TITLE
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AUTHOR
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COMMENTS
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Climate of Extremes
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Michaels and Balling
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These two climatologists look at historical data and
conclude that although global warming is real, and to an extent caused by
human activity, there is no need to panic. Sky is Falling alarmists
like Al Gore take selected data and extrapolate worst case scenarios
provoking emotional responses which in many cases are
self-defeating. A good example is the mandating of ethanol usage as
a gasoline substitute. Every credible study concludes that ethanol
usage causes a net increase in carbon emissions as well as causing food
shortages and economic dislocations. This is a story that needs to
be told, but this book, although targeted for the general public, is
really written for the authors' colleagues in academia. (06/09)
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Cold Eye, Warm Heart
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Gerald Rosen
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Rosen has a great eye for detail and a memory for
events that transpired fifty years ago. In this autobiography he
looks back with warmth at his days in Phi Sigma Delta at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute. Having spent all of his life in the Bronx, he
viewed Troy, New York as an exotic local in which to matriculate.
That is a unique view of one of America's most tired cities. He knew
that engineering wasn't for him so he pursued an MBA and eventually a Ph.
D. in American Lit. and now lives and writes in northern
California. (06/09)
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Olive Kitteridge
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Elizabeth Strout
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Each of the twelve stories in this outstanding
collection is connected by the presence of the eponymous schoolteacher
from rural Maine. The stories cover a period of approximately thirty
years of Olive's life and they reveal the innermost thoughts of this most
interesting woman. Regarded as somewhat standoffish by friends and
family, few would guess what was going on inside her head. This book
won the Pulitzer prize for literature in 2008 and I imagine it was a very
easy choice. (06/09)
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As They See 'Em
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Bruce Weber
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This is a well-written and well-researched treatise
on umpiring baseball games. Weber is a fiftyish staff writer for the
N. Y. Times who enrolled in umpire school and then went on to umpire a few
games at low level and one inning in a major league spring training
game. Its not as easy as it looks, and at the highest level quite
dangerous. A major league fastball is a guided missile heading in
the direction of the home plate umpire and a line drive is a real threat
to a base umpire who in not fully concentrating on the action.
Very few umpires ever make it to the major leagues where the pay is good
and the travel comfortable. The pressure is intense as baseball
umpires don't have the benefit of instant replay on close calls as
the officials do in other major league sports. If you are a real fan
you probably never noticed where the umpires stand during a game (they
move depending on the situation) and how they rotate when a ball is put in
play. If you read this book, you will notice. (06/15)
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The Yankee Years
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Bob Verducci
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Joe Torre is listed as co-author, but that is
misleading. Clearly Torre is often quoted verbatim but the writing
is all Verducci. Fortunately Verducci is very good, as his frequent
contributions in Sports Illustrated demonstrate. The book chronicles
the rise and fall of the Yankee dynasty under Torre. It doesn't
reveal anything earth-shattering, but is a pleasant read for sports
fans. The major conclusion is that teams that play well together get
better results than those made up of a collection stars worrying about
their stats. I Bet you knew that. (05/09)
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The Outliers
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Malcolm Gladwell
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Gladwell has become the leading observer and
explainer of trends. His phrase "tipping point" has
become part of the lexicon of almost every human activity. In this
his latest opus, he explains why certain people succeed and others,
seemingly smarter or better prepared don't do as well. One of hi
observations is that for a person to get really, really good at something
requires about 10,000 hours of practice. It will be interesting to
see if this becomes an accepted benchmark. (05/09)
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The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death
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Charlie Huston
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The protagonist of this macabre novel is a
down-and-outer named Web who takes a job with a company that cleans up the
scenes of violent death. The detailed descriptions of their work can
be a little off-putting, but if you can get through that it's kind of a
fun fast paced read. Don't look for literary achievement but expect
to have some fun reading this book. (05/09)
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House of Cards
