Lynn F. Jacobs and Jeremy S. Hyman. The Secrets of College Success: Over 600 Tips & Tricks Revealed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. 224 pages. Most college graduates feel that, if they’d have known everything going in that they knew when they graduated, they would have had a much better time. THE SECRETS OF COLLEGE SUCCESS […]
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book reviewsMatt Ridley. The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. New York: HarperCollins, 2010. 448 pages. It seems like there’s always a market for doom and gloom, even though, for the most part, things have gotten much, much better for humanity over the past few centuries and even the past few decades. In THE RATIONAL OPTIMIST, Matt
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book reviewsJoseph Mazur. What’s Luck Got to Do With It? The History, Mathematics, and Psychology of the Gambler’s Illusion. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010. 277 pages. I’m on a real book-reviewing tear. I’ve got five more in the hopper, including two for academic journals that I’ll only post synopses of here. Today I’m sharing my thoughts
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book reviewsJack Harpster. King of the Slots: William “Si” Redd. Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2010. 273 pages. Si Redd might have had a bigger impact on American casino gambling than anyone else in the years 1960 to 1990. He’s got some big competition–Jay Sarno, Steve Wynn, and Kirk Kerkorian are a few names that spring to mind.
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book reviewsJonathan Weiner. Long for this World: The Strange Science of Immortality. New York: HarperCollins, 2010. 320 pages. Immortality’s a tricky subject to write about. There are few people who wouldn’t be at least a little interested in the prospect of living forever, but since no one’s been documented doing it, there’s really not much to
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book reviewsAkasha Lonsdale. Do I Kneel or Do I Bow? What You Need to Know When Attending Religious Occasions. London: Kuperard, 2010. 336 pages. This book sets out to help people understand different religions, with an emphasis on the practical–how to behave at “religious occasions.” Written from a primarily British perspective, it covers eight religions: Roman
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book reviewsRobert L. O’Connell. The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic. New York: Random House, 2010. 336 pages. This book, by military historian Robert O’Connell, looks at the hows and also the whys of the battle of Cannae, one of the most conclusive–but ultimately least decisive–battles in Western history. In
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book reviewsDaniel Okrent. Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. New York: Scriber, 2010. 480 pages. Prohibition is one of the great riddles of American history. Looking at it from the distance of three generations, it seems inexplicable that Americans voted to outlaw intoxicating beverages, and it seems clear that the drys were on the
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book reviewsDavid Gordon. The Serialist. New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 2010. 335 pages. Fiction is much harder to review than non-fiction. With the latter, you just need a good topic and a passable writing style, and you can get a feel for the book within a few pages. Fiction, which requires a much bigger investment
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book reviewsJoel J. Miller. The Revolutionary Paul Revere. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010. 304 pages. Paul Revere is famous for his midnight ride, but his life says a great deal more about the founding of the American republic than that single incident. In this new biography, Joel Miller uses Revere’s life to tell readers a little more
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book reviewsJack Cashill. Popes and Bankers: A Cultural History of Credit & Debit, from Aristotle to AIG. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010. 259 pages. With many of our current economic problems blamed on over-leveraging (both nationally and right here in Las Vegas), it’s a good idea to get a sense of how credit and debt have historically
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book reviewsBud Smith and Michael McCallister. Word Press in Depth. Indianapolis: Que, 2010. 410 pages. If you haven’t noticed, this blog is in WordPress. I’ve been using the software for about five years, and I’ve never felt that I’ve unlocked its full potential. So I was eager to read WORDPRESS IN DEPTH to get some insight
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book reviewsDavid S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. Henry Clay: The Essential American. New York: Random House, 2010. 624 pages. Henry Clay was a giant of early American politics. As Speaker of the House, senator from Kentucky, secretary of state, and de facto leader of the Whig opposition to Andrew Jackson, his power often rivaled that
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book reviewsMax Watman. Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw’s Adventures in Moonshine. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010. 293 pages. In Chasing the White Dog, Max Watman blends three spirits, so to speak: a bit of bootlegging history, going back to the Whiskey Rebellion, some reportage on the current state of moonshine (it’s a surprisingly
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book reviewsSarah Rose. For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World’s Favorite Drink and Changed History. New York: Viking, 2010. 252 pages. Fears about the deleterious impact of globalism are nothing new, as For All the Tea in China reminds us. From 1848 to 1851, Scottish botanist Robert Fortune pulled off a gutsy
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book reviewsStephen Fried. Appetite for America: Fred Harvey Civilizing the West–One Meal at a Time. New York: Bantam Books, 2010. 528 pages. If you’ve driven from LA to Las Vegas and wondered what the “Harvey House” sign in Barstow was all about, here’s the scoop: from roughly 1876 to 1930, many train passengers took their meal
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book reviewsDavid Grann. The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession. New York: Doubleday, 2010. 352 pages. Great non-fiction is just as suspenseful and revealing of the human condition as great fiction. With The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, David Grann gives the reader twelve intriguing pieces of great non-fiction. The collection starts with
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book reviewsPeter Milligan. Art by James Romberger. The Bronx Kill. New York: DC Comics, 2010. 181 pages. It’s book review Friday–this week I’m featuring another book that I got through Amazon Vine. The “comic book” can be a powerful story-telling medium. Graphic novels like Art Speigelman’s MAUS and Majane Satrapi’s PERSEPOLIS can do things that standard
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book reviewsIan James Corlett. Illustrated by R.A. Holt. E is for Ethics: How to Talk to Kids About Morals, Values, and What Matters Most. New York: Atria Books, 201. 111 pages. Most people would say that ethics aren’t something that parents can teach, that they can only show them by example. That may be true, but
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book reviewsGary Myers. The Catch: One Play, Two Dynasties, and the Game that Changed the NFL. New York:Crown Publishers, 2009. 304 pages. With the Super Bowl behind us, here’s a review of a book about another momentous NFL game. THE CATCH is filled with good reportage, including interviews from many of the key surviving figures of
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book reviews