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Another story of Alexander Hamilton, the guy who created the national debt and the uneven whiskey tax to support big government (and big producers) and crush the rural little guy. What he didn't expect was how close this came to civil war - centered in a Pennsylvania county named Washington.

Paying off debts was the reason for the tax, and this would have been a stronger story if that were emphasized up front. The rest of the history is well told, and good attention is paid to both sides. Of course, the tarring/feathering rebels are made out to be the bad guys from the start. This book provides solid information on a little-known period of American history.

Had I spent more direct instead of scattered time, this book might have been better. It did not pull me in at first - better maps would have helped a lot. Even wikipedia lacks details on this, making research more difficult. Will definitely make time in the area the next time I am near Pittsburgh.

This is an excellent novel with strong characters. It tells the compelling story of a man confined to a hotel in Russia in 1922 - a resonant theme for those of us in 2020. Definitely the best fiction I have read in the last 12 months.

Starting with this period of post-Tsarist Russia and the main character who is a former member of the aristocracy provides a cultured point of view. Through words, he describes his hotel setting as becoming smaller and smaller until young Sofia opens his eyes and changes his focus. This meeting happened by a chain of chance events, and that is the real theme of the novel - small decisions and interactions leading to life-changing events.

Though nearly all told from Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov's point of view, many other characters have solid growth and direction through the novel. Even the background characters were well written - one of my favorites was Abram, a handyman in the Hotel Metropol who also keeps bees on the roof.

A Gentleman in Moscow is Amor Towles second novel, and after reading it you may be surprised to find that he wasn't born in Russia. Another theme of this book is the literary legacy of many great Russian novelists, including Gogol, Pushkin, and Dostoevsky. Chekhov and Tolstoy play a strong part in the plot, and characters read or mention both Anna Karenina and War and Peace. Read over just a few days, I could not put this down, and look forward to reading more from this author.

It will be interesting when we turn the COVID corner just what effect this last year has had on CO2 concentrations. I suspect it will prove we can contribute to improving our situation, and may convince people and governments to make further improvements. If they don't, we are screwed.

Not the planet, it will survive. It won't be a fun place to live, of course. The majority of species will be wiped out in a mass die-off that rivals the Permian extinction. The planet also won't sustain a population of 7 billion humans, either, and those deaths will be primarily by famine or war. Repeated natural disasters won't make life easy for those that do survive.

This was an interesting book, and was cited in another book I read more recently. The author surveyed a majority of papers modeling future climate and sorted those summaries into folders of 1-6 degrees of average temperature increase, making up the six primary chapters in this book. These studies are all documented in the extensive notes section, but were also all published before this book (2007). As such, some are out of date. The author doesn't necessarily summarize the papers, instead telling a story based on the results, from coral bleaching to loss of glaciers and sub-sea methane eruptions.

The conclusion of the book contains a brief discussion of some efforts to battle this, and is the most out of date. The one solid finding is that the best solution can be thought of as a pie chart, with various sized wedges representing different methods. Reducing CO2 emissions is just one wedge, and we have temporarily achieved that by working from home and limiting travel.

I added this book to my to-read pile a while back. Perhaps I should have skipped it and read the authors latest book (released April 2020) called [b:Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency|51471435|Our Final Warning Six Degrees of Climate Emergency|Mark Lynas|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582063272l/51471435.SY75.jpg|76135420]. Since we have already shot past the threshold for the 1 degree chapter, CO2 at 400 ppm, maybe it will be a little shorter.

Purchased in 1979 at White Elephant, this book is still in great shape. Read cover to cover more than once, though it is most frequently used for reference. Plenty of pencil marks and notes over the years. Incomplete as a system without the DMG and MM, unlike many Players Handbooks today.

I was thinking about history on this read through, and connecting the dots between gaming today and the wargames that Gygax was running before this. Level titles and limitations, weapon and armor descriptions and the combat system all connect quite closely. One of the best things about this (for me) was the art. Illustrations by Dave Sutherland and David Trampier all directed the reader to future adventure. It's impossible to look at that cover and not wonder what battle came before - and what comes after.

