Category Archives: On Books

Researching why we get fat

21 Friday Sep 2012

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Everyone knows that if we eat more calories than what we expend, we will gain weight.  That’s easy and irrefutable, right?

We also know that if we exercise and cut out the fat from our diet, that will make us lose weight faster.  The government tell this to us, our doctors tell us, tv shows and commercials say it.

Has that worked for you?

It has not worked for me.  I work out 4-5 days a week, I play sports often, and I do my best to avoid red meat and pop.  I don’t always do it, but all that effort I put in has to balance out on my side of the equation.

But it has not. I continue to gain weight, I can’t drop the spare tire, and I have a very hard time staying away from sugar.

So is that the answer to the obesity epidemic? That America lacks the willpower to make itself lean? That is surely the message that is given to all of us.

But what if that is wrong?  What if the calories in / calories out doctrine that has been preached all of our lives is wrong?  What if exercise for the sake of losing weight is not the answer?

What if it is not how much we eat, but what we eat that makes us fat?

I read Why We Get Fat, and What To Do About It, by Gary Taubes on a suggestion from a couple of friends, and his argument will surprise you. It will also make you wonder why you never thought of it before.

According to Taubes, and innumerable sources he cites, it was not until the 1970s that our current way of thinking about nutrition took over our collective minds.  Before that time, everyone knew it was bread and beer and pasta and sugar that made you fat.  That is, the culprit was carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates now form the base of the nutritional food pyramid. If carbohydrates are in fact the reason we get fact, our government, which decries obesity, is in fact what is pushing us to get fatter.

Taubes shows how and why we came to believe the calorie in / calorie out idea of weight loss.  He gives historical evidence of why it doesn’t work, why eating the way the government prescribes makes people fat, and how all of those carbohydrates affect the body.

He also discusses how carbohydrates play a big factor in health, including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s.

I strongly recommend you read this book. At the very least, you may answer the question of why you work so hard at losing fat, but it never happens.  And if your question is answered, you just may be convinced to change your diet.

I was. I’ve had very few carbs since September 10th. I’m going to stick with it a few months and see what happens, and I’ll be sure to let you know how it works for me.

Oh, you may be wondering what I’m eating now instead of carbs.

Fat. Yup, beef and sausage and cheese and eggs.  I’ve lost 4 pounds in 16 days.  Think that’s crazy?  Read the book and then let me know what you think.  You may just be crazy for eating spaghetti with a side of garlic bread.

Westward Bound – a writing journey

16 Monday Jan 2012

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My wife, Denise, and I like to travel.  We don’t often get to travel with our friends and family, but we love to take them with us to share in our adventures.  To do that, we write about our adventures and share pictures.

Typically, it is enough to share our Travelpod site and keep that updated as we go along.  But in May 2011, as we rolled across the open plains on our way to Moab, Utah, I decided that a standard travel blog was not going to be enough.  You see, we really wanted to share the experience with our two nieces, Amelia and Adrianna.  They are a bit too young for a cross country road trip (or we’re too old to want to travel that far with a six-year-old and a three-year-old), so I decided to write a story about them.  In the story, they would take the road trip with us.  In order to add a dash of adventure and daring, I set the story back in the 1870s and put them on the Oregon Trail.

With Denise’s excellent photography and book layout skills and a lot of editing help from my brother-in-law, Patrick, I was able to have it printed and ready for them in time for Christmas.

They liked it.

A lot.

I figured they might. They love books, and what’s better than reading a story about yourself?

And since they liked it, I thought a few other people might enjoy it.  A few weeks of Kindle formatting later, and I published it through the Kindle Store!

Click the image to purchase!

I’d love for you to take a read. This is a book for kids, but don’t go in expecting Dr. Seuss.  There are lots of words, but we offset that with over forty beautiful photographs that Denise took on our trip West.

Don’t have a Kindle?  You don’t need one!  Just buy it with your Amazon account, and it will ask you where you want to send it.

You can purchase without owning a Kindle!

Just choose to use the Cloud Reader. It’s actually a great way to read the book, and the photos are in full color and look amazing.

If you do read it, I would really appreciate it if you left a review on Amazon!

