Our Recommended Reading

Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande. A philosophical and scientific – but very readable – treatise on what matters as people reach the end of their lives, and how to attain it. A must for anyone with elders to care for, or elders themselves.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Great roundup of history, from the beginning of the Universe and atomic structure, through toolmaking, the struggles of scientists, and a thousand other things, all done in Bryson’s humorous style. Hard to put down. Highly recommended.

Moneyball by Michael Lewis. Ostensibly about Billy Bean and how he manages the Athletics on a small budget; value managers love this book because it describes the victory of data over popularity.

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

The Big Short by Michael Lewis

The Age of Deleveraging by Gary Shilling

The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson

Wedding of the Waters by Peter L. Bernstein

Die Broke by Stephen Pollan

Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul by Howard Schultz

Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin. A slog of a book, describes the marriage of Bear to JP Morgan, the failure of Lehman Bros, and how other storied institutions were merged or otherwise stripped of their independence in the recession of 2008/9. Decent characterizations of Paulson, Geithner, Bair. Even Jim Cramer makes an appearance. If you’ve moved beyond the recession, don’t read it. It will only depress you.

“1493” by Thomas Mann.  Very interesting history of the first globalization.  The intermingling of people, plants, animals and diseases from Europe, the Americas and Asia had significant consequences that we take for granted or have forgotten today.

A departure from the analytic fare that usually consumes my time, I received Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Kennedy as a gift.  The narrative leads from Jack’s harrowing decorated military career as a PT boat captain to his ascendancy to the Office of President of the United States.  Lee Harvey Oswald’s life is depicted in parallel and offers the stark dichotomy of a failed life to Kennedy’s success.  Much more than a recount of the assassination, it is a portrait of a man borne of both human greatness and weakness, who nevertheless built Camelot, a cynosure of hope, grandeur and industry.

The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate, by Robert D, Kaplan.  Excellent read detailing the thesis that geography is fate. Draws on historical wars, philosophers, border arrangements, and culture, to show that geography offers explanations for most human clashes. Accurately predicted ISIS, Brexit, and even the urge to ‘build a wall on the Mexican border’, all of which arose after the book was written. Highly recommended.