en-US Tue, 19 May 2020 07:08:51 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 16248196
Have you ever:
�� Invested time in something that, with hindsight, just wasn't worth it?
�� Overpayed in an Ebay auction?
�� Continued doing something you knew was bad for you?
�� Sold stocks too late, or too early?
�� Taken credit for success, but blamed failure on external circumstances?
�� Backed the wrong horse?

These are examples of cognitive biases, simple errors we all make in our day-to-day thinking. But by knowing what they are and how to spot them, we can avoid them and make better choices-whether dealing with a personal problem or a business negotiation; trying to save money or make money; working out what we do or don't want in life: and how best to get it.

Simple, clear and always surprising, this indispensable book will change the way you think and transform your decision-making-work, at home, every day. It reveals, in 99 short chapters, the most common errors of judgment, and how to avoid them.]]> 384 Rolf Dobelli 0062219685 G.R. 0 to-read 3.83 2011
author: Rolf Dobelli
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/05/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 53408960 Justin Breen G.R. 0 to-read 5.00
author: Justin Breen
name: G.R.
average rating: 5.00
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]]> 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 G.R. 0 to-read 4.20 2000
author: Roger Lowenstein
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/05/01
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]]> 145565 256 Warren Buffett 0966446119 G.R. 0 to-read 4.28 1998
author: Warren Buffett
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/05/01
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]]> 43147 464 Matthew R. Simmons 0471790184 G.R. 0 to-read 3.81 2005
author: Matthew R. Simmons
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/02/18
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]]> 29777097
Pressure is a constant in all our lives. The pressure to hit a deadline, deliver a speech, cook for a dinner party. But how would life look if we could harness pressure and turn it to our advantage? Dealing with pressure is a skill just like any other. Even sports stars rely on tried-and-tested strategies when the stakes are high. For many, their success is down to one Dr Dave Alred MBE, widely acknowledged as one of the best coaches on the planet. A pioneer in performance psychology, he nurtured Jonny Wilkinson into rugby's most feared kicker, and has helped Premiership footballers, number one golfers and England cricketers deliver on the biggest stage. Now Dave Alred is finally ready to share his eight groundbreaking principles, distilling his life's work into this accessible, inspirational book. From cultivating a no-limits mindset to unleashing the performance-enhancing powers of language, The Pressure Principle ��will help you produce your best in work and at home. Read it and you'll never miss a shot again.]]> 272 Dave Alred 0241240840 G.R. 0 to-read 3.92
author: Dave Alred
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.92
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date added: 2018/08/07
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]]> 49146 —Eric Schmidt, chairman of the board and CEO, Novell Any executive can learn how to: Refreshingly original and utterly compelling, the story of this executive (written to be read in one sitting) will be enjoyed, remembered, and reread for years to come. It serves a timeless and potent reminder that success as a leader can come down to practicing a few simple behaviors—behaviors that are painfully difficult for each of us to master. "Lencioni delivers a provocative message: CEOs mainly have themselves to blame when things go wrong. If you're a CEO (or any manager for that matter), do you have the courage to face the blame? Doing so could change your future-for the better."
—Dr. Jerry Porras, coauthor, Built to Last ; professor, Stanford School of Business You won't find any dry management rhetoric in this razor-sharp novelette. Apply these riveting lessons in leadership with the self-assessment at the end of the book. It will change your career!]]> 134 Patrick Lencioni 0787944335 G.R. 0 to-read 4.07 1998
author: Patrick Lencioni
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/06/01
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]]> 18176747
In The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, draws on his own story of founding, running, selling, buying, managing, and investing in technology companies to offer essential advice and practical wisdom for navigating the toughest problems business schools don't cover. His blog has garnered a devoted following of millions of readers who have come to rely on him to help them run their businesses. A lifelong rap fan, Horowitz amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his favorite songs and tells it straight about everything from firing friends to poaching competitors, from cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality to knowing the right time to cash in.

His advice is grounded in anecdotes from his own hard-earned rise—from cofounding the early cloud service provider Loudcloud to building the phenomenally successful Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm, both with fellow tech superstar Marc Andreessen (inventor of Mosaic, the Internet's first popular Web browser). This is no polished victory lap; he analyzes issues with no easy answers through his trials, including demoting (or firing) a loyal friend;
whether you should incorporate titles and promotions, and how to handle them;
if it's OK to hire people from your friend's company; how to manage your own psychology, while the whole company is relying on you; what to do when smart people are bad employees; why Andreessen Horowitz prefers founder CEOs, and how to become one; whether you should sell your company, and how to do it.

Filled with Horowitz's trademark humor and straight talk, and drawing from his personal and often humbling experiences, The Hard Thing About Hard Things is invaluable for veteran entrepreneurs as well as those aspiring to their own new ventures.]]> 304 Ben Horowitz 0062273205 G.R. 0 to-read 4.20 2014
author: Ben Horowitz
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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]]> 19795 341 David R. Hawkins 1561709336 G.R. 0 to-read 4.13 1985
author: David R. Hawkins
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1985
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/01/15
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]]> 5617966 A Guide to the Good Life, William B. Irvine plumbs the wisdom of Stoic philosophy, one of the most popular and successful schools of thought in ancient Rome, and shows how its insight and advice are still remarkably applicable to modern lives.
In A Guide to the Good Life, Irvine offers a refreshing presentation of Stoicism, showing how this ancient philosophy can still direct us toward a better life. Using the psychological insights and the practical techniques of the Stoics, Irvine offers a roadmap for anyone seeking to avoid the feelings of chronic dissatisfaction that plague so many of us. Irvine looks at various Stoic techniques for attaining tranquility and shows how to put these techniques to work in our own life. As he does so, he describes his own experiences practicing Stoicism and offers valuable first-hand advice for anyone wishing to live better by following in the footsteps of these ancient philosophers. Readers learn how to minimize worry, how to let go of the past and focus our efforts on the things we can control, and how to deal with insults, grief, old age, and the distracting temptations of fame and fortune. We learn from Marcus Aurelius the importance of prizing only things of true value, and from Epictetus we learn how to be more content with what we have.
Finally, A Guide to the Good Life shows readers how to become thoughtful observers of their own life. If we watch ourselves as we go about our daily business and later reflect on what we saw, we can better identify the sources of distress and eventually avoid that pain in our life. By doing this, the Stoics thought, we can hope to attain a truly joyful life.]]> 326 William B. Irvine 0195374614 G.R. 0 to-read 4.18 2008
author: William B. Irvine
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/12/04
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]]> 30901608
In his groundbreaking investigation, The Atlantic senior editor Derek Thompson uncovers the hidden psychology of why we like what we like and reveals the economics of cultural markets that invisibly shape our lives. Shattering the sentimental myths of hit-making that dominate pop culture and business, Thompson shows that quality is insufficient for success; nobody has "good taste"; and some of the most popular products in history were one bad break away from utter failure. It may be a new world, but there are some enduring truths to what audiences and consumers want. People love a familiar surprise: a product that is bold yet sneakily recognizable.

