Book Reviews (Page 5)

Shadow of the Wind

I almost gave up on this book, but I'm glad I didn't. "The Shadow of the Wind" starts off as a dark, surreal fairy tale and eventually transforms into a gothic detective novel / tender love story. Very odd, but somehow it works. Ultimately though, this novel is Zafón's

5-stars

Heart of Darkness

The horror! The horror! Famed Shakespearean Kenneth Branagh's audiobook narration transports the listener to a hauntingly dark and surreal place. Quite first rate, that narration - this Branagh fellow will go far I do say. The Company has great hopes for him. Though Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" is

4-stars

Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions

"Rigor Mortis" explores how perverse incentives and a "broken" scientific culture are fueling the reproducibility crisis in modern biomedical research. Published in April, Harris's jeremiad was a perfect fit for my 2017 reading theme on "The Integrity of Western Science" and an excellent companion

5-stars

The Day of the Jackal

A masterpiece of the genre. "The Day of the Jackal" is an old-school spy thriller written with a pitch-perfect tone and style. I eagerly allowed myself to be swept away as Forysth's tightly-plotted novel came together with the beauty and precision of a meticulously constructed piece of clockwork.

3-stars

State of Fear

Remember that time in 2004 when Michael Crichton wrote a climate-change skepticism book? Neither do I. That's why I was so surprised to come across this book as I was researching my 2017 reading focus on "The Integrity of Western Science." In "State of Fear", Crichton

4-stars

Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science

"The scientific method is the most reliable way of discovering the truth." That's how I responded when a friend recently challenged me to state my core beliefs. As I ranted about Popper on "falsifiability" and our conversation descended into the depths of definitional disputes, I realized

4-stars

On Bullshit

"On Bullshit" is a delightful little 80 page book of common sense. And published by an Ivy League philosophy professor - maybe there's hope after all! In our modern "post-truth" world, Frankfurt's book is a breath of fresh air. Originally published as a philosophy paper in

3-stars

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

"Homo Deus" is a provocative but ultimately scattered, shallow, and incorrect analysis of liberal political history and what recent developments in our scientific understanding mean for the future of our society. It's a frustrating book to review. There are a few great frameworks in here that changed how

2017-focus

Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks

"Bad Science" angered me more than any book I've read in the last few years. Dr. Goldacre lays bare the tactics used by people committing the worst crime I can think of - deliberate falsification and misrepresentation of scientific data. I get so worked up about this because:

5-stars

How To Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer

A good friend from college recommended that I give Montaigne a shot. Bakewell's delightful "How to Live" opened up a portal into Montaigne's world and that enigmatic gentleman reached across the centuries to intellectually seduce me. How? I'm not quite sure. The beauty of this book is how

5-stars

Norse Mythology

In his "Norse Mythology," Neil Gaiman recounts tales of ancient gods in a modern tongue. With loving devotion to his craft, Gaiman delivers a masterpiece of storytelling. Full of life and laughter and cleverness, his meticulous retelling of these classic stories reflects how seriously Gaiman takes mythology. The

5-stars

The Hunt for Vulcan: And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe

In "The Hunt for Vulcan", the head of MIT's writing program takes us on a fast-paced tour through some of the biggest controversies and discoveries in astronomy and physics. Throughout this short and thoroughly enjoyable book, Levenson weaves together explanations of complex science with their historical context in

3-stars

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry

"The Psychopath Test" quixotically flits between psychological research, Scientology, mental asylums, corporate raiders, and Douglas Hofstadter's "Goedel, Escher, Bach" as Jon Ronson explores our society's relationship with madness. I chose this book because I've long suspected that a fair bit of psychological research is not particularly

5-stars

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

I read "The Black Swan" seven years ago and I still think of it at least once a month. It humbled me and completely changed how I saw the world. I started college in the middle of the 2008 financial meltdown and Taleb offered a coherent intellectual framework

annual-focus

2017 Focus: The Integrity of Western Science

2017 is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenburg. His intellectual framework challenged the orthodoxy of the Catholic Church and set into motion a revolution that fundamentally changed the way people saw the world. What is the "Catholic Church"

4-stars

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

Manson's book is a profane and frequently hilarious crash-course in pragmatic modern Stoicism. How can I not love a book called "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck"? I've given talks where my last slide literally says, "Life is hard and then, almost immediately, you

2-stars

The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax: And Other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language

"The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax" is a compilation of tongue-in-cheek essays written by linguist Geoffrey Pullum that were published in the journal Natural Language and Linguistic Theory in the 1980's. I was loaned this book by a friend when I started talking about the information content of non-verbal

1-star

Report From Iron Mountain

"Report From Iron Mountain" is a book whose history is much more interesting than the book itself. Originally proclaimed as a "top secret" 1960's report that had been leaked to the public, Leonard Lewin ultimately claimed authorship and revealed the whole thing as a satirical hoax.

2-stars

What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars

I have mixed feelings about giving "What I Learned Losing A Million Dollars" a 2 star rating. One one hand, it's full of (admittedly entertaining) cavalier boasting and rambling. On the other, my return-on-investment from reading this book could be huge if I follow his advice and don't

5-stars

Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility

I started this book expecting a popular treatment of game theory. I was in for a surprise! Contrary to what the title might lead you to believe, "Finite and Infinite Games" is actually an extremely dense religious/philosophical text. The insights-per-paragraph rate is insane. Carse - a religion

annual-best

2016 - The Best Books I Read This Year

The 10 best books I read in 2016: The Power Broker, Dreamland, The Beginning of Infinity, How Asia Works, Empire of Cotton, Designing Your Life, Far From The Tree, The Power of the Dog, The Magicians, and Stranger in a Strange Land

2-stars

Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil

"Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil" is superficial breakneck survey of recent anthropological and behavioral studies of morality. Bloom's wry humor and vivid exposition make this a fun and interesting read, but he fails to make good on the promise of the book's title. Frustrating. And

3-stars

The Genealogy of Morals

"The Genealogy of Morals" stunned me with its originality. Nietzsche propounds a view that "noble" virtues of strength and pride were long ago subverted by a hateful and self-loathing "slave morality" that forms the root of the Judeo-Christian tradition: They have taken a lease

5-stars

Stranger in a Strange Land

"Stranger in a Strange Land" is a monumental achievement of (science) fiction - a satirical yet compassionate meditation on human relationships - love, religion, sex, jealousy, intimacy, language, self-interest, innocence, and duplicity. I love reading great post-WWII / pre-Internet sci-fi - the Buckminster-Fuller-esque spirit of techno-utopianism and the radical

5-stars

Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic

This book hit me like a stack of bricks. Dreamland tells the story of the rise of OxyContin and the Xalisco heroin operation that have destroyed so many lives in heartland America.