And if you do or don’t read it, I’d love it if you shared this article, or a link to the book on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social site.

And now, here’s a quick excerpt from the book.

 

Chapter 1: Running out of space

PA WAS in the barn.  It seemed he was there an awful lot lately.  Amelia remembered that last winter, Pa spent most of his time playing with her and building a rocking horse.  He had painted the horse black.  She and her little sister called it Chocolate and loved to play on it.

Ma was in the kitchen salting beef and putting it in jars and crates.  Her shoulder-length, curly, auburn hair kept falling into her eyes as she worked.  Usually Ma would sit with Amelia and play school with her.  Amelia would answer questions like 19 + 7 or How many apples did Susy have left if she picked 10 and gave 3 away?  Ma told her she was really smart.  Her little sister, Adriana, would listen for a while, but then she would take Ma and Amelia’s coffee order and bustle off to her imaginary kitchen.  She would return quickly to serve it before taking the pretend dishes to pretend wash them.

Even Grandma was busy in the kitchen; she had been working since before the sun was up! Grandma had short, black hair and always had a loving smile for Amelia.  It sure seemed odd to Amelia that Grandma and Ma would be working so hard.  The food for the winter had already been gathered and stored; Amelia had even helped this year!

Amelia was a tall, thin, red-headed girl that would turn six in the spring. Her big, beautiful, brown eyes did not miss a thing.  She was always interested in what the grown-ups were doing, and she was smart enough to understand most of it.  Adriana, was a pretty little girl with curly brown hair and an easy laugh.  She was too intent on her jigsaw puzzle and cooking imaginary food for her dolls to notice the change in routine the last few weeks.  Amelia had done her best to ignore it, but her curiosity was getting the better of her.  She stood up from her math flash cards and yelled to her mother in the kitchen.

“Ma-a-a-a!” she cried.  “Why aren’t you playing with us?”

Her mother’s reply was lost in the howl of the wind from the suddenly open door.  Pa stood in the doorway with an excited look on his face and a letter in his hand.  His usually neatly-combed brown hair was mussed from the wind and he must have knocked his small, round spectacles as he hustled inside. They were crookedly hanging to the side of his large nose.

“Carolyn!  It finally came!” he yelled.

“Shut the door before we all catch the sickness,” Ma yelled back.

Pa came in with Grandpa right behind.  Grandpa’s windblown, white hair was sticking straight up in the air as he ambled over to Adriana.  He laughed as he grabbed Adriana under the arm pits and swung her into the air.  Adriana squealed with excitement.

Ma came out of the kitchen and Pa swept her up into his arms and twirled her around.

“Aaron and Denise finally wrote from Independence, Missouri.  They have purchased wagons and supplies and signed us up with a group of other pioneers heading to Oregon!  We are to meet them in early May.”

“That is fine news, David!  We have just about finished packing the food for the trip,” Ma said.

Amelia and Adriana both perked up at the sound of their favorite Aunt and Uncle’s names.  They did not see them often because they traveled so much, but they were great fun to play with.

Amelia was happy to see her parents smile.  She knew they worked very hard to put food on the table and a roof over her head.  But she also felt uneasy.  She didn’t know what Independence was or what a pie o’ near could be.  She sat back down and listened intently to the strange and complex world of the grown-ups.

The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

22 Tuesday Mar 2011

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A few years back I read a book that changed my perspective of the fantasy genre.  I’ve enjoyed stories of swords, sorcery, orcs and heroic quests for a long time now.  But for me, after you get past Tolkien’s seminal work, the rest of the stories tend to devolve into the same old story of an unlikely hero, a great evil, an impossible task, and eventual victory. 

Now don’t get me wrong.  There are any number of ways where that tried and true formula can turn into a very enjoyable book.  That’s why I keep reading fantasy.  Rothfuss, though, with his debut novel of The Name of the Wind, and the recent sequel, The Wise Man’s Fear, has found a way to take a sweeping epic and turn it into something infinitely more intimate.

Kvothe, our flame haired protagonist, trouper, hero and innkeeper has led an exciting, yet short life.  When the book opens, we find him assuming the mantle of a mild mannered innkeeper. He works very hard to hide who he is. And who he happens to be is a legend in his own time. Everyone knows of and tells stories of Kvothe.