Every business, every artist, every person looking to promote themselves and their work wants to know what makes some works so successful while others disappear. Hit Makers is a magical mystery tour through the last century of pop culture blockbusters and the most valuable currency of the twenty-first century--people's attention. From the dawn of impressionist art to the future of Facebook, from small Etsy designers to the origin of Star Wars, Thompson leaves no Pet Rock unturned to tell the fascinating story of how culture happens and why things become popular.]]> 307 Derek Thompson 110198032X G.R. 0 to-read 3.87 2017
author: Derek Thompson
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2017
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date added: 2017/11/18
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]]> 30334134
Forty years ago, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of breathtakingly original studies undoing our assumptions about the decision-making process. Their papers showed the ways in which the human mind erred, systematically, when forced to make judgments about uncertain situations. Their work created the field of behavioral economics, revolutionized Big Data studies, advanced evidence-based medicine, led to a new approach to government regulation, and made much of Michael Lewis’s own work possible. Kahneman and Tversky are more responsible than anybody for the powerful trend to mistrust human intuition and defer to algorithms.

The Undoing Project is about the fascinating collaboration between two men who have the dimensions of great literary figures. They became heroes in the university and on the battlefield―both had important careers in the Israeli military―and their research was deeply linked to their extraordinary life experiences. In the process they may well have changed, for good, mankind’s view of its own mind.]]> 362 Michael Lewis 0393254593 G.R. 0 to-read 3.95 2016
author: Michael Lewis
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2016
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]]> 27213168
Yong, whose humor is as evident as his erudition, prompts us to look at ourselves and our animal companions in a new light—less as individuals and more as the interconnected, interdependent multitudes we assuredly are. The microbes in our bodies are part of our immune systems and protect us from disease. Those in cows and termites digest the plants they eat. In the deep oceans, mysterious creatures without mouths or guts depend on microbes for all their energy. Bacteria provide squids with invisibility cloaks, help beetles to bring down forests, and allow worms to cause diseases that afflict millions of people.

I Contain Multitudes is the story of these extraordinary partnerships, between the creatures we are familiar with and those we are not. It reveals how we humans are disrupting these partnerships and how we might manipulate them for our own good. It will change both our view of nature and our sense of where we belong in it.]]> 368 Ed Yong 0062368591 G.R. 0 to-read 4.16 2016
author: Ed Yong
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/07/12
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]]> 16158524
When pioneering business journalist and Inc. magazine editor at large Bo Burlingham wrote Small Giants , it became an instant classic for its original take on a common business problem—how to handle the pressure to grow.

Now Burlingham is back to tackle an even more common problem—how to exit your company well. Sooner or later, all entrepreneurs leave their businesses and all businesses get sold, given away, or liquidated. Whatever your preferred outcome, you need to start planning for it while you still have time and options. The beautiful part is that if you start early enough, the process will lead you to build a better, stronger, more resilient company, as well as one with a higher market value. Unfortunately, most owners don’t start early enough—and pay a steep price for their procrastination.

Burlingham interviewed dozens of entrepreneurs across a range of industries and identified eight key factors that determine whether owners are happy after leaving their businesses. His book showcases the insights, exit plans, and cautionary tales of entrepreneurs such as
Through such stories, Burlingham offers an illuminating and inspirational guide to one of the most stressful, and yet potentially rewarding, processes business owners must go through. And he explores the emotional challenges they face at every step of the way.

At the end of the day, owning a business is about more than selling goods and services. It’s about making choices that shape your entire life, both professional and personal. Finish Big helps you figure out how to face your future with confidence and be able to someday look back on your journey with pride.]]> 304 Bo Burlingham 1591844975 G.R. 0 to-read 4.07 2013
author: Bo Burlingham
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/05/15
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]]> 31868165
As a human behavior hacker, Vanessa Van Edwards created a research lab to study the hidden forces that drive us. And she’s cracked the code. In Captivate, she shares shortcuts, systems, and secrets for taking charge of your interactions at work, at home, and in any social situation. These aren’t the people skills you learned in school. This is the first comprehensive, science backed, real life manual on how to captivate anyone—and a completely new approach to building connections.

Just like knowing the formulas to use in a chemistry lab, or the right programming language to build an app, Captivate provides simple ways to solve people problems. You’ll learn, for example��

· How to work a room: Every party, networking event, and social situation has a predictable map. Discover the sweet spot for making the most connections.
· How to read faces: It’s easier than you think to speed-read facial expressions and use them to predict people’s emotions.
· How to talk to anyone: Every conversation can be memorable—once you learn how certain words generate the pleasure hormone dopamine in listeners.

When you understand the laws of human behavior, your influence, impact, and income will increase significantly. What’s more, you will improve your interpersonal intelligence, make a killer first impression, and build rapport quickly and authentically in any situation—negotiations, interviews, parties, and pitches. You’ll never interact the same way again.]]> 320 Vanessa Van Edwards 0399564489 G.R. 0 to-read 4.11 2017
author: Vanessa Van Edwards
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/04/30
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]]> 6515468
Sisson offers a solution in 10 empowering "Blueprint Lifestyle Laws" that can help us reprogram our genes away from disease and pain towards a direction of effortless weight loss, vibrant health and boundless energy. The reader learns how the right high-fat diet can actually help one lose weight; how popular low-fat, grain-based diets might trigger illness, disease, and lifelong weight gain; why doing too much cardio exercise might actually suppress the immune system and how some of today's most common medications might make a health condition even worse.]]> 283 Mark Sisson 0982207700 G.R. 0 to-read 4.06 2009
author: Mark Sisson
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/03/14
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]]> 16248652 Grand strategist and founder of modern Singapore offers key insights and controversial opinions on globalization, geopolitics, economic growth, and democracy.When Lee Kuan Yew speaks, presidents, prime ministers, diplomats, and CEOs listen. Lee, the founding father of modern Singapore and its prime minister from 1959 to 1990, has honed his wisdom during more than fifty years on the world stage. Almost single-handedly responsible for transforming Singapore into a Western-style economic success, he offers a unique perspective on the geopolitics of East and West. American presidents from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama have welcomed him to the White House; British prime ministers from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair have recognized his wisdom; and business leaders from Rupert Murdoch to Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil, have praised his accomplishments. This book gathers key insights from interviews, speeches, and Lee's voluminous published writings and presents them in an engaging question and answer format.

Lee offers his assessment of China's future, asserting, among other things, that "China will want to share this century as co-equals with the U.S." He affirms the United States' position as the world's sole superpower but expresses dismay at the vagaries of its political system. He offers strategic advice for dealing with China and goes on to discuss India's future, Islamic terrorism, economic growth, geopolitics and globalization, and democracy. Lee does not pull his punches, offering his unvarnished opinions on multiculturalism, the welfare state, education, and the free market. This little book belongs on the reading list of every world leader--including the one who takes the oath of office on January 20, 2013.]]> 224 Graham Allison 0262019124 G.R. 0 to-read 4.25 2013
author: Graham Allison
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/01/09
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]]> 82256
The Sovereign Individual details strategies necessary for adapting financially to the next phase of Western civilization.

