Category Archives: review
The Price of Everything
Perhaps not everything, but a Eduardo Porter provides some fascinating insights about why we value the things we value, and what that means in our lives. Recommended for the behavioral economist in your life. Reviews from the NY Times and … Continue reading
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The Poisoner’s Handbook
The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum is well described by its subtitle, Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York. But I probably would have gone with CSI: New York (Prohibition Era). If you know what … Continue reading
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The Gun
The title of C.J. Chivers Pulitzer Prize winning book refers to the AK-47 (and its lethally improved successors, the AK-74 and AKM). The book provides a fascinating history of human combat since the American Civil War, largely through the view … Continue reading
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Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter
What really blew me away about this book was the following realization: even given the thousands of hours I’ve wasted in my life playing video games, I have never played a single game Tom Bissell covers in this entire book. … Continue reading
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Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception
In Proofiness, author Charles Seife explores the power of numbers in our lives, especially specious numbers, and argues that they undermine our democracy. His discussion of bogus mathematical arguments draws on real world events, and he presents an interesting analysis … Continue reading
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The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires
Tim Wu’s “The Master Switch” is a great read at a number of different levels. At one level, it is an interesting history of the information and telecommunications industries in the United States — telephony, radio and television, film and … Continue reading
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A Measureless Peril
Keeping up with the Winston Churchill theme, this book’s title is derived from a Churchill quote — describing his concern over the threat posed by the German U-boat campaign. Author Richard Snow uses his father’s experience serving in the Navy … Continue reading
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The Irregulars
The Irregulars, Jennet Connant (2008) — Connant tells the interesting story of English agents in Washington D.C. before and during World War II. More gentlemanly than spies would later become, they included the authors Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming. This … Continue reading
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