In an interesting storytelling device, a man named The Chronicler has tracked Kvothe down and convinced him to have his story recorded. To set the record straight, so to speak.  Thus begins a masterful tale of tales.  Over the course of three days, Kvothe will set down how he became a master magician, the smartest kid at the University at a time when most children have not thought of attending school yet, slayed a dragon, outsmarted a Queen of the Fae, killed a king and started a war.  Yet when Kvothe tells it, you can see how a simple story can become a legend. He isn’t humanities only hope from a Dark Lord. Rather, he’s a kid driven to find an answer to a question. With an indomitable will, he makes things happen.

While I enjoy the story that Kvothe is telling, and innumerable stories that are told to him or by him to other characters during his recounting, it is not the story that draws me to these books.  In the end, you can still boil this down to unlikely hero, a great evil, an impossible task, and eventual victory. Or so it seems two books into what appears to be a trilogy.

No, rather it is Rothfuss’ masterful grasp of the language and the art of telling a story.  His description of Kvothe playing music can move you to tears.  You will feel Kvothe’s triumphs and defeats.  You will read pages of description of arcane magics and systems of science in a make believe land, and later try to replicate it yourself fully expecting it to work in our world.

One last superlative for this book. I reread the first book in 3 wonderful days. I picked up the 1000 page sequel and had it done in under a week. I typically read before bed and fall asleep within 30 minutes. Instead, hours later, I would still be reading. I had to force myself to put the book down and go to sleep lest my job suffer. And even then, I felt myself fully immersed in the world he created even when I was not reading.  It’s that good.

As for Rothfuss, I am a fan of the man as much as the writing. His Worldbuilders fund raising drive has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, which he has been kind enough to match. His blog is all sorts of witty and funny. Check him out. http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com

The Name of the Wind: 4.5
The Wise Man’s Fear: 5

You need to buy this book and read it. It’s #1 on the New York Times Bestseller’s list as of today (3/21/2011)

Buy it Now at Amazon

Decision Points by George Bush

17 Monday Jan 2011

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I find it hard to credit anything the press has to say about any person, especially someone as polarizing as the President of the United States of America. The vehemence that the political milieu generates started in this country long before the present day filled with tweets, buzz, blogs, and the twenty four hour news cycle. Back when John Adams was Vice President and the man many wanted to be King, George Washington, was the first President, political opponents and the press said any number of horrible things about Washington. Is any of that remembered now? If it is, it is usually met with scorn. Who could say something bad about Washington?

George W. Bush is not George Washington, let’s get that out in the open. I never thought he was quite the buffoon the media made him out to be, but then again, it’s hard to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to media coverage. I was looking forward to hearing from W in his own words, and in his book, Decision Points, I was not disappointed.

W. breaks his presidency, and some decisions prior to his term, into a few of the most important decisions he made, such as Day of Fire, War Footing, Afghanistan, Katrina, Iraq, and Financial Crisis. He breaks down the situation he was faced with, the possible choices, and the reason for his final decision with clarity, facts, and a humble, self deprecating humor.

If you don’t like W, I don’t think Decision Points will make you like him more. What I think it can do is help you understand the sheer volume of decisions, the heavy consequences of each choice, and the reason for his choices. W. had a lot of bad things thrown his way that he didn’t have any control over, and made the best decisions he could with the information that he had at the time. I can’t imagine any of us wanted to lead the country through 9/11, Hurrican Katrina, or the financial meltdown at the end of his presidency.

He isn’t afraid to lay the blame for a situation where he thinks it belongs, even when the blame falls to him. He readily admits the mistakes he made, but also explains why he made the choices he did. We won’t all agree with the choices he came to, but I know I can’t fault him for making the tough, unpopular calls that no one else would have made. That’s what a leader does.

