I never read much this summer (compared to other summers at least) but I did get some reading done. Here is the list.
- The Kennedys by Peter Collier & David Horowitz :: Quite good as it followed the family after RFK’s assassination and the tragedy that kept following even the next generation of Kennedys.
- The BLDGBLOG Book by Geoff Manaugh :: I really enjoyed this book. It explored architecture, urban development, and culture in ways that I had never thought of before.
- Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization by Jeff Rubin :: By far my most depressing read of the summer. He gave a more comprehensive explanation of the complexity of peak oil, the economy, and what the future is going to look like.
- The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson :: I reviewed it here.
- Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis :: I haven’t laughed so hard reading a book like this in a long time. That and I think of Mike Todd in a totally different way now.
- The Return to Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 by Paul Krugman :: It made me happy that I was a Canadian.
- Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell :: Raw I.Q. and talent isn’t enough.
- Walden by Henry David Thoreau :: Despite written in a writing style 150 years old, it was a great summer read and a perfect to be reading at the cabin.
So what did you read? Any recommendations for the fall?
I read Life of Pi. Had heard of it when it came out (2001?), but finally got around to reading it when my wife told me she was using it as a novel unit for her grade 11 English class.
Liked it.
My latest reads:
Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Aron Ralston about a mountain climber trapped in crevace by a rock, as a result had to cut off his arm with a pen knife to live. My book is currently being read by a friend but I can let you borrow it when it returns.
Stolen Innocence: about Warren Jeffs, excellent read and I learned alot about LDS.
Left the book in Taiwan to go around Chris and Nevada’s friends. Nevada read the book in two days finishing it right after she gave birth to Guinness.
I am Hutterite by Mary-Ann Kirkby sub titled The fascinating true story of a young woman’s journey to reclaim her heritage. I really enjoyed this book having been many times to Hutterite colony as a child with my parents as my dad was well acquainted with the “chicken” man. I want to be a Hutterite as a result of reading this….well, maybe I will have to think about this some more.
Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin Just finished this book. Wow, I learned alot about Pakistan and Afghanistan. I really suggest you read this, my copy is available if you are interested.
The Orange Trees of Baghdad: In Search of my Lost Family by Leilah Nadir
Captures the true sense of life in Iraq through a families’ memories of life during the wars in Iraq. Canadian author born to Iraqian father and British mother. A revealing book of how families are affected by things that happen “over there”
The Road my copy is lent out but a very interesting book of a father and son’s journey through the end of the world as we know it. Very dark and a times depressing but moments of triumph as they struggle to live in a desperate situation.
I have also read some fluffy books to balance out the intense ones. You are probably not interested in them. I also like magazines for moments a quick read or just pictures are needed.
Brenda England
Brenda, that’s a way better list than mine. Several I am going to have check out.
I read a lot of fluffy books as well as well as Sports Illustrated and ESPN to keep my mind balanced
Joesph, I own it but I haven’t read it. I just can’t force myself to get excited about it.
I’d recommend the following from my reading this year:
1. The Family, by Jeff Sharlet.
2. The Bomb: A New History, by Stephen Younger. Slim and readable, includes a good discussion of the difficulty of building and maintaining nuclear weapons, along with an argument that “dirty bombs” sound scarier than they really are.
3. Dogs and Demons: The Fall of Modern Japan, by Alex Kerr. Kerr loves Japan, and is the author of one of the great travel narratives on Japan. This book is about how he hates what has happened to it in the last two generations.
4. Pagan Christianity, by Frank Viola and George Barna.
5. The Jesus Machine, by Dan Gilgoff. Doesn’t really hang together as a book and is kind of dated since the 2008 election, but still a good source on the current state of the Christian Right.
6. The Unlikely Disciple, by Kevin Roose; Roose is an A. J. Jacobs protege, and he took a semester away from Brown to attend Liberty University. This is still my favorite book from this year.
7. A Colossal Failure of Common Sense, by Lawrence McDonald. An inside story from a certain collapsed investment bank; does a good job of explaining some complicated finance and what went wrong. The reader can skip the first eighty pages and miss nothing whatsoever; the last 250 are worth the effort.
If I had to cut this list down I’d say maybe #2, definitely #3, #6, and #7.