Wed Dec 28, 2016
On My Bookshelf
Non-Fiction
A Dog Named Slugger by Leigh Brill Ms. Brill has cerebral palsy which has worsened as she ends college. Simple tasks such as handing a coin to the clerk elude her. Then she learns about service dogs, applies, and is partnered with Slugger. Slugger is a yellow male Lab. Leigh takes us behind the scenes on how a dog is trained over two years. The book traces her marriage and blossoming career. Slugger opens doors, retrieves fallen coins, and brings new confidence to Leigh. This is a tale for dog lovers everywhere.
Spiralizer Cookbook by John Web
Muffin Tin Chef: 101 Savory Snacks….by Matt Kadey
Web offers a new way of presenting vegetables. Kadey presents ways to create individual portions via the muffin tin in a creative manner.
Why They Do It: Inside the Mind of White Collar Crime by Eugene Soltes
In Texas one must take an ethics course approved by the State Board of Accountancy to sit for the CPA exam. I designed and teach our course here at San Antonio A & M. Soltes has written an excellent supplement for such a class. The reason is that he uses real world examples of real world white-collar felons to demonstrate his points. He also reviews the history of white-collar sentencing as well as theories for why they do it.
Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America by Ann Coulter
Ann is an acquired taste. This book came out a few years ago but after watching the emerging demonstrations of the past two years, I took a read. She traces this practice of mob rule to he French Revolution. And brings it right up to today. Biased, opinionated, skewering, and humorous, she spares no prisoners in the best French Revolution tradition.
Lucy and Desi by Warren G. Harris this is touted as the best read on America’s most famous couple. But understand this is more than a star-crossed romance. It is the story of the literal development of television on the West Coast. It is the story of how pregnant women and mixed marriages became an accepted norm. The couple formed Desilu from the RKO studios, and well the rest is history. Desi was the most successful television director and producer in the 1950s. This story reflects expanding Americana culture via television in the 1950s. Alas, don’t expect a happy ending.
Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reiley The Killing series succeeds so well in that it is written in a page turning ‘you are there’ style.’ I have read three in the series, the other two being Patton and Kennedy. But surprise, Lincoln held the most surprises. I won’t reveal why but there is much, much more here than simply Booth shooting Lincoln.
Mood Matters by John Casti I often discuss how social mood drives social action in this column. This is an excellent one-volume explanation and demonstration of how this applies to all social action from music to movies to politics.
The Socionomic Theory of Finance by Robert Prechter I wrote a review of this book which has been submitted for academic publication. Prechter advances the idea that the Random Walk Theory is incorrect. Behavioral Finance gets closer to the truth but still assumes individuals are influenced by outside forces. This is a compilation of articles written over time which demonstrate his point.
The Nearly Free University and the Emerging Economy by Charles Hugh Smith. Smith suggests that the several hundred year old higher education system is overdue for an over haul. He argues for a new paradigm in which we accredit the graduate not he university. He suggests something analogous to the CPA exam to prove that the student has learned something.
The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All Administrative University by Benjamin Ginsberg Simply put, read this to find out what is really going on in Higher Education.
Fiction
The Black Widow by Daniel Silva This is the 16th in the Gabriel Allon series. Allon is an Israeli operative whose cover is art restoration. Silva has conducted extensive research in writing the story. This is a window on the mind of ISIS.
Stories from the Twilight Zone by Rod Serling Fifty years and counting there is no modern replacement for the imagination of Serling. These are stories from the series. The original television shows are available on Netflix and Amazon Prime. And they have lost no appeal over time.
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