The opinions expressed herein are totally mine, and were not intended to be read by anyone else. But much arm twisting has caused me to make these public. At least I figured out how to display bulleted lists with lots of text with both real links and pseudo links. (Most of this blog is about learning how to blog!) 🙂 These books are from 2013 to present. Sure, I’ve read more books than these. But lately, it is easy to buy a book I’ve already read since the memory is in need of tweaking. Now I check this list before I buy!
Click on a link to skip forward to a special list.
Business
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byJames M. Stone, read 2016. Excellent ideas, but they will never happen. Wishful thinking, but we should plan what we really want out of a government. Important book.
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by William Poundstone. Puzzles; read June 2014, OK. Basically this book is about difficult math/logic puzzles. It is humorous, and frankly, sort of a waste. But, it is interesting in that the large tech companies have actually begun to use these puzzles during the interview process. This was a Father’s Day gift from Debra.
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by Tyler Cowen. read 2013;
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by Thomas Piketty. Money; read May 2014, actually, I haven’t finished the book. It is so detailed as to become boring. And it is a huge book. Reading it is like attending a college level class in finance. I agree with the basic result: that Capitalism is bad for you!
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by Andrew Keen, read 2016.The author thinks new social media systems are going to destroy our way of live. If I had known what this book was really about, I never would have purchased it. I will drop it off at the local library.
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by Fred Vogelstein. Business & technology; read July 2014, excellent! About the behind-the-scenes story of building the iPhone and iPad. Easy to read, fast paced. I really enjoyed it, and was disappointed when it was finished — I wanted more. About the battle between Apple and Google for control of the smartphone market.
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by Michael Lewis. Wall Street; read April 2014. Excellent. amazingly fast read. I wonder if he used Dragon to write it. About Brad Katsuyama and the founding of IEX. about high-frequency trading. Gave to EM for his birthday.
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by Eric Schmidt & Jonathan Rosenberg. Business; read Sept/Oct 2014. Excellent. Even though this was written for business people and entrepreneurs, if you do work or have worked in corporate America, you can enjoy this. It obviously was written by intelligent people who are experts in technology apparently speaking from their heart. And it is full of “words of wisdom”, quotes from various people, which fits right in with my collection of quotes. I really enjoyed it. They have a rather high vocabulary, using a few words I had to look up! It has been a long time since I felt in the presence of masters.
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by George Akerlog and Robert Shiller, read 2015. About the economics of manipulation and deception in our society. Written by two Nobel Prize winners. I found myself marking up in the book a lot! Maybe we should vote for Bernie! At least we can watch Suze Orman on PBS.
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by Andrew Keen, read 2017. This is an old book, written in 2007, I didn’t read it until now. This guy is really against non-professional writers and artists. He doesn’t understand that much of internet blogs, sharing on FB, etc. is just people communicating with each other. Most internet “talkers” would have been vocal in the groups around the camp fires in our hunter-gatherer days, but those days are gone. I have a blog, and I am not trying to take jobs away from anyone. Inequality issues have given me this to be my only way to communicate. When I pay for newspapers, they had better not be owned and cultivated by the ultra-rich. I used to subscribe to WSJ, but they were bought by Rupert Murdoch and Fox News so I cancelled. Andrew Keen just doesn’t get it. Mark this “Do not read”.
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by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, read 2016. Good book, about inequality in society. Should be read by all.
Genealogy
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by Debbie Kennett & Derek A. Palgrave. Genealogy; read Spring 2013. ok,
Health
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by David Ludwig, read 2016. Excellent, the science of eating.
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by Sally Pacholok and Jeff Stuart, read Fall 2015. Vitamin B12 deficiency is often misdiagnosed. This book discusses the risks and solutions. I bought this because of my long term use of PPI drugs, which I recently stopped.
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by David L. Katz M.D. read 2013;
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by Amy Yasko, read 2015. Basically a discussion of the methylation cycle in our bodies. This is a general overview of the principles exposed by Yasko. The information is all available on the internet, this is primarily an advert for her web site. Not recommended.
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by Mitchell Gaynor, read 2015/2016. A diet book based on the science of epigenetics. A practical guidebook loaded with recipes.
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by Justin Sonnenburg and Erica Sonnenburg, read 2016. Diet and health. Ideal stool is snake like with no splash.
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by David B. Agus, read 2016. A good book, but not too practical.
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by Ross Pelton and James LaValle, read 2015. A reference book about the interactions of prescription drugs and nutrients. Useful as a handbook.
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by Daniel Lieberman. read 2013;
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by Gary Dudney, read 2017.A first book by an ultra runner. It tells about personal experiences and views of running ultra marathons. The author trys to bring philosophy of mindfullness to the story. The author has had experiences of Elightenment while running 100 milers and wants to help us reach there too.
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by Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel, read Spring 2017. Excellent. Explains how we age. Includes suggestions on how to improve our health as we live our life. Very useful if you are full of stress. This showed me that I ruminate and need anxiety reduction help. Modern science coupled with real world self help suggestions. This is a very important book. My family members all need this to help handle stress.