This book was solid and useful, but really needed information from the DMG and Monster Manual to be complete. Spells had clarifications, the methods for rolling up ability scores - heck, even the movement rate of Dwarves and Gnomes were all located in other books. At the time, this seemed okay, but I think players today wouldn't be quite as accepting. D&D 5E adventures can be played with the PHB alone if necessary.

Rating - 4 stars for the history and imagination available in this slim tome.

Fantasy, spies, Victorian spiritualism and the afterlife, set in a very alternate 1938. Great writing, a strong female character, and world building that may be a bit too deep. Also, way too many blurbs on the cover!

One of those blurbs mentions spies that don't die, which is partially true. The worlds here are our world, Summerland or the Summer Court (a spirit world which is largely British?), and the Winter Court (the opposition - no nationality mentioned?). A ticket is required for entry into Summerland (how British!), and of course you must be dead. So spies who die with a ticket can end up in Summerland, and can continue to spy, kind-of. If this paragraph seemed confusing, that matches some of the book.

This is Rajaniemi's first standalone novel after a very successful series starting with the Quantum Thief. I loved the writing, though I had some trouble following the world. I got the idea that some of the names involved were people I should know. Maybe there is a guide out there connecting the dots. One of the main characters, larger than life Herbert Blanco West, is clearly HG Wells, though may have a twist of Lovecraft (Herbert West) or even Lloyd George.

I picked this up in Helsinki last year, and the first two chapters were both excellent introductions to the two main characters. For me, the quality fell off in later chapters - or maybe that was confusion. 3 out of 5 stars, and I look forward to reading his highly rated series.

A collection of scientific discoveries demonstrating observational science - look to see what is happening, think of a theory that proves and predicts, test that theory with more predictions, then share your theory with others for clarification and critique. Will following this method win you a Nobel? Probably not, but it will help you understand how science led to the knowledge we have today.

Other reviewers seem to think this is about specific scientific discoveries, comparing it to the quick summaries given in high school science texts. Instead, this book is about thinking like a scientist, applying the scientific method, with examples drawn from history AND the current day. Chapters have both humor and extensive footnotes.

The other focus is Look / Think / Test / Tell, a way of describing how all reputable scientists back up observations and discoveries with duplication and publication. For the rest of us, this can be an easy way to avoid being fooled by Cold Fusion or Alien DNA - if it can't be duplicated and there are very few published papers (if any), then it is probably bunk.

Was it 5 star? No, but definitely way above average. I'd like to see more science education among the peoples of the world, especially in some developed countries that seem to be backsliding at the moment. As some other reviews show, this might not be the best book to reach them.

Most people look at the world with a binary focus - have and have not; first and third world, etc. This outlook makes it hard to see the progress and growth. The late Hans Rosling describes a better way with multiple examples, helping to correct any us vs them mentality.

I really enjoyed the clarity and writing in this book. Hans battles ten instincts that keep us from seeing the changes in our world properly. These instincts (at both the company and individual level) hinder the correct choices, and some of them are frequently played on by marketing and the news. A perfect example is the Size instinct - standalone numbers often look more impressive than they actually are. When this is used against us, it isn't just bad math - an advertising company deliberately hides information so the majority of people will make the wrong choices. Fortunately the information is nearly always available - we just need a better habit of finding and comparing before buying or voting.

The cover blurbs make this seem like a self-help or business book, and it can fit in those niches. That said, I would recommend this book to all readers - I'll gladly loan you my copy. This strong quote from the book resonated with me:

“I want people, when they realize they have been wrong about the world, to feel not embarrassment, but that childlike sense of wonder, inspiration, and curiosity that I remember from the circus, and that I still get every time I discover I have been wrong: 'Wow, how is that even possible?'”

Though this one summarizes the problem best:

“Human beings have a strong dramatic instinct toward binary thinking, a basic urge to divide things into two distinct groups, with nothing but an empty gap in between. We love to dichotomize. Good versus bad. Heroes versus villains. My country versus the rest. Dividing the world into two distinct sides is simple and intuitive, and also dramatic because it implies conflict, and we do it without thinking, all the time.”

