So having finished my painful trip through the history of salt, I was ready to move on to the next book. Thankfully the next book was another by Erik Larson. Larson, who wrote The Devil in the White City is a fantastic author and well on his way to being one of my favorites.

Issac’s Storm is about Issac Cline whom you may not know was a meteorologist. While the title may clue you in as to the topic despite its probable loss of the true deadliest title, I shall belabor the obvious and direct your attention to the city of Galveston in the year 1900. A hurricane pretty much like no other nailed the city and resulted in a great loss of life. As per usual in hindsight it can be seen that the warnings were there, and were unheeded. The story mostly follows Issac who was the chief of the weather station in Galveston. It speaks of what he did right and what he completely missed. The story also tells of an age where mankind believed in the strength of steel, and knew that the Law of Storms would tell us what the weather would do, and moreover how through our actions we could stop hail and cause rain.

As an aside, I shall say a word about hurricanes, city planning, budgets, and New York. As I read the book my mind was drawn back to the relatively recent disaster in New Orleans, and how our own hubris allows us to believe ourselves safe, and then our greed and penny pinching dooms us in the future. People asked why the levees didn’t stand and I think the core of engineers colonel (if I recall correctly) said it most poignantly when he replied “they were built to levee level 3, the storm was higher than a 3 and they failed.” The incredulous reporter inquired as to why and the colonel replied “cause that is all people were willing to pay for.” So the levees will be rebuilt although almost certainly not strong enough, but New Orleans like Galveston knows to expect another blow. But I await the day with trepidation when the hurricane people continually warn about finally nails NYC and we all suddenly look up in shock like we didn’t know it was coming.

Anyways now that I have made this review significantly more verbose and a bit preachy allow me to continue. Larson again delivers an amazing ride through history. The story is written so well it is hard to believe that essentially you are almost reading a textbook. Again I am willing to recommend this book to almost anyone with a love of reading. I personally I looking forward to later this month when Thunderbolt his newest book hits the shelves paperback style.

Well this is one of those books that I could not walk past in the store without buying it. Most especially since it was a best seller as amazing as that sounds. The subject matter is quite fascinating as few truly realize how large a role salt has played throughout history. That said I had a hard time finishing this book. The author is all about food subjects and he interjects all manner of epicurean information into the book. This may amuse and interest some people but for me it just made it a hard read that seemed disjointed. This is a book I would love to give more stars too because it is fascinating, but I just can’t do it in light of how hard of a read I found it to be.

So I was all proud of myself for actually posting the review of the Einstein book, which I had finished reading a week or so ago when I decided to sit down and start reading one of the new books I had purchased for myself today. Freakonomics was brought to my attention during a discussion about politics, legislation, and abortion. Now I must admit to being a big fan of economic theory, but I feel that almost anyone would have their interest piqued if I were to tell them that its been shown that Roe vs Wade was responsible for the sharp decline in crime in the late 90’s.

So already suckered in I sat down to read. That started about 6 hours or so during which I read on and off. Those six hours have earned me an even greater respect for the methods of economics when applied to real life. The book covers a number of recent issues seemingly unrelated to economics, but when viewed through the economic lens of incentives, are suddenly illuminated with new light. The topics range from the aforementioned abortion and crime link to why teachers help their students cheat on standardized testing, and cover in between why real estate agents rip you off, why sumo wrestlers cheat, why people name their kids stupid names, why people don’t steal as many bagels as they could, and many more.

The book itself is well written with Dubner smoothing out the economic theory of Levitt. The subject matter as mentioned above is relevant and interesting. The whole tone of the book is somewhat mocking and somewhat ironic, but most of all informative. Really what is encouraged is the challenging of conventional wisdom, which while conventional is not always right. The book I feel should be read by just about everyone it is that good, and while you may not agree with what the authors have to say you certainly will look at things in new ways. Now on to the amazing history of salt I go.

This book presents as one may expect from the title a biography of Albert Einstein. The author does a decent job of keeping the story interesting and flowing well. However, if you are into the math or science behind the story you may well end up being somewhat disappointed as the author’s treatment is not too in depth. This does have the upside of making it readable by a much larger audience. The life of Einstein is fairly fascinating. A man with problems and at the same time brilliant.