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by Jonathan Wright and Lane Lenard, read 2015. Discussions about natural methods to cure acid indigestion and restoring healthy gastric functioning. Another book I bought when I was trying to quit my PPI “addiction”. It too helped my finally quit after 12 years.
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by Chris Crowley and Henry Lodge, read Fall 2016. An inspirational book, intended for older people. Easy to Read, an energized approach to keeping lean, fit and active. Explains how to exercise and eat. Curiously, this works well beside the Telomere Effect book. I will read again.
History
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by Claire Cameron, read 2017.A novel. One of the few I have read in my older years. This is excellent, and fast reading. It is about a female Neanders who meets and has sex with a Homo Sapien. It is very imaginative and a bit porno. This should not be read by a naive child! If you are open minded and enjoy the science of evolution, hopefully you will enjoy this like I did.
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by Yuval Noah Harari. History rcvd Feb 10, 2015. Excellent. I took his MOOC class in 2014 and loved it. It was the first time I looked forward to a classroom lecture in a long time. When I learned there was a book being written about what was in the class, I had to buy it. This combines history, evolution, philosophy and morality into one volumne.
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by Yuval Noah Harari, read Winter 2017. Excellent. Almost a continuation of Sapiens, but this attempts to show one path our future may take based on past actions. May be considered to have a bleak outlook. Everyone should read with global warming future in mind.
How To
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by Ian Lamont. How To; read Summer 2013; ok, simplistic. not recommended.
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by David E. Y. Sarna. How To; read Summer 2013; ok, haven’t finished. Evernote is taking backseat to the blogs I run.
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by Elayne Denker. How To; read Summer 2013; ok, haven’t finished. simplistic. basically it says “just do it”.
Meditation
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by Russell Simmons. read August 2014, Excellent. Most of the book tells about why meditation is good for you. The final chapter really does tell how to do “mantra meditation”. It seems seriously like Transcendental Mediation. He use the “universal” mantra RUM. I should buy a copy for Jeff!
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by Denise Denniston, read 2016.A picture book, apparently written to sell TM to folks who don’t know anything about it. Not for me.
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by Kelly McGonigal. read Feb 2013. Excellent, should re-read, tells how to meditate using breathing meditation. I bought copies for the children.
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by David Lynch, read 2016. This is not a how-to book, but it gives insight into how a really successful person enjoys Transcendental Meditation. I’m glad I bought it, I still reference it. But it is not recommended as a first book on TM.
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by Rezvan Ameli, read 2016. About mindfulness – I should read this.
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by Norman Rosenthal, read 2016. Excellent. I use it to remind me how to do my Transcendental Meditation. If you are interested in TM, get this.
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by Ann Ourcell, read 2016. You could meditate all your life without reading this book.
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by Norman Rosenthal, read 2016. Excellent. I use it to remind me how to do my Transcendental Meditation. Get this if you are interested in TM.
Mental, Mind, Inner
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by Peter Nowak. read Feb 2015.Technology in civilization; excellent. the future of ourselves is optimistic. Recommended!
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by Ian Leslie. General; reading Sept/Oct 2014. Kinda boring, but he brings up enough emotive ideas, things that touched the creativeness in me, that I continue to read. I hope he will eventually give me something I can pass on to my grandchildren. So far, not.
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by Jennifer Ouellette. Mind/psychology; read June 2014, excellent. Easy reading, thought provoking. About the search for the science of the self. I should send a copy to Jeff. And I should read it again!
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by David Eagleman, read 2015. An excellent book about the inner mind. It was inteneded as a companion to the popular PBS series of the same name, but I didn’t know that when I bought it! I found it quite stimulating. Part cutting edge science, and part philosophy.
Philosophy
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by Phil Zuckerman, read 2016. No solutions here. Was not able to finish it.
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by Frans de Waal. Philosophy; read Jun 2013. like a text book, and a justification, aka debate, between ideas. Good, but slow compared to “the Bonobo”
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by Frans de Waal. Philosophy;
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by Frans de Waal. Philosophy; read Apr 2013. Excellent, primates have morals, morals precede religion, he is a humanist (with small ‘h’). Incited me to start attending Humanist meetings.
Religion
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by Susan Jacoby, read 2016. A secular history of conversion. Too religious for me.
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by Edward Slingerland. Religion; rcvd Mar 3, 2015. Excellent, if you enjoy reading about ancient Chinese philosophies and the Wu-Wei and the power of Du. Possibly can help one be more spontaneous.
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by Amir D. Aczel. Religion; read April/May 2014, Excellent. I do think that science oriented people will really like this book. But I also think that non-scientific people would get bored with it. There is a really heavy emphasis on science and science history. It is also really logical. This needs to be part of the explanation for my own personal agnosticism/humanism, along with “The Bonobo and the Atheist”
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by Ara Norenzayan, read 2015. How religion transformed cooperation and conflict. An excellent view about the origin and function of religion. Ara gives a nuanced account of secularism and offers tools we can use to create more ethical organizations and societies going forward. Highly recommended for the open minded crowd.
