en-US Sat, 03 May 2025 17:27:29 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 60321447
You may be surprised to learn that microchips are the new oil—the scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everythingâ€� from missiles to microwaves, smartphones to the stock market â€� runs on chips. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower. Now, America's edge isĚýslipping, undermined by competitors in Taiwan, Korea,ĚýEurope, and, above all, China. Today, as Chip War reveals, China, which spends more money each year importing chips than it spends importing oil,Ěýis pouring billions into a chip-building initiative to catch up to the US. At stake is America's military superiority and economic prosperity.

Economic historian Chris Miller explains how the semiconductor came to play a critical role in modern life and how the U.S. become dominant in chip design and manufacturing and applied this technology to military systems. America's victory in the Cold War and its global military dominance stems from its ability to harness computing power more effectively than any other power. But here, too, China is catching up, with its chip-building ambitions and military modernization going hand in hand.ĚýAmerica has let key components of the chip-building process slip out of its grasp, contributing not only to a worldwide chip shortage but also a new Cold War with a superpower adversary that is desperate to bridge the gap.

Illuminating, timely, and fascinating, Chip War shows that, to make sense of the current state of politics, economics, and technology, we must first understand the vital role played by chips.]]> 464 Chris Miller 1982172002 Reader 0 currently-reading 4.38 2022
author: Chris Miller
name: Reader
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2022
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]]> 214490408 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?]]> 448 Eva Dou 0593544633 Reader 4 3.90 2025
author: Eva Dou
name: Reader
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/03
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]]> 842 257 Donald A. Norman 0465067093 Reader 4 4.15 1988
author: Donald A. Norman
name: Reader
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/15
date added: 2025/04/26
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I love thinking about the form and function of things so this book was right up my alley. This book is about product design, but it’s also about organized thinking. You could design a product, a class, a book, a song, anything with the principles he talks about. I’m going to recommend this to my coworkers so they can hopefully learn to design a meeting that brings me joy.
]]> 33584231
The Strange Death of Europe is the internationally bestselling account of a continent and culture caught in the act of suicide. Douglas Murray takes a step back and explores the deeper issues behind the continent's possible demise, from an atmosphere of mass terror attacks and a global refugee crisis to the steady erosion of our freedoms. He addresses the disappointing failure of multiculturalism, Angela Merkel's U-turn on migration, and the Western fixation on guilt. Murray travels to Berlin, Paris, Scandinavia, and Greece to uncover the malaise at the very heart of the European culture, and to hear the stories of those who have arrived in Europe from far away.

Declining birth rates, mass immigration, and cultivated self-distrust and self-hatred have come together to make Europeans unable to argue for themselves and incapable of resisting their own comprehensive alteration as a society and an eventual end. This sharp and incisive book ends up with two visions for a new Europe--one hopeful, one pessimistic--which paint a picture of Europe in crisis and offer a choice as to what, if anything, we can do next. But perhaps Spengler was "civilizations like humans are born, briefly flourish, decay, and die."]]> 352 Douglas Murray 1472942248 Reader 4 4.11 2017
author: Douglas Murray
name: Reader
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
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Kind of funny to read this at the exact same time Douglas Murray is going viral for arguing with Joe Rogan and friends about Hamas. Anyway, Murray is a neoconservative thinker. While he may not be able to persuade this daughter of immigrants that immigration is bad, he asks some compelling questions about immigration that have gone noticeably unanswered by its staunchest proponents: how many immigrants is enough? Is assimilation a requirement? Is something lost in a society if it changes such that an immigrant group is the new majority? Does any of this matter? I don’t think I agree with all of his answers but I can’t fault him for asking the questions.
]]> 17165596 The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.

The 10th anniversary edition of the New York Times bestseller and international classic loved by millions of readers.

]]> 371 Khaled Hosseini Reader 0 4.47 2003
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Reader
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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]]> 2187 Middlesex tells the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides, and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family, who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City and the race riots of 1967 before moving out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret, and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.]]> 529 Jeffrey Eugenides 0312422156 Reader 0 4.03 2002
author: Jeffrey Eugenides
name: Reader
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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]]> 7763 Alternate cover editions of ISBN 9780143038092 can be found here.

Four mothers, four daughters, four families, whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's telling the stories. In 1949, four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, meet weekly to play mahjong and tell stories of what they left behind in China. United in loss and new hope for their daughters' futures, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Their daughters, who have never heard these stories, think their mothers' advice is irrelevant to their modern American lives � until their own inner crises reveal how much they've unknowingly inherited of their mothers' pasts.

With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.]]> 288 Amy Tan Reader 5 3.96 1989
author: Amy Tan
name: Reader
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1989
rating: 5
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]]> 6149 Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby.

Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe's new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement by Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison.]]> 325 Toni Morrison Reader 0 3.96 1987
author: Toni Morrison
name: Reader
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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]]> 34454589 320 Margaret Atwood 1328879941 Reader 4 4.30 1985
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Reader
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1985
rating: 4
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]]> 292327
A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity, Toni Morrison's virtuosic first novel asks powerful questions about race, class, and gender with the subtlety and grace that have always characterized her writing.]]> 206 Toni Morrison 0307278441 Reader 0 4.18 1970
author: Toni Morrison
name: Reader
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1970
rating: 0
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]]> 232187 155 Roald Dahl 0141301155 Reader 0 4.11 1964
author: Roald Dahl
name: Reader
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1964
rating: 0
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]]> 56616095 (back cover)]]> 288 Sylvia Plath 0060837020 Reader 0 4.11 1963
author: Sylvia Plath
name: Reader
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1963
rating: 0
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]]> 10808486 NEWBERY MEDAL WINNER � TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 BEST FANTASY BOOKS OF ALL TIME � NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM DISNEY
Read the ground-breaking science fiction and fantasy classic that has delighted children for over 60 years!
"A Wrinkle in Time is one of my favorite books of all time. I've read it so often, I know it by heart." —Meg Cabot

Late one night, three otherworldly creatures appear and sweep Meg Murry, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe away on a mission to save Mr. Murry, who has gone missing while doing top-secret work for the government. They travel via tesseract--a wrinkle that transports one across space and time--to the planet Camazotz, where Mr. Murry is being held captive. There they discover a dark force that threatens not only Mr. Murry but the safety of the whole universe.

A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet.]]> 228 Madeleine L'Engle Reader 0 4.03 1962
author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Reader
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1962
rating: 0
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]]> 56916837 To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable coming-of-age tale in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage iniquities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father � a crusading local lawyer � risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.]]> 323 Harper Lee Reader 0 4.22 1960
author: Harper Lee
name: Reader
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1960
rating: 0
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]]> 315233 310 Jack Kerouac 0140185216 Reader 0 3.53 1957
author: Jack Kerouac
name: Reader
average rating: 3.53
book published: 1957
rating: 0
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]]> 7606
The Annotated Lolita is the definitive annotated text of the modern classic, written by one of the most punning and allusive writers in English since James Joyce. It assiduously glosses Lolita's extravagant wordplay and its frequent literary allusions, parodies, and cross references.
--back cover]]> 457 Vladimir Nabokov 0679727299 Reader 0 4.18 1955
author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Reader
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1955
rating: 0
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]]> 5107 It's Christmas time and Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from yet another school...

Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters—shooting the bull with strangers in dive hotels, wandering alone round Central Park, getting beaten up by pimps and cut down by erstwhile girlfriends. The city is beautiful and terrible, in all its neon loneliness and seedy glamour, its mingled sense of possibility and emptiness. Holden passes through it like a ghost, thinking always of his kid sister Phoebe, the only person who really understands him, and his determination to escape the phonies and find a life of true meaning.

The Catcher in the Rye is an all-time classic in coming-of-age literature- an elegy to teenage alienation, capturing the deeply human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind.

J.D. Salinger's (1919�2010) classic novel of teenage angst and rebellion was first published in 1951. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. It was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It has been frequently challenged in the court for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and in the 1950's and 60's it was the novel that every teenage boy wants to read.]]> 277 J.D. Salinger 0316769177 Reader 0 3.81 1951
author: J.D. Salinger
name: Reader
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1951
rating: 0
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]]> 6555529 (front flap)]]> 173 C.S. Lewis 0061715050 Reader 0 4.24 1950
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Reader
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1950
rating: 0
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]]> 9266856 The Diary of a Young Girl is among the most enduring documents of the twentieth century. Since its publication in 1947, it has been a beloved and deeply admired monument to the indestructible nature of the human spirit, read by millions of people and translated into more than fifty-five languages. Doubleday, which published the first English translation of the diary in 1952, now offers a new translation that captures Anne's youthful spirit and restores the original material omitted by Anne's father, Otto -- approximately thirty percent of the diary. The elder Frank excised details about Anne's emerging sexuality, and about the often-stormy relations between Anne and her mother. Anne Frank and her family, fleeing the horrors of Nazi occupation forces, hid in the back of an Amsterdam office building for two years. This is Anne's record of that time. She was thirteen when the family went into the "Secret Annex," and in these pages, she grows to be a young woman and proves to be an insightful observer of human nature as well. A timeless story discovered by each new generation, The Diary of a Young Girl stands without peer. For young readers and adults, it continues to bring to life this young woman, who for a time survived the worst horrors the modern world had seen -- and who remained triumphantly and heartbreakingly human throughout her ordeal.]]> 351 Anne Frank Reader 0 4.35 1947
author: Anne Frank
name: Reader
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1947
rating: 0
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]]> 4395 The Grapes of Wrath is a landmark of American literature. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. Although it follows the movement of thousands of men and women and the transformation of an entire nation, The Grapes of Wrath is also the story of one Oklahoma family, the Joads, who are driven off their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity.

First published in 1939, The Grapes of Wrath summed up its era in the way that Uncle Tom's Cabin summed up the years of slavery before the Civil War. Sensitive to fascist and communist criticism, Steinbeck insisted that "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" be printed in its entirety in the first edition of the book—which takes its title from the first verse: "He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored." At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s fictional chronicle of the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s is perhaps the most American of American Classics.]]> 455 John Steinbeck Reader 5 3.88 1939
author: John Steinbeck
name: Reader
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1939
rating: 5
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]]> 57640287 Nella Larsen's fascinating exploration of race and identity--the inspiration for the upcoming Netflix film directed by Rebecca Hall, starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga.

This Signet Classics edition of Passing includes an Introduction by Brit Bennett, the bestselling author of The Vanishing Half.

Irene Redfield is a Black woman living an affluent, comfortable life with her husband and children in the thriving neighborhood of Harlem in the 1920s. When she reconnects with her childhood friend Clare Kendry, who is similarly light-skinned, Irene discovers that Clare has been passing for a white woman after severing ties to her past--even hiding the truth from her racist husband.

Clare finds herself drawn to Irene's sense of ease and security with her Black identity and longs for the community (and, increasingly, the woman) she lost. Irene is both riveted and repulsed by Clare and her dangerous secret, as Clare begins to insert herself--and her deception--into every part of Irene's stable existence. First published in 1929, Larsen's brilliant examination of the various ways in which we all seek to "pass," is as timely as ever.]]> 141 Nella Larsen 0593437845 Reader 0 to-read 3.91 1929
author: Nella Larsen
name: Reader
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1929
rating: 0
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]]> 355697
In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the �glorious war�. With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young �unknown soldier� experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.]]> 296 Erich Maria Remarque 0449213943 Reader 0 to-read 4.04 1928
author: Erich Maria Remarque
name: Reader
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1928
rating: 0
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]]> 216864525 It was the election America dreaded, a rematch between the two oldest men to serve as president. But somewhere along the way, the 2024 battle for the White House became the most jaw-dropping, heart-pounding, head-turning contest in American history. The ride was so wild that it forced a sitting president to drop his re-election bid, a once and future president to survive felony convictions and a would-be assassin’s bullet, and a vice president, unexpectedly thrust into the arena, to mount an unprecedented 107-day campaign to lead the free world.Ěý

Fight is the backstage story of bloodsport politics in its rawest form—the clawing, backstabbing, and rabble-rousing that drove Donald Trump into the White House and Democrats into the wilderness. At every turn, the combatants went for the jugular, whether they were facing down rivals in the other party or their own.Ěý

Bestselling authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes give readers their first graphic view of the characters, their motivations, and their innermost thoughts as they battled to claim the ultimate prize and define a political era. Based on real-time interviews with more than 150 insiders—from the Trump, Harris, and Biden inner circles, as well as party leaders and operatives�Fight delivers the vivid and stunning tale of an election unlike any other.