Few observers of the late twentieth century have their fingers so presciently on the pulse of the global political and economic realignment ushering in the new millennium as do James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg. Their bold prediction of disaster on Wall Street in Blood in the Streets was borne out by Black Tuesday. In their ensuing bestseller, The Great Reckoning, published just weeks before the coup attempt against Gorbachev, they analyzed the pending collapse of the Soviet Union and foretold the civil war in Yugoslavia and other events that have proved to be among the most searing developments of the past few years.

In The Sovereign Individual, Davidson and Rees-Mogg explore the greatest economic and political transition in centuries—the shift from an industrial to an information-based society. This transition, which they have termed "the fourth stage of human society," will liberate individuals as never before, irrevocably altering the power of government. This outstanding book will replace false hopes and fictions with new understanding and clarified values.]]> 448 James Dale Davidson 0684832720 G.R. 0 to-read 4.20 1997
author: James Dale Davidson
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1997
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]]> 25899336
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a naïve medical student "possessed," as he wrote, "by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life" into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. "I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything," he wrote. "Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: 'I can't go on. I'll go on.'" When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.]]> 208 Paul Kalanithi 0812988418 G.R. 0 to-read 4.41 2016
author: Paul Kalanithi
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2016
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date added: 2017/01/09
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]]> 18249288
To be human is to want to know, but what we are able to observe is only a tiny portion of what's “out there.�� In The Island of Knowledge , physicist Marcelo Gleiser traces our search for answers to the most fundamental questions of existence. In so doing, he reaches a provocative science, the main tool we use to find answers, is fundamentally limited.

These limits to our knowledge arise both from our tools of exploration and from the nature of physical the speed of light, the uncertainty principle, the impossibility of seeing beyond the cosmic horizon, the incompleteness theorem, and our own limitations as an intelligent species. Recognizing limits in this way, Gleiser argues, is not a deterrent to progress or a surrendering to religion. Rather, it frees us to question the meaning and nature of the universe while affirming the central role of life and ourselves in it. Science can and must go on, but recognizing its limits reveals its true to know the universe is to know ourselves.

Telling the dramatic story of our quest for understanding, The Island of Knowledge offers a highly original exploration of the ideas of some of the greatest thinkers in history, from Plato to Einstein, and how they affect us today. An authoritative, broad-ranging intellectual history of our search for knowledge and meaning, The Island of Knowledge is a unique view of what it means to be human in a universe filled with mystery.]]> 359 Marcelo Gleiser 0465031714 G.R. 0 to-read 3.92 2014
author: Marcelo Gleiser
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/01/09
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]]> 552494 144 P.D. Ouspensky G.R. 0 to-read 4.05 1951
author: P.D. Ouspensky
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1951
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/01/09
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]]> 23206969
Each of us has millions of habits, in how we do our work, interact with others, perceive the world, and think about ourselves. Left unexamined, these habits are just as likely to hinder our progress as they are to push it along. Without a deliberate system for building habits, we become our own worst enemy.

Superhuman by Habit examines habit building in depth. It covers the principles and philosophies of habit building, as well as the practical nuts and bolts implementing those habits. The second half of the book is dedicated to specific habits in every major area of life, covering the pros and cons of each, the path to implementing them, and specific notes about each one.]]> 101 Tynan G.R. 0 to-read 3.80 2014
author: Tynan
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/01/09
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]]> 10631 "Here is an extraordinary success story about a man whose empire was built not with smoke and mirrors, but with good old-fashioned elbow grease."]]> 346 Sam Walton 0553562835 G.R. 0 to-read 4.11
author: Sam Walton
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/01/03
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]]> 15094720
The story of the fire, its causes, and its legal and human aftermath is one of lives put at risk by petty economic decisions—by a band, club owners, promoters, building inspectors, and product manufacturers. Any one of those decisions, made differently, might have averted the tragedy. Together, however, they reached a fatal critical mass.

Killer Show is the first comprehensive exploration of the chain of events leading up to the fire, the conflagration itself, and the painstaking search for evidence to hold the guilty to account and obtain justice for the victims.

Anyone who has entered an entertainment venue and wondered, "Could I get out of here in a hurry?" will identify with concertgoers at The Station. Fans of disaster nonfiction and forensic thrillers will find ample elements of both genres in Killer Show.]]> 304 John Barylick 1611682657 G.R. 0 to-read 4.34 2012
author: John Barylick
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/01/03
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]]> 6228816 288 Rob Slee 0979047803 G.R. 0 to-read 4.00
author: Rob Slee
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2016/03/17
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]]> 17334495 Team of Rivals, captures the Progressive Era through the story of the broken friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, culminating in their running against one another for president in 1912.]]> 910 Doris Kearns Goodwin G.R. 0 to-read 4.12 2013
author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/03/01
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]]> 1971304
By turns insightful and funny, thrilling and terrifying, City of Thieves is a gripping, cinematic World War II adventure and an intimate coming-of-age story with an utterly contemporary feel for how boys become men.]]> 258 David Benioff 0670018708 G.R. 0 to-read 4.28 2008
author: David Benioff
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/03/01
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]]> 7897556 ��
The financial crisis that exploded in 2008 isn’t past but prologue. The stunning rise, fall, and rescue of Wall Street in the bubble-and-bailout era was the coming-out party for the network of looters who sit at the nexus of American political and economic power. The grifter class—made up of the largest players in the financial industry and the politicians who do their bidding—has been growing in power for a generation, transferring wealth upward through increasingly complex financial mechanisms and political maneuvers. The crisis was only one terrifying manifestation of how they’ve hijacked America’s political and economic life.

Rolling Stone��s Matt Taibbi here unravels the whole fiendish story, digging beyond the headlines to get into the deeper roots and wider implications of the rise of the grifters. He traces the movement’s origins to the cult of Ayn Rand and her most influential—and possibly weirdest—acolyte, Alan Greenspan, and offers fresh reporting on the backroom deals that decided the winners and losers in the government bailouts. He uncovers the hidden commodities bubble that transferred billions of dollars to Wall Street while creating food shortages around the world, and he shows how finance dominates politics, from the story of investment bankers auctioning off America’s infrastructure to an inside account of the high-stakes battle for health-care reform—a battle the true reformers lost. Finally, he tells the story of Goldman Sachs, the “vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.��

Taibbi has combined deep sources, trailblazing reportage, and provocative analysis to create the most lucid, emotionally galvanizing, and scathingly funny account yet written of the ongoing political and financial crisis in America. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the labyrinthine inner workings of politics and finance in this country, and the profound consequences for us all.]]> 253 Matt Taibbi 0385529953 G.R. 5 read-and-enjoyed 4.14 2010
author: Matt Taibbi
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2014/02/07
date added: 2014/02/07
shelves: read-and-enjoyed
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]]> 15814872
No Easy Day puts readers alongside Owen and the other handpicked members of the twenty-four-man team as they train for the biggest mission of their lives. The blow-by-blow narrative of the assault, beginning with the helicopter crash that could have ended Owen's life straight through to the radio call confirming Bin Laden’s death, is an essential piece of modern history.

