In Good Vibrations, Beach Boys frontman Mike Love provides his biography and history of the Beach Boys. He comes from a working class family that sought the good life in California. His Grandfather did quite well with a sheet metal operation. His parents also had a love of music. He eventually teamed up with some cousins and friends to form a musical group. One of his cousins (Dennis) was an avid surfer, and they eventually decided on pop with a surfer theme. There timing ended up being perfect, because shortly thereafter, a surfer craze picked up, with Life magazine doing a big spread. This created a huge demand for their surfer-themed music. With this lucky break, they were able to jump start their career. Then, they worked hard, toured insistently and became very popular. Brian Wilson helped compose many of the songs and had a reputation as a troubled musical auteur, thus giving the band more cache. The band weathered ups and downs and eventually settled on business reality. Their classic hits were what people wanted to hear. They were also ahead of their time in lining up corporate sponsorships. They also received numerous breaks. They were able to stage numerous comeback due to their "positive" appeal. They were friends with Reagan and Bush, helping them to emerge better after hitting some political pressure.The band also had many downs. Love admits he was a chronic womanizer. He would go in and out of marriages, producing many offspring from many different women. Drinking was his drug of choice. However, other bandmates were in to many harder drugs. He eventually explored transcendental meditation to clean up his act. Others had much more challenging expriences. One died due to medical issues. Another Beach Boy drowned while drunk. Their fortunes waxed and waned, in part due to mismanagement and outright fraud on the part of their representatives. (They admitted to not knowing much about what was going on.) The relationship with Brian was always a challenge. They produced great things together, but his mental issues and drug addiction created difficulties.) There were lawsuits against each other, against their record companies and management.
Loves story comes across well. He admits to making many mistakes. He calls out times when he felt he was wronged, but does not shove people under the bus. (Well, except for Charles Manson and Dennis's psychologist - but he does that more by admitting various public facts.) He comes across as the "business" side of the band, while Brian is the "art" side. Without the business, there would be no money for the art. Without the art, the business would not exist. He does defend himself, and provides a great history of the band.
Stephen Leeds has a mental condition that causes him to hallucinate many different people. These "aspects" have their own personality strengths and weaknesses. He knows they are not "real", yet he treats them as real. They must "travel" to meet him. He opens doors for them. He books space on airplanes for them. They must use a phone if they want to talk remotely. His aspects give him near super-human power. He can simply glance at a foreign language book and one of his aspects can know help him speak a foreign language. He uses this skill as part of a unique private investigator-like business that has made him a rich man. He also has many people eager to study him.
Philanthropy has taken on an increasingly large role in society. The very rich use their wealth to help advance their agenda. This may help them overcome entrenched interests for the benefit of society. It also may allow them to put their interests above that of society. Campaign finance reform seeks to limit the amount of money people can contribute to individual candidates. However, there is no similar track to limit the amount that charities can spend to help influence the political process. Often this influence takes place through multiple channels, including "think tank" positioning as well as straightforward lobbying. Charitable contributions have become more dominated by the upper echelons of society. Not only can the rich "buy influence" through their charities, they also get a tax break for doing it. (Today with the increased standard deduction, the middle class is even less likely to get an explicit deduction for charitable contributions. 
War is both glamorous and torturous. During times of hyped patriotism, people are super eager to fight for their cause. Then the reach the front lines and discover the horrid reality of war. They long for the wounds that give then the "red badge of courage", yet they still want to escape. Boys want to show that they are "men", capable of making their own decisions, yet don't know how to react when people let them go along. The book tries to paint a vivid picture of war. I had trouble following it. I was thinking it was talking about World War I. I guess the "rebs" should have given me a clue.
Benjamin Graham was patron saint of value investing. His book, The Intelligent Investor, still pops up on best seller lists, decades after he passed away. Other investors, such as Warren Buffett see him as a significant influence on their investing style. Graham's investing style puts the focus on long term value, regardless of short term market fluctuations. Depending on the dedication of the investor, they can employ screens to narrow down the the list of companies to consider. (Doing these screens were much more difficult a century ago when he started investing.)
Michael Lewis is not exactly a fan of the Trump administration. The Fifth Risk attacks the general incompetence of the Trump government. Trump threw away most of the planning that was done for transition to presidency. His people didn't even bother to visit the agencies they would be running until weeks after Trump won the presidencies. They also disregarded much of the hand over information that was prepared. Many of the people lacked the basic skills or competencies needed for their positions. It would be common for them to come in and only care about attempting to remove anyone that has an interest in Climate Change. Lewis' theorizes that Trump simply does not want to know what is going on in the government so that he can escape culpability for anything bad that happens. Since it is a democratic administration that is being replaced, he does tend to put a much more favorable spin on Democrats. They had been working hard to make the government more accessible and run better, only to have Trump come in with incompetence. Even the Bush administration was presented in a positive light. The Trump people, however, are often there just for their own personal gain, and had little clue as to what they were controlling.
