Jared's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 21 Apr 2025 22:11:11 -0700 60 Jared's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Sun Also Rises: The Original 1926 Unabridged And Complete Edition (Ernest Hemingway Classics)]]> 196840591 237 Ernest Hemingway 1916700306 Jared 0 currently-reading 3.66 The Sun Also Rises: The Original 1926 Unabridged And Complete Edition (Ernest Hemingway Classics)
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Jared
average rating: 3.66
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Abundance 176530394 Abundance is a once-in-a-generation, paradigm-shifting call to rethink big, entrenched problems that seem mired in systemic from climate change to housing, education to healthcare.

To trace the global history of the twenty-first century so far is to trace a history of growing unaffordability and shortage. After years of refusing to build sufficient housing, the entire country has a national housing crisis. After years of slashing immigration, we don’t have enough workers. After decades of off-shoring manufacturing, we have a shortage of chips for cars and computers. Despite decades of being warned about the consequences of climate change, we haven’t built anything close to the clean energy infrastructure we need. The crisis that’s clicking into focus now has been building for decades—because we haven’t been building enough.

Abundance explains that our problems today are not the results of yesteryear’s villains. Rather, one generation’s solutions have become the next generation’s problems. Rules and regulations designed to solve the environmental problems of the 1970s often prevent urban density and green energy projects that would help solve the environmental problems of the 2020s. Laws meant to ensure that government considers the consequences of its actions in matters of education and healthcare have made it too difficult for government to act consequentially. In the last few decades, our capacity to see problems has sharpened while our ability to solve them has diminished.

Progress requires the ability to see promise rather than just peril in the creation of new ideas and projects, and an instinct to design systems and institutions that make building possible. In a book exploring how can move from a liberalism that not only protects and preserves but also builds, Klein and Thompson trace the political, economic, and cultural barriers to progress and how we can adopt a mindset directed toward abundance, and not scarcity, to overcome them.]]> 297 Ezra Klein 1668023504 Jared 4
I think he makes a good point in that public works projects in America are nearly a joke at this point. They are too slow and too expensive. Other countries get far more done for far less money. His best example is the high speed rail project in California which will never provide any use to almost any one and will never be truly completed in any meaningful sense. There are just too many regulations and procedures for it to ever happen.

His primary overarching concern is climate change, as seems typical of most democrats today. He doesn’t believe in degrowth, which is nice to see that he appears to be sane.

He doesn’t really seem convinced that scarcity is a real concept, which makes sense for a book called abundance. His main argument seems to be that through smart government funding and removing regulations on the government we can provide every one with abundance. He also likes to point out government funding in any tangential way that is responsible for every thing good that ever happens. He even goes so far as to say that the iPhone is great because of the government.

I also view his easy access to abundance theory as somewhat at odds with his huge fear of climate change. He doesn’t really believe in using the cheapest available resources, he really likes the unreliable resources, except for nuclear which he occasionally mentions as not being horrible.

It’s just kind of weird how awesome he thinks the government is and how he just doesn’t give hardly any credit to private people. He also seems to say many times that the smartest people work in the government? That was weird.

Despite his overwhelming belief in the good of government I think that he is on point with saying government workers and people who receive government grants are likely spending too much time and effort simply filling out paperwork that isn’t strictly necessary. I think a more efficient government is a good goal. ]]> 4.42 2025 Abundance
author: Ezra Klein
name: Jared
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/21
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves:
review:
I thought this was a great book with a very good message for modern liberals. Ezra (I’m just going to pretend only Ezra wrote this book) really blasts the failures of modern American government. He views the government as much too regulated and restrained in pursuit of its goals. I kept looking for Ezra to admit that maybe the private sector is too regulated as well but he just never gets there.

I think he makes a good point in that public works projects in America are nearly a joke at this point. They are too slow and too expensive. Other countries get far more done for far less money. His best example is the high speed rail project in California which will never provide any use to almost any one and will never be truly completed in any meaningful sense. There are just too many regulations and procedures for it to ever happen.

His primary overarching concern is climate change, as seems typical of most democrats today. He doesn’t believe in degrowth, which is nice to see that he appears to be sane.

He doesn’t really seem convinced that scarcity is a real concept, which makes sense for a book called abundance. His main argument seems to be that through smart government funding and removing regulations on the government we can provide every one with abundance. He also likes to point out government funding in any tangential way that is responsible for every thing good that ever happens. He even goes so far as to say that the iPhone is great because of the government.

I also view his easy access to abundance theory as somewhat at odds with his huge fear of climate change. He doesn’t really believe in using the cheapest available resources, he really likes the unreliable resources, except for nuclear which he occasionally mentions as not being horrible.

It’s just kind of weird how awesome he thinks the government is and how he just doesn’t give hardly any credit to private people. He also seems to say many times that the smartest people work in the government? That was weird.

Despite his overwhelming belief in the good of government I think that he is on point with saying government workers and people who receive government grants are likely spending too much time and effort simply filling out paperwork that isn’t strictly necessary. I think a more efficient government is a good goal.
]]> <![CDATA[The 21st-Century Card Counter: The Pros� Approach to Beating Blackjack]]> 52372248
The game of 21 has changed over the last 50 years in the casinos� attempt to discourage card counters, but blackjack remains beatable for those who are focused, steadfast, and willing to do what it takes in order to play to win. Author Colin Jones leads the way for those interested in beating today’s game.

Before the explosion of casino gambling in the 1990s, card counters were limited in the number of places they could play. They tended to be concerned with longevity at the expense of optimal playing and betting strategies and they feared exposure. But the modern-day card counter has adapted to the new environment, eschewing fear and evasion in favor of meeting the game head on.

The 21st-Century Card Counter is a highly authoritative guide to how you should think about card counting in the current casino environment. Written by a blackjack pro who founded the infamous Church Team, manages the Blackjack Apprenticeship website, leads Blackjack Bootcamps, and has earned his livelihood beating the casinos for more than two decades, this book offers new and unique information and advice, as well as real-life stories and interviews with current advantage players, to help you have the best chance at crushing casinos in today’s blackjack world.]]> 271 Colin Jones 1944877347 Jared 5 Great book on counting

Colin has the best book for the most people when it comes to counting. It doesn’t get overly into the math or things that aren’t very important. He tells you what you need to know and why. Great book]]> 4.22 The 21st-Century Card Counter: The Pros’ Approach to Beating Blackjack
author: Colin Jones
name: Jared
average rating: 4.22
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves:
review:
Great book on counting

Colin has the best book for the most people when it comes to counting. It doesn’t get overly into the math or things that aren’t very important. He tells you what you need to know and why. Great book
]]> <![CDATA[How to Drive: Real World Instruction and Advice from Hollywood's Top Driver]]> 29974789 272 Ben Collins 1452154104 Jared 0 currently-reading 3.89 2014 How to Drive: Real World Instruction and Advice from Hollywood's Top Driver
author: Ben Collins
name: Jared
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Worth Dying For (Jack Reacher, #15)]]> 40019288
There’s deadly trouble in the corn country of Nebraska . . . and Jack Reacher walks right into it. First he falls foul of the Duncans, a local clan that has terrified an entire county into submission. But it’s the unsolved case of a missing child, already decades-old, that Reacher can’t let go.

The Duncans want Reacher gone—and it’s not just past secrets they’re trying to hide. They’re awaiting a secret shipment that’s already late—and they have the kind of customers no one can afford to annoy. For as dangerous as the Duncans are, they’re just the bottom of a criminal food chain stretching halfway around the world.

For Reacher, it would have made much more sense to keep on going, to put some distance between himself and the hard-core trouble that’s bearing down on him.

For Reacher, that was also impossible.]]> 530 Lee Child Jared 5 4.45 2010 Worth Dying For (Jack Reacher, #15)
author: Lee Child
name: Jared
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2022/08/07
date added: 2022/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith]]> 10847
A multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, polygamy, and unyielding faith. This is vintage Krakauer, an utterly compelling work of nonfiction that illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behavior.

Jon Krakauer’s literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In Under The Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, he shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders. At the core of his book is an appalling double murder committed by two Mormon Fundamentalist brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a revelation from God commanding them to kill their blameless victims. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this "divinely inspired" crime, Krakauer constructs a multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, polygamy, and unyielding faith. Along the way, he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest-growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.

Krakauer takes readers inside isolated communities in the American West, Canada, and Mexico, where some forty-thousand Mormon Fundamentalists believe the mainstream Mormon Church went unforgivably astray when it renounced polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the leaders of these outlaw sects are zealots who answer only to God. Marrying prodigiously and with virtual impunity (the leader of the largest fundamentalist church took seventy-five "plural wives," several of whom were wed to him when they were fourteen or fifteen and he was in his eighties), fundamentalist prophets exercise absolute control over the lives of their followers, and preach that any day now the world will be swept clean in a hurricane of fire, sparing only their most obedient adherents.

Weaving the story of the Lafferty brothers and their fanatical brethren with a clear-eyed look at Mormonism’s violent past, Krakauer examines the underbelly of the most successful homegrown faith in the United States, and finds a distinctly American brand of religious extremism. The result is vintage Krakauer, an utterly compelling work of nonfiction that illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behavior.]]> 400 Jon Krakauer 0330419129 Jared 5 4.01 2003 Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
author: Jon Krakauer
name: Jared
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/07
date added: 2022/05/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Premonition: A Pandemic Story]]> 56883526 304 Michael Lewis 0393881563 Jared 0 currently-reading 4.53 2021 The Premonition: A Pandemic Story
author: Michael Lewis
name: Jared
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/02/26
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question]]> 59027374 From the creator of The Good Place and the cocreator of Parks and Recreation, a hilarious, thought-provoking guide to living an ethical life, drawing on 2,500 years of deep thinking from around the world.

Most people think of themselves as “good,� but it’s not always easy to determine what’s “good� or “bad”—especially in a world filled with complicated choices and pitfalls and booby traps and bad advice. Fortunately, many smart philosophers have been pondering this conundrum for millennia and they have guidance for us. With bright wit and deep insight, How to Be Perfect explains concepts like deontology, utilitarianism, existentialism, ubuntu, and more so we can sound cool at parties and become better people.

Schur starts off with easy ethical questions like “Should I punch my friend in the face for no reason?� (No.) and works his way up to the most complex moral issues we all face. Such Can I still enjoy great art if it was created by terrible people? How much money should I give to charity? Why bother being good at all when there are no consequences for being bad? And much more. By the time the book is done, we’ll know exactly how to act in every conceivable situation, so as to produce a verifiably maximal amount of moral good. We will be perfect, and all our friends will be jealous. OK, not quite. Instead, we’ll gain fresh, funny, inspiring wisdom on the toughest issues we face every day.]]> 304 Michael Schur 1982159332 Jared 0 currently-reading 4.18 2022 How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question
author: Michael Schur
name: Jared
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/28
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Airframe 6324605 #1ĚýNEW YORK TIMESĚýBESTSELLER •Ě�From the author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes this extraordinary thriller about airline safety, business intrigue, and a deadly cover-up. Ěý “The pacing is fast, the suspense nonstop.”—People Ěý Three passengers are dead. Fifty-six are injured. The interior cabin is virtually destroyed. But the pilot manages to land the plane.At a moment when the issue of safety and death in the skies is paramount in the public mind, a lethal midair disaster aboard a commercial twin-jet airliner flying from Hong Kong to Denver triggers a pressured and frantic investigation.AirframeĚýis nonstop reading, full of the extraordinary mixture of super suspense and authentic information on a subject of compelling interest that are the hallmarks of Michael Crichton. Ěý “A one-sitting read that will cause a lifetime of white-knuckled nightmares.”—The Philaelphia Inquirer Ěý “The ultimate thriller . . . [Crichton’s] stories are always page-turners of the highest order. . . . [Airframe] moves like a firehouse dog chasing a red truck.”—The Denver Post Ěý “Dramatically vivid.”—The New York Times]]> 448 Michael Crichton Jared 0 currently-reading 4.15 1996 Airframe
author: Michael Crichton
name: Jared
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/03
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Check-Raising the Devil 18894029 334 Mike Matusow 1580424716 Jared 5 good book

Mike is a funny guy. He genuinely seems to be a good person at heart. He’s also a degenerate gambler who has made a lot of money playing poker and lost a lot of money on most of his other betting. One of my favorite stories in the book is when he wins 250k in a tournament right before having to go to jail for six months. He sets 50k aside for his bills while he is in jail then gives his buddy 200k to place sports bets on his behalf while he is in jail. Under Mike’s direction he lost the 200k in 3 months of jail and came out of jail practically broke.

I do think Mike is a good person though who is just doing his best to make it in the world. ]]> 3.96 2009 Check-Raising the Devil
author: Mike Matusow
name: Jared
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2021/12/02
date added: 2021/12/02
shelves:
review:
good book

Mike is a funny guy. He genuinely seems to be a good person at heart. He’s also a degenerate gambler who has made a lot of money playing poker and lost a lot of money on most of his other betting. One of my favorite stories in the book is when he wins 250k in a tournament right before having to go to jail for six months. He sets 50k aside for his bills while he is in jail then gives his buddy 200k to place sports bets on his behalf while he is in jail. Under Mike’s direction he lost the 200k in 3 months of jail and came out of jail practically broke.

I do think Mike is a good person though who is just doing his best to make it in the world.
]]> <![CDATA[Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking]]> 34374423 *More than 1 million copies sold * New York Times bestseller * Winner of the James Beard Award and multiple IACP Cookbook Awards * Available as a Netflix series * Transform how you prep, cook, and think about food with this visionary master class in cooking by Samin Nosrat that distills decades of professional experience into just four simple elements—from the woman declared “America’s next great cooking teacher� by Alice Waters. Featuring more than 100 recipes from Samin and more than 150 illustrations from acclaimed illustrator Wendy MacNaughton!In the tradition of The Joy of Cooking and How to Cook Everything comes Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, an ambitious new approach to cooking. Chef and writer Samin Nosrat has taught everyone from professional chefs to middle school kids to author Michael Pollan to cook using her revolutionary, yet simple, philosophy. Master the use of just four elements�Salt, which enhances flavor; Fat, which delivers flavor and generates texture; Acid, which balances flavor; and Heat, which ultimately determines the texture of food—and anything you cook will be delicious. By explaining the hows and whys of good cooking, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat will teach and inspire a new generation of cooks how to confidently make better decisions in the kitchen and cook delicious meals with any ingredients, anywhere, at any time. Echoing Samin’s own journey from culinary novice to award-winning chef, Salt, Fat Acid, Heat immediately bridges the gap between home and professional kitchens. With charming narrative, illustrated walkthroughs, and a lighthearted approach to kitchen science, Samin demystifies the four elements of good cooking for everyone. Refer to the canon of 100 essential recipes—and dozens of variations—to put the lessons into practice and make bright, balanced vinaigrettes, perfectly caramelized roast vegetables, tender braised meats, and light, flaky pastry doughs. Destined to be a classic, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat just might be the last cookbook you’ll ever need. With a foreword by Michael Pollan. *Named one of the Best Books of the Year NPR, BuzzFeed, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Rachel Ray Every Day, San Francisco Chronicle, Elle.com, Glamour, Eater, Newsday, The Seattle Times, Tampa Bay Times, Tasting Table, Publishers Weekly, and more!*]]> 227 Samin Nosrat 1476753857 Jared 0 currently-reading 4.49 2017 Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking
author: Samin Nosrat
name: Jared
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/11/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Based on a True Story 39092794 258 Norm Macdonald Jared 5
Norm is super funny, that’s his gift. He is also much more intelligent than he ever implies but I think he thought it was more funny to pretend that he was very dumb.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole book. ]]> 4.00 2016 Based on a True Story
author: Norm Macdonald
name: Jared
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2021/09/23
date added: 2021/09/23
shelves:
review:
This book is ridiculous. It’s essentially a long winded Norm joke thinly disguised as a memoir.

Norm is super funny, that’s his gift. He is also much more intelligent than he ever implies but I think he thought it was more funny to pretend that he was very dumb.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole book.
]]> The Psychology of Money 51181015 224 Morgan Housel 085719769X Jared 5
My favorite bit of investing advice is to invest in what will help you sleep best at night. Sometimes that means maybe you should invest in something where you have some fear of missing out but mostly it means you should be comfortable that you aren’t going to go broke. Don’t gamble money that you need for money that you don’t.

Anyways. This is one of the highest rated books I’ve seen on goodreads and it is for a good reason. ]]> 4.50 2020 The Psychology of Money
author: Morgan Housel
name: Jared
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/06/29
date added: 2021/06/29
shelves:
review:
This book is really really good. It hits the most important parts about money, saving, investing, retirement, and wealth building.

My favorite bit of investing advice is to invest in what will help you sleep best at night. Sometimes that means maybe you should invest in something where you have some fear of missing out but mostly it means you should be comfortable that you aren’t going to go broke. Don’t gamble money that you need for money that you don’t.

Anyways. This is one of the highest rated books I’ve seen on goodreads and it is for a good reason.
]]> Rashomon and Other Stories 672376 Rashomon, tells the chilling story of the killing of a samurai through the testimony of witnesses, including the spirit of the murdered man. The fable-like "Yam Gruel" is an account of desire and humiliation, but one in which the reader's sympathy is thoroughly unsettled. And in "The Martyr," a beloved orphan raised by Jesuit priests is exiled when he refuses to admit that he made a local girl pregnant. He regains their love and respect only at the price of his life. All six tales in the collection show Akutagawa as a master storyteller and an exciting voice of modern Japanese literature.]]> 110 Ryūnosuke Akutagawa 0871401738 Jared 4 4.04 1915 Rashomon and Other Stories
author: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
name: Jared
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1915
rating: 4
read at: 2012/06/10
date added: 2021/04/20
shelves:
review:
Good stories, entertaining for as long as it lasts.
]]> <![CDATA[Book of Abraham Apologetics: A Review and Critique]]> 57425350 233 Dan Vogel Jared 0 currently-reading 4.36 Book of Abraham Apologetics: A Review and Critique
author: Dan Vogel
name: Jared
average rating: 4.36
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942�1943]]> 542389 Stalingrad as the definitive account of World War II's most harrowing battle.

