Category Archives: Nonfiction
A searing look at poverty in India that reads like a novel
A review of Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, by Katherine Boo. @@@@@ (5 out of 5). Boo focuses on the experiences of two slum families, one consisting of 11 Muslim immigrants from India’s north who have built a business as garbage-brokers, the other family whose matriarch is affiliated with Shiv Sena, one of the most extreme and violent anti-Muslim political parties in India. Continue reading
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Daniel Yergin’s superb new book: a brilliant survey of energy issues
A review of The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, by Daniel Yergin. @@@@@ (5 out of 5). A survey of virtually every significant aspect of energy in today’s world, touching on every energy source, every significant energy-related technological development of recent decades, and every major location of energy resources, including a short history of each element. Continue reading
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Aravind: A social enterprise with scale and impact to match Grameen Bank
A review of Infinite Vision: How Aravind Became the World’s Greatest Business Case for Compassion, by Pavithra Mehta and Suchitra Shenoy. @@@@@ (5 out of 5). How this unique South Indiana nonprofit enterprise became the largest and most productive blindness-prevention organization on the planet. Continue reading
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1491: Astonishing new evidence about the Americas before Columbus
A review of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, by Charles C. Mann. @@@@@ (5 out of 5). There is persuasive evidence that the Americas before Columbus were far more heavily populated, the leading civilizations far more sophisticated, and their origins far further back in time than earlier generations of scholars had suspected. Continue reading
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Hedy’s Folly: Nazi generals, wireless torpedoes, and “the most beautiful girl in the world”
A review of Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World, by Richard Rhodes. @@@ (3 out of 5). Hedy Lamarr, a stunning film superstar of the 1930s and 40s, invented a secret weapon for the United States during World War II. Continue reading
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Mass media, genocide, and the fate of the world
A review of Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World, by Maria Armoudian. @@@@@ (5 out of 5). In Kill the Messenger, political scientist and radio broadcaster Maria Armoudian ably examines the central role of mass media in human affairs over the course of the 20th Century. Continue reading
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So it goes: The sad life of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
A review of And So It Goes — Kurt Vonnegut: A Life, by Charles J. Shields @@@@@ (5 out of 5) The face that peers out at you from the cover is immeasurably sad. It’s the face of a man … Continue reading
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Occupy Wall Street: A View from the Inside
A review of This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement, edited by Sarah van Gelder and the staff of Yes! Magazine. @@@@ (4 out of 5). In a fast-paced series of short articles, this well-organized little book brings together the thoughts and observations of several individuals critical to the launching of the Occupy Wall Street movement as well as a number of outside observers who are close to the movement. Continue reading
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A biography of Steve Jobs nearly as intense as the man
A review of Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson. @@@@@ (5 out of 5). This is an authorized biography, but one unlike any other I’ve encountered, since Isaacson leavened his obvious admiration for Jobs as a creative genius and a gifted business leader with unvarnished and seemingly endless anecdotes about his subject’s notoriously difficult personality. Continue reading
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Economics through the lens of personality: an accessible history
A review of Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius, by Sylvia Nasar @@@@ (4 out of 5) It’s well known that Thomas Carlyle, a 19th century British historian, is credited with first calling economics “the dismal science.” What’s … Continue reading
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