td-bookclub - Book Reviews

Lenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror

Lenin's philosophy can be summed up as "the ends justify the means" and Sebestyen's excellent biography forces us to confront the terrible consequences of this idea.

4-stars

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Carreyrou goes beyond gossip by making us take a hard look at the "fake it 'til you make it" mentality of the Bay Area. While Holmes may have been at the extreme end of the pathological ambition spectrum, her attitude and tactics were not unusual.

5-stars

Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel

Treating the global narcotics industry "as if it were a business like any other," Wainwright delves into how drug dealers have to deal with supply chains, HR issues, and digital disruption just like everyone else.

5-stars

The Looting Machine: Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa's Wealth

Financial Times reporter Tom Burgis traces the illicit flows of tens of billions of dollars of African natural resource wealth to local dictators, Western corporations and financial elites, and - more recently - massive Chinese enterprises.

5-stars

Treasure Islands: Uncovering the Damage of Offshore Banking and Tax Havens

Reveals the mechanisms that are systematically shifting economic burdens from the wealthy to the poor and how this cheating destroys accountability between governing elites and the population at large, especially in developing nations.

4-stars

American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road

The "Silk Road" online drug market roared to life during my last year of college and the founder, Ross Ulbricht, was taken down shortly after I graduated. A thought-provoking inside-look at the investigation.

5-stars

Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought

Jonathan Rauch forcefully defends freedom of speech and liberal science in his short and crisp "Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought". Originally published in 1993, the book is even more relevant today than it was back then, resulting in an expanded edition in 2013. With brisk

economics

The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve

A conspiracy theory classic! Diving deep into the history of banking, "The Creature from Jekyll Island" claims that the unholy union of politicians and "monetary scientists" is responsible for every major conflict from the Civil War to WWII. And let's not forget the international Fabian cabal

2-stars

A Gentle Introduction to Unqualified Reservations

I don't always read extreme right-wing conspiracy theory books, but when I do... "A Gentle Introduction to Unqualified Reservations" is a bit better than I had expected. This book is the basis for the neoreactionary "Dark Enlightenment" that apparently is getting significant uptake among the West

engineering

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

"Isambard Kingdom Brunel" is a fascinating biography of one of the main engineers that brought the Industrial Revolution to fruition in England. Although I had never heard of Isambard Kingdom Brunel in any of my formal American education, apparently he's a big deal still in the UK. From

4-stars

Diamonds, Gold, and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa

To figure out how the world works, you've got to "follow the money," and the gold and diamonds of South Africa have certainly generated more than their fair share of cash - especially for Cecil Rhodes's De Beers diamond company.