I strongly recommend this book. For a guy who avoids politics, it was refreshing to see what went into the decisions that the media would so egregiously blow out of proportion. I was also happy to see that on many issues I had heard of, the end result was very positive. The positive portion is what you’ll miss if you just watch CNN.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Summer Reading – 2010

22 Friday Oct 2010

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It’s been a busy summer of devouring books as fast as I can; so fast that I couldn’t get a review written of each of them. So, instead, here’s a rapid fire list of what rocked and what was as dull as a rock.
Books that Rocked:

Outliers: The Story Of Success – Malcolm Gladwell
Gladwell is always an interesting read. His ability to find connections in places where they aren’t expected is uncanny.  In Outliers, you will learn that where and when we are born have a large influence on our future.

 

 

 

 

Time to Hunt – Stephen Hunter
I’ve read a few of the Bob Lee Swagger novels, and this one is the best so far.  Go back in time to Bob’s harrowing escapades in Vietnam, and learn why they call him “The Hammer”.

 

 

 

 

The Dresden Files

  • Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, Book 6) – Jim Butcher
  • Dead Beat (The Dresden Files, book 7) – Jim Butcher
  • Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files, Book 8 ) – Jim Butcher
  • White Night (The Dresden Files, Book 9) – Jim Butcher
  • Small Favor (The Dresden Files, Book 10) – Jim Butcher
  • Turn Coat (The Dresden Files, Book 11) – Jim Butcher

Yup, it’s been a summer of Jim Butcher. I’m not surprised. Harry Dresden is a perfect lead character. He’s filled with doubt and weaknesses, but always has enough steely resolve and powerful magic to pull himself out of the tightest places.  Each book is better than the last, and I can only hope that Butcher keeps kicking them out.

 

The Night Angel Trilogy

  • The Way of Shadows (The Night Angel Trilogy) – Brent Weeks
  • Shadow’s Edge (Night Angel Trilogy) – Brent Weeks
  • Beyond the Shadows – Brent Weeks

The Night Angel Trilogy was an interesting fantasy series. It focused on a young boy who wants to escape his danger our and hopeless life as an orphan.  He gets himself apprenticed to the greatest assassin of the land and ends up having a drastic influence on the world while defeating a great evil.  Yup, that sounds like just about every fantasy series out there.  Great characters and interesting plot twists make this a worthwhile read.

 
The First Law

  • The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One) – Joe Abercrombie
  • Before They Are Hanged (The First Law: Book Two) – Joe Abercrombie
  • Last Argument of Kings (First Law: Book Three) – Joe Abercrombie

Other than the Butcher books, this was my favorite series of the summer.  The story was full of intrigue and plotting, but what was interesting is that for all the machinations of man, there was a handful of demi-gods running around pulling the strings that no one really believed in.  Couple that with a half dozen morally gray heroes and heroines and you’ve got a formula for a great read.  Each chapter switches to a different hero’s perspective, and Abercrombie was able to make it so you instantly know which character you are with.

 
The State of the Union – Brad Thor
An interesting thriller that explores what would happen if Russia was playing possum and only pretended to lose the Cold War.  Think Tom Clancy crossed with Dan Brown.

 

 

 

 

As interesting as rocks

Daemons are Forever (Secret Histories, Book 2) – Simon R. Green
Loved the first book for its sheer volume of fantastical creatues.  The follow up fell flat for me.

The Orc King: Transitions, Book I – R.A. Salvatore
Salvatore has dozens of great books starring the dark elf, Drizzt Do’urden.  As he has progressed, the books have taken on a morally preachy timbre. I love the action, but could do without the sermons.

Agincourt: A Novel – Bernard Cornwell
A book about my favorite historical battle?  Count me in.  I can’t remember now why this was bad or good, and I guess that’s enough to say about it. However, Cornwell typically hits the mark and I would not hesitate to recommend him.

The Red Wolf Conspiracy – Robert V. S. Redick
The whole book takes place on a boat.  There’s some interesting characters, but I didn’t really get into it.

Sharpe’s Trafalgar: Richard Sharpe & the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805 (Richard Sharpe’s Adventure Series #4) – Bernard Cornwell
I really enjoy the Sharpe series, and I’m going to keep reading them. This book wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t that great either.

Soldier of Rome: The Sacrovir Revolt: A Novel of the Twentieth Legion During the Rebellion of Sacrovir and Florus – James Mace
I really wanted to like this series, but it is entirely too dry for me.  I guess I’ll find a different Roman era series to read.