In August 1942, Hitler's huge Sixth Army reached the city that bore Stalin's name. In the five-month siege that followed, the Russians fought to hold Stalingrad at any cost; then, in an astonishing reversal, encircled and trapped their Nazi enemy. This battle for the ruins of a city cost more than a million lives. Stalingrad conveys the experience of soldiers on both sides, fighting in inhuman conditions, and of civilians trapped on an urban battlefield. Antony Beevor has interviewed survivors and discovered completely new material in a wide range of German and Soviet archives, including prisoner interrogations and reports of desertions and executions. As a story of cruelty, courage, and human suffering, Stalingrad is unprecedented and unforgettable.]]> 494 Antony Beevor 0140284583 Jared 0 to-read 4.32 1998 Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942–1943
author: Antony Beevor
name: Jared
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society]]> 78127
Upon its initial publication, On Killing was hailed as a landmark study of the techniques the military uses to overcome the powerful reluctance to kill, of how killing affects soldiers, and of the societal implications of escalating violence. Now, Grossman has updated this classic work to include information on 21st-century military conflicts, recent trends in crime, suicide bombings, school shootings, and more. The result is a work certain to be relevant and important for decades to come.]]> 367 Dave Grossman 0316191442 Jared 0 to-read 4.08 1995 On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society
author: Dave Grossman
name: Jared
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World]]> 2258833
Among the British and Churchillian blunders

� The secret decision of a tiny cabal in the inner Cabinet in 1906 to take Britain straight to war against Germany, should she invade France
� The vengeful Treaty of Versailles that muti- lated Germany, leaving her bitter, betrayed, and receptive to the appeal of Adolf Hitler
� Britain’s capitulation, at Churchill’s urging, to American pressure to sever the Anglo- Japanese alliance, insulting and isolating Japan, pushing her onto the path of militarism and conquest
� The 1935 sanctions that drove Italy straight into the Axis with Hitler
� The greatest blunder in British the unsolicited war guarantee to Poland of March 1939—that guaranteed the Second World War
� Churchill’s astonishing blindness to Stalin’s true ambitions.

Certain to create controversy and spirited argument, Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War� is a grand and bold insight into the historic failures of judgment that ended centuries of European rule and guaranteed a future no one who lived in that vanished world could ever have envisioned.]]> 544 Patrick J. Buchanan 030740515X Jared 0 to-read 4.16 2008 Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World
author: Patrick J. Buchanan
name: Jared
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era]]> 8147859 947 James M. McPherson 0199743908 Jared 0 currently-reading 4.60 1988 Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
author: James M. McPherson
name: Jared
average rating: 4.60
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/07
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life]]> 41023090 A thought-provoking exploration of the four major commitments in life that fundamentally shape our identities--from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Road to Character.

Most of us, over the course of our lives, will make four big commitments: to a spouse and family, to a vocation, to a philosophy or faith, and to a community. Our personal fulfillment depends on how well we choose and execute these commitments. Joy comes when we fuse them into one coherent whole, with each of these commitments fortifying and strengthening the others. In The Committed Life, David Brooks looks at people--from Dostoyevsky to Holocaust survivor Etty Hillesum to African educational entrepreneur Fred Swaniker--who have lived joyous, committed lives, and who have embraced the necessity of dependence. He gathers their wisdom on how to choose a partner, how to pick a vocation, how to live out a philosophy, and how we can begin to integrate our commitments into one overriding purpose.

In short, this book is meant to help us all lead more meaningful lives. But it's also a provocative social commentary. We live in a society, Brooks argues, that celebrates freedom and choice, that tells us to be true to ourselves, to march to the beat of our own drummer at the expense of surrendering to a cause, rooting ourselves in a neighborhood, and binding ourselves to others by social solidarity and love. We have taken individualism to the extreme degree--and, in the process, we have torn the social fabric in a thousand different ways. The path to repair is through making deeper commitments.

The Social Animal gave us a tale of human nature. The Road to Character traced the history of a great moral tradition--a riveting examination of morality in our time, but with The Committed Life, Brooks turns his mind to what happens when we put commitment-making at the center of life, producing one of Brooks' most personal and revolutionary books yet.]]> 344 David Brooks 0679645047 Jared 0 currently-reading 3.93 2019 The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life
author: David Brooks
name: Jared
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/07
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West]]> 43350554 Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David McCullough rediscovers an important and dramatic chapter in the American story—the settling of the Northwest Territory by dauntless pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community based on ideals that would come to define our country.

As part of the Treaty of Paris, in which Great Britain recognized the new United States of America, Britain ceded the land that comprised the immense Northwest Territory, a wilderness empire northwest of the Ohio River containing the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. A Massachusetts minister named Manasseh Cutler was instrumental in opening this vast territory to veterans of the Revolutionary War and their families for settlement. Included in the Northwest Ordinance were three remarkable freedom of religion, free universal education, and most importantly, the prohibition of slavery. In 1788 the first band of pioneers set out from New England for the Northwest Territory under the leadership of Revolutionary War veteran General Rufus Putnam. They settled in what is now Marietta on the banks of the Ohio River.

McCullough tells the story through five major Cutler and Putnam; Cutler’s son Ephraim; and two other men, one a carpenter turned architect, and the other a physician who became a prominent pioneer in American science. They and their families created a town in a primeval wilderness, while coping with such frontier realities as floods, fires, wolves and bears, no roads or bridges, no guarantees of any sort, all the while negotiating a contentious and sometimes hostile relationship with the native people. Like so many of McCullough’s subjects, they let no obstacle deter or defeat them.

Drawn in great part from a rare and all-but-unknown collection of diaries and letters by the key figures, The Pioneers is a uniquely American story of people whose ambition and courage led them to remarkable accomplishments. This is a revelatory and quintessentially American story, written with David McCullough’s signature narrative energy.]]> 353 David McCullough 150116869X Jared 0 currently-reading 4.08 2019 The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West
author: David McCullough
name: Jared
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/06
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Why You Should Be a Socialist 51138538 A primer on Democratic Socialism for those who are extremely skeptical of it.

America is witnessing the rise of a new generation of socialist activists. More young people support socialism now than at any time since the labor movement of the 1920s. The Democratic Socialists of America, a big-tent leftist organization, has just surpassed 50,000 members nationwide. In the fall of 2018, one of the most influential congressmen in the Democratic Party lost a primary to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old socialist who had never held office before. But what does all this mean? Should we be worried about our country, or should we join the march toward our bright socialist future? In Why You Should Be a Socialist, Nathan J. Robinson will give readers a primer on twenty-first-century socialism: what it is, what it isn’t, and why everyone should want to be a part of this exciting new chapter of American politics.

From the heyday of Occupy Wall Street through Bernie Sanders� 2016 presidential campaign and beyond, young progressives have been increasingly drawn to socialist ideas. However, the movement’s goals need to be defined more sharply before it can effect real change on a national scale. Likewise, liberals and conservatives will benefit from a deeper understanding of the true nature of this ideology, whether they agree with it or not. Robinson’s charming, accessible, and well-argued book will convince even the most skeptical readers of the merits of socialist thought.

]]> 336 Nathan J. Robinson Jared 4
Nathan argues that business owners are not responsible for the success of their business and that they are essentially stealing money from their employees. This is pretty typical socialist dogma.

I’m a dentist. I own my dental practice. From my perspective if the government were to come along and say that I no longer own my dental practice and that either the employees (I would be one owner among my several employees) own the practice or the government owns the practice I would literally quit the day I wasn’t the owner. I also happen to be the only employee that quitting would shut down the practice. So then the employees could look for another dentist to replace me or they could all lose their jobs.

Being a dentist kinda sucks. The only reason I do it is because I only work four days a week, I’m my own boss, I’m off at 4pm each day and I make plenty of money to be comfortable.

If I stopped owning my practice and my employees became co-owners and got to make decisions about my compensation and other aspects about the dental practice. I would quit. My job would have gone from being pretty okay to unbearable.

I’m not the only one who would be like this. I don’t see how socialism doesn’t destroy the economy.

Nathan is also one of the people that argues that all complaints about socialist countries are invalid because Nathan doesn’t view them as socialist. So yes, no one has ever tried socialism according to Nathan.

Anyways, Nathan is a smart dude who thinks he and his friends are smart enough to solve all the worlds problems. He is wrong and I hope no one ever believe anything he ever writes. ]]> 4.14 2019 Why You Should Be a Socialist
author: Nathan J. Robinson
name: Jared
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/06
date added: 2021/03/06
shelves:
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This book was exactly what I was looking for. The author is a full blown utopian socialist who thinks practically all the worlds problems would be solved if only he and his friends were in charge. Of course the focus is on poverty and wealth distribution and how evil Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are because they have so much money.

Nathan argues that business owners are not responsible for the success of their business and that they are essentially stealing money from their employees. This is pretty typical socialist dogma.

I’m a dentist. I own my dental practice. From my perspective if the government were to come along and say that I no longer own my dental practice and that either the employees (I would be one owner among my several employees) own the practice or the government owns the practice I would literally quit the day I wasn’t the owner. I also happen to be the only employee that quitting would shut down the practice. So then the employees could look for another dentist to replace me or they could all lose their jobs.

Being a dentist kinda sucks. The only reason I do it is because I only work four days a week, I’m my own boss, I’m off at 4pm each day and I make plenty of money to be comfortable.

If I stopped owning my practice and my employees became co-owners and got to make decisions about my compensation and other aspects about the dental practice. I would quit. My job would have gone from being pretty okay to unbearable.

I’m not the only one who would be like this. I don’t see how socialism doesn’t destroy the economy.

Nathan is also one of the people that argues that all complaints about socialist countries are invalid because Nathan doesn’t view them as socialist. So yes, no one has ever tried socialism according to Nathan.

Anyways, Nathan is a smart dude who thinks he and his friends are smart enough to solve all the worlds problems. He is wrong and I hope no one ever believe anything he ever writes.
]]> The Cabin Faced West 6606879 138 Jean Fritz 1101077948 Jared 0 currently-reading 4.43 1958 The Cabin Faced West
author: Jean Fritz
name: Jared
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1958
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/14
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence]]> 36849193 A brilliant and brave investigationĚýinto the medical and scientific revolution taking place around psychedelic drugs--and the spellbinding story of his own life-changing psychedelic experiences

When Michael Pollan set out to research how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are being used to provide relief to people suffering from difficult-to-treat conditions such as depression, addiction and anxiety, he did not intend to write what is undoubtedly his most personal book. But upon discovering how these remarkable substances are improving the lives not only of the mentally ill but also of healthy people coming to grips with the challenges of everyday life, he decided to explore the landscape of the mind in the first person as well as the third. Thus began a singular adventure into various altered states of consciousness, along with a dive deep into both the latest brain science and the thriving underground community of psychedelic therapists. Pollan sifts the historical record to separate the truth about these mysterious drugs from the myths that have surrounded them since the 1960s, when a handful of psychedelic evangelists inadvertently catalyzed a powerful backlash against what was then a promising field of research.

A unique and elegant blend of science, memoir, travel writing, history, and medicine, How to Change Your Mind is a triumph of participatory journalism. By turns dazzling and edifying, it is the gripping account of a journey to an exciting and unexpected new frontier in our understanding of the mind, the self, and our place in the world. The true subject of Pollan's "mental travelogue" is not just psychedelic drugs but also the eternal puzzle of human consciousness and how, in a world that offers us both suffering and joy, we can do our best to be fully present and find meaning in our lives.]]> 480 Michael Pollan 0525558942 Jared 0 currently-reading 4.40 2018 How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence
author: Michael Pollan
name: Jared
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/10/12
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life]]> 18710991 160 Terryl L. Givens 1609073541 Jared 1 4.48 2012 The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life
author: Terryl L. Givens
name: Jared
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2012
rating: 1
read at: 2019/10/24
date added: 2020/10/12
shelves:
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]]> Faith Is Not Blind 42975561 We often encounter unexpected questions and complexities that can challenge our faith. Faith Is Not Blind offers fresh concepts and tools that will help readers learn from these experiences, rather than feeling disillusioned by them.

Award-winning authors Bruce and Marie Hafen draw upon a lifetime of experience in Church service, college teaching, and parenthood to help readers embrace both the spiritual and the intellectual aspects of the gospel. Their approachable tone and real-life examples acknowledge complicated gospel issues, yet clearly and gently guide readers through the steps necessary to work through complexity, develop informed testimonies, and become filled with the faith that comes from knowing God.

]]> 149 Bruce C. Hafen 1629737674 Jared 1 4.42 Faith Is Not Blind
author: Bruce C. Hafen
name: Jared
average rating: 4.42
book published:
rating: 1
read at: 2019/09/04
date added: 2020/10/12
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]]> Die Trying (Jack Reacher, #2) 220969 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

In a Chicago suburb, a dentist is met in his office parking lot by three men and ordered into the trunk of his Lexus. On a downtown sidewalk, Jack Reacher and an unknown woman are abducted in broad daylight by two men - practiced and confident - who stop them at gunpoint and hustle them into the same sedan. Then Reacher and the woman are switched into a second vehicle and hauled away, leaving the dentist bound and gagged inside his car with the woman's abandoned possessions, two gallons of gasoline. . . and a burning match. The FBI is desperate to rescue the woman, a Special Agent from the Chicago office, because the FBI always - always - takes care of its own, and because this woman is not just another agent. Reacher and the woman join forces, against seemingly hopeless odds, to outwit their captors and escape. But the FBI thinks Jack is one of the kidnappers - and when they close in, the Bureau snipers will be shooting to kill.]]> 567 Lee Child 0515142247 Jared 4 4.04 1998 Die Trying (Jack Reacher, #2)
author: Lee Child
name: Jared
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/11
date added: 2020/10/12
shelves:
review:

]]> Tripwire (Jack Reacher, #3) 220970 432 Lee Child 0515128635 Jared 4 4.08 1999 Tripwire (Jack Reacher, #3)
author: Lee Child
name: Jared
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/12
date added: 2020/10/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hard Way (Jack Reacher, #10)]]> 383028
Lane runs a highly illegal soldiers-for-hire operation. He will use any tool to find his beautiful wife and child. And Jack Reacher is the best manhunter in the world.

On the trail of vicious kidnappers, Reacher learns the chilling secrets of his employer’s past . . . and of a horrific drama in the heart of a nasty little war. He knows that Edward Lane is hiding something. Something dirty. Something big. But Reacher also knows He’s already in way too deep to stop now. And if he has to do it the hard way, he will.]]> 384 Lee Child 0385336691 Jared 4 4.13 2006 The Hard Way (Jack Reacher, #10)
author: Lee Child
name: Jared
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/10/12
shelves:
review:

]]> Persuader (Jack Reacher, #7) 455941
The ultimate loner.

An elite ex-military cop who left the service years ago, he's moved from place to place...without family...without possessions...without commitments.

And without fear. Which is good, because trouble--big, violent, complicated trouble--finds Reacher wherever he goes. And when trouble finds him, Reacher does not quit, not once...not ever.

But some unfinished business has now found Reacher. And Reacher is a man who hates unfinished business.

Ten years ago, a key investigation went sour and someone got away with murder. Now a chance encounter brings it all back. Now Reacher sees his one last shot. Some would call it vengeance. Some would call it redemption. Reacher would call it...justice.]]> 496 Lee Child 0440241006 Jared 4 4.09 2003 Persuader (Jack Reacher, #7)
author: Lee Child
name: Jared
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/12
date added: 2020/10/12
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling]]> 8193751 . An arresting narrative of the birth of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling also brilliantly evaluates the prophet’s bold contributions to Christian theology and his cultural place in the modern world.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

]]> 786 Richard L. Bushman 0307426483 Jared 5 4.40 2005 Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling
author: Richard L. Bushman
name: Jared
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/12
date added: 2020/10/12
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]]> Disclosure 6130403 From the author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes an electrifying thriller in which a shocking accusation of sexual harassment triggers a gripping psychological game of cat and mouse and threatens to derail a brilliant career. Ěý #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Ěý “A fresh and provocative story.”—People Ěý An up-and-coming executive at the computer firm DigiCom, Tom Sanders is a man whose corporate future is certain. But after a closed-door meeting with his new boss—a woman who is his former lover and has been promoted to the position he expected to have—Sanders finds himself caught in a nightmarish web of deceit in which he is branded the villain. Ěý As Sanders scrambles to defend himself, he uncovers an electronic trail into the company’s secrets—and begins to grasp that a cynical and manipulative scheme has been devised to bring him down. Ěý “Crichton writes superbly. . . . The excitement rises with each page.”—Chicago Tribune Ěý “A heart-stop story running on several tracks at once. Disclosure is up to [Crichton’s] usual locomotive speed.”—The Boston Globe Ěý “Expertly crafted, ingenious and absorbing.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer]]> 466 Michael Crichton Jared 5 4.23 1994 Disclosure
author: Michael Crichton
name: Jared
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/12
date added: 2020/10/12
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]]> The Enemy (Jack Reacher, #8) 40092150
THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING JACK REACHER SERIES � “A thriller that gallops at a breakneck pace.”—Chicago Sun-Times

Jack Reacher. Hero. Loner. Soldier. Soldier’s son. An elite military cop, he was one of the army’s brightest stars. But in every cop’s life there is one case that changes everything. For Jack Reacher, this is that case.

New Year’s Day, 1990. In a North Carolina motel, a two-star general is found dead. His briefcase is missing. Nobody knows what was in it. Within minutes Reacher has his orders: Control the situation. Within hours the general’s wife is murdered. Then the dominoes really start to fall.

Somewhere inside the vast worldwide fortress that is the U.S. Army, Reacher is being set up as a fall guy with the worst enemies a man can have. But Reacher won’t quit. He’s fighting a new kind of war—against an enemy he didn’t know he had. And against a conspiracy more chilling, ingenious, and treacherous than anyone could have guessed.

The Enemy, like most of the books in the Jack Reacher series, can be read as a standalone thriller.]]> 504 Lee Child 0440334985 Jared 4 4.45 2004 The Enemy (Jack Reacher, #8)
author: Lee Child
name: Jared
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/12
date added: 2020/10/12
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[No Man Knows My History (Arkosh History)]]> 35812184 618 Fawn M. Brodie Jared 5 4.27 1945 No Man Knows My History (Arkosh History)
author: Fawn M. Brodie
name: Jared
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1945
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/11
date added: 2020/10/12
shelves:
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]]> One Shot (Jack Reacher, #9) 45421249
“Pure, escapist gold . . . Mr. Child’s tough talk and thoughtful plotting make an ingenious combination.”—The New York Times

Six shots. Five dead. One heartland city thrown into a state of terror. But within hours the cops have it solved: a slam-dunk case. Except for one thing. The accused man says: You got the wrong guy. Then he says: Get Reacher for me.

