This book’s full title is Darius in the Shadow of Alexander. I enjoyed the book, although it was rather slow in places and there really is not a lot we know about Darius. It is hard to read at times, but he is a person from history that I know little about. It would appear that little is really know about him historically.
It is certainly true that history is written by the victors. Certainly, the Greeks have bad mouthed Darius a lot, but you would think that there might possibly some Iranian or Persian sources available about Darius. The book is not an easy read and I kept thinking it might shed some light eventually on Darius, but it never seemed to get there.
There is one good book review on this Amazon Site by JPS. Jennifer Finn on Bryn Mawr Classical Review sounds like a scholar reviewing a scholarly work. She generally approves of this book. Her review is almost as hard to read and the book. But, what could I really expect? This favourite review site of mine of Good Reads seem to favour a review by Georgette Gouveia. This is a great review and it seems to be the only one on this site. Tom Holland also does a great review on the Spectator. It was hard to find good reviews. I had to search passed the first google page and this is unusual.
Since the author is French and the book was originally written in French, there is no English videos with the author or any English language discussion of the book in a video. There is an English Wikipedia entry for the author.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Monday, January 28, 2019
100 Mistakes That Changed History by Bill Fawcett
This book’s full title is 100 Mistakes That Changed History: Backfires and Blunders that Collapsed Empires, Crashed Economies and Altered the Course of Our World. I must admit it was not as interesting as I thought it would be, but I did read it to the end, one story at a time. I do not think I can do better than the reviews below or really add anything different.
If you scroll down on the Amazon page, you will see some reviews. Some enjoyed it and others did not, but they generally point out that the book has mistakes (or factual inaccuracies). There are also reviews at Good Reads.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
If you scroll down on the Amazon page, you will see some reviews. Some enjoyed it and others did not, but they generally point out that the book has mistakes (or factual inaccuracies). There are also reviews at Good Reads.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
Friday, January 25, 2019
Energy and Civilization by Vaclav Smil
This book’s full title is Energy and Civilization, A History. I note that Bill Gates talks about this author, Vaclav Smil, he loves his loves his books and Vaclav Smil as an author. Leanna Garfield on Business Insider talks about Bill Gates love of books by Vaclav Smil saying that he has read nearly all 37 of his books. In this article, Bill Gates talks about 7 books of Vaclav Smil he read and loved.
I found this book fascinating. It was interesting to me that city sizes were limited by what they needed in fuel. Apparently, cities needed a land area 30 times the size of a city of trees for fuel. He also goes into the date and order we humans started growing crops and then domesticating animals. Vaclav Smil goes into detail of where and how and how much energy we got from different sources in our history.
As usual, there are lots of great reviews of this book on Good Reads. There is a great and detailed review of this book by Jeff Rutherford on the Stanford Energy Journal. There is another interesting review by Bart Hawkins Kreps on BioPhyseco.
There seems to be no video by Vaclav Smil on this book of Energy and Civilization. However, there are talks by Vaclav Smil Vaclav Smil talks at Equinoxabout Energy Transitions. Vaclav Smil talks about drivers of environmental change and focus on energy transitions at The University of British Columbia. In this video, Vaclav Smil is interviewed by Bill Gates.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
I found this book fascinating. It was interesting to me that city sizes were limited by what they needed in fuel. Apparently, cities needed a land area 30 times the size of a city of trees for fuel. He also goes into the date and order we humans started growing crops and then domesticating animals. Vaclav Smil goes into detail of where and how and how much energy we got from different sources in our history.
As usual, there are lots of great reviews of this book on Good Reads. There is a great and detailed review of this book by Jeff Rutherford on the Stanford Energy Journal. There is another interesting review by Bart Hawkins Kreps on BioPhyseco.
There seems to be no video by Vaclav Smil on this book of Energy and Civilization. However, there are talks by Vaclav Smil Vaclav Smil talks at Equinoxabout Energy Transitions. Vaclav Smil talks about drivers of environmental change and focus on energy transitions at The University of British Columbia. In this video, Vaclav Smil is interviewed by Bill Gates.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
This book’s full title is just 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. I must say that this book is a real downer. My view is that book show how we and the earth is going to hell in a handbasket. I am always optimistic that humans and my country will somehow muddle through all our difficulties. Yuval Noah Harari has his own web site for this book here.