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William D. Cohan
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Had this been written two years ago as a work of
fiction, it would have been mocked as totally unrealistic. Unfortunately
this recounting of the fall of Bear, Stearns, and its impact on world
financial markets is all true. There is a lot of detail in
this 450 page tome, but plowing through gives one a greater appreciation
of what went wrong and whom to blame. It's not over yet. (04/09)
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When Will There Be Good News
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Kate Atkinson
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A somewhat difficult read but well worth the
effort. There are about five or six major plot lines which coalesce
about three quarters of the way through. There are train wrecks, car
wrecks, marital wrecks, lots of blood and gore, and mysteries to be
resolved, all presented in first class prose. Quite a bit of poetry
is thrown in as well. One of the best books of the year. (04/09)
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The Big Rich
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Bryan Burroughs
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As a non-native Texan, this book was an excellent
primer on who's who and who was who in the state's oil business. The
characters who made their fortunes here are larger than life and their
exploits are very entertaining. The focus is on the Cullen's, The
Hunts, the Murchisons, and Sid Richardson, Richardson never marries
but he got his nephews, the Bass brothers, off to a good start. The
author did some good research and he has a gift for story-telling. (03/09)
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Alphabet Juice
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Roy Blount Jr.
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Word lovers should put this on their wish
lists. Blount has accumulated words and phrases that have caught his
fancy over the years, and assembled them in dictionary style. There are a
lot more hits than misses in the collection. In addition to being
fun, this book will save you from making errors in English. For
example, do you know if this sentence is correct? It isn't. If you
have a bookstand in your bathroom, adding this book to your library
collection will keep you entertained for a long time. (03/09)
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Breath
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Tim Winton
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In 1992 I read a very good book named Cloud Street
by a young Australian novelist named Tim Winton. Not well known
outside of his native country, Winton has produced a steady stream of
books but this is the first I've read since his promising first novel. Set
in rural Western Australia, this coming of age tale is beautifully
drawn. Two teenagers come under the wing of a formerly famous surfer
now approaching middle age. That doesn't sound like a promising
storyline, but the writing is so good that you don't mind at all.
Highly recommended. (03/09)
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Motion to Suppress
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Perri O'Shaugnessy
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If you feel like giving your brain a rest here is
the perfect book. The author, a pseudonym for two sisters, will
never win a Pulitzer Prize for literature, but they know how to spin a
story. As you can tell from the title, the centerpiece of the book
is a trial. One of the authors is a law school grad, so the legal
scenes have a ring of authenticity. Most of the action takes place
near Lake Tahoe which adds to the fun. This whodunit will keep you
guessing until the end. (02/09)
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The Dark Side
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Jane Mayer
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When Barack Obama said in his inauguration speech
that "we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals",
this book details what he was referring to. Abu Ghraib was
just the tip f the iceberg. Even if you give the previous
administration the benefit of the doubt and assume that they believed that
bending the rules on interrogation of prisoners was justified on a
national security basis, the majority opinion seems to be that coerced
confessions have very little intelligence value. What is
particularly galling is that the only Americans likely to be prosecuted
for following orders relayed from the administration have been and most
likely continue to be soldiers at the bottom of the food chain. (01/09)
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Wasted Vigil
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Nadeem Aslam
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This is not an easy book - I had to reread many
passages - but it is well worth the effort to plow through it. Forty
years ago Marcus, an English medical student met and fell in love with
Qatarina, a fellow student form Afghanistan. They married, Marcus
converted to Islam and they moved to her home country and started a
practice. Over the years Marcus has suffered many hardships
including the loss of his wife and daughter, as well as his left hand to
either the war lords or the Taliban. Enter David, an American who
had been in love with Marcus's daughter before her capture, and Lara, a
Russian widow looking for information about her brother who disappeared
during the Afghan-Russian war. If the picture of modern-day
Afghanistan is anywhere near accurate, we are heading for a bigger mess
than we are have in Iraq. A cautionary tale. (01/09)
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