In the end, Trump overcame voters� concerns about his personal flaws by tapping into a deep vein of dissatisfaction with the direction of the country. At the same time, Democrats struggled to connect with an electorate that felt gaslit by Biden’s insistence that he had delivered economic prosperity—and his pledge to be a “bridge� president. He tore his party asunder, leaving destroyed personal relationships in his wake, as he clung to power. And when he gave it up, he kneecapped Harris by demanding unprecedented loyalty from her.

As Allen and Parnes have done in the #1 New York Times bestseller Shattered and Lucky, they provide readers with a skeleton key to the rooms where it all happened, revealing a story more shocking than previously reported.]]> 352 Jonathan Allen 006343864X Reader 5
I just don’t know how these people rebuild their credibility. If Trump has a productive second term, they’ll be wandering the desert until the 2030s. All because nobody could take the car keys away from Joe Biden.

]]> 3.93
author: Jonathan Allen
name: Reader
average rating: 3.93
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rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/12
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Couldn’t put this down. The funny thing about reading the excellent reporting about the Biden campaign (and Trump’s too but that side was better reported by Tim Alberta for The Atlantic) was how the obvious thing was the true thing every step of the way despite strident denials from the establishment. Biden was diminished—obviously true, denied until it was impossible. Biden couldn’t run—obviously true, denied until the donors and Party refused to participate. Nobody saw it for Harris—obviously true, memory-holed until the campaign was over once it was apparent she was the next in line. Harris couldn’t beat Trump on Biden’s message—obviously true, ignored by Party hacks and insiders more concerned with Biden’s legacy than Harris� candidacy.

I just don’t know how these people rebuild their credibility. If Trump has a productive second term, they’ll be wandering the desert until the 2030s. All because nobody could take the car keys away from Joe Biden.


]]> 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 Reader 0 to-read 4.11 2025
author: Ezra Klein
name: Reader
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2025
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]]> 29044 559 Donna Tartt 1400031702 Reader 0 to-read 4.17 1992
author: Donna Tartt
name: Reader
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1992
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]]> 214152163 The striking sophomore poetry collection from the award-winning author of the “beautiful, vulnerable, honest� (Ross Gay, New York Times bestselling author) I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood.

Dive between the borders of ruined and radical love with this lyrical poetry collection that explores topics as expansive as divorce, the first Black Bachelorette, and the art world. Stanzas shift between reverence to irreverence as they take us on a journey through institutional and historical pains alongside sensuality and queer, Black joys.

From a generational voice that “earns a place among the pantheon of such emerging black poets as Eve Ewing, Nicole Sealy, and Airea D. Matthews� (Booklist, starred review), Scorched Earth is a transcendent anthology for our times.]]> 112 Tiana Clark 1668052075 Reader 0 to-read 4.22
author: Tiana Clark
name: Reader
average rating: 4.22
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]]> 26889576 The #1 New York Times bestseller: "It is the work of our greatest financial journalist, at the top of his game. And it's essential reading."—Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair

The real story of the crash began in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn't shine and the SEC doesn't dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can't pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren't talking.




Michael Lewis creates a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 bestseller Liar's Poker. Out of a handful of unlikely-really unlikely-heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our time.]]> 291 Michael Lewis 039335315X Reader 0 to-read 4.34 2010
author: Michael Lewis
name: Reader
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2010
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]]> 209966784 In diesem wichtigen Buch zeichnet der Wall-Street-Veteran und ehemalige Berater des Verteidigungsministeriums James Rickards ein umfassendes Bild der Gefahr, die KI für die globale Finanzordnung und die nationale Sicherheit darstellt. Er zeigt, dass KI wesentliche Eigenschaften wie Instinkt, Risikobereitschaft, Verstand und Einfühlungsvermögen fehlen, die es braucht, um den weltweiten Finanzmarkt zu regeln und die Sicherheit vor Cyberkriminalität und Deepfakes zu gewährleisten. MoneyGPT ist ein Appell, die Gefahren der Künstlichen Intelligenz rechtzeitig zu erkennen und mit menschlicher Logik und gesundem Menschenverstand einzuschreiten.]]> 240 James Rickards 0593718631 Reader 0 currently-reading 3.40
author: James Rickards
name: Reader
average rating: 3.40
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]]> 27220736
In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed $8,000 his first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In an age of startups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all startups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable symbols in the world today.

But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always remained a mystery. Now, for the first time, in a memoir that is candid, humble, gutsy, and wry, he tells his story, beginning with his crossroads moment. At 24, after backpacking around the world, he decided to take the unconventional path, to start his own business—a business that would be dynamic, different.

Knight details the many risks and daunting setbacks that stood between him and his dream—along with his early triumphs. Above all, he recalls the formative relationships with his first partners and employees, a ragtag group of misfits and seekers who became a tight-knit band of brothers. Together, harnessing the transcendent power of a shared mission, and a deep belief in the spirit of sport, they built a brand that changed everything.]]> 400 Phil Knight 1501135910 Reader 4 4.45 2016
author: Phil Knight
name: Reader
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/30
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I had this book categorized in my mind as a business book, and it is, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn how introspective and thoughtful Phil Knight is about his life and his business. I know many people that work at Nike and I’ve always thought the culture a bit� intense for my liking. Reading this book helped me contextualize that better: the company is mission-driven, and has been from the start. I also found it heartening, as a fellow wanderer, to read about how much Phil Knight wandered around Doing Stuff on his path to the second-most profitable apparel company in the world. It came from knowing his customer, cutting-edge research and development, the right team, transparency and honesty in business dealings, and unwavering commitment.
]]> 40727626
Free Food For Millionaires offers up a fresh exploration of the complex layers we inhabit both in society and within ourselves. Inspired by 19th century novels such as Vanity Fair and Middlemarch, Min Jin Lee examines maintaining one's identity within changing communities in what is her remarkably assured debut.]]> 577 Min Jin Lee Reader 4 3.91 2007
author: Min Jin Lee
name: Reader
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
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It’s no Pachinko (hence the 4-Star rating) but you see its DNA in FFFM. MJH likes to write from different POVs, and I think it was a benefit for her to focus on fewer of them in Pachinko. Casey Han is a confused person and sometimes was a frustrating, inscrutable protagonist to follow but her story was interesting from start to finish and the richness of the side characters really brought her world to life. The vibe of this book is like if Sex and the City majored in East Asian Diasporic studies.
]]> 196585876 An Unfinished Love A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of America’s most beloved historians, artfully weaves together biography, memoir, and history. She takes you along on the emotional journey she and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin embarked upon in the last years of his life.

Dick and Doris Goodwin were married for forty-two years and married to American history even longer. In his twenties, Dick was one of the brilliant young men of John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier. In his thirties he both named and helped design Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and was a speechwriter and close advisor to Robert Kennedy. Doris Kearns was a twenty-four-year-old graduate student when selected as a White House Fellow. She worked directly for Lyndon Johnson and later assisted on his memoir.

Over the years, with humor, anger, frustration, and in the end, a growing understanding, Dick and Doris had argued over the achievements and failings of the leaders they served and observed, debating the progress and unfinished promises of the country they both loved.

The Goodwins� last great adventure involved finally opening the more than three hundred boxes of letters, diaries, documents, and memorabilia that Dick had saved for more than fifty years. They soon realized they had before them an unparalleled personal time capsule of the 1960s, illuminating public and private moments of a decade when individuals were powered by the conviction they could make a difference; a time, like today, marked by struggles for racial and economic justice, a time when lines were drawn and loyalties tested.

Their expedition gave Dick’s last years renewed purpose and determination. It gave Doris the opportunity to connect and reconnect with participants and witnesses of pivotal moments of the 1960s. And it gave them both an opportunity to make fresh assessments of the central figures of the time—John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, and especially Lyndon Johnson, who greatly impacted both their lives. The voyage of remembrance brought unexpected discoveries, forgiveness, and the renewal of old dreams, reviving the hope that the youth of today will carry forward this unfinished love story with America.]]> 480 Doris Kearns Goodwin 1982108665 Reader 0 to-read 4.53 2024
author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
name: Reader
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/08
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]]> 5826 318 Ann Patchett Reader 2 3.93 2001
author: Ann Patchett
name: Reader
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2001
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
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By the end of the book I was crying and laughing and absolutely in love with the story. But the first third of the book is so slow, despite being the ostensibly most exciting part of a hostage story (when people are initially being taken hostage), that I almost didn’t finish. It took me 3 months to finish the book with 85% of the reading being done on the last day of reading it.
]]> 200776812 The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story.

There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine.

Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Center convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer," Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.]]> 464 Asako Yuzuki 0063236400 Reader 3 3.50 2017
author: Asako Yuzuki
name: Reader
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
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Books in translation are a funny thing. The goal isn’t to make them read well in English, the goal is to present an English version that is as true to the source material as possible. At least in my opinion. This fascinating novel does that—it reads like what I imagine Japanese would—forceful, deeply descriptive, stark. The book endlessly describes the process of purchasing, making and eating food. As a foodie, I loved it. As a reader expecting a more compelling plot about a murderer, you might be disappointed.
]]> 6101138 This is an alternative cover edition for ISBN 9780007230181

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?]]> 653 Hilary Mantel Reader 4 3.90 2009
author: Hilary Mantel
name: Reader
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/03/08
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I wasn’t sure about this book at first but I couldn’t put it down. Henry VIII’s marital problems are some of the most famous events in western history and somehow this book makes them feel fresh, due to the enigmatic perspective of Thomas Cromwell. I was very impressed by the author’s ability to demonstrate the power of what must have been endless research without sacrificing literariness. I gobbled this down in 3 days and, like all newfound favorites, am waiting until the joy dissipates before I eagerly do the same for the next in the series.
]]> 29397486
Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world’s most secretive election.

They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals.

Over the next seventy-two hours one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth.]]> 288 Robert Harris Reader 0 to-read 4.02 2016
author: Robert Harris
name: Reader
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/18
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]]> 199032056 603 Sergey Radchenko Reader 0 to-read 4.53 2024
author: Sergey Radchenko
name: Reader
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/18
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]]> 56898213 A Washington Post Best Book of 2021

The #1 New York Times bestselling investigative story of how three successive presidents and their military commanders deceived the public year after year about America’s longest war, foreshadowing the Taliban’s recapture of Afghanistan, by Washington Post reporter and three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Craig Whitlock.

Unlike the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 had near-unanimous public support. At first, the goals were straightforward and clear: defeat al-Qaeda and prevent a repeat of 9/11. Yet soon after the United States and its allies removed the Taliban from power, the mission veered off course and US officials lost sight of their original objectives.

Distracted by the war in Iraq, the US military become mired in an unwinnable guerrilla conflict in a country it did not understand. But no president wanted to admit failure, especially in a war that began as a just cause. Instead, the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations sent more and more troops to Afghanistan and repeatedly said they were making progress, even though they knew there was no realistic prospect for an outright victory.

