlessly expanded into a book. The basic idea is that we are more able to see things clearly when we act as a scout - trying to discover what is true that a soldier - defending our belief as to what is true. The idea seemed self-evident and not in need of a whole book to describe it. After I got further into the book, I changed my mind. To be sure, there was some drawn out stuff about decision-making that was not necessary, but toward the end of the book, Galef got into identity and how hanging on to our identity too tightly moves us into a soldier mindset. Her advice was to "hold your identity lightly". I came away appreciating the book more when I got to then end than when I was part way through.

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