Definitely worth a read if you are a science buff or if Einstein is your cup of tea.

As books go this is about as good as it gets. Written by two titans in the world of literature now, it was when it was originally released written by two fairly unknown authors. I have already previously stated my love of anything written by Gaiman, so allow me to expound upon the virtues of Terry Pratchett. Terry Pratchett’s main series of books called the Diskworld novels center around a flat disk world that rests on the backs of four elephants that ride through space on a giant turtle cause frankly what else would it do. They are hilarious, they are well written, and whats more they have developed into cutting edge satire.

Good Omens itself focuses on the story of well the end of the world. There is a complete list of characters spanning from nuns to Tibetans to aliens. Its a story about the Antichrist named Adam, an angel, a witch, and a demon who did not so much fall from heaven as saunter vaguely downward. Heck you even get 8 horsemen of the apocalypse. War, famine, death , and pollution (plague kinda got down when penicillin was invented) are all there, but so are Grievous Bodily Harm, Answering Machine, Cruelty to Animals, and Things That Don’t Work Quite Right Even After You’ve Given Them A Good Thumping (but secretly No Alcohol Lager). Its a fun novel basically unmatched when it comes to just random funny absolutely hilarious writing. It has become a cult classic and for good reason.

The bottom line if you like to laugh pick this book up.

Well I’ve had Stardust sitting on my shelf for some period of time, and I thought that I should give it a read before the movie comes out. After reading it I must say I’m a bit disappointed in myself for having waited so long. Anywho the book is by Neil Gaiman, who if you don’t know was the writer of the Sandman graphic novels. Mr. Gaiman won short story awards for those fantastic comics, until the people who give out awards decided that it was unseemly for a mere comic book writer to be winning them over and over again. Thankfully Gaiman then proceed to start writing short stories and novels just to keep winning the awards, or something like that, which is fortunate since every book he writes is amazing.

As to Stardust itself, the novel focuses on the quest of one Tristran Thorn. Thorn promises to bring his love the star that they both saw fall from the sky. However, living in the village of Wall, he must pass into the realm of Faerie to complete his quest. As his journey continues he discovers that stars are not so much metal as in our world as they are fantastically beautiful young women.

The novel is well written, the plot engaging, and the setting magical. While, I am unable to give this book 5 stars if only because I enjoy some of his other books more, you can not do much better than this when it comes to books, and thus I gladly recommend this to anyone looking for a good read.

This book presents an overview of the combat leadership in the Civil War. The author examines the war through the eyes of six generals, three for each side. It is an interesting semi biography for the six men the author follows: Grant, Barlow, Thomas, Lee, Hood, and Gordon. It is fairly well written, however it seems apparent from the get go that the author has a soft spot for General Thomas. As such he is excessively critical of the other generals when they clash with Thomas. None the less it provides interesting insight into some of the less well known generals of the war.

The author gives an interesting introduction to the world of economics. You will learn why sweatshops are good things and fair trade coffee isn’t quite fair. Harford guides the reader, through many examples, to a new way of looking at the world. This book, while it may be simplistic to those familiar with economic theory is still a playful, fun, and most of all education read even if it does have like the longest secondary title ever.

What do Chicago, serial killers, Ferris wheels, and architecture have in common? If you answered the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair you would be spot on. The author chronicles the fair and the events that surrounded it through the lives of two men. The first is the architect responsible for the fair, Daniel Burnham. The second is Dr. H Holmes America’s first serial killer. The author shows you how the magic that was the white city was perverted by the horrid acts of a man who used the draw of the amazing fair to further his murderous schemes. Not only is the book well written, but it is almost hard to believe that all of the events actually happened. Definitely worth a read to learn about the fair that cemented America’s place as a world power and showed the French that we can build it bigger.

The final book in the Harry Potter series, is a letdown. The author in her haste to tie up loose ends uses far too many contrived plots. This causes the book to feel significantly different than the rest of the series. The plot does not flow smoothly from event to event almost as if the author created a list of what had to happen and what plot lines needed tied up, and then wrote the events checking them off and sort of stuck them together. To be honest I would think the book should have been split in twain and then each half written up to the proper length. None the less the book is a necessary read even if it is a disappointing culmination to a fantastic series.