I am not so bleak about AI and its implications. I have worked with computers and algorithms. One problem I see is that AI has no common sense. Algorithms when they are wrong or have solutions or answers off the rails, they will not recognize this. For example, you would not want an AI to be your doctors. It can be of great help for your doctor, but you want a human being to make the final call or decide on treatment. AI’s will also never have an “ah” moments.
However, I did work in IT, now ICT, in 1980’s and 1990’s and I must admit that most of the users of our computer system in the company thought of the computer as a magic black box that always came up with the right answers. That was and is a problem.
Steve Paulson has a good interview with Yuval Harari Nautilus. This is a free newsletter with some very interesting articles. Helen Lewis does a great review on The Guardian. The reviews on Good Reads vary a lot.
Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, hosts Yuval Noah Harari for a conversation about his new book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and about who the future belongs to. Yuval Noah Harari in conversation with Christine Lagarde is on Youtube. Yuval Noah Harari speaks at Talks on Google. His views of “free will” is interesting. Stan Grant talks to Yuval Noah Harari on ABC (Australia).
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
I am not so bleak about AI and its implications. I have worked with computers and algorithms. One problem I see is that AI has no common sense. Algorithms when they are wrong or have solutions or answers off the rails, they will not recognize this. For example, you would not want an AI to be your doctors. It can be of great help for your doctor, but you want a human being to make the final call or decide on treatment. AI’s will also never have an “ah” moments.
However, I did work in IT, now ICT, in 1980’s and 1990’s and I must admit that most of the users of our computer system in the company thought of the computer as a magic black box that always came up with the right answers. That was and is a problem.
Steve Paulson has a good interview with Yuval Harari Nautilus. This is a free newsletter with some very interesting articles. Helen Lewis does a great review on The Guardian. The reviews on Good Reads vary a lot.
Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, hosts Yuval Noah Harari for a conversation about his new book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and about who the future belongs to. Yuval Noah Harari in conversation with Christine Lagarde is on Youtube. Yuval Noah Harari speaks at Talks on Google. His views of “free will” is interesting. Stan Grant talks to Yuval Noah Harari on ABC (Australia).
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre
This book’s full title is The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of The Cold War. This is a wonderful book and a great read. Ben Macintyre is not new to the spy genre as he has written many books on this subject. Ben Macintyre has his own site and also a US site . He even has his own Wikipedia entry.
Even though it is non-fiction, it is not the type of non-fiction I generally read. I had the pleasure to hear the author of this book speak at a Ben McNally brunch at the King Eddie. It was the speech given by Ben Macintyre that made me want to buy this book. It was an excellent speech and an also an excellent book.
These brunches at the King Eddie are a regular event. Since both Britnell Books and Nicholas Hoare have shut, Ben McNally’s book shop seems to be the last great book shop in Toronto. Ben McNally Book Shop’s site is here,
As usual, there are some great reviews on Good Reads, one of my favourite review sites.. Oliver Bullough writes a good review of the book in The Guardian. Finally, David Walmsley in the Globe and Mail write another quite interesting review.
Ben Macintyre talks about his book on YouTube. Ben Macintyre gives a talk at The Graduate Center at City University of New York. You see Ben Macintyre starting around 4 minutes.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
Even though it is non-fiction, it is not the type of non-fiction I generally read. I had the pleasure to hear the author of this book speak at a Ben McNally brunch at the King Eddie. It was the speech given by Ben Macintyre that made me want to buy this book. It was an excellent speech and an also an excellent book.
These brunches at the King Eddie are a regular event. Since both Britnell Books and Nicholas Hoare have shut, Ben McNally’s book shop seems to be the last great book shop in Toronto. Ben McNally Book Shop’s site is here,
As usual, there are some great reviews on Good Reads, one of my favourite review sites.. Oliver Bullough writes a good review of the book in The Guardian. Finally, David Walmsley in the Globe and Mail write another quite interesting review.
Ben Macintyre talks about his book on YouTube. Ben Macintyre gives a talk at The Graduate Center at City University of New York. You see Ben Macintyre starting around 4 minutes.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
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