And sure enough, ex—military investigator Jack Reacher is coming. He knows this shooter–a trained military sniper who never should have missed a shot. Reacher is certain something is not right–and soon the slam-dunk case explodes.

Now Reacher is teamed with a beautiful young defense lawyer, moving closer to the unseen enemy who is pulling the strings. Reacher knows that no two opponents are created equal. This one has come to the heartland from his own kind of hell. And Reacher knows that the only way to take him down is to match his ruthlessness and cunning–and then beat him shot for shot.]]> 485 Lee Child Jared 5
Just a fun book. ]]> 4.54 2005 One Shot (Jack Reacher, #9)
author: Lee Child
name: Jared
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2020/06/07
date added: 2020/06/07
shelves:
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This is the one that the first Jack Reacher movie is based on. This book has a bit more to the story than the movie does and explains things a bit more. There are a few changes of course. If you’ve watched the movie it is definitely still worth it to read the book.

Just a fun book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Wishing Spell (The Land of Stories, #1)]]> 19755850
The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about.

But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought.]]> 454 Chris Colfer Jared 0 currently-reading 4.35 2012 The Wishing Spell (The Land of Stories, #1)
author: Chris Colfer
name: Jared
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/05/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Becoming Better Grownups: Rediscovering What Matters and Remembering How to Fly]]> 52692002 A New York Times-bestselling author looks for the meaning of a good life by seeking advice from the very young and the very old.

When his first book tour ended, Brad Montague missed hearing other people's stories so much that he launched what he dubbed a Listening Tour. First visiting elementary schools and later also nursing homes and retirement communities, he hoped to glean new wisdom as to how he might become a better grownup. Now, in this playful and buoyant book, he shares those insights with rest of us --timeless, often surprising lessons that bypass the head we're always stuck in, and go straight to the heart we sometimes forget.

Each of the book's three sections begins with the illustrated story of "The Incredible Floating Girl." Brad weaves this story together with lessons of success, fear, regret, gratitude, love, happiness, and dreams to reveal the true reason we are here: to fly, and to help others fly.

Beautifully designed and featuring Montague's own whimsical 4-color illustrations that appeal to the kid in all of us, Becoming Better Grownups shares the purpose and meaning we can all discover merely by listening, and reveals that--in a world that seems increasingly childish--the secret to joy is in fact to become more childlike.]]> 320 Brad Montague 0525537856 Jared 0 currently-reading 4.27 Becoming Better Grownups: Rediscovering What Matters and Remembering How to Fly
author: Brad Montague
name: Jared
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/04/29
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Dune (Dune, #1) 43419431 Frank Herbert’s classic masterpiece—a triumph of the imagination and one of the bestselling science fiction novels of all time.

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice� melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for....

When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.

A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.]]> 883 Frank Herbert Jared 0 currently-reading 4.44 1965 Dune (Dune, #1)
author: Frank Herbert
name: Jared
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1965
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/04/26
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> The Institute 43799634
In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.]]> 557 Stephen King Jared 0 currently-reading 4.39 2019 The Institute
author: Stephen King
name: Jared
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/02/17
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Ace on the River 19055761 328 Barry Greenstein Jared 0 currently-reading 3.62 2012 Ace on the River
author: Barry Greenstein
name: Jared
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/30
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Molly's Game 22462732
Molly Bloom reveals how she built one of the most exclusive, high-stakes underground poker games in the world—an insider’s story of excess and danger, glamour and greed.

In the late 2000s, Molly Bloom, a twentysomething petite brunette from Loveland Colorado, ran the highest stakes, most exclusive poker game Hollywood had ever seen—she was its mistress, its lion tamer, its agent, and its oxygen. Everyone wanted in, few were invited to play.

Hundreds of millions of dollars were won and lost at her table. Molly’s game became the game for those in the know—celebrities, business moguls, and millionaires. Molly staged her games in palatial suites with beautiful views and exquisite amenities. She flew privately, dined at exclusive restaurants, hobnobbed with the heads of Hollywood studios, was courted by handsome leading men, and was privy to the world’s most delicious gossip, until it all came crashing down around her.

Molly’s Game is a behind the scenes look at Molly’s game, the life she created, the life she lost, and what she learned in the process.]]> 274 Molly Bloom Jared 5
It really seems like she basically kept everything legal. She never took a rake in the game and explicitly stayed away from prostitution, drugs, and other illegal activities. Her players didn’t always follow the same standards in their personal lives though.

Molly is a tough girl. She gets overwhelmed with stress at times but is able to make incredibly difficult and smart moves when she needs to. It also sounds like she ran a great poker game.

Good fun book]]> 4.11 2014 Molly's Game
author: Molly Bloom
name: Jared
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2019/11/16
date added: 2019/11/16
shelves:
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Molly Bloom comes from an extremely successful family. She has two brothers, one played in the NFL while at the time it was the sport he was second best at; he is world class skier as well. Her other brother, is some type of surgeon. Molly went to LA after graduating college summa cum laude. She ended up running a poker game with A list celebrities and other extremely wealthy people.

It really seems like she basically kept everything legal. She never took a rake in the game and explicitly stayed away from prostitution, drugs, and other illegal activities. Her players didn’t always follow the same standards in their personal lives though.

Molly is a tough girl. She gets overwhelmed with stress at times but is able to make incredibly difficult and smart moves when she needs to. It also sounds like she ran a great poker game.

Good fun book
]]> <![CDATA[The Course: Serious Hold 'Em Strategy For Smart Players]]> 25459302
There’s a saying in the golf world that you don’t worry about the other players. You just play the course. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing in a big tournament against a hundred other players or against just one. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing against Tiger Woods or against Woody the Woodpecker. You can’t control what they do, so they can only be a distraction.

All that matters is the course. And the only thing you can control is how you play it.

This is a powerful idea, and it applies just as well in poker. Poker is full of distractions, and most players get hung up worrying about all the wrong things. The things they can’t control. The things that ultimately don’t matter.

The Serious Hold â€Em Strategy For Smart Players , cuts through all the noise. It’s a practical and effective, step-by-step guide to winning consistently at no-limit hold ’em. It teaches the game as a series of skills. The first skill is the most important, but also the most fundamental. Each subsequent skill builds upon the last. Master the first few skills, and you can win at the 1-2 or 1-3 level. Master the next few, and you can win at 2-5. And master the final skills, and you can hang at 5-10 among the best players at your local card room.

The Course focuses on the most important concepts that determine who wins and moves up and who doesn’t. And it ignores the distractions. It doesn’t waste your time and attention with ideas that don’t apply to the games you play.

Unlike many other books, this book is ruthlessly practical. The ideas in The Course transfer directly from the page to the felt. The book starts out by showing you where and how money is available to win. Everything after teaches you how to go get it. Skill by skill, you will learn to win more money and win it faster.

The Course meets you where you are. If you’re just beginning to get serious about hold â€em, the book starts you with a sound foundational strategy. If you’re an experienced player looking to get over the next hump, the book lays bare the challenge and teaches you what you need to do. Unless you’re already the boss player at your local card room, The Course is the perfect companion to help take you to where you want to go.]]> 306 Ed Miller 098250425X Jared 0 currently-reading 4.42 2015 The Course: Serious Hold 'Em Strategy For Smart Players
author: Ed Miller
name: Jared
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2019/10/24
date added: 2019/11/11
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Without Fail (Jack Reacher, #6)]]> 39285414 Jack Reacher takes aim at the White House in the sixth novel in Lee Child’s New York Times bestselling series.

Skilled, cautious, and anonymous, Jack Reacher is perfect for the job: to assassinate the vice president of the United States. Theoretically, of course. A female Secret Service agent wants Reacher to find the holes in her system, and fast—because a covert group already has the vice president in their sights. They’ve planned well. There’s just one thing they didn’t plan on: Reacher.]]> 392 Lee Child Jared 5 4.37 2002 Without Fail (Jack Reacher, #6)
author: Lee Child
name: Jared
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2019/11/11
date added: 2019/11/11
shelves:
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I really like these Jack Reacher books. They aren't high literature or anything but they are fun. This one has the climax placed in Wyoming, which is kinda fun.
]]> <![CDATA[Echo Burning (Jack Reacher, #5)]]> 40111030 438 Lee Child Jared 5 4.36 2001 Echo Burning (Jack Reacher, #5)
author: Lee Child
name: Jared
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2019/10/27
date added: 2019/10/27
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Running Blind (Jack Reacher, #4)]]> 40111148
Across the country, women are being murdered, victims of a disciplined and clever killer who leaves no trace evidence, no fatal wounds, no signs of struggle, and no clues to an apparent motive. They are, truly, perfect crimes. In fact, there’s only one thing that links the victims. Each one of the women knew Jack Reacher—and it’s got him running blind.]]> 546 Lee Child Jared 5 4.38 2000 Running Blind (Jack Reacher, #4)
author: Lee Child
name: Jared
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2019/09/19
date added: 2019/09/19
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Killing Floor (Jack Reacher #1)]]> 40105393 THE FIRST JACK REACHER NOVEL

Ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is a drifter. He’s just passing through Margrave, Georgia, and in less than an hour, he’s arrested for murder. Not much of a welcome. All Reacher knows is that he didn’t kill anybody. At least not here. Not lately. But he doesn’t stand a chance of convincing anyone. Not in Margrave, Georgia. Not a chance in hell.]]> 562 Lee Child Jared 5 4.28 1997 Killing Floor (Jack Reacher #1)
author: Lee Child
name: Jared
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2019/08/19
date added: 2019/08/24
shelves:
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Just a fun book. It’s essentially high stakes crime mystery thriller. Jack Reacher is an awesome, smart guy.
]]> <![CDATA[Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics Is Destroying American Democracy]]> 35226615 Combining intellectual history, social science, economics, and pop culture, bestselling author ofĚýLiberal Fascism,ĚýNational Review senior editor, and syndicated columnist Jonah Goldberg makes the timely case that America â€� and other democracies â€�Ěýmust actively defend liberty against forces pulling us back to the tribal and nationalistic ideologies of the past.
Ěý Ěý ĚýThe West is dying from ingratitude. Democracy and liberty were accidents of history. If capitalism were natural, it would have popped-up long before the 1700s, when humanity stumbled into a miraculous explosion in human prosperity. This miracle was not delivered by God or created by machines. It came from new ideas and values. But what is created by ideas and values can be destroyed them.
Ěý Ěý ĚýIn this age of resentment, we reject the gift of liberty and instead listen to the lesser angels of our nature. We find comfort in authoritarianism, tribalism, identity politics, nationalism and aristocracy, all of which brutalized humanity for millennia.Ěý
Ěý Ěý ĚýGoldberg exposes the West’s suicidal tendencies on the left, but also on the right â€�Ěýat a moment when many conservatives are surrendering to tribalism and nationalism. ĚýSuicide of the West asserts that for the West to survive, a renewed commitment to classically liberal principles is required. Suicide is painless, liberty takes work.]]> 466 Jonah Goldberg 1101904941 Jared 5
This book explains what is great about western civilization and why it is worth fighting for. One of the more interesting ideas he says near the end is that we are at the pinnacle of civilization right now (largely speaking) and that we should belle trying to stay where we are, rather than moving â€forwardâ€� or trying to go back. It’s like we are at the top of a mountain and people trying to ruin our current norms of capitalism and western democracy are trying to take us down off the mountain. I’d never heard that perspective before and I resonated with it. Of course there are always things to fix, but we largely know the formula now.

Jonah Goldberg is right about Trump. I can’t argue with him. Trump really isn’t a good person and he very likely will harm the Republican Party. I definitely support Trump more than Goldberg does but largely just because of the Supreme Court, but I really do respect Jonah’s view. ]]> 4.20 2018 Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics Is Destroying American Democracy
author: Jonah Goldberg
name: Jared
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/07/25
date added: 2019/07/25
shelves:
review:
I love Jonah Goldberg. He just always seems to be on point.

This book explains what is great about western civilization and why it is worth fighting for. One of the more interesting ideas he says near the end is that we are at the pinnacle of civilization right now (largely speaking) and that we should belle trying to stay where we are, rather than moving â€forwardâ€� or trying to go back. It’s like we are at the top of a mountain and people trying to ruin our current norms of capitalism and western democracy are trying to take us down off the mountain. I’d never heard that perspective before and I resonated with it. Of course there are always things to fix, but we largely know the formula now.

Jonah Goldberg is right about Trump. I can’t argue with him. Trump really isn’t a good person and he very likely will harm the Republican Party. I definitely support Trump more than Goldberg does but largely just because of the Supreme Court, but I really do respect Jonah’s view.
]]> <![CDATA[Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies]]> 1842
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a national bestseller: the global account of the rise of civilization that is also a stunning refutation of ideas of human development based on race.

In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed writing, technology, government, and organized religion—as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war—and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth Club of California's Gold Medal]]> 498 Jared Diamond 0739467352 Jared 5
It is largely a basis for understanding human history. Different environments (climate, population, animal diversity, natural resources) all have a significant effect on how humans have discovered different technologies. It seems obvious but it is nice to have a book that explains how those things have affected human history. ]]> 4.04 1997 Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
author: Jared Diamond
name: Jared
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2019/07/17
date added: 2019/07/17
shelves:
review:
This book is really good and I understand why it is so popular.

It is largely a basis for understanding human history. Different environments (climate, population, animal diversity, natural resources) all have a significant effect on how humans have discovered different technologies. It seems obvious but it is nice to have a book that explains how those things have affected human history.
]]> Congo 18892810 From the bestselling author ofĚýJurassic Park,ĚýTimeline, andĚýSphereĚýcomes a gripping thriller about the shocking demise of eight American geologists in the darkest region of the Congo.
Ěý
Deep in the African rain forest, near the ruins of the Lost City of Zinj, a field expedition is brutally killed. At the Houston-based Earth Resources Technology Services, Inc., a horrified supervisor watches a gruesome video transmission of that ill-fated group and sees a haunting, grainy, man-like blur moving amongst the bodies. In San Francisco, an extraordinary gorilla named Amy, who has a 620-sign vocabulary, may hold the secret to that fierce carnage. Immediately, a new expedition is sent to the Congo with Amy in tow, descending into a secret, forbidden world where the only escape may be through the grisliest death.
Ěý

]]> 371 Michael Crichton Jared 5
The science is fun. This is the earliest Chrichton book I have read and it was interesting how the tech he comes up with for the late 70’s is so antequated compared to what we actually have now.

The plot is fun, if at times it stretches belief. Good book. ]]> 4.05 1980 Congo
author: Michael Crichton
name: Jared
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at: 2019/04/03
date added: 2019/04/03
shelves:
review:
I really liked this book. Thought it was fun and it gave me an interest in Central Africa because I learned that I knew nothing about Central Africa.

The science is fun. This is the earliest Chrichton book I have read and it was interesting how the tech he comes up with for the late 70’s is so antequated compared to what we actually have now.

The plot is fun, if at times it stretches belief. Good book.
]]> Dragon Teeth 31287693
The year is 1876. Warring Indian tribes still populate America's western territories, even as lawless gold-rush towns begin to mark the landscape. Against this backdrop two palaeontologists pillage the Wild West for dinosaur fossils while deceiving and sabotaging each other in a rivalry that will come to be known as the Bone Wars.

Into this treacherous territory plunges William Johnson, a Yale student with more privilege than sense. Determined to win a bet against his archrival, William has joined world-renowned palaeontologist Othniel Charles Marsh on his latest expedition. But Marsh becomes convinced that William is spying for his nemesis, Edwin Drinker Cope, and abandons him in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a locus of crime and vice.

Soon William joins forces with Cope and stumbles upon a discovery of historic proportions. The struggle to protect this extraordinary treasure, however, will test William's newfound resilience and pit him against some of the West's most dangerous and notorious characters....

©2017 Michael Crichton (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers Limited]]> 295 Michael Crichton 0008173060 Jared 5
Crichton does throw some science things into the mix, not a lot, but some. I’ve always liked his skeptical view towards science, I think it’s a good viewpoint to be shared. ]]> 3.79 2017 Dragon Teeth
author: Michael Crichton
name: Jared
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2018/10/08
date added: 2018/10/09
shelves:
review:
I really liked this book. This isn’t a science fiction book like the other Crichton books that I have read. It’s essentially a western which is loosely based on some real life characters. The main character is complete fictional but a lot of the things that he did and experienced largely happened.

Crichton does throw some science things into the mix, not a lot, but some. I’ve always liked his skeptical view towards science, I think it’s a good viewpoint to be shared.
]]> <![CDATA[Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)]]> 20603758 A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?
It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.]]> 386 Ernest Cline Jared 5 4.38 2011 Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)
author: Ernest Cline
name: Jared
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2018/03/13
date added: 2018/10/09
shelves:
review:
Really a fun book with a fun story. Made me excited for what the future of VR/AR would bring. It’ll be super fun if nothing else.
]]> Leonardo da Vinci 34684622 600 Walter Isaacson 1501139150 Jared 3
Da Vinci was a genius and it seems that one thing that made him different of other extremely intelligent people was that Da Vinci had a very inquisitive mind. He wanted to know why things happened and how things worked. A lot of his genius showed just because he would be so curious about things.

He was kinda an eclectic gay dude which made it seem like he maybe would have fit in if he was born today just fine. I wonder what he would spend his time doing.

Overall though the book dragged and it was hard to keep interest at times. ]]> 4.19 2017 Leonardo da Vinci
author: Walter Isaacson
name: Jared
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2018/09/09
date added: 2018/10/09
shelves:
review:
This book was pretty boring. I really had to slog through the second half.

Da Vinci was a genius and it seems that one thing that made him different of other extremely intelligent people was that Da Vinci had a very inquisitive mind. He wanted to know why things happened and how things worked. A lot of his genius showed just because he would be so curious about things.

He was kinda an eclectic gay dude which made it seem like he maybe would have fit in if he was born today just fine. I wonder what he would spend his time doing.