In No Easy Day, Owen also takes readers onto the field of battle in America's ongoing War on Terror and details the selection and training process for one of the most elite units in the military. Owen's story draws on his youth in Alaska and describes the SEALs' quest to challenge themselves at the highest levels of physical and mental endurance. With boots-on-the-ground detail, Owen describes numerous previously unreported missions that illustrate the life and work of a SEAL and the evolution of the team after the events of September 11. In telling the true story of the SEALs whose talents, skills, experiences, and exceptional sacrifices led to one of the greatest victories in the War on Terror, Mark Owen honors the men who risk everything for our country, and he leaves readers with a deep understanding of the warriors who keep America safe.]]> 316 Mark Owen 0525953728 G.R. 0 to-read 4.00 2012
author: Mark Owen
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/01/06
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]]> 168668
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.]]> 453 Joseph Heller 0684833395 G.R. 0 to-read 3.99 1961
author: Joseph Heller
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1961
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/12/28
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]]> 6363568 Mark Kleiman demonstrates that simply locking up more people for lengthier terms is no longer a workable crime-control strategy. But, says Kleiman, there has been a revolution--largely unnoticed by the press--in controlling crime by means other than brute-force substituting swiftness and certainty of punishment for randomized severity, concentrating enforcement resources rather than dispersing them, communicating specific threats of punishment to specific offenders, and enforcing probation and parole conditions to make community corrections a genuine alternative to incarceration. As Kleiman shows, "zero tolerance" is there are always more offenses than there is punishment capacity. But, it is possible--and essential--to create focused zero tolerance, by clearly specifying the rules and then delivering the promised sanctions every time the rules are broken.
Brute-force crime control has been a costly mistake, both socially and financially. Now that we know how to do better, it would be immoral not to put that knowledge to work.]]> 256 Mark A.R. Kleiman 0691142084 G.R. 0 to-read 4.11 2005
author: Mark A.R. Kleiman
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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]]> 11468377 Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and biases—of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behavior. The impact of loss aversion and overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the challenges of properly framing risks at work and at home, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning the next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems work together to shape our judgments and decisions.

Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Thinking, Fast and Slow will transform the way you think about thinking.]]> 499 Daniel Kahneman 0374275637 G.R. 0 to-read 4.17 2011
author: Daniel Kahneman
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/12/28
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]]> 13588394
Drawing on his own groundbreaking work, Silver examines the world of prediction, investigating how we can distinguish a true signal from a universe of noisy data. Most predictions fail, often at great cost to society, because most of us have a poor understanding of probability and uncertainty. Both experts and laypeople mistake more confident predictions for more accurate ones. But overconfidence is often the reason for failure. If our appreciation of uncertainty improves, our predictions can get better too. This is the "prediction paradox": The more humility we have about our ability to make predictions, the more successful we can be in planning for the future.

In keeping with his own aim to seek truth from data, Silver visits the most successful forecasters in a range of areas, from hurricanes to baseball, from the poker table to the stock market, from Capitol Hill to the NBA. He explains and evaluates how these forecasters think and what bonds they share. What lies behind their success? Are they good-or just lucky? What patterns have they unraveled? And are their forecasts really right? He explores unanticipated commonalities and exposes unexpected juxtapositions. And sometimes, it is not so much how good a prediction is in an absolute sense that matters but how good it is relative to the competition. In other cases, prediction is still a very rudimentary-and dangerous-science.

Silver observes that the most accurate forecasters tend to have a superior command of probability, and they tend to be both humble and hardworking. They distinguish the predictable from the unpredictable, and they notice a thousand little details that lead them closer to the truth. Because of their appreciation of probability, they can distinguish the signal from the noise.]]> 544 Nate Silver 159420411X G.R. 0 to-read 3.95 2012
author: Nate Silver
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/12/28
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]]> 3109 What should we have for dinner? For omnivore like ourselves, this simple question has always posed a dilemma. When you can eat just about anything nature (or the supermarket) has to offer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stir anxiety, especially when some of the foods on offer might shorten your life. Today, buffered by one food fad after another, America is suffering from what can only be described as a national eating disorder. The omnivore’s dilemma has returned with a vengeance, as the cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast-food outlet confronts us with a bewildering and treacherous food landscape. What’s at stake in our eating choices is not only our own and our children’s health, but the health of the environment that sustains life on earth.
The Omnivore's Dilemma is groundbreaking book, in which one of America’s most fascinating, original, and elegant writers turns his own omnivorous mind to the seemingly straightforward question of what we should have for dinner. The question has confronted us since man discovered fire, but according to Michael Pollan, the bestselling author of The Botany of Desire, how we answer it today, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, may well determine our very survival as a species. Should we eat a fast-food hamburger? Something organic? Or perhaps something we hunt, gather, or grow ourselves?
To find out, Pollan follows each of the food chains that sustain us—industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves—from the source to a final meal, and in the process develops a definitive account of the American way of eating. His absorbing narrative takes us from Iowa cornfields to food-science laboratories, from feedlots and fast-food restaurants to organic farms and hunting grounds, always emphasizing our dynamic coevolutionary relationship with the handful of plant and animal species we depend on. Each time Pollan sits down to a meal, he deploys his unique blend of personal and investigative journalism to trace the origins of everything consumed, revealing what we unwittingly ingest and explaining how our taste for particular foods and flavors reflects our evolutionary inheritance.
The surprising answers Pollan offers to the simple question posed by this book have profound political, economic, psychological, and even moral implications for all of us. Ultimately, this is a book as much about visionary solutions as it is about problems, and Pollan contends that, when it comes to food, doing the right thing often turns out to be the tastiest thing an eater can do. Beautifully written and thrillingly argued, The Omnivore’s Dilemma promises to change the way we think about the politics and pleasure of eating. For anyone who reads it, dinner will never again look, or taste, quite the same.]]> 450 Michael Pollan 1594200823 G.R. 0 to-read 4.18 2006
author: Michael Pollan
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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]]> 28805
His rival: Lajos Varjú, the Inspector Clouseau of the Iron Curtain, whose knowledge of police work comes from Hungarian-dubbed episodes of Columbo. His deputy is nicknamed "Mound of Asshead" because of his propensity for crashing police cars. His forensics expert, known as "Dance Instructor" for his lucrative side career teaching ballet, wears a top hat and tails on the job.

