The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

Simple but useful as a means of understanding finance from the fundamentals and origin. Didn’t learn as much as House of Morgan , but the book was a breeze to get through.

2018.12.31 · 1 min · Niall Ferguson

The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos

Got through the whole book and didn’t really learn anything other than gossip and trip details of the three founders. I would have a appreciated a story that focused beyond the day to day news coverage and dug deeper in any facet of these companies.

2018.12.31 · 1 min · Christian Davenport

The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance

3 stars for giving an entertaining overview of gilded age banking, but the 4th star is for giving a history book about how the finance system came to be what it is today. Learned a lot about the overall industry, even though the book barely touches on the modern era.

2018.12.03 · 1 min · Ron Chernow

Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

Sadly, only the abridge version was available for audiobook. Read that, but probably should have read the entire book instead. Still, I was surprised that it ended at the leveraged buyout stage and would have appreciated more history.

2018.11.15 · 1 min · Bryan Burrough

Fear: Trump in the White House

Good summary, I feel like I haven’t missed anything after skipping out on the news for the last two years. Now I’ll continue to tune out and wait for the next book.

2018.11.15 · 1 min · Bob Woodward

Frenemies: The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else)

A jumbled overview of the challenge faced by ad agencies today. Tries to explain the current situation while overlaying a narrative, and a biography of Michael Kassan, which didn’t work for me. The attention merchants by Tim wu, or weapons of math destruction were both better I think.

2018.11.15 · 1 min · Ken Auletta

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

More history than insight, would have liked more insight.

2018.11.15 · 1 min · Siddhartha Mukherjee

The Ice Dragon

Worst grrm book I’ve read.

2018.11.15 · 1 min · George R.R. Martin

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Started out slow, but by about 3/4 of the way through I couldn’t put it down. Definitely conveys many opinions about the authors politics, but not so bad that it got in the way of a decent story. Sort of a sci-fi retelling of the American revolution, maps in my mind next to the Hamilton biography.

2018.11.15 · 1 min · Robert A. Heinlein

The Mote in God's Eye (Moties, #1)

Two 70’s Sci-fi writers discover a species hitherto unknown to man, a species so fascinating that they struggle immensely to describe these creatures in detail. One alien among a sea of men, where misunderstandings and strife are all but guaranteed. What are these strange aliens called? Women.

2018.11.15 · 1 min · Larry Niven