The History Book Club discussion

Douglass, here is your new thread in 2016. Happy reading in the new year.

Our Required Format:

JANUARY

1. by Winston S. Churchill
Finish date: January 2016
Genre: (whatever genre the book happens to be)
Rating: A
Review: You can add text from a review you have written but no links to any review elsewhere even goodreads. And that is about it. Just make sure to number consecutively and just add the months.

JANUARY

1. by Sophocles
Finish date: January 11, 2016
Genre: Classics
Rating: A
Review: Philoctetes, a Greek hero known for his skill as an archer with Heracles's bow, was bitten by a snake while walking on the sacred ground of Chryse. The bite was horribly painful and smelled even worse. It was so bad that Odysseus finally marooned him on the desert island of Lemnos. The play begins, of course, in medias res as Odysseus and Neoptolemus (son of the great warrior Achilles) return to Lemnos to retrieve Philoctetes. They had captured the Trojan seer Helenus, who told them that they would only conquer Troy with Neoptolemus, Philoctetes, and Philoctetes's bow. Odysseus, known for being clever, urges Neoptolemus to trick Philoctetes into coming with them. Neoptolemus is conflicted about Odysseus's plan, saying "I far prefer failure, if it is honest, to victory earned by treachery." This is one of many great lines in the play as Sophocles deals with the question of whether the end justifies the means. And lines like this classic tragedy well worth the short amount of time it takes to read it.

2. by Mike Dow (no photo)
Finish date: January 13, 2016
Genre: Health and Nutrition
Rating: A
Review: Dr. Mike Dow presents an eye-opening program to combat nutritional and behavioral habits that lead to fatigue, attention problems, depression, and insomnia. Each chapter starts with a story from one of Dow's patients, followed by a scientific explanation of what is happening to the patient, backed up by alarming statistics that every American should know about. Dow then provides some realistic ideas for swapping out bad foods and bad behaviors for alternatives that balance your energy and bring peace to your body and mind. This is a must-read for every person who feels like they have issues with their energy, focus, and/or mood.

3. by Lee Strauss
Finish date: January 16, 2016
Genre: Sci-fi/Young Adult
Rating: B+
Review: This is a great sci-fi story written at a teen-appropriate level. The quality of the writing leaves something to be desired, but its simplicity allow you to breeze through the book and enjoy the mystery and suspense of the plot. Zoe is a genetically altered person (GAP) who is 17 years old, but expected to live twice as long as the average person. Everyone in her immediate family is a GAP, and her grandfather is actually one of the founders of GAP technology. When her older brother mysteriously disappears, she ventures beyond the walls of the GAP city for the first time in her life. She finds help in Noah, an anti-GAP activist. Zoe and Noah are an unusual pair that is tied together by fate and a weird family history. As they spend time together, unraveling the mystery of her brother's disappearance, the characters change each other. Both characters grow to become smarter, stronger, and more empathetic. And, of course, there is plenty of intrigue and action as they investigate the dangerous world that had been hidden within their sights. I highly recommend this story to any young adult reader or to an adult who just wants a relaxing read with a great story.

FEBRUARY

4. by Orson Scott Card
Finish date: February 9, 2016
Genre: Sci-fi
Rating: B+
Review: Ender's Shadow is a parallel novel, taking place at the same time as Ender's Game. It is clear in Ender's Game that Ender Wiggin likely could not have saved the human race, at least not as effectively, without the help of Bean. Bean is just as smart as Ender and in many ways more interesting. His background as an orphan on the street is much different, and it introduces the character Sister Carlotta to the story. She is a clever, spunky character who sees Bean's potential when she discovers him at age four. Her character changes and grows in the story just as much as Bean's. And her role sets up important plot points for other books in the Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow series. Bean's history, his involvement with Sister Carlotta, and his perspective of the Formic Wars create huge opportunities for Card to write interesting and thought-provoking interactions between characters. This is not just some sequel; it is a genuinely good book.

This is the 4th book in the series that I have read. I started with Ender's Game, then read the prequel Earth Unaware, then Ender in Exile before reading this. I would recommend reading Ender's Shadow before Ender in Exile. Chronologically, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant also fit between the two. While Ender's Game is probably the best book in the series, I have enjoyed every one of these books, and each one I read only makes me more interested in the Ender's universe. I will definitely keep working through the many books set Orson Scott Card's "Enderverse."

by Orson Scott Card

5. by Robert Kirkman
Finish date: February 11, 2016
Genre: Comic/Graphic Novel
Rating: A
Review: This series continues to impress me and engage me through its second set of eight volumes. As I said in my review of Compendium #1, I feel like I am watching Kirkman grow as a writer as I read along. What he started with way back in issue #1 was great, but through 96 issues he has only improved. I still feel that the comics are not as thought-provoking as the television series, but in these later issues, Kirkman's pacing is better and the stories and new characters are more interesting. He has slowed down the killing off of characters, which allows more development and more continuity. TWD solidifies its spot in my top 5 favorite comics and graphic novels with this second compendium.

