Books |

American Eve

Posted on September 3, 2011 by Mike

In American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, the Birth of the “It” Girl, and the Crime of the Century (2008), Paula Uruburu tells the story of millionaires behaving badly, with a mix of glamour, sex, madness, and murder, at the tail end of the Victorian Age.

The story of how actress/model Evelyn Nesbitt’s jealous (and probably insane) husband came to murder her lover (before she was “of age”), famous architect Stanford White, is a fascinating one. Uruburu sets out the theory that this Shakespearean tale pre-sages today’s celebrity-obsessed American culture, and its tough to find fault with it.

Read review on GoodReads and in the Times.

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Wild Bill Donovan

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Mike

In Wild Bill Donovan (2011), Douglas Waller tells the story of the Buffalo native who help create and oversee most of the nation’s espionage activities during World War II.

Donovan was quite a character. A World War I hero, he ran for Governor of New York in 1932 and lost. He was a Republican who opposed the New Deal, but was appointed by FDR to head the Office of Strategic Services(the predecessor of the CIA). While he was denied the ability to lead the CIA (by J. Edgar Hoover, among others), his vision for the CIA ultimately came to fruition.

A fascinating tale of an under-appreciated American hero.

Read the New York Times review.

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102 Minutes

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Mike

In 102 Minutes (2005), Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn tell some of the stories of courage and tenderness, and of survival and death, inside the WTC complex on 9/11/01.

I decided to read this to emotionally prepare myself for the upcoming 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Read the New York Times review.

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Tales from the Sausage Factory: Making Laws in New York State

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Mike

In Tales from the Sausage Factory: Making Laws in New York State, Dan Feldman and Gerry Benjamin have written a thoughtful, interesting and insightful explanation of how New York’s legislature functioned in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

It should be considered required reading for anyone working in or around New York state government.

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The Impending Zombie Apocalypse, Reviewed

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Mike

I’ve been meaning to write a blog post on all of the zombie apocalypse literature I’ve been reading for the past year, but I just haven’t been able to do it.

This Times article is decent start. My theory is that the zombie apocalypse represents the ever-present terror threat. Perhaps I’ll be able to pick it up from there. There is a lot to cover:

Day By Day Armageddon (1 and 2)
Pariah
Rise Again
Plague of the Dead
Autumn

Though not involving zombies, I also found Oryx and Crake to be quite interesting, and Z for Zachariah and Ship Breaker as well.

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Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Mike

“Ticket Masters” by Dean Budnick and Josh Baron covers everything you thought you ever wanted to know about ticketing in the concert industry – from Bill Graham to Live Nation. It’s a bit long and bogs down somewhat in the middle, but it’s quite fascinating.

Frankly, I thought that that the legislative process was an ugly one. The concert industry – perhaps due to the large amounts of cash involved – makes it look virtuous.

It corrects some common misconceptions about the Pearl Jam-Ticketmaster dispute and explains why the Grateful Dead were able to sell their own tickets for venues that otherwise had to use Ticketmaster (the chapter on the Grateful Dead ticketing is excellent). And it shows the limits of DOJ’s ability to effectively deal with certain monopolistic practices.

All-in-all, it’s a worthwhile read, especially if you wonder why you pay service charges, facility charges and delivery charges up the yin-yang when you buy an event ticket these days. (Hint: it’s because you don’t have a choice, unless you choose not to go to the show.)

A couple of recent NY Times articles (“Scalping Battle Puts Fans in the Middle” and “Can Ticketmaster’s Builder Now Unseat It?”) demonstrate its current relevance.

Read a Wall Street Journal review and an interview with the authors.

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Married to the Mouse

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Mike

In Married to the Mouse (2001), Richard Foglesong tells the fascinating story of Disney’s relationship with the local governments of central Florida. Not the city of Orlando, actually, but Orange and Osceola counties. And the Reedy Creek Improvement District, basically Disney’s private local government.

All-in-all, it’s a very thoughtful book, and fairer to Disney than I expected. This should be required reading for any local government officials who are interested in the benefits (and costs) of transformative economic development.

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The Man in the Rockefeller Suit

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Mike

Vanity Fair writer Mark Seal tells the absolutely awesome story of Christian K. Gerhartsreiter, a 17-year old German immigrant who transformed himself into “Clark Rockefeller.”

I first read about it here, when he went on trial.

Read book reviews in the L.A. Times and the N.Y. Times.

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The Shadow Factory

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Mike

I remember reading the front page New York Times story from December 2005 that the Bush Administration had authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to engage in domestic wiretapping to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the warrants federal law seemed to require, and being absolutely disgusted that the Bush Administration would be so dismissive of the Constitution and federal law. (Disgusted, but not surprised.)

James Bamford’s The Shadow Factory (2008) tells the story of how this was (and probably still is) just the tip of the domestic spying iceberg. As usual, Bamford’s work is well-researched and well-told.

Now that the Justice Department has resolved the matter of Thomas Drake (the NSA whistleblower who was charged with violating the Espionage Act for leaking documents to a reporter, but recently plead guilty to a single misdemeanor), perhaps now they can turn they prosecutorial attention to the damage that Bush, Cheney, Yoo, et al. did when they violated their oaths to uphold the Constitution.

Read a review from the NY Times.

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Scorecasting

Posted on June 5, 2011 by Mike

Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports Are Played and Games Are Won (2011) by Tobias Moskowitz and Jon Wertheim can be best described as “Sports Illustrated meets Freakonomics.”

The authors crunch the data and challenge the conventional wisdom. In other words, stop punting, and go for it on 4th down. Very much fun for the thinking sports fan. (Or is that an oxymoron?)

Read reviews in the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal.