Michael's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 14 May 2025 22:26:55 -0700 60 Michael's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[A Template for Understanding Big Debt Crises]]> 41317431 On the 10th anniversary of the 2008 financial crisis, one of the world's most successful investors, Ray Dalio, shares his unique template for how debt crises work and principles for dealing with them well. This template allowed his firm, Bridgewater Associates, to anticipate events and navigate them well while others struggled badly.

As he explained in his #1 New York Times Bestseller,Principles: Life & Work, Dalio believes that most everything happens over and over again through time so that by studying their patterns one can understand the cause-effect relationships behind them and develop principles for dealing with them well. In this 3-part research series, he does that for big debt crises and shares his template in the hopes reducing the chances of big debt crises happening and helping them be better managed in the future.

The template comes in three parts provided in three books: 1) The Archetypal Big Debt Cycle (which explains the template), 2) 3 Detailed Cases (which examines in depth the 2008 financial crisis, the 1930's Great Depression, and the 1920's inflationary depression of Germany's Weimar Republic), and 3) Compendium of 48 Cases (which is a compendium of charts and brief descriptions of the worst debt crises of the last 100 years). Whether you're an investor, a policy maker, or are simply interested, the unconventional perspective of one of the few people who navigated the crises successfully, A Template for Understanding Big Debt Crises will help you understand the economy and markets in revealing new ways.]]> 456 Ray Dalio Michael 5 4.37 2018 A Template for Understanding Big Debt Crises
author: Ray Dalio
name: Michael
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/14
date added: 2025/05/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Making of Modern Corporate Finance: A History of the Ideas and How They Help Build the Wealth of Nations]]> 219552311
Donald H. Chew, Jr., argues that answers to these questions lie in the principles and methods of “modern corporate finance.� Ideas formulated and tested by finance scholars—notably, an efficient stock market in which prices reflect the long-run values of public companies and a “market for corporate control� that exerts continuous pressure on management—informed and spurred the investor-driven capitalism that has produced the world’s most productive and valuable companies. Drawing on his career-long relationships with leading academics and practitioners, Chew profiles key figures in the development of modern corporate finance while emphasizing their counterintuitive lessons for shareholders, companies, and countries. Corporate efficiency and value creation, he contends, are the fundamental source of the social wealth essential to addressing challenges such as poverty and climate change. Lively and provocative, this book makes corporate finance approachable—and even admirable—for readers interested in how the success and failure of companies affect their lives.]]> 328 Donald Chew 0231211104 Michael 0 to-read 4.25 The Making of Modern Corporate Finance: A History of the Ideas and How They Help Build the Wealth of Nations
author: Donald Chew
name: Michael
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany]]> 767171 No other powerful empire ever bequeathed such mountains of evidence about its birth and destruction as the Third Reich. When the bitter war was over, and before the Nazis could destroy their files, the Allied demand for unconditional surrender produced an almost hour-by-hour record of the nightmare empire built by Adolph Hitler. This record included the testimony of Nazi leaders and of concentration camp inmates, the diaries of officials, transcripts of secret conferences, army orders, private letters—all the vast paperwork behind Hitler's drive to conquer the world.

The famed foreign correspondent and historian William L. Shirer, who had watched and reported on the Nazis since 1925, spent five and a half years sifting through this massive documentation. The result is a monumental study that has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of one of the most frightening chapters in the history of mankind.

This worldwide bestseller has been acclaimed as the definitive book on Nazi Germany; it is a classic work.

The accounts of how the United States got involved and how Hitler used Mussolini and Japan are astonishing, and the coverage of the war-from Germany's early successes to her eventual defeat-is must reading

]]> 1147 William L. Shirer 0671728687 Michael 5 4.20 1960 The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
author: William L. Shirer
name: Michael
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1960
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/03
date added: 2025/05/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Truth (Discworld, #25; Industrial Revolution, #2)]]> 288680
William just wants to get at THE TRUTH. Unfortunately, everyone else wants to get at William. And it's only the third edition...]]> 444 Terry Pratchett 0552147680 Michael 0 currently-reading 4.40 2000 The Truth (Discworld, #25; Industrial Revolution, #2)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Michael
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings]]> 17717
Labyrinths is a representative selection of Borges' writing, some forty pieces drawn from various books of his published over the years. The translations are by Harriet de Onis, Anthony Kerrigan, and others, including the editors, who have provided a biographical and critical introduction, as well as an extensive bibliography.]]> 260 Jorge Luis Borges 0811200124 Michael 0 to-read 4.48 1962 Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings
author: Jorge Luis Borges
name: Michael
average rating: 4.48
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate]]> 56279741 358 Isabella M. Weber 0429953968 Michael 0 currently-reading 4.38 How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate
author: Isabella M. Weber
name: Michael
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Fahrenheit 451 17470674
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.

The classic dystopian novel of a post-literate future, Fahrenheit 451 stands alongside Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World as a prophetic account of Western civilization’s enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity.

Bradbury’s powerful and poetic prose combines with uncanny insight into the potential of technology to create a novel which, decades on from first publication, still has the power to dazzle and shock.

--back cover]]> 227 Ray Bradbury 0007491565 Michael 4 4.01 1953 Fahrenheit 451
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Michael
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1953
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/21
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves:
review:

]]> The Spear Cuts Through Water 55868456 Two warriors shepherd an ancient god across a broken land to end the tyrannical reign of a royal family in this new epic fantasy from the author of The Vanished Birds.

The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family—the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors—hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace.

But that god cannot be contained forever.

With the aid of Jun, a guard broken by his guilt-stricken past, and Keema, an outcast fighting for his future, the god escapes from her royal captivity and flees from her own children, the triplet Terrors who would drag her back to her unholy prison. And so it is that she embarks with her young companions on a five-day pilgrimage in search of freedom—and a way to end the Moon Throne forever. The journey ahead will be more dangerous than any of them could have imagined.

Both a sweeping adventure story and an intimate exploration of identity, legacy, and belonging, The Spear Cuts Through Water is an ambitious and profound saga that will transport and transform you—and is like nothing you’ve ever read before.
]]> 525 Simon Jimenez 0593156595 Michael 0 to-read 4.17 2022 The Spear Cuts Through Water
author: Simon Jimenez
name: Michael
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Sword of Kaigen 41886271 A son struggling to grasp his violent future,
A father blind to the danger that threatens them all.

When the winds of war reach their peninsula, will the Matsuda family have the strength to defend their empire? Or will they tear each other apart before the true enemies even reach their shores?

High on a mountainside at the edge of the Kaigenese Empire live the most powerful warriors in the world, superhumans capable of raising the sea and wielding blades of ice. For hundreds of years, the fighters of the Kusanagi Peninsula have held the Empire’s enemies at bay, earning their frozen spit of land the name ‘The Sword of Kaigen.�

Born into Kusanagi’s legendary Matsuda family, fourteen-year-old Mamoru has always known his purpose: to master his family’s fighting techniques and defend his homeland. But when an outsider arrives and pulls back the curtain on Kaigen’s alleged age of peace, Mamoru realizes that he might not have much time to become the fighter he was bred to be. Worse, the empire he was bred to defend may stand on a foundation of lies.

Misaki told herself that she left the passions of her youth behind when she married into the Matsuda house. Determined to be a good housewife and mother, she hid away her sword, along with everything from her days as a fighter in a faraway country. But with her growing son asking questions about the outside world, the threat of an impending invasion looming across the sea, and her frigid husband grating on her nerves, Misaki finds the fighter in her clawing its way back to the surface.]]> 651 M.L. Wang Michael 0 to-read 4.46 2019 The Sword of Kaigen
author: M.L. Wang
name: Michael
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Moving Pictures (Discworld, #10; Industrial Revolution, #1)]]> 34510
But what is the dark secret of Holy Wood Hill?

As the alien clichés of Tinsel Town pour into the world, it's up to the Disc's first film stars to find out...

THRILL as Victor Tugelbend ("Can't sing. Can't dance. Can handle a sword a little") and Theda Withel ("I come from a little town you've probably never even heard of") battle the forces of evil and cinema advertising...

SCREAM as Gaspode the Wonder Dog nearly saves the day...

EAT POPCORN as you watch the filming of "Blown Away," the oddest Civil War picture ever made...

A Passionate Saga Set Against the background of a World Gone Mad!

This Will Amaze You!

With a Thousand Elephants!

("And afterwards, why not dine at Harga's House of Ribs, for the best in international cuisine; only two minutes from this book...")]]> 396 Terry Pratchett 0552152943 Michael 5 3.97 1990 Moving Pictures (Discworld, #10; Industrial Revolution, #1)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Michael
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/19
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves:
review:

]]> The Invincible 251633 The Invincible (Polish: Niezwyciężony) is a science fiction novel by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem, published in 1964. The Invincible originally appeared as the title story in Lem's collection Niezwyciężony i inne opowiadania ("The Invincible and Other Stories"). A translation into German was published in 1967; an English translation by Wendayne Ackerman, based on the German one, was published in 1973.

An interstellar 2nd-class cruiser called Invincible, lands on Regis III which seems bleakly uninhabited, to investigate the loss of sister ship, Condor.]]> 223 Stanisław Lem 0283979623 Michael 4 4.15 1964 The Invincible
author: Stanisław Lem
name: Michael
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1964
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Programmer's Introduction to Mathematics]]> 42970131
You'll learn about the central objects and theorems of mathematics, covering graphs, calculus, linear algebra, eigenvalues, optimization, and more. You'll also be immersed in the often unspoken cultural attitudes of mathematics, learning both how to read and write proofs while understanding why mathematics is the way it is. Between each technical chapter is an essay describing a different aspect of mathematical culture, and discussions of the insights and meta-insights that constitute mathematical intuition.

As you learn, we'll use new mathematical ideas to create wondrous programs, from cryptographic schemes to neural networks to hyperbolic tessellations. Each chapter also contains a set of exercises that have you actively explore mathematical topics on your own. By the end of the book, you will be able to learn mathematics on your own. In short, this book will teach you to engage with mathematics.]]> 378 Jeremy Kun 1727125452 Michael 0 to-read 4.16 A Programmer's Introduction to Mathematics
author: Jeremy Kun
name: Michael
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip]]> 211399783 “Stephen Witt’s deep reporting shines through every page of The Thinking Machine. The result is a page-turning biography of perhaps the most consequential CEO and company in the world.� —David Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of Range

Nvidia is as valuable as Apple and Microsoft. It has shaped the world as we know it. But its story is little known. This is the definitive story of the greatest technology company of our times.

In June of 2024, thirty-one years after its founding in a Denny’s restaurant, Nvidia became the most valuable corporation on Earth. The Thinking Machine is the astonishing story of how a designer of video game equipment conquered the market for AI hardware, and in the process re-invented the computer.

Essential to Nvidia’s meteoric success is its visionary CEO Jensen Huang, who more than a decade ago, on the basis of a few promising scientific results, bet his entire company on AI. Through unprecedented access to Huang, his friends, his investors, and his employees, Witt documents for the first time the company’s epic rise and its single-minded and ferocious leader, now one of Silicon Valley’s most influential figures.

The Thinking Machine is the story of how Nvidia evolved to supplying hundred-million-dollar supercomputers. It is the story of a determined entrepreneur who defied Wall Street to push his radical vision for computing, becoming one of the wealthiest men alive. It is the story of a revolution in computer architecture, and the small group of renegade engineers who made it happen. And it’s the story of our awesome and terrifying AI future, which Huang has billed as the ‘next industrial revolution,� as a new kind of microchip unlocks hyper-realistic avatars, autonomous robots, self-driving cars, and new movies, art, and books, generated on command.

This is the story of the company that is inventing the future.]]> 272 Stephen Witt 0593832698 Michael 0 to-read 4.29 The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip
author: Stephen Witt
name: Michael
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How Not To Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behaviors that destroy wealth - and how to avoid them]]> 211004099 496 Barry Ritholtz 1804091197 Michael 0 to-read 4.08 How Not To Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behaviors that destroy wealth - and how to avoid them
author: Barry Ritholtz
name: Michael
average rating: 4.08
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Collegiate Casting-Out of Devilish Devices (Discworld, #37.5)]]> 13556674
Wizards at Terry Pratchett's Unseen University can fight black magic, but can they withstand the grey array of targets, inspections and research assessments?]]> 6 Terry Pratchett Michael 4 3.83 2005 A Collegiate Casting-Out of Devilish Devices (Discworld, #37.5)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Michael
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[No Trade Is Free: Changing Course, Taking on China, and Helping America's Workers]]> 62191013 384 Robert Lighthizer 0063282135 Michael 4 4.00 No Trade Is Free: Changing Course, Taking on China, and Helping America's Workers
author: Robert Lighthizer
name: Michael
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies]]> 1842
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a national bestseller: the global account of the rise of civilization that is also a stunning refutation of ideas of human development based on race.