by Robert Kirkman

6. by Stephen Greenblatt
Finish date: February 19, 2016
Genre: History
Rating: B+
Review: This is one of the most interesting and engaging non-fiction books that I have read in a while. However, there are some major issues in the book's construction. I would give my reading experience five stars, but the subjective quality of the book three. Greenblatt set out to connect the ancient world to the modern world with the reemergence of Lucretius's On the Nature of Things in the Renaissance as the hook that ties the two together. It is a fascinating topic, and Greenblatt is a good writer, but it is almost like he set out to write a book on this topic without a clear idea for how it was going to be structured, where its focal points would be, etc. There is sort of a beginning and end, but not a very organized path of getting from one to the other. Greenblatt also shows an obvious bias against the Church. His writing is almost as big an assault on the Church as Church's assault on Epicurean ideas during the Renaissance was. It is a bit hypocritical. The Church's anti-scientific history is shameful, but it can be reported on with better sensitivity. Carl Sagan, for example, covers a few of the same topics in his Cosmos as Greenblatt covers in The Swerve. He is just as effective in advocating for scientific research and freedom of thought, if not more, but he is in much less danger of offending his readers than Greenblatt. I do not contest anything that Greenblatt writes in this book, but I know plenty of Christians who would be so turned off by Greenlatt's approach that they might put the book down without finishing it, and certainly wouldn't give its ideas the attention they deserve. It would make me hesitate to share this book with my students and some of my friends. It is disappointing that The Swerve doesn't live up to the hype, but it is still an important read for anyone interested in history, philosophy, and science. It is a fine addition to the puzzle that is my growing understanding of history.

by Titus Lucretius Carus
by Carl Sagan

Great Douglass

APRIL

7. by Brian K. Vaughan
Finish date: April 2, 2016
Genre: Comic/Graphic Novel
Rating: A-
Review: Nobody else in the graphic literature universe comes close to Brian K. Vaughan's ability to be original, entertaining, hilarious, shocking, disturbing, and philosophical all at the same time. I liked volumes 1-4 better than 5, but this remains my favorite comic/graphic novel series. Saga will change the way you look at graphic novels, and you be unable to find another that measures up to it once you have read it.

by Brian K. Vaughan

8. by Edith Wharton
Finish date: April 2, 2016
Genre: Fiction/Classic
Rating: A
Review: It is clear from reading reviews on Goodreads that some readers get no entertainment out of reading a tragedy. They get mad at the tragic characters for the decisions that they make. They don't like be pulled between emotions of sadness, anger, and regret. In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton uses her brilliant skill for writing prose to pull the reader into the cold world of Starkfield and the sad house of Ethan Frome:

I had been struck by the contrast between the vitality of the climate and the deadness of the community. Day by day, after the December snows were over, a blazing blue sky poured down torrents of light and air on the white landscape, which gave them back in an intenser glitter. One would have supposed that such an atmosphere must quicken the emotions as well as the blood; but it seemed to produce no change except that of retarding still more the sluggish pulse of Starkfield.

Ensnared in this world, the reader is next pulled into the mind and heart of Ethan Frome. One can't help but feel sympathetic to the protagonist and his predicament:

He had always been more sensitive than the people about him to the appeal of natural beauty. His unfinished studies had given form to this sensibility and even in his unhappiest moments field and sky spoke to him with a deep and powerful persuasion. But hitherto the emotion had remained in him as a silent ache, veiling with sadness the beauty that evoked it. He did not even know whether any one else in the world felt as he did, or whether he was the sole victim of this mournful privilege. Then he learned that one other spirit had trembled with the same touch of wonder...

From there, Wharton pushes and pulls the reader through the highs and lows, hopes and fears of Frome's emotions over a period of only a few days. The intensity builds to where it will surely explode, which it in fact does more than once. Once Wharton has the reader wrapped around her finger, she drops bombs. I guess some readers don't like that, but for me I was hooked. Ironically, after starting this tragedy feeling down in the dumps, I came out the other end feeling a lot better. I like for a book to take me out of my world and into another, a place of wonder, excitement, and a whole range of emotions. In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton manages to do this in only a few pages. It is an impressive, wonderful classic that any true lover of fiction should adore.

Great review Douglass - way beyond the call of duty (smile) but very well done. Thank you.

MAY

9. by Daniel James Brown
Finish date: May 29, 2016
Genre: Sports/History
Rating: A
Review: I never would have picked this book up on my own, but when Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck made it the first selection for his book club I was intrigued. The Boys in the Boat tells the story of the 1936 USA Olympic rowing team, 9 young men from the University of Washington who found themselves competing for Olympic gold in the midst of an economic depression and the rise of Nazi Germany.

In the prologue, as author Daniel James Brown tells rower Joe Rantz about the book he is writing, Rantz responds, "It has to be about the boat." It is clear by the end of the tear-jerking epilogue that Brown granted Rantz's dying wish. The Boys in the Boat is a tale of how trust, self-sacrifice, and resilience can overcome the world's most difficult and terrifying times to achieve life's greatest successes: a great education, a strong families and career, and even an Olympic gold medal. It turns out that has a lot to do with a boat!

JUNE

10. by Stephen Hawking
Finish date: June 3, 2016
Genre: Science
Rating: A
Review: Stephen Hawking, one of the world's greatest minds in the study of astrophysics, and co-author Leonard Mladinow, present an essential piece of non-fiction reading for every human being. It is a narrative of mankind's 3,000-year search for a "theory of everything," from ancient mythology and the world's first philosophers and mathematicians to quantum physics, string theory, and finally m-theory. What is impressive about this book is how clearly and concisely Hawking and Mladinow are able to explain extremely abstract concepts, like subatomic particles that are too small to ever be seen and how they interact with each other. Since they start with the familiar philosophies of Aristotle before moving through Newton, Einstein, etc., readers starting from any level of understanding can follow along and keep up.

One of the core concepts of this book is model-based realism. Each scientist who they discuss tested the scientific models of their time through experimentation, which led them to either confirm, adjust, or disprove the models. It is fascinating to read a breakdown of how the scientific model of the universe has evolved from one scientist to the next, and it shows how humans are wired to model their understanding of any topic, to test those models, and to continuously define models throughout our lives and even across generations.

There are a few bold claims in the book about the implications of astrophysics for philosophy. Hawking seems to be very worried about people continuing to credit an intelligent designer with our existence. While physics has proven that the universe and life could have been created without an intelligent designer (a very interesting concept discussed in this book), it hasn't entirely ruled it out as a possibility. It seems oxymoronic to claim that there are 10^500 possible universes in simultaneous existence, each with potentially different fundamental laws of physics, but that intelligent design is impossible. Hawking's claim that "philosophy is dead" is also a stretch. While m-theory comes extremely close to formulating a "theory of everything," it still presents more than enough questions for humanity to contemplate about our existence. What I gathered from this book is that m-theory doesn't end the processes of philosophy or model-based realism, but opens the door for a new explosion of philosophy and scientific discovery.

11. by Eric Stephenson
Finish date: June 6, 2016
Genre: Comic/Graphic Novel
Rating: A
Review: "Science is the new rock 'n' roll," says Thomas Walker, one of the founders of World Corp (four scientists who bear a striking resemblance to the Beatles). In the setting of Nowhere Men, Walker's quote is quite accurate. In earth's future, scientists are the celebrities. Like stereotypical rock stars, they experiment with sex and drugs and attract a great deal of attention from gossip magazines. The rock star theme is visually portrayed with 1960s design, architecture, hair styles, and clothing throughout this comic, but science doesn't ride in the back seat. The World Corp founders and earth's science-obsessed culture are beginning to face the consequences of a scientific renaissance that has had a total disregard for ethics. Humanity is quickly being reshaped (quite literally), and it will never be the same again. Nowhere Men has all of the original creativity you would expect from Image Comics both in its story and its artwork. It is a must read for anyone who appreciates the graphic novel genre.

12. by Harry Mulisch
Finish date: June 9, 2016
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: Weeks before the end of the Nazi occupation of Holland, a Nazi collaborator is assassinated as he rides home on his bicycle, erupting a quiet neighborhood in Haarlem into chaos. At the center of it all is Anton Steenwijk, a 12-year old boy whose innocent family is murdered in retaliation. This and other events that happen in that single night go on to have significant effects on the rest of Anton's life and the lives of everyone he knows and everyone who was involved that day. It takes more than 25 years for Anton to finally understand what happened that day, and the final story is worth the journey. There are so many moral and philosophical questions to ponder throughout the book, and at some point every answer that you and the characters come up with, every emotional response, turns out to be misinformed. The Assault is an excellent post-war novel from the perspective of a Dutch author whose family was entangled in the Nazi occupation of Holland. It is a fascinating glimpse of the chaotic effects of Nazi occupation that lasted for decades after World War 2.

Good review, Douglass. I am putting this one on my to-read list.

13. by Orson Scott Card
Finish date: June 13, 2016
Genre: Fiction/Sci-fi
Rating: B
Review: Earth Afire is the second part of The First Formic War series, which is a prequel to Ender's Game. This is the fifth novel I have read that takes place in the Ender Universe (there are some comic books as well). This book is marginally better than the first book in the series, Earth Unaware, which I reviewed last year. The science is a little more realistic, and the story has much more continuity and structure.

In this series, Card takes multiple characters through the Hero's Journey simultaneously, which is quite a feat. Lem, Mazer, and Victor from book #1 continue their stories, and a new character, an 8-year-old Chinese boy named Bingwen is introduced. Victor's mother Rena's story also continues, but does not get quite as much attention. I assume that she will come back into the main plot in book #3, as Captain O'Toole did in book #2 after seeming incidentally involved in book #1. The theme of this book can be summed up in a wise line from Victor:

If there’s a problem, you fix it. You don’t set up fences around it and make rules about how it should be fixed. You fix it.

Unfortunately, Card takes this theme to the extreme, and about 350 pages of this 400-page book consists of characters arguing about whether or not they should fix something and then how to fix it.

The First Formic War series is not Card's best work, but you get to enjoy many great aspects of his writing. His characters are interesting. His writing flows beautifully. There is plenty of sci-fi tech and Sun Tzu-esque military strategy. And the suspense makes you unable to put it down. I highly recommend reading Orson Scott Card's novels that are set in Ender's Universe, but I suggest reading Ender's Game first. If you like it, pick up Ender's Shadow, then continue forward in the timeline that follows those 2 novels, and then jump back to The First Formic War #1 (Earth Unaware) and work through this series.

by Orson Scott Card

14. by Orson Scott Card
Finish date: June 17, 2016
Genre: Fiction/Sci-fi
Rating: B+
Review: This is the best book in the First Formic War trilogy. The trilogy really functions like one 1200-page book, but was probably split into three 400-page books for publishing purposes. The third part of the series has a lot more action. It also delves deeper into some of the characters. Card focuses a lot on the complex relationship between Lem Jukes and his father Ukko in this book, which is one of my favorite parts of this series. The third book also reveals the heroism of characters like Captain Wit O'Toole, Mazer Rackham, Lem Jukes, and others. Orson Scott Card creates great characters in a variety of situations who grow and change over the course of the story. It is just great story-telling!

The book that follows this, The Swarm, is the first book of the Second Formic War series. It will be released August 2, 2016. I can't wait to read it!

by Orson Scott Card

Douglass wrote: "6. by Stephen Greenblatt
Finish date: February 19, 2016
Genre: History
Rating: ..."

I had a similar response to "Swerve" and I agree the assault on the Catholic Church could have been handled with more sensitivity. That assault reminds me of William Manchester's assault in .

Douglass wrote: "MAY

9. by Daniel James Brown

Jerry-Book.........your citation in post #19 needs to have the author information as such.

by William Manchester.

Thanks.

Jerry-Book wrote: "Douglass wrote: "6. by Stephen Greenblatt
Finish date: February 19, 2016
Genre:..."

Stephen Hawking disappointed me with a similar attack on religion in The Grand Design (see my review above). I am not especially religious, but I do not like when people try to drive a wedge between science and religion as if the two are completely incompatible. I much prefer the approaches of Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson, who favor science but do not insult or dismiss religion. Tyson said once–I think it was on his show StarTalk–that a Christian might look at a brilliant display of nature, such as a beautiful sunset, and feel a closer connection to God. An athiest might look at it and feel spiritually connected to the universe. Are the two really any different?

by Stephen Hawking
by Carl Sagan
by Neil deGrasse Tyson

15. by Jeffrey Archer
Finish date: June 21, 2016
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: A-
Review: I read and reviewed Only Time Will Tell (The Clifton Chronicles, #1) back in December and was looking forward to reading book #2. Jeffrey Archer carefully crafts a web of characters and events, connected by family, friendship, crime, and conspiracy. Most of Archer's characters are good people with minor flaws that make them lovable and relatable. Like most people, their lives are shaped by their inheritance, their decisions, the good or bad decisions of others, and a little serendipity. However, there are a handful of characters who are just downright evil people. If you thought Hugo Barrington was bad in book #1, wait until you read book #2! The Sins of the Father has a little bit of everything you would want in a book. It definitely meets the standard of Only Time Will Tell, so I am excited to continue on with the series (#3 Best Kept Secret is next). I cannot believe he has written 7 books in this series now. I hope they are all this good!

by Jeffrey Archer

I read Only time will tell a few year ago and liked it a lot. I'm going to have to search for the rest of the series.

by Jeffrey Archer

16. by Garth Stein
Finish date: June 24, 2016
Genre: Fiction/Animals
Rating: A+
Review: This is the best book I have read so far this year. It is so sweet, sad, spiritual, philosophical, funny, and original. The Art of Racing in the Rain is told from the perspective of a dog. The dog, Enzo, and his master, Denny, are obsessed with racing, specifically F1 an enduro, and racing is used throughout the book as a metaphor for life. Denny takes Enzo through quite the journey as he builds a family and then has his family challenged in the most disastrous way you could imagine, all while he is trying to establish a career as a professional race car driver.

Stein's use of Enzo as the narrator is a creative twist on story-telling, allowing you to see the tale (no pun intended) from a very unique perspective–one a lot closer to the ground, if you will. Enzo gives you a glimpse into what might be going through a pet's head when he destroys your stuff, poops on the rug, or runs into traffic, as well as when he puts his head on your lap or sets down his favorite toy in front of you. Enzo's family is full of some amazing characters, and with his canine instincts, he is often more aware of what is going on inside the characters than they even know themselves. Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants, sums it up best in her review, saying, "This old soul of a dog has much to teach us about being human."

by Sara Gruen

I enjoyed that one too, Douglass. It tugged at the heart strings.

