en-US Wed, 11 Jun 2025 08:47:54 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7646189396 Wed, 11 Jun 2025 08:47:54 -0700 /review/show/7646189396 Dan gave 5 stars to Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism (Hardcover) by Sarah Wynn-Williams
I’ve never been a fan of Facebook, but after reading this book, I have a new realization about its founder Mark Zuckerberg � he is one dangerous dude.
Author Sarah Wynn-Williams has painted a troubling portrait of the ultimate threat posed by Zuckerberg in her memoir “Careless People.�
Don’t get me wrong, parts of her memoir are funny as she recounts various mini disasters as she flies around the world attempting to arrange events for the Facebook team.
But the more concerning parts of the book deal with her portrayal of Zuckerberg. Not only does he acknowledge influencing the 2016 election in favor of Trump but he outlines a truly scary plan to crush traditional legacy media and replace it with his creation which has become a fountain for misinformation, distortion and outright lies.
As a former journalist, I cringe at Zuckerberg’s contention that Facebook is merely a utility that provides a service to people who wish to express themselves. But if this comparison to a utility is to be believed, how does it apply to other authentic utilities. For example, if a water utility decides not to be responsible to the quality of the water it distributes and therefore denies responsibility for any diseases it might carry, what is the future hold for the health of its customers?
That’s exactly the question that should be posed after reading Wynn-Williams� book. What’s the future of our country if billionaires can disassociate themselves for the garbage they channel to voters.
I know this is very “old fashion� but when I worked for the hated “legacy� media we attempted to represent the community with a wide variety of opinions through our columns and letters to the editor. Around election season we published dozens of letters supporting or criticizing candidates of both parties. However, that didn’t mean we allowed blatantly racist, bigoted or inflammatory information in our letters and columns.
Now Zuckerger brags in this book about crushing those legacy media and replacing it with the Wild West where anything goes in the name of the First Amendment. Of course, it’s much more profitable for Facebook to do away with staff members who exercise even a modicum of control by reviewing posts for accuracy and fairness.
Perhaps it is time for Facebook and other social media to be held responsible more frequently for false information. We need more plaintiffs like Dominion Voting Systems to hold entities like Fox News accountable for the lies knowingly spread through their networks. Perhaps a billion-dollar judgment would convince Zuckerberg it’s time to shoulder some responsibility for the inflammatory garbage that is posted every day on Facebook much of it by foreign countries which have an interest in swaying our elections.
]]> Review7613611661 Fri, 30 May 2025 16:50:18 -0700 /review/show/7613611661 Dan gave 5 stars to The Umbrella Maker's Son (Paperback) by Tod Lending
If you’ve read enough books about World War II and the horrific treatment of the Jews by German troops you might expect to become somewhat numb to the atrocities. Yet when I read Tod Lending’s book “The Umbrella Maker’s Son� the cruelty inflicted by the Germans was just as raw and inhumane as if it had happened yesterday.
As seventeen-year-old Reuven works to save his family and his girlfriend from the Nazis. readers will naturally cringe at the cruelty exhibited by both the Germans but also the Polish residents who worked for the Nazis. There are some victories along the way, but they are few and easily countered by the scale of the tragedy.
When I finished reading this novel, I was reminded again how man’s inhumanity to man can take on massive proportions. I wish I could say that books such as this will be reminders to prevent this type of tragedy from occurring again, but I’m not at all sure that’s the case. The people who should read books like this will never pick them up but will prefer to be inundated with their messages of hate and bigotry. ]]> Review7595419528 Sat, 24 May 2025 07:51:39 -0700 /review/show/7595419528 Dan gave 4 stars to Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity (Hardcover) by Yoni Appelbaum
Anyone who lives in a growing urban area is probably familiar with the problem of finding affordable housing. It’s a theme of many local political campaigns and is frequently cited by businesses as a factor in recruiting employees. Ask a police chief, a fire chief, a school superintendent, or restaurant owner and they are likely to mention the lack of affordable housing as contributing to a major staffing problem.

Author Yoni Appelbaum has done an excellent job of explaining how one factor � zoning � played a major role in contributing to this shortage. His history is fascinating as he explains how every area of the country has been afflicted by this problem. Zoning has helped to ghettoize Chinese Americans in Modesto, California by limiting laundries or pushed Jewish garment workers into New York’s Lower East Side.

What I liked about “Stuck� was the way in which the author also explained how mobility has played such a beneficial factor in economic growth in the history of the United States. That mobility has been drastically reduced partly because of the factors described by Appelbaum.

I look at my own life and must admit mobility played a large factor in my career. Although growing up in a depressed Pennsylvania coal mining town, I was able to move to a thriving Ohio college town and get a degree which allowed me to pursue a rewarding career in journalism.