Science – Anthropology
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by Adam Rutherford, read 2017. A well written, and stimulating view of human history viewed through the eyes of DNA.
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by Rob Dinnis & Chris Stringer. Anthropology; read June 2014, excellent. Published by the Natural History Museum in London, the is a book about Britain by Britains. But this is about more than just Britain, it is about the migration of the Hominins into northern Europe over the last million years! This made me realize that we are just a successful predator who followed the other animals on their migrations looking for food! It is short, only about 150 pages. I read it in less than a week.
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by Svante Paabo. Evolution: read Feb 2014, exciting, scientific, excellent. All about Svante’s life leading up to the scopting of the Neanderthal genome.
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by Henry Gee. Evolution; read Jan 2014. author is a senior editor of Nature Magazine. interesting book, a good read.
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by Joseph Henrich, read 2016. Culture is driving our evolution. Interesting but just another personal theory.
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by Jared Diamond. Anthropology; ebook; free; read Spring 2013. ok, boring,
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by Jared Diamond. Anthropology; read Spring 2013. ok,
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by Marlene Zuk. Evolution; read Summer 2013; ok, easy reading, with a general approach.
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by Michael Booth, read Fall 2015. A witty travelogue about the Scandinavian countries discussing why they seem to score so high in the various happiness indicators. Talks about each country individually.
Science – Climate Change
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by Mike Berners-Lee. read Feb 8, 2015
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by Naomi Klein. read Dec 2014.
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by Naomi Oreskes. read Nov 18, 2014
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by Naomi Klein, read 2017.Naomi wrote this with a sense of urgency after Trump became president. This is important to read, but it is a bit depressing. I do hope wiser folks than me can solve our world’s political problems.
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by Naomi Oreskes. read Nov 18, 2014 .
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by Gaia Vince. Extinction; bought Jul 30, 2014, still reading in 2015. Interesting, but slow.
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by Elizabeth Kolbert. Extinction; read April 2014, excellent. but depressing. About what we are doing to kill species now. “If there is danger in the human trajectory, i is not so much in the survival of our own species as in the fulfillment of the ultimate irony of organic evolution: that in the instant of achieving self-understanding through the mind of man, life has doomed its most beautiful creations” E.O.Wilson We are the weeds of our garden. “In pushing other species to extinction, humanity is busy sawing off the limb on which it perches.” Paul Ehrlich. “We are deciding which evolutionary pathways will remain open and which will forever be closed.” Elizabeth Kolbert
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by Fred Guterl. Extinction: read March 2014, excellent, important, scary, wrote review about how important this is for my friends and family.
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by Al Gore. Politics; read Mar 2013. excellent, easy read, long, anti modern politics, global warming is only one chapter
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by Stephen Emmott. read 2013; Excellent book, easy read. Shocking and depressing, but important that we read it. I ordered copies for my children.
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by James Lovelock, read Fall 2015. An optimistic view (yet starkly realistic) of the climate change and population issues vacing our planet. A practical scientist who is trying to provide wisdom from a vantage point of age. I enjoyed it.
Science – General
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by Roger Penrose. Physics; rcvd Jan 30, 2015. Wow, this is over my head! He was intriguing to listen to on Science Friday. But this is a hard concept to handle. Like serial monogamy, serial universes might be against some peoples religion!
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by Jordan Ellenberg. Mathematics (and logical thinking!) rcvd Dec 17, 2014 Excellent. In fact, I loved it. Of course, I majored in Math many years ago. There is a chapter in the book that everyone should read! But, to be fair, if you don’t like Math, you probably won’t like this.
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by Nessa Carey. Biology; read August 2014, OK. This is really for a college level class. I don’t recommend it for the general reader at all. But, the writing is clear and I was able to skim it in about a week. I am glad I bought it, but will give it away. There are some very lucid description of what science really is which I should copy into my notes. Meanwhile, we should eat cheese, broccoli, and garlic because they are weak inhibitors of histone deacetylases which should help protect us against colon cancer!
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by Max Tegmark, read 2017.The sub-title of Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence says it all! One of my favorite books. We should all read this — soon. AI is rapidly coming online and we need to decide how we think about it. The decisions we make now will affect all of our futures. Easy to read, thought provoking.
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by Erik Brynjolfsson & A. McAfee, read 2017.Read this right after Life 3.0. This book will help you make wise choices about AI in the real world. Silicon Valley is creating AI faster than even they imagined, we need to try to keep up.
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by Noson S. Yanofsky. Science and logic; started July 2014, OK. Explores what we cannot be predicted, described or known.
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by Richard A. Muller, read 2016. Excellent, high theory, philosophical, I’m not sure what time is now! I’m glad I read this, even if I can’t understand it all.
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by Braden R. Allenby. Futuristic; read Sept 2013, hard to read, couldn’t finish.
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by Randall Munroe, read 2015. Serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions. With hand drawn pictures, appears to be for ages 5-20, but some of the questions even made me read the answers. Mildly interesting, a good gift for the curious grandchild.
Jims BBS 