Donna wrote: "I enjoyed that one too, Douglass. It tugged at the heart strings."

Pretty much every emotion one could feel in life must be in it somewhere.

JULY

17. by Andrew S. Rivkin (no photo)
Finish date: July 5, 2016
Genre: Non-Fiction/Science
Rating: B+
Review: This volume compiles science about small solar system objects, from micrometer-sized dust to minor planets like Pluto and Ceres. Rivkin defines the variety of objects and classifications, explaining why they have come to identify various objects (i.e. why Pluto is no longer a planet). Rivkin does not spend a great deal of time analyzing particular objects. Instead, he identifies trends, explains how they are studied, and then points to resources you can use to study them. The book is more about how these objects are being studied than it is about the objects themselves. Our knowledge of the solar system grows every day, so it is best for a published book to explain the science and then point to online resources where you can get the latest science. Since this book was published, New Horizons has visited Pluto, Dawn has visited Vesta and Ceres, and Rosetta has visited Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, widely expanding our knowledge of the asteroid belt, Kuiper belt, and comets. This book has remained relevant without that data by focusing on scientific methods and pointing the reader to where they can find that data online. It is well worth the attention of any reader interested in the astronomy, the solar system, and planetary science.

18. by M.L. Stedman
Finish date: July 10, 2016
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: B
Review: This one of the saddest books I have ever read. From the beginning to the end, there is so much sadness. Stedman tugs at your heartstrings as she invests you in each character's story and perspective, especially the main character Tom Shelbourne. Tom is a veteran of the First World War who finds himself, years after the war, in a different sort of battle, where morality is uncertain, and lives are going to be ruined, no matter what he does. For Tom and his family, every goodness in their lives is somehow tainted by senseless hate, deception, and loss. Stedman's writing is lovely, but this is a tough book to get through emotionally. Fate is cruel to these characters, and their choices don't make it any easier. Stedman's short subchapters, frequent changing of perspective, and seemingly random bouncing between the past and present tenses also makes the reader feel a bit jostled around. It is a beautiful book, but it is exhausting.

19. by Donald K. Yeomans (no photo)
Finish date: July 11, 2016
Genre: Non-Fiction/Science
Rating: A
Review: Yeomans makes a case for the study of near-earth objects. The subtitle, "Finding Them Before They Find Us," is probably added by the publisher to sell more books with the shock and awe of doomsday. Yeomans demonstrates many more compelling reasons to care about NEOs. He points out that, while impacts from NEOs can bring destruction, they also have played an essential role in encouraging the development and evolution of life. It is possible they seeded the earth with water and organics. It is possible, though less likely, that life originated elsewhere and was brought to earth on asteroids or comets. They have opportunities for developing and refining space exploration programs and are sometimes easier to reach than the Moon. They also provide economic opportunities, with some containing metals that are rare on Earth.

Most NEOs migrated to the inner solar system from elsewhere, so Yeomans explains orbital dynamics to show where they originated, how they got here, and how we know how they got here. If you are not an astrophysicist, the scientific studies of Hal Levison and other astrodynamics experts would sooner tie your brain in a knot than give you a better understanding of the solar system. Yeomans explains orbital dynamics, the Nice model, and Yarkovsky effect in ways that are easy to understand, providing excellent footnotes and citations for those readers who want to delve deeper.

For the reader who is interested in only one or two particular aspects of NEOs, the book is well-organized, with each chapter standing alone as a very informative article. Yeomans points the reader to other chapters, where useful, to help readers who are skipping around. Each chapter has an intro, summary, works cited, tables and graphics, etc. You will not find a better resource on near-earth objects than this book!

20. by Allen Steele
Finish date: July 16, 2016
Genre: Fiction/Sci-Fi
Rating: C+
Review: This book's organization could be better, the writing is not spectacular, and the science could have been more imaginative, but it is still worth the attention of the avid science fiction reader. The plot takes place in 2016. Steele's vision 30 years ago of where human space travel would be today is very interesting to consider. In reality, humans haven't reached Mars, returned to the moon, or taken full advantage of the economic and scientific advantages that space has to offer, not because Steele's vision was overambitious, but because space exploration suddenly became low-priority as soon as the Soviet Union fell. Steele's anticipation of illegal NSA spying and public-private partnership between NASA and corporations is on the money. It is funny what critics said about this book back in 1986: doubting Steele's assumption that there would still be bikers, hippies, and Deadheads 30 years into the future. Steele got the last laugh on that one. Steele's use of these pop culture archetypes and his establishment of a space-based Beamjack culture creates opportunities for both drama and humor. Steele is also well-versed with the problems and complexities of space travel, exploring the psychological impact of extended stays in space, and writing a beautiful chapter about a female pilot launching the space shuttle. Allen Steele's writing has its drawbacks, but it is a valuable contribution to science fiction's contemplation of man's future in space.

