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

Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts

Not as in depth as I would have hoped. Put names on a few concepts which I found interesting such as resulting: judging the soundness of a strategy based on what happened rather than how good it was based on available information or ulysses contracts: building ways to prevent ‘future self’ from sabotaging success in the moment.

2018.11.15 · 1 min · Annie Duke

Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)

I, too, love murderbot!

2018.10.10 · 1 min · Martha Wells