Just as the Pentagon Papers changed the public’s understanding of Vietnam, The Afghanistan Papers contains “fast-paced and vivid� (The New York Times Book Review) revelation after revelation from people who played a direct role in the war from leaders in the White House and the Pentagon to soldiers and aid workers on the front lines. In unvarnished language, they admit that the US government’s strategies were a mess, that the nation-building project was a colossal failure, and that drugs and corruption gained a stranglehold over their allies in the Afghan government. All told, the account is based on interviews with more than 1,000 people who knew that the US government was presenting a distorted, and sometimes entirely fabricated, version of the facts on the ground.

Documents unearthed by The Washington Post reveal that President Bush didn’t know the name of his Afghanistan war commander—and didn’t want to meet with him. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted that he had “no visibility into who the bad guys are.� His successor, Robert Gates, said: “We didn’t know jack shit about al-Qaeda.�

The Afghanistan Papers is a “searing indictment of the deceit, blunders, and hubris of senior military and civilian officials� (Tom Bowman, NRP Pentagon Correspondent) that will supercharge a long-overdue reckoning over what went wrong and forever change the way the conflict is remembered.]]> 368 Craig Whitlock 1982159006 Reader 5 4.23 2021
author: Craig Whitlock
name: Reader
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/16
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Couldn’t put it down. I’ve become increasingly skeptical of American foreign intervention in recent years and the quagmire of Afghanistan justifies it. You just can’t trust that people know what they’re doing.
]]> 19288043 What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.

So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?]]> 415 Gillian Flynn 0307588378 Reader 5 4.22 2012
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Reader
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
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]]> 182733784
Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds� notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made. Nuclear War: A Scenario examines the handful of minutes after a nuclear missile launch. It is essential reading, and unlike any other book in its depth and urgency.]]> 400 Annie Jacobsen 0593476093 Reader 3 4.37 2024
author: Annie Jacobsen
name: Reader
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
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Really poorly written, like laughably bad. That being said, it’s probably the scariest book you will ever read and would make for a great horror audiobook.
]]> 217217007

War is an intimate and sweeping account of one of the most tumultuous periods in presidential politics and American history.

We see President Joe Biden and his top advisers in tense conversations with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. We also see Donald Trump, conducting a shadow presidency and seeking to regain political power.

With unrivaled, inside-the-room reporting, Woodward shows President Biden’s approach to managing the war in Ukraine, the most significant land war in Europe since World War II, and his tortured path to contain the bloody Middle East conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.

Woodward reveals the extraordinary complexity and consequence of wartime back-channel diplomacy and decision-making to deter the use of nuclear weapons and a rapid slide into World War III.

The raw cage-fight of politics accelerates as Americans prepare to vote in 2024, starting between President Biden and Trump, and ending with the unexpected elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president.

War provides an unvarnished examination of the vice president as she tries to embrace the Biden legacy and policies while beginning to chart a path of her own as a presidential candidate.

Woodward’s reporting once again sets the standard for journalism at its most authoritative and illuminating.]]> 441 Bob Woodward Reader 3 4.24 2024
author: Bob Woodward
name: Reader
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
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Christopher Hitchens referred to Bob Woodward’s access-based journalism as “stenography,� and I couldn’t help but think throughout the entirety of this book that he was obviously in the tank for the Biden administration and faithfully repeating whatever he was told, without question. That being said, Woodward had some pretty incredible access to the Biden foreign policy apparatus and a lot of his reporting is corroborated by the facts and holds up to history. His coverage of the election, and Trump as a subject, was weak and cursory. Overall, the book is important for its access but obviously partisan in its journalism.
]]> 10104 643 Alison Weir 0802136834 Reader 0 to-read 4.11 1992
author: Alison Weir
name: Reader
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/29
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]]> 16121 ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýBorn the son of a flamboyant, bigamous snake-oil salesman and a pious, straitlaced mother, Rockefeller rose from rustic origins to become the world's richest man by creating America's most powerful and feared monopoly, Standard Oil. Branded "the Octopus" by legions of muckrakers, the trust refined and marketed nearly 90 percent of the oil produced in America.
ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýRockefeller was likely the most controversial businessman in our nation's history. Critics charged that his empire was built on unscrupulous tactics: grand-scale collusion with the railroads, predatory pricing, industrial espionage, and wholesale bribery of political officials. The titan spent more than thirty years dodging investigations until Teddy Roosevelt and his trustbusters embarked on a marathon crusade to bring Standard Oil to bay.
ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýWhile providing abundant new evidence of Rockefeller's misdeeds, Chernow discards the stereotype of the cold-blooded monster to sketch an unforgettably human portrait of a quirky, eccentric original. A devout Baptist and temperance advocate, Rockefeller gave money more generously--his chosen philanthropies included the Rockefeller Foundation, the University of Chicago, and what is today Rockefeller University--than anyone before him. Titan presents a finely nuanced portrait of a fascinating, complex man, synthesizing his public and private lives and disclosing numerous family scandals, tragedies, and misfortunes that have never before come to light.
ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýJohn D. Rockefeller's story captures a pivotal moment in American history, documenting the dramatic post-Civil War shift from small business to the rise of giant corporations that irrevocably transformed the nation. With cameos by Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst, Jay Gould, William Vanderbilt, Ida Tarbell, Andrew Carnegie, Carl Jung, J. Pierpont Morgan, William James, Henry Clay Frick, Mark Twain, and Will Rogers, Titan turns Rockefeller's life into a vivid tapestry of American society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is Ron Chernow's signal triumph that he narrates this monumental saga with all the sweep, drama, and insight that this giant subject deserves.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 832 Ron Chernow 1400077303 Reader 0 to-read 4.15 1998
author: Ron Chernow
name: Reader
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/29
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]]> 130363
Robert K. Massie delves deep into the life of this captivating historical figure, chronicling the pivotal events that shaped a boy into a legend - including his 'incognito' travels in Europe, his unquenchable curiosity about Western ways, his obsession with the sea and establishment of the stupendous Russian navy, his creation of an unbeatable army, and his relationships with those he loved most: Catherine, his loving mistress, wife, and successor; and Menshikov, the charming, unscrupulous prince who rose to power through Peter's friendship. Impetuous and stubborn, generous and cruel, a man of enormous energy and complexity, Peter the Great is brought fully to life.]]> 909 Robert K. Massie 1842121162 Reader 0 to-read 4.11 1980
author: Robert K. Massie
name: Reader
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1980
rating: 0
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]]> 1111 The Power Broker tells the hidden story behind the shaping (and mis-shaping) of twentieth-century New York (city and state) and makes public what few have known: that Robert Moses was, for almost half a century, the single most powerful man of our time in New York, the shaper not only of the city's politics but of its physical structure and the problems of urban decline that plague us today.

In revealing how Moses did it--how he developed his public authorities into a political machine that was virtually a fourth branch of government, one that could bring to their knees Governors and Mayors (from La Guardia to Lindsay) by mobilizing banks, contractors, labor unions, insurance firms, even the press and the Church, into an irresistible economic force--Robert Caro reveals how power works in all the cities of the United States. Moses built an empire and lived like an emperor. He personally conceived and completed public works costing 27 billion dollars--the greatest builder America (and probably the world) has ever known. Without ever having been elected to office, he dominated the men who were--even his most bitter enemy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, could not control him--until he finally encountered, in Nelson Rockefeller, the only man whose power (and ruthlessness in wielding it) equalled his own.]]> 1246 Robert A. Caro 0394720245 Reader 0 to-read 4.51 1974
author: Robert A. Caro
name: Reader
average rating: 4.51
book published: 1974
rating: 0
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]]> 101025305 A remarkably illuminating biography of the political maverick, filled with revelations and written with his full cooperation by an award-winning writer at The Atlantic.

Authoritative, personal, and vividly written, Romney: A Reckoning is a revealing account of Mitt Romney’s life.

Based on dozens of exclusive interviews with Romney, his family, and his inner circle as well as hundreds of pages of his personal journals, this book offers a rare, portrait of a politician who in recent years has been at the center of our nation’s most defining political dramas.]]> 416 McKay Coppins 1982196238 Reader 3
I keep using the word “interesting� like that’s the only reason to read a biography. I’ll admit that it’s a big reason to read a biography and usually my primary reason. While I can’t say Mitt’s biography is interesting (like all the best-behaved people you know, he’s kinda boring, and everyone in his orbit admits it on the record), I can say it is satisfying.]]> 4.33 2023
author: McKay Coppins
name: Reader
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/22
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Romney is not an interesting person but he’s led an interesting life. I think the most interesting parts of his biography, which surprised me with its relevance to the moment, were the supporting characters. Manchin, Sinema, Biden, Paul Ryan, Trump, GWB, many of whom participated in interviews for the book. Maybe a more accurate title and a more interesting approach to this book would be “Mitt and Friends”�

I keep using the word “interesting� like that’s the only reason to read a biography. I’ll admit that it’s a big reason to read a biography and usually my primary reason. While I can’t say Mitt’s biography is interesting (like all the best-behaved people you know, he’s kinda boring, and everyone in his orbit admits it on the record), I can say it is satisfying.
]]> 122765395 From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter.

When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.

His father’s impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive.

At the beginning of 2022—after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth—Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. “I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,� he said.

It was a wistful comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world’s ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground.

For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?]]> 688 Walter Isaacson 1982181281 Reader 0 currently-reading 4.28 2023
author: Walter Isaacson
name: Reader
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 58725007 In his punchy follow-up to Moneyland, Oliver Bullough's Butler to the World unravels the dark secret of how Britain placed itself at the centre of the global offshore economy and at the service of the worst people in the world�

The Suez Crisis of 1956 was Britain’s twentieth century nadir, the moment when the once superpower was bullied into retreat. In the immortal words of former US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, �Britain has lost an empire and not yet found a role.� But the funny thing was, Britain had already found a role. It even had the costume. The leaders of the world just hadn’t noticed it yet.

Butler to the World reveals how the UK took up its position at the elbow of the worst people on Earth: the oligarchs, kleptocrats and gangsters. We pride ourselves on values of fair play and the rule of law, but few countries do more to frustrate global anti- corruption efforts. We are now a nation of Jeeveses, snobbish enablers for rich halfwits of considerably less charm than Bertie Wooster. It doesn’t have to be that way.]]> 288 Oliver Bullough 125028192X Reader 2 3.96 2022
author: Oliver Bullough
name: Reader
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
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I’ve read more sophisticated books written by investigative journalists on financial crime. But it was worth reading. The key takeaway is that British law is kinda fake and mostly ceremonial.
]]> 113206 One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York TimesĚý

From the editor of The New Yorker : a riveting account of the collapse of the Soviet Union, which has become the standard book on the subject. Lenin’s Tomb combines the global vision of the best historical scholarship with the immediacy of eyewitness journalism. Remnick takes us through the tumultuous 75-year period of Communist rule leading up to the collapse and gives us the voices of those who lived through it, from democratic activists to Party members, from anti-Semites to Holocaust survivors, from Gorbachev to Yeltsin to Sakharov. An extraordinary history of an empire undone, Lenin’s Tomb stands as essential reading for our times.Ěý
Ěý±Ő±Ő> 588 David Remnick 0679751254 Reader 5 4.24 1994
author: David Remnick
name: Reader
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1994
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/01/08
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I wish I could give this book 6 stars, because it’s so beyond the other 5 star reviews I’ve given. It earned its Pulitzer. I want to say that David Remnick was lucky to witness the fall of the Soviet Union, but his access and perspective and timing and sense of narrative goes far beyond “right place, right time.� I am dumbstruck by the simple power of his first-person POV on perhaps the most historic events in the last 50 years. But beyond that, his perspective hasn’t aged. If anything, his observations about the fragility of democracy, the power-hungry and opportunistic, the resilience of people, the sclerosis of government, the way propaganda churns through the bloodstream of a society, and more, feel as fresh and relevant as if he wrote them yesterday.
]]> 62039165
Orphaned from infancy, Catherine de� Medici endured a tumultuous childhood. Married to the French king, she was widowed by forty, only to become the power behind the French throne during a period of intense civil strife. In 1546, Catherine gave birth to a daughter, Elisabeth de Valois, who would become Queen of Spain. Two years later, Catherine welcomed to her nursery the beguiling young Mary Queen of Scots, who would later become her daughter-in-law.