Overall though the book dragged and it was hard to keep interest at times.
]]> <![CDATA[Off to Be the Wizard (Magic 2.0, #1)]]> 32858845
What could possibly go wrong?

An American hacker in King Arthur’s court, Martin must now train to become a full-fledged master of his powers, discover the truth behind the ancient wizard Merlin…and not, y’know, die or anything.]]> 277 Scott Meyer Jared 5 4.03 2013 Off to Be the Wizard (Magic 2.0, #1)
author: Scott Meyer
name: Jared
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2018/10/04
date added: 2018/10/09
shelves:
review:
Really fun book. Kind of a fun mix between fantasy, time travel, and matrix ideas. They all fit together well and made a fun and interesting book. I liked the characters and the story twists were fun.
]]> Under the Dome 7415714
Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens -- town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing -- even murder -- to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.]]> 1249 Stephen King Jared 0 currently-reading 4.02 2009 Under the Dome
author: Stephen King
name: Jared
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/09/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Standard of Truth: 1815�1846 (Saints, #1)]]> 40886652
But opposition and violence follow those who defy old traditions to embrace restored truths. The women and men who join the church must choose whether or not they will stay true to their covenants, establish Zion, and proclaim the gospel to a troubled world.

The Standard of Truth is the first book in Saints, a new, four-volume narrative history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Fast-paced, meticulously researched, Saints recounts true stories of Latter-day Saints across the globe and answers the Lord’s call to write history “for the good of the church, and for the rising generations� (Doctrine and Covenants 69:8).]]> 699 1629737100 Jared 0 currently-reading 4.55 2018 The Standard of Truth: 1815–1846 (Saints, #1)
author: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
name: Jared
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/09/09
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds]]> 30364647
Forty years ago, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of breathtakingly original papers that invented the field of behavioral economics. One of the greatest partnerships in the history of science, Kahneman and Tversky’s extraordinary friendship incited a revolution in 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. In The Undoing Project, Lewis shows how their Nobel Prize–winning theory of the mind altered our perception of reality.]]> 369 Michael Lewis 0393254607 Jared 3
However, the book is only vaguely like moneyball and is mostly a biography of the work done by two Jewish psychologists in a field related to the ideas of Moneyball.

It was okay, but I think my time would have been better spent on other books. ]]> 4.22 2016 The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds
author: Michael Lewis
name: Jared
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2018/09/09
date added: 2018/09/09
shelves:
review:
This is a book about two Jewish Psychologists and their search to try to explain predictions and uncertainty. I have liked the other Michael Lewis books I have read and I read the sample of this one on my kindle and it was a lot like Moneyball.

However, the book is only vaguely like moneyball and is mostly a biography of the work done by two Jewish psychologists in a field related to the ideas of Moneyball.

It was okay, but I think my time would have been better spent on other books.
]]> <![CDATA[Conflict in the Quorum: Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith]]> 37420560
Whenever the quorum discussed Elder Pratt’s controversial sermons and writings and his streak of independent thinking, the conversation could become heated. As documented by Gary James Bergera in this surprisingly suspenseful account, Pratt’s encounters with his brethren ultimately affected not only his seniority in the Quorum of the Twelve but also had a lasting impact on LDS doctrine, policy, and organizational structure.

“There is not a man in the church that can preach better than Orson Pratt,� Brigham Young told the twelve apostles on another occasion. “It is music to hear him. But the trouble is, he will � preach false doctrine.�

Pratt responded that he was “not a man to make a confession of what I do not believe. I am not going to crawl to Brigham Young and act the hypocrite. I will be a free man,� he insisted. “It may cost me my fellowship, but I will stick to it. If I die tonight, I would say, O Lord God Almighty, I believe what I say.�

“You have been a mad stubborn mule,� Young replied. “[You] have taken a false position � It is [as] false as hell and you will not hear the last of it soon.�

Not infrequently, these two strong-willed, deeply religious men argued. Part of their difficulty was that they saw the world from opposing perspectives—Pratt’s a rational, independent-minded stance and Young’s a more intuitive and authoritarian position. “We have hitherto acted too much as machines � as to following the Spirit,� Pratt explained in a quorum meeting in 1847. “I will confess to my own shame [that] I have decided contrary to my own [judgment] many times. � I mean hereafter not to demean myself as to let my feelings run contrary to my own judgment.� He issued a warning to the other “When [President Young] says that the Spirit of the Lord says thus and so, I don’t consider [that] � all we should do is to say let it be so.�

For his part, Young quipped that Pratt exhibited the same “ignorance � as any philosopher,� telling him “it would be a great blessing to him to lay aside his books.� When Pratt appealed to logic, Young would say, “Oh dear, granny, what a long tail our puss has got.�

Ironically, Orson Pratt would have the last word both because Young preceded him in death and because several of Young’s teachings and policies had proven unpopular among the other apostles. One of Young’s counselors said shortly after the president’s death that “some of my brethren � even feel that in the promulgation of doctrine he [Young] took liberties beyond those to which he was legitimately entitled.� Meanwhile, Pratt continued to hold sway with some of his colleagues. His thoughtful—if ultra-literalistic—interpretations of scripture would also influence such later church leaders as Joseph Fielding Smith and Bruce R. McConkie.

Bergera’s nuanced approach avoids caricatures in favor of the many complexities of personalities and circumstances. It becomes clear that the conflict in which these men found themselves enmeshed had no easy, foreseeable resolution.]]> 299 Gary James Bergera Jared 0 currently-reading 2.00 2002 Conflict in the Quorum: Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith
author: Gary James Bergera
name: Jared
average rating: 2.00
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/08/14
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Sphere 455373 371 Michael Crichton Jared 4
I like Michael Chrichton’s views on science. He likes to emphasize that sometimes humans can be a bit arrogant or even naive when we are trying to take advantage of what we know about science. We just aren’t quite as smart as we think we are, is what I get out of his books.

This book has a fun story with good characters. I don’t feel a lot of the pressure dynamics for them being at depth under the sea was correct but that was a small complaint.

In this book some people are given a chance to experience alien and futuristic technology. It doesn’t work out very well. This is mostly the story of how it doesn’t work out.

I really don’t think I have much else to say other than that it was well written and fun. Definitely deserves four stars. ]]> 3.83 1987 Sphere
author: Michael Crichton
name: Jared
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at: 2018/07/16
date added: 2018/07/19
shelves:
review:
Good book, not great.

I like Michael Chrichton’s views on science. He likes to emphasize that sometimes humans can be a bit arrogant or even naive when we are trying to take advantage of what we know about science. We just aren’t quite as smart as we think we are, is what I get out of his books.

This book has a fun story with good characters. I don’t feel a lot of the pressure dynamics for them being at depth under the sea was correct but that was a small complaint.

In this book some people are given a chance to experience alien and futuristic technology. It doesn’t work out very well. This is mostly the story of how it doesn’t work out.

I really don’t think I have much else to say other than that it was well written and fun. Definitely deserves four stars.
]]> Tiger Woods 38096943 “A confident and substantial book...It has torque and velocity...It makes a sweet sound, like a well-struck golf ball. I found it exhilarating, depressing, tawdry, and moving in almost equal measure. It’s a big American story.� —The New York Times Based on years of reporting and interviews with more than 250 people from every corner of Tiger Woods’s life—many of whom have never spoken about him on the record before—a sweeping, revelatory, and defining biography of an American icon.In 2009, Tiger Woods was the most famous athlete on the planet, a transcendent star of almost unfathomable fame and fortune living what appeared to be the perfect life. Married to a Swedish beauty and the father of two young children, he was the winner of fourteen major golf championships and earning more than $100 million annually. But it was all a carefully crafted illusion. As it turned out, Woods had been living a double life for years—one that unraveled in the aftermath of a Thanksgiving-night car crash that exposed his serial infidelity and sent his personal and professional lives over a cliff. Still, the world has always Who is Tiger Woods, really? In Tiger Woods, Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian, the team behind the New York Times bestseller The System, look deep behind the headlines to produce a richly reported answer to that question. To find out, they conducted hundreds of interviews with people from every facet of Woods’s life—friends, family members, teachers, romantic partners, coaches, business associates, physicians, Tour pros, and members of Woods’s inner circle. From those interviews, and extensive, carefully sourced research, they have uncovered new, intimate, and surprising details about the man behind the myth. We read an inside account of Tiger’s relationship with his first love, Dina Gravell, and their excruciating breakup at the hands of his parents. We learn that Tiger’s longtime sports agency, International Management Group (IMG), made $50,000 annual payments to Tiger’s father, Earl Woods, as a “talent scout”—years before Tiger was their client. We discover startling new details about Earl, who died in 2006 and to this day lies in an unmarked grave. We come along as Tiger plunges into the Las Vegas and New York nightclub worlds alongside fellow superstars Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley. We are whisked behind the scenes during the National Enquirer’s globetrotting hunt to expose Tiger’s infidelity, and we get a rare look inside his subsequent sex-addiction treatment at the Pine Grove facility in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. But the portrait of Woods that emerges in Tiger Woods is far more rewarding than revelations alone. By tracing his life from its origins as the mixed-race son of an attention-seeking father and the original Tiger Mom—who programmed him to be “the chosen one,� tasked with changing not just the game of golf but the world as well—the authors provide a wealth of new insight into the human being trapped inside his parents� creation. Most of all, we are reminded, time and time again, of Woods’s singular greatness and the exhilaration we felt watching an athletic genius dominate his sport for nearly twenty years. But at what cost? Benedict and Keteyian provide the answers in an extraordinary biography that is destined to become the defining book about an authentic American legend—and to linger in the minds of readers for years to come.]]> 652 Jeff Benedict Jared 5
Tiger watched his dad hit golf balls in the garage for probably a couple hours each day from near the time he was born. He started swinging a golf club before he was a year old.

He was a golf prodigy from the time he was two years old. He gave numerous interviews and was on tv pretty consistently his whole life.

For Tiger, success meant winning golf tournaments. And he was really good at it. He had one year when he was 11 years old or so that he won every golf tournament he entered. It was near 30 tournaments. That’s crazy.

Tiger’s father was not a healthy individual. He did give Tiger every opportunity he possibly could in golf though. He practiced with Tiger every day and pushed him to be great. It worked. But Earl was not a good person and was a terrible example of a father and husband.

The day that Tiger went pro, professional golf became a different sport. Tv ratings had 50-100% increases in viewership. Some tournaments actually sold out of tickets, which was basically unheard of, outside the Masters. Tiger has had huge crowds following him since before the day he became a professional. He is Tiger Woods, very likely the most popular athlete of all time.

Tiger was a terrible husband, like the worst. He had a serious problem with women. It wasn’t just that he liked to sleep around a little bit, which would have been bad enough. Tiger had dozens upon dozens of girls across the country that he would have sex with whenever he felt like. He also had sex with a neighbor girl who he knew since she was 14. She was 22 when he had sex with her. That relationship was essentially the final straw for Tiger’s wife, and after hearing about it she determined their relationship was not salvageable, which after going through the complete lack of respect that Tiger had for the relationship it is not surprising that their relationship could not be saved.

Tiger is a better father than he was husband. He would have been a much better father if he could have kept his family together but he was never capable of a healthy relationship till after his fall.

Tiger was the greatest golfer. He dominated every one for a decade. He changed the game more than any one else has ever changed a game. Without him nobody would have cared about professional golf and most likely no one would care today.

Tiger is back in professional golf right now and is healthy. I feel like when he finally isn’t competing or competitive that golf will take a serious blow. Tiger is just so much better and more interesting than anyone else in golf. ]]> 4.42 2018 Tiger Woods
author: Jeff Benedict
name: Jared
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2018/07/05
date added: 2018/07/05
shelves:
review:
Really good book, covers what we know of Tiger’s life. It’s not really a happy story though.

Tiger watched his dad hit golf balls in the garage for probably a couple hours each day from near the time he was born. He started swinging a golf club before he was a year old.

He was a golf prodigy from the time he was two years old. He gave numerous interviews and was on tv pretty consistently his whole life.

For Tiger, success meant winning golf tournaments. And he was really good at it. He had one year when he was 11 years old or so that he won every golf tournament he entered. It was near 30 tournaments. That’s crazy.

Tiger’s father was not a healthy individual. He did give Tiger every opportunity he possibly could in golf though. He practiced with Tiger every day and pushed him to be great. It worked. But Earl was not a good person and was a terrible example of a father and husband.

The day that Tiger went pro, professional golf became a different sport. Tv ratings had 50-100% increases in viewership. Some tournaments actually sold out of tickets, which was basically unheard of, outside the Masters. Tiger has had huge crowds following him since before the day he became a professional. He is Tiger Woods, very likely the most popular athlete of all time.

Tiger was a terrible husband, like the worst. He had a serious problem with women. It wasn’t just that he liked to sleep around a little bit, which would have been bad enough. Tiger had dozens upon dozens of girls across the country that he would have sex with whenever he felt like. He also had sex with a neighbor girl who he knew since she was 14. She was 22 when he had sex with her. That relationship was essentially the final straw for Tiger’s wife, and after hearing about it she determined their relationship was not salvageable, which after going through the complete lack of respect that Tiger had for the relationship it is not surprising that their relationship could not be saved.

Tiger is a better father than he was husband. He would have been a much better father if he could have kept his family together but he was never capable of a healthy relationship till after his fall.

Tiger was the greatest golfer. He dominated every one for a decade. He changed the game more than any one else has ever changed a game. Without him nobody would have cared about professional golf and most likely no one would care today.

Tiger is back in professional golf right now and is healthy. I feel like when he finally isn’t competing or competitive that golf will take a serious blow. Tiger is just so much better and more interesting than anyone else in golf.
]]> Grant 34237831
Ulysses S. Grant’s life has typically been misunderstood. All too often he is caricatured as a chronic loser and an inept businessman, or as the triumphant but brutal Union general of the Civil War. But these stereotypes don’t come close to capturing him, as Chernow shows in his masterful biography, the first to provide a complete understanding of the general and president whose fortunes rose and fell with dizzying speed and frequency.

Before the Civil War, Grant was flailing. His business ventures had ended dismally, and despite distinguished service in the Mexican War he ended up resigning from the army in disgrace amid recurring accusations of drunkenness. But in war, Grant began to realize his remarkable potential, soaring through the ranks of the Union army, prevailing at the battle of Shiloh and in the Vicksburg campaign, and ultimately defeating the legendary Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Along the way, Grant endeared himself to President Lincoln and became his most trusted general and the strategic genius of the war effort. Grant’s military fame translated into a two-term presidency, but one plagued by corruption scandals involving his closest staff members.

More important, he sought freedom and justice for black Americans, working to crush the Ku Klux Klan and earning the admiration of Frederick Douglass, who called him “the vigilant, firm, impartial, and wise protector of my race.� After his presidency, he was again brought low by a dashing young swindler on Wall Street, only to resuscitate his image by working with Mark Twain to publish his memoirs, which are recognized as a masterpiece of the genre.

With lucidity, breadth, and meticulousness, Chernow finds the threads that bind these disparate stories together, shedding new light on the man whom Walt Whitman described as “nothing heroic� and yet the greatest hero.� Chernow’s probing portrait of Grant’s lifelong struggle with alcoholism transforms our understanding of the man at the deepest level. This is America’s greatest biographer, bringing movingly to life one of our finest but most underappreciated presidents. The definitive biography, Grant is a grand synthesis of painstaking research and literary brilliance that makes sense of all sides of Grant’s life, explaining how this simple Midwesterner could at once be so ordinary and so extraordinary.]]> 1097 Ron Chernow 052552195X Jared 5 Great person

Grant was an incredible person. It was interesting to learn that had the civil war not happened Grant would likely have been largely an unsuccessful drifter with his wife and family. When the Civil War broke out he was a very lowly clerk in one of his father’s stores. He was paid very little and had no ownership. His father and his father in law both somewhat scornfully viewed Grant as a failure.

When the Cicil War did break out it was still somewhat difficult for Grant to get any kind of commission, despite being a West Point graduate and a veteran of the Mexican War. He was viewed, somewhat unfairly, as a terrible drunk.

However he did get a small commission largely because he was currently living in Illinois and the politics worked out with one of the states senators or representatives.

Then what happened was Grant started winning battles. He was aggressive and smart. At one point Grant realized how terrified he was of battle and was smart enough to realize that the opposing armies likely felt the same way. He decided he would take advantage of that realization and always used it to his advantage.

He worked his way up to be the general of the entire US army and became possibly the North’s largest celebrity, largely because he was a northern general that actually showed you can beat the south.

Grant was an ardent supporter of Abraham Lincoln and stood behind his political decisions and saw them as important aspects of the war. Grant was somewhat ahead of his time when it come to blacks, with a very progressive view of what blacks were capable of and of their deserving equal rights.

One of the greatest legacies that Grant left was when he forced the surrender of Robert E Lee, he could have demanded almost any terms and Lee would have had to accept. However, Grant allowed Lee and his army to return home without worry of later prosecution if they didn’t rejoin another southern army and even keep their sidearms and their horses. This kindness and understanding by Grant earned Grant tremendous respect from the Southern people for the remainder of his life. Southern soldiers thereafter had a great respect and appreciation for Grant. Lincoln wholeheartedly approved of Grants generosity and felt it was just what was needed to begin reconciliation with the South.

Eventually Grant became President of the United States and was even elected to two terms, which was very rare in his era. He was a good president but was much too trusting of those who worked for him. Many of those people were corrupt and abused their power in the federal government. It happened a couple times and Grant could never understand or grasp that people could be so two-faced and act so terribly.

After his presidency he toured Europe for a couple years and learned to be a celebrity. He learned to speak well extemporaneously and learned how to entertain very high born people.

In later life Grant was gifted a lot of money by wealthy people who didn’t want their past president to be destitute. Grant was essentially swindled out of his money by a charlatan who â€partneredâ€� with Grant in an investing firm. The charlatan essentially created a ponzu scheme that took nearly all of the Grant families money. This left Grant without means to provide for himself and his family. He was also diagnosed with cancer around this time. This spurred Grant to write his memoirs to provide for his family after his death.

His memoirs are said to be some of the best memoirs ever written. His style was honest and direct and his viewpoint of the civil war is unparalleled. The money from his memoirs was able to provide his wife with enough money to live comfortably.