Welcome to Julian Rubinstein's uproariously funny and unforgettable account of crime in the heart of the new Europe. With a supporting cast that includes car wash owners, exotic dancers, drunk army generals, cocaine-snorting Hungarian rappers, the Johnnie Cochran of Budapest, and a hockey team that seems to spend as much time breaking the law as it does practicing, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber gives us the most charming outlaw-hero since the Sundance Kid—and the Sundance Kid didn't play hockey.

As the Eastern bloc slips off its communist skin and replaces it with leopard-skin hot pants, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is here to screw in the pink lightbulbs. Part Unbearable Lightness of Being, part Pink Panther, and part Slap Shot, Julian Rubinstein's tale is a spectacular literary debut—and a story so outrageous that it could only be true.]]> 352 Julian Rubinstein 0316010731 G.R. 5 4.02 2004
author: Julian Rubinstein
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2013/12/28
date added: 2013/12/28
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Nonfiction that reads like fiction.
]]> 17333302 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Dr. Perlmutter, the devastating truth about the effects of wheat, sugar, and carbs on the brain, and a 4-week plan to achieve optimum health.

In Grain Brain, renowned neurologist David Perlmutter, MD, blows the lid off a finding that's been buried in medical literature for far too long: carbs are destroying your brain. Even so-called healthy carbs like whole grains can cause dementia, ADHD, anxiety, chronic headaches, depression, decreased libido, and much more.

Groundbreaking and timely, Grain Brain shows that the fate of your brain is not in your genes, it's in the food you eat. Dr. Perlmutter explains what happens when your brain encounters common ingredients in fruit bowls and bread, how statins may be erasing your memory, why a diet high in "good fats" is ideal, and how to spur the growth of new brain cells at any age. And his revolutionary 4-week plan will show you how to keep your brain healthy and sharp while dramatically reducing your risk for debilitating neurological disease -- without drugs.

Featuring a blend of cutting-edge research, real-life stories of transformation, and accessible, practical advice, Grain Brain teaches you how to take control of your "smart genes," regain wellness, and enjoy lifelong health and vitality.
]]> 336 David Perlmutter 031623480X G.R. 0 to-read 3.86 2013
author: David Perlmutter
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/12/28
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]]> 13435889
The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: Success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs.

But in "How Children Succeed," Paul Tough argues for a very different understanding of what makes a successful child. Drawing on groundbreaking research in neuroscience, economics, and psychology, Tough shows that the qualities that matter most have less to do with IQ and more to do with character: skills like grit, curiosity, conscientiousness, and optimism.

"How Children Succeed" introduces us to a new generation of scientists and educators who are radically changing our understanding of how children develop character, how they learn to think, and how they overcome adversity. It tells the personal stories of young people struggling to stay on the right side of the line between success and failure. And it argues for a new way of thinking about how best to steer an individual child �� or a whole generation of children �� toward a successful future.

This provocative and profoundly hopeful book will not only inspire and engage readers; it will also change our understanding of childhood itself.]]> 231 Paul Tough 0547564651 G.R. 4 3.87 2012
author: Paul Tough
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2013/04/01
date added: 2013/12/09
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Very good read for parents, educators, politicians.
]]> 10996342
Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne, Henry's gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooners' team captain and Henry's best friend, realizes he has guided Henry's career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight, Guert's daughter, returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life.

As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. In the process they forge new bonds, and help one another find their true paths. Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment - to oneself and to others.]]> 512 Chad Harbach 0316126691 G.R. 0 to-read 3.98 2011
author: Chad Harbach
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/12/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> 173932 392 Reid Hastie 076192275X G.R. 0 to-read 3.88 1988
author: Reid Hastie
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/01/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> 7663760
"Fooling Some of the People All of the Time" is an important call for effective government regulation, free speech, and fair play.]]> 448 David Einhorn 0470481544 G.R. 0 currently-reading 4.00 2007
author: David Einhorn
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/10/19
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 13260065
During the most dizzying days of the financial crisis, Washington Mutual, a bank with hundreds of billions of dollars in its coffers, suffered a crippling bank run. The story of its final, brutal collapse in the autumn of 2008, and its controversial sale to JPMorgan Chase, is an astonishing account of how one bank lost itself to greed and mismanagement, and how the entire financial industry—and even the entire country�� lost its way as well.

Kirsten Grind’s The Lost Bank is a magisterial and gripping account of these events, tracing the cultural shifts, the cockamamie financial engineering, and the hubris and avarice that made this incredible story possible. The men and women who become the central players in this tragedy�� the regulators and the bankers, the home buyers and the lenders, the number crunchers and the shareholders—are heroes and villains, perpetrators and victims, often switching roles with one another as the drama unfolds.

As a reporter at the time for the Puget Sound Business Journal, Grind covered a story set far from the epicenters of finance and media. It happened largely in places such as the suburban homes of central California and the office buildings of Seattle, but Grind covered the story from the beginning, and the clarity and persistence of her reporting earned her many awards, including being named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Gerald Loeb Award. She takes readers into boardrooms and bedrooms, revealing the power struggles that pitted regulators at the Office of Thrift Supervision and the FDIC against one another and the predatory negotiations of investment bankers and lawyers who enriched themselves during the bank’s rise and then devoured the decimated bank in its final days.

Written as compellingly as the finest fiction, The Lost Bank makes it clear that the collapse of Washington Mutual was not just the largest bank failure in American history. It is a story of talismanic qualities, reflecting the incredible rise and the precipitous collapse of not only an institution but of trust, fortunes, and the marketplaces for risk across the world.]]> 400 Kirsten Grind 1451617925 G.R. 0 to-read 4.04 2012
author: Kirsten Grind
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/10/19
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]]> 7054124
It this spellbinding true crime narrative, Dow takes us inside of prisons, inside the complicated minds of judges, inside execution-administration chambers, into the lives of death row inmates (some shown to be innocent, others not) and even into his own home--where the toll of working on these gnarled and difficult cases is perhaps inevitably paid. He sheds insight onto unexpected phenomena-- how even religious lawyer and justices can evince deep rooted support for putting criminals to death-- and makes palpable the suspense that clings to every word and action when human lives hang in the balance.]]> 288 David R. Dow 0446562068 G.R. 0 to-read 3.96 2010
author: David R. Dow
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/10/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 3487850 496 Clayton M. Christensen 0071592083 G.R. 0 to-read 4.18 2008
author: Clayton M. Christensen
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/08/09
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]]> 6828896 246 Tony Hsieh 0446563048 G.R. 0 to-read 4.02 2000
author: Tony Hsieh
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/08/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> 2936415 The bestselling author of Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Under the Banner of Heaven delivers a stunning, eloquent account of a remarkable young man’s haunting journey.

Like the men whose epic stories Jon Krakauer has told in his previous bestsellers, Pat Tillman was an irrepressible individualist and iconoclast. In May 2002, Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the United States Army. He was deeply troubled by 9/11, and he felt a strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Two years later, he died on a desolate hillside in southeastern Afghanistan.