Together, Catherine, Elisabeth, and Mary lived through the sea changes that transformed sixteenth-century Europe, a time of expanding empires, religious discord, and populist revolt, as concepts of nationhood began to emerge and ideas of sovereignty inched closer to absolutism. They would learn that to rule as a queen was to wage a constant war against the deeply entrenched misogyny of their time.

Following the intertwined stories of the three women from girlhood through young adulthood, Leah Redmond Chang's Young Queens paints a picture of a world in which a woman could wield power at the highest level yet remain at the mercy of the state, her body serving as the currency of empire and dynasty, sacrificed to the will of husband, family, kingdom.]]> 416 Leah Redmond Chang 0374294488 Reader 0 to-read 4.14 2023
author: Leah Redmond Chang
name: Reader
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/02
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]]> 193544191
Joseph Seligman arrived in the United States in 1837, with the equivalent of $100 sewn into the lining of his pants. Then came the Lehman brothers, who would open a general store in Montgomery, Alabama. Not far behind were Solomon Loeb and Marcus Goldman, among the “Forty-Eighters� fleeing a Germany that had relegated Jews to an underclass.

These industrious immigrants would soon go from peddling trinkets and buying up shopkeepersâ€� IOUs to forming what would become some of the largest investment banks in the world—Goldman Sachs, Kuhn Loeb, Lehman Brothers, J. & W. Seligman & Co. They would clash and collaborate with J. P. Morgan, E. H. Harriman, Jay Gould, and other famed tycoons of the era. And their firms would help to transform the United States from a debtor nation into a financial superpower, capitalizing American industry and underwriting some of the twentieth century’s quintessential companies, like General Motors, Macy’s, and Sears. Along the way, they would shape the destiny not just of American finance but of the millions of Eastern European Jews who spilled off steamships in New York Harbor in the early 1900s, including Daniel Schulman’s paternal grandparents. Ěý

In Money Kings, Schulman unspools a sweeping narrative that traces the interconnected origin stories of these financial dynasties. He chronicles their paths to Wall Street dominance, as they navigated the deeply antisemitic upper class of the Gilded Age, and the complexities of the Civil War, World War I, and the Zionist movement that tested both their burgeoning empires and their identities as Americans, Germans, and Jews.]]> 592 Daniel Schulman 0451493540 Reader 0 to-read 4.00 2023
author: Daniel Schulman
name: Reader
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/02
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]]> 60023147
The barbarian nomads of the Eurasian steppes have played a decisive role in world history, but their achievements have gone largely unnoticed. These nomadic tribes have produced some of the world’s greatest Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, among others. Their deeds still resonate today. Indeed, these nomads built long-lasting empires, facilitated the first global trade of the Silk Road and disseminated religions, technology, knowledge and goods of every description that enriched and changed the lives of so many across Europe, China and the Middle East. From a single region emerged a great many peoples—the Huns, the Mongols, the Magyars, the Turks, the Xiongnu, the Scythians, the Goths—all of whom went on to profoundly and irrevocably shape the modern world.

In this new, comprehensive history, Professor Kenneth W. Harl vividly re-creates the lives and world of these often-forgotten peoples from their beginnings to the early modern age. Their brutal struggle to survive on the steppes bred a resilient, pragmatic people ever ready to learn from their more advanced neighbors. In warfare, they dominated the battlefield for over fifteen hundred years. Under charismatic rulers, they could topple empires and win their own.]]> 576 Kenneth W. Harl 1335429271 Reader 0 to-read 3.94 2023
author: Kenneth W. Harl
name: Reader
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/02
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]]> 217191723 New York Times, USA Today, Amazon, and Publishers WeeklyĚý˛ú±đ˛őłŮ˛ő±đ±ô±ô±đ°ů

Aspects of History, The Critic, Octavian, and Modern War Institute Book of the Year.ĚýĚý

Two leading authorities—an acclaimed historian and the outstanding battlefield commander and strategist of our time—collaborate on a landmark examination of war since 1945. Conflict is both a sweeping history of the evolution of warfare up to Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine, and a penetrating analysis of what we must learn from the past—and anticipate in the future—in order to navigate an increasingly perilous world.

In this deep and incisive study, General David Petraeus, who commanded the US-led coalitions in both Iraq, during the Surge, and Afghanistan and former CIA director, and the prize-winning historian Andrew Roberts, explore over 70 years of conflict, drawing significant lessons and insights from their fresh analysis of the past. Drawing on their different perspectives and areas of expertise, Petraeus and Roberts show how often critical mistakes have been repeated time and again, and the challenge, for statesmen and generals alike, of learning to adapt to various new weapon systems, theories and strategies. Among the conflicts examined are the Arab-Israeli wars, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the two Gulf Wars, the Balkan wars in the former Yugoslavia, and both the Soviet and Coalition wars in Afghanistan, as well as guerilla conflicts in Africa and South America. Conflict culminates with a bracing look at Putin’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine, yet another case study in the tragic results when leaders refuse to learn from history, and an assessment of the nature of future warfare.ĚýFilled with sharp insight and the wisdom of experience, Conflict is not only a critical assessment of our recent past, but also an essential primer of modern warfare that provides crucial knowledge for waging battle today as well as for understanding what the decades ahead will bring.]]> 596 David Petraeus 0063441047 Reader 0 to-read 4.33
author: David Petraeus
name: Reader
average rating: 4.33
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]]> 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 Reader 0 to-read 4.37 2023
author: Steven Levitsky
name: Reader
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/02
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]]> 27418306
Following up on the ferociously innovative ESCAPE VELOCITY, which served as the basis for Moore's consulting work to such companies as Salesforce, Microsoft, and Intel, ZONE TO WIN serves as the companion playbook for his landmark guide, offering a practical manual to address the challenge large enterprises face when they seek to add a new line of business to their established portfolio. Focused on spurring next-generation growth, guiding mergers and acquisitions, and embracing disruption and innovation, ZONE TO WIN is a high-powered tool for driving your company above and beyond its limitations, its definitions of success, and ultimately, its competitors.

Moore's classic bestseller, CROSSING THE CHASM, has sold more than one million copies by addressing the challenges faced by start-up companies. Now ZONE TO WIN is set to guide established enterprises through the same journey.

"For any company, regardless of size or industry, ZONE TO WIN is the playbook for succeeding in today's disruptive, connected, fast-paced business world." --Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce

"Once again Geoffrey Moore weighs in with a prescient examination of what it takes to win in today's competitive, disruptive business environment." --Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft

With this book, Geoffrey Moore continues to lead us all through ever-changing times...His work has changed the game of changing the game! --Gary Kovacs, CEO, AVG

"ZONE TO WIN uses crystal-clear language to describe the management plays necessary to win in an ever-disrupting marketplace. Regardless of your level of management experience, you will find this book an invaluable tool for building long-term success for your business." --Lip-Bu Tan, President and CEO, Cadence Design Systems]]> 143 Geoffrey A. Moore 1682301702 Reader 0 to-read, business 3.86
author: Geoffrey A. Moore
name: Reader
average rating: 3.86
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]]> 2615
Focusing on "disruptive technology" -- the Honda Super Cub, Intel's 8088 processor, or the hydraulic excavator, for example -- Christensen shows why most companies miss "the next great wave." Whether in electronics or retailing, a successful company with established products will get pushed aside unless managers know when to abandon traditional business practices. Using the lessons of successes and failures from leading companies, "The Innovator's Dilemma" presents a set of rules for capitalizing on the phenomenon of disruptive innovation.]]> 320 Clayton M. Christensen 0060521996 Reader 0 to-read, business 4.03 1997
author: Clayton M. Christensen
name: Reader
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read, business
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]]> 46033247 “Product-Led Growth is about helping your customers experience the ongoing value your product provides...and this book shows you how it’s done.� - Nir Eyal, Author of “Hooked� and “Indistractible�

“As captivating as a good novel, Product-Led Growth is an absolute must-read for SaaS business owners.� - Omar Zenhom, CEO, WebinarNinja

“Why did I just blow $300K promoting a whitepaper?�

That’s the hard question I asked myself but couldn’t answer—after all, we were just following the same old SaaS playbook. Sure, sales cycles were long and acquisition was expensive, but that’s how everybody grew their companies.

But after I helped launch a freemium product that went from 0-100K users in less than 12 months, I realized the traditional way of selling software was deeply flawed.

Hi, I’m Wes Bush, founder of ProductLed.com. And in Product-Led Growth, I show you how you can cut your acquisition costs and scale further than you ever thought possible...by making your product the tool that helps you acquire, convert, and retain customers.

But what does it mean to be “product-led�? How do you know if a product-led growth strategy makes sense for your business? And most importantly, how do you execute it?

You’ll find answers to all of these questions inside this book. In addition, I’ll also show

How to save 3-6 months of development and hundreds of thousands of dollars by launching a free trial in 24 hours—and why you should do it (Ch. 10)

Which HUGE mistake ProfitWell's Patrick Campbell says can "kill your growth and set you up for long-term failure"...and how to avoid making it (Ch. 8)

How to turn more users into customers with the simple framework I invented—that already drives brands millions in revenue (Ch. 13)

Why you can't ever stop your churn, but how you can (almost) wipe it out (Ch. 15)

The 4-letter decision framework that will help you nail the right go-to-market strategy and growth model for your SaaS (Ch. 2)

Which of the 4 most common SaaS pricing strategies is the ONLY one with long-term viability (Ch. 9)

What the "Triple-A" sprint cycle is and how to use it to build a sustainable growth process—in just 1 month (Ch. 12)

How to stop paying customers from slipping away (Ch. 15)

The 3 apocalyptic "tidal waves" that are coming for SaaS companies—and what you MUST do to survive them (Ch. 1)

How to make free trial and freemium users hunger to upgrade to paid (Ch. 9)

The single biggest cause of leaky funnels and how to fix it, fast (Ch. 10)

Which 7 people you need in your “tiger team� to run a successful product-led growth team (Ch. 11)

The #1 thing to improve right now to maximize your customer lifetime value (Ch. 14)

Product-Led Growth also comes packed with “do this, not that� real-life examples from the industry’s biggest brands—as well as a collection of high-converting email scripts you can customize and send out immediately to turn more users into customers.]]> 238 Wes Bush Reader 0 to-read, business 4.09
author: Wes Bush
name: Reader
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read, business
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]]> 36064445 New York Times bestselling author of The Black Swan, a bold new work that challenges many of our long-held beliefs about risk and reward, politics and religion, finance and personal responsibility

In his most provocative and practical book yet, one of the foremost thinkers of our time redefines what it means to understand the world, succeed in a profession, contribute to a fair and just society, detect nonsense, and influence others. Citing examples ranging from Hammurabi to Seneca, Antaeus the Giant to Donald Trump, Nassim Nicholas Taleb shows how the willingness to accept one’s own risks is an essential attribute of heroes, saints, and flourishing people in all walks of life.

As always both accessible and iconoclastic, Taleb challenges long-held beliefs about the values of those who spearhead military interventions, make financial investments, and propagate religious faiths. Among his insights:

â€� For social justice,Ěýfocus on symmetry and risk sharing. You cannot make profits and transfer the risks to others, as bankers and large corporations do. You cannot get rich without owning your own risk and paying for your own losses. Forcing skin in the game corrects this asymmetry better than thousands of laws and regulations.
� Ethical rules aren’t universal. You’re part of a group larger than you, but it’s still smaller than humanity in general.
� Minorities, not majorities, run the world. The world is not run by consensus but by stubborn minorities imposing their tastes and ethics on others.
� You can be an intellectual yet still be an idiot. “Educated philistines� have been wrong on everything from Stalinism to Iraq to low-carb diets.
� Beware of complicated solutions (that someone was paid to find). A simple barbell can build muscle better than expensive new machines.
� True religion is commitment, not just faith. How much you believe in something is manifested only by what you’re willing to risk for it.

The phrase “skin in the game� is one we have often heard but rarely stopped to truly dissect. It is the backbone of risk management, but it’s also an astonishingly rich worldview that, as Taleb shows in this book, applies to all aspects of our lives. As Taleb says, “The symmetry of skin in the game is a simple rule that’s necessary for fairness and justice, and the ultimate BS-buster,� and “Never trust anyone who doesn’t have skin in the game. Without it, fools and crooks will benefit, and their mistakes will never come back to haunt them.”]]> 272 Nassim Nicholas Taleb 0241300657 Reader 3 3.88 2018
author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
name: Reader
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/29
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I enjoy him and his writing but I won’t pretend like he’s unveiling secret mysteries of the world with this. It seems fairly obvious that investment or lack thereof in an outcome would impact the way people interact with possibilities or solve problems.
]]> 40977850
She kicked her way into the male spaces of politics and demanded to be recognized as an equal and a leader. For her audacity, she was murdered by her son and reviled by history.

She was the sister, niece, wife, and mother of Emperors. She was an Empress in her own right, and she was a nuanced, fearless trail-blazer in the Roman world.

The story of Agrippina -- the first Empress of Rome is the story of an empire at its bloody, extravagant, chaotic, ruthless height.]]> 285 Emma Southon Reader 0 to-read 4.25 2018
author: Emma Southon
name: Reader
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/01
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]]> 44428950 336 Marc Randolph 0316530204 Reader 0 to-read 4.18 2019
author: Marc Randolph
name: Reader
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> 63326676 An authoritative history of Europe’s largest military conflict since World War II, from the New York Times best-selling author of The Gates of Europe.

Despite repeated warnings from the White House, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shocked the world. Why did Putin start the war―and why has it unfolded in previously unimaginable ways? Ukrainians have resisted a superior military; the West has united, while Russia grows isolated.

Serhii Plokhy, leading historian of Ukraine and the Cold War, traces this conflict to post-Soviet tensions. Providing a broad historial context and an examination of Ukraine and Russia’s ideas and cultures, as well as domestic and international politics, Plokhy reveals that while this new Cold War was not inevitable, it was predictable. Ukraine, Plokhy argues, has remained central to Russia’s idea of itself even as Ukrainians have followed a radically different path. It is now more than ever the most volatile fault line between authoritarianism and democratic Europe as a new division of the world emerges around the economic superpowers of the United States and China.]]> 376 Serhii Plokhy 1324051191 Reader 3
Read this book but make sure it isn’t the only thing you read. The author is not an impartial observer, journalist or historian. ]]> 4.24 2023
author: Serhii Plokhy
name: Reader
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/01
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This is written from the Ukrainian perspective, which makes sense given the author. The final 2 chapters are so breezy and informative I felt a little sad that the rest of the book wasn’t written that way. I got some context for that bizarre Putin interview with Tucker Carlson. Curious omission of the Nordstream attack.

Read this book but make sure it isn’t the only thing you read. The author is not an impartial observer, journalist or historian.
]]> 61105800
In 2016, the fate of Paramount Global—the multibillion-dollar entertainment empire that includes Paramount, CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, Showtime, and Simon & Schuster—hung precariously in the balance. Its founder and head, ninety-three-year-old Sumner M. Redstone, was facing a very public lawsuit brought by a former romantic companion, Manuela Herzer—a lawsuit that placed Sumner’s deteriorating health and questionable judgment under a harsh light.
Ěý
As one of the last in a long line of all-powerful media moguls, Sumner had been a relentlessly demanding boss, and an even more demanding father. When his daughter, Shari, took control of her father’s business, she faced the hostility of boards and management who for years had heard Sumner disparage her. Les Moonves, the popular CEO of CBS, felt particularly threatened and schemed with his allies on the board to strip Shari of power. But while he publicly battled Shari, news began to leak that Moonves had been involved in multiple instances of sexual misconduct, and he began working behind the scenes to try to make the stories disappear.
Ěý
Unscripted is an explosive and unvarnished look at the usually secret inner workings of two public companies, their boards of directors, and a wealthy, dysfunctional family in the throes of seismic changes, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams. Through the microcosm of Paramount, whose once victorious business model of cable fees and ticket sales is crumbling under the assault of technological advances, and whose workplace is undergoing radical change in the wake of #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, and a distaste for the old guard, Stewart and Abrams lay bare the battle for power at any price—and the carnage that ensued.]]> 416 James B. Stewart 1984879421 Reader 5
Most of all this book made me reflect on how far we’ve come as a society with sexism. And how far we have yet to go. ]]> 3.72 2023
author: James B. Stewart
name: Reader
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/23
date added: 2024/11/23
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Some good mess. At one point I wanted to Google “why does everybody hate Shari Redstone”—the things that woman went through were so ridiculous, I understood why she’d be eternally grateful for the friendship of Donald Trump (have to read the book to get this one)

Most of all this book made me reflect on how far we’ve come as a society with sexism. And how far we have yet to go.
]]> 210454076 Power, privilege, and blood—this is the definitive and thrilling true story of Alex Murdaugh’s violent downfall, from a veteran Wall Street Journal reporter who has become an authority on the case.
Ěý
Alex Murdaugh was a benevolent dictator—the president of the South Carolina trial lawyers� association, a political boss, a part-time prosecutor, and a partner in his family’s law firm. He was always ready with a favor, a drink, and an invitation to Moselle, his family’s 1,700-acre hunting estate. The Murdaugh name ignited respect—and fear—for a hundred miles.

When he murdered his wife, Maggie, and son Paul at Moselle on a dark summer night, the fragile façade of Alex’s world could no longer hold. His forefathers had covered up a midnight suicide at a remote railroad crossing, a bootlegging ring run from a courthouse, and the attempted murder of a pregnant lover. Alex, too, almost walked away from his unspeakable crimes with his reputation intact, but his downfall was secured by a twist of fate, some stray mistakes, and a fateful decision by an old friend who’d finally seen enough.

Why would a man who had everything kill his wife and grown son? To unwind the roots of Alex’s ruin, award-winning journalist Valerie Bauerlein reported not just from the courthouse every day but also along the backroads and through the tidal marshes of South Carolina’s Lowcountry. When the jurors made their pilgrimage to the crime scene, trying to envision Maggie and Paul’s last moments, she walked right behind them, sensing the ghosts that haunt the Murdaughs� now-shattered legacy.

Through masterful research and cinematic writing, The Devil at His Elbow is a transporting journey through Alex’s life, the night of the murders, and the investigation that culminated in a trial that held tens of millions spellbound. With her stunning insights and fearless instinct for the truth, Bauerlein uncovers layers of the Murdaugh murder case that have not been told.]]> 480 Valerie Bauerlein 059350058X Reader 4 4.46 2024
author: Valerie Bauerlein
name: Reader
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
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The writing was not very good (overwrought turns of phrase, poor structure) but the story tells itself. These people are crazy!
]]> 56520656 268 Margot Bloomstein 1989603939 Reader 0 4.39
author: Margot Bloomstein
name: Reader
average rating: 4.39
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/26
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]]> 22551730
On May 1, 1915, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were anxious. Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone, and for months, its U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era's great transatlantic "Greyhounds" and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack. He knew, moreover, that his ship - the fastest then in service - could outrun any threat.

Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger's U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small - hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more--all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history.

It is a story that many of us think we know but don't, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour, mystery, and real-life suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope Riddle to President Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love. Gripping and important, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster that helped place America on the road to war.]]> 430 Erik Larson 0307408868 Reader 3 4.10 2015
author: Erik Larson
name: Reader
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/26
date added: 2024/10/26
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This author is really good at creating suspense. The Lusitania isn’t hit until midway through the book and you find yourself anticipating it in a way that feels like you’re reading fiction. There is less focus on WWI politics than you’d expect.
]]> 110890
The Looming Tower achieves an unprecedented level of intimacy and insight by telling the story through the interweaving lives of four men: the two leaders of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri; the FBI's counterterrorism chief, John O'Neill; and the former head of Saudi intelligence, Prince Turki al-Faisal.

As these lives unfold, we see revealed: the crosscurrents of modern Islam that helped to radicalize Zawahiri and bin Laden . . . the birth of al-Qaeda and its unsteady development into an organization capable of the American embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the attack on the USS Cole . . . O'Neill's heroic efforts to track al-Qaeda before 9/11, and his tragic death in the World Trade towers . . . Prince Turki's transformation from bin Laden's ally to his enemy . . . the failures of the FBI, CIA, and NSA to share intelligence that might have prevented the 9/11 attacks.

The Looming Tower broadens and deepens our knowledge of these signal events by taking us behind the scenes. Here is Sayyid Qutb, founder of the modern Islamist movement, lonely and despairing as he meets Western culture up close in 1940s America; the privileged childhoods of bin Laden and Zawahiri; family life in the al-Qaeda compounds of Sudan and Afghanistan; O'Neill's high-wire act in balancing his all-consuming career with his equally entangling personal life--he was living with three women, each of them unaware of the others' existence--and the nitty-gritty of turf battles among U.S. intelligence agencies.

Brilliantly conceived and written, The Looming Tower draws all elements of the story into a galvanizing narrative that adds immeasurably to our understanding of how we arrived at September 11, 2001. The richness of its new information, and the depth of its perceptions, can help us deal more wisely and effectively with the continuing terrorist threat.]]> 469 Lawrence Wright 037541486X Reader 5 4.34 2006
author: Lawrence Wright
name: Reader
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/20
date added: 2024/10/20
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I think this book should be required reading. At the time of this review, we are a week or 2 past the one-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. I don’t claim to have any solutions to the current conflict or the history behind it, but I do know this book makes clear what terrorism is, how people feel about it, how governments feel about it, and what keeps it alive despite everyone’s best efforts. I see increasing radicalization in the West and it concerns me�9/11 happened after al-Qaeda had been purged from multiple countries. The group was deeply unpopular, fleeing from country to country under the protection of increasingly unscrupulous figures and groups. What happens if terrorist groups, defined as such by their willingness to target civilians, become popular through well-meaning but misguided understanding of their aims and methods?
]]> 209543060 Rising star New York Times technology reporters Kate Conger and Ryan Mac tell for the first time the full and shocking inside story of Elon Musk’s unprecedented hostile takeover of Twitter and the forty-four-billion-dollar deal’s seismic political, social, and financial fallout
The billionaire entrepreneur and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has become inextricable from the social media platform that until 2023 was known as Twitter. Started in the mid-2000s as a playful microblogging platform, Twitter quickly became a vital nexus of global politics, culture, and media—where the retweet button could instantly catapult any idea to hundreds of millions of screens around the world, unleashing raw collective emotion like nothing else before. While its founder had idealistically dreamed of building a "digital town square," he detested Wall Street and never focused on building a profitable business.
Musk joined the platform in 2010 and, by 2022, had become one of the site’s most influential users, hooking over 80 million followers with a mix of provocations, promotion of his companies, and attacks on his enemies. To Musk, Twitter—once known for its almost absolute commitment to free speech—had badly lost its way. He blamed it for the proliferation of what he called the “woke mind virus� and claimed that the survival of democracy and the human race itself depended on the future of the site. In January of 2022, Musk began secretly accumulating Twitter stock. By April, he was its largest shareholder, and soon after, made an unsolicited offer to purchase the company for the unimaginable sum of $44 billion dollars. Backed into a corner, Twitter’s board accepted his offer—but Musk quickly changed his mind, forcing Twitter to sue him to close the deal in October. The richest man on earth controlled one of the most powerful media platforms in the world—but at what price? Before long Twitter would be gone for good, replaced by something radically different, as Musk remade the company in his own image from the ground up.
The story of the showdown between Musk and Twitter and his eventual takeover of the company is unlike anything in business or media that has come before. In vivid, cinematic detail, Conger and Mac follow the inner workings of the company as Musk lays siege to it, first from the outside as one of its most vocal users, and then finally from within as a contentious and mercurial leader. Musk has shared some of his version of events, but Conger and Mac have uncovered the full story through exclusive interviews, unreported documents, and internal recordings at Twitter following the billionaire’s takeover. With unparalleled sources from within and around the company, they provide a revelatory, three-dimensional, and definitive account of what really happened when Musk showed up, spoiling for a brawl and intent on revolution, with his merciless, sycophantic cadre of lawyers, investors, and bankers.
This is the defining story of our time told with uncommon style and peerless rigor. In a world of viral ideas and emotion, who gets to control the narrative, who gets to be heard, and what does power really cost?]]> 480 Kate Conger 059365613X Reader 5 4.26 2024
author: Kate Conger
name: Reader
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/26
date added: 2024/09/26
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]]> 10131860 352 Michael Hastings 0316176257 Reader 5 3.91 2011
author: Michael Hastings
name: Reader
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/04
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves:
review:
A war reporter with a strong, relatable voice. You know this guy. And he was up close and personal with a General and his retinue in the middle of America’s folly in the Middle East. It reads quick and I learned much. RIP to the author.
]]> 60387898 From the Pulitzer-Prize-winning New York Times reporter who has defined Donald J. Trump's presidency like no other journalist: a magnificent and disturbing reckoning that moves beyond simplistic caricature, chronicling his rise in New York City to his tortured post-presidency and his potential comeback.

