Book Reviews

Takeaway: More unconventional ways of looking at the world around us.

Purchase Links: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook

I like economics.  Overall I like this book and the movement of micro-economics and behavioral economics books that was created out of the original Freakenomics (although I think some people need to think of some better titles.)

The method of Freakenomics is to find an issue, then think of a way to look at that issue using mathematical models.  The Freakenomics guys and their counterpart research economics that do a lot of the research are creative.  They have to be creative, and willing to balk conventional wisdom, to come up with their research ideas.  (And hope the mathematical models really explain the reality.)

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Takeaway: Sarah Vowell is both one of my favorite narrators and one of my favorite historians.  That probably says a lot about me.

Sarah Vowell is a unique historian.  She may be the only historian known as much for her unique speaking voice as she is for her writing.  She has been a regular on This American Life, the voice of the daughter on the movie The Increadibles and is the author of six books.

So it is her voice (both actually and literary) that will lead you to love or hate her.  To get an idea of her actual voice you can watch the book trailer below.  But that will really only matter if you want to listen to the audiobook (which I did.)

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Takeaway: One of the most inaccurate titles ever. Actually a series of letters to lay Christians working around the world.

Purchase Links: Hardcover, Audible.com Audiobook

This is a book that I picked up because it was free on Audible (I think it was given away to commemorate his death.)  Obviously I did not get right to it.  I stumble across it when looking back through my audio archives.

It is very short, just over 2 hours of audio (did not realize until now that it is an abridged audiobook).  The full book is actually a collection of 150 letters (fairly short blog/newsletter length) that were written to the Secular Institutes.  My understanding from the introduction is that these are people that live and work in the secular world, but take on vows of chastity, poverty and obedience.  Mostly they are lay people (not ordained) and unlike monks or nuns (which are also often not ordained) live alone outside of a community.  I had never heard of this status before, but according to Wikipedia, there are about 60,000 people that live as ‘consecrated persons’.

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Takeaway: More inspiration about how to start something new from whatever position you are in.  Godin is about innovation and if we want a strong economy, we need people at all levels that follow through with this book.

Purchase Links: Hardcover, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook

I am a mixed relationship with Seth Godin.  On the one hand I think that he is very inspirational, a good writer and has been very good at communicating to a large group of people.

But I have been frustrated with some of his concepts in the past.  But there is not a lot controversial in this book.  Essentially, the book is giving people permission to start something new, be innovative and ‘poke the box’ to see if there is a better way to accomplish or create something.

That is really all that the book is about.  It is worth reading because Godin has the ability to really get at the heart of a matter.  Accomplishing something big is about actually starting something, seeing it to the end and learning from failure, then trying something else.

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Summary: A fictional re-telling of the Gospels from the perspective of Jesus. Sort of like Christopher Moore’s book Lamb, but much less funny.

Purchase Links: Hardcover, Paperback, Audible.com Audiobook

I know Norman Mailer only by reputation.  I have not read anything else by him.  The Gospel According to Jesus is fairly short and I thought it would be  interesting to see what a 20th century fictional account would be like.  In many ways, it was much what I expected.  It is a first person account told through the eyes of Jesus.  Mailer is respectful of Jesus as a character but does not seem to think that much of Jesus the actual person.

Fictional accounts of the bible are fraught with difficulty.  If you have heard some of the controversy over The Shack, then you know some of the trouble one can get into when you try to write a fictional account of God.  Mailer was not the first to attempt it and I am sure will not be the last.  I most want to compare this with Christopher Moore’s book Lamb.  Although Lamb was not first person Jesus (it was instead first person from the point of view of Jesus’ childhood friend Biff), it has much the same struggle of Jesus trying to understand who he is, and whether he really is the son of God.

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