Category Archives: book
Over Time
Quite simply, the best sports book I have ever read. Deford’s stories are often fascinating, and his ability to put them into the perspective that 50 years of sports writing provides makes this a quite enjoyable read. Read reviews from … Continue reading
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Visit Sunny Chernobyl
I have to thank Andrew Blackwell for the time and effort that went into researching and writing this fascinating book of industrial disaster areas (some still serving industrial functions) throughout the world. As I might want to visit some of … Continue reading
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The End of Money
David Wolman’s The End of Money: Counterfeiters, Preachers, Techies, Dreamers — and the Coming Cashless Society (2012) is an interesting look at our faith-based economic system. If you haven’t already thought the through the implications of an economic system based … Continue reading
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The Architect
The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power (2006) is an interesting (though uneven) review of Karl Rove and his ride to the White House by two veteran Texas political reporters. A non-believer who built a machine … Continue reading
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Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun
Paul Barrett’s Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun (2012) is an eminently readable history of the lightweight Austrian pistol. Somehow, the gun that’s “uglier than a sack full of assholes” has become the “Google of modern civilian handguns: the pioneer … Continue reading
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The Mark Inside
The Mark Inside (2012) tells the fascinating story of a swindled Texas rancher who refused to rest until he got his revenge against each member of the team that took him for $45,000. But what I fond most interesting was … Continue reading
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Moneymakers
Ben Tarnoff’s Moneymakers (2012) tells the stories of three counterfeiters who plied their trade during different periods of American history – the Colonial era, early America and during the Civil War. While their stories are interesting, I thought he did … Continue reading
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Island of Vice
The subtitle of Richard Zacks’s Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt’s Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York (2012) gives away the result — hard-charging reformer Teddy Roosevelt aims to clean up New York City as a Police Commissioner, but … Continue reading
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The American Way of Eating
Tracie McMillan’s The American Way of Eating (2012) should be required reading for any American who eats regularly. One blurb describes it as “Nickled and Dimed meets Fast Food Nation”;that pretty much sums it up. The author picks garlic in … Continue reading
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Survival City
Tom Vanderbilt’s Survival City (2002) is more than just a trip back to the post-World War II era when — it’s good reading in preparation for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. It is the fascinating story of the nation’s preparation for … Continue reading
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