Few journalists working today have covered Donald Trump more extensively than Maggie Haberman. And few understand him and his motivations better. Now, demonstrating her majestic command of this story, Haberman reveals in full the depth of her understanding of the 45th president himself, and of what the Trump phenomenon means.

Interviews with hundreds of sources and numerous interviews over the years with Trump himself portray a complicated and often contradictory historical figure. Capable of kindness but relying on casual cruelty as it suits his purposes. Pugnacious. Insecure. Lonely. Vindictive. Menacing. Smarter than his critics contend and colder and more calculating than his allies believe. A man who embedded himself in popular culture, galvanizing support for a run for high office that he began preliminary spadework for 30 years ago, to ultimately become a president who pushed American democracy to the brink.

The through-line of Trump’s life and his presidency is the enduring question of what is in it for him or what he needs to say to survive short increments of time in the pursuit of his own interests.

Confidence Man is also, inevitably, about the world that produced such a singular character, giving rise to his career and becoming his first stage. It is also about a series of relentlessly transactional relationships. The ones that shaped him most were with girlfriends and wives, with Roy Cohn, with George Steinbrenner, with Mike Tyson and Don King and Roger Stone, with city and state politicians like Robert Morgenthau and Rudy Giuliani, with business partners, with prosecutors, with the media, and with the employees who toiled inside what they commonly called amongst themselves the “Trump Disorganization.�

That world informed the one that Trump tried to recreate while in the White House. All of Trump’s behavior as President had echoes in what came before. In this revelatory and newsmaking book, Haberman brings together the events of his life into a single mesmerizing work. It is the definitive account of one of the most norms-shattering and consequential eras in American political history.]]> 597 Maggie Haberman 0593297342 Reader 5 4.03 2022
author: Maggie Haberman
name: Reader
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/09/01
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You ever watched a horror movie that was funny?that’s this book
]]> 10669
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BUSINESSWEEK

In this business classic—now with a new Afterword in which the author draws parallels to the recent financial crisis—Roger Lowenstein captures the gripping roller-coaster ride of Long-Term Capital Management. Drawing on confidential internal memos and interviews with dozens of key players, Lowenstein explains not just how the fund made and lost its money but also how the personalities of Long-Term’s partners, the arrogance of their mathematical certainties, and the culture of Wall Street itself contributed to both their rise and their fall.

When it was founded in 1993, Long-Term was hailed as the most impressive hedge fund in history. But after four years in which the firm dazzled Wall Street as a $100 billion moneymaking juggernaut, it suddenly suffered catastrophic losses that jeopardized not only the biggest banks on Wall Street but the stability of the financial system itself. The dramatic story of Long-Term’s fall is now a chilling harbinger of the crisis that would strike all of Wall Street, from Lehman Brothers to AIG, a decade later. In his new Afterword, Lowenstein shows that LTCM’s implosion should be seen not as a one-off drama but as a template for market meltdowns in an age of instability—and as a wake-up call that Wall Street and government alike tragically ignored.

Praise for When Genius Failed

“[Roger] Lowenstein has written a squalid and fascinating tale of world-class greed and, above all, hubris.� —BusinessWeek

“Compelling . . . The fund was long cloaked in secrecy, making the story of its rise . . . and its ultimate destruction that much more fascinating.� � The Washington Post

“Story-telling journalism at its best.� � The Economist]]> 264 Roger Lowenstein 0375758259 Reader 0 4.20 2000
author: Roger Lowenstein
name: Reader
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/16
date added: 2024/08/16
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]]> 195917358
A Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2023

Chinese society has been shaped by the interplay of the EAST—exams, autocracy, stability, and technology—from ancient times through the present. Beginning with the Sui dynasty’s introduction of the civil service exam, known as Keju, in 587 CE—and continuing through the personnel management system used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—Chinese autocracies have developed exceptional tools for homogenizing ideas, norms, and practices. But this uniformity came with a huge downside: stifled creativity.

Yasheng Huang shows how China transitioned from dynamism to extreme stagnation after the Keju was instituted. China’s most prosperous periods, such as during the Tang dynasty (618�907) and under the reformist CCP, occurred when its emphasis on scale (the size of bureaucracy) was balanced with scope (diversity of ideas).

Considering China’s remarkable success over the past half-century, Huang sees signs of danger in the political and economic reversals under Xi Jinping. The CCP has again vaulted conformity above new ideas, reverting to the Keju model that eventually led to technological decline. It is a lesson from China’s own history, Huang argues, that Chinese leaders would be wise to take seriously. The long history of China’s relationship between stability, diversity, and prosperity, and how its current leadership threatens this delicate balance

A Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2023

Chinese society has been shaped by the interplay of the EAST—exams, autocracy, stability, and technology—from ancient times through the present. Beginning with the Sui dynasty’s introduction of the civil service exam, known as Keju, in 587 CE—and continuing through the personnel management system used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—Chinese autocracies have developed exceptional tools for homogenizing ideas, norms, and practices. But this uniformity came with a huge downside: stifled creativity.

Yasheng Huang shows how China transitioned from dynamism to extreme stagnation after the Keju was instituted. China’s most prosperous periods, such as during the Tang dynasty (618�907) and under the reformist CCP, occurred when its emphasis on scale (the size of bureaucracy) was balanced with scope (diversity of ideas).

Considering China’s remarkable success over the past half-century, Huang sees signs of danger in the political and economic reversals under Xi Jinping. The CCP has again vaulted conformity above new ideas, reverting to the Keju model that eventually led to technological decline. It is a lesson from China’s own history, Huang argues, that Chinese leaders would be wise to take seriously.]]> 411 Yasheng Huang 0300274912 Reader 0 to-read, wsj-finds 4.25 2023
author: Yasheng Huang
name: Reader
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: to-read, wsj-finds
review:

]]> 33874545 558 Jonathan Allen 0553447092 Reader 3 3.68 2017
author: Jonathan Allen
name: Reader
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/12
date added: 2024/08/12
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If it wasn’t so sad and impactful, it’d be funny how delusional this campaign was
]]> 6694937 Catch 22.� �The Financial Times

Ěý

“It transports you to a parallel universe in which everything in the National Enquirer is true�.More interesting is what we learn about the candidates themselves: their frailties, egos and almost super-human stamina.� �The Financial Times

Ěý

“I can’t put down this book!� —Stephen Colbert

Ěý

Game Change is the New York Times bestselling story of the 2008 presidential election, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, two of the best political reporters in the country. In the spirit of Richard Ben Cramer’s What It Takes and Theodore H. White’s The Making of the President 1960, this classic campaign trail book tells the defining story of a new era in American politics, going deeper behind the scenes of the Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin campaigns than any other account of the historic 2008 election.]]> 448 John Heilemann 0061733636 Reader 5 4.12 2010
author: John Heilemann
name: Reader
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/11
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves:
review:
One of the most important books in political history, not least of all because of the importance of the election it chronicles. Reading this in 2024 was illuminating.
]]> 112974863
“One of the best books on politics our era will see . . . A book of astonishing literary quality.� � Matthew Parris, The TLS

“[Rory Stewart] walked across Asia, served in British Parliament, and ran against Boris Johnson. Now he gives us his view of what’s wrong with politics, and how we can make it right.”Ěý—Adam Grant, “The 12 New Fall Books to Enrich Your Thinkingâ€�

From a great writer—legendary for his expeditions into some of the world’s most forbidding places—a wise, honest, and sometimes absurdist memoir of aĚýmostĚýremarkable journey through British politics at the breaking point

Rory Stewart was an unlikely politician. He was best known for his two-year walk across Asia—in which he crossed Afghanistan, essentially solo, in the months after 9/11—and for his service, as a diplomat in Iraq, and Afghanistan. But in 2009, he abandoned his chair at Harvard University to stand for a seat in Parliament, representing the communities and farms of the Lake District and the Scottish border—one of the most isolated and beautiful districts in England. He ran as a Conservative, though he had no prior connection to the politics and there was much about the party that he disagreed with.

How Not to Be a Politician is a candid and penetrating examination of life on the ground as a politician in an age of shallow populism, when every hard problem has a solution that’s simple, appealing, and wrong. While undauntedly optimistic about what a public servant can accomplish in the lives of his constituents, the book is also a pitiless insider’s exposé of the game of politics at the highest level, often shocking in its displays of rampant cynicism, ignorance, glibness, and sheer incompetence. Stewart witnesses Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and its descent into political civil war, compounded by the bad faith of his party’s leaders—David Cameron, Boris Johnson, and Liz Truss.

Finally, after nine years of service and six ministerial roles, and shocked by his party’s lurch to the populist right, Stewart ran for prime minister. Stewart’s campaign took him into the lead in the opinion polls, head-to-head against Boris Johnson. How Not to Be a Politician is his effort to make sense of it all, including what has happened to politics in Britain and the world and how we can fix it. The view into democracy’s dark heart is troubling, but at every turn Stewart also finds allies and ways to make a difference. A bracing, invigorating mix of irony and love infuses How Not to Be a Politician . This is one of the most revealing memoirs written by a politician in living memory.]]> 464 Rory Stewart 0593300327 Reader 0 to-read, wsj-finds 4.19 2023
author: Rory Stewart
name: Reader
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read, wsj-finds
review:

]]> 96123 Washington Post reporters who broke the story. This is “the work that brought down a presidency� perhaps the most influential piece of journalism in history� (Time, All-Time 100 Best Nonfiction Books).

This is the book that changed America. Published just two months before President Nixon’s resignation, All the President’s Men revealed the full scope of the Watergate scandal and introduced for the first time the mysterious “Deep Throat.� Beginning with the story of a simple burglary at Democratic headquarters and then continuing through headline after headline, Bernstein and Woodward deliver the stunning revelations and pieces in the Watergate puzzle that brought about Nixon’s shocking downfall. Their explosive reports won a Pulitzer Prize for The Washington Post, toppled the president, and have since inspired generations of reporters.