In Operation Snow, John Kostner postulates that Harry Dexter White was a Soviet sympathizer that used his influence in FDR's cabinet to trigger Pearl Harbor and the US entry into World War II. The book presents a riveting history of the lead up to Pearl Harbor and the final Allied victory and partitioning of Germany. He tries to read a conspiracy among communist "fellow travelers" to steer the US involvement in a way that will most benefit the Soviets. However, his narrative describes a number of strong personalities with different personal motives. White may or may not have been a communist mole. However, he alone could not have led the US to enter the war via Pearl Harbor. There were a number of other people that actively desired US entry into the war. They would sit on key bits of intelligence, while trying to steer foreign policy in a certain direction. There were also a number of players that simply did not understand the culture and politics of other countries and were expecting different outcomes. 
In "Has Anyone Seen the President?" Michael Lewis details some experiences with the Trump administration. Trump holds grudges, and will not listen to anybody that has "wronged" him, even if they later apologize. (An example was given of a reporter that criticized Trump for removing the statue of a civil rights leader, only to apologize when he learned the statue was simply moved. Trump also does not care about the Democrats. In speaking, he attempts to solidify his base and win over the conservative media. In spite of his wealth and education, Trump speaks like a poor laborer. This helps him to relate to the lower classes, which helped him win the presidency. His presidency has defied many of the conventions of politics, which has continued to motivate his supporters, even as the world reacts in horror.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a curious case of a short story that provided an interesting idea to "inspire" a movie. In the store, Benjamin Button is born an old man, and ages in reverse until he exits a young baby. In the story, his "physical" age matches his intellect and emotional age. He retains some memories and desires from his "past", but still behaves much as a 20 year old would when he looks to be 20. The movie adds a new twist, with his mind aging independently. Thus he looks to be an old man, but has the mind of a young child. This allows some interesting exploration that is not present in the original story. Both do present an interesting exploration of the impact of our "age" in our life and our choices. There are many expectations of people based on the age they look. People are also quick to judge and also quick to forget. The story is also, somewhat symptomatic of its time, highly male focussed. Though a mother does birth Benjamin, she is nowhere to be seen. His wife also is there just to be courted and then plays very little role (other than to be a person that is no longer attractive to him as he gets younger.)
Tin Drum is narrated by Oskar, a German drummer who is currently confined to a mental institution. He was born in the period after World War I, and lived through World War II and the postwar era. Had had grown up in Danzig, which was a free city in the interwar period and had a predominantly German population. (After World War 2, it became a part of Poland and now has a predominantly Polish population.) The narration regularly switches between first person and third person (even in the same sentence.) It is unclear whether many of the events actually happened, or were just a imagined. (After all, he is in a mental institution.) He seems to think the world has a great appreciation for him and his talents. In one episode, an entire club is "impressed" with his great dancing skills, though his "date" has been scared away. There are also numerous sexual encounters which seem to be more a product of a juvenile imagination gone out of hand, rather than real life. At one time, he is playing in an "onion bar". This curious institution serves up raw onions for the patrons to cut and start crying. This results in emotional sharing. However, his drumming end up being even more powerful emotional stimulants than the onions and he finds himself fired. As a narrator, he is just not all there, but he does tell an interesting story.
The top layer of "dirt" is what helps our civilizations survive. Many great empires have died after a thousand years due in part to their destruction of this topsoil. Darwin dedicated his final career work to the exploration of topsoil production and the important role that worms played in producing more soil. The early book spends a great deal of time discussing different civilizations and the impact they had on the topsoil. Soil degradation is viewed as a significant reason for the rise and fall of empires. As populations grow, irrigation and other large scale works are needed to help support overfarmed soils. This leads to creation of government structures. Further growth leads to farming of marginal lands and erosion. Vast empires are needed to provide food for the urban areas. Eventually, the degradation puts the society on the edge, and a small climatic change or weather anomaly can push the society over the edge. "Empire" food production can lead to events like the Irish Potato famine. Many people in Ireland starved due to the potato crop failure. Meanwhile, cattle were being exported from Ireland to England. 