In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed writing, technology, government, and organized religion—as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war—and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth Club of California's Gold Medal]]> 498 Jared Diamond 0739467352 Michael 3 4.04 1997 Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
author: Jared Diamond
name: Michael
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America]]> 214152292 As relevant as it is comprehensive, Red Scare tells the story of McCarthyism and the Red Scare—based in part on newly declassified sources—by an award-winning writer of history and New York Times reporter.

The film Oppenheimer has awakened interest in this vital period of American history. Now, for the first time in a generation, Red Scare presents a narrative history of the anti-Communist witch hunt that gripped America in the decade following World War II. The cultural phenomenon, most often referred to as McCarthyism, was an outgrowth of the conflict between social conservatives and New Deal progressives, coupled with the terrifying onset of the Cold War. This defining moment in American history, unlike any that preceded it, was marked by an unprecedented degree of political hysteria. Drawing upon newly declassified documents, journalist Clay Risen recounts how politicians like Joseph McCarthy, with the help of an extended network of other government officials and organizations, systematically ruined thousands of lives in their deluded pursuit of alleged Communist conspiracies.

Beginning with the origins of the era after WWI through to its conclusion in 1957, Risen brings to life the politics, patriotism, opportunism, courage, and delirium of those years through the lives and experiences of a cast of towering historical figures, including President Eisenhower, Roy Cohn, Paul Robeson, Robert Oppenheimer, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Richard Nixon, and many more individuals known and unknown. Red Scare takes us beyond the familiar story of McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklists to a fuller understanding of what the country went through at a time of moral questioning and perceived threat from the left, and what we were capable of doing to each other as a result.

An urgent, accessible, and important history, Red Scare reveals an all-too-familiar pattern of illiberal conspiracy-mongering and political and cultural backlash that speaks directly to the antagonism and divisiveness of our contemporary moment.]]> 480 Clay Risen 1982141808 Michael 0 to-read 4.19 Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America
author: Clay Risen
name: Michael
average rating: 4.19
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stalin's War: A New History of World War II]]> 54815264 A major new history of the Second World War by a prize-winning historian

We remember World War II as a struggle between good and evil, with Hitler propelling events and the Allied powers saving the day. But Hitler's armies did not fight in multiple theaters, his empire did not span the Eurasian continent, and he did not inherit the spoils of war. That role belonged to Joseph Stalin. Hitler's genocidal ambition may have unleashed Armageddon, but as celebrated historian Sean McMeekin shows, the conflicts that emerged were the result of Stalin's maneuverings, orchestrated to unleash a war between capitalist powers in Europe and between Japan and the Anglo-American forces in the Pacific. Meanwhile, the United States and Britain's self-defeating strategy of supporting Stalin and his armies at all costs allowed the Soviets to conquer most of Eurasia, from Berlin to Beijing, for Communism.

A groundbreaking reassessment, Stalin's War is essential reading for anyone looking to understand the roots of the current world order.]]> 768 Sean McMeekin 1541672798 Michael 0 to-read 4.25 2021 Stalin's War: A New History of World War II
author: Sean McMeekin
name: Michael
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Edgedancer (The Stormlight Archive, #2.5)]]> 34703445 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, a special gift edition of Edgedancer, a short novel of the Stormlight Archive.

Three years ago, Lift asked a goddess to stop her from growing older--a wish she believed was granted. Now, in Edgedancer, the barely teenage nascent Knight Radiant finds that time stands still for no one. Although the young Azish emperor granted her safe haven from an executioner she knows only as Darkness, court life is suffocating the free-spirited Lift, who can't help heading to Yeddaw when she hears the relentless Darkness is there hunting people like her with budding powers. The downtrodden in Yeddaw have no champion, and Lift knows she must seize this awesome responsibility.

]]> 272 Brandon Sanderson 1250166543 Michael 3 4.14 2016 Edgedancer (The Stormlight Archive, #2.5)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Michael
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves:
review:

]]> Abundance 176444106 Abundance is a once-in-a-generation, paradigm-shifting call to rethink big, entrenched problems that seem mired in systemic from climate change to housing, education to healthcare.

To trace the global history of the twenty-first century so far is to trace a history of growing unaffordability and shortage. After years of refusing to build sufficient housing, the entire country has a national housing crisis. After years of slashing immigration, we don’t have enough workers. After decades of off-shoring manufacturing, we have a shortage of chips for cars and computers. Despite decades of being warned about the consequences of climate change, we haven’t built anything close to the clean energy infrastructure we need. The crisis that’s clicking into focus now has been building for decades—because we haven’t been building enough.

Abundance explains that our problems today are not the results of yesteryear’s villains. Rather, one generation’s solutions have become the next generation’s problems. Rules and regulations designed to solve the environmental problems of the 1970s often prevent urban density and green energy projects that would help solve the environmental problems of the 2020s. Laws meant to ensure that government considers the consequences of its actions in matters of education and healthcare have made it too difficult for government to act consequentially. In the last few decades, our capacity to see problems has sharpened while our ability to solve them has diminished.

Progress requires the ability to see promise rather than just peril in the creation of new ideas and projects, and an instinct to design systems and institutions that make building possible. In a book exploring how can move from a liberalism that not only protects and preserves but also builds, Klein and Thompson trace the political, economic, and cultural barriers to progress and how we can adopt a mindset directed toward abundance, and not scarcity, to overcome them.]]> 304 Ezra Klein 1668023482 Michael 0 to-read 4.10 2025 Abundance
author: Ezra Klein
name: Michael
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Creative Accounting, Fraud and International Accounting Scandals]]> 11255897 576 Michael Jones 0470057653 Michael 0 to-read 4.27 2010 Creative Accounting, Fraud and International Accounting Scandals
author: Michael Jones
name: Michael
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[International Monetary Cooperation: Lessons from the Plaza Accord after Thirty Years]]> 30075803 300 C. Fred Bergsten Michael 0 to-read 3.00 International Monetary Cooperation: Lessons from the Plaza Accord after Thirty Years
author: C. Fred Bergsten
name: Michael
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2)]]> 17332218 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance, Book Two of the Stormlight Archive, continues the immersive fantasy epic that The Way of Kings began.

Expected by his enemies to die the miserable death of a military slave, Kaladin survived to be given command of the royal bodyguards, a controversial first for a low-status "darkeyes." Now he must protect the king and Dalinar from every common peril as well as the distinctly uncommon threat of the Assassin, all while secretly struggling to master remarkable new powers that are somehow linked to his honorspren, Syl.

The Assassin, Szeth, is active again, murdering rulers all over the world of Roshar, using his baffling powers to thwart every bodyguard and elude all pursuers. Among his prime targets is Highprince Dalinar, widely considered the power behind the Alethi throne. His leading role in the war would seem reason enough, but the Assassin's master has much deeper motives.

Brilliant but troubled Shallan strives along a parallel path. Despite being broken in ways she refuses to acknowledge, she bears a terrible burden: to somehow prevent the return of the legendary Voidbringers and the civilization-ending Desolation that will follow. The secrets she needs can be found at the Shattered Plains, but just arriving there proves more difficult than she could have imagined.

Meanwhile, at the heart of the Shattered Plains, the Parshendi are making an epochal decision. Hard pressed by years of Alethi attacks, their numbers ever shrinking, they are convinced by their war leader, Eshonai, to risk everything on a desperate gamble with the very supernatural forces they once fled. The possible consequences for Parshendi and humans alike, indeed, for Roshar itself, are as dangerous as they are incalculable.]]> 1088 Brandon Sanderson 0765326361 Michael 5 4.76 2014 Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Michael
average rating: 4.76
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[This Inevitable Ruin (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #7)]]> 216017751 The time has come! Book seven in the bestselling Dungeon Crawler Carl series is here!

They call it Faction Wars.

The ninth floor.

Nine armies, each led by rich and powerful aliens from across the galaxy. Each team has one objective: to capture and hold the castle at the very center of the battlefield. Strategy, alliances, pitched battles, and, of course, betrayal... It all makes for great fun and even greater television.

After all, none of these powerful aliens really die when they’re playing war.

Except this time. This time, winner takes all. Those who fall, stay in the ground.

As the AI continues its rapid decline, Carl and company take advantage of the chaos. For the first time ever, the crawlers are fighting back. They are now one of the nine teams. And this season, there’s a tenth army on the playing field. The NPCs, who are normally used as nothing but cannon fodder, have become fully self-aware and formed a team of their own.

For Donut and Katia, the stakes are even higher. Only one of them will be allowed to leave this level.

If they all want to survive, they’re going to need a little help from a veteran or two.

This is it.
This is what they’ve been fighting toward.
This is war.

This inevitable ruin.]]> 724 Matt Dinniman Michael 5 4.63 2024 This Inevitable Ruin (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #7)
author: Matt Dinniman
name: Michael
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare]]> 213870122 The epic story of how America turned the world economy into a weapon, upending decades of globalization to take on a new authoritarian axis—Russia, China, and Iran.

It used to be that ravaging another country’s economy required blockading its ports and laying siege to its cities. Now all it takes is a statement posted online by the U.S. government.

In Chokepoints, Edward Fishman, a former top State Department sanctions official, takes us deep into the back rooms of power to reveal the untold history of the last two decades of U.S. foreign policy, in which America renounced the gospel of globalization and waged a new kind of economic war. As Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Ayatollah Khamenei wreaked havoc on the world stage, mavericks within the U.S. government built a fearsome new arsenal of economic weapons, exploiting America’s dominance in global finance and technology. Successive U.S. presidents have relied on these unconventional weapons to address the most pressing national-security threats, for good and for ill.

Chokepoints provides a thrilling account of one of the most critical geopolitical developments of our time, demystifying the complex strategies the U.S. government uses to harness the power of Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Big Oil against America’s enemies. At the center of the narrative is an eclectic group of policy innovators: the diplomats, lawyers, and financial whizzes who’ve masterminded America’s escalating economic wars against Russia, China, and Iran.

Control over economic chokepoints—such as the U.S. dollar, advanced microchip technology, and critical energy supply chains—has become the key to geopolitical power in the twenty-first century. The result is a new world order: an economic arms race among great powers and a fracturing global economy. Chokepoints is the definitive account of how America pioneered a new, hard-hitting style of economic warfare—and how it’s changing the world.]]> 560 Edward Fishman 0593712978 Michael 0 to-read 4.48 2025 Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare
author: Edward Fishman
name: Michael
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made]]> 10885 864 Walter Isaacson 0684837714 Michael 0 to-read 4.08 1986 The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made
author: Walter Isaacson
name: Michael
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve]]> 369704
"The outcome [of this book] is a summing up of my life's work. . . As I finish the book, I feel I have succeeded."-George Soros from the Preface

Critical praise for Soros on Soros

"If you have ever wanted to sit down for a candid conversation with a phenomenal financial success, George Soros's book provides the opportunity. You will meet a complex man and a first-rate mind."-Henry A. Kissinger

"The best expert on Soros is undoubtedly George Soros! After all, who is better equipped to tell us what he really thinks and how he thinks, a matter of some importance given the fact that he has translated a remarkable personal financial success into a truly generous and historically significant effort to promote postcommunist democracy." -Zbigniew Brzezinski

"The best X-ray of the mind of the master yet." -Barton M. Biggs

"George Soros brings a lot more to the world of finance than the intuition and nerve of a born trader-and in Soros on Soros he's no longer bashful about telling us about it. A philosopher at heart, George attributes his success at investing to a theory of the interaction of reality and human perception. What really drives the man now, with a personal fortune beyond all personal need, is a different kind of strategic investing-investment to build in Eastern Europe the kind of open societies he came to value in his own life." -Paul A. Volcker

Financial guru George Soros is one of the most colorful and intriguing figures in the financial world today. Now in Soros on Soros, readers are given their most intimate and revealing look yet into the life and mind of the one BusinessWeek dubbed, "The Man Who Moves Markets."

Soros on Soros interweaves financial theory and personal reminiscence, political analysis and moral reflection to offer a compelling portrait of the world (and its markets) according to Soros. In an interview-style narrative with Byron Wien, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, and with German journalist Krisztina Koenen, Soros vividly describes the genesis of his brilliant financial career and shares his views on investing and global finance, politics and the emerging world order, and the responsibility of power.

Speaking with remarkable candor, he traces his progress from Holocaust survivor to philosophy student, unsuccessful tobacco salesman to the world's most powerful and profitable trader and introduces us to the people and events that helped shape his character and his often controversial views.

In describing the investment theories and financial strategies that have made him "a superstar among money managers" (The New York Times), Soros tells the fascinating story of the phenomenally successful Soros Fund Management and its $12 billion flagship, Quantum Fund. He also offers fresh insights into some of his most sensational wins and losses, including a firsthand account of the $1 billion he made going up against the British pound and the fortune he lost speculating on the yen. Plus: Soros's take on the devaluation of the peso and currency fluctuations internationally.

