The Undercover Economist Strikes Back by Tim Harford

This book's full title is The Undercover Economist Strikes Back: How to Run or Ruin an Economy. This is an interesting book. It makes the economics and some economic concepts easy to understand. The book is also written in the form of a dialog. It is an interesting concept. I think that it makes the book accessible, especially do those who lack understanding of some economic concepts.

Tim Harford has his own web site here. On this site Tim Harford talks about his various books and recent and popular articles he has written. Tim Harford is also on twitter StockTwits. He is a Financial Times columnist.

There are some interesting reviews at Good Reads. Not everyone liked the dialog format. As always, the review at The Wall Street Journal is good. This particular review is by Roger Lowenstein.

Tim Harford speaks at the London School of Economics about this Book The Undercover Economist Strikes Back. The video is 1 hour with Q & A at the end. This is an interview hosted by Cato Institute. The video is 90 minutes and Tim Harford and Alex Tabarrok. Tim starts speaking at almost 8 minutes into the video.

On my website is how to find this book on Amazon if you care to purchase it. See harford. Also, this book review and other books I have reviewed are on my website at Book Reviews.

The Sea and Civilization by Lincoln Paine

This book's full title is The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World. The author of this book really knows his stuff. The book is well written and quite absorbing. He is well versed in the sea and ancient history as he is in what is happening on the seas today. Lincoln Paine has his own site.

There is a wonderful review of this book at The Wall Street Journal by John Darwin. There is also another very good review of this book at the Telegraph by Ben Wilson.

A Portland station in Maine has a short interview with Lincoln Paine. The US Naval College shows a lecture by Lincoln Paine on this book. Lecture is almost an hour long. The speech is around 37 minutes and there is a Q and A at the end. Here Lincoln Paine talks about Maritime History as human ecology.

On my website is how to find this book on Amazon if you care to purchase it. See Paine. Also, this book review and other books I have reviewed are on my website at Book Reviews.

Younger Next Year by Crowley and Lodge

This book's full title is Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit and Sexy - Until you're 80 or beyond. The authors are Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge, M.D. I have read a number of books about being healthy in retirement or old age. They all say the same things. You need something to do that you are passionate about (that is do something you care about), you need to exercise, you need to eat properly and you need to socialize.

There is a wonderful review of this book by Clarence Bass on his blog site. Clarence goes into a lot of details about this book. There is a video review of this book by a couple of physical therapist. There is also an interesting review of this book at the Athlete In Me site.

This book has its own web site . Chris Crowley also has a blog about this subject. There is an interview by Jim Zirin of Chris Crowley. In this video, Chris Crowley talks about the Aspen Club.

There is a short PBS clip from a show done by Henry Lodger on PBS. Dr. Henry S. Lodger speaks at The UP Experience 2008. He talks about experiments were worms are made to live about 8 times longer than normal. This also works with mice and makes them live one third longer. This is generics. We should eat better and eat less, we should exercise more and we should care.

On my website is how to find this book on Amazon if you care to purchase it. See Crowley. Also, this book review and other books I have reviewed are on my website at Book Reviews.

Advanced Civilizations of Prehistoric America by Frank Joseph

This book's full title is Advance Civilizations of Prehistoric America: The lost Kingdoms of the Adena, Hopewell, Mississippians and Anasazi. This is an interesting book. I thought I was buying a history book, but when I glanced at the back of the book, I noticed that it was classified as Ancients Mysteries/New Age.

According to Frank Joseph, all the North American civilizations were all started by alien peoples from Europe (Celts), Japan and South America. Really! I must admit I have a hard time believing this. Maybe one group emigrated from South America, this could be believable, but all of them?

Also, he says that when North American civilizations tottered then North American Indian tribes slaughtered them. He makes the native North American Indians out to be rather nasty people in the bargain. No wonder this book has been classified as Ancient Mysteries/New Age. It does not appear to be history as I understand history.

For this book I had a hard time finding any book review that did not just regurgitate the blurbs from the back of the book. There is one at Good Reads. There is a very interesting entry for Frank Joseph as Frank Cohen/Collin in Wikipedia. There is a second Wikipedia entry for Frank Joseph as Frank Collin.

On my website is how to find this book on Amazon if you care to purchase it. See Joseph. Also, this book review and other books I have reviewed are on my website at Book Reviews.

The World until Yesterday by Jared Diamond

This book's full title is The World until Yesterday, What can we learn from traditional societies. I have always enjoyed books by Jared Diamond. I have read other books by him such as Collapse and Gun, Germs and Steel. He has a unique outlook and his books make you think.

There are a couple of good reviews of this book on the site of Good Reads. There is a rather long review of this book at the Guardian by Wade Davis. It is worthwhile to read. He talks a lot about Franz Boas, perhaps more than he talks about Jared Diamond. He has good and bad things to say about this book, but I found it all quite interesting. There is a short video (6 minutes) by Jared Diamond. (Unfortunately, there is a short ad before you can see the video.)

There is a video call "What We Can Learn from Traditional Societies" and it is a talk by Jared Diamond at RSA. It is not very long at 20 Minutes. Q&A starts at around 15 minutes. The talk is about growing old in traditional societies. There is a wonderful hour long video with a speech by Jared Diamond via C-Span2, Book TV. He starts off this talk, talking about growing old in traditional societies. At the end there is a Q & A. period close to 35 minutes in.

There is a short 5 minute video about the book with a interview of Jared Diamond

On my website is how to find this book on Amazon if you care to purchase it. See Diamond. Also, this book review and other books I have reviewed are on my website at Book Reviews.

Empires of Food by Fraser and Rimas

This book's full title is Empires of Food: Feast, Famine and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations. It was written by Even D. G. Fraser and Andrew Rimas. We in the Western world have had great weather and good crops for some time now. . But are we making the same mistakes as other civilizations have with monoculture and deforestation? The book does jump around a bit, but it covers some interesting facts of other civilizations at other times.

There are a number of good reviews on this book at Good Reads. You have to scroll down a bit to find them. There also is a good review by David Barling at the New Castle University site. There is a rather negative review of this book at The Independent by Christopher Hirst.

There is a video at USC Canada by Evan Fraser. This is a talk given in 2010. The talk is in four parts with 3 parts being around 15 minutes long, and one being less than 5 minutes. The link is to the all four parts. Also, the Big History Project talks about the evolution of agriculture.

On my website is how to find this book on Amazon if you care to purchase it. See Boeckh. Also, this book review and other books I have reviewed are on my website at Book Reviews.

The Great Degeneration by Niall Ferguson

This book's full title is The Great Degeneration - How Institutions Decay and Economies Die. I tend to pick up any book written by Niall Ferguson. He is always an interesting writer. You do not have to agree with all he says, few people do. Niall Ferguson always has interesting ideas and he makes you think.

He says that we have structural problems that are holding us back. We are leaving a huge debt for future generations. I certainly agree that we are leaving a huge debt for future generations and I believe we should not do that.

Read a Forbes columnist take on the latest Ferguson- Krugman dustup dustup . The latest from Ferguson is in Huffington Post. There is a Part 2 and a Part 3.

There is a great review of this book at The Wall Street Journal by George Melloan. There is also an interesting review of this book by Dimitri Nasrallah in the Toronto Star

There is a great interview of Niall Ferguson about this book by Charlie Rose on Bloomberg. On CDB Day 6, there is an interview with Niall Ferguson. This last one is radio, not video. There is an older video called the "age of debt" has come to an end by Niall Ferguson in 2012.

On my website is how to find this book on Amazon if you care to purchase it. See Ferguson. Also, this book review and other books I have reviewed are on my website at Book Reviews.