Subtitled A Hot Startup, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight for the Truth. The backstory to Wildcard - crazy stuff. There were so many red flags from this company but these were blurred by regulators, analysts and tech bros just really wanting the growth to be true and for Germany to have a true Tech company. I’ve read several of this genre, and while those at the center of the fraud are held accountable to some extent, it’s disappointing that the enablers usually get to walk away with little consequence. There was real damage done, particularly to the people trying to shine a light on the fraud and while the company directed the onslaught, regulators, lawyers, analysts and other white-collar professionals enabled, and profited from it.

• Author: Dan McCrum
• Nonfiction      Business

Another recommended reading for those looking for a Reacher substitute. This one shows promise. The main character is interesting and competent while having a distinct backstory. This story has good twists and turns, offering some surprises while always moving forward. I’m just curious how the author will expand on this character as what made this adventure interesting should not occur again.

• Author: Brett Battles
• Fiction      Crime

A novella featuring a secondary character from the Stormlight Archive. If you like that world, you’ll be pleased with this story that doesn’t have a direct impact on the main storyline, but takes place in the same world and provides some additional perspectives.

• Author: Brandon Sanderson
• Fiction      Fantasy

I have a soft spot for Russian history given how much this country has, and continues to, fuck with world history. In this book, the author explores the advent of the Soviet Union as starting in 1891 as spurred by the continued repression of the tsar and his inability to make any changes that would’ve liberalized society and prevented the Bolsheviks from taking power. The Bolsheviks themselves had various plans for what society should look like post the revolution, but it became bastardized during Lenin’s last days. The book paints Lenin as a flexible ideologue, who understood power and repressed dissent to provide some flexibility to implement his version of communism. Unfortunately, his health gave out early, and Stalin stepped in to cement the party around a cult of personality, to Lenin and to Stalin himself. As opposed to other histories I’ve read, the Soviet economy was always a facade and had no hope of becoming a modern society after these initial decisions, although it could’ve certainly plodded on longer.

• Author: Orlando Figes
• Nonfiction      History

Another novella from the Stormlight Archive, featuring the character Lift, who is fun character that takes little seriously. The first chapter is a recap from a chapter in the main book, which ends with some unanswered questions that are addressed in this book.

• Author: Brandon Sanderson
• Fiction      Fantasy

Hat tip to Gonzalo. It was unclear what this book was about and halfway through, I was still trying to piece together the main narrative and direction. I’m hesitant to comment too much more on the book as I think the less you know about the book coming into it, the better the payoff.

• Author: Hernan Diaz
• Fiction      Novels

I started watching the Apple series and became addicted. Understanding it was a 3 book series, I expected that the first book would maybe cover the first season and that I would need to