He tells of the personal and professional crises that more than once threatened to destroy him and of the personal resources he drew upon to turn defeat into resounding victory. And he explains his motivations for establishing the Soros Foundation and the Open Society Institute through which he worked to build open societies in postcommunist countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Finally, turning his attention to international politics, Soros offers keen insights into the current state of affairs in Russia and the former communist bloc countries and analyzes the reasons behind and likely consequences of the West's failure to properly integrate them into the free world. He also explores the crisis of the ERM and analyzes the pros and cons of investing in a number of emerging markets.

Find out what makes one of the greatest financial wizards of this or any age tick. Soros on Soros is a must read for anyone interested in world finance and international policy.]]> 336 George Soros 0471119776 Michael 0 to-read 3.73 1994 Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve
author: George Soros
name: Michael
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters]]> 17707481 Things looked grim for American energy in 2006. Oilproduction was in steep decline and natural gas washard to find. The Iraq War threatened the nation’salready tenuous relations with the Middle East.China was rapidly industrializing and competing forresources. Major oil companies had just about givenup on new discoveries on U.S. soil, and a new energycrisis seemed likely.
But a handful of men believed everything wasabout to change.

Far from the limelight, Aubrey McClendon,Harold Hamm, Mark Papa, and other wildcatterswere determined to tap massive deposits of oil andgas that Exxon, Chevron, and other giants had dismissedas a waste of time. By experimenting withhydraulic fracturing through extremely dense shale—a process now known as fracking—the wildcattersstarted a revolution. In just a few years, they solvedAmerica’s dependence on imported energy, triggereda global environmental controversy—and made andlost astonishing fortunes.
No one understands these men—their ambitions,personalities, methods, and foibles—betterthan the award-winning Wall Street Journal reporterGregory Zuckerman. His exclusive access enabledhim to get close to the frackers and chronicle theuntold story of how they transformed the nation andthe world. The result is a dramatic narrative trackinga brutal competition among headstrong drillers.It stretches from the barren fields of North Dakotaand the rolling hills of northeastern Pennsylvaniato cluttered pickup trucks in Texas and tense WallStreet boardrooms.

Activists argue that the same methods that arecreating so much new energy are also harming ourwater supply and threatening environmental chaos. The Frackers tells the story of the angry oppositionunleashed by this revolution and explores just howdangerous fracking really is.
The frackers have already transformed the economic,environmental, and geopolitical course ofhistory. Now, like the Rockefellers and the Gettysbefore them, they’re using their wealth and power toinfluence politics, education, entertainment, sports,and many other fields. Their story is one of the mostimportant of our time.


MEET THE FRACKERS
GEORGE MITCHELL, the son of a Greek goatherd, who tried to tap rock that experts deemedworthless but faced an unexpected obstacle in his quest to change history.

AUBREY McCLENDON, the charismatic scion of an Oklahoma energy family, who scored billionsleading a historic land grab. He wasn’t prepared for the shocking fallout of his discoveries.
TOM WARD, who overcame a troubled childhood to become one of the nation’s wealthiestmen. He could handle natural-gas fields but had more trouble with a Wall Street power broker.
HAROLD HAMM, the son of poor sharecroppers, who believed America had more oil thananyone imagined. Hamm was determined to find the crude before others caught on.
CHARIF SOUKI, the dashing Lebanese immigrant who saw his career crumble and his fortunedisintegrate, leaving one last, unlikely chance for success.
MARK PAPA, the Enron castoff who panicked when he realized a resurgence of Americannatural gas was at hand, one that his company wasn’t prepared for.]]> 416 Gregory Zuckerman 1591846455 Michael 0 to-read 3.95 2013 The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters
author: Gregory Zuckerman
name: Michael
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sinophagia: A Celebration of Chinese Horror]]> 176443047
A sister to Ni’s British Fantasy Award-nominated anthology, A Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction, Sinophagia collects 14 dazzling tales of contemporary Chinese horror that have been translated into English for the very first time.

This collection has been carefully curated, to go beyond people’s expectations, of hopping vampires and hanging ghosts. It provides a fascinating insight into the psyche of modern China - and is absolutely spine chilling.

It includes a wide range of voices, from China’s most well-known creepy story tellers to bold upcoming writers with a sense of urban horror - a truly ground-breaking collection.]]> 448 Xueting Christine Ni 183786117X Michael 4 4.00 2024 Sinophagia: A Celebration of Chinese Horror
author: Xueting Christine Ni
name: Michael
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves:
review:

]]> The Perfect Run III 60001274
Ryan Romano has done it. He has gathered information about all the villains threatening New Rome. He listed all the people he wants to protect. He knows which places he has to blow up and which car he has to steal. All that's left is going back in time one final time, achieve the perfect sequence of events, save everyone, get the girl, and defeat the ultimate enemy.

It's time for the Perfect Run.]]> 656 Maxime J. Durand Michael 0 4.55 The Perfect Run III
author: Maxime J. Durand
name: Michael
average rating: 4.55
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves:
review:

]]> The Perfect Run II 59130176
Ryan "Quicksave" Romano has begun a new time-loop. His goal? To prevent New Rome's destruction at the hands of the vicious Meta-Gang. To do so, our favorite courier must explore both sides of the law: to become a corporate superhero in one loop, and a scenery-chewing supervillain in the next!

But not is all as it seems. What is this heavy secret that the Dynamis corporation keeps hidden from him? Who is this person who seems to remember events from the previous loop? And most importantly, where did his cashmere suit go?]]> 653 Maxime J. Durand Michael 0 4.56 The Perfect Run II
author: Maxime J. Durand
name: Michael
average rating: 4.56
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves:
review:

]]> The Perfect Run 57065516
Ryan only sees different routes; and from Hero to Villain, he has to try them all. Only then will he achieve his perfect ending... no matter how many loops it takes.]]> 667 Maxime J. Durand Michael 0 4.32 2021 The Perfect Run
author: Maxime J. Durand
name: Michael
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves:
review:

]]> A Gentleman in Moscow 34066798 The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers—Now a Paramount+ with Showtime series starring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov

From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.]]> 462 Amor Towles Michael 0 4.28 2016 A Gentleman in Moscow
author: Amor Towles
name: Michael
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Strategists: Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Mussolini, and Hitler--How War Made Them and How They Made War]]> 206780468 Churchill. Hitler. Stalin. Mussolini. Roosevelt. Five of the most impactful leaders of WW2, each with their own individualistic and idiosyncratic approach to warfare. But if we want to understand their military strategy, we must first understand the strategist.

In The Strategists, Professor Phillips Payson O'Brien shows how the views these five leaders forged in WW1 are crucial to understanding how they fought WW2. For example, Churchill's experiences of facing the German Army in France in 1916 made him unwilling to send masses of British soldiers back there in the 1940s, while Hitler's mistakes on the Eastern Front were influenced by his reluctance to accept that conditions had changed since his own time fighting. The implications of the power of leaders remain with us to this to truly understand what is happening in Ukraine, for example, requires us to know what has influenced the leaders involved.

This is a history in which leaders—and their choices—matter. For better or worse.]]> 544 Phillips Payson O'Brien 1524746487 Michael 0 to-read 4.17 The Strategists: Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Mussolini, and Hitler--How War Made Them and How They Made War
author: Phillips Payson O'Brien
name: Michael
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Vainqueur the Dragon (Vainqueur the Dragon, #1)]]> 48915911 515 Maxime J. Durand Michael 0 to-read 4.18 2019 Vainqueur the Dragon (Vainqueur the Dragon, #1)
author: Maxime J. Durand
name: Michael
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Unsouled (Cradle, #1) 30558257
Lindon is Unsouled, forbidden to learn the sacred arts of his clan.

When faced with a looming fate he cannot ignore, he must defy his family's rules...and forge his own Path.]]> 294 Will Wight Michael 0 to-read 4.16 2016 Unsouled (Cradle, #1)
author: Will Wight
name: Michael
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Way of Shadows (Night Angel, #1)]]> 3227063 New York Times Bestselling author Brent Weeks...
For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art-and he is the city's most accomplished artist.

For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he's grown up in the slums, and learned to judge people quickly - and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint.

But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins' world of dangerous politics and strange magics - and cultivate a flair for death.]]> 645 Brent Weeks 0316033677 Michael 0 to-read 4.15 2008 The Way of Shadows (Night Angel, #1)
author: Brent Weeks
name: Michael
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Invisible China: How the Urban-Rural Divide Threatens China’s Rise]]> 51941583 248 Scott Rozelle 022673952X Michael 0 to-read 4.21 Invisible China: How the Urban-Rural Divide Threatens China’s Rise
author: Scott Rozelle
name: Michael
average rating: 4.21
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Beastmaking: A fingers-first approach to becoming a better climber]]> 58936071
Beastmaking by Ned Feehally is a book about training for climbing.

It is designed to provide normal people � like you and me � with the tools we need to get the most out of our climbing.

It is written by one of the world’s top climbers and a co-founder of Beastmaker.

It features sections on finger strength, fingerboarding, board training, mobility and core, and includes suggested exercises and workouts.

There are insights from some of the world’s top climbers, including Alex Honnold, Shauna Coxsey, Adam Ondra, Alex Puccio and Tomoa Narasaki.

Free from jargon, it is intended to provide enough information for us to work out what we need to train, and to help us to train it.]]> 224 Ned Feehally 1839810092 Michael 4 4.40 Beastmaking: A fingers-first approach to becoming a better climber
author: Ned Feehally
name: Michael
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Magician: Apprentice (The Riftwar Saga, #1)]]> 13812 here.

To the forest on the shore of the Kingdom of the Isles, the orphan Pug came to study with the master magician Kulgan. His courage won him a place at court and the heart of a lovely Princess, but he was ill at ease with normal wizardry. Yet his strange magic may save two worlds from dark beings who opened spacetime to renew the age-old battle between Order and Chaos.]]> 485 Raymond E. Feist 0553564943 Michael 0 to-read 4.18 1982 Magician: Apprentice (The Riftwar Saga, #1)
author: Raymond E. Feist
name: Michael
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Kaput: The End of the German Miracle]]> 214631090 'Compelling' Guardian

'Eloquent and comprehensive' Financial Times

'Excellent' The Telegraph

'Astonishing' The Times

'An eye-opener' Gavin Esler

Until recently, Germany appeared to be a paragon of economic and political success. But recent events � from Germany's dependence on Russian gas to its car industry's delays in the race to electric � have undermined this view.

In Kaput, Wolfgang Münchau argues that the weaknesses of Germany's economy have, in fact, been brewing for decades. The close connections between the country's industrial and political elite have left Germany technologically behind, over-reliant on authoritarian Russia and China, and with little sign of being able to adapt to the digital realities of the twenty-first century. It is an essential read for anyone interested in the future of Europe's most important economy.]]> 220 Wolfgang Münchau 1800753446 Michael 5
An austerity mindset has led to a massive underinvestment domestically over decades, quite visible these days at the crumbling infrastructure in many places across Germany. I view this austerity mindset by German politicians as one of the main factors on how miserable the Eurocrisis has evolved and was handled, essentially forcing Europe into a prolonged economic slump ('Crashed' by Adam Tooze is an excellent read on this).

Geopolitically, the lack of foresight has led them into over-dependency on both Russia (cheap energy imports / view Russia as their "Hinterland" for commodities) and overly reliant on China as a key export + growth market. While the former has backfired through Russia's increasingly aggressive military stance culminating in the war in Ukraine, the latter has turned on them as China has caught up + overtaken them in technology / innovation / competitiveness.]]> 4.15 2024 Kaput: The End of the German Miracle
author: Wolfgang Münchau
name: Michael
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves:
review:
Kaput is an excellent and detailed analysis on Germany's neo-mercantilist economic model, what has worked and what has stopped working - partly because the world has changed, partly because the model was always bound to run into some of these challenges. The German model is in many ways quite similar to China's economic growth model, be it the state intervention of funneling bank funding into politically defined key industries, to the imbalance of export orientation vs weak domestic consumption and the view that an export surplus is "winning". This has led to lack of innovation through resistance of creative destruction, lack of innovation in digital industries (fueled by general mistrust of digitization) and misallocation of capital.

An austerity mindset has led to a massive underinvestment domestically over decades, quite visible these days at the crumbling infrastructure in many places across Germany. I view this austerity mindset by German politicians as one of the main factors on how miserable the Eurocrisis has evolved and was handled, essentially forcing Europe into a prolonged economic slump ('Crashed' by Adam Tooze is an excellent read on this).