Though obvious to most of the two dozen soldiers on the scene that a ranger in Tillman’s own platoon had fired the fatal shots, the Army aggressively maneuvered to keep this information from Tillman’s wife, other family members, and the American public for five weeks following his death. During this time, President Bush repeatedly invoked Tillman’s name to promote his administration’s foreign policy. Long after Tillman’s nationally televised memorial service, the Army grudgingly notified his closest relatives that he had “probably�� been killed by friendly fire while it continued to dissemble about the details of his death and who was responsible.

In Where Men Win Glory, Jon Krakauer draws on Tillman’s journals and letters, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and extensive research on the ground in Afghanistan to render an intricate mosaic of this driven, complex, and uncommonly compelling figure as well as the definitive account of the events and actions that led to his death. Before he enlisted in the army, Tillman was familiar to sports aficionados as an undersized, overachieving Arizona Cardinals safety whose virtuosity in the defensive backfield was spellbinding. With his shoulder-length hair, outspoken views, and boundless intellectual curiosity, Tillman was considered a maverick. America was fascinated when he traded the bright lights and riches of the NFL for boot camp and a buzz cut. Sent first to Iraq—a war he would openly declare was “illegal as hell”—and eventually to Afghanistan, Tillman was driven by complicated, emotionally charged, sometimes contradictory notions of duty, honor, justice, patriotism, and masculine pride, and he was determined to serve his entire three-year commitment. But on April 22, 2004, his life would end in a barrage of bullets fired by his fellow soldiers.

Krakauer chronicles Tillman’s riveting, tragic odyssey in engrossing detail highlighting his remarkable character and personality while closely examining the murky, heartbreaking circumstances of his death. Infused with the power and authenticity readers have come to expect from Krakauer’s storytelling, Where Men Win Glory exposes shattering truths about men and war.
From the inside cover of ISBN 0385522266 / 9780385522267]]> 383 Jon Krakauer 0385522266 G.R. 0 currently-reading 4.07 2009
author: Jon Krakauer
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2011/12/27
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 6463967
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.]]> 264 Michael Lewis 0393072231 G.R. 4 4.20 2010
author: Michael Lewis
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2010
rating: 4
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date added: 2011/12/27
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]]> 9534444
Icelanders wanted to stop fishing and become investment bankers. The Greeks wanted to turn their country into a piñata stuffed with cash and allow as many citizens as possible to take a whack at it. The Germans wanted to be even more German; the Irish wanted to stop being Irish.

Michael Lewis's investigation of bubbles beyond our shores is so brilliantly, sadly hilarious that it leads the American reader to a comfortable complacency: oh, those foolish foreigners. But when he turns a merciless eye on California and Washington, DC, we see that the narrative is a trap baited with humor, and we understand the reckoning that awaits the greatest and greediest of debtor nations.]]> 213 Michael Lewis 0393081818 G.R. 5 3.89 2011
author: Michael Lewis
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2011/12/27
date added: 2011/12/27
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]]> 1957608 288 Roger Lowenstein 1594201676 G.R. 0 to-read 3.80 2008
author: Roger Lowenstein
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2011/09/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> 313633 269 H. Thomas Johnson 0875841384 G.R. 0 to-read 3.94 1987
author: H. Thomas Johnson
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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date added: 2011/09/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> 5544
In short, here is Feynman's life in all its eccentric glory—a combustible mixture of high intelligence, unlimited curiosity, and raging chutzpah.]]> 350 Richard P. Feynman 0393316041 G.R. 0 currently-reading 4.27 1985
author: Richard P. Feynman
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/09/27
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 9628743
This is the story of how success happens. It is told through the lives of one composite American couple, Harold and Erica—how they grow, push forward, are pulled back, fail, and succeed. Distilling a vast array of information into these two vividly realized characters, Brooks illustrates a fundamental new understanding of human nature. A scientific revolution has occurred—we have learned more about the human brain in the last thirty years than we had in the previous three thousand. The unconscious mind, it turns out, is most of the mind—not a dark, vestigial place but a creative and enchanted one, where most of the brain’s work gets done. This is the realm of emotions, intuitions, biases, longings, genetic predispositions, personality traits, and social the realm where character is formed and where our most important life decisions are made. The natural habitat of The Social Animal.
��
Drawing on a wealth of current research from numerous disciplines, Brooks takes Harold and Erica from infancy to school; from the “odyssey years�� that have come to define young adulthood to the high walls of poverty; from the nature of attachment, love, and commitment, to the nature of effective leadership. He reveals the deeply social aspect of our very minds and exposes the bias in modern culture that overemphasizes rationalism, individualism, and IQ. Along the way, he demolishes conventional definitions of success while looking toward a culture based on trust and humility.

The Social Animal is a moving and nuanced intellectual adventure, a story of achievement and a defense of progress. Impossible to put down, it is an essential book for our time, one that will have broad social impact and will change the way we see ourselves and the world.]]> 424 David Brooks 140006760X G.R. 4 3.86 2011
author: David Brooks
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2011/09/27
date added: 2011/09/27
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Really enjoyable read. Has been slammed by critics in many pubs, but I really liked it. SHould have read with a pen as there is a great deal of useful information for parents and for anyone hoping to be happy and/or productive.
]]> 7141642
But Jacob’s original intentions are eclipsed after a chance encounter with Orito Aibagawa, the disfigured daughter of a samurai doctor and midwife to the city’s powerful magistrate. The borders between propriety, profit, and pleasure blur until Jacob finds his vision clouded, one rash promise made and then fatefully broken. The consequences will extend beyond Jacob’s worst imaginings. As one cynical colleague asks, “Who ain’t a gambler in the glorious Orient, with his very life?��

A magnificent mix of luminous writing, prodigious research, and heedless imagination, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is the most impressive achievement of its eminent author.]]> 479 David Mitchell 1400065453 G.R. 0 currently-reading 4.01 2010
author: David Mitchell
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/03/23
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 7184066
Rajan shows how the individual choices that collectively brought about the economic meltdown--made by bankers, government officials, and ordinary homeowners--were rational responses to a flawed global financial order in which the incentives to take on risk are incredibly out of step with the dangers those risks pose. He traces the deepening fault lines in a world overly dependent on the indebted American consumer to power global economic growth and stave off global downturns. He exposes a system where America's growing inequality and thin social safety net create tremendous political pressure to encourage easy credit and keep job creation robust, no matter what the consequences to the economy's long-term health; and where the U.S. financial sector, with its skewed incentives, is the critical but unstable link between an overstimulated America and an underconsuming world.

