False Economy: A Surprising Economic History of the World

[November 2009] The book opens with late 2001. What if Argentina and United States had traded places? Over the course of less than a century, why did the trajectories of two countries differ so much? This immediately piqued my interest. The continued narrative was compelling, but not quite as riveting as I hoped. The remainder of the chapters fell in to a similar pattern. They started out with a punch, but then seemed to drop it to meander around some ho-hum economic history. The contents are all fairly well written and interesting, but not as good as would be expected from the initial 'hits'.

The Sugar Fix

[November 2009] If we all stopped eating fruit, the obesity problem would go away and we'd all be healthier. At least according to this author. He pins fructose (aka fruit sugar) as public enemy number one. He cites many studies to prove the evil of fructose. Some appear quite convincing. However, the few studies that I was familiar with actually came up with different conclusions than this book's author.
That being said, we probably do consume excessive amounts of 'high-fructose corn syrup' and other sweeteners, and some of the advice is probably worthwhile. However, don't throw the apples out with thhe twinkies.

The Much Too Promised Land

[November 2009] The author has been very involved in the Arab-Israeli peace process through the administration of various US presidents. He is able to tell a fairly non-partisan tale of the good and the bad of presidents from Nixon to Bush Jr. This detailed personal knowledge of the peace process players is also the book's downfall. There is too much information about the people, personal relationships and negotiating conditions. At times it drifts in to minutia of the author's experience that would be more appropriate in a personal memoir than in the general history it purports to be.

Chocolate War

[November 2009] Frank Muller did a great job performing this audiobook. Unfortunately, the story is filled with stereotyped caricatures. Most of the characters appear nothing more than one-dimensional, with the attempts to 'broaden' them oten falling flat. The end also seems somewhat forced on the story.

Go Green, Live Rich: 50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying

[November 2009] This book is nothing more than a string of factoids about "simple things" that can be done to save money and save the environment. Many are simplistic (don't buy fast food every day), while some tend to be inaccurate ('bulk bins' at grocery store have a tendency to be more expensive and still are 'packaged'.)
At times, the author seems like s shill for various companies and organizations. (Many of these seem to be worthwhile. However, there also seem to be many that are left out.
It is also baffling that they made this in to an audiobook. The 50 "simple ways" each have a bit of narrative, a number of factoids, and then a list of a bunch of web sites. Not the most compelling listening experience.

Alphabet Juice

[October 2009] The audiobook is performed quite well. However, the content is merely ho-hum. The author goes through the alphabet, meandering on word meanings, sounds and other random tidbits. A few bits are interesting. Some may be interesting to a certain audience. Others, are just plain boring. As a printed book, this would probably go over better as something sitting in the bathroom. Every section small word discussion stands on its own. However, even in print, the content is rather pedestrian, being neither very scholarly, nor very accessible to anyone but grammar nerds.

Mao: The Unknown Story

[October 2009] From the outset, it is clear that the authors' are not fond of Mao. He is cast in an extremely negative light as somebody who does just what is in his own best interest, with no respect for others, or even his own legacy. Many of his "accomplishments" are passed off as the works of others. (For example, the victory in the Chinese civil war is predominantly seen as a result of bad moves by the nationalists, often due to external factors.)
This overly negative view, however, does serve to paint a picture of Mao as a person, rather than the deity that arises in Maoist propaganda. Unlike fascists of his era, Mao was able to die in is sleep. Also, unlike other major communist countries, China's communist government still remains in place today. Thus, the balanced view of Mao still remains a great challenge. This book may swing the pendulum a little too far to the negative, but remains an important step in understanding an important historical figure.
In spite of the book's length, I did find it lacking in Mao's early history. He seemed to suddenly arrive in a key leadership position in the early communist party, seemingly without any strong qualifications. From the book, it is unclear why people would have such song support for a seemingly unqualified schemer.

The Arctic: A History

[October 2009] This book is a collection of names and dates with a few brief stories in between. Its not quite an 'encyclopedia' of the Arctic, but it gets close. At times it does start to wander in to compelling narratives, but then drops them and begins an unrelated topic. I also found myself consulting other reference works to get more details of some points in the book. In the end, I just started skipping whole chapters and looking for parts that seemed interesting.