Geopolitically, the lack of foresight has led them into over-dependency on both Russia (cheap energy imports / view Russia as their "Hinterland" for commodities) and overly reliant on China as a key export + growth market. While the former has backfired through Russia's increasingly aggressive military stance culminating in the war in Ukraine, the latter has turned on them as China has caught up + overtaken them in technology / innovation / competitiveness.
]]> <![CDATA[The New Market Wizards: Conversations with America's Top Traders (Market Wizards, #2)]]> 787719 512 Jack D. Schwager 0887306675 Michael 5 4.24 1992 The New Market Wizards: Conversations with America's Top Traders (Market Wizards, #2)
author: Jack D. Schwager
name: Michael
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Why We're Polarized 52098718
Why We’re Polarized reveals the structural and psychological forces behind America’s descent into division and dysfunction. Neither a polemic nor a lament, it offers a clear framework for understanding everything from Donald Trump’s rise to the Democratic Party’s leftward shift to the politicization of everyday culture.]]> 336 Ezra Klein 147670032X Michael 0 to-read 4.19 2020 Why We're Polarized
author: Ezra Klein
name: Michael
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle (Principles)]]> 210084984 Do big government debts and fast rates of adding to them threaten our collective well-being? In this groundbreaking analysis, Ray Dalio, one of the greatest investors of our time and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Principles, shares the reasons behind his fears for the US debt markets, answering some of the most important market and economic questions we now Are there limits to debt growth? Can a big, important reserve currency country like the US really go broke? Is there such a thing as a “Big Debt Cycle� that can tell us when to worry about debt and what to do about it?

For decades, politicians, policymakers, and investors have debated these questions, but the Big Debt Cycle that helps answer them is not talked about or well understood. With the US debt issue coming to a head, Dalio’s How Countries Go Broke provides the first-ever detailed analysis of the Big Debt Cycle, explaining its implications and offering a surprisingly straightforward solution to getting debt problems like the ones the US faces under control.

Dalio has built his career as a leading global macro investor by studying the patterns of history to develop unconventional perspectives on what’s happening in markets and economies today. It was this approach that led him, in the years leading up to the 2008 Great Financial Crisis, to study the Great Depression and other past big debt crises and use what he learned to navigate the turbulent markets successfully. By looking closely at thirty-five cases over the past 100 years when governments have gone broke and studying the mechanics behind them, Dalio has developed a first-of-its-kind template for what to watch for and what to do when the threat is significant as his measures show that it now is. He has discussed this template with treasury secretaries and central bankers from around the world and is now sharing it with the public to help bring urgent attention to the big risks the US and a number of other countries face—and to explain how to avoid the worst-case scenario.]]> 400 Ray Dalio 1501124064 Michael 0 to-read 4.40 How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle (Principles)
author: Ray Dalio
name: Michael
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Between Two Fires 13543121
Is it delirium or is it faith? She believes she has seen the angels of God. She believes the righteous dead speak to her in dreams. And now she has convinced the faithless Thomas to shepherd her across a depraved landscape to Avignon. There, she tells Thomas, she will fulfill her mission to confront the evil that has devastated the earth, and to restore to this betrayed, murderous knight the nobility and hope of salvation he long abandoned.

As hell unleashes its wrath, and as the true nature of the girl is revealed, Thomas will find himself on a macabre battleground of angels and demons, saints, and the risen dead, and in the midst of a desperate struggle for nothing less than the soul of man.]]> 432 Christopher Buehlman 1937007863 Michael 3 4.20 2012 Between Two Fires
author: Christopher Buehlman
name: Michael
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power]]> 13372977 Private Empire Steve Coll investigates the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States, revealing the true extent of its power. ExxonMobil’s annual revenues are larger than the economic activity in the great majority of countries. In many of the countries where it conducts business, ExxonMobil’s sway over politics and security is greater than that of the United States embassy. In Washington, ExxonMobil spends more money lobbying Congress and the White House than almost any other corporation. Yet despite its outsized influence, it is a black box.

Private Empire pulls back the curtain, tracking the corporation’s recent history and its central role on the world stage, beginning with the Exxon Valdez accident in 1989 and leading to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The action spans the globe, moving from Moscow, to impoverished African capitals, Indonesia, and elsewhere in heart-stopping scenes that feature kidnapping cases, civil wars, and high-stakes struggles at the Kremlin. At home, Coll goes inside ExxonMobil’s K Street office and corporation headquarters in Irving, Texas, where top executives in the “God Pod� (as employees call it) oversee an extraordinary corporate culture of discipline and secrecy.

The narrative is driven by larger than life characters, including corporate legend Lee “Iron Ass� Raymond, ExxonMobil’s chief executive until 2005. A close friend of Dick Cheney’s, Raymond was both the most successful and effective oil executive of his era and an unabashed skeptic about climate change and government regulation.. This position proved difficult to maintain in the face of new science and political change and Raymond’s successor, current ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson, broke with Raymond’s programs in an effort to reset ExxonMobil’s public image. The larger cast includes countless world leaders, plutocrats, dictators, guerrillas, and corporate scientists who are part of ExxonMobil’s colossal story.

The first hard-hitting examination of ExxonMobil, Private Empire is the masterful result of Coll’s indefatigable reporting. He draws here on more than four hundred interviews; field reporting from the halls of Congress to the oil-laden swamps of the Niger Delta; more than one thousand pages of previously classified U.S. documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act; heretofore unexamined court records; and many other sources. A penetrating, newsbreaking study, Private Empire is a defining portrait of ExxonMobil and the place of Big Oil in American politics and foreign policy.

Winner of the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 2012]]> 685 Steve Coll 1594203350 Michael 0 3.98 2012 Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power
author: Steve Coll
name: Michael
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)]]> 7235533 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, book one of The Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

Speak again the ancient oaths:

Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.

and return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.]]> 1007 Brandon Sanderson 0765326353 Michael 5 4.66 2010 The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Michael
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves:
review:
Re-reading The Way Of Kings given the release of book 5 in the Stormlight Archives and thoroughly enjoyed it! The world building, the different character arcs, how you get immersed in the story, the writing - just fantastic. The further you progress, the harder it will be to put the book down. Onward to the rest of the series.
]]> <![CDATA[An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence]]> 197055873
For too long, Africa's history has been neglected. Dominated by western narratives of slavery and colonialism, its past has been fragmented, overlooked and denied its rightful place in our global story.

Now, Zeinab Badawi guides us through Africa's spectacular history, from the origins of humanity, through ancient civilisations and medieval empires with powerful queens and kings, to the miseries of conquest and the elation of independence.

Seeking out occluded histories from across the continent, meeting with countless historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and local storytellers, and travelling through more than thirty countries, Badawi weaves together a fascinating new account of an epic, sweeping history of the oldest inhabited continent on the planet, told through the voices of Africans themselves.]]> 531 Zeinab Badawi 0753560151 Michael 0 to-read 4.03 2024 An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence
author: Zeinab Badawi
name: Michael
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Money Game 25706
"The best book there is about the stock market and all that goes with it." � The New York Times Book Review

"Anyone whose orientation is toward where the action is, where the happenings happen, should buy a copy of The Money Game and read it with due diligence." � Book World

" 'Adam Smith' is a veteran observer and commentator on the events and people of Wall Street.... His thorough knowledge of financial affairs gives his observations a great degree of authenticity. But the joy of reading this book comes from his delightful sense of humor. He is a lively and ingeniously witty writer who never stoops to acerbity. None of the solemn, sacred cows of Wall Street escapes debunking." � Library Journal]]> 272 George Goodman 0394721039 Michael 0 to-read 4.01 1967 The Money Game
author: George Goodman
name: Michael
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1967
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[House of Huawei: Inside the Secret World of China's Most Powerful Company]]> 178632559 The untold story of the mysterious family dynasty at the center of China's Huawei.

On December 1, 2018, Meng Wanzhou, daughter of Ren Zhengfei, founder and CEO of China's most powerful company, Huawei Technologies, was detained at the request of U.S. authorities as she prepared to board a flight out of Vancouver, Canada. The detention of Huawei's female scion set the U.S.-China trade skirmish on fire - and, for the first time, revealed the Ren family's prominence in Beijing's power structure.

In The Listening State, acclaimed Washington Post reporter Eva Dou exposes the untold story of the rise of Ren Zhengfei and the mysterious family dynasty at the center of Huawei, whose connections to state apparatus reveal a deeper truth about China's surveillance web and its global ambitions. Through its technologies, Huawei has helped solidify and enforce China's growing police state, in which outspoken entrepreneurs like Jack Ma have been silenced, tycoons have disappeared, and executives must put patriotism above profit.

Based on over a decade of on-the-ground reporting and an astonishing trove of confidential documents never published in English, The Listening State paints an epic story of familial and political intrigue that shines a clarifying light on how business and government work together in an authoritarian state, and how companies fit into China's international ambitions under Xi Jinping.

The story of Ren Zhengfei and Huawei exposes the human face of China's modern security state and gets to the heart of the central questions of the U.S.-China trade How did these turbocharged Chinese companies emerge? Who really controls them? And what does China's growing surveillance web mean for the Chinese people - and for the rest of the world?]]> 449 Eva Dou 0349146497 Michael 0 to-read 4.03 2025 House of Huawei: Inside the Secret World of China's Most Powerful Company
author: Eva Dou
name: Michael
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Geschichten aus der Geschichte: Eine Reise um die Welt zu außergewöhnlichen Persönlichkeiten, vergessenen Ereignissen und sagenhaften Entdeckungen]]> 125650166 Wie die Welt zu unserer wurde
Wussten Sie, dass der erste Mensch, der die Welt in einem Auto umrundete, eine Frau war? Und dass Pinguine wohlbekömmlich sind, Eisbären hingegen nicht? Die Historiker Richard Hemmer und Daniel Meßner beschäftigen sich täglich mit Geschichten, die hinter Erkenntnissen wie diesen stehen. In ihrem Buch nehmen sie uns mit auf eine Zeitreise um die Welt und zeigen in unvergleichbar unterhaltsamer Weise historische Zusammenhänge zwischen großen Entdeckungen, waghalsigen Abenteuern und beeindruckenden Errungenschaften auf � vom frühen Mittelalter bis zur Neuzeit, von der Arktis bis zum Südpolarmeer.]]> 257 Richard Hemmer 3492604684 Michael 4 4.14 2023 Geschichten aus der Geschichte: Eine Reise um die Welt zu außergewöhnlichen Persönlichkeiten, vergessenen Ereignissen und sagenhaften Entdeckungen
author: Richard Hemmer
name: Michael
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Berserk Deluxe Edition, Vol. 1]]> 42120580 Have you got the Guts? Kentaro Miura's Berserk has outraged, horrified, and delighted manga and anime fanatics since 1989, creating an international legion of hardcore devotees and inspiring a plethora of TV series, feature films, and video games. And now the badass champion of adult fantasy manga is presented in an oversized 7" x 10" deluxe hardcover edition, nearly 700 pages amassing the first three Berserk volumes, with following volumes to come to serve up the entire series in handsome bookshelf collections. No Guts, no glory!]]> 689 Kentaro Miura 1506711987 Michael 0 to-read 4.61 2019 Berserk Deluxe Edition, Vol. 1
author: Kentaro Miura
name: Michael
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Little Hatred (The Age of Madness, #1)]]> 35606041
On the blood-soaked borders of Angland, Leo dan Brock struggles to win fame on the battlefield, and defeat the marauding armies of Stour Nightfall. He hopes for help from the crown. But King Jezal's son, the feckless Prince Orso, is a man who specializes in disappointments.

Savine dan Glokta - socialite, investor, and daughter of the most feared man in the Union - plans to claw her way to the top of the slag-heap of society by any means necessary. But the slums boil over with a rage that all the money in the world cannot control.

The age of the machine dawns, but the age of magic refuses to die. With the help of the mad hillwoman Isern-i-Phail, Rikke struggles to control the blessing, or the curse, of the Long Eye. Glimpsing the future is one thing, but with the guiding hand of the First of the Magi still pulling the strings, changing it will be quite another...

]]> 480 Joe Abercrombie 031618716X Michael 0 to-read 4.45 2019 A Little Hatred (The Age of Madness, #1)
author: Joe Abercrombie
name: Michael
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Empire of Silence (The Sun Eater, #1)]]> 36454667 Hadrian Marlowe, a man revered as a hero and despised as a murderer, chronicles his tale in the galaxy-spanning debut of the Sun Eater series, merging the best of space opera and epic fantasy.

It was not his war.
On the wrong planet, at the right time, for the best reasons, Hadrian Marlowe started down a path that could only end in fire. The galaxy remembers him as a the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. They remember him as a the devil who destroyed a sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives—even the Emperor himself—against Imperial orders.
But Hadrian was not a hero. He was not a monster. He was not even a soldier.
Fleeing his father and a future as a torturer, Hadrian finds himself stranded on a strange, backwater world. Forced to fight as a gladiator and into the intrigues of a foreign planetary court, he will find himself fight a war he did not start, for an Empire he does not love, against an enemy he will never understand.]]> 753 Christopher Ruocchio 0756413028 Michael 0 to-read 4.01 2018 Empire of Silence (The Sun Eater, #1)
author: Christopher Ruocchio
name: Michael
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty]]> 12158480 Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine?

Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are?

Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence?

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities. The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories.

Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including:

- China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed andoverwhelm the West?
- Are America’s best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority?
- What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More
philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson’s breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions?

Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.]]> 529 Daron Acemoğlu 0307719219 Michael 5 4.06 2012 Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
author: Daron Acemoğlu
name: Michael
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Jesse Livermore - Boy Plunger: The Man Who Sold America Short in 1929]]> 23503758 mistakes."—Victor Niederhoffer

"That was the call of a lifetime, everyone was blind and deep into the crisis and Jesse Livermore
made $100 million going short when almost everyone else was bullish and then almost everyone else lost their shirts."—John Paulson

"His stories of making millions, were the financial equivalent of “sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll� to a
young man at the advent of his financial career."—Paul Tudor Jones

"It was an amazing day on 24th October 1929 when Jesse came home and his
wife thought they were ruined and instead he had the second best trading day
of anyone in history."—John Templeton


Who was Jesse Livermore?
Jesse Livermore, was the most successful stock and commodities
trader that ever operated on the stock markets. He was both the
man who made the most money in a single day and the man who
lost the most money in a single day. In fact he made and lost three
great fortunes between 1900 and 1940.

Singlehandedly he caused the two great Wall Street crashes of
1907 and 1929, making millions from both. When he speculated he
speculated big and was known on Wall Street as the Boy Plunger.
For a brief period in the early 1930s he was one of the world’s
richest men with a personal fortune believed to be worth over
$150 million, $100 million of that earned in just a few days from
the Wall Street crash of 1929. In the end it was too extreme a
change of fortunes for any man to cope with and Livermore shot
himself in a New York hotel lobby in 1940 aged just 63. His legacy
continued and his son, Jesse jr later also committed suicide as
did his grandson, Jesse III.

In the summer of 1929 most people believed that the stock market would
continue to rise forever. Wall Street was enjoying a eight-year winning run
that had seen the Dow Jones increase 1,000 per cent from the start of
the decade - an unprecedented rise. The Dow peaked at 381 on 3rd
September and later that day the most respected economist of the day,
Irving Fisher, declared that the rise was “permanent�. One man vigorously
disagreed and sold $300 million worth of shares short. Two weeks later the
market began falling and rising again on successive days for no apparent
reason. This situation endured for a month until what became famously
known as the three ‘black� On Black Thursday 24th October the Dow
fell 11% at the opening bell, prompting absolute chaos. The fall was stalled
when leading financiers of the day clubbed together to buy huge quantities
of shares. But it was short-lived succor and over that weekend blanket
negative newspaper commentary caused the second of the ‘black� days
on Black Monday 26th October when the market dropped another 13%.
The third ‘black� day, Black Tuesday 29th October saw the market drop a
further 12%. When the dust had settled, between the 24th and 29th October,
Wall Street had lost $30 billion. Only much later did it became known
that the man who had sold short $300 million worth of shares was Jesse
Livermore. Livermore had made $100 million and overnight became one
of the richest men in the world. It remains, adjusted for inflation, the most
money ever made by any individual in a period of seven days. This is the
story of that man.]]> 400 Tom Rubython 0990619915 Michael 0 to-read 4.47 2014 Jesse Livermore - Boy Plunger: The Man Who Sold America Short in 1929
author: Tom Rubython
name: Michael
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders (Market Wizards, #1)]]> 966769
This classic interview-style investment text from a financial expert is a must-read for traders and professional financiers alike, as well as anyone interested in gaining insight into how the world of finance really works.Filled with anecdotes about market experiences, including the story of a trader who after wiping out several times, turned $30,000 into $80 million and an electrical engineer from MIT whose computerized trading has earned returns of 250,000 percent over sixteen yearsIdentifies the factors that define a successful traderNow availabe as in digital formats.

One of the most insightful, bestselling trading books of all time.]]> 480 Jack D. Schwager 0887306101 Michael 5 4.26 1989 Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders (Market Wizards, #1)
author: Jack D. Schwager
name: Michael
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Unruly: Fighting Back when Politics, AI, and Law Upend the Rules of Business]]> 217289690 A bold exploration of modern business risk in a volatile world where traditional rules no longer apply

In Fighting Back when Politics, AI, and Law Upend the Rules of Business, co-founder of software company Hence Technologies and former Global Deputy CEO of Eurasia Group, Sean West, delivers a startlingly insightful new take on how politics, technology and law are converging to upend the rules of business, generating dangerous risks and incredible opportunities. West convincingly argues that we must understand all three factors to get leverage over the future � a future filled with eroding rule of law, deepfakes that upend elections and court decisions, government pressure for businesses to be patriotic, robot lobbyists, a flood of automated legal claims pointed directly at your company and much more.

Unruly offers detailed, practical advice for how to understand the world ahead, how to be resilient in the face of innumerable and complex challenges, and how to surround your business with the people and technology you need to excel in this environment.

Inside the

A framework for understanding all of the pressures on modern corporations from the convergence of geopolitics, technology and law. Strategies for turning your company's legal department into a source of enduring competitive advantage How to navigate government pressure for nationalism when you have a global footprint Approaches to winning in a world where courts are politicized and the law is increasingly automated, built on interviews with top experts Ways to deal with the backlash to ESG at a company level Perfect for executives, managers, entrepreneurs, founders, and other business leaders, Unruly is also a must-read for general counsels and the advisors who serve them.]]> 304 Sean West 1394318456 Michael 0 to-read 5.00 Unruly: Fighting Back when Politics, AI, and Law Upend the Rules of Business
author: Sean West
name: Michael
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Buffett and Munger Unscripted: Three Decades of Investment and Business Insights from the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meetings]]> 221303769
In 2018, Berkshire released the archives of the annual meetings going back to 1994. Alex Morris—an equities analyst and financial writer—watched hundreds of hours of video from these annual meetings (as well as the six AGMs held since 2018), covering more than 1,700 questions asked by Berkshire Hathaway shareholders over the past 31 years. He then gathered, organized and edited the most interesting material into a comprehensive and accessible form.

Buffett and Munger Unscripted is the result.

From the art of intelligent capital allocation to the best ways to judge and compensate management, from understanding the nature of markets to embracing the power of long-term time horizons, this is a book with compelling insights on every page. In addition to collecting many famous quotes in their original context, it is a deep treasure trove of profound insights on all aspects of investing and business.

Discover the importance of avoiding difficult decisions, the first question you should ask on a potential new investment, how to recover from unsuccessful investments, the importance of finding the right owners to partner with, Buffett and Munger’s book recommendations—and much more.

The perfect companion to The Essays of Warren Lessons for Corporate America and Poor Charlie’s Almanack, Buffett and Munger Unscripted belongs on the bookshelf of everyone interested in the keys to long-term success in business and investing.]]> 477 Alex W. Morris 1804090689 Michael 0 to-read 4.46 Buffett and Munger Unscripted: Three Decades of Investment and Business Insights from the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meetings
author: Alex W. Morris
name: Michael
average rating: 4.46
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Nasty Little War: The West's Fight to Reverse the Russian Revolution]]> 125153851 A BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEAR

'Thoroughly researched, stylish and entertaining' Financial Times

'A vivid and sparkling account, full of colour and dark drama' Observer

'Brilliantly depicts a disastrous failure' Antony Beevor

'Chillingly original' Max Hastings

'Witty and elegant . . . Excellent background to today's events' Anne Applebaum

From the bestselling author of A Journey Through the History of Ukraine

The extraordinary story of how the West tried to reverse the Russian Revolution.
In the closing months of the First World War, Britain, America, France and Japan sent arms and 180,000 soldiers to Russia, with the aim of tipping the balance in her post-revolutionary Civil War. From Central Asia to the Arctic and from Poland to the Pacific, they joined anti-Bolshevik forces in trying to overthrow the new men in the Kremlin, in an astonishingly ambitious military adventure known as the Intervention.

Fresh, in the case of the British, from the trenches, they found themselves in a mobile, multi-sided conflict as different as possible from the grim stasis of the Western Front. Criss-crossing the shattered Russian empire in trains, sleds and paddlesteamers, they bivouacked in snowbound cabins and Kirghiz yurts, torpedoed Red battleships from speedboats, improvised new currencies and the world's first air-dropped chemical weapons, got caught up in mass retreats and a typhus epidemic, organised several coups and at least one assassination. Taking tea with warlords and princesses, they also turned a blind eye to their Russian allies' numerous atrocities.

Two years later they left again, filing glumly back onto their troopships as port after port fell to the Red Army. Later, American veterans compared the humiliation to Vietnam, and the politicians and generals responsible preferred to trivialise or forget. Drawing on previously unused diaries, letters and memoirs, A Nasty Little War brings an episode with echoes down the century since vividly to life.]]> 431 Anna Reid 1529326796 Michael 0 to-read 3.83 A Nasty Little War: The West's Fight to Reverse the Russian Revolution
author: Anna Reid
name: Michael
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[LatinoLand: A Portrait of America's Largest and Least Understood Minority]]> 176530628 A sweeping yet personal overview of the Latino population of America, drawn from hundreds of interviews and prodigious research that emphasizes the diversity and little-known history of our largest and fastest-growing minority.

LatinoLand is an exceptional, all-encompassing overview of Hispanic America based on personal interviews, deep research, and Marie Arana’s life experience as a Latina. At present, Latinos comprise 20% of the US population, a number that is growing. Census reports project that by 2050, one in every three Americans will claim Latino heritage.

But Latinos do not represent a single group. The largest numbers are Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Salvadorans, and Cubans. Each has a different cultural and political background. Puerto Ricans, for example, are US citizens, whereas some Mexican Americans never immigrated because the US-Mexico border shifted after the US invasion of 1848, incorporating what is now the entire southwest of the United States.

Cubans came in two great waves—those escaping communism in the early years of Castro, many of whom were professionals and wealthy, and those permitted to leave in the Mariel boat lift 20 years later, representing some of the poorest Cubans, including prisoners.

As LatinoLand shows, Latinos were some of the earliest immigrants to what is now the US—some of them arriving in the 1500s. They are racially diverse, a random fusion of White, Black, Indigenous, and Asian. Once overwhelmingly Catholic, they are becoming increasingly Protestant and Evangelical. They range from domestic workers and day laborers to successful artists, corporate CEOs, and US senators. Formerly solidly Democratic, they now vote Republican in growing numbers. They are as varied culturally as any immigrants from Europe or Asia.

Marie Arana draws on her own experience as the daughter of an American mother and Peruvian father who came to the US at age nine, straddling two worlds, as many Latinos do. LatinoLand unabashedly celebrates Latino resilience and character and shows us why we must understand the fastest-growing minority in America.]]> 573 Marie Arana 1982184914 Michael 0 to-read 4.31 2024 LatinoLand: A Portrait of America's Largest and Least Understood Minority
author: Marie Arana
name: Michael
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The new politics of Poland: A case of post-traumatic sovereignty]]> 61817691
How was this illiberal turn possible after years of democratic development? Jaroslaw Kuisz, one of Poland’s leading liberal thinkers, digs deep into Polish history to propose an original analysis of the crisis. He reveals how centuries of statelessness have left Poles with a ‘post-traumatic� attitude to sovereignty, making them wary of powerful foreign blocks, be it the EU, the Soviet Union or present-day Russia. This is a phenomenon populists have proved adept at exploiting.

Providing a brilliant account of Europe’s largest illiberal democracy, The new politics of Poland shines a light on the broader situation in East and Central Europe, offering valuable lessons for other countries experiencing the rise of populist right-wing movements.]]> 376 Jarosław Kuisz 1526155877 Michael 0 to-read 4.83 The new politics of Poland: A case of post-traumatic sovereignty
author: Jarosław Kuisz
name: Michael
average rating: 4.83
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ascent to Power: How Truman Emerged from Roosevelt's Shadow and Remade the World]]> 194803869
In 1944, Franklin Roosevelt selected as his next running mate a hardworking, uncontroversial senator from Missouri named Harry Truman. On April 12, 1945, Roosevelt died, and Truman, after only 82 days as vice president, was thrust into the presidency, a turning point that generations of historians have inexplicably addressed as shocking. Yet Roosevelt’s failing health had been plain to staffers for at least a year. With the end of his life looming, FDR met alone only twice with his vice president, and failed to brief him on domestic issues or foreign affairs, most notably his intentions for ending World War II, including the existence of the atomic bomb program. It was, as author David L. Roll contends, one of the most irresponsible oversights in presidential history.

As president, Truman was woefully unprepared. He immediately faced the surrender of Germany, a continent in ruins, and the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan. Most significantly, the Soviet Union, an ally during the war, was growing increasingly hostile towards US power. Truman inherited FDR’s hope that peace could be maintained through cooperation with the Soviets, but he would soon learn that imitating his predecessor would lead only to missteps and controversy.