AUGUST

21. by Laura Rittenhouse (no photo)
Finish date: August 21, 2016
Genre: Business/Money
Rating: B+
Review: This book introduces the reader to the letters that Warren Buffett writes to his shareholders in the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report. Buffett also includes a "Shareholder's Manual" in the report, which Rittenhouse uses material from as well. This is a great introduction to fundamental concepts of value investing, the strategy which Buffett has used to build a personal net worth of over $70 billion. Warren Buffett is more than a successful investor and business owner, he is a role model for all of us. One of the core values of his life has been stewardship. He finds business that are run by great people who truly care about their craft, invests in them or purchases their company, and then continues to let them manage and do their great work while he stays out of the way. He feels deeply committed to his shareholders, and strives to give them great returns and more than enough information about the company, as well as other sage advice. Rittenhouse is obviously a big believer in Buffett. She writes passionately about him and his work, and she writes so much like him that at times you forget whether you are reading his words or hers. This quick read is well worth the time for any investor, even if the extent of your investment is only a few mutual funds for your retirement. Value investing isn't only a stock market strategy, it can be a model for all the economics of life.

OCTOBER

22. by Robert G. Hagstrom (no photo)
Finish date: October 20, 2016
Genre: Business/Money
Rating: A-
Review: Robert Hagstrom is one of many authors hoping to make a few bucks by telling people how they can make their own millions investing like Warren Buffett. Hagstrom gives helpful details about how Buffett calculates owner's earnings, but otherwise he doesn't know much more than anyone else does about Buffett's specifics. Hagstrom outlines Buffett's basic tenets of investing, based on what he has read in the Berkshire Hathaway annual reports and a handful of other Buffett writings. This is an excellent outline of Buffett's fundamental principles of investing and how they were applied to various investments that Buffett made at Berkshire. The most interesting and useful part is Hagstrom's focus in the second half of the book on the focus portfolio. A study of 12,000 computer-generated portfolios showed that the number of stocks in a portfolio directly correlates to the portfolio's chance of beating the market. The small number of stocks in Buffett's portfolio may be the most important factor that allowed Buffett to outperform the market consistently for nearly 60 years.

NOVEMBER

23. by Malcolm Gladwell
Finish date: November 12, 2016
Genre: Non-fiction/Psychology
Rating: A
Review: As a musician, I am often forced in performance situations to take actions with no time at all for conscious thought. This is especially true when something in a performance goes wrong. For example, if I am playing drum set and I feel the lead guitarist's tempo changing, I have to make a snap decision to follow him or to make him follow me. Either decision could be appropriate depending on factors such as the size of the band, the listening environment, what I know about the other musician, etc. There is no time to consider all these factors, so my brain just automatically makes the choice unconsciously, and it somehow almost always gets it right. I have also been in many situations where I am playing drums on a song that I have never seen or heard before, and somehow my brain can rapidly recognize the style and form and select a groove that complements what the other instruments are playing. I may not have time to identify each chord, but I have an intuition for where the progression is going, I can pick up on subtle gestures of the other musicians to confirm where the music is going and how soon it will get there, and I can even use my anticipation of arrival points to play "fills" in the drum beat that set them up. Without ever having heard the song before, I can play it in a way that helps the rest of the ensemble play it better. These are the types of decisions that Malcolm Gladwell explores in Blink.

Gladwell shares fascinating stories of rapid evaluations that can be more accurate than in-depth analysis by experts over long periods of study. An example is a tennis instructor who can predict double faults with stunning accuracy. Gladwell also shares stories of snap decisions that have saved lives, like a firefighter who pulled his men out before a building collapsed, with no conscious conclusions about why. We often call this "trusting your gut," but Gladwell shows there is a lot more than that going on. By taking time to evaluate the history of experiences that led to each snap decision, Gladwell shows how each of these individuals had trained their unconscious minds to process critical decisions at an extremely rapid pace.

I was stunned as I read that I not only have trained myself that way, but that I have trained hundreds of students as well. I teach students strategies for finding landmarks in the music to get back in if they stop or get lost, I teach them to prioritize some elements of the music over others to shrink recovery time, and I teach them tricks for concealing mistakes from the audience. I put them in situations in rehearsal where they have to do these things so that they get better at them. Whenever a student makes a great recovery, I point it out so that they and their peers see it. Ultimately, they come to trust their unconscious minds, and I have seen amazing recoveries from mistakes in live performances. For a long time, I thought that some of these recoveries might be miracles or just dumb luck. In my entire career as a performer, educator, and conductor, I have only ever had to do a restart in a performance one time, and it was for a non-musical mistake (I was conducting and cued to start the 3rd movement of a piece before every musician was set to go on). In well over 99% of my experiences, the ensemble has worked a problem successfully without needing a restart. How is that possible?! I had no easy explanation until I read Blink.

