I recently bought three eBooks all dealing in some manner with Google. I read all three at the same time, letting the Kindle keep track of where I was in each book. Since I read all three books simultaneously and all three cover similar ground, I thought I’d comment on them together rather than separately.
Review of the Boy Who Harnessed The Wind
December 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment
This is the second memoir I’ve read from someone dealing with the hardships of growing up in Africa. The first one was A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. Ishmael grew up in the war-torn Congo area and became a boy soldier. William Kamkwamba’s struggle deals with poverty. Both stories are inspirational and worthy of the praise each book has received.
Review of Hearts of Courage
December 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment
This book tells the story of a plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness and the subsequent month-long survival of four of the plane’s six occupants. The story is told by the son of one of the survivors. It’s a compelling story but one that might have been better had the story been handled a little differently.
Review of Methland
December 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The story told in Methland concerns the impact that the drug methamphetamine has had on the lives of the people of one small town in America. The town the author chose to highlight is Oelwein, Iowa. But the negative circumstances attributed to meth use in Oelwein are the same in countless towns and cities across the country. The author could easily have written the same book by focusing on any number of similar towns by simply interchanging characters.
Review of Hunting Eichmann
November 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Fans of fiction often complain that nonfiction books tends to be dry. They obviously haven’t read the right books. I started this blog, in part, to expand the reach of great nonfiction. Hunting Eichmann is a real life thriller that is better than anything Tom Clancy or any other comparable fiction writer could dream up.
Review of Fordlandia by Greg Grandin
November 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The title Fordlandiais not the catchiest title, but it is an appropriate title because it accurately reflects what this book is about. Fordlandia is the name given to a large parcel of land in Brazil purchased by Henry Ford for the purpose of growing rubber trees with the hope of using that rubber in his expanding automotive empire. It is also a story about what happens when Henry Ford tries to transplant a midwestern town in the middle of the Amazon.
Review of Look me in the eye by John Elder Robinson
October 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment
This book is a memoir written by the brother of the author of Running With Scissors, Augusten Burroughs. Unlike most people who have read Look me in the eye, I have not read Augusten’s book, though I probably will read it now. I give a lot of credit to people who see one author have a lot of success with a book and then decide that they have something to add and can do just as good a job. Frank McCourt’s brother wrote his own memoir after Angela’a Ashesbecame a best seller. I haven’t read it, but the book has done well. Some of the soldiers covered in Mark Bowden’s Blackhawk Down wrote their own book. One of the boat captains in the story A Perfect Stormhas written a couple of successful books. A lot of good books don’t make it because they can’t find an audience. So there’s nothing wrong with riding the coattails of another book.
Review of Horse Soldiers
September 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The story told in the book Horse Soldiers is a modern day western. Not only do we have American special force soldiers riding into battle atop horses alongside Afghan fighters, the story has many of the same plot devices, including a siege at a wood and mud fort. The one difference is that this story is true and it took place not long after the hijackings of September 11, 2001.
Review of Crazy For The Storm
August 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The story of the accident and the trip down the mountain is interspersed with the story of young Norman growing up. The author tells the two stories in alternating chapters. Neither story is strong enough to stand alone. Together, though, the two stories complement each other in a way that makes for interesting reading.
Review of Outliers
July 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Review of The Bounty
June 18, 2009 By 1 Comment
Like most people, my introduction to the story of the Mutiny on the Bounty is from film, specifically the one with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins (which by the way I have added to my Blockbuster que). I vaguely remember seeing the one with Marlon Brando. The Mel Gibson film is a fair re-enactment that gives equal treatment to both sides of the story. One version is that Bligh was a tyrant who had it coming and that Fletcher Christian had simply had enough. The other version is that Fletcher had overreacted and the mutiny was a spur of the moment decision made under the influence of alcohol. The truth lies somewhere in between.
Review of Hot, Flat, and Crowded
June 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment
This book doesn’t offer a step by step guide on how to implement renewable energy sources. Instead, Thomas Friedman takes a big picture view of where we are now and where we need to go in the years ahead. And he makes a very good case. The nation that is first in renewable energy will be the one to benefit the most.
Review of Columbine
June 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Most people who have followed this story know of the existence of video and written evidence detailing the actions and motives of the two killers. Part of what makes this book so compelling is that the author is able to use that mountain of evidence to get inside the minds of Eric and Dylan. The basement videos were just a small part of what they left behind. Each boy also left behind detailed journals which gave insight into their thinking.
Review of Lost Paradise
May 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment
This is a true life Lord of The Flies tale. It is a story of what can happen in a closed society where there is no law or social conscience. With a limited supply of women and no real risk of punishment, the men on the island took advantage of their dominance and routinely raped girls as young as nine. It all came to light when one of the victims revealed her story to an outsider who was visiting the island. Thus began a long multi-year process where a number of men were brought to trial for the alleged rapes.
Review of The Great Depression Ahead
April 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The idea that you can predict future trends based on historical cycles has some merit. The author uses a myriad of cycles to explain his reasoning for his pessimistice outlook. Here are just a few: the terriosim cycle, innovation cycle, immigration cycle, geopolitical cycle, demograpic cycle, real estate cycle, various stock market cycles, commodities cycle, and the emerging markets cycle. The cycles range in time from as littles as eight or nine years, such as the terroisim cycle, to as long as 5,000 years for the civilization cycle.
