“This is an entertaining book that falls prey to what I call ‘The Malcolm Gladwell Syndrome,’ which says ‘just find a bunch of anecdotes and connect them together with the barest whisper of an over-arching premise.’ To be fair, this makes for some interesting books. But those books stray pretty far…”
“A thoroughly enjoyable book discussing the five Nordic countries – Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark – and their supposedly unassailable credentials as the utopia of the world. The author is an Englishman, married to a Danish woman and living in Denmark. He deconstructs the myth of…”
“This is a wonderful book, more for the format than the topic. First, the topic – it’s about a river. The Seine starts in southern France and flow northward through Paris to the English Channel. The book is all about this river. (I wasn’t actually interested in the topic, but there was a ‘Buy Two,…”
“ A spectacular history of Asia. This is a book where I stopped tracking what page I was on, because I just wanted to keep reading it. Also a book that could have been boring, but the writing style is just effortless and wonderful. ”
“I didn’t like this. But what bothers me is that I don’t know why I didn’t like it . I am very interested in the subject matter. This should absolutely be a book I like. I have no idea why I couldn’t connect with it, but dreaded picking it up. It’s about a journalist who wanders around the Holy…”
“An in-depth look at the geopolitics and geo-economics of the world. The author goes around the globe and explains each country’s situation, historically, geographically, politically, and economically. What’s interesting is that a lot of the book is not actually about geography, but that’s the…”
“Tedious book. Seemed a bit scattered. The gist appears to be that the biggest reason nations fail is because of unfair, ‘extractive’ institutions, like dictatorships, that give people little incentive to work and are designed to enrich a few. The book goes on about this for 460+ pages, with example…”
The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power