But when I look back, I also see that mobility had significant costs. Growing up I lived in a close-knit neighborhood and commercial area. Within a few blocks of our apartment, we had a grocery store, hardware store, florist, pharmacy and bank. Our school and church were located within four blocks. When my family moved to their first home, we lost all that intimacy and relied almost exclusively on a car to get us where we needed to go. Our experience and many others led to an out migration which essentially killed our old neighborhood as one store after another closed.

So the ease of mobility also has its negative consequences for some areas. This may be one factor not sufficiently explored by the author. The balance between the two is tricky and very difficult to control as many cities around the United States have discovered.

]]> Review7573996261 Fri, 16 May 2025 08:58:52 -0700 /review/show/7573996261 Dan gave 4 stars to The Kings of Big Spring: God, Oil, and One Family's Search for the American Dream (Hardcover) by Bryan Mealer

Any writer who can manage to mix dust and oil into a memorable family portrait of poverty and wealth while growing up in Texas deserves considerable credit. Bryan Mealer has accomplished that fete by painting complex portraits of characters coming into and leaving his life in the town of Big Springs, Texas. These characters witness one of the biggest oil booms in American history. In the process readers will also learn something about oil drilling, its risks and its rewards.

For the reader who is tempted to give up on the book as the author fills the beginning pages with tales of poverty, stick with it. When oil is discovered through wildcat wells, the stories become more interesting as family members learn how to cope with their sudden wealth. Even by Texas standards, the stories will amaze many readers.

And just as suddenly, Mealer captures the dramatic oil bust in the �80s that devastates fortunes and dreams. How these characters cope with this dramatic change is the heart of the book. Struggling to find their footing in this new environment some members of Mealer’s family succeed while other fail.

I’m from an old mining town in Pennsylvania and I can attest to validity of these stories. Substitute coal for oil and the story is much the same wherever it occurs. But busted boom towns managed to survive, some better than others. Family members survive, some better than others. A few even go on to write books about their experiences growing up.

]]> Review1993728511 Mon, 12 May 2025 16:56:35 -0700 /review/show/1993728511 Dan gave 4 stars to Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India (Hardcover) by Joseph Lelyveld
My knowledge of Mahatma Gandhi was limited pretty much to his time in India and his famous hunger strikes while attempting to bridge the hatred between Muslims and Hindus.
Author Joseph Lelyveld expands my limited knowledge by exploring Gandhi’s time in South Africa where he was a lawyer beginning a law practice after spending time studying in London. It is here that Gandhi begins his transformation to the leader millions would become familiar with during his time in India.

This is not a quick review of Gandhi’s life but an exhaustive history of his time in South Africa and India. It gave me a much better understanding of the man and the problems he faced especially in India. Too many people treat Gandhi as a kind of saint today. Lelyveld amply illustrates that Gandhi was a man given to bouts of depression, jealously and anger. He was also a man who was so stubborn he would drive his followers to despair occasionally.

The end of this book focuses on the end of Gandhi’s life via assassination. While tragic, Lelyveld explains how this was probably a blessing for the leader as he neared the end of his life. The horrible clashes between Muslims and Hindus overwhelmed Gandhi and caused him to wonder if much of his life’s work had been in vain. The bloodbath of ethnic cleansing was so pervasive it threatened to undo Gandhi’s lifelong philosophy of non-violence. His assassination made Gandhi a martyr whose philosophy resonates to this day.

In many ways, Gandhi’s love for everyone reminds me of the late Desmond Tutu who I was privileged to know. In many passages of this book, I could visualize Archbishop Tutu saying the same words. Both had a remarkable dry sense of humor. Tutu saw incredible racial violence yet still was able to remain optimistic publicly while I suspect he wrestled with depression like Gandhi.

Sadly, I fear both men if alive today would be discouraged by the violence that has recently wracked both countries.


]]> Review1438442373 Sat, 03 May 2025 11:02:10 -0700 /review/show/1438442373 Dan gave 4 stars to The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789 (Hardcover) by Joseph J. Ellis
bookshelves: to-read
When reading about American history and the actions of the founding fathers it seems like many books devote themselves to Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin. Relatively little attention is paid to other noteworthy individuals who played important roles in the founding of our nation.
That’s why it was so encouraging to find a book dealing with these other, often neglected, leaders who played pivotal roles in the creation and ratification of the U.S. Constitution.
I’m aware that the title of this book is “The Quartet� which deals with George Washington as well as John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. But George Washington shares the limelight with Jay, Hamilton and Madison. In this book, Washington’s role is secondary to the other three in that he provided his considerable reputation to the endeavor rather than any role in pushing it across the finish line.
Ellis doesn’t simply give us separate biographies of these four men but weaves their actions into a coherent narrative about the creation of the Constitution. While many people look to the Declaration of Independence as being the seminal document for the founding of this country, it is the Constitution which had the most to do with the founding of a nation, as opposed to thirteen individual often bickering colonies breaking away from the British Empire.
As few other writers have done, Ellis does an outstanding job of portraying the sorry state of affairs under the Articles of Confederation. Most residents in these vastly different colonies wanted nothing to do with a central government. After all, colonists had just spent several years of their lives fighting to get rid of a centralized government in the form of a monarchy and a parliament.
Ellis also dashes the notion that the Philadelphia Convention was called to draft a constitution. It was called to correct deficiencies in the Articles of Confederation. Instead, these men decided to throw out the entire thing and start over in what Ellis concludes was a second revolution.
The result was a document which continues to evolve today primarily because the framers left certain sections purposely ambiguous. That probably has contributed to the survival of the document to this day.
I recommend this book to anyone who would like a change from reading about some of the well documented lives of America’s most famous founders.