War of the Worlds

[October 2009] The narration of this audiobook is properly paced and packed with enough emotion to keep it interesting, while not overbearing. The story is the classic H.G. Wells story of the martian attack. The understated power of the story dwarfs much of the over-the-top Science Fiction fare of today. The environmental message is also significant.

The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War

[October 2009] The book starts and ends with the duel between Senator Broderick and California Supreme Court Justice Terry. In between it tells stories from California history from before the gold rush to the civil war. The initial portion of the book focuses on the fairly well known history of early settler's, Sutter, and the stampede for gold. The most intriguing part here was the story of transportation to California and Vanderbilt's vindictiveness against those that wronged him.

The bulk of the book covers the movers and shakers in California at the time. These are the stories of men that left there home states in pursuit of greater political power in California. These stories are tied to the quest of politicians in Washington to balance the free and slave state needs. The story of the southern "Chivs" in California is especially interesting.

The many different threads all seem to tie in to the story of California. However, the story ends before the civil war, with the war only mentioned briefly in the epilogue. With the emphasis of the title I would expect a little more coverage at least up to the start of the war.

10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America

[October 2009] Instead of detailing the dates that we all learn in history class, this book describes some less well known days that were important turning points in the history of America. It is a companion to a History Channel documentary (that was produced by different historians.) The author was fairly balanced in his views, coloring the events as we see them today, but still keeping them in the context of the time they took place. Each event is well written and self-contained.

When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change

[October 2009] This book reads like three articles and a lot of filler: an article from an economics journal, another from a popular investment magazine and finally a foreign policy review article. Unfortunately, these three articles only fill about 1/10th the space, so a lot of repetition and filler is added to bring it to the full length. It does have a number of good points, but, in spite of the excessive verbiage, they seem to be poorly elaborated. The author seems to repeat, rather than elucidate.

It is also difficult to determine the audience the author is addressing - especially since he commonly refers to 'investors'. At times 'investors' seems to reference retail investors who buy index funds. At other times 'investors' are investment bankers managing large funds. Sometimes, I found myself midway through a section before realizing it was a different "investor" he was talking to. And just to confuse matters even more, we spends a good portion of the book addressing desired changes to national and international policy.

In spite of the very poor writing, there are some interesting ideas, especially as they relate to the changing economic landscape with the 'emergence' of emerging economies. Perhaps the author will choose to reduce the book to a few well-written articles.

Einstein: His Life And Universe

[October 2009] This book portrays Einstein as a human, with many foibles, without being condoning or condescending. Many of Einstein's great insights in theoretical physics are presented in an easy to understand manner - often using his own "thought experiments". He comes across as a brilliant physicist who had just the right personality to fit the role. He was just enough of a non-conformist 'ham' to grab the public's attention, while being normal enough to keep the attention. He comes across as a man totally dedicated to his ideas, regardless of whether they were popular.

The book provides balanced coverage of his entire life. The great discoveries while working in the patent office as well as his later pacifist and zionist leanings are all well covered. Some Einstein 'myths' are covered and convincingly debunked. Alas, the completeness also brings about one of the books faults. With personal and professional threads moving at different paces, the narrative often seems to jump around, with a seemingly dropped plot line picked up again a few chapters later.

Panama Fever: The Epic Story of One of the Greatest Human Achievements of All Time-- the Building of the Panama Canal

[September 2009] This book goes in to great detail on the 'prehistory' of the canal. The competing European and American plans and interests are well covered, as is the French canal building experience. The initial American experience (and the reptition of many French mistakes) is also well covered. Then in a few words, 5-10 years pass by and the canal is open and operating. It feels that the author ran out of time and sent the book out with only the executive summary of the last 10 chapters. Thus we know, in fairly strong detail what the French did that didn't work, but we know very little about the actual engineering behind the currently existing canal.

The part of the story that is complete also suffers from a disjointed narrative. At times the author inserts long excerpts from the journals of workers on the canal, but fails to convincingly connect them to the surrounding story. Various 'subplots', such as the plight of the West Indian workers, the Panamanian revolution and the medical efforts to eradicate mosquito-born diseases are interesting stories of there own. However, they seem to be artificially patched in to this work, rather than part of a complete narrative.