Grant was incredible. He led the Northern Armies after all the other northern generals did a terrible job. Grant did a great job. He is oftentimes unfairly called a butcher who was simply willing to watch tens of thousands of his men die and that he wasn’t intelligent but just willing to use the force necessary to win. This is an unfair characterization that was an excuse by the South as to why they lost the war. Grant was a great tactician.

Grant’s wife Julia was a loving and doting wife who always believed her husband was the man others came to view him as. She was a great support for Grant. ]]> 4.67 2017 Grant
author: Ron Chernow
name: Jared
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2018/06/15
date added: 2018/06/15
shelves:
review:
Great person

Grant was an incredible person. It was interesting to learn that had the civil war not happened Grant would likely have been largely an unsuccessful drifter with his wife and family. When the Civil War broke out he was a very lowly clerk in one of his father’s stores. He was paid very little and had no ownership. His father and his father in law both somewhat scornfully viewed Grant as a failure.

When the Cicil War did break out it was still somewhat difficult for Grant to get any kind of commission, despite being a West Point graduate and a veteran of the Mexican War. He was viewed, somewhat unfairly, as a terrible drunk.

However he did get a small commission largely because he was currently living in Illinois and the politics worked out with one of the states senators or representatives.

Then what happened was Grant started winning battles. He was aggressive and smart. At one point Grant realized how terrified he was of battle and was smart enough to realize that the opposing armies likely felt the same way. He decided he would take advantage of that realization and always used it to his advantage.

He worked his way up to be the general of the entire US army and became possibly the North’s largest celebrity, largely because he was a northern general that actually showed you can beat the south.

Grant was an ardent supporter of Abraham Lincoln and stood behind his political decisions and saw them as important aspects of the war. Grant was somewhat ahead of his time when it come to blacks, with a very progressive view of what blacks were capable of and of their deserving equal rights.

One of the greatest legacies that Grant left was when he forced the surrender of Robert E Lee, he could have demanded almost any terms and Lee would have had to accept. However, Grant allowed Lee and his army to return home without worry of later prosecution if they didn’t rejoin another southern army and even keep their sidearms and their horses. This kindness and understanding by Grant earned Grant tremendous respect from the Southern people for the remainder of his life. Southern soldiers thereafter had a great respect and appreciation for Grant. Lincoln wholeheartedly approved of Grants generosity and felt it was just what was needed to begin reconciliation with the South.

Eventually Grant became President of the United States and was even elected to two terms, which was very rare in his era. He was a good president but was much too trusting of those who worked for him. Many of those people were corrupt and abused their power in the federal government. It happened a couple times and Grant could never understand or grasp that people could be so two-faced and act so terribly.

After his presidency he toured Europe for a couple years and learned to be a celebrity. He learned to speak well extemporaneously and learned how to entertain very high born people.

In later life Grant was gifted a lot of money by wealthy people who didn’t want their past president to be destitute. Grant was essentially swindled out of his money by a charlatan who â€partneredâ€� with Grant in an investing firm. The charlatan essentially created a ponzu scheme that took nearly all of the Grant families money. This left Grant without means to provide for himself and his family. He was also diagnosed with cancer around this time. This spurred Grant to write his memoirs to provide for his family after his death.

His memoirs are said to be some of the best memoirs ever written. His style was honest and direct and his viewpoint of the civil war is unparalleled. The money from his memoirs was able to provide his wife with enough money to live comfortably.


Grant was incredible. He led the Northern Armies after all the other northern generals did a terrible job. Grant did a great job. He is oftentimes unfairly called a butcher who was simply willing to watch tens of thousands of his men die and that he wasn’t intelligent but just willing to use the force necessary to win. This is an unfair characterization that was an excuse by the South as to why they lost the war. Grant was a great tactician.

Grant’s wife Julia was a loving and doting wife who always believed her husband was the man others came to view him as. She was a great support for Grant.
]]> <![CDATA[The Polygamist King: A True Story of Murder, Lust, and Exotic Faith in America (Kindle Single)]]> 28137639
James Strang was a lawyer, a newspaper editor, and a failed politician, before he found his true calling as a self-declared Mormon prophet. Following the shocking murder of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, Strang lost a power struggle to Brigham Young. He went on to form a dissident sect and build a personal theocracy on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan.

Strang was one of the most colorful people of his time—a political boss who called himself a king, a cult leader who proclaimed himself a prophet, and a con man who tricked his way to power. At first, many of his followers shared his fierce opposition to polygamy. By the time of his death, however, Strang had five wives, four of them pregnant.

This compelling historical narrative delivers a remarkable tale of gothic drama and high tragedy, full of sex, violence, pride, fanaticism, and conspiracy.

John J. Miller—“one of the best literary journalists in the country� according to the Chronicle of Higher Education—is the author of several books, including The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football and The First Assassin, a thriller set during the Civil War. He runs the journalism program at Hillsdale College and writes for National Review and the Wall Street Journal. He lives on a dirt road in rural Michigan.

Cover design by Adil Dara.]]> 49 John J. Miller Jared 0 currently-reading 3.23 The Polygamist King: A True Story of Murder, Lust, and Exotic Faith in America (Kindle Single)
author: John J. Miller
name: Jared
average rating: 3.23
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/02/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet]]> 19245783 511 John G. Turner 0674071786 Jared 5 4.33 2012 Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet
author: John G. Turner
name: Jared
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2018/02/17
date added: 2018/02/17
shelves:
review:

]]> Golf is Not a Game of Perfect 6627574 Filled with insightful stories about golf, Dr. Bob Rotella’s delightful book will improve the game of even the most casual weekend player.Dr. Bob Rotella is one of the hottest performance consultants in America today. Among his many professional clients are Nick Price (last year's Player of the Year), Tom Kite, Davis Love III, Pat Bradley, Brad Faxon, John Daly, and many others. Rotella, or “Doc,� as most players refer to him, goes beyond just the usual mental aspects of the game and the reliance on specific techniques. What Rotella does here in this extraordinary book, and with his clients, is to create an attitude and a mindset about all aspects of a golfer's game, from mental preparation to competition. The most wonderful aspect of it all is that it is done in a conversational fashion, in a dynamic blend of anecdote and lesson. And, as some of the world's greatest golfers will attest, the results are spectacular. Golfers will improve their golf game and have more fun playing. Some of Rotella's maxims -On the first tee, a golfer must expect only two things of to have fun, and to focus his mind properly on every shot. -Golfers must learn to love 'the challenge when they hit a ball into the rough, trees, or sand. The alternatives—anger, fear, whining, and cheating—do no good. -Confidence is crucial to good golf. Confidence is simply the aggregate of the thoughts you have about yourself. -It is more important to be decisive than to be correct when preparing to play any golf shot or putt. Filled with delightful and insightful stories about golf and the golfers Rotella works with, Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect will improve the game of even the most casual weekend player.]]> 234 Bob Rotella 1416563318 Jared 0 currently-reading 4.55 1995 Golf is Not a Game of Perfect
author: Bob Rotella
name: Jared
average rating: 4.55
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/01/13
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life]]> 28257707 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062457738

In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.

For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F**k positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let’s be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it." In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is—a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected American society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.

Manson makes the argument, backed both by academic research and well-timed poop jokes, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to stomach lemons better. Human beings are flawed and limited�"not everybody can be extraordinary, there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault." Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek.

There are only so many things we can give a f**k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter, Manson makes clear. While money is nice, caring about what you do with your life is better, because true wealth is about experience. A much-needed grab-you-by-the-shoulders-and-look-you-in-the-eye moment of real-talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humor, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is a refreshing slap for a generation to help them lead contented, grounded lives.]]> 212 Mark Manson Jared 0 3.87 2016 The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
author: Mark Manson
name: Jared
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/11/27
shelves:
review:

]]> It 28094574
They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But the promise they made twenty-eight years ago calls them reunite in the same place where, as teenagers, they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city’s children. Now, children are being murdered again and their repressed memories of that terrifying summer return as they prepare to once again battle the monster lurking in Derry’s sewers.]]> 1169 Stephen King Jared 4
This book is about childhood, nostalgia, friendship, and monsters.

This book could have been written with 'It' itself being some fictional or made up monster or something like a puppet with the man behind the curtain pulling the strings. But in this book the man behind the curtain isn't a man but is a monster called It. He makes it a real monster because he wants to show that children have real problems, not just imaginary ones. Their fright is wholly justified because It is a real monster that they had to face.

He has all the characters forget the scary things that they went through because that's really what happens as we grow older, for the most part. We forget about the things that scared us when we were young, as if they never happened.

I also think we forget how important our friends were to us when we were young. What we went through with our friends. How they were really the only ones we could sympathize with.

Only reason this book doesn't get five stars is I felt it was a bit longer than it needed to be. He could have cut out a couple hundred pages and it would have been a better book to me. Good book

]]> 4.34 1986 It
author: Stephen King
name: Jared
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1986
rating: 4
read at: 2017/11/10
date added: 2017/11/10
shelves:
review:
This is the third Stephen King book I've read, after 11/22/63 and The Stand. The man writes well, obviously.

This book is about childhood, nostalgia, friendship, and monsters.

This book could have been written with 'It' itself being some fictional or made up monster or something like a puppet with the man behind the curtain pulling the strings. But in this book the man behind the curtain isn't a man but is a monster called It. He makes it a real monster because he wants to show that children have real problems, not just imaginary ones. Their fright is wholly justified because It is a real monster that they had to face.

He has all the characters forget the scary things that they went through because that's really what happens as we grow older, for the most part. We forget about the things that scared us when we were young, as if they never happened.

I also think we forget how important our friends were to us when we were young. What we went through with our friends. How they were really the only ones we could sympathize with.

Only reason this book doesn't get five stars is I felt it was a bit longer than it needed to be. He could have cut out a couple hundred pages and it would have been a better book to me. Good book


]]> Chicka Chicka Boom Boom 18862126
In this lively alphabet rhyme, all the letters of the alphabet race each other up the cocunut tree. Will there be enough room? Oh, no - Chicka Chicka Boom! Boom! The well-known authors of Barn Dance and Knots on a Counting Rope have created a rhythmic alphabet chant that rolls along on waves of fun. Lois Ehlert's rainbow of bright, bold, cheerful colors makes the merry parade of letters unforgettable.]]> 36 Bill Martin Jr. Jared 0 currently-reading 4.61 1989 Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
author: Bill Martin Jr.
name: Jared
average rating: 4.61
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/25
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Colonel Roosevelt (Theodore Roosevelt)]]> 7993566
This biography by Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer Prize� and National Book Award–winning author of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex, marks the completion of a trilogy sure to stand as definitive.

Of all our great presidents, Theodore Roosevelt is the only one whose greatness increased out of office. What other president has written forty books, hunted lions, founded a third political party, survived an assassin’s bullet, and explored an unknown river longer than the Rhine?

Packed with more adventure, variety, drama, humor, and tragedy than a big novel, yet documented down to the smallest fact, this masterwork recounts the last decade of perhaps the most amazing life in American history.

“Hair-raising . . . awe-inspiring . . . a worthy close to a trilogy sure to be regarded as one of the best studies not just of any president, but of any American.”� San Francisco Chronicle]]> 766 Edmund Morris 0375504877 Jared 4
Nevertheless this is a very good book and Roosevelt is still the same awe inspiring figure.

I feel that TR is the embodiment of 'virtue'. The man was moral, upright, and powerful. His personality bent for no one and he compromised morals for no reason. I feel that this was his most admirable quality.]]> 4.08 2010 Colonel Roosevelt (Theodore Roosevelt)
author: Edmund Morris
name: Jared
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2017/08/20
date added: 2017/08/20
shelves:
review:
Very good book. I probably only rated it 4 stars rather than 5 because the first book in this series is possibly my most favorite book of all time, and this book is just not as good, possibly because Roosevelt's years before becoming President could never be as interesting as his years after being President.

Nevertheless this is a very good book and Roosevelt is still the same awe inspiring figure.

I feel that TR is the embodiment of 'virtue'. The man was moral, upright, and powerful. His personality bent for no one and he compromised morals for no reason. I feel that this was his most admirable quality.
]]> <![CDATA[The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1)]]> 28253070 The Gunslinger introduces readers to one of Stephen King’s most powerful creations, Roland of Gilead: The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which mirrors our own in frightening ways, Roland tracks The Man in Black, encounters an enticing woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the boy from New York named Jake.]]> 385 Stephen King Jared 0 currently-reading 3.78 1982 The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1)
author: Stephen King
name: Jared
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/07/27
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Lincoln 106590 Lincoln is a stunning portrait of Abraham Lincoln’s life and presidency.

Donald brilliantly depicts Lincoln’s gradual ascent from humble beginnings in rural Kentucky to the ever-expanding political circles in Illinois, and finally to the presidency of a country divided by civil war. Donald goes beyond biography, illuminating the gradual development of Lincoln’s character, chronicling his tremendous capacity for evolution and growth, thus illustrating what made it possible for a man so inexperienced and so unprepared for the presidency to become a great moral leader. In the most troubled of times, here was a man who led the country out of slavery and preserved a shattered Union—in short, one of the greatest presidents this country has ever seen.]]> 714 David Herbert Donald 068482535X Jared 5
Team of Rivals was great but had a somewhat more limited scope and specific purpose. This book is a more full one volume biography, giving a more complete picture of Lincoln's life.

Lincoln was by no means truly qualified to be President when he was elected. His real claim to fame was that Illinois happened to have a very popular Democrat Senator that he debated several times and lost elections to. These debates did give Lincoln some standing and respect in the Republican party and he was eventually a compromise candidate for President.

He was an incredible President. He compromised when beneficial and held firm when it was important. He is likely the reason the Civil War was so definitive. He did not allow a compromise and he ensured that slavery died so that the institution would not continue to cause problems.

His death was terrible for the nation. To lose such a leader at such a time is unimaginable. I wonder how he could have further helped America if he had remained President. He would have had to do an amazing job at reconstruction for his reputation to be what it is today, but I believe he could have done it.

Great book]]> 4.19 1995 Lincoln
author: David Herbert Donald
name: Jared
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2017/06/25
date added: 2017/06/25
shelves:
review:
Great Lincoln biography. It's the second one that I have read, the other being Team of Rivals.

Team of Rivals was great but had a somewhat more limited scope and specific purpose. This book is a more full one volume biography, giving a more complete picture of Lincoln's life.

Lincoln was by no means truly qualified to be President when he was elected. His real claim to fame was that Illinois happened to have a very popular Democrat Senator that he debated several times and lost elections to. These debates did give Lincoln some standing and respect in the Republican party and he was eventually a compromise candidate for President.

He was an incredible President. He compromised when beneficial and held firm when it was important. He is likely the reason the Civil War was so definitive. He did not allow a compromise and he ensured that slavery died so that the institution would not continue to cause problems.

His death was terrible for the nation. To lose such a leader at such a time is unimaginable. I wonder how he could have further helped America if he had remained President. He would have had to do an amazing job at reconstruction for his reputation to be what it is today, but I believe he could have done it.

Great book
]]> Alexander Hamilton 5647399 The #1ĚýNew York TimesĚýbestseller, andĚýthe inspiration for the hit Broadway musicalĚýHamilton!Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow presents a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn nation."Grand-scale biography at its best—thorough, insightful, consistently fair, and superbly written . . . A genuinely great book." —David McCullough“A robust full-length portrait, in my view the best ever written, of the most brilliant, charismatic and dangerous founder of them all."Ěý—Joseph Ellis

Few figures in American history have been more hotly debated or more grossly misunderstood than Alexander Hamilton. Chernow’s biography gives Hamilton his due and sets the record straight, deftly illustrating that the political and economic greatness of today’s America is the result of Hamilton’s countless sacrifices to champion ideas that were often wildly disputed during his time. “To repudiate his legacy,â€� Chernow writes, “is, in many ways, to repudiate the modern world.â€� Chernow here recounts Hamilton’s turbulent an illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean, he came out of nowhere to take America by storm, rising to become George Washington’s aide-de-camp in the Continental Army, coauthoring The Federalist Papers, founding the Bank of New York, leading the Federalist Party, and becoming the first Treasury Secretary of the United States.Historians have long told the story of America’s birth as the triumph of Jefferson’s democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton. Chernow presents an entirely different man, whose legendary ambitions were motivated not merely by self-interest but by passionate patriotism and a stubborn will to build the foundations of American prosperity and power. His is a Hamilton far more human than we’ve encountered before—from his shame about his birth to his fiery aspirations, from his intimate relationships with childhood friends to his titanic feuds with Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Monroe, and Burr, and from his highly public affair with Maria Reynolds to his loving marriage to his loyal wife Eliza. And never before has there been a more vivid account of Hamilton’s famous and mysterious death in a duel with Aaron Burr in July of 1804.Chernow’s biography is not just a portrait of Hamilton, but the story of America’s birth seen through its most central figure. At a critical time to look back to our roots,ĚýAlexander HamiltonĚýwill remind readers of the purpose of our institutions and our heritage as Americans.

9780143034759]]> 818 Ron Chernow Jared 5
Even more importantly he led the effort to have the fed gov take over debts from the states. This action left the fed gov with the main burden of collecting taxes and paying off debts which is something that Hamilton saw as extremely beneficial for having a strong federal government with the states Boyd together. It was truly a brilliant move.

Hamilton was brave, smart, and possibly above all he was extremely capable. If put in charge of a task he would do it and do it well. Washington found Hamilton nearly indispensable during the Revolution,and for good reason.

Hamilton was a good man as well. He did fall into an affair at one point but there is only evidence of the one affair and he eventually admitted to the whole thing by essentially publishing a book on his affair. He confessed to everything because he was making blackmail payments to his mistresses husband and people said these payments were proof of nefarious dealings as Treasury Secretary. To clear his name as Treasury Secretary he admitted to the affair. He viewed his public persona as so important that he was willing to fully condemn his private life to protect his public life.

Just a great book]]> 4.53 2004 Alexander Hamilton
author: Ron Chernow
name: Jared
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2017/03/23
date added: 2017/03/23
shelves:
review:
Great book, one of my favorites. Hamilton is a greatly underappreciated founding father. His work as Treasury Secretary alone had an incredible influence on America. America is capitalist and is a great country for business and finance. Hamilton established early in American history that contracts in the US would be enforced despite what people may view as unfair results.