Spanning the years of transition, 1944 to 1948, Ascent to Power explores Roosevelt’s post-war illusions, and the very real challenges faced by Truman as a supposed “accidental president,� including the revival of Western Europe, the reform of Japan, and the hotly-debated birth of Israel. Detailing the long shadow cast by FDR, this remarkable book reveals Truman’s struggle to emerge as a president in his own right, and how the decisions made during these years of transition changed the world.]]> 544 David L. Roll 0593186443 Michael 0 to-read 4.31 2024 Ascent to Power: How Truman Emerged from Roosevelt's Shadow and Remade the World
author: David L. Roll
name: Michael
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Russian Way of Deterrence: Strategic Culture, Coercion, and War]]> 122895039 226 Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky 1503630870 Michael 0 to-read 4.04 The Russian Way of Deterrence: Strategic Culture, Coercion, and War
author: Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky
name: Michael
average rating: 4.04
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Autocracy, Inc. 183932735 224 Anne Applebaum 0241627893 Michael 0 to-read 4.21 2024 Autocracy, Inc.
author: Anne Applebaum
name: Michael
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point]]> 122769171
America is undergoing a massive experiment: It is moving, in fits and starts, toward a multiracial democracy, something few societies have ever done. But the prospect of change has sparked an authoritarian backlash that threatens the very foundations of our political system. Why is this happening here, and not in other diversifying nations? And what can we do to save our democracy?

With the clarity and brilliance that made their first book, How Democracies Die, a global bestseller, Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt offer a coherent framework for understanding these volatile times. They draw on a wealth of examples—from 1930s France to present-day Thailand—to explain why and how political parties turn against democracy: When political leaders realize they can no longer win at the ballot box, they begin to attack the system from within, condoning violent extremists and using the law as a weapon. Unfortunately, our Constitution makes us uniquely vulnerable. It is a pernicious enabler of minority rule, allowing partisan minorities to consistently thwart and even rule over popular majorities. Most modern democracies—from Germany and Sweden to Argentina and New Zealand—have eliminated outdated institutions like elite upper chambers, indirect elections, and lifetime tenure for judges. The United States lags dangerously behind.

In this revelatory book, Levitsky and Ziblatt issue an urgent call to perfect our national experiment. It’s a daunting task, but we have remade our country before—most notably, after the Civil War and during the Progressive Era. And now we are at a crossroads: America will either become a multiracial democracy or it will cease to be a democracy at all.]]> 368 Steven Levitsky 0593443071 Michael 0 to-read 4.37 2023 Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point
author: Steven Levitsky
name: Michael
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power]]> 199032056 603 Sergey Radchenko Michael 0 to-read 4.53 2024 To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power
author: Sergey Radchenko
name: Michael
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy]]> 77920462 Arthur Ross Book Award, Council on Foreign Relations, Bronze Medal
Shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize
A Responsible Statecraft best foreign policy book of 2023

A deeply researched investigation that reveals how the United States is like a spider at the heart of an international web of surveillance and control, which it weaves in the form of globe-spanning networks such as fiber optic cables and obscure payment systems

America’s security state first started to weaponize these channels after 9/11, when they seemed like necessities to combat terrorism—but now they’re a matter of course. Multinational companies like AT&T and Citicorp build hubs, which they use to make money, but which the government can also deploy as choke points. Today’s headlines about trade wars, sanctions, and technology disputes are merely tremors hinting at far greater seismic shifts beneath the surface.

Slowly but surely, Washington has turned the most vital pathways of the world economy into tools of domination over foreign businesses and countries, whether they are rivals or allies, allowing the U.S. to maintain global supremacy. In the process, we have sleepwalked into a new struggle for empire. Using true stories, field-defining findings, and original reporting, Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman show how the most ordinary aspects of the post–Cold War economy have become realms of subterfuge and coercion, and what we must do to ensure that this new arms race doesn’t spiral out of control.]]> 288 Henry Farrell 1250840554 Michael 0 to-read 4.00 2023 Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy
author: Henry Farrell
name: Michael
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy]]> 209992934 High Wire, Angela Huyue Zhang provides a comprehensive and sophisticated overview of how China regulates its enormous tech sector. By closely scrutinizing the incentives and interactions among the key players, Zhang introduces a dynamic pyramid model to analyze the structure, process, and outcome of China's unique regulatory system. She showcases the shrewd self-regulatory tactics employed by Chinese tech titans to survive and thrive in an institutional environment plagued by endemic fraud and corruption. She also reveals how the Chinese State has given a helping hand to digital platforms by offering them indispensable judicial support.

Through a robust analysis of the tumultuous 2020-2022 tech crackdown, Zhang explores the model's profound impact on three vital pillars of Chinese platform regulation, including antitrust, data, and labor enforcement. As Zhang demonstrates, the tech crackdown has led to the private sector's retreat and the state's advancement in the tech industry. These regulatory shifts have also steered investors from consumer tech businesses toward hardcore technologies that are essential for China's bid to overtake the United States in innovation.

More than just a study of China, Zhang offers a global perspective by comparing China's regulatory landscape with rapidly moving developments in the United States and the European Union. This comparative analysis reveals the shared regulatory challenges all face and sheds light on the future direction of Chinese tech regulation. Finally, she peers into the future of China's tech governance, specifically focusing on the burgeoning realm of generative artificial intelligence.

Providing an unparalleled deep dive into China's rapidly evolving digital economy, High Wire is a must-read for those interested in how the manifold ways in which China regulates and governs its economy._]]> 430 Angela Huyue Zhang 019768226X Michael 0 to-read 4.18 High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy
author: Angela Huyue Zhang
name: Michael
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Wealth of Shadows 197516645
1939. Tax attorney Ansel Luxford has everything a man could want—a comfortable career, a brilliant wife, a beautiful new baby. But he is obsessed by a belief that Europe is on the precipice of a war that will grow to consume the world. The United States is officially proclaiming neutrality in any foreign conflict, but when Ansel is offered an opportunity to move to Washington, D.C., to join a clandestine team within the Treasury Department that is conspiring to undermine Nazi Germany, he uproots his family overnight and takes on the challenge of a lifetime.

How can they defeat the enemy without firing a bullet?

To thwart the Nazis, Ansel and his team invent a powerful new theater of economic warfare. Money is a dangerous weapon, and Ansel’s efforts will plunge him into a world full of espionage, peril, and deceit. He will crisscross the globe to broker backroom deals, undertake daring heists, and spar with titans of industry like J.P. Morgan and the century's greatest economic mind, Britain's John Maynard Keynes. When Ansel’s wife takes a job with the FBI to hunt for spies within the government, the need for subterfuge extends to the home front. And Ansel discovers that he might be closer to those spies than he could ever imagine.

The Wealth of Shadows is a gripping, mind-expanding thriller about the mysterious powers of money and the lies worth telling to defeat evil, as witnessed by an unassuming American at the center of the hidden war that shaped the modern world.]]> 384 Graham Moore 0593731921 Michael 0 to-read 4.05 2024 The Wealth of Shadows
author: Graham Moore
name: Michael
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Forging Industrial Policy: The United States, Britain, and France in the Railway Age]]> 2234403 280 Dobbin 052162990X Michael 0 to-read 4.27 1994 Forging Industrial Policy: The United States, Britain, and France in the Railway Age
author: Dobbin
name: Michael
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Let Only Red Flowers Bloom: Identity and Belonging in Xi Jinping's China]]> 214986252 A deeply reported investigation into the battle over identity in China, chronicling the state oppression of those who fail to conform to Xi Jinping's definition of who is "Chinese," from an award-winning NPR correspondent.

In the hot summer months of 2021, China celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party. Authorities held propaganda and education campaigns across the country defining the ideal Chinese ethnically Han Chinese, Mandarin speaking, solidly atheist, and devoted to the socialist project of strengthening China against western powers.

No one can understand modern China—including its response to the pandemic—without understanding who actually lives there, and the ways that the Chinese State tries to control its people. Let Only Red Flowers Bloom collects the stories of more than two dozen people who together represent a more holistic picture of Chinese identity. The Uyghurs who have seen millions of their fellow citizens detained in camps; mainland human rights lawyer Ren Quanniu, who lost his law license in a bureaucratic dispute after representing a Hong Kong activist; a teacher from Inner Mongolia, forced to escape persecution because of his support of his mother tongue. These are just a few narratives that journalist Emily Feng reports on, revealing human stories about resistance against a hegemonic state and introducing readers to the people who know about Chinese identity the best.

Illuminating a country that has for too long been secretive of the real lives its citizens are living, Feng reveals what it’s really like to be anything other than party-supporting Han Chinese in China, and the myriad ways they’re trying to survive in the face of an oppressive regime.]]> 304 Emily Feng 0593594223 Michael 0 to-read 4.24 Let Only Red Flowers Bloom: Identity and Belonging in Xi Jinping's China
author: Emily Feng
name: Michael
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Forgetting Moon (The Five Warrior Angels, #1)]]> 27206615
Welcome to the Five Isles, where war has come in the name of the invading army of Sør Sevier, a merciless host driven by the prophetic fervor of the Angel Prince, Aeros, toward the last unconquered kingdom of Gul Kana. Yet Gault, one of the elite Knights Archaic of Sør Sevier, is growing disillusioned by the crusade he is at the vanguard of just as it embarks on his Lord Aeros� greatest triumph.

While the eldest son of the fallen king of Gul Kana now reigns in ever increasing paranoid isolationism, his two sisters seek their own paths. Jondralyn, the older sister, renowned for her beauty, only desires to prove her worth as a warrior, while Tala, the younger sister, has uncovered a secret that may not only destroy her family but the entire kingdom. Then there’s Hawkwood, the assassin sent to kill Jondralyn who has instead fallen in love with her and trains her in his deadly art. All are led further into dangerous conspiracies within the court.

And hidden at the edge of Gul Kana is Nail, the orphan taken by the enigmatic Shawcroft to the remote whaling village of Gallows Haven, a young man who may hold the link to the salvation of the entire Five Isles.

You may think you know this story, but everyone is not who they seem, nor do they fit the roles you expect. Durfee has created an epic fantasy full of hope in a world based on lies.]]> 800 Brian Lee Durfee 1481465228 Michael 0 to-read 3.93 2016 The Forgetting Moon (The Five Warrior Angels, #1)
author: Brian Lee Durfee
name: Michael
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #1)]]> 91981
Simon, a kitchen boy from the royal castle unknowingly apprenticed to a member of this League, will be sent on a quest that offers the only hope of salvation, a deadly riddle concerning long-lost swords of power. Compelled by fate and perilous magics, he must leave the only home he’s ever known and face enemies more terrifying than Osten Ard has ever seen, even as the land itself begins to die.

After the landmark Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, the epic saga of Osten Ard continues with the brand-new novel, The Heart of What Was Lost. Then don’t miss the upcoming trilogy, The Last King of Osten Ard, beginning with The Witchwood Crown!]]> 672 Tad Williams 0756402697 Michael 0 to-read 3.96 1988 The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #1)
author: Tad Williams
name: Michael
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The People Immortal 60864960 Stalingrad and Life and Fate , but Stalingrad is not only a moving and exciting story of desperate defense and the turning tide of war, but also a monumental memorial for the countless war dead. Life and Fate , by contrast, is a work of moral and political philosophy as well as a novel, and the deep question it explores is whether or not it is possible to behave ethically in the face of overwhelming violence. The People Immortal is something else entirely. Set during the catastrophic first months of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, this is the tale of an army battalion dispatched to slow the advancing enemy at any cost, with encirclement and annihilation its promised end. A rousing story of resistance, The People Immortal is the novel as weapon in hand.]]> 348 Vasily Grossman 1681376784 Michael 0 to-read 4.01 1942 The People Immortal
author: Vasily Grossman
name: Michael
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1942
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness]]> 171681821
A must-read for all parents: the generation-defining investigation into the collapse of youth mental health in the era of smartphones, social media, and big tech—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.

“With tenacity and candor, Haidt lays out the consequences that have come with allowing kids to drift further into the virtual world . . . While also offering suggestions and solutions that could help protect a new generation of kids.� —Shannon Carlin, ,i>TIME, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on many measures. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood� began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood� in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood� has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems� that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.

Haidt has spent his career speaking truth backed by data in the most difficult landscapes—communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. We cannot afford to ignore his findings about protecting our children—and ourselves—from the psychological damage of a phone-based life.]]> 400 Jonathan Haidt 0593655036 Michael 0 to-read 4.35 2024 The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness
author: Jonathan Haidt
name: Michael
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A History of the Federal Reserve, Volume 1: 1913-1951]]> 1686235 History of the Federal Reserve tells the story of one of America's most influential but least understood public institutions. This first volume covers the period from the Federal Reserve's founding in 1913 through the Treasury-Federal Reserve Accord of 1951, which marked the beginning of a larger and greatly changed institution.

To understand why the Federal Reserve acted as it did at key points in its history, Meltzer draws on meeting minutes, correspondence, and other internal documents (many made public only during the 1970s) to trace the reasoning behind its policy decisions. He explains, for instance, why the Federal Reserve remained passive throughout most of the economic decline that led to the Great Depression, and how the Board's actions helped to produce the deep recession of 1937 and 1938. He also highlights the impact on the institution of individuals such as Benjamin Strong, governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in the 1920s, who played a key role in the adoption of a more active monetary policy by the Federal Reserve. Meltzer also examines the influence the Federal Reserve has had on international affairs, from attempts to build a new international financial system in the 1920s to the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944 that established the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and the failure of the London Economic Conference of 1933.