People love to overreact to sensationalism. I remember hearing scare stories of people trying to kill kids with bad halloween candy. How many times has it actually happened? Uh, none. We have parents paranoid about their child being kidnapped, even though the odds of it happening are next to 0. Even more disturbing is when fear causes a dangerous behavior to be substituted for "safe" one out of fear. In order to avoid all the "danger" out there, parents drive their kids excessively, exposing them to one of the most common causes of death. The media loves to hype up new dangers, because that is what sells. Activists can use this coverage to push for new legislation to "protect" people. Alas, soften the legislation comes at great cost, without significantly increasing safety. Meanwhile, small dangers gradually create greater danger to society. (Banning cars, or limiting their maximum speed would result in a huge increase in safety, but we have gradually become accepting of the dangers.)
J. Rufus Fears attempts to extract "key themes" from world history that we can learn from. His condescending tone makes it clear that this "wisdom" is his viewpoint. Any other beliefs are not acceptable. One point he keeps returning to is that history is caused by single men making decisions. Their failure to have proper foresight lead to the fall of empires. Those that have the proper character have a lasting positive impact. He views other events and cultural currents as not being nearly as important. However, even his own lectures contradict this. Some societies (like Russia) have historically preferred a strong leader to "freedom". This background culture helped support the rise of communism. The French culture set the grounds for a revolution. The United States needed the strong rights that were part of British culture. Without this, George Washington would have never been a significant leader.
Weather Makers is such an over the top climate change book that it could turn even a true believer into a skeptic. This is in spite of its effort to present the science to help convert us to the urgency of doing something about climate change. The book presents many examples of species and land areas that are suffering due to the change in climate. It contains research on climate and the models and tools that have been used to identify the warming. However, it also presents the many feedback cycles and contravalent factors. Should we just encourage more airplane contrails to reduce the impact? Do hybrid cars really help - or is it the roads that are problems. We have been doing climate science for a half century now. How accurate were are predictions for today based on past assumptions? What assumptions have changed? 
Praise of Folly is an old book, so it can be found in free project gutenburg and kindle editions as well as librivox audibooks. It was initially written in Latin and the John Wilson translation I listened to was done a couple centuries ago and is not the easiest to follow. At the start, Erasmus makes some puns on Thomas More's name. Then he proceeds to present folly praising herself. The work ends with more of a straightforward list of good things to do with one's life. I wanted to like this book more than I did. I just had trouble working through it. It is interesting that in the early renaissance period, works were written in Latin so that they would have a large audience. though today, those are all in a "dead" language, while if they were written in the the then-provincial language of English they would continue in a modern literary tradition.
Professor Bowers had "second hand" experience with some of the great authors discussed in his lectures. William Faulkner was "author in residence" at University of Virginia. J.R.R. Tolkein taught at Oxford (before he arrived.) These authors both made his list of the 
I had watched the Life of Pi moving a while ago, and now am reading the book. It is very well written, and the author manages to sew doubts about what is real and what is fiction. The main character adopts the name Pi to avoid vulgar puns on his real French name. He lives in India where is family owns a zoo. He is extremely interested in religion and is a devout Christian, Muslim and Hindu (all this while living in a secular house.) There are a lot of interesting insights about captive animals and zoos. He compares people's city houses to the animal's zoo houses. If you took some people out of their house and drove them to the country and said they were free, they would think your crazy. Similarly, many animals are perfectly content living in the zoo. 
in Bipolar 101, I was hoping for some interesting background on the psychiatric condition. Instead, the book is geared towards people that have already been diagnosed and want help dealing with their conditions. The book has a tone that talks down to the reader. It assumes they want help with the condition, but are not eager to make the needed sacrifices. Half the book is a very general "how to live a healthy life". There are occasional mentions of bipolar, but most of it is applicable to anybody (eat healthy, exercise, sleep well.) It is very US-centric. (Can we really trust the USDA?)
Fever Crumb is set in a futuristic post-apocalyptic London. Population is now less than 100,000. A group of people that view themselves as homo-superiorous had ruled the city. However, due in part to lack of reproduction, they had been killed off by the local population. The book focuses on a group of "engineers" that work to support science regardless of who is in power. They stress rationale thought above all else, and try to avoid personal superstition and human relations. One day, however, a little girl appears on their doorstep. She is somewhat "different" with miscolored eyes. Dr. Crumb takes her in and raises her as a fully rational engineer. At 14, she is sent out to help with an archaeological site. In the process, she runs into some people that think she is one of the previous rulers. An old hunter and boy try to hunt her down, providing the drama. Eventually, new rulers come into London, with plans for moving cities. They discover Fever's parentage and Fever decides she wants to be out on her own.
