Review: To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine

To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine by Newt Gingrich
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Political books age rapidly, so I was taking a gamble on this Gingrich book from now 11 years ago. I was surprised that this seemed, with a few exceptions, that it could have been written this year. The changes that would have been required were the global search and replacement of Obama’s name with Biden. Most of the text would still work. The other big change might be the discussion of election integrity. Here we get more trust in election integrity on the right, whereas we seem to get that much more from the left now. The other thought that I found interesting here is that Gingrich used this book to plaster the label of secular socialist on the Democratic administration. That’s not a term I can recall from recent years, so I guess in this respect the book didn’t meet its objective. Overall, this political book, while showing its age, still has some interesting, though mostly expected, things to say.

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Review: Ignore the Hype: Financial Strategies Beyond the Media-Driven Mayhem

Ignore the Hype: Financial Strategies Beyond the Media-Driven Mayhem by Brian Perry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very similar to other personal finance/investing books on the market, and I’ve read quite a few. I enjoyed the voice of the author here, like he was trying to be a friendly help in getting your financial house in order. I also liked the way he divided up topics, and that he included a section on the foibles of human decision-making, as well as a section on taxes and not putting all your “eggs” in the tax-deferred basket. That decision-making section also took down the financial commentary media, which you don't see authors do often, as it limits the opportunities to pitch your book. Brave, and nicely done.

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Review: The Last Shadow

The Last Shadow by Orson Scott Card
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I had high expectations for this book. There has been a long wait since the last in either series. This was the culmination of two series that both started with “Ender’s Game”, split based on two different characters, and meets here in the supposed final story. And the author had left a number of open threads after the last stories of each series that I hoped would have an exciting conclusion.

But this didn’t meet my expectations. The story was focused on one issue, which was concluded in a wishy-washy manner. The author added a number of different beings, and it got to be a bit much dealing with all the different sentient beings that popped up over the last two or three books in the series. Every one has concerns and gets their say here. And it seems some are getting mean, and given the conflicting personalities of the people and beings involved the future appears to be full of problems. These made for a less entertaining and less hopeful story.

The saving grace of the Ender audiobooks has always been the voice actors. But here, there were so many, and they kept returning, that it got confusing. This was my least favorite in the Ender and Bean series.


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Review: Where's My Fortune Cookie?

Where's My Fortune Cookie? by Phil Proctor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

About 30 years ago, I loaned my small collection of Firesign Theater cassettes to a co-worker who was laid up after a surgery. I never got them back. I am still angry. I can still recall the voices though, announcing “High School Madness with Peorgie Tirebiter” and complaining “Hey man, you broke the president!”. Those were memorable bits from an outstandingly odd set of albums. Here, now is the autobiography of one of the leaders of the troupe. As he talks about his early schooling, he mentions that he began audio editing. On the audiobook version, which I listened to, from that point on, Proctor adds in sound effects and snippets of Firesign bits, some I was familiar with and some I wasn’t. I found the mix of audio made this a very good listen. Proctor comes across as, well, a professional, though not totally successful or popular actor. He told quite a few enjoyable stories, dropping names of people he worked with and knew, some popular but others not so much. (Proctor reminded me of the stories of actor Larry Block on many of Joe Frank's radio shows.) Along the way, he talks about the Firesign Theater and their various productions, as well as his work outside of the group. I found his stories entertaining, mostly. I found his personality a bit overbearing, but very much like I’d imagine many professional actors would talk about a long and varied resume of work. Enjoyable, and I believe much more so on audio because of the added sound effects and samples.

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Review: Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction

Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction by Derek Thompson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I initially thought this was focused on the music industry, and having recently read “The Song Machine” I expected something similar. And for Thompson’s stories on popular music, some of the same stories and conclusions are repeated. But Thompson goes beyond music with stories about art, movies, and other topics were hits are created. It reads like an extended magazine article. I didn’t find anything very surprising to take away, but I enjoyed some of the stories used to illustrate hit-making.

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Review: The Lincoln Highway

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The writing was first rate. The story sounded like it was written in the era it took place, the 1950s. It has the feel of a story from Boys Life before the story started to move. I found it interesting how the author starts “The Lincoln Highway” right in the middle of the country, then defines the goal, the end-point of California. And then all the action is moving back to the beginning of the road. In the book, the characters discuss how to tell a proper story by starting in the middle, and this seemed to be the point here. We visit the past of the boys, as well as the side characters after they are introduced – starting in the middle, then heading to the beginning each time. As to be expected in a boy’s book, there are lessons learned and morals told, among adventures and tall tales. I look forward to reading more by Towles.

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Review: A Truck Full of Money: One Man's Quest to Recover from Great Success

A Truck Full of Money: One Man's Quest to Recover from Great Success by Tracy Kidder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read Tracy Kidder’s first big book, “The Soul of a New Machine”, when I was starting college. I soon changed my major to Computer Engineering, the career highlighted in that book about the creation of a new line of computers. To say that book was personally impactful is an understatement. It drove me into work that I enjoyed, and topics that I loved to learn and practice. But instead of computer hardware, the focus of the first book, my career was mostly in software. Now, at the back end of my career, Kidder has released a book about a software engineer, covering the life of Paul English, who worked as a software engineer but converted into a manager, then entrepreneur. English follows the career path that I always envisioned for myself, though I stalled out around step two. It was very enjoyable to see how English grew in his career to become a wealthy business developer and owner, and even beyond that, to invest in charity programs to better people’s lives. Kidder explores English’s various mentors at different phases of his career, illustrating their value to him at the time. He also focuses on English’s team, who follow him from enterprise to enterprise, forming the core cadre of his ongoing series of company startups. The other focus here is on English’s battle with a mental disorder throughout his life. What starts off seeming like it’s going to be something like a Fortune magazine business leader bio article ends up being more than that, not only documenting the growing of tech companies, but also dealing with personal mental issues that impacted English throughout his life.

The question is whether, having read this book, I would have changed my major to software engineering, had I been at the beginning of my career. On reflection, I’d have to say maybe. The earlier book, if I recall correctly, played up the common sense technical know-how of the team, and the team itself. These aspects both appealed to me. In “A Truck Full of Money”, you also see the value and the enjoyment of having a good team. I didn’t get the cleverness of the solutions beyond the software engineering realm, though. This may just have been harder to illustrate, given how much software function is “behind the scenes”. Or it may be simply that times have changed, and tech folks have found different ways to stand out. To me, this was a little less impactful for those reasons. Nevertheless, a very good story, interesting throughout.


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