All the President’s Men is a riveting detective story, capturing the exhilarating rush of the biggest presidential scandal in U.S. history as it unfolded in real time. It is, as former New York Times managing editor Gene Roberts has called it, “maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time.”]]> 480 Carl Bernstein 1416522913 Reader 0 4.17 1974
author: Carl Bernstein
name: Reader
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1974
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/02
date added: 2024/08/02
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]]> 41717507
We like to think that we are in control of the future of "artificial" intelligence. The reality, though, is that we -- the everyday people whose data powers AI -- aren't actually in control of anything. When, for example, we speak with Alexa, we contribute that data to a system we can't see and have no input into -- one largely free from regulation or oversight. The big nine corporations -- Amazon, Google, Facebook, Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba, Microsoft, IBM and Apple--are the new gods of AI and are short-changing our futures to reap immediate financial gain.

In this book, Amy Webb reveals the pervasive, invisible ways in which the foundations of AI -- the people working on the system, their motivations, the technology itself -- is broken. Within our lifetimes, AI will, by design, begin to behave unpredictably, thinking and acting in ways which defy human logic. The big nine corporations may be inadvertently building and enabling vast arrays of intelligent systems that don't share our motivations, desires, or hopes for the future of humanity.

Much more than a passionate, human-centered call-to-arms, this book delivers a strategy for changing course, and provides a path for liberating us from algorithmic decision-makers and powerful corporations.]]> 336 Amy Webb 1541773756 Reader 2 3.74 2019
author: Amy Webb
name: Reader
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/16
date added: 2024/07/16
shelves:
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I would read something else if you actually want to learn about AI but if you want to be alarmed about a potential future dominated by AI (and China) this book is right for that
]]> 75596597 A landmark, magisterial history of the trial of Japan’s leaders as war criminals—the largely overlooked Asian counterpart to Nuremberg

In the weeks after Japan finally surrendered to the Allies, the world turned to the question of how to move on from years of carnage and destruction. For Harry Truman, Douglas MacArthur, and their fellow victors, the questions of justice seemed clear: Japan’s leaders needed to be tried and punished for the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor; shocking atrocities against citizens in China, the Philippines, Korea, and elsewhere; rampant abuses of POWs. For the Allied Forces, the trial was an opportunity to achieve justice against the defendants, but also to create a legal framework for the prosecution of war crimes and to prohibit the use of aggressive war, and to create the kind of liberal international order that would prevail in Europe. For the Japanese leaders facing trial, it was their chance to argue that their war had been waged to liberate Asia from Western imperialism.

For more than two years, lawyers for both sides presented their cases before a panel of judges from China, India, the Philippines, and Australia, as well as the US and Europe. The testimony ran from horrific accounts of brutality and the secret plans to attack Pearl Harbor to the Japanese military’s threats to destabilize the government if it sued for peace. Yet rather than clarity and unanimity, the trial brought division and complexity; these tensions and contradictions could also be seen playing out across Asia as the trial unfolded, from China’s descent into civil war to India’s independence and partition to Japan’s first successful democratic elections and the rewriting of a new, liberal constitution.

Judgment at Tokyo is a riveting story of wartime action, dramatic courtroom battles, and the epic formative years that set the stage for the Asian postwar era.]]> 800 Gary J. Bass 1101947101 Reader 0 4.25 2023
author: Gary J. Bass
name: Reader
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/14
shelves: wsj-finds, japan, currently-reading
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]]> 95784
This book tells the story from three perspectives: of the Japanese soldiers who performed it, of the Chinese civilians who endured it, and of a group of Europeans and Americans who refused to abandon the city and were able to create a safety zone that saved many.]]> 290 Iris Chang 0140277447 Reader 5 4.23 1997
author: Iris Chang
name: Reader
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/06
date added: 2024/07/06
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]]> 23168277
The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.]]> 371 Viet Thanh Nguyen 0802123457 Reader 5 4.00 2015
author: Viet Thanh Nguyen
name: Reader
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/05
date added: 2024/07/05
shelves:
review:
Literary fiction doesn’t have to be dense and boring. Historical fiction doesn’t have to sacrifice entertainment to be edifying. Know how I know this? Because I read The Sympathizer.
]]> 681873 It was the most extraordinary public saga of our time, and Jeffrey Toobin gives us a definitive history of the ordeal that very nearly brought down a president. Here is the whole story of the Clinton sex scandals -- from its beginnings in a Little Rock hotel to its climax on the floor of the United States Senate with only the second vote on presidential removal in American history. Rich with Shakespearean characters and dramatic secrets, fueled with the high octane of a sensational legal thriller, and tinged by misguided, outlandish behavior that was played out at the very highest levels, Toobin's A Vast Conspiracy brings a dignity and integrity to this story that it has never before received.
The Clinton sex scandals will shape forever how we think about the signature issues of our day -- sex, privacy, civil rights, and, yes, cigars. A Vast Conspiracy will shape forever how we think about the Clinton scandals.]]> 448 Jeffrey Toobin 0743204131 Reader 3 3.78 2000
author: Jeffrey Toobin
name: Reader
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/04
date added: 2024/07/04
shelves:
review:
A timely read. Before the political establishment was obsessed with nailing Trump, they were obsessed with nailing Clinton.
]]> 62039291
The first full biography in decades, Eig mixes revelatory and exhaustive new research with brisk and accessible storytelling to forge the definitive life for our times.

Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig’s A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.―and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. He casts fresh light on the King family’s origins as well as MLK’s complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. King reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father―as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr.

In this landmark biography, Eig gives us an MLK for our a deep thinker, a brilliant strategist, and a committed radical who led one of history’s greatest movements, and whose demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today as they were in his lifetime.

Includes 8 pages of black-and-white photographs]]> 688 Jonathan Eig 0374279292 Reader 4 4.65 2023
author: Jonathan Eig
name: Reader
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves:
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Eig was clearly inspired by the musicality of King when writing this book. Moving, ambitious, nuanced, and deferential to the subject. You couldn’t ask for more from a biography of someone so important and dearly held.
]]> 6687247 Too Big to Fail is the definitive story of the most powerful men and women in finance and politics grappling with success and failure, ego and greed, and, ultimately, the fate of the world’s economy.

“We’ve got to get some foam down on the runway!� a sleepless Timothy Geithner, the then-president of the Federal Reserve of New York, would tell Henry M. Paulson, the Treasury secretary, about the catastrophic crash the world’s financial system would experience.

Through unprecedented access to the players involved, Too Big to Fail re-creates all the drama and turmoil, revealing neverdisclosed details and elucidating how decisions made on Wall Street over the past decade sowed the seeds of the debacle. This true story is not just a look at banks that were “too big to fail,� it is a real-life thriller with a cast of bold-faced names who themselves thought they were too big to fail.]]> 600 Andrew Ross Sorkin 0670021253 Reader 5 4.14 2009
author: Andrew Ross Sorkin
name: Reader
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/24
date added: 2024/06/24
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]]> 10517743
Who is Bernie Madoff, and how did he pull off the biggest Ponzi scheme in history?

These questions have fascinated people ever since the news broke about the respected New York financier who swindled his friends, relatives, and other investors out of $65 billion through a fraud that lasted for decades. Many have speculated about what might have happened or what must have happened, but no reporter has been able to get the full story -- until now.

In The Wizard of Lies, Diana B. Henriques of The New York Times -- who has led the paper’s coverage of the Madoff scandal since the day the story broke -- has written the definitive book on the man and his scheme, drawing on unprecedented access and more than one hundred interviews with people at all levels and on all sides of the crime, including Madoff’s first interviews for publication since his arrest. Henriques also provides vivid details from the various lawsuits, government investigations, and court filings that will explode the myths that have come to surround the story.

A true-life financial thriller, The Wizard of Lies contrasts Madoff's remarkable rise on Wall Street, where he became one of the country’s most trusted and respected traders, with dramatic scenes from his accelerating slide toward self-destruction. It is also the most complete account of the heartbreaking personal disasters and landmark legal battles triggered by Madoff’s downfall -- the suicides, business failures, fractured families, shuttered charities -- and the clear lessons this timeless scandal offers to Washington, Wall Street, and Main Street.]]> 419 Diana B. Henriques 0805091343 Reader 3 3.86 2011
author: Diana B. Henriques
name: Reader
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/19
date added: 2024/06/20
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]]> 162855
In The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto, Mario Vargas Llosa keeps the reader guessing which episodes are real and which issue from Rigoberto's imagination. The novel, a wonderful mix of reality and fantasy, is sexy, funny, disquieting, and unfailingly compelling.

If you enjoyed The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto, you might also like Mario Vargas Llosa's In Praise of the Stepmother.]]> 375 Mario Vargas Llosa 057119575X Reader 0 to-read 3.75 1997
author: Mario Vargas Llosa
name: Reader
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> 20821092 The definitive biography of the great soldier-statesman by the New York Times bestselling author of The Storm of War—winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography and theĚýGrand Prix of the Fondation NapoleonĚýĚý

Austerlitz, Borodino, Waterloo: his battles are among the greatest in history, but Napoleon Bonaparte was far more than a military genius and astute leader of men. Like George Washington and his own hero Julius Caesar, he was one of the greatest soldier-statesmen of all times.

Andrew Roberts’s Napoleon is the first one-volume biography to take advantage of the recent publication of Napoleon’s thirty-three thousand letters, which radically transform our understanding of his character and motivation. At last we see him as he was: protean multitasker, decisive, surprisingly willing to forgive his enemies and his errant wife Josephine. Like Churchill, he understood the strategic importance of telling his own story, and his memoirs, dictated from exile on St. Helena, became the single bestselling book of the nineteenth century.

An award-winning historian, Roberts traveled to fifty-three of Napoleon’s sixty battle sites, discovered crucial new documents in archives, and even made the long trip by boat to St. Helena. He is as acute in his understanding of politics as he is of military history. Here at last is a biography worthy of its subject: magisterial, insightful, beautifully written, by one of our foremost historians.]]> 976 Andrew Roberts 0670025321 Reader 0 currently-reading 4.19 2014
author: Andrew Roberts
name: Reader
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/19
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 238958 The Boston Globe) and "utterly romantic" (New York magazine), Stacy Schiff's łŐĂ©°ů˛ą (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) brings to shimmering life one of the greatest literary love stories of our time. Vladimir Nabokov--the Ă©migrĂ© author of Lolita; Pale Fire; and Speak, Memory--wrote his books first for himself, second for his wife, łŐĂ©°ů˛ą, and third for no one at all.

"Without my wife," he once noted, "I wouldn't have written a single novel." Set in prewar Europe and postwar America, spanning much of the century, the story of the Nabokovs' fifty-two-year marriage reads as vividly as a novel. łŐĂ©°ů˛ą, both beautiful and brilliant, is its outsized heroine--a woman who loves as deeply and intelligently as did the great romantic heroines of Austen and Tolstoy. Stacy Schiff's łŐĂ©°ů˛ą is a triumph of the biographical form.]]> 480 Stacy Schiff 0330346733 Reader 0 to-read 3.88 1999
author: Stacy Schiff
name: Reader
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 60468246 Ěý
Stacy Schiff returns Adams to his seat of glory, introducing us to the shrewd and eloquent man who supplied the moral backbone of the American Revolution. A singular figure at a singular moment, Adams amplified the Boston Massacre. He helped to mastermind the Boston Tea Party. He employed every tool available to rally a town, a colony, and eventually a band of colonies behind him, creating the cause that created a country. For his efforts he became the most wanted man in America: When Paul Revere rode to Lexington in 1775, it was to warn Samuel Adams that he was about to be arrested for treason.

