TITLE

AUTHOR

COMMENTS

Climate of Extremes

Michaels and Balling

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)

Cold Eye, Warm Heart

Gerald Rosen

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)

Olive Kitteridge

Elizabeth Strout

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)

As They See 'Em

Bruce Weber

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)

The Yankee Years

Bob Verducci

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)

The Outliers

Malcolm Gladwell

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)

The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death

Charlie Huston

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)

House of Cards

William D. Cohan

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)

When Will There Be Good News

Kate Atkinson

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)

The Big Rich

Bryan Burroughs

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)

Alphabet Juice

Roy Blount Jr.

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)

Breath

Tim Winton

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)

Motion to Suppress

Perri O'Shaugnessy

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)

The Dark Side

Jane Mayer

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)

Wasted Vigil

Nadeem Aslam

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)