Review: Thousand-Miler: Adventures Hiking the Ice Age Trail

Thousand-Miler: Adventures Hiking the Ice Age Trail by Melanie Radzicki McManus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book about the Ice Age Trail through Wisconsin. I had previously enjoyed books about these kinds of travels, although some, like “Wild”, ended up being as much inner psychology as travelogue. There was some cross-mixing of those two focuses here, but this was more a mix of the history of the trail, some character studies of some of the hikers the author met, and the diary of the trek. I hadn’t heard of this trail, which I have likely crossed multiple times as it is near to home. The existence of this book piqued my interest in the trail, and reading the book made me even more interested. I’ve reached a certain age where I have more “freedom” to complete a grand adventure (while beginning to lose the “freedom” of movement of my joints), and this stoked that desire. Nicely done.

I most enjoyed the author’s stories of her crew, a set of family, friends, and acquaintances that helped her to set a speed hiking record for this trail. Despite plenty of planning, I don’t recall any of her helpers being perfect at meetups, drop offs, or prepping, but they all had their own kind of magic on the trail. Ending with her parents as her crew was quite an interesting gamble.


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Review: Eastern Standard Tribe

Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lots of interesting ideas, like tribalism based on home time zone, a kind of wardriving for music, industrial sabotage, and gonzo product development gets mixed together. Kinda like PK Dick in voice. Kinda confused story. I get a neutral feeling about this one. I am not shooed away from reading stories by Doctorow because of this book – it has interesting ideas -- but it doesn’t make me want to run out and add more of his books to my TBR list.

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Review: Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth by T. Harv Eker
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This starts off with some promise – suggesting your mental attitude toward money was set at an early age based on your parents/care givers. The author suggests that thinking about your relationship with money through this lens will allow you to see any harm being done and to modify your thoughts. (Shades of “Rich Dad Poor Dad”) And then he goes into affirmation mode – suggesting at the end of every chapter to repeat some money mantra and to “touch your head with your index finger”. All I can picture is a finger gun, so that isn’t going to work for me. The author uses the book to repeatedly sell his seminars, while also talking up multi-level marketing schemes. All the while adding new affirmations. While I like the idea of considering how your upbringing may have set your perspective on money and wealth, I believe there are plenty of other books that include that topic with additional topics of value that don’t have the commercial content that this one has.

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Review: Putting Wealth to Work: Philanthropy for Today or Investing for Tomorrow?

Putting Wealth to Work: Philanthropy for Today or Investing for Tomorrow? by Joel L. Fleishman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found this an interesting topic, although I have no background in “organized” philanthropy. The author uses this book to describe philanthropic entities of two kinds, perpetual and time-limited. He describes many earlier philanthropies as being perpetual, but in some cases no longer meeting the suspected needs of the originators, or their designees, or perhaps the reason for the existence of the philanthropy has changed (think the Buggy Whip Manufacturers Association). Given these issues, many philanthropic entities more recently have been created with designed end dates. His argument here is that the case against perpetual philanthropies is overblown, and possibly misguided, and that both kinds of charities have value in the world. It was enjoyable reading such a thorough analysis of a seemingly simple topic that has some buried complexities. Also making this interesting is the foundation name-dropping – many of the largest foundations are dissected here, and you learn a lot about the “industry” and its various goals, and you learn quite a bit about the founders of these entities (Rockefeller, Gates, Carnegie, and the like) and how they thought about their fortunes.

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Review: The Course of Human Events

The Course of Human Events by David McCullough
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you are on the fence about going back to school to get your Master’s degree in History, listening to this short speech by David McCullough might cost you $50,000. It is worth it to know history, and it is worth it to be able to weave stories based on history the way McCullough does. He starts by describing John Trumbull’s painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But the scene represented never occurred. The painting is a story illustrating the founders of the country as symbols, not as a replication of facts. An interesting way to start a speech about the value of history. He goes on, describing his own influences, especially books. I could go on, but the subject speech is short -- read it, or listen to it as I did. Be prepared for homework.