A reluctant hero on a mission in a well-established galaxy, this fish-out-of-water tale is very well written. The characters (and even the villain) have some growth. The background contains just enough of the galactic situation to remain interesting to series readers.

Flipping a trope on its head, the main character comes from a male-only society. Rather than scream misogyny, this is an interesting religious take on a frontier society. But the main story is a mystery - what happened to the shipment they were supposed to get? The reluctant hero must venture WAY outside his comfort zone to find a solution.

The majority of the book takes place aboard a station, and is also well written. Serious thought has gone into how to protect these people and how they would react to it. Like many gathering places, the politics of the greater universe are represented. Other than a few name drops, the main characters of the series don't appear at all. This is the third Vorkosigan book I have read, all in publication order. It proves the author had created a well-mapped universe to work from. All of the first three books were published in 1986 as well.

Next I will tackle the sequel to the first book, though published 5 years later. [b:Barrayar|61905|Barrayar (Vorkosigan Saga, #7)|Lois McMaster Bujold|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1397151220l/61905.SY75.jpg|3036422] is one of the highest rated in the series on Goodreads. Looking forward to it!

Part road trip, part dark dystopia that starts in Denton, Texas. This story focuses on violent escape from collapsing society interspersed with flashbacks of a basically good kid. We don't find out what changed, and that leaves the story lifeless.

Hiram trains with his friend for an apocalypse coming soon, but they are not preppers. Their focus is The Book, a manifesto about establishing a new society after the Event. Interestingly, that event is warned about by Salvage, and anarchic group - the opposite focus of The Book. The story is told in timeline format with many flashbacks and not a lot of action. The apocalyptic focus reminds me of The Death of Grass, though that was a much better book.

One third of the novel's blurb points out how Salvage uses the unused analog airwaves to air their anarchic signal. They do, but that's not the focus - and this clever trick isn't explained beyond this mention. The characters are flat, and the only "growth" is between current day Hiram and his flashback self - not at all detailed. The ending is abrupt.

This is the first novel from Darin Bradley, and a Q&A in the back of my copy points out that the early Hiram is semi-autobiographical. Written in 2008, the Event feels a lot closer today. I just hope our future is a brighter than the one described here. 2½ stars.

Very well researched book on the 1919 World Series, events leading up to it and the aftermath. Facts from recently uncovered materials add to the narrative. Recommended for fans of history, baseball, biography, or courtroom drama.

The author presents a mostly chronological narrative, adding history and explanation to several events - including scandal in the 19th century (and the rules made to handle that), the founding the American League and various challenges to the reserve clause (finally removed in the late 1970s). Coverage of the 1919 season is thorough but not game-by-game, and benefits greatly from the boxes of material held by Comiskey's lawyer. Here too the history and biography explanations continue, including details on everyone from Arnold Rothstein down to the local thugs. Those papers also expand the courtroom drama, naturally, and the disappearance of the signed confessions.

The book closes with aftermath, including both Pete Rose and the books and movies written and loosely based on the events. A thorough bibliography and index finish the cycle. The earlier Eight Men Out occasionally played loose with the facts for added drama; this book sticks to the facts and can be a little dry. Thus it wouldn't be 5 star for everyone, but it is one of the better written (and researched) baseball histories I've read recently - I learned more about Ban Johnson and Kenesaw Mountain Landis here than I have in other sources.

This book is 5 disconnected short stories shuffled into a deck of 100 chapters with an increasingly annoying cliffhanger at the end of each chapter.

The big idea is that there is a single genetic "match" for each person on the planet. The five stories are about this match (or mis-match) with plot twists. The science behind this is presented with a hand-wave, so some suspension of disbelief is required.

I think it would have read fine as 5 individual stories, with a few less cliffhangers. When you aren't interested in a story (or part of it - I could say that with all of them at some point), they feel like a chore you must read through to get back to what you want. It also adds to the page count - this book was over 400 for a reason. There characters were mostly one dimensional, the dialog mostly mundane. This is more of a domestic drama or romance novel than the science fiction or thriller it was billed as. For me, this was definitely not a "match".