That’s 21 books read since March, not too shabby. Luckily, most of them have been good, including 3 series: The Night Angel Trilogy, The First Law, and The Dresden Files. Get some!

Review of Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

19 Thursday Aug 2010

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The founders of 37 signals have something to say about business, and it may not be what you are used to hearing.  This firm started out in 1999 with just three people. In 2004, they created Basecamp to help manage their projects. Soon, their clients wanted to use the tool themselves, so Basecamp was offered to the masses. It now generates millions of dollars a year in profits.

Between Campfire, Highrise, and Backpack, over 3 million people use their products.  While they were at it, they also invented an open-source programming framework called Ruby on Rails that powers many of the largest sites on the internet.

I’ve been keeping up with the teachings of 37 signals for years.  The talk about releasing code quickly, not out-doing your competition, and focusing on the basics. It’s a refreshing change from software and websites that try to do everything and be everything for every company.

This book is a compilation and revision of many of the business posts that they have released to the Web on their blog, Signal vs Noise.  The book is like the company’s products – no nonsense and easy to use.  They give you an idea or theme, expound on it for a paragraph or two, and let you decide how you want to use it from there.

I am going to touch on a few of the items that I found to be the most profound.  If you would rather skip that, I give this book a 5 out of 5 for anyone looking to start their own business, who has an idea about a business, or is working for someone else and wants to build the best product they can.

Planning is guessing

“Unless you are a fortune-teller, long-term business planning is a fantasy”.  When is the last time you successfully planned everything at a party, a luncheon or a vacation?  It’s hard to do well, and in a business, it is even more complex.  There are just too many factors to take into consideration.  Better to call your plans guesses.  They give you an idea of what you need to do, but you can then improvise and change direction when a better opportunity comes along.

They propose that you stop guessing at the future. Decide what is the most important thing this week, not this year.  Make it your priority today and get it done now, tomorrow will take care of itself.

Workaholism

“Not only is this workaholism unnecessary, it’s stupid.”  Pulling an all-nighter or working a lot of overtime demonstrates a capacity for pain tolerance, not a capacity for efficiency and innovation.  Sheer hours worked does not make up for a lack of innovation and organization.  Workaholics can create crises because they like to feel like heroes and they can make others that work in the company feel bad for putting in just their regular hours.

Your best workers are already at home because they figured out how to get it done faster.

Scratch your own itch

“The easiest, most straightforward way to create a great product or service it so make something you want to use.”  If you are your own customer, you know exactly what you want the product to do.  James Dyson built his own vacuum cleaner because the vacuumed he owned wasn’t very good.  Basecamp started as a home grown application for 37 signals that now services hundreds of thousands of users.

Draw a Line in the Sand

“Great businesses have a point of view, not just a product or a service.”  Determine what your product is about, and don’t change that for anyone.  Your strong stand will bring fans and haters.  That’s OK. If you try and please everyone, you’ll end up with a product that doesn’t do any one thing great.  It’s OK to say no if it makes your product stronger.

Embrace Constraints

“Constraints are advantages in disguise.”  When you have to make due with what you have, you end up getting creative.  Don’t have 3 months to create the feature, just 3 weeks?  Adjust your plan and build something useful in those 3 weeks.

Build half a product, not a half-assed product

“You just can’t do everything you want to do and do it well.”  Find the core of the product or service you are offering and make it shine. Leave the extraneous stuff for later, or better yet, for never.

Interruption is the enemy of production

“If you’re constantly staying late and working weekends, it’s not because there’s too much work to be done. It’s because you’re not getting enough done at work. And the reason is interruptions.” We have found this to be the case at my company, Mindscape.  We do our best to minimize active interruptions like phone calls, stopping by and instant messages.  Instead, we check out email at 11am and 4pm and leave tasks for people in Basecamp.  Of course, it doesn’t always work that way. I just had two emails, a person stop by my desk, and 3 instant messages pop up.  When that happens, it’s hard to remember what you were working on.

Quick Wins

“Momentum fuels motivation”. Break your long term projects into short term goals.  Releases and milestones show everyone that progress is being made. When people get stuck in a two year project, it’s hard to stay motivated through the entire lifecycle.