In A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson starts with the beginning of the universe and works his way down. He laments the poor stats of science textbooks. They often have a few diagrams that attract you to the possibilities of learning, then let you down with very poor text. In this work, he tries to provide an accessible "history" of the world. It starts with the big bang, works through how the universe, suns and planets were formed, then goes down to describe life on earth. From here, it goes through the initial history of organisms, the evolution to different species, and the many extinction events that have taken place and the new species that have come to fill voids. The narrative follows a dual chronology approach. The author discusses key events in rough chronology that the occurred. Within the discussion of the events, he discusses the way that our knowledge of the events has unraveled, with special attention to the key figures in the discovery process. In many of the cases the "first discoverer" is disregarded by society, and only comes to light after somebody else has popularized and attached his name to the discovery (it is almost always a he). The earth has often been much hotter than it is today. (We are in part of a long term ice age.) However, global warming has a lot of uncertainties that could make matters worse. The book ends with a look at homo sapien and how he has come on the scene, with both the ability to both understand and destroy the world.
The Emperor's Soul sounded familiar when I started reading it. It turned out that I had read it before in Brandon Sanderson's 
Similar to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, My Plain Jane takes the story of Jane Eyre and spins it on its head. Here, Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre both exist in the same world. A Victorian "ghostbuster" society is trying to rationalize its existence and recruite Jane Eyre to its membership. However, Jane likes her ghost friend and doesn't want to join. There are also the advances from Rochester as well as other shenanigans going on. With this and the Eyre Affair, I've now read two books in the Jane Eyre universe that have left me totally confused as to what the actual book is about. Maybe I should try to read the original. This one, however, is rollicking good fun. 
The author divides people into four categories: Obliger, Upholder, Rebel, Questioner. I can see myself being a little bit of each, but probably reside more in the questioner category. These are just aspects of people's lives and how they "get things done". The tendencies can be used together with other different types of frameworks. Each of the tendencies has certain advantages and disadvantages. Most of these are "inbuilt", so there is not much sense in trying to change. However, it can be useful to know your tendency to help cope. A rebel will want to be in control, and will be reluctant to respond to requests to do something. Yet, they may do something just to be contrary, or they might do it to avoid being stuck doing something else. An obliger has trouble doing things for themselves, but if somebody else is depending on them, they are likely to do it. A Questioner must understand why something needs to be done. Good reasons can help them to do things. An upholder will follow the rules and do things for themselves because they are needed. Some types can work well together, while others are more challenging. Understanding people's tendencies can help you to work better with them.
Nature tends to win out over nurture when it comes to raising children. So, why are we so stressed out over the job we do parenting? Why do working moms of today spend more time with kids than stay at home moms from the 60s? In trying to focus on children instead of ourselves, we often hurt the children. Modern parents have grabbed too much responsibility for themselves, and it doesn't really matter. Children are most likely to turn out like their biological parents, regardless of how they are raised. Many twin and adoption studies show that genetics plays a significant role in adult behavior. Nurture, alas, provides some short term advantages, but little advantage for adults. These studies were mostly done with first world, middle class parents. Nurture can benefit those that are an extreme poverty. But for most middle class families, it wont make much of a difference. Alas, the book does spend a long time drilling down every facet of genetic determinism. I got the point on the first few examples, and did not need every last study. The economic and societal benefits are presented almost as afterthoughts. Our world needs children to support the elderly. Most of the improvements come through inventions. More people means we have a greater likelihood of more inventions. The "ills" of overpopulation are mostly caused by excessive consumption of resources. Don't reduce the people. Instead, reduce the excessive consumption. In the end, the author does not suggest that everyone should be a Dugger, but that we are capable of adequately raising more kids than we think we can.
I often think of Chef's as being elite, skilled professionals. They have the talent of picking out the right ingredients, preparing them properly and presenting a beautiful meal. A chef at a small mom and pop diner or an elite restaurant is exercising creative juices in an edible art. I have thought of them as being apart from the other restaurant staff, which is primarily low-wage workers (often including illegal immigrants and short-termers aspiring to do something else.) Mincement, however, portrays a different view. Chef's are the "boss" of the kitchen, but they often integrate themselves with the depravity. It is not unusual for them to be paid under the table. Fake resumes and the like are not unheard of. Experience is valuable, but as long as a chef can feed people, they can have a job. The restaurant business is not a stable one. Most restaurants are run by small scale entrepreneurs. Some know how to run a business. Many do not. The employees are used to turn over. They live a life that is filled with vices. (And these are the people feeding us?) The author lived and worked in Italy, though his experiences sound like they could have taken place anywhere.