Even more importantly he led the effort to have the fed gov take over debts from the states. This action left the fed gov with the main burden of collecting taxes and paying off debts which is something that Hamilton saw as extremely beneficial for having a strong federal government with the states Boyd together. It was truly a brilliant move.

Hamilton was brave, smart, and possibly above all he was extremely capable. If put in charge of a task he would do it and do it well. Washington found Hamilton nearly indispensable during the Revolution,and for good reason.

Hamilton was a good man as well. He did fall into an affair at one point but there is only evidence of the one affair and he eventually admitted to the whole thing by essentially publishing a book on his affair. He confessed to everything because he was making blackmail payments to his mistresses husband and people said these payments were proof of nefarious dealings as Treasury Secretary. To clear his name as Treasury Secretary he admitted to the affair. He viewed his public persona as so important that he was willing to fully condemn his private life to protect his public life.

Just a great book
]]> <![CDATA[How to Win Friends and Influence People]]> 33001402 291 Dale Carnegie Jared 5
If you want to know how to deal with people in a positive and uplifting way, even if difficult circumstances then this book gives you the framework.

I think the general rule of this book is "don't be rude" which seems so obvious yet many people think that being rude is something that is often excused by circumstances. It's not.

Great book.]]> 4.34 1936 How to Win Friends and Influence People
author: Dale Carnegie
name: Jared
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1936
rating: 5
read at: 2017/02/25
date added: 2017/02/25
shelves:
review:
Well, this a great book. You can tell that it is an older book by many of the references in the book but the advice is absolutely timeless.

If you want to know how to deal with people in a positive and uplifting way, even if difficult circumstances then this book gives you the framework.

I think the general rule of this book is "don't be rude" which seems so obvious yet many people think that being rude is something that is often excused by circumstances. It's not.

Great book.
]]> Washington: A Life 8255917
Despite the reverence his name inspires Washington remains a waxwork to many readers, worthy but dull, a laconic man of remarkable self-control. But in this groundbreaking work Chernow revises forever the uninspiring stereotype. He portrays Washington as a strapping, celebrated horseman, elegant dancer and tireless hunter, who guarded his emotional life with intriguing ferocity. Not only did Washington gather around himself the foremost figures of the age, including James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, he orchestrated their actions to help realise his vision for the new federal government, define the separation of powers, and establish the office of the presidency.

Ron Chernow takes us on a page-turning journey through all the formative events of America's founding. This is a magisterial work from one of America's foremost writers and historians.]]> 904 Ron Chernow 1594202664 Jared 5
This book covers all aspects of Washington's life, from beginning to end. Washington was at times a lucky beneficiary of circumstance, which worked out well for him. He was nearly benefitting from dying relatives, and gained much of his estate and a large portion of his slaves through familial deaths. He was nevertheless extremely money poor, despite being property rich. I had heard many times before that Washington was money poor, but I don't think I ever believed it. Washington never had large sums of money and he was never in a financial position to turn down the salaries that he did turn down.

In this regard, Washington is not unlike Trump. People often thought that Washington was more wealthy than he actually was and most of both people's wealth are largely tied up in real estate or property.

In very few other ways is Trump like Washington. Washington was the king of self control, which made it ever more powerful when he did lose his temper, unlike Trump.

Washington was truly the man of his age. Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson were all clearly below him. Washington had squabbles with Adams and Jefferson at times, especially Jefferson later in life.

Washington's relationship with his mother was also very interesting. She was consistently disappointed in him. She always felt neglected by her famous son. During the revolution she even petitioned the State of Virginia for a pension, claiming neglect from her son.

She was even alive to see George become the first president. Washington was always dutiful in his care for his mother but she always wanted more. During the French and Indian War she wrote a letter to her actively serving son asking for butter and a Dutch servant, which he had no way of procuring. It was an interesting relationship.

As Washington aged he identified more and more with the Northern US. He even went so far as to say that if there was a split that he would side with the north, an interesting viewpoint for the foremost Virginian.


The book is fantastic and well written.]]> 4.14 2010 Washington: A Life
author: Ron Chernow
name: Jared
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2016/12/24
date added: 2016/12/24
shelves:
review:
One of my most favorite books. It is a large one volume biography of George Washington, which is generally my preferred length for a biography (I don't read many multivolume books).

This book covers all aspects of Washington's life, from beginning to end. Washington was at times a lucky beneficiary of circumstance, which worked out well for him. He was nearly benefitting from dying relatives, and gained much of his estate and a large portion of his slaves through familial deaths. He was nevertheless extremely money poor, despite being property rich. I had heard many times before that Washington was money poor, but I don't think I ever believed it. Washington never had large sums of money and he was never in a financial position to turn down the salaries that he did turn down.

In this regard, Washington is not unlike Trump. People often thought that Washington was more wealthy than he actually was and most of both people's wealth are largely tied up in real estate or property.

In very few other ways is Trump like Washington. Washington was the king of self control, which made it ever more powerful when he did lose his temper, unlike Trump.

Washington was truly the man of his age. Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson were all clearly below him. Washington had squabbles with Adams and Jefferson at times, especially Jefferson later in life.

Washington's relationship with his mother was also very interesting. She was consistently disappointed in him. She always felt neglected by her famous son. During the revolution she even petitioned the State of Virginia for a pension, claiming neglect from her son.

She was even alive to see George become the first president. Washington was always dutiful in his care for his mother but she always wanted more. During the French and Indian War she wrote a letter to her actively serving son asking for butter and a Dutch servant, which he had no way of procuring. It was an interesting relationship.

As Washington aged he identified more and more with the Northern US. He even went so far as to say that if there was a split that he would side with the north, an interesting viewpoint for the foremost Virginian.


The book is fantastic and well written.
]]> <![CDATA[How To Build The Dental Practice Of Your Dreams: (Without Killing Yourself!) In Less Than 60 Days]]> 25835165 146 David Moffet Jared 4
Honestly, I felt a lot of the advice was what I would call 'fluff advice' from a relatively successful dentist who feels they are something special. Every dentist I've talked to says they know how to be successful. Maybe they do.

Overall, I'm glad I read the book and felt it did give good advice but I don't think the author is some dental practice guru. ]]> 4.14 2015 How To Build The Dental Practice Of Your Dreams: (Without Killing Yourself!) In Less Than 60 Days
author: David Moffet
name: Jared
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2016/11/26
date added: 2016/11/26
shelves:
review:
This is a pretty good book. Some of the points in the beginning are similar to Dale Carnegie's book. His big point throughout most the book is providing excellent customer service, which is good.

Honestly, I felt a lot of the advice was what I would call 'fluff advice' from a relatively successful dentist who feels they are something special. Every dentist I've talked to says they know how to be successful. Maybe they do.

Overall, I'm glad I read the book and felt it did give good advice but I don't think the author is some dental practice guru.
]]> <![CDATA[The Lost World (Jurassic Park, #2)]]> 8650
There are rumors that something has survived....]]> 448 Michael Crichton 0752224417 Jared 4
I like Crichton's criticisms against a lot of scientific thought. Crichton was a Medical Doctor and well educated. In his books that I have read Crichton will often use a specific character to spout a lot of his ideas. In this book he uses Ian Malcolm mostly. I like it, I like the ideas he talks about and his general criticisms. ]]> 3.85 1995 The Lost World (Jurassic Park, #2)
author: Michael Crichton
name: Jared
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2016/09/19
date added: 2016/09/19
shelves:
review:
Good book. Not as good as the first one. Less plot than the first one but good characters and good story telling.

I like Crichton's criticisms against a lot of scientific thought. Crichton was a Medical Doctor and well educated. In his books that I have read Crichton will often use a specific character to spout a lot of his ideas. In this book he uses Ian Malcolm mostly. I like it, I like the ideas he talks about and his general criticisms.
]]> <![CDATA[The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan, #3)]]> 19691 Somewhere under the Atlantic, a Soviet sub commander has just made a fateful decision. The Red October is heading west. The Americans want her. The Russians want her back. And the most incredible chase in history is on...

]]> 432 Tom Clancy 0425172902 Jared 5
Great, fun book that made me think more about what submarine warfare was and is like. I liked it. ]]> 4.11 1984 The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan, #3)
author: Tom Clancy
name: Jared
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1984
rating: 5
read at: 2016/08/24
date added: 2016/08/24
shelves:
review:
Great book. Fully entertaining all the way through. It's the first Jack Ryan or Tom Clancy book I've read. Took me right back in time to the Cold War (which as I was born in 1987, I never actually experienced). The author throws plenty of digs in at Russian Communism, which I believe most are probably fair criticisms. A more nuanced view of the Soviet Union may have made the Russian characters a bit more rounded but the story really didn't suffer.

Great, fun book that made me think more about what submarine warfare was and is like. I liked it.
]]> The Johnstown Flood 2371 Graced by David McCullough's remarkable gift for writing richly textured, sympathetic social history, The Johnstown Flood is an absorbing, classic portrait of life in nineteenth-century America, of overweening confidence, of energy, and of tragedy. It also offers a powerful historical lesson for our century and all times: the danger of assuming that because people are in positions of responsibility they are necessarily behaving responsibly.

]]> 302 David McCullough 0844662925 Jared 4
Everyone talked about how the dam was going to break. No one really trusted it, turns out they were right not to trust it.

It's hard to blame the people though when people had lived there for years, and the dam never broke. You would also think that someone was making sure that the dam really wasn't going to break, but unfortunately no one was. The local iron company in Johnstown was even willing to help pay for repairs but the owners of the dam thought it would be costly and unnecessary. What a failure.

Somewhere around 2,200 people died in the flood that happened when the dam broke. That's about the same number of people that died on 9/11, in a country with much fewer people.

It was truly a huge catastrophe, caused by neglect, ignorance, and people who were unwilling to see things for how they really were. ]]> 4.12 1968 The Johnstown Flood
author: David McCullough
name: Jared
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1968
rating: 4
read at: 2016/08/07
date added: 2016/08/07
shelves:
review:
This is a good book about a terrible flood in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and what caused that terrible flood. There is a lot to learn from this book about nature, the purpose of engineering, and about doing the right thing before a problem occurs.

Everyone talked about how the dam was going to break. No one really trusted it, turns out they were right not to trust it.

It's hard to blame the people though when people had lived there for years, and the dam never broke. You would also think that someone was making sure that the dam really wasn't going to break, but unfortunately no one was. The local iron company in Johnstown was even willing to help pay for repairs but the owners of the dam thought it would be costly and unnecessary. What a failure.

Somewhere around 2,200 people died in the flood that happened when the dam broke. That's about the same number of people that died on 9/11, in a country with much fewer people.

It was truly a huge catastrophe, caused by neglect, ignorance, and people who were unwilling to see things for how they really were.
]]> A Brief History of Time 3869
Told in language we all can understand, A Brief History of Time plunges into the exotic realms of black holes and quarks, of antimatter and “arrows of time,� of the big bang and a bigger God—where the possibilities are wondrous and unexpected. With exciting images and profound imagination, Stephen Hawking brings us closer to the ultimate secrets at the very heart of creation.]]> 226 Stephen Hawking 0553380168 Jared 5
Overall it is a great book, and very well written. Although I had a basic understanding before I felt that this book explained many things better than I had heard it before and it was intriguing throughout. ]]> 4.22 1988 A Brief History of Time
author: Stephen Hawking
name: Jared
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at: 2016/07/30
date added: 2016/07/30
shelves:
review:
Great book. I am somewhat more knowledgeable than the average person in regards to modern physics so I already knew most of the things in this book and it still seems to be rather up to date. One thing that I believe is a new discovery since the publication of the book is that the rate of the universe expanding is actually increasing, which seems kinda weird. This newer discover seems to imply that a big crunch is less likely than discussed in the book. I'm sure Hawkings has discussed this newer information in many other places, but I haven't looked it up.

Overall it is a great book, and very well written. Although I had a basic understanding before I felt that this book explained many things better than I had heard it before and it was intriguing throughout.
]]> <![CDATA[David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants]]> 15751404 The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell has explored the ways we understand and change our world. Now he looks at the complex and surprising ways the weak can defeat the strong, the small can match up against the giant, and how our goals (often culturally determined) can make a huge difference in our ultimate sense of success. Drawing upon examples from the world of business, sports, culture, cutting-edge psychology, and an array of unforgettable characters around the world, David and Goliath is in many ways the most practical and provocative book Malcolm Gladwell has ever written.]]> 305 Malcolm Gladwell 0316204366 Jared 3
However, we shouldn't come away thinking that every kid with dyslexia is going to be stronger because of it, we should understand that most people with dyslexia are truly harmed by it and it is not something that will eventually be seen as beneficial.

So in short, I feel that his thesis as a generalization is absolutely wrong, however his stories and points under a more forgiving thesis could be shown to be very good.

Overall, Gladwell is a great writer. I just feel his thesis here was a little strong. ]]> 3.97 2013 David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Jared
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2016/07/23
date added: 2016/07/23
shelves:
review:
Ehh, this book is ok. I read in some of the other reviews that a lot of people have kinda picked apart his thesis. His thesis seems to be that being an underdog is (or at least can be) advantageous. If we understand this as that at some times having a disadvantage can have unexpected good results then that is fine. Another thing we can learn is that we can overcome challenges that we are faced with.

However, we shouldn't come away thinking that every kid with dyslexia is going to be stronger because of it, we should understand that most people with dyslexia are truly harmed by it and it is not something that will eventually be seen as beneficial.

So in short, I feel that his thesis as a generalization is absolutely wrong, however his stories and points under a more forgiving thesis could be shown to be very good.

Overall, Gladwell is a great writer. I just feel his thesis here was a little strong.
]]> <![CDATA[Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway]]> 34658
Parshall and TullyĚýexamine the battle in detail and effortlessly place it within the context of the Imperial Navy’s doctrine and technology. With a foreword by leading World War II naval historian John Lundstrom, Ěýis an indispensable part of any military buff’s library.

is the winner of the 2005 John Lyman Book Award for the "Best Book in U.S. Naval History" and was cited by as one of its "Notable Naval Books" for 2005.]]> 612 Jonathan Parshall 1574889230 Jared 5
The Japanese made many huge mistakes in the Pacific War. Their first big mistake was starting the war. The economic might of the US was going to crush Japan eventually almost no matter what happened early in the war or even at Midway. But Midway had a huge impact on how the rest of the war was fought, and it brought utter ruin on the Japanese Navy.

This book is a story of how pride and hubris can lead to a giant fall. It is also a story of how the diligence and hard work of the American Navy manufactured a huge win.

The way how the Japanese planned for Midway is a treaty on how to not plan for things. The situation of an American Carrier fleet arriving early on the flank of the Japanese fleet was a situation brought up in war games. The situation was deemed too unlikely to consider by the war game referees and the move was taken back because the damage sustained was considerable. This is exactly what happened when the Japanese began their assault, three carriers had been waiting on the Japanese flank and descended upon the Japanese Carriers. The story of how this all unfolds is incredible.

Fantastic book, with lots to learn from. Easily 5 stars]]> 4.43 2005 Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
author: Jonathan Parshall
name: Jared
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2016/06/24
date added: 2016/06/24
shelves:
review:
Fantastic book, worth every bit of five stars. The authors cover the Battle of Midway nearly exhaustively from the Japanese perspective. They consider and analyze previous works on the subject and explain common misconceptions about the Battle, giving a full view to those who may have little to no experience with the history of the Battle of Midway.

The Japanese made many huge mistakes in the Pacific War. Their first big mistake was starting the war. The economic might of the US was going to crush Japan eventually almost no matter what happened early in the war or even at Midway. But Midway had a huge impact on how the rest of the war was fought, and it brought utter ruin on the Japanese Navy.

This book is a story of how pride and hubris can lead to a giant fall. It is also a story of how the diligence and hard work of the American Navy manufactured a huge win.

The way how the Japanese planned for Midway is a treaty on how to not plan for things. The situation of an American Carrier fleet arriving early on the flank of the Japanese fleet was a situation brought up in war games. The situation was deemed too unlikely to consider by the war game referees and the move was taken back because the damage sustained was considerable. This is exactly what happened when the Japanese began their assault, three carriers had been waiting on the Japanese flank and descended upon the Japanese Carriers. The story of how this all unfolds is incredible.

Fantastic book, with lots to learn from. Easily 5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II]]> 18728 No Ordinary Time is a chronicle of one of the most vibrant & revolutionary periods in US history. With an extraordinary collection of details, Goodwin weaves together a number of story lines—the Roosevelt’s marriage & partnership, Eleanor’s life as First Lady, & FDR’s White House & its impact on America as well as on a world at war. Goodwin melds these into an intimate portrait of Eleanor & Franklin Roosevelt & of the time during which a new, modern America was born.]]> 633 Doris Kearns Goodwin 0684804484 Jared 5
At times, I felt Doris was too forgiving of FDR's lame excuse for a management style. It appeared as if he managed purely by the power of his personality and by flattery. And while it may be true that FDR was a deeply flawed person who defied many rules of leadership, the people loved him and although he was essentially dying in office for the last year or two, the war effort seemed to be able to go on unceasing. He was capable of leading largely by his force of personality. I don't think this is something that can be emulated by anyone today because the challenges we face as a nation truly pale in comparison to The Great Depression and World War II. It truly was No Ordinary Time and FDR was able to resonate with the people in a way that inspired confidence and trust.

The book does speak of many of FDR's flaws, including his strained relationship with his wife Eleanor. FDR and Eleanor were two strong personalities and I think a lot has been made of how they 'worked together'. I personally feel that their 'working together' and Eleanor's travels were exactly what FDR wanted so that he wouldn't have to deal with Eleanor and he could play with his friends free from guilt. FDR had much closer personal relationships with many woman besides Eleanor and it never seemed like they ever quite understood their own relationship.

The most strange thing FDR did was when he was clearly dying and also running for a fourth term. The strangest aspect of that scenario is that FDR was largely hands off in choosing who his VP would be, knowing that this would be the man to finish off his term in office. Also, nearly the only times when Truman is even mentioned is when the convention is picking the VP and then when FDR died. You would assume that Truman would have been involved in some presidential decision making in his time as VP or at least meet with the President at times but Truman is never mentioned as an adviser in any way. FDR left his successor out of the loop, it's unimaginable. Luckily, Truman appears to have still been the right man for the job but no thanks to FDR.