In The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams, Schiff brings her masterful skills to Adams’s improbable life, illuminating his transformation from aimless son of a well-off family to tireless, beguiling radical who mobilized the colonies. Arresting, original, and deliriously dramatic, this is a long-overdue chapter in the history of our nation.]]> 422 Stacy Schiff 0316441112 Reader 0 to-read 3.64 2022
author: Stacy Schiff
name: Reader
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 52090 The New Yorker, Hannah Arendt’s authoritative and stunning report on the trial of Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann sparked a flurry of debate upon its publication.

This revised edition includes material that came to light after the trial, as well as Arendt’s postscript directly addressing the controversy that arose over her account. A major journalistic triumph by an intellectual of singular influence,

Eichmann in Jerusalem is as shocking as it is informative—an unflinching look at one of the most unsettling and unsettled issues of the twentieth century that remains hotly debated to this day.]]> 312 Hannah Arendt Reader 0 4.22 1963
author: Hannah Arendt
name: Reader
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1963
rating: 0
read at: 2024/05/12
date added: 2024/05/12
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]]> 50489349
Today’s "machine-learning" systems, trained by data, are so effective that we’ve invited them to see and hear for us—and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Recent years have seen an eruption of concern as the field of machine learning advances. When the systems we attempt to teach will not, in the end, do what we want or what we expect, ethical and potentially existential risks emerge. Researchers call this the alignment problem.

Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide bail and parole—and appear to assess Black and white defendants differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application, or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And as autonomous vehicles share our streets, we are increasingly putting our lives in their hands.

The mathematical and computational models driving these changes range in complexity from something that can fit on a spreadsheet to a complex system that might credibly be called “artificial intelligence.� They are steadily replacing both human judgment and explicitly programmed software.

In best-selling author Brian Christian’s riveting account, we meet the alignment problem’s “first-responders,� and learn their ambitious plan to solve it before our hands are completely off the wheel. In a masterful blend of history and on-the ground reporting, Christian traces the explosive growth in the field of machine learning and surveys its current, sprawling frontier. Readers encounter a discipline finding its legs amid exhilarating and sometimes terrifying progress. Whether they—and we—succeed or fail in solving the alignment problem will be a defining human story.

The Alignment Problem offers an unflinching reckoning with humanity’s biases and blind spots, our own unstated assumptions and often contradictory goals. A dazzlingly interdisciplinary work, it takes a hard look not only at our technology but at our culture—and finds a story by turns harrowing and hopeful.]]> 496 Brian Christian 0393635821 Reader 3 4.34 2020
author: Brian Christian
name: Reader
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/04
date added: 2024/05/04
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A powerful, expansive book that really contemplates how machines learn and what our responsibility is as humans to make sure we are safe in a world increasingly driven by machine learning
]]> 414096
“When You Wish Upon a Star,� “Whistle While You Work,� “The Happiest Place on Earth”—these are lyrics indelibly linked to Disney, one of the most admired and best-known companies in the world. So when Roy Disney, chairman of Walt Disney Animation and nephew of founder Walt Disney, abruptly resigned in November 2003 and declared war on chairman and chief executive Michael Eisner, he sent shock waves through the entertainment industry, corporate boardrooms, theme parks, and living rooms around the world—everywhere Disney does business and its products are cherished.

Drawing on unprecedented access to both Eisner and Roy Disney, current and former Disney executives and board members, as well as thousands of pages of never-before-seen letters, memos, transcripts, and other documents, James B. Stewart gets to the bottom of mysteries that have enveloped Disney for years: What really caused the rupture with studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, a man who once regarded Eisner as a father but who became his fiercest rival? How could Eisner have so misjudged Michael Ovitz, a man who was not only “the most powerful man in Hollywood� but also his friend, whom he appointed as Disney president and immediately wanted to fire? What caused the break between Eisner and Pixar chairman Steve Jobs, and why did Pixar abruptly abandon its partnership with Disney? Why did Eisner so mistrust Roy Disney that he assigned Disney company executives to spy on him? How did Eisner control the Disney board for so long, and what really happened in the fateful board meeting in September 2004, when Eisner played his last cards?

DisneyWar is an enthralling tale of one of America’s most powerful media and entertainment companies, the people who control it, and those trying to overthrow them. It tells a story that—in its sudden twists, vivid, larger-than-life characters, and thrilling climax—might itself have been the subject of a Disney classic—except that it’s all true.]]> 592 James B. Stewart 0684809931 Reader 0 to-read 4.07 2005
author: James B. Stewart
name: Reader
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 280412 496 Jeffrey Toobin 0684842785 Reader 5 4.21 1996
author: Jeffrey Toobin
name: Reader
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/16
date added: 2024/04/16
shelves:
review:
I couldn’t put this down. Jeffrey Toobin has this arch way of commenting on the proceedings that is a delight to read. He is a character in the story but he doesn’t embellish his (prominent!) role in the events and focuses on being our eyes and ears to the trial. His disdain for Robert Shapiro was so hilariously palpable.
]]> 42855198
The Complete Guide to Partnership Marketing will cover everything you need to know about partnerships. Learn about the ten types of partnerships, how to find new partners, and how to create stand-out campaigns.

Full of actual examples, including Apple, Spotify, Netflix and Uber. For both beginners and advanced marketers, this books offers a complete step-by-step guide to creating your own Partnership Marketing campaigns.]]> 169 James Cristal Reader 0 4.40
author: James Cristal
name: Reader
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/31
date added: 2024/04/12
shelves:
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]]> 55176380
Using extensive citations mined from the revolutionary publications of the moment, eyewitness survivor testimonies, unearthed secret Cold War documents, and original historical narrative, author Ian Scott Horst takes us to the center of the revolutionary process to reveal the political debates and life-and-death drama of a revolution made and unmade.]]> 502 Ian Scott Horst 2491182270 Reader 0 to-read 4.50 2020
author: Ian Scott Horst
name: Reader
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 417549
Preached for its morality, and denounced as pornography in disguise, it vividly describes a young servant's long resistance to the attempts of her predatory master to seduce her. Written in the voice of its low-born heroine, Pamela is not only a work of pioneering psychological complexity, but also a compelling and provocative study of power and its abuse.

Based on the original text of 1740, from which Richardson later retreated in a series of defensive revisions, this edition makes available the version of Pamela that aroused such widespread controversy on its first appearance.]]> 592 Samuel Richardson 0192829602 Reader 0 to-read 2.79 1740
author: Samuel Richardson
name: Reader
average rating: 2.79
book published: 1740
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 51033992 A crucial, clear-eyed accounting of Puerto Rico's 122 years as a colony of the US.

Since its acquisition by the US in 1898, Puerto Rico has served as a testing ground for the most aggressive and exploitative US economic, political, and social policies. The devastation that ensued finally grew impossible to ignore in 2017, in the wake of Hurricane MarĂ­a, as the physical destruction compounded the infrastructure collapse and trauma inflicted by the debt crisis. In Fantasy Island, Ed Morales traces how, over the years, Puerto Rico has served as a colonial satellite, a Cold War Caribbean showcase, a dumping ground for US manufactured goods, and a corporate tax shelter. He also shows how it has become a blank canvas for mercenary experiments in disaster capitalism on the frontlines of climate change, hamstrung by internal political corruption and the US federal government's prioritization of outside financial interests.

Taking readers from San Juan to New York City and back to his family's home in the Luquillo Mountains, Morales shows us the machinations of financial and political interests in both the US and Puerto Rico, and the resistance efforts of Puerto Rican artists and activists. Through it all, he emphasizes that the only way to stop Puerto Rico from being bled is to let Puerto Ricans take control of their own destiny, going beyond the statehood-commonwealth-independence debate to complete decolonization.
]]> 312 Ed Morales 1568588984 Reader 0 to-read 3.83
author: Ed Morales
name: Reader
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 355862 We's Lives in Da Ghetto, the exploitative debut novel of a young, middle-class black woman who once visited "some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days." Hailed as an authentic representation of the African American experience, the book is a national bestseller and its author feted on the Kenya Dunston television show. The book's success rankles all the more as Monk's own most recent novel has just notched its seventh rejection.

Even as his career as a writer appears to have stalled, Monk finds himself coping with changes in his personal life. In need of distraction from old memories, new responsibilities, and his professional stagnation, Monk composes, in a heat of inspiration and energy, a fierce parody of the sort of exploitative, ghetto wanna-be lit represented by We's Lives in Da Ghetto.

But when his agent sends this literary indictment (included here in its entirety) out to publishers, it is greeted as an authentic new voice of black America. Monk -- or his pseudonymous alter ego, Stagg R. Leigh -- is offered money, fame, success beyond anything he has known. And as demand begins to build for meetings with and appearances by Leigh, Monk is faced with a whole new set of problems.]]> 280 Percival Everett 0786888156 Reader 5 4.17 2001
author: Percival Everett
name: Reader
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/22
date added: 2024/02/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 61108472 The first comprehensive, global history of Silicon Valley, from railroad capitalists to microchip assemblers, showing how Northern California created the world as we know itĚý

Palo Alto is nice. The weather is temperate, the people are educated, rich, healthy, enterprising. Remnants of a hippie counterculture have synthesized with high technology and big finance to produce the spiritually and materially ambitious heart of Silicon Valley, whose products are changing how we do everything from driving around to eating food. It is also a haunted toxic waste dump built on stolen Indian burial grounds, and an integral part of the capitalist world system.Ěý

In PALO ALTO, the first comprehensive, global history of Silicon Valley, Malcolm Harris examines how and why Northern California evolved in the particular, consequential way it did, tracing the ideologies, technologies, and policies that have been engineered there over the course of 150 years of Anglo settler colonialism, from IQ tests to the "tragedy of the commons," racial genetics, and "broken windows" theory. The Internet and computers, too. It's a story about how a small American suburb became a powerful engine for economic growth and war, and how it came to lead the world into a surprisingly disastrous 21st century. PALO ALTO is an urgent and visionary history of the way we live now, one that ends with a clear-eyed, radical proposition for how we might begin to change course.]]> 720 Malcolm Harris 031659203X Reader 0 to-read 3.92 2023
author: Malcolm Harris
name: Reader
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 12417679 202 James H. Cone 1570759375 Reader 5 4.49 2011
author: James H. Cone
name: Reader
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/19
date added: 2024/02/19
shelves:
review:
A sermon on Black struggle and Black strength. A reminder that we are more than our suffering but Jesus suffered, and there is nothing ignoble or shameful about it. I’m not religious but it helped me understand why others are.
]]> 20893314
Deftly spanning decades and continents and peopled with a wide range of characters—assassins, journalists, drug dealers, and even ghosts�A Brief History of Seven Killings is the fictional exploration of that dangerous and unstable time and its bloody aftermath, from the streets and slums of Kingston in the 70s, to the crack wars in 80s New York, to a radically altered Jamaica in the 90s. Brilliantly inventive and stunningly ambitious, this novel is a revealing modern epic that will secure Marlon James� place among the great literary talents of his generation.]]> 688 Marlon James 159448600X Reader 0 to-read 3.91 2014
author: Marlon James
name: Reader
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 40642337
That Albert Woodfox survived was, in itself, a feat of extraordinary endurance against the violence and deprivation he faced daily. That he was able to emerge whole from his odyssey within America’s prison and judicial systems is a triumph of the human spirit, and makes his book a clarion call to reform the inhumanity of solitary confinement in the U.S. and around the world.]]> 433 Albert Woodfox 0802129080 Reader 0 to-read 4.42 2019
author: Albert Woodfox
name: Reader
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56769575
For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science’s boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They’ve tested France’s first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender confirmation surgery, cadavers have helped make history in their quiet way. Stiff investigates the strange lives of our bodies postmortem and answers the question: What should we do after we die?]]> 320 Mary Roach 0393881725 Reader 0 to-read 4.13 2003
author: Mary Roach
name: Reader
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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