Don’t be a hero

“A lot of times it’s better to be a quitter than a hero.”  We’ve all come up against problems that we thought would only take a couple of hours, but ended up taking a couple of days.  Buckling down and finding the solution is great, but sometimes the better solution is to find a different tact.  There were a lot of other items you could have accomplished while you were working to overcome that hurdle.

This doesn’t mean quit at the first sign of a struggle. Instead, set yourself a deadline for the task. If you haven’t finished and you think you should have, bring in a fresh pair of eyes. Sometimes they can point out something obvious that you were too deep into the problem to see.

Say no by default

“Start getting into the habit of saying no-even to many of your best ideas. “  Henry Ford once said, “If I’d listened to customers, I’d have given them a faster horse.”   Keep things simple, remain true to the product that you want to build, and make stand for what is right.  This is one of my favorite chapters, and something I’ve been preaching for years.  Sometimes you have to protect the customer from their decisions, even if they don’t know why.  But keep your mind open. If you say no to the same thing every day, then you probably found the next feature to use.

Let your customers outgrow you.

“There are always more people who are not using your product than people who are. Make sure it is easy for these people to get on board.”

Each chapter is full of useful information and fresh ways at looking at business. I don’t want to give you a free pass to everything that the authors preach, so I’ll just pick out a few more chapter titles that I thought were interesting and that should wrap up this review nicely.

  • Emulate drug dealers. – Make your product so good and so addictive that a small free taste makes them come back with money.
  • Send people home at 5 – Busy people get the most done. Let them go be busy.
  • ASAP is poison – Stop saying it. When you add ASAP to everything, then everything is high priority. If that’s the case, then there no longer is priority.
  • Inspiration is perishable – Ideas last, but the inspiration to act on them does not stick around.

Rating: 5 out of 5 – I’ll be reading this book often  Check it out yourself by clicking this link.

Duma Key and Under the Dome by Stephen King

26 Wednesday May 2010

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I went to San Francisco a couple of months ago and to Washington D.C. at the beginning of May. In both instances, I picked up a Stephen King book to tide me over for the trip. In San Francisco it was Under the Dome on my Kindle. In D.C., I had forgotten the book I was reading at home, and picked up a hardcover of Duma Key at Barnes and Noble for $6.98.

Both books are similar and both are excellent reads. King has always been one of my favorite authors, from Needful Things and Pet Cemetery, to The Dark Tower series, which ranks right up there with The Lord of the Rings for me.

King did not disappoint with either book. Perhaps they aren’t for every reader, but they hit the spot for me.  The books are long on words and on detail, but not always long on plot.  With Duma Key, the thrust of the story didn’t really start until the 400th page.  But it made sense and I was more than OK with it, I thought it was perfect.  King has a rare gift for drawing a reader in with the mundane. He makes the ordinary extraordinary.

Under the Dome presents a simple and unnatural premise. What would happen to a town if it was suddenly completely cut off from the rest of the world?  In the story, an invisible dome crashes down around a small town in Maine.  King makes it seem like something that happens every day, and commences to follow the inhabitants of the town as their world shrinks and the good and evil in ordinary people is magnified.

Duma Key follows a man trying to rebuild his life after a catastrophic accident. He ends up on a small island in Florida, where he begins to paint.  His paintings are good, perhaps even better than good.  And they are powerful.  Edgar Freemantle meets a few people on the island that he befriends and the mystery, magic, and evil that exists in Duma Key unfolds before them.  King accomplishes almost the opposite in this book. He makes the extraordinary seem ordinary.  He also has a penchant for targeted one-liners at the end of his paragraphs that foreshadow a horrible event and compels you to continue.

He is the King of the foreshadow.

Both books are excellent and get a 4 out of 5

p.s. – Read them on a Kindle!  The books are huge and aren’t great for reading in bed. Also, with a Kindle, it’s much more difficult to jump to the end of the next page and find out what is going to happen. I seem to do it all of the time!