Great book on an important time in world history, from the American perspective. 5 stars.


]]> 4.19 1994 No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II
author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
name: Jared
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at: 2016/05/19
date added: 2016/05/19
shelves:
review:
I was very worried this book was going to be a hagiography, and in some ways it definitely was one. But towards the middle of the book I was able to forgive the platitudes of greatness that Doris would throw at FDR and began to enter the story.

At times, I felt Doris was too forgiving of FDR's lame excuse for a management style. It appeared as if he managed purely by the power of his personality and by flattery. And while it may be true that FDR was a deeply flawed person who defied many rules of leadership, the people loved him and although he was essentially dying in office for the last year or two, the war effort seemed to be able to go on unceasing. He was capable of leading largely by his force of personality. I don't think this is something that can be emulated by anyone today because the challenges we face as a nation truly pale in comparison to The Great Depression and World War II. It truly was No Ordinary Time and FDR was able to resonate with the people in a way that inspired confidence and trust.

The book does speak of many of FDR's flaws, including his strained relationship with his wife Eleanor. FDR and Eleanor were two strong personalities and I think a lot has been made of how they 'worked together'. I personally feel that their 'working together' and Eleanor's travels were exactly what FDR wanted so that he wouldn't have to deal with Eleanor and he could play with his friends free from guilt. FDR had much closer personal relationships with many woman besides Eleanor and it never seemed like they ever quite understood their own relationship.

The most strange thing FDR did was when he was clearly dying and also running for a fourth term. The strangest aspect of that scenario is that FDR was largely hands off in choosing who his VP would be, knowing that this would be the man to finish off his term in office. Also, nearly the only times when Truman is even mentioned is when the convention is picking the VP and then when FDR died. You would assume that Truman would have been involved in some presidential decision making in his time as VP or at least meet with the President at times but Truman is never mentioned as an adviser in any way. FDR left his successor out of the loop, it's unimaginable. Luckily, Truman appears to have still been the right man for the job but no thanks to FDR.

Great book on an important time in world history, from the American perspective. 5 stars.



]]> <![CDATA[Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918 ]]> 8475915 November 11, 1918. The final hours pulsate with tension as every man in the trenches hopes to escape the melancholy distinction of being the last to die in World War I. The Allied generals knew the fighting would end precisely at 11:00 A.M, yet in the final hours they flung men against an already beaten Germany. The result? Eleven thousand casualties suffered–more than during the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Why? Allied commanders wanted to punish the enemy to the very last moment and career officers saw a fast-fading chance for glory and promotion. Joseph E. Persico puts the reader in the trenches with the forgotten and the famous–among the latter, Corporal Adolf Hitler, Captain Harry Truman, and Colonels Douglas MacArthur and George Patton. Mainly, he follows ordinary soldiers� lives, illuminating their fate as the end approaches. Persico sets the last day of the war in historic context with a gripping reprise of all that led up to it, from the 1914 assassination of the Austrian archduke, Franz Ferdinand, which ignited the war, to the raw racism black doughboys endured except when ordered to advance and die in the war’s last hour. Persico recounts the war’s bloody climax in a cinematic style that evokes All Quiet on the Western Front, Grand Illusion, and Paths of Glory.The pointless fighting on the last day of the war is the perfect metaphor for the four years that preceded it, years of senseless slaughter for hollow purposes. This book is sure to become the definitive history of the end of a conflict Winston Churchill called “the hardest, cruelest, and least-rewarded of all the wars that have been fought.”From the Hardcover edition.]]> 363 Joseph E. Persico Jared 4
This book is good, but a lot of it was super boring and hard to follow. The problem was that I couldn't follow everything that was happening to different people and who these people were. Eventually most of the individuals (unless I knew them from more general history like Patton, Hitler, etc) simply became an American soldier, British soldier, or German soldier etc. This made it hard to follow at times and I could just never get as much out of this book as I know is there.

I eventually just began looking for more general points about WWI of which there is plenty to find, but it was hard to keep reading. I started this book a couple months ago and I've been almost done with it for a month or two but every time I started reading I would either fall asleep or find something else to do. It just never grabbed my attention like I thought the material deserved.

All that being said I feel like I have a much better view of WWI from most viewpoints. WWI is widely viewed as just a constant slaughter, which is basically correct. But we also have to remember that these were real people who were sent to fight and they were patriotic and wanted to do what was best for their country and the world. Viewing WWI only as a mindless slaughter somewhat diminishes the bravery and courage of these soldiers who actually had to fight.

This is a great book with great information, sometimes it was just hard to pick up. ]]> 4.44 1999 Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918
author: Joseph E. Persico
name: Jared
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2016/04/17
date added: 2016/04/17
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars.

This book is good, but a lot of it was super boring and hard to follow. The problem was that I couldn't follow everything that was happening to different people and who these people were. Eventually most of the individuals (unless I knew them from more general history like Patton, Hitler, etc) simply became an American soldier, British soldier, or German soldier etc. This made it hard to follow at times and I could just never get as much out of this book as I know is there.

I eventually just began looking for more general points about WWI of which there is plenty to find, but it was hard to keep reading. I started this book a couple months ago and I've been almost done with it for a month or two but every time I started reading I would either fall asleep or find something else to do. It just never grabbed my attention like I thought the material deserved.

All that being said I feel like I have a much better view of WWI from most viewpoints. WWI is widely viewed as just a constant slaughter, which is basically correct. But we also have to remember that these were real people who were sent to fight and they were patriotic and wanted to do what was best for their country and the world. Viewing WWI only as a mindless slaughter somewhat diminishes the bravery and courage of these soldiers who actually had to fight.

This is a great book with great information, sometimes it was just hard to pick up.
]]> <![CDATA[Every Shot Counts: Using the Revolutionary Strokes Gained Approach to Improve Your Golf Performance and Strategy]]> 17674971 Ěý
Mark Broadie is at the forefront of a revolutionary new approach to the game of golf. ĚýWhat does it take to drop ten strokes from your golf score? What part of Tiger Woodsâ€� game makes him a winner?ĚýTraditional golf stats can't answer these questions. Broadie, a professor at Columbia Business School, helped the PGA Tour develop its cutting-edge strokes gained putting stat. In this eye-opening new book, Broadie uses analytics from the financial world to uncover the secrets of the game of golf. He crunches mountains of data to show both professional and amateur golfers how to make better decisions on the course.Ěý This eagerly awaited resource is for any player who wants to understand the pros, improve golf skills, and make every shot count.]]> 288 Mark Broadie 1592407501 Jared 5
I truly felt like this book helped me better understand the value of every single stroke and helped show me where I most need to improve my game.

There are a few suggested drills at the end and some of them seem like they would be helpful and even give you a way to compare how a pga tour pro would do in them. ]]> 4.30 2013 Every Shot Counts: Using the Revolutionary Strokes Gained Approach to Improve Your Golf Performance and Strategy
author: Mark Broadie
name: Jared
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2016/04/17
date added: 2016/04/17
shelves:
review:
This book is basically about the 'strokes gained' golf statistic and lessons that can be learned from viewing golf from a more analytical approach.

I truly felt like this book helped me better understand the value of every single stroke and helped show me where I most need to improve my game.

There are a few suggested drills at the end and some of them seem like they would be helpful and even give you a way to compare how a pga tour pro would do in them.
]]> <![CDATA[Harvey Penick's Little Red Book: Lessons and Teachings From a Lifetime of Golf]]> 206136 175 Harvey Penick 0684859246 Jared 4
This is a good book, most people say a great book, but I'm sticking with a good one. ]]> 4.31 1992 Harvey Penick's Little Red Book: Lessons and Teachings From a Lifetime of Golf
author: Harvey Penick
name: Jared
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2016/04/16
date added: 2016/04/16
shelves:
review:
I saw a lot of very positive reviews on this book so I finally picked up a copy. The only other golf book that I have read was Ben Hogan's five fundamentals book. I much preferred Ben Hogan's book. Both of these books are basically exactly what they advertise though. Hogan's book is about the fundamentals of golf, this book is largely advertised as a great golf instructors folksy ponderings on golf. For a beginner golfer like me I felt that Hogan's book was much more helpful.

This is a good book, most people say a great book, but I'm sticking with a good one.
]]> 11/22/63 10644930
In 2011, Jake Epping, an English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, sets out on an insane � and insanely possible � mission to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

Leaving behind a world of computers and mobile phones, he goes back to a time of big American cars and diners, of Lindy Hopping, the sound of Elvis, and the taste of root beer.

In this haunting world, Jake falls in love with Sadie, a beautiful high school librarian. And, as the ominous date of 11/22/63 approaches, he encounters a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald...]]> 849 Stephen King 1451627289 Jared 5
I got this book as a kindle sale for 1.99 I think. That was months ago but I didn't pick it up until I wanted to watch the Hulu miniseries. I knew if I watched the miniseries then it would be almost impossible for me to pick up the book. I'm glad it got me to read the book because it was a really good read.

It made me think about the fragility of life, and also about the importance of relationships. It also made me think about living in the present and making the most of your current circumstances. ]]> 4.33 2011 11/22/63
author: Stephen King
name: Jared
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2016/03/30
date added: 2016/03/30
shelves:
review:
Second Stephen King book I've read, the first being The Stand. I really enjoyed this book. I felt like it could have ended a thousand different ways and I'm still not too sure how I feel about how it did end but I can say that I enjoyed it the whole way through.

I got this book as a kindle sale for 1.99 I think. That was months ago but I didn't pick it up until I wanted to watch the Hulu miniseries. I knew if I watched the miniseries then it would be almost impossible for me to pick up the book. I'm glad it got me to read the book because it was a really good read.

It made me think about the fragility of life, and also about the importance of relationships. It also made me think about living in the present and making the most of your current circumstances.
]]> State of Fear 15860 672 Michael Crichton Jared 5
But I gave it 5-stars because it is dang good to see someone speak out about climate change in a rational manner, and even if I think Crichton is a bit too cynical in some regards I'm much closer to Crichton than I am to Naomi Klein, or Obama. I liked Crichton's arguments even if I didn't agree with all of them.

In this book Crichton rails on the "consensus" view of global warming. And he's right in doing so.

The models have consistently over predicted the amount of warming that will occur and even the model's predictions don't predict a doomsday.

One good question to ask a global warming supporter is how much the ocean's are predicted to rise by the year 2100. I'll typically give them ranges to choose from. No model predicts a sea rise over 1 meter and most are significantly below that, averaging at around a half meter. 50 cm. Most of the time people have heard somewhere that sea rise is going to be tens of feet or multiple meters, it's totally bogus.

Climate scientists do agree that global warming is happening and that humans are at least mostly causing it. But where politicians get in trouble is next assuming that there will be catastrophic results. Catastrophic results are unlikely and assuredly not proven.

We don't know how much warming will occur, and we don't know what exactly will happen but assuming catastrophe is not realistic or helpful.

Great book. 5 stars. ]]> 3.70 2004 State of Fear
author: Michael Crichton
name: Jared
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2016/02/08
date added: 2016/02/08
shelves:
review:
So I gave this book 5 stars, even though I think it really only deserves 4. I think it only deserves 4 because I think that Crichton's view of climate scientists is a bit too negative and I don't agree with all of his thoughts. Also, the story isn't a 5-star story, it's a 3-4 star story.

But I gave it 5-stars because it is dang good to see someone speak out about climate change in a rational manner, and even if I think Crichton is a bit too cynical in some regards I'm much closer to Crichton than I am to Naomi Klein, or Obama. I liked Crichton's arguments even if I didn't agree with all of them.

In this book Crichton rails on the "consensus" view of global warming. And he's right in doing so.

The models have consistently over predicted the amount of warming that will occur and even the model's predictions don't predict a doomsday.

One good question to ask a global warming supporter is how much the ocean's are predicted to rise by the year 2100. I'll typically give them ranges to choose from. No model predicts a sea rise over 1 meter and most are significantly below that, averaging at around a half meter. 50 cm. Most of the time people have heard somewhere that sea rise is going to be tens of feet or multiple meters, it's totally bogus.

Climate scientists do agree that global warming is happening and that humans are at least mostly causing it. But where politicians get in trouble is next assuming that there will be catastrophic results. Catastrophic results are unlikely and assuredly not proven.

We don't know how much warming will occur, and we don't know what exactly will happen but assuming catastrophe is not realistic or helpful.

Great book. 5 stars.
]]> <![CDATA[The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some Don't]]> 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 Jared 4
That being said I really did enjoy this book and I appreciated the insights into statistical analysis that Nate Silver brings to the table.

I actually like a lot of the things that Nate Silver discusses, I like baseball, poker, and politics so this book was right up my alley.

I did feel like I learned a fair amount from the book, I especially liked his discussions and explanations on Baye's theorem. I feel like that is something I will apply to my life and remember for a long time.

I did like this book and I definitely recommend it to others, I just feel like it could have been a bit better. Thus the 4 stars. ]]> 3.95 2012 The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some Don't
author: Nate Silver
name: Jared
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2016/02/06
date added: 2016/02/08
shelves:
review:
This book was a bit more pop sciency than I thought it was going to be. It's kind of like a more boring version of Freakonomics.

That being said I really did enjoy this book and I appreciated the insights into statistical analysis that Nate Silver brings to the table.

I actually like a lot of the things that Nate Silver discusses, I like baseball, poker, and politics so this book was right up my alley.

I did feel like I learned a fair amount from the book, I especially liked his discussions and explanations on Baye's theorem. I feel like that is something I will apply to my life and remember for a long time.

I did like this book and I definitely recommend it to others, I just feel like it could have been a bit better. Thus the 4 stars.
]]> <![CDATA[Why Physician Home Loans Fail: How to Avoid the Land Mines for a Flawless Home Purchase]]> 24522312 135 Josh Mettle Jared 4
Also, it's still a huge hassle to do everything. ]]> 3.92 2014 Why Physician Home Loans Fail: How to Avoid the Land Mines for a Flawless Home Purchase
author: Josh Mettle
name: Jared
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2016/02/06
date added: 2016/02/06
shelves:
review:
Good book, although I think the author over sells the capabilities of physician home loans.

Also, it's still a huge hassle to do everything.
]]> Meditations 28362600 307 Marcus Aurelius Jared 4 4.00 180 Meditations
author: Marcus Aurelius
name: Jared
average rating: 4.00
book published: 180
rating: 4
read at: 2012/06/09
date added: 2015/12/27
shelves:
review:
Some gold in here. Surprising how much is still relevant considering it's nearly 2000 years old. I'd grab a note card while you read it to mark your favorite passages.
]]> <![CDATA[Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf]]> 18936533 151 Ben Hogan Jared 5 4.67 1957 Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf
author: Ben Hogan
name: Jared
average rating: 4.67
book published: 1957
rating: 5
read at: 2015/12/25
date added: 2015/12/25
shelves:
review:
I'm a terrible golfer, but this book made me feel like I don't have to be terrible. It turns out that I didn't know the fundamentals of the sport. I took a class in high school where we went to the driving range a couple times and got some instruction, I thought that was enough and all I needed to do now was practice. Turns out that was wrong. This book tells you how to golf. It's not going to tell you everything but it will get you started in a direction where you can get better.
]]> <![CDATA[Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster]]> 1898
Into Thin Air is the definitive account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest by the acclaimed journalist and author of the bestseller Into the Wild. On assignment for Outside Magazine to report on the growing commercialization of the mountain, Krakauer, an accomplished climber, went to the Himalayas as a client of Rob Hall, the most respected high-altitude guide in the world. A rangy, thirty-five-year-old New Zealander, Hall had summited Everest four times between 1990 and 1995 and had led thirty-nine climbers to the top. Ascending the mountain in close proximity to Hall's team was a guided expedition led by Scott Fischer, a forty-year-old American with legendary strength and drive who had climbed the peak without supplemental oxygen in 1994. But neither Hall nor Fischer survived the rogue storm that struck in May 1996.

Krakauer examines what it is about Everest that has compelled so many people -- including himself -- to throw caution to the wind, ignore the concerns of loved ones, and willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense. Written with emotional clarity and supported by his unimpeachable reporting, Krakauer's eyewitness account of what happened on the roof of the world is a singular achievement.]]> 368 Jon Krakauer Jared 4 4.24 1997 Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
author: Jon Krakauer
name: Jared
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2015/12/23
date added: 2015/12/23
shelves:
review:
Good book, interesting story. The author is a good writer and tells the story well. I feel like I have a decent understanding of what climbing Mount Everest would be like. I think at some point it just feels like dying. Once you get to a certain elevation your body begins to fail and you have to get to the summit and back before you die. People do this all the time but things have to turn out right, you can't get delayed too much and you can't have bad weather. If you get delayed and have bad weather then there is a real good chance you are going to die, because that's what people do when they are stuck at the top of Mount Everest. They die.
]]> <![CDATA[The Third Reich at War, 1939-1945]]> 8370710 An absorbing, revelatory, and definitive account of one of the greatest tragedies in human history, by the author of The Coming of the Third Reich and The Third Reich in Power.Ěý“This is history in the grand style, the kind of large-scale narrative that few historians dare to write these days. It is difficult to imagine how it could be improved upon, let alone surpassed."Ěý—The Washington Post"This superb book is not simply a military history; it is a comprehensive portrait of a society at war...A masterpiece of historical research and analysis...Likely to remain the best study of the Third Reich at war for many years to come."Ěý—The Christian Science MonitorAdroitly blending narrative, description, and analysis, Richard J. Evans portrays a society rushing headlong to self-destruction and taking much of Europe with it. Interweaving a broad narrative of the war's progress from a wide range of people, Evans reveals the dynamics of a society plunged into war at every level. The great battles and events of the conflict are here, but just as telling is Evans's re- creation of the daily experience of ordinary Germans in wartime. At the center of the book is the Nazi extermi­nation of the Jews. The Third Reich at War lays bare the most momentous and tragic years of the Nazi regime.]]> 943 Richard J. Evans 1101022302 Jared 5
This is the third part in Evan's series on the Third Reich and it covers the time period after the invasion of Poland to the end of the War in Europe. It gives a fairly solid history of the the holocaust as well, especially as it related to the Third Reich in general. One important point the author made was that the German population knew rather well what was happening to all the Jews. People who said that they didn't know what was happening were basically lying, it was common knowledge in the Third Reich that Jews were being killed en masse.