]]> AuthorFollowing108900959 Sat, 03 May 2025 11:01:20 -0700 Review7536904106 Fri, 02 May 2025 08:47:01 -0700 /review/show/7536904106 Dan gave 4 stars to The Women (Hardcover) by Kristin Hannah
Kristin Hannah is indeed a gifted writer. The latest book I’ve read by her “The Women� does a good job of capturing the nation’s mood during the Vietnam War era. As someone who lived through that time on a college campus, I can testify to the anger surrounding student demonstrations against the war. When the shooting at Kent State University occurred, I was at nearby Ohio University where that anger boiled over into full-fledged riots.
Hannah takes this turbulent time and adds well drawn characters that reflect the mood of the times. In the case of her protagonist Frankie McGrath, the war is viewed through the eyes of a combat nurse in Vietnam who experiences the horrific injuries of soldiers. The book also captures the agony of civilians caught in the middle of the warring factions. When she returns to the U.S., McGrath also experiences the emotions of a divided nation.
If there is any criticism I have, it’s that the spiting episodes she relates did happen but were not as pervasive as the author implies. Some U.S. citizens treated the returning veterans horribly, but not everyone. Most were isolated incidents that have been used to generalize the reaction of a nation to returning veterans.
Nevertheless, it is an enjoyable read that revives many memories of those turbulent times.
]]> Review1271433402 Mon, 21 Apr 2025 08:50:48 -0700 /review/show/1271433402 Dan gave 5 stars to Steve Jobs (Hardcover) by Walter Isaacson
This is an amazing biography of a complicated man who left an indelible mark on technology not only in the United States but throughout the world. But beware, you must plan to dedicate a substantial amount of your reading time to finish this compelling book. There were times when I thought author Walter Isaacson spent a tad too much time on the technological aspects of the various Apple innovations. But I admit, I came away with a much better understanding not only of Jobs but also gained a much greater appreciation for what he accomplished at Apple.
Would I ever want to have worked with Jobs? Probably not. He was abusive to his talented employees and surprisingly uncaring for the hurt he caused when he criticized them unmercifully. However, that criticism resulted in some of the world’s greatest innovations. I’m not sure that makes the tradeoff worth the harm he inflicted but it may be a price everyone paid to be around him.
One note about Isaacson. He needs to be praised for insisting before he took on the Jobs� project that the control-freak he was profiling would not influence any control over the final product. This allowed more than forty interviews with Jobs over two years as well as interviews with family members, coworkers and even competitors like Bill Gates. The result in an unvarnished look at this man and the legacy he left behind. Thank you, Mr. Isaacson, for the effort you put into this project. We are all richer as the result.
]]> Review7459897487 Thu, 03 Apr 2025 13:03:05 -0700 /review/show/7459897487 Dan gave 4 stars to Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World (Hardcover) by Tom Wright
If you’re going to tackle this book, be ready to wade through a blizzard of Asian names and financial institutions that are involved in this scam. Is it worth it? You bet.
Wall Street Journal reporters Tom Wright and Bradley Hope have done a wonderful job of chronicling the rise and fall of Jho Low. This mild-mannered graduate of the University of Pennsylvania was responsible for billions of dollars in fraudulent transactions across the globe.
Two things are important to keep in mind when reading this book. Low didn’t do it alone. He had help from some of the largest and most respected financial institutions and auditing firms in the world. Just to mention a few Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank are among the biggest organizations which overruled their compliance departments to finance this massive financial fraud. They were joined by supposedly reputable auditing firms of KPMG and Deloitte all who looked the other way while the fraud was occurring right under their noses. The common denominator was money, and lots of it. The hefty commissions for handling the transactions made looking the other way more enticing.
The second thing to keep in mind is the role of newspaper investigation. It should be noted none of the “authorities� began serious investigations until after news organizations began looking deeper into the scam. While the Wall Street Journal may have been the biggest news organization to devote resources to the story it wasn’t the only one. The relatively small Malaysian Edge broke the story first. It was virtually the only independent news organization in Malaysian which investigated the fraud despite repeated threats from the Malaysian government.
This book illustrates the important role journalism plays in keeping the system honest.


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