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Review: Heart of the Machine: Our Future in a World of Artificial Emotional Intelligence

Heart of the Machine: Our Future in a World of Artificial Emotional Intelligence by Richard Yonck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

While recently attending my daughter’s college graduation, I was impressed by the sheer number of students announced as receiving Psychology degrees as their second bachelor’s degree. I was told it was one of the top degrees in the school. I really didn’t see the obvious value, outside of sales and as a step to a grad degree, but “Heart of the Machine” makes the case for the study of psychology, or in particular emotion. What this book makes obvious is that technology is providing ways to “read” people that were not available previously. Through video recording of movements imperceptible to humans, responses that give away inner thought, emotional response to stimulus can be captured, cataloged, and used to optimize, say, buying behavior or knowledge acquisition. And can these capabilities be given to robots, so they can respond to the world with emotional signals, and can read our own signals and react appropriately? Or could you make devices that work as part of a human, allowing the human to repair a possible lack in recognizing the state of others? The book goes through many such scenarios, bringing to light the state of the art in design, and conjecturing where these capabilities can lead us.

I really enjoyed the way this was written, describing issues, the state of the art, and the possible futures of the technology and its usage. I also appreciated the author’s use of recent sci-fi films with “awoke”, or awakening, robots. I consider myself well read, to the point where I’ve-seen-it-before is my usual response to a book. It’s a rare book that can open my mind to something new and exciting. This was one of those books. If I could have asked for more, it would have been for investment advice. BTW, audiobook was well narrated by Robertson Dean.


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Review: Voice of the Violin

Voice of the Violin by Andrea Camilleri
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm reading these in order, and I find this one similar to the others, but with the benefit of knowing the characters and some of the character's immediate past. Camilleri continues some of the plot and builds on (and builds up) the characters in the story. I can see this is becoming more familiar as I read through the series, and that's a good thing so far. There is humor, yes, but I most appreciated the variety of emotions portrayed. I'm not sure why, but I find Montalbano best written when he's pissed off. Likely due to being preoccupied while listening to this audiobook, I found the first half to be somewhat confusing, and I couldn't tell you much of anything that happened relating to the case. But I do remember well the second half. Was it me or the writing? Who can tell... I will continue on in this series.

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Review: The Scandal of Money: Why Wall Street Recovers But the Economy Never Does

The Scandal of Money: Why Wall Street Recovers But the Economy Never Does by George Gilder
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read a couple of Gilder’s books on technology back a few decades when I was in college, and I must say that they had an impact in how I thought about the march of technology. I thought I would read one of his more current books to see if I could glean any other simple-to-repeat insight into economics, and from this book I got one. I won’t judge the veracity of this claim, but Gilder says that gold maintains its value because it can be mined, and mining requires time and money and resources. And he likens it to bitcoin mining. Interesting thought, and one that I’ll keep in my head. The bulk of the book is about the gold standard. I was expecting more related to technology, but was disappointed. I found the arguments presented here to be at times quite confusing, despite Gilder’s simple writing style. It’s one of those books where the sentences make sense, but the paragraphs sometimes don’t. I may try more Gilder books, as I like the way he writes, but I can’t say this topic was that interesting to me.

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Review: Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD: Tips and Tools to Help You Take Charge of Your Life and Get Organized

Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD: Tips and Tools to Help You Take Charge of Your Life and Get Organized by Susan C. Pinsky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I agree with many of the other reviewers who note that, while aimed at people with ADHD and their families, the suggestions here are really for those that value efficiency over aesthetics, and in some cases knowing the efficient isn’t the least expensive solution. Instead of sparking joy, your organizational tools and ways should radiate “get ‘er done”. Less Marie Kondo, more Larry the Cable Guy, at least in attitude. What does this mean? Some examples are in order. The author hates opaque storage boxes. Why? It takes at least one extra step to see what’s inside. While you’re at it, toss the lid and save another step in order to use storage boxes. How does tossing the lid help when you stack boxes. The author says not to stack boxes – use shelving so you don’t have to. And about those boxes – could you use an open faced bin instead? Lots easier. Beyond storage, the author has advice on many subjects that reflect her experience with families with ADHD issues. Is matching socks too much trouble? Buy a bunch of socks of one color, throw away existing socks, and store the new socks loose in a bin or drawer. In reading through this set of organizing and living ideas, you appreciate that approaching these kinds of problems from the mindset of optimizing for people with ADHD provides interesting alternative answers to what you’d get from the more mainstream organizational gurus. And in some cases, these seem to be better answers. Practical over pretty. Glad I read it.

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Review: All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis

All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis by Bethany McLean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s a how-to book, but not the best kind. To accomplish what the businessmen (and occasionally mentioned businesswomen) created, you really had to be in the right place and at the right time. The right place was in a mortgage bank or financial firm, and the right time was the decade or so leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. This is the book on the building of that crisis. The focus is the building blocks of derivative contracts based on mortgages, passing off more and more risk in financial instruments as non-risky investments. The crisis deepens through the first ¾ of the book, with the last quarter of the book describing the subsequent crash and the immediate impacts of the rapid unwinding of those derivatives. I’ve read other books on the financial crisis that seemed more “back end heavy” in terms of focusing on the crisis and the response. This is more on the build-up.

And what a story it is. The moral seems to be “do your homework, especially if your assumptions have never been tested”. Well written, engaging, with plenty of anecdotes about powerful (mostly) men with over-sized personalities, and often egos.


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Review: Point Omega

Point Omega by Don DeLillo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found this oddly comforting, in that the characters all seem so familiar. A failed filmmaker, full of what are likely lousy but arty ideas, attempts to convince a military consultant to star in his art film. His convincing evolves into becoming a live-in helper, and kind of a part of the family. The plot does drag on, although it is a short book. The story peters out at the end, collapsing with a disappearance and a breakdown, and none of the ideas so well described and obsessed over come to fruition. And maybe that’s the point.

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Review: My Week with Marilyn

My Week with Marilyn by Colin Clark
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I listened to the audiobook version of “My Week with Marilyn”, and was surprised to find there was a second book included with the first. That second book, “The Prince, the Showgirl, and Me” was the original diary of Colin Clark covering his six months working on the Marilyn Monroe movie with Sir Lawrence Olivier as a third assistant director. This second book was about twice as long as the first, which was Clark’s story about working with Monroe written decades after the fact. Listeners and readers will notice that the stories aren’t the same. According to the recent Clark book, he had quite an intimate week with Marilyn. But according to his diaries of the time, there’s no detail remotely similar to the newer story. In fact, events seem to be mixed up in time between the two accounts. The author includes a forward to the diary saying that in his earlier diary he was protecting Monroe, but strangely he includes some details in that earlier diary that you wouldn’t think he would have recorded if protecting Monroe’s integrity and privacy was important, involving nudity and medical conditions, including reporting a miscarriage. The newer book seems to me more a “dream sequence” of Clark’s. If you take him at his word, that he believes both accounts are accurate, then this is a good illustration of the impact of time on memory. Time and celebrity. I found the books interesting in that Clark is an upper class young man in a gopher job, and he shows how he took advantage of his upbringing and especially his connections. Yes, anyone can succeed in the movie world of London, but it helps to have family working for the royals and friends who are knighted actors.