John Adams by David McCullough

05 Wednesday May 2010

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This is the second book I’ve read by McCullough.  I enjoyed his work in 1776, and I enjoyed John Adams even more.  This book is a fascinating and enjoyable read about the second President of the United States.

Adams played a pivotal role in the first two sessions of the Continental Congress, debated fiercely for a declaration of independence, and was instrumental in most of the major decisions made before and after the Declaration, including naming George Washington as the commanding officer for the war.

He wrote extensively, as did his family, and luckily, most of the communication survives.  McCullough masterfully mixes in words that Abigail (his wife) and John wrote to each other and to their family to flesh out the literary portrait of his life.

Here are a few quick John Adams highlights:

  • Adams wrote the Massachusetts Constitution
  • Adams wrote extensively on the role of government
  • He travelled more extensively than any of his peers, making two trips across the Atlantic.
  • He worked with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson in France to establish a peace treaty with the British that ended the Revolutionary War.
  • He was the first American diplomat in the Netherlands, where he secured a much needed loan from the Dutch.
  • He was the first American diplomat to England after the war ended.
  • He was responsible for the creation of the American Navy, correctly surmising that naval strength was the path to security at home and respect abroad.
  • Adams was the first Vice President of the country
  • Adams was the Second President of the country

The one item that I found most fascinating about the entire Adams’ saga was revealed not long after Washington became President.  It would seem to me that after the amazing accomplishment of winning Independence from England, that everyone would be on the same side and pulling the same rope to secure success for the fledgling country.  Surely the dissonance and infighting of our current system did not exist at the founding of the country!

And yet it did, and in some ways was even more ridiculous.  Two parties emerged, the Federalists and anti-Federalists, and a newspaper sprouted up for each group spouting off ridiculous, inflammatory, derogatory half-truths and fallacies.  It was pretty amazing to see the lengths the groups would go to in order to discredit the other group and revere themselves. Even the patron saint of Unites States Liberty, George Washington, was not immune to their attacks.  And great personas such as Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were behind the scenes exhorting their peers and the papers to greater heights of infamy.

Reading the book, I have become more convinced that reaching common sense decisions on large topics is not possible.  There will always be vocal dissenters willing to spread misinformation for their own goals and gains.

I highly recommend you read this book. It is a great history of our country and will give you a new perspective on the political tomfoolery that is taking place today.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – it is not a 5 only because a book like this isn’t easy to pick up and read over and over again.

Princeps Fury and First Lords Fury by Jim Butcher

27 Tuesday Apr 2010

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I powered through the last two books in Butcher’s Codex Alera on my Kindle.  It took my just 3 days to read them all; I guess that is what happens on a rainy weekend with a couple of great books.

If you haven’t read the rest of my reviews for this series, do a search for “Jim Butcher” on the site and you’ll find them.  Butcher isn’t breaking a lot of new ground in this series, but as I’ve said about his writing in numerous other reviews, he makes the story fun.

The final two books are fought against the Vord as they spread quickly and violently throughout the planet.  Old enemies across the world have to ally with each other in order to face a great threat.  Through the destruction, new friendships form and a new way of life emerges.

The only problem I had with the last two books is that the enemy becomes so powerful, no one can overcome it. It ends up being the planet itself that finds a way to destroy it. I think Butcher may have made things a little too desperate and had to resort to a bit of a trick to wrap it all up.  I’ll give Butcher this, though, he setup the possibility for this ending from the first book. So it was a trick, but one that was available to him from the first.

All in all, there aren’t many six or more book series that is really excellent from start to finish.  Stephen King’s Dark Tower is another that springs to mind.

Rating:  4 out of 5

The King Beyond the Gate by David Gemmell

20 Tuesday Apr 2010

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The first book that I reviewed for this blog was Legend by David Gemmell.  I started reading more of Gemmell’s work because I really enjoyed his Troy series of books.

Unfortunately, I can’t say anything good about The King Beyond the Gate.  It’s standard fantasy fare. It was a little heavy on the moral dilemmas that the characters faced, and light on action and character development. I never felt any particular affinity for the characters, the world, or the story.

There are many books that Gemmell has set in this world, and supposedly they have been well received. I think I’ll have had to run out of books before I go out of my way to read another one.

Rating: 2 out of 5.