Written by one of the world's leading economists, this magisterial biography of the Federal Reserve and the people who helped shape it will interest economists, central bankers, historians, political scientists, policymakers, and anyone seeking a deep understanding of the institution that controls America's purse strings.

"It was 'an unprecedented orgy of extravagance, a mania for speculation, overextended business in nearly all lines and in every section of the country.' An Alan Greenspan rumination about the irrational exuberance of the late 1990s? Try the 1920 annual report of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve. . . . To understand why the Fed acted as it did—at these critical moments and many others—would require years of study, poring over letters, the minutes of meetings and internal Fed documents. Such a task would naturally deter most scholars of economic history but not, thank goodness, Allan Meltzer."� Wall Street Journal

"A seminal work that anyone interested in the inner workings of the U. S. central bank should read. A work that scholars will mine for years to come."—John M. Berry, Washington Post

"An exceptionally clear story about why, as the ideas that actually informed policy evolved, things sometimes went well and sometimes went badly. . . . One can only hope that we do not have to wait too long for the second installment."—David Laidler, Journal of Economic Literature

"A thorough narrative history of a high order. Meltzer's analysis is persuasive and acute. His work will stand for a generation as the benchmark history of the world's most powerful economic institution. It is an impressive, even awe-inspiring achievement."—Sir Howard Davies, Times Higher Education Supplement]]> 808 Allan H. Meltzer 0226520005 Michael 0 to-read 4.07 2003 A History of the Federal Reserve, Volume 1: 1913-1951
author: Allan H. Meltzer
name: Michael
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Midas Paradox: Financial Markets, Government Policy Shocks, and the Great Depression]]> 21561652 528 Scott Sumner 1598131508 Michael 0 to-read 3.84 2015 The Midas Paradox: Financial Markets, Government Policy Shocks, and the Great Depression
author: Scott Sumner
name: Michael
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Architektur in Vorarlberg (German Edition)]]> 209538523 324 Verena Konrad 3955536424 Michael 0 to-read 0.0 Architektur in Vorarlberg (German Edition)
author: Verena Konrad
name: Michael
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Gambling Man: The Wild Ride of Japan’s Masayoshi Son]]> 206318702
This book takes you on Masa’s wild ride, from his birthplace in a Korean slum in post-war Japan to the modern-day temples of power. It speeds through Donald Trump’s golden skyscraper in Manhattan, the royal palaces of Riyadh and the throne rooms of China’s Marxist rulers; all places where Masa has deployed his unique blend of techno-optimism, financial engineering and insane risk-taking.

In his own Masa is the world’s craziest investor. He spent billions supporting the visions of founders like WeWork’s Adam Neumann only to lose everything. Yet, despite the reverses, he’s never abandoned his belief that technology, particularly artificial Intelligence, will change our lives for the better.

Masa’s story captures a 25 year-span of hyper-globalisation in which money, technologies and ideas flowed freely. He’s made billions and lost billions during the dot.com bust, the global financial crisis, and the Covid pandemic. His is a story of constant reinvention and perpetual motion, ever seeking the Next Big Thing.

As an ethnic Korean in Japan, Masa has overcome adversity and discrimination to become Japan’s best known businessman and empire-builder but he remains an elusive, intensely private figure, an enigma to the western world. This book reveals the man behind the money, what drives him, why he matters, and what he plans for his next act.]]> 386 Lionel Barber 1802060588 Michael 0 to-read 4.20 Gambling Man: The Wild Ride of Japan’s Masayoshi Son
author: Lionel Barber
name: Michael
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant (Fred, the Vampire Accountant, #1)]]> 22081680
One fateful night � different from the night he died, which was more inconvenient than fateful � Fred reconnects with an old friend at his high school reunion. This rekindled relationship sets off a chain of events thrusting him right into the chaos that is the parahuman world, a world with chipper zombies, truck driver wereponies, maniacal necromancers, ancient dragons, and now one undead accountant trying his best to “survive.� Because even after it’s over, life can still be a downright bloody mess.]]> 300 Drew Hayes Michael 2 3.81 2014 The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant (Fred, the Vampire Accountant, #1)
author: Drew Hayes
name: Michael
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant]]> 218319936 "The definitive look at the most remarkable business story of this era."

—Morgan Housel, New York Times best-selling author of The Psychology of Money and Same As Ever



"The Nvidia Way is a riveting history of Nvidia’s unexpected ascent to the top of the tech sector—and a compelling case for why cofounder Jensen Huang is one of history’s great CEOs."

—Chris Miller, New York Times best-selling author of Chip The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology



A deeply reported business history of the chip-designer Nvidia—from its founding in 1993 to its recent emergence as one of the most valuable corporations in the world—explaining how the company’s culture, overseen by cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang, has powered its incredible success.


Nvidia is the darling of the age of artificial its chips are powering the generative-AI revolution, and demand is insatiable. For all the current interest and attention, however, Nvidia is not of our time. Founded more than three decades ago in a Denny’s in East San Jose, for years it was known primarily in the then-niche world of computer gaming. In fact, the company’s leather-jacketed leader, Jensen Huang, is the longest-serving CEO in an industry marked by near constant turmoil and failure.


In The Nvidia Way, acclaimed tech writer Tae Kim draws on more than one hundred interviews—including Jensen (as he is known) and his cofounders, the two original venture capital investors, early former employees, and current senior executives—to show how Nvidia played the longest of long games, repeatedly creating new markets and outmaneuvering competitors, including the original semiconductor giant, Intel, which now finds itself well behind the upstart. Kim offers revelations at every step, among



An authoritative, myth-busting account of Nvidia’s founding in 1993.
How Nvidia managed to overcome early missteps that would have killed most start-ups.
The benefits of Nvidia’s flat organizational structure, which allows even low-level employees to contribute to the direction of the company.
How Jensen’s obsession with solving the Innovator’s Dilemma—the problem of an entrenched market leader falling to smaller, nimbler companies—drove him to reinvent his approach to corporate strategy.
How Nvidia saw the coming AI wave sooner than anyone else, and how it bet its future on a technology that had not yet arrived.



A rare view into Nvidia’s distinct culture and Jensen’s management principles, The Nvidia Way is a book for our moment as well as an instant classic of business history, with enduring lessons for entrepreneurs and managers alike.]]> 268 Tae Kim 1324086726 Michael 0 to-read 4.36 The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant
author: Tae Kim
name: Michael
average rating: 4.36
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> You Like It Darker 201242757 From legendary storyteller and master of short fiction Stephen King comes an extraordinary new collection of twelve short stories, many never-before-published, and some of his best EVER.

“You like it darker? Fine, so do I,� writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life—both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel “the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind,� and in You Like It Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again.

“Two Talented Bastids� explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills. In “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,� a brief and unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny’s most catastrophically. In “Rattlesnakes,� a sequel to Cujo, a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives an unexpected inheritance—with major strings attached. In “The Dreamers,� a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored. “The Answer Man� asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.

King’s ability to surprise, amaze, and bring us both terror and solace remains unsurpassed. Each of these stories holds its own thrills, joys, and mysteries; each feels iconic. You like it darker? You got it.]]> 502 Stephen King 1668037718 Michael 0 to-read 4.16 2024 You Like It Darker
author: Stephen King
name: Michael
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion]]> 54998264 The definitive inside story of WeWork, its audacious founder, and what the company's epic unraveling exposes about Silicon Valley's delusions and the financial system's desperate hunger to cash in--from the Wall Street Journal reporters whose scoops hastened the company's downfall.

In 2001, Adam Neumann arrived in New York after five years as a conscript in the Israeli navy. Just over fifteen years later, he had transformed himself into the charismatic CEO of a company worth $47 billion--at least on paper. With his long hair and feel-good mantras, the 6-foot-five Neumann, who grew up in part on a kibbutz, looked the part of a messianic Silicon Valley entrepreneur. The vision he offered was mesmerizing: a radical reimagining of work space for a new generation, with its fluid jobs and lax office culture. He called it WeWork. Though the company was merely subleasing amenity-filled office space to freelancers and small startups, Neumann marketed it like a revolutionary product--and investors swooned.

As billions of funding dollars poured in, Neumann's ambitions grew limitless. WeWork wasn't just an office space provider, he boasted. It would build schools, create WeWork cities, even colonize Mars. Could he, Neumann wondered from the ice bath he'd installed in his office, become the first trillionaire or a world leader? In pursuit of its founder's grandiose vision, the company spent money faster than it could bring it in. From his private jet, sometimes clouded with marijuana smoke, the CEO scoured the globe for more capital. In late 2019, just weeks before WeWork's highly publicized IPO, a Hail Mary effort to raise cash, everything fell apart. Neumann was ousted from his company--but still was poised to walk away a billionaire.

Calling to mind the recent demise of Theranos and the hubris of the dotcom era bust, WeWork's extraordinary rise and staggering implosion were fueled by disparate characters in a financial system blind to its risks, from a Japanese billionaire with designs on becoming the Warren Buffet of tech, to leaders at JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs who seemed intoxicated by a Silicon Valley culture where sensible business models lost out to youthful CEOs who promised disruption. Why did some of the biggest names in banking and venture capital buy the hype? And what does the future hold for Silicon Valley unicorns? Wall Street Journal reporters Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell explore these questions in this definitive account of WeWork's unraveling.]]> 464 Eliot Brown 0593237110 Michael 4 4.24 2021 The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion
author: Eliot Brown
name: Michael
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/05
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Essays of Warren Buffett : Lessons for Corporate America]]> 145565 256 Warren Buffett 0966446119 Michael 0 to-read 4.29 1998 The Essays of Warren Buffett : Lessons for Corporate America
author: Warren Buffett
name: Michael
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Building a Ruin: The Cold War Politics of Soviet Economic Reform]]> 197877702
What brought down the Soviet Union? From some perspectives the answers seem obvious, even teleological―communism was simply destined to fail. When Yakov Feygin studied the question, he came to another at least one crucial factor was a deep contradiction within the Soviet political economy brought about by the country’s attempt to transition from Stalinist mass mobilization to a consumer society.

Building a Ruin explores what happened in the Soviet Union as institutions designed for warfighting capacity and maximum heavy industrial output were reimagined by a new breed of reformers focused on “peaceful socioeconomic competition.� From Khrushchev on, influential schools of Soviet planning measured Cold War success in the same terms as their Western productivity, growth, and the availability of abundant and varied consumer goods. The shift was both material and intellectual, with reformers taking a novel approach to economics. Instead of trumpeting their ideological bona fides and leveraging their connections with party leaders, the new economists stressed technical expertise. The result was a long and taxing struggle for the meaning of communism itself, as old-guard management cadres clashed with reformers over the future of central planning and the state’s relationship to the global economic order.

Feygin argues that Soviet policymakers never resolved these tensions, leading to stagnation, instability, and eventually collapse. Yet the legacy of reform lingers, its factional dynamics haunting contemporary Russian politics.]]> 288 Yakov Feygin 0674240995 Michael 0 to-read 4.12 Building a Ruin: The Cold War Politics of Soviet Economic Reform
author: Yakov Feygin
name: Michael
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How Economics Explains the World: A Short History of Humanity]]> 203746822 “If you read just one book about economics, make it Andrew Leigh's clear, insightful, and remarkable (and short) work.� —Claudia Goldin, recipient of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics and Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University

A sweeping, engrossing history of how economic forces have shaped the world—all in under 200 pages

In How Economics Explains the World, Harvard-trained economist Andrew Leigh presents a new way to understand the human story. From the dawn of agriculture to AI, here is story of how ingenuity, greed, and desire for betterment have, to an astonishing degree, determined our past, present, and future.

This small book indeed tells a big story. It is the story of capitalism � of how our market system developed. It is the story of the discipline of economics, and some of the key figures who formed it. And it is the story of how economic forces have shaped world history. Why didn’t Africa colonize Europe instead of the other way around? What happened when countries erected trade and immigration barriers in the 1930s? Why did the Allies win World War II? Why did inequality in many advanced countries fall during the 1950s and 1960s? How did property rights drive China’s growth surge in the 1980s? How does climate change threaten our future prosperity? You’ll find answers to these questions and more in How Economics Explains the World.]]> 240 Andrew Leigh 0063383802 Michael 0 to-read 3.96 How Economics Explains the World: A Short History of Humanity
author: Andrew Leigh
name: Michael
average rating: 3.96
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The New Makers of Modern Strategy: From the Ancient World to the Digital Age]]> 61981171
The New Makers of Modern Strategy is the next generation of the definitive work on strategy and the key figures who have shaped the theory and practice of war and statecraft throughout the centuries. Featuring entirely new entries by a who’s who of world-class scholars, this new edition provides global, comparative perspectives on strategic thought from antiquity to today, surveying both classical and current themes of strategy while devoting greater attention to the Cold War and post-9/11 eras. The contributors evaluate the timeless requirements of effective strategy while tracing the revolutionary changes that challenge the makers of strategy in the contemporary world. Amid intensifying global disorder, the study of strategy and its history has never been more relevant. The New Makers of Modern Strategy draws vital lessons from history’s most influential strategists, from Thucydides and Sun Zi to Clausewitz, Napoleon, Churchill, Mao, Ben-Gurion, Andrew Marshall, Xi Jinping, and Qassem Soleimani.