I wish Gladwell spent a little more time talking about trust. Its relevance is obvious as you read these stories, but it is worth giving more attention. If we trust our own unconscious minds to guide us at times, it can do amazing things; if we don't trust it, we might freeze up. If we develop trusting relationships with the other people we collaborate with, we can increase our unconscious mind's accuracy. For example, in the one instance that I had to restart a piece, it was the first concert I had ever conducted with that band. Had I known those students' abilities better and performed with them more times, I may have trusted their ability to recover without the restart. I have a different level of trust with every musician I perform with. I know which musicians are better at recovery than others, so I even make snap decisions about others' abilities to make snap decisions. Since reading the book, I have caught myself doing this exact thing in several rehearsals and performances.

Blink makes us more aware of the power of unconscious thinking and gives us hints about how we can develop it better and tap into it more easily. These ideas could be applied to almost any job or activity, whether it is an athlete making a play, a doctor performing a surgery, or a police officer approaching a suspect. We are finally beginning to understand this concept of human thinking that once seemed either divine or serendipitous in origin. This makes Blink not only a useful tool, but an adventure on a new frontier of human knowledge.

A very insightful and interesting review, Douglass.

24. by Mary Buffett (no photo)
Finish date: November 15, 2016
Genre: Business/Money
Rating: A-
Review: There are plenty of books about Warren Buffett available at any bookstore or library. What makes this one unique is that it is not written from the perspective of Warren Buffett's cult following. After her divorce with Warren Buffett's son, Mary Buffett capitalized on a rare opportunity to publish insider information about one of the richest people in the world and his investment strategies. Rather than quote Warren Buffett's shareholder letters to death like most authors, Mary sticks to the details of Warren's investments, how he made each choice and how it worked out. She provides a lot of quantitative data that is useful for reverse-engineering Warren Buffett's portfolio. Information from this book definitely helped me refine a few aspects of my investing philosophy and my screening process. Mary is concise and unemotional, making this a quick and productive read.

25. by Mary Buffett (no photo)
Finish date: November 21, 2016
Genre: Business/Money
Rating: A-
Review: This sequel to Buffettology updates Mary Buffett's analysis of Warren Buffett's investing strategies from the first book. It is a fine addition to the library of materials available about Warren Buffett, adding new investment decisions from his history that I had not previously read about. It also brings readers of the 1997 Buffettology up to speed on developments getting into the 21st century, when the bubble of the 1990s burst, hurting many portfolios, but creating new opportunities for patient value investors.

by Mary Buffett (no photo)

DECEMBER

26. by Jeffrey Archer
Finish date: December 3, 2016
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: The third book in The Clifton Chronicles series continues to deliver the best qualities of the first two books of the series: characters you care about, sociopathic villains, heart-warming friendships, drama and suspense, mystery, the dangers of international travel, political and business scheming, a court case, and references to cricket that make no sense to American readers (humorously not to Argentinian characters in the book either). I am buying into the next generation of Cliftons, although Archer does not do as much to develop the characters of Sebastian's schoolmates as he did with Harry's in the first book. I am starting to wonder if the title of the series is a pun, and it is called "The Clifton Chronicles" because every book ends in a cliff-hanger.

by Jeffrey Archer

I use to like this author - I might pick him up again.

Bentley wrote: "I use to like this author - I might pick him up again."

He is very entertaining!

27. by Steven D. Levitt
Finish date: December 10, 2016
Genre: Non-fiction/Social sciences
Rating: B+
Review: Freakonomics is one of my favorite books. It had a significant influence on my world-view and provided great conversation pieces as well as anecdotes for concepts I am often trying to teach my students. I have not read Superfreakonomics and am interested in seeing what other studies they do in that book. Think Like a Freak, written after Superfreakonomics is interesting, but not as powerful as the first book and not as productive as I had expected it to be. Some of the discussions of game theory are very interesting, especially the bombshell revealing of the true purpose of the "Why Terrorists Should Buy Life Insurance" exercise from Superfreakonomics.

28. by Jared Diamond
Finish date: December 19, 2016
Genre: Non-fiction/Social sciences
Rating: B+
Review: This Pulitzer Prize-winning book has been on my to-read list for quite awhile. Why did Europeans invade and colonize North America instead of Native Americans invading and colonizing Europe? Why did large cities, writing skills, and advanced technologies develop primarily in Europe and Asia and rarely elsewhere? These simple questions about world history are easy to ask, but haven't been easy for historians to answer. It took Jared Diamond, a biologist studying birds in New Guinea, to finally address them. The simple answer to the questions is geography, but Diamond offers much more than this one-word answer. He is immensely thorough in his examination of societies of every kind on every continent in every time period of history. The writing is dry, but fascinating–if that description is not too oxymoronic. One of the essential points in the book is "The Anna Karenina Principle," inspired by the first sentence of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Diamond uses this as a perfect metaphor for the domestication of animals and also shows how it can be applied to the use of plants for agriculture. The principle can be applied to so many other aspects of human action and interaction. It is without question that Guns, Germs, and Steel is essential reading for anyone interested in history and anthropology, so if you haven't read it yet, don't wait as long as I did to read it!

by Leo Tolstoy

29. by Robert Whitaker
Finish date: December 21, 2016
Genre: Non-fiction/Health & science
Rating: A
Review: We live in an era defined by momentum. One little idea–whether true or false–in a tweet, image, or short video can "go viral" online and take the world by storm in a matter of hours. One corporation's stock price, with the right technicals, can catch the attention of momentum investors and soar to an inflated price at a rapid pace, with the company having done nothing to deserve its sudden increase in perceived value. Science—viewed as purely logical with its scientific method and its disregard for our emotional and spiritual assumptions—is no exception.