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Review: Significant Figures: The Lives and Work of Great Mathematicians

Significant Figures: The Lives and Work of Great Mathematicians by Ian Stewart
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was looking for an entertaining digression on the lives of famous mathematicians. I got that, but I also got a history of their findings, with some basic attempts to explain these findings. While I followed along with understanding for a while, I lost it around the time the author got to 1900. I’d say this explanation was responsible for about a fifth of the book, so I spent more time than comfortable awash at sea. Part of my issue is that I am a visual learner, and having tackled this as an audiobook was probably not the best bet. The narrator gamely described non-Euclidean geometry problems, infinite series, and the like, but this part of the book was more miss than hit for me. I did enjoy what I came for, though, the lives of the mathematicians. As can be imagined, the ancients aren’t as knowable as the moderns (although their math is clearer). But overall, I found this a good book. I learned a little bit, and was entertained a little bit, and I appreciated the “mid level” review of concepts these men and women were working on.

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Review: Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder

Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder by Chip Conley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This starts off as the title would suggest, describing older workers as mentors to other employees based on their extensive experience. That covers the first half of the book. The last half is a traditional how to find a job when you are older book. I’ve read lots of those, and this is just another one. While the first part was somewhat unique, and of personal interest, there wasn’t much there that I found of personal value. The author uses his own experience, relating many anecdotes of his career in the hospitality industry and of being an older mentor to many employees at AirBnB, including the management team. This was certainly an ego-boosting exercise for the author, as he shared how he was able to provide value to his new employer through his experience. The problem is that this really is at the top level of an organization, one that has a lot of money they are willing to invest in getting some experienced advice. This certainly isn’t a common situation.

So while the first half of the book was about a situation that seems quite rare and personally out of reach, and the second half repeated job finding advice I’m over familiar with, I still enjoyed this. The author’s stories about how AirBnB operates, and how he was able to bring his own hotel experience to play were interesting. I also noticed that in the audiobook version, the author narrated. As he read the chapter headings, which included one or two quotes related to the topic at hand, the author sheepishly would say something like, “This and all other chapters start with some quotes, and the first one is….”. I’ve not run across a narrator explaining what is on a page to that level before, and I’m guessing the author doesn’t listen to a lot of audiobooks. But that personable way to explain his book was very human – I liked it.


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Review: The Next Millionaire Next Door: Enduring Strategies for Building Wealth

The Next Millionaire Next Door: Enduring Strategies for Building Wealth by Thomas J. Stanley
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I read the original “Millionaire Next Door” when it came out, and I found it one of the most affirming books I’ve read. This book described how I thought about money, and let me know that that way of thinking, as a “prodigious accumulator of wealth,” is how “balance sheet” millionaires (as opposed to the “income statement” millionaires that make a lot but don’t save at a high rate) think and live. Low key, not flashy. I ended up reading all of Dr. Stanley’s books, and I looked forward to this one when I saw what I thought was his update.

But it isn’t. This is a book written by Dr. Stanley’s daughter, who explains in the introduction that her father was killed by a drunk driver years before. His contribution to the book are a number of blog entries written about the topics he enjoyed writing about. Stanley’s daughter arranged the book loosely in the same kind of organization as the first “Millionaire Next Door”, covering about the same topics. But her father’s contributions to the book are disjointed. While interesting, you still know you are reading loosely organized blog posts, sometimes not very related to the rest of the book, and often setting a different tone. I did not like the way this book was written. I found it a bit of a mess in terms of voice of the author and organization. The author seems to drop in the concept of FIRE (representing financial independence and early retirement) in random places, sometimes where it makes sense, sometimes not, seemingly pandering to this audience. The author is also a statistician, gathering data through research and survey, and focused on the kinds of people profiled in this book. While certainly appropriate for this book, the tone I felt was one of self-promotion. I can live with a little of that – this went a bit over what I was comfortable with. I also found the writing just difficult to read, and found it hard to maintain interest.

To the good, I found the update of research on the practices of millionaires marginally interesting, though for the most part the research showed that nothing has changed. I think this book provides an update to the original, but the original still has this one beat based on readability and impact. While I really wanted to (and expected to) like this one, I would recommend the earlier "Millionaire Next Door" for those interested in this topic.


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