The Third Reich is fascinating history, second only to the founding of America in my view. The Nazis were pragmatic and terrible. The population of the Third Reich is almost as interesting as Hitler himself. A lot of them did buy into Nazi propaganda and probably a majority were very supportive during the early successes of the war. But the German population itself was not particularly bloodthirsty or abnormal, they were angry about their place in the world since WWI and Hitler "made Germany great again".

These three books are books that I will remember reading for a long time. They are all well written, informative and authoritative. That's why all three books deserve 5 stars. ]]> 4.58 2008 The Third Reich at War, 1939-1945
author: Richard J. Evans
name: Jared
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2015/12/08
date added: 2015/12/08
shelves:
review:
I almost gave this book 4 stars instead of 5. Largely because I felt the earlier parts of the book were surprisingly uninteresting. But by the end I was fully enthralled with the book and had forgotten my earlier disinterest.

This is the third part in Evan's series on the Third Reich and it covers the time period after the invasion of Poland to the end of the War in Europe. It gives a fairly solid history of the the holocaust as well, especially as it related to the Third Reich in general. One important point the author made was that the German population knew rather well what was happening to all the Jews. People who said that they didn't know what was happening were basically lying, it was common knowledge in the Third Reich that Jews were being killed en masse.

The Third Reich is fascinating history, second only to the founding of America in my view. The Nazis were pragmatic and terrible. The population of the Third Reich is almost as interesting as Hitler himself. A lot of them did buy into Nazi propaganda and probably a majority were very supportive during the early successes of the war. But the German population itself was not particularly bloodthirsty or abnormal, they were angry about their place in the world since WWI and Hitler "made Germany great again".

These three books are books that I will remember reading for a long time. They are all well written, informative and authoritative. That's why all three books deserve 5 stars.
]]> <![CDATA[Outliers: The Story of Success]]> 3228917 Learn what sets high achievers apart � from Bill Gates to the Beatles � in this #1 bestseller from "a singular talent" (New York Times Book Review).

In this stunning book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"—the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.]]> 309 Malcolm Gladwell 0316017922 Jared 4
I think that the author is correct about success depending greatly on circumstances and chance. Bill Gates is assuredly not the smartest or hardest working person in the world, but it could be said he is the most successful.

Overall though I felt this book was a little too "pop-sciency". That's not to say it's not true, but I'm just not sure about the power of its conclusions. One small area I felt the book fall short in was a quick mention it gave to the University of Michigan's law schools affirmative action program. I read a book (Mismatch) that went more in depth on that school and affirmative action in general and I think his quick overview did not do justice to the topic.

I do feel that I learned a lot from this book and I think that if someone reads it then they will learn a lot and have a better understanding of success and what it takes to be successful. ]]> 4.19 2008 Outliers: The Story of Success
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Jared
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2015/11/15
date added: 2015/11/15
shelves:
review:
I really liked the beginning of this book. There were some things in the second half that were intriguing but I found the second half to drag a little and was a bit more dull. I feel that the author is a good writer and made good points about a complex topic like success.

I think that the author is correct about success depending greatly on circumstances and chance. Bill Gates is assuredly not the smartest or hardest working person in the world, but it could be said he is the most successful.

Overall though I felt this book was a little too "pop-sciency". That's not to say it's not true, but I'm just not sure about the power of its conclusions. One small area I felt the book fall short in was a quick mention it gave to the University of Michigan's law schools affirmative action program. I read a book (Mismatch) that went more in depth on that school and affirmative action in general and I think his quick overview did not do justice to the topic.

I do feel that I learned a lot from this book and I think that if someone reads it then they will learn a lot and have a better understanding of success and what it takes to be successful.
]]> Spencer W Kimball 655348 438 Edward L. Kimball 0884943305 Jared 1 4.52 1977 Spencer W Kimball
author: Edward L. Kimball
name: Jared
average rating: 4.52
book published: 1977
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2015/11/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[SEO 2014: Learn Search Engine Optimization with Smart Internet Marketing Strategies]]> 23300328
Most of the search engine optimization advice on the Internet is just plain wrong!

If you've sifted through the torrents of search engine optimization advice online, you may have noticed two things:
- Most of the knowledge on SEO is either completely outdated or just dead-wrong.

- Google's constant updates have rendered many well known SEO strategies completely useless.

Why is this so? Google are constantly evolving, making it extremely difficult to know what currently works. Some recent changes:
1. August, 2014 - Google announced sites secured with SSL certificates will get an advantage in search engines.

2. July, 2014 - Google released a big update dramatically affecting how often the local business listings appear in the search results.

3. May, 2014 - Google announced a game changing update, punishing sites with poor quality content and user experience.


SEO 2014 walks you through the above updates and more. This book also reveals industry secrets about Google's algorithm, so you can learn SEO from a fundamental level, achieve top rankings in Google, and generate hundreds, or even thousands of new customers to your site.

Sidestep the feared 2014 Google updates

Contrary to Internet marketing chatter, problems caused by Google updates are hardly irrecoverable or unavoidable—but you need the right knowledge. This book reveals in granular detail:
- Recent Google updates—Panda 4.0, Pigeon, Hummingbird and beyond.

- Steps required to recover from a Google penalty.

- How to avoid being penalised in 2014 and beyond.


Discover powerful link building techniques experts use to get top rankings and generate massive traffic

Link building is simply the strongest factor for ranking high in Google. Unfortunately, most widely-used methods just plain suck! This chapter walkers you through the most powerful techniques that work wonders and won't get you in hot-water with Google.

You will also discover:
1. How to leverage social media to skyrocket traffic to your site.

2. How to find "money" keywords that will send customers to your site.

3. The dirty secret about link-building.

4. Sneaky tricks to get local businesses ranking high with local search engine optimization.

5. How to get expert SEO or internet marketing advice, completely free.

6. The new meta technology search engines love, schema.org, and how to use it to get more traffic.

You will also learn the little-known search engine optimization tools top internet marketing experts use

The SEO tools chapter lists 20+ of the powerful tools top internet marketing experts are using to automate their search engine optimization, saving weeks of time, and creating bigger results... and most of the tools are free!

And read the very special bonus chapter on pay-per-click advertising

In this special bonus chapter, learn how to quickly and effectively setup a pay-per-click advertising campaign with Google AdWords, and send more traffic and customers to your website overnight.

As one of the most advanced and comprehensive SEO books ever published, SEO 2014 contains everything you need to learn SEO and dominate search engines in 2014. Purchase from Amazon and get started right away!]]> 240 Adam Clarke Jared 5 4.25 2014 SEO 2014: Learn Search Engine Optimization with Smart Internet Marketing Strategies
author: Adam Clarke
name: Jared
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2015/11/07
date added: 2015/11/07
shelves:
review:
For a newbie, I thought this book was great. It gave a good overview of SEO and all the information you would need to get a really good start. It was perfect for what I wanted.
]]> <![CDATA[Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw]]> 18880720 “The story of how the U.S. Army IntelligenceĚý.Ěý.Ěý. helped Colombian police track down and kill Pablo Escobar is a compelling, almost Shakespearean tale.â€� —Los Angeles TimesWhen the cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar escaped his lavish, custom built prison in Colombia, the fallout drove the nation to the brink of chaos. In Killing Pablo, acclaimed journalist Mark Bowden tells the story of the US military’s fifteen-month mission to find him. Drawing on unprecedented access to the soldiers, field agents, and officials involved in the chase, as well as hundreds of pages of top-secret documents and transcripts of Escobar’s intercepted phone conversations, Bowden creates a narrative that reads as if it were torn from the pages of a Tom Clancy thriller.Bowden also tells the story of Escobar’s rise, how he built a criminal organization that would hold an entire nation hostage—and the stories of the intrepid men who would ultimately bring him down. The cast of characters ranges from the US ambassador to Colombia and special forces commandos to Escobar’s archenemy, Col. Hugo Martinez.It was Martinez’s son, raised in the shadow of constant threat from Escobar’s followers, who would ultimately track the fugitive to a Bogota rooftop on the fateful day in 1993 when the outlaw would finally meet his end. Killing Pablo is a tour de force of narrative journalism and a stark portrayal of rough justice in the real world.]]> 307 Mark Bowden 0802197574 Jared 4
It is entertaining and well-written. It is thoroughly brief in its form, which is a strength. It is the story of the hunt for Pablo Escobar.

Pablo was a bad dude. He killed people for breakfast. He killed too many people for the government to allow him to live. His downfall was he was too ambitious and too controlling and when he fell, he killed everyone he thought was responsible. He was truly a narco terrorist.

What you learn throughout the book is that Pablo really wasn't hunted because of cocaine. By the end of the book the Cali Cartel was assuredly shipping more cocaine to the US, but the Cali Cartel was basically working with the government to hunt Pablo. Pablo had become a threat to the nation of Colombia and had to be killed.]]> 4.16 2001 Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw
author: Mark Bowden
name: Jared
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2015/10/09
date added: 2015/10/09
shelves:
review:
I got pulled into the first season of Narcos when I heard it was based on the Pablo Escobar story. After finishing the season I immediately wanted to know how the story ended and how they could make another season. I went searching for a book and found this one. The book was almost exactly what I wanted, the book form of Narcos (except with less artistic license and more of a true non-fiction). It is not a "hard history" non-fiction book. The author does not cite sources throughout the book but does list sources at the end.

It is entertaining and well-written. It is thoroughly brief in its form, which is a strength. It is the story of the hunt for Pablo Escobar.

Pablo was a bad dude. He killed people for breakfast. He killed too many people for the government to allow him to live. His downfall was he was too ambitious and too controlling and when he fell, he killed everyone he thought was responsible. He was truly a narco terrorist.

What you learn throughout the book is that Pablo really wasn't hunted because of cocaine. By the end of the book the Cali Cartel was assuredly shipping more cocaine to the US, but the Cali Cartel was basically working with the government to hunt Pablo. Pablo had become a threat to the nation of Colombia and had to be killed.
]]> <![CDATA[Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1)]]> 18112981 The dinosaur is back on earth—alive, now, in Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park.

An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them—for a price.

Until something goes wrong...

In 'Jurassic Park', Michael Crichton taps all his mesmerizing talent and scientific brilliance to create his most electrifying technothriller. The story, told with an almost documentary verisimilitude, is an account of the attempt, through a hair-raising twenty-four hours on a remote jungle island, to avert a global emergency—a crisis triggered by today's headlong rush (virtually unchecked by any government or scientific watchdogs) to commercialize genetic engineering.

Michael Crichton (1942�2008) makes a brilliant and captivating use of the unique amalgam of suspense and informed science (this time paleontology, biotechnology, and chaos theory) that he originated in 'The Andromeda Strain' (1969). Of all his superb scientific thrillers—all of them best-sellers�'Jurassic Park' is in every way the strongest. It is certain to be his most widely read, talked about, and unreservedly enjoyed novel to date.]]> 466 Michael Crichton Jared 5
The story is fantastic and a significant amount of it made it into the movie which I first saw many many years ago. There is enough different in the book that it is still entertaining, especially the later parts.

Good, fun, entertaining read. ]]> 4.39 1990 Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1)
author: Michael Crichton
name: Jared
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at: 2015/09/22
date added: 2015/09/22
shelves:
review:
Great book, I don't really dig Malcom's arguments all the time but I they are okay. I'm not quite as worried about what science can do as Malcom is but I do feel skepticism in science is almost always preferable to absolute faith.

The story is fantastic and a significant amount of it made it into the movie which I first saw many many years ago. There is enough different in the book that it is still entertaining, especially the later parts.

Good, fun, entertaining read.
]]> The Martian 18401393 Note: Alternate-Cover Edition for this ASIN can be found here

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?]]> 385 Andy Weir Jared 5
Mark Watney is an astronaut who gets stranded on Mars when his crew evacuated because of a dust storm. This is his story of being stranded on Mars.

The story is well written and entertaining, there is almost always enough happening that you are wondering what will happen next.

The story is enlightening and uplifting. Seeing how resources are allocated and people work so hard to try to save one man is probably the moral highlight of the book; and it all works together in a way that feels authentic and meaningful.

Great read. ]]> 4.53 2011 The Martian
author: Andy Weir
name: Jared
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2015/09/12
date added: 2015/09/12
shelves:
review:
So this book was a kindle daily deal for 1.99. I had heard of it before and knew it was going to be a movie so that was enough for me buy it. I'm really glad I did.

Mark Watney is an astronaut who gets stranded on Mars when his crew evacuated because of a dust storm. This is his story of being stranded on Mars.

The story is well written and entertaining, there is almost always enough happening that you are wondering what will happen next.

The story is enlightening and uplifting. Seeing how resources are allocated and people work so hard to try to save one man is probably the moral highlight of the book; and it all works together in a way that feels authentic and meaningful.

Great read.
]]> East of Eden 8132407 East of Eden "the first book," and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. The masterpiece of Steinbeck’s later years, East of Eden is a work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence.

This edition features an introduction by David Wyatt.]]> 620 John Steinbeck Jared 5 4.58 1952 East of Eden
author: John Steinbeck
name: Jared
average rating: 4.58
book published: 1952
rating: 5
read at: 2015/08/27
date added: 2015/08/27
shelves:
review:
I liked this book a lot. I haven't read a lot of American literature (or literature in general), and so I'm not entirely sure why I like this book as much as I do or even why it is such a classic, but I do like it and it is a classic. I think it is a classic for the same reason that I liked many parts of it. It makes you feel better about yourself. It shows that just because you make mistakes, even bad ones, it doesn't mean you are a bad person; you can still choose to be better. I guess that's a pretty good reason to be a classic.
]]> <![CDATA[Alone in the Universe: Why Our Planet Is Unique]]> 13119636 The acclaimed author of In Search of Schrödinger's Cat searches for life on other planets

Are we alone in the universe? Surely amidst the immensity of the cosmos there must be other intelligent life out there. Don't be so sure, says John Gribbin, one of today's best popular science writers. In this fascinating and intriguing new book, Gribbin argues that the very existence of intelligent life anywhere in the cosmos is, from an astrophysicist's point of view, a miracle. So why is there life on Earth and (seemingly) nowhere else? What happened to make this planet special? Taking us back some 600 million years, Gribbin lets you experience the series of unique cosmic events that were responsible for our unique form of life within the Milky Way Galaxy.

Written by one of our foremost popular science writers, author of the bestselling In Search of Schrödinger's Cat Offers a bold answer to the eternal question, "Are we alone in the universe?" Explores how the impact of a "supercomet" with Venus 600 million years ago created our moon, and along with it, the perfect conditions for life on Earth

From one of our most talented science writers, this book is a daring, fascinating exploration into the dawning of the universe, cosmic collisions and their consequences, and the uniqueness of life on Earth.

]]> 240 John Gribbin Jared 4
The author stops talking about probabilities and odds about halfway through the book when he finishes talking about the types of stars that could possibly support intelligent life. After that the improbability of life is largely implied through talking about specific things that exist on the Earth that allowed for the development of intelligent life.

I felt that the book is an extremely good history of the earth and where it came from in an astronomical view. I felt that the author made his point that intelligent life developing on Earth only came about through extremely unlikely occurrences that would probably not be replicated on other planets.

Overall the book was more about why our planet is unique than about being alone in the universe, which is why it gets 4 instead of 5 stars. I am glad that I read it though and I probably would not have read it if it was titled about how our planet is unique.]]> 4.01 2011 Alone in the Universe: Why Our Planet Is Unique
author: John Gribbin
name: Jared
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2015/07/28
date added: 2015/07/28
shelves:
review:
This book wasn't quite what I expected, its basically an overview of all the things that had to go right in order for intelligent life to arrive on earth. So it goes from galaxy to star to planet formation in a fair amount of detail. I felt like this was the author's strong point that he has the best understanding of and it was interesting. He also spends a lot of time on the history of the earth and moon and seemingly unimportant things that had a significant effect on allowing intelligent life to evolve on earth.

The author stops talking about probabilities and odds about halfway through the book when he finishes talking about the types of stars that could possibly support intelligent life. After that the improbability of life is largely implied through talking about specific things that exist on the Earth that allowed for the development of intelligent life.

I felt that the book is an extremely good history of the earth and where it came from in an astronomical view. I felt that the author made his point that intelligent life developing on Earth only came about through extremely unlikely occurrences that would probably not be replicated on other planets.

Overall the book was more about why our planet is unique than about being alone in the universe, which is why it gets 4 instead of 5 stars. I am glad that I read it though and I probably would not have read it if it was titled about how our planet is unique.
]]> <![CDATA[The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing]]> 22318578 Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you'll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. In fact, none of Kondo's clients have lapsed (and she still has a three-month waiting list).

With detailed guidance for determining which items in your house "spark joy" (and which don't), this international best seller featuring Tokyo's newest lifestyle phenomenon will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home - and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire.

]]> 213 Marie KondĹŤ 1607747308 Jared 5
I like the author, she is fun. She is a little quirky, especially regarding speaking to the items you own. But it sounds like she enjoys it and if it I enjoy it I may even keep doing it (I haven't tried it yet).

I've never been a tidy person, I'm terrible at cleaning. I feel that placing items and giving them a 'home' may help me figure out this whole cleaning thing.

Overall, even if I don't change anything or become more tidy I still enjoyed reading the book and feel like it was a good experience.]]> 3.88 2010 The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
author: Marie KondĹŤ
name: Jared
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2015/07/16
date added: 2015/07/16
shelves:
review:
You know, this book may not deserve 5 stars but when I read it I definitely had a 'spark of joy'. I enjoyed reading this book and plan to implement many parts of it into our home. I like the idea of determining what things to keep based on if they bring joy to your life. I haven't tried it yet but it makes intuitive sense to me.

I like the author, she is fun. She is a little quirky, especially regarding speaking to the items you own. But it sounds like she enjoys it and if it I enjoy it I may even keep doing it (I haven't tried it yet).

I've never been a tidy person, I'm terrible at cleaning. I feel that placing items and giving them a 'home' may help me figure out this whole cleaning thing.

Overall, even if I don't change anything or become more tidy I still enjoyed reading the book and feel like it was a good experience.
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