An increasingly college-educated public has been taught that the boards of peer-reviewed journals prevent bad research from breaking into mainstream academia; once an idea is published in a peer-reviewed journal, it is credible, and once reaffirmed by a few other peer-reviewed publications, is a practically undeniable fact. This process has brought vaccines, global warming, the big bang theory, string theory, and the multi-verse theory into the mainstream zeitgeist. Some of these ideas are overwhelmingly supported in the scientific community, yet are treated with skepticism by a sizable amount of the public. Is it possible for the majority of the scientific community to get caught up in the momentum of an idea and convince themselves that a mistaken idea or an outright hoax is a fact, or are the skeptics just backward-thinking and crazy?

What has science taught us about our mental health in the last 50-75 years?

Psychological problems like anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain that are fixable by taking medications.

How much of our society has heard that argument and believes it? Where have they heard it, from the pharmaceutical industry, the mainstream media, their own family doctor? Perhaps from all of the above. The idea has become so widely accepted that to challenge it is to be labeled as a "quack."

In Anatomy of an Epidemic, Robert Whitaker makes a strong case against mainstream psychiatry, backed up with chapter after chapter of studies and stories from all over the world and a scroll of footnotes that would impress any reader with extra letters next to his or her name. /Anatomy/ covers the history of psychopharmacology through the 20th century, the development process of drugs in the pharmaceutical industry, the politics within organizations like the NIMH and APA and various government departments, the studies used to support FDA approval of the medications, other studies on the medications, and individual patient cases.

What did Whitaker find?

While psychiatric medications may be effective over the short term, and while some people may fare well on them over longer periods of time, on the whole they worsen the long-term outcomes of major mental disorders. They increase the likelihood that a person will become chronically ill, and ill with new and more severe symptoms.

Whitaker's support for this thesis is thorough enough that this book could easily be used as a college text book or by experts in the pharmaceutical industry, the field of psychiatry, or in public health to teach leaders how the process of studying and approving drugs has major flaws that could be detrimental to patients.

Anatomy will not only have you questioning the field of psychiatry, it will leave you reexamining countless other views we have assumed to be proven fact. This book will certainly have you questioning your views of science, medicine, academia, and your own mind! Even if you choose to disagree with Whitaker's view, this examination is a healthy exercise in questioning our personal and collective assumptions about ourselves and our world. It is easy to sail whatever way the wind is blowing. It is essential for the progress of humanity that we read books like Anatomy of an Epidemic and are willing to question whether the direction we are headed is the correct one.

Excellent review Douglass

Douglass wrote: "28. by Jared Diamond
Finish date: December 19, 2016
Genre: Non-fiction/Social scien..."

Great review of this book, Douglass. It's a favorite of several of my family members but I haven't gotten to it yet.

30. by Edith Wharton
Finish date: December 30, 2016
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: If you put all of Edith Wharton's little novels into one volume, you could title it "Sad People and Where to Find Them" (sorry, I just saw Fantastic Beasts, so that's where my head is). Summer is slightly less depressing than Wharton's Ethan Fromme, which easily could have been titled "Winter"—Wharton does have a gift for describing the seasons and using them as metaphors for her characters. While "Winter" is day after day of cold depression, Summer is at least bittersweet, especially in its ending, which leaves you feeling a bit like finishing A Light Between Oceans.

There are moments while reading this book when I was so anxious and depressed for the protagonist Charity that I felt like I was reading Chuck Palahniuk's Diary again. The two novels are not dissimilar. Like Misty in Diary, Charity is bound to an isolated life beyond her control. While Charity is adopted and raised in an environment far better than her mother's, she cannot seem to escape the call of the mountain and to avoid her seemingly genetically inherited fate. Are we doomed to repeat our parents' mistakes, even if we never meet them? Can Mr. Royall rescue Charity from her mother's mistakes a second time, or will his own faults break his tenuous relationship with her before it is too late?

Summer uses a simple story of a simple girl to ask hard questions. The fact that I instantly compared Summer to novels by two successful authors who proceeded Wharton suggests what a master she is and how much influence she may have on today's writers. She writes beautiful prose and takes on situations and themes that are a tremendous challenge to her characters and readers alike.

by Edith Wharton
by M.L. Stedman
by Chuck Palahniuk