In "Fault Lines," Rajan demonstrates how unequal access to education and health care in the United States puts us all in deeper financial peril, even as the economic choices of countries like Germany, Japan, and China place an undue burden on America to get its policies right. He outlines the hard choices we need to make to ensure a more stable world economy and restore lasting prosperity.]]> 260 Raghuram G. Rajan 0691146837 G.R. 0 currently-reading 4.09 2010
author: Raghuram G. Rajan
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2011/03/23
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 6624929
But the Moreys' standards are not the same as other people's. The future in which they have always believed for themselves and their children—a life of almost boundless privilege, in which any desire can be acted upon and any ambition made real—is still out there, but it is not arriving fast enough to suit them. As Cynthia, at home with the kids day after identical day, begins to drift, Adam is confronted with a choice that will test how much he is willing to risk to ensure his family's happiness and to recapture the sense that the only acceptable life is one of infinite possibility.

The Privileges is an odyssey of a couple touched by fortune, changed by time, and guided above all else by their epic love for each other. Lyrical, provocative, and brilliantly imagined, this is a timely meditation on wealth, family, and what it means to leave the world richer than you found it.]]> 258 Jonathan Dee 1400068673 G.R. 4 3.27 2010
author: Jonathan Dee
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2011/02/12
date added: 2011/03/23
shelves:
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Couldn't put it down. But not sure why. Didn't really like any of the characters, but found it compelling. Dee writes beautifully. Makes the seemingly mundane gripping.
]]> 8664353
The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he'd been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.]]> 475 Laura Hillenbrand 1400064163 G.R. 5 4.38 2010
author: Laura Hillenbrand
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2011/03/05
date added: 2011/03/23
shelves:
review:
Incredible. Couldn't put it down. LH is really good. Meticulous research and historical detail, yet reads like amazing fiction.
]]> 2179832
Dozens of characters pass across the reader's sight lines—some never to be seen again—but James Frey lingers on a handful of LA's lost souls and captures the dramatic narrative of their lives: a bright, ambitious young Mexican-American woman who allows her future to be undone by a moment of searing humiliation; a supremely narcissistic action-movie star whose passion for the unattainable object of his affection nearly destroys him; a couple, both nineteen years old, who flee their suffocating hometown and struggle to survive on the fringes of the great city; and an aging Venice Beach alcoholic whose life is turned upside down when a meth-addled teenage girl shows up half-dead outside the restroom he calls home.

Throughout this strikingly powerful novel there is the relentless drumbeat of the millions of other stories that, taken as a whole, describe a city, a culture, and an age. A dazzling tour de force, Bright Shiny Morning illuminates the joys, horrors, and unexpected fortunes of life and death in Los Angeles.]]> 501 James Frey 0061573132 G.R. 4 3.84 2008
author: James Frey
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2008
rating: 4
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date added: 2011/03/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 49628
Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . .

Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. . . . From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. . . . And onward, with dazzling virtuosity, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history.

But the story doesn't end even there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky.

As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon.]]> 509 David Mitchell 0375507256 G.R. 0 to-read 4.02 2004
author: David Mitchell
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/06/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> 6289283 Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong.

Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. Their superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife that plague modern existence. With the help of Caballo Blanco, a mysterious loner who lives among the tribe, the author was able not only to uncover the secrets of the Tarahumara but also to find his own inner ultra-athlete, as he trained for the challenge of a lifetime: a fifty-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country pitting the tribe against an odd band of Americans, including a star ultramarathoner, a beautiful young surfer, and a barefoot wonder.

With a sharp wit and wild exuberance, McDougall takes us from the high-tech science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultrarunners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to the climactic race in the Copper Canyons. Born to Run is that rare book that will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that the secret to happiness is right at your feet, and that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.]]> 287 Christopher McDougall G.R. 0 currently-reading 4.29 2009
author: Christopher McDougall
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/06/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 2199 Winner of the Lincoln Prize

Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's political genius in this highly original work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president.

On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention in Chicago. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry.

Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war. That Lincoln succeeded, Goodwin demonstrates, was the result of a character that had been forged by experiences that raised him above his more privileged and accomplished rivals. He won because he possessed an extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men, to experience what they were feeling, to understand their motives and desires.

It was this capacity that enabled Lincoln as president to bring his disgruntled opponents together, create the most unusual cabinet in history, and marshal their talents to the task of preserving the Union and winning the war.

We view the long, horrifying struggle from the vantage of the White House as Lincoln copes with incompetent generals, hostile congressmen, and his raucous cabinet. He overcomes these obstacles by winning the respect of his former competitors, and in the case of Seward, finds a loyal and crucial friend to see him through.

This brilliant multiple biography is centered on Lincoln's mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation's history.]]> 916 Doris Kearns Goodwin G.R. 0 currently-reading 4.27 2005
author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/06/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 7123692
From the moment he arrived in Chicago in 1920, Capone found himself in a world of limitless opportunity. He was an impetuous, affable young man of average intelligence, ill prepared for fame and fortune, whose most notable characteristic was his scarred left cheek. Yet within a few years, Capone controlled an illegal bootlegging business with annual revenue rivaling that of some of the nation’s largest corporations. Along the way he corrupted the Chicago police force and local courts while becoming one of the world’s first international celebrities.

A furious President Herbert Hoover insisted that Capone be brought to justice because the criminal was making a mockery of federal law. Legend credits Eliot Ness and his “Untouchables�� with apprehending Capone. But it was the U.S. attorney in Chicago and little-known agents working on direct orders from the White House who compromised their ethics—and risked their lives—to get their man.

The most infamous crime attributed to Capone was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, a crime that Capone insisted he didn’t commit. Using newly discovered FBI records, Eig offers a surprising explanation for the murders.

Get Capone explores every aspect of the man called “Scarface,�� paying particular attention to the myths that have for so long surrounded and obscured him. Capone emerges as a worldly, emotionally complex man, doomed as much by his ego as by his vicious criminality. This is the real Al Capone.]]> 436 Jonathan Eig 141658059X G.R. 0 to-read 3.79 2010
author: Jonathan Eig
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2010/04/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> 219780
Not everyone appreciated the sisters�� attempts to elevate the industry. Rival Levee madams hatched numerous schemes to ruin the Everleighs, including an attempt to frame them for the death of department store heir Marshall Field, Jr. But the sisters�� most daunting foes were the Progressive Era reformers, who sent the entire country into a frenzy with lurid tales of “white slavery-the allegedly rampant practice of kidnapping young girls and forcing them into brothels. This furor shaped America’s sexual culture and had repercussions all the way to the White House, including the formation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

With a cast of characters that includes Jack Johnson, John Barrymore, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., William Howard Taft, “Hinky Dink�� Kenna, and Al Capone, Sin in the Second City is Karen Abbott’s colorful, nuanced portrait of the iconic Everleigh sisters, their world-famous Club, and the perennial clash between our nation’s hedonistic impulses and Puritanical roots. Culminating in a dramatic last stand between brothel keepers and crusading reformers, Sin in the Second City offers a vivid snapshot of America’s journey from Victorian-era propriety to twentieth-century modernity.]]> 356 Karen Abbott 1400065305 G.R. 0 to-read 3.62 2007
author: Karen Abbott
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/08/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1772070 Kearney, G. R., Pilarz, Scott G.R. Kearney 1401014240 G.R. 5 5.00
author: G.R. Kearney
name: G.R.
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2009/08/11
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]]> 6530963 262 G.R. Kearney 1439210241 G.R. 5 5.00 2008
author: G.R. Kearney
name: G.R.
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/08/11
shelves:
review:

]]> 2482823 Despite many real and potential barriers, the Jesuits set to work—and in 1996, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School opened its doors in Pilsen, a predominantly Mexican-immigrant inner-city neighborhood on Chicago’s Lower West Side.
In More Than a Dream , G. R. Kearney shows how one daring vision became a reality and turned into a resounding success. Through Cristo Rey’s innovative curriculum, creative financing model, and intense devotion to the needs of Hispanic students, the lives of thousands of families continue to be changed. In demonstrating how Cristo Rey has sparked an educational revolution in urban America, the book leaves every reader with a bold Attempt to change what seems unchangeable.

“Cristo Rey is magical. What you see there is hope and optimism.��
—Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
They built more than a school—they built a future!
Brick by brick, Chicago-area Jesuits saw their dream of starting a new college prep school for the children of Hispanic working poor come true. Student by student, they saw a better and brighter future unfold. You’ll be truly inspired as you read how this Jesuit vision—now a national model for educational success—continues to challenge those who have much and to change the lives of those who have little.
�� More Than a Dr eam shines a light into the soul of urban education, illuminating the extraordinary challenges and the breathtaking and transformational results of the Cristo Rey–model schools.��
—Darren Jackson, CFO of Best Buy
“Cristo Rey schools change children’s lives. This is a story that needs to be told.��
—Laura Vanderkam, member of USA Today ’s Board of Contributors
“An enticing tale of inspiration, improvisation and innovation . . . A testament to the will and wisdom of a hearty lot who believed in poor kids and who had faith that the impossible is possible in urban education.��
—Jerome T. Murphy, Dean emeritus and Harold Howe II Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education
Thank you—by purchasing this book, you participate in the ongoing story of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School. G. R. Kearney and Loyola Press will donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book to Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago.]]> 424 G.R. Kearney 0829425764 G.R. 5 I'm obviously biased 3.74 2008
author: G.R. Kearney
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/08/11
shelves:
review:
I'm obviously biased
]]> 94317 390 Adrian Wojnarowski 1592401864 G.R. 0 to-read 4.31 2005
author: Adrian Wojnarowski
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/08/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 99952
Joe Ehrmann, a former NFL football star and volunteer coach for the Gilman high school football team, teaches his players the keys to successful defense: penetrate, pursue, punish, love. Love? A former captain of the Baltimore Colts and now an ordained minister, Ehrmann is serious about the game of football but even more serious about the purpose of life. Season of Life is his inspirational story as told by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Jeffrey Marx, who was a ballboy for the Colts when he first met Ehrmann.

Ehrmann now devotes his life to teaching young men a whole new meaning of masculinity. He teaches the boys at Gilman the precepts of his Building Men for Others program: Being a man means emphasizing relationships and having a cause bigger than yourself. It means accepting responsibility and leading courageously. It means that empathy, integrity, and living a life of service to others are more important than points on a scoreboard.

Decades after he first met Ehrmann, Jeffrey Marx renewed their friendship and watched his childhood hero putting his principles into action. While chronicling a season with the Gilman Greyhounds, Marx witnessed the most extraordinary sports program he’d ever seen, where players say “I love you�� to each other and coaches profess their love for their players. Off the field Marx sat with Ehrmann and absorbed life lessons that led him to reexamine his own unresolved relationship with his father.

Season of Life is a book about what it means to be a man of substance and impact. It is a moving story that will resonate with athletes, coaches, parents—anyone struggling to make the right choices in life.]]> 192 Jeffrey Marx 0743269748 G.R. 0 to-read 4.18 2004
author: Jeffrey Marx
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/08/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 421702 David Kuo came to Washington wanting to use his Christian faith to end abortion, strengthen marriage, and help the poor. He reached the heights of political power, ultimately serving in the White House under George W. Bush. It was a dream come the chance to fuse his politics and his faith, and an opportunity for Christians not just to gain a seat at the proverbial table but also to plan the entire meal. Yet his experience was deeply troubling. He had been seduced, just as so many evangelical conservatives had been seduced by politics. Tempting Faith is a wrenching personal journey and a heartfelt plea for a Christian reexamination of political and spiritual priorities.]]> 304 David Kuo 0743287126 G.R. 0 to-read 3.60 2006
author: David Kuo
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2009/08/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 662 This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world and did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of liberators?

Why did he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies, but against those who needed him most, and his hardest battle against the woman he loved? What is the world’s motor �� and the motive power of every man? You will know the answer to these questions when you discover the reason behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the characters in this story.

Tremendous in its scope, this novel presents an astounding panorama of human life �� from the productive genius who becomes a worthless playboy �� to the great steel industrialist who does not know that he is working for his own destruction �� to the philosopher who becomes a pirate �� to the composer who gives up his career on the night of his triumph �� to the woman who runs a transcontinental railroad �� to the lowest track worker in her Terminal tunnels.

You must be prepared, when you read this novel, to check every premise at the root of your convictions.

This is a mystery story, not about the murder �� and rebirth �� of man’s spirit. It is a philosophical revolution, told in the form of an action thriller of violent events, a ruthlessly brilliant plot structure and an irresistible suspense. Do you say this is impossible? Well, that is the first of your premises to check.]]> 1168 Ayn Rand 0452011876 G.R. 4 read-and-enjoyed 3.67 1957
author: Ayn Rand
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1957
rating: 4
read at: 2007/06/01
date added: 2007/11/29
shelves: read-and-enjoyed
review:
Started this on my honeymoon as I was looking for a thick paperback and finished it some five months later. I think Rand is fascinating. She's as subtle as a skillet to the face (See also throw momma from the train), but her take on the primacy of man and the importance of humans desire is interesting stuff.
]]> 4214 460 Yann Martel 0770430074 G.R. 0 tried-to-read 3.94 2001
author: Yann Martel
name: G.R.
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at: 2005/10/01
date added: 2007/11/29
shelves: tried-to-read
review:
It took me months to read 80 pages of this. It is a mystery to me why so many people rave about this. A W F U L
]]> 292408
Wallace Stegner's Pultizer Prize-winning novel is a story of discovery—personal, historical, and geographical.]]> 569 Wallace Stegner 014016930X G.R. 0 currently-reading 4.24 1971
author: Wallace Stegner
name: G.R.
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1971
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2007/11/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:
Just started this. Very much enjoying it. Stegner is a stud. Sedcutive. You keep reading, but you're not ever sure why.
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