With contributions by Dmitry Adamsky, John Bew, Tami Davis Biddle, Hal Brands, Antulio J. Echevarria II, Elizabeth Economy, Charles Edel, Eric S. Edelman, Andrew Ehrhardt, Lawrence Freedman, John Lewis Gaddis, Francis J. Gavin, Christopher J. Griffin, Ahmed S. Hashim, Eric Helleiner, Wayne Wei-siang Hsieh, Seth G. Jones, Robert Kagan, Jonathan Kirshner, Matthew Kroenig, James Lacey, Guy Laron, Michael V. Leggiere, Margaret MacMillan, Tanvi Madan, Thomas G. Mahnken, Carter Malkasian, Daniel Marston, John H. Maurer, Walter Russell Mead, Michael Cotey Morgan, Mark Moyar, Williamson Murray, S.C.M. Paine, Sergey Radchenko, Iskander Rehman, Thomas Rid, Joshua Rovner, Priya Satia, Kori Schake, Matt J. Schumann, Brendan Simms, Jason K. Stearns, Hew Strachan, Sue Mi Terry, and Toshi Yoshihara.]]> 1200 Hal Brands 0691204381 Michael 0 to-read 4.42 The New Makers of Modern Strategy: From the Ancient World to the Digital Age
author: Hal Brands
name: Michael
average rating: 4.42
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors]]> 39074550 An international bestseller

The book-length answer to anyone who ever put their hand up in math class and asked, "When am I ever going to use this in the real world?"

"Fun, informative, and relentlessly entertaining, Humble Pi is a charming and very readable guide to some of humanity's all-time greatest miscalculations--that also gives you permission to feel a little better about some of your own mistakes." --Ryan North, author of How to Invent Everything

Our whole world is built on math, from the code running a website to the equations enabling the design of skyscrapers and bridges. Most of the time this math works quietly behind the scenes . . . until it doesn't. All sorts of seemingly innocuous mathematical mistakes can have significant consequences.

Math is easy to ignore until a misplaced decimal point upends the stock market, a unit conversion error causes a plane to crash, or someone divides by zero and stalls a battleship in the middle of the ocean.

Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the bizarre ways math trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.]]> 314 Matt Parker 0241360196 Michael 0 to-read 4.11 2019 Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors
author: Matt Parker
name: Michael
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Reset: The Final Days of the Last American Bubble (A Novel)]]> 61032922 The Reset is coming. The Reset is the day when hyperinflation slams onto US shores, paper money becomes worthless, food and water are scarce, stock markets go to zero, and the current economic system burns to the ground.

The vacuum will be filled, at first, by chaos.

This novel is the story of the weeks, days, and hours leading up to The Reset. It is an accelerating tale of broken love, paper money, and recreational self-destruction in the final days of the last American bubble. This is the story of how trees do not grow to the sky.

This is the story of how capitalism committed suicide.

------------------------------------------------------------

Charlie Bloom plays the financial markets like a video game, plugged into the global casino via hypergoggs and haptic gloves. At 27 years old, he is one of the top ↑Marketz!� traders in the world—and suddenly rich AF. But Charlie doesn’t care about money. He cares about music and Sight and late nights and perfect trips. And then he meets Alison, the most beautiful human being in the world. They fall crazy/stupid in love, but can it work? She is only twenty, and already broken.

Charlie and Alison chase higher highs all night and crash all day. The raging club nights used to be so galactic, but lately the fun and games have taken on a darker edge. Charlie has had enough. Alison gets high in search of oblivion. She drinks too much. She lies.

Charlie wants to be fitter, happier. Alison agrees they need to get clean. They need to act like adults and get better at real life. But not today� Maybe tomorrow?

The Reset is coming.
Are you ready?]]> 387 Jack Moore 1736739883 Michael 0 to-read 4.32 The Reset: The Final Days of the Last American Bubble (A Novel)
author: Jack Moore
name: Michael
average rating: 4.32
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Geopolitical Alpha: An Investment Framework for Predicting the Future]]> 54220036 304 Marko Papić 1119740231 Michael 0 to-read 4.05 Geopolitical Alpha: An Investment Framework for Predicting the Future
author: Marko Papić
name: Michael
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise of Endymion (Hyperion Cantos, #4)]]> 11289
But first they must embark on a final spectacular mission to discover the underlying meaning of the universe itself. They have been followed on their journey by the mysterious Shrike--monster, angel, killing machine--who is about to reveal the long-held secret of its origin and purpose. And on the planet of Hyperion, where the story first began, the final revelation will be delivered--an apocalyptic message that unlocks the secrets of existence and the fate of humankind in the galaxy.]]> 709 Dan Simmons 0553572989 Michael 5 4.15 1997 The Rise of Endymion (Hyperion Cantos, #4)
author: Dan Simmons
name: Michael
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/24
date added: 2024/11/24
shelves:
review:

]]> The Alchemy of Finance 369708 � The Wall Street Journal George Soros is unquestionably one of the most powerful and profitable investors in the world today. Dubbed by BusinessWeek as "the Man who Moves Markets," Soros made a fortune competing with the British pound and remains active today in the global financial community. Now, in this special edition of the classic investment book, The Alchemy of Finance, Soros presents a theoretical and practical account of current financial trends and a new paradigm by which to understand the financial market today. This edition's expanded and revised Introduction details Soros's innovative investment practices along with his views of the world and world order. He also describes a new paradigm for the "theory of reflexivity" which underlies his unique investment strategies. Filled with expert advice and valuable business lessons, The Alchemy of Finance reveals the timeless principles of an investing legend. This special edition will feature a new chapter by Soros on the secrets of his success and a new Foreword by the Honorable Paul Volcker, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve. George Soros (New York, NY) is President of Soros Fund Management and Chief Investment Advisor to Quantum Fund N.V., a $12 billion international investment fund. Besides his numerous ventures in finance, Soros is also extremely active in the worlds of education, culture, and economic aid and development through his Open Society Fund and the Soros Foundation.]]> 391 George Soros 0471445495 Michael 0 to-read 3.76 1987 The Alchemy of Finance
author: George Soros
name: Michael
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pursued Economy: Understanding and Overcoming the Challenging New Realities for Advanced Economies]]> 61720124 Pursued Understanding and Overcoming the Challenging New Realities for Advanced Economies, celebrated economist and thought leader Richard C. Koo dives deep into the failure of traditional economic solutions to address the economic and social problems of post-Great Recession and post-pandemic economies. Starting with the original concepts of balance sheet recessions and global competition for capital, the author explains why the Great Recession lasted for so long and why well-intentioned policies that worked so well in the past are no longer working today.

Readers will discover that advanced economies moved from what the author calls the "golden era" to the "pursued era" of economic development long ago, but the policy debate in these countries continues to be informed by golden era assumptions that are no longer relevant but are still taught in universities. That mismatch has led to an over-reliance on monetary policy and an under-reliance on fiscal policy that are distorting economies and worsening inequality in a profoundly transformed world.

With many real-world examples from the author's extensive involvement in the policy debate on economic, banking and trade issues in several countries, including the U.S., the book describes the correct policy mix in the pursued era as distinct from that in the golden era. It also explains the challenges central banks face in fighting inflation after a decade of over-reliance on monetary policy that flooded the world’s economies with unprecedented liquidity.

Instead of simply assuming the existence of "trend growth rates", this book tackles the issue of economic growth head-on so as to elucidate the symmetry between the drivers of growth and the drivers of recession. It also argues that the fundamental disconnect between free trade and free capital movements must be addressed in order to maximize the gains from globalization while minimizing its costs. Written in simple language and with a great sense of urgency, Pursued Economy should be of interest to anyone who is concerned about the global economy, financial stability and geopolitics.]]> 506 Richard C. Koo 1119984297 Michael 0 to-read 4.46 Pursued Economy: Understanding and Overcoming the Challenging New Realities for Advanced Economies
author: Richard C. Koo
name: Michael
average rating: 4.46
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[‘A Seditious and Sinister Tribe�: The Crimean Tatars and Their Khanate]]> 209050020 352 Donald Rayfield 1789149096 Michael 0 to-read 4.18 ‘A Seditious and Sinister Tribe’: The Crimean Tatars and Their Khanate
author: Donald Rayfield
name: Michael
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mixed Signals: Alien Communication Across the Iron Curtain]]> 214292856
In this captivating new history of the collaboration between American and Soviet radio astronomers as they sought to detect evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations, historian Rebecca Charbonneau reveals the triumphs and challenges they faced amidst a hostile political atmosphere. Shedding light on the untold stories from the Soviet side for the first time, she expertly unravels the complex web of military and political interests entangling radio astronomy and the search for alien intelligence, offering a thought-provoking perspective on the evolving relationship between science and power.

This is not just a story of radio waves and telescopes; it's a revelation of how scientists on both sides of the Iron Curtain navigated the complexities of the Cold War, blurring the lines between espionage and the quest for cosmic community. Filled with tension, contradiction, and the enduring human desire for connection, this is a history that transcends national boundaries and reaches out to the cosmic unknown, ultimately how can we communicate with extraterrestrials when we struggle to communicate amongst ourselves?]]> 256 Rebecca Charbonneau 1509556915 Michael 0 to-read 3.57 Mixed Signals: Alien Communication Across the Iron Curtain
author: Rebecca Charbonneau
name: Michael
average rating: 3.57
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Serbia: A Modern History 195048572
Existing histories of the Yugoslav kingdom that emerged from that war focus on the national conflict between Serbs, Croats, Bosnian Muslims and others, but Marko Attila Hoare challenges this narrative. He shows how the new kingdom’s politics continued to be dominated by the ongoing internal Serbian power struggle, bringing renewed disaster to Yugoslavia and its peoples.]]> 730 Marko Attila Hoare 019776942X Michael 0 to-read 4.60 Serbia: A Modern History
author: Marko Attila Hoare
name: Michael
average rating: 4.60
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Moneta: A History of Ancient Rome in Twelve Coins]]> 199718582
When Gareth Harney was first handed a Roman coin by his father as a child, he became by its beauty, its hardiness and its power to tell stories and connect us with the ancient past. He realised that coins, more than being simply markers of exchange, are metal canvases upon which societies could immortalise their ideas, cultures, personalities, tragedies and triumphs. His small tarnished coin, then, actually told the epic story of Rome.

From a few huts on an Italian hilltop to an all-conquering empire spanning three continents, Heads or Tails traces the dramatic rise and fall of the Romans through the fascinating lives of twelve remarkable coins. Through them we witness Caesar's assassination, experience everyday life in the heart of the city, journey into the Colosseum and meet the barbarians at the gate.

This is the glory, and infamy, of ancient Rome in the palm of your hand.]]> 364 Gareth Harney 1529926688 Michael 0 to-read 4.39 Moneta: A History of Ancient Rome in Twelve Coins
author: Gareth Harney
name: Michael
average rating: 4.39
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives]]> 176443223
Tough choices loom if the world wants to go green. The United States and other countries must decide where and how to procure the materials that make our renewable energy economy possible. To build electric vehicles, solar panels, cell phones, and millions of other devices means the world must dig more mines to extract lithium, copper, cobalt, rare earths, and nickel. But mines are deeply unpopular, even as they have a role to play in fighting climate change. These tensions have sparked a worldwide reckoning over the sourcing of these critical minerals, and no one understands the complexities of these issues better than Ernest Scheyder, whose exclusive access has allowed him to report from the front lines on the key players in this global battle to power our future.

This is not a story of tree-hugging activists, but rather of industry titans, scientists, and policymakers jostling over how best to save the planet. Scheyder explores how a proposed lithium mine in Nevada would help global automakers slash their dependance on fossil fuels, but developing that mine could cause the extinction of a flower found nowhere else on the planet. A hedge fund manager’s attempt to resuscitate rare earths mining in California relies on Chinese expertise, exposing the paradox in Washington’s quest for minerals independence. The fight to end child labor in Africa’s mining sector is a key reason, supporters contend, to dig out a vast reserve of cobalt and nickel under Minnesota’s vulnerable wetlands. An international mining conglomerate’s plan to extract copper for electric vehicles deep beneath Arizona’s desert would destroy a Native American holy site, fueling tough questions about what matters more.

In The War Below , Scheyder crafts a business story that matters to everyone. If China continues to dominate production of these critical minerals, it will have a profound impact on the geopolitical order. Beyond China, countries such as Bolivia, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo aim to wield their vast reserves of key minerals. There are no easy answers when it comes to energy. Scheyder paints a powerfully honest and nuanced picture of what is needed to fight climate change and secure energy independence, revealing how America and the rest of the world’s hunt for the “new oil� directly affects us all.]]> 384 Ernest Scheyder 1668011808 Michael 0 to-read 3.91 2024 The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives
author: Ernest Scheyder
name: Michael
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>