I also found the production of the audiobook to be less than stellar. The narrator occasionally tried to talk with 'accents' appropriate to the characters, though many of these felt half-hearted and annoying. (Thank goodness there were no attempts at French accents!)

Planet Google

[September 2009] If you want to know the origins of many of the Google features popular today, this is the book to read. If you are looking for a behind the scenes look at the people and personalities behind the company, this book is probably not for you. The author is clearly an outsider who knows a lot of the details of the company, but not much more than anybody who had dedicated time to studying it. There is very little intimacy with the Google founders or key players. However, the details of the different 'business ventures' of Google provide an effective 'behind the scenes' view of what Google was thinking when rolling out features like mail, and why it had to buy Youtube after being beat out in video.

The Fruit Hunters

[September 2009] My mouth watered for some of the delicious fruits the author described in this book. However, my mind quickly become bored with the disjointed narrative. This is not so much a book, but a collection of essays edited together to appear like a book. The author clearly had to go to great lengths to probe some of the 'rare' fruits of the world. In doing so, he uncovers many of the reasons we are deprived of tasting these (government, industrialization, commercialization, etc.)
At times I was wrapped up in an enthralling narrative. Then suddenly the book shifts gears to something totally different, with no connection to the previous text. Thus, I found myself reading a big chunk of the book at a time, then letting it gather dust for a while.

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships

[August 2009] The author posits that social intelligence is an important trait in our lives and often takes place in a level outside our general consciousness. He also attempts to distinguishing between "social intelligence" and "manipulative social control". While aspects of social intelligence can be used to manipulate, true social intelligence goes beyond that.

After describing the concept of "social intelligence" in the first part of the book, he goes on to detail many of the examples of where "social intelligence" can be used to achieve true games in individual relationships and society at large. Many of these arguments come across as "socialist" (which should not be surprising, given that they are based on "social" intelligence.)

He provides some scholarly base throughout the book, yet never comes across as being overly academic, making the book easily readable.

The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, Book 1)

The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, Book 1) by J.R.R. Tolkien

[August 2009] I must confess that I have never been a Tolkein fan. I have tolerated C.S. Lewis, but the Tolkein works never had much appeal (in spite of hearing many friends rave about The Hobbit.) Now that the Lord of the Rings series has became a mega movie blockbuster, I decided I should try to tackle the book. Alas, the book (and the movie) still do not have much appeal.

I found the book to be rather tedious. Some sections seemed to detail numerous characters that I could not keep them straight. I also became rather annoyed with the different 'accents' and 'songs' the narrator used in the recording. Perhaps for somebody that is already familiar with the story, this would be a nice way to go over it again. However, if you don't know it well, prepare to get lost.

Apparently, Tolkein may have once written in the preface to Lord of the Rings that "Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer." Now I just need to hunt down more of the works that Tolkein disliked.

The Wordy Shipmates

[August 2009]
I found the production of this audiobook very well done. The author read her text, with other 'actors' acting out individual quoted characters. It sounds more like a radio-play than a dry audiobook.

The story itself centered around John Winthrop, Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, with other characters thrown in to fill int he story. At its core it is a history of early New England, primarily from the vintage point of those three characters. However the author intersperses her wit to make humorous observations about their society and our warped media-influenced understanding of them. At first I found this to be an extremely interesting, funny approach to early American history. However, I eventually found myself tiring of the approach.

A People's History of the United States

[August 2009] This provides a few anecdotes of "revolutionary" history of America. In the introduction, the author proclaims he is providing a history of the individual people, instead of the common focus of the important names and dates. However, the actual focus is on people involved in left wing causes (with the focus often an key players in these rolls.) While this does provide a good background of socialist causes, it is primarily a history of liberal students and the poor that associate with their causes. (He even attempts to show a more 'broad' support for an issue by saying that in addition to the college towns, San Francisco passed a similar anti-war resolution.) The goal is obviously an attempt to paint social revolutions as being more broadly representative of the people. However, this leaves out many other things that could be interesting. The first person approach used for much of the narrative also makes it feel more like propaganda than history.

The reading of the audiobook also has something to be desired. Matt Damon's delivery is fairly well done, but very slow. Howard Zinn's comments manage to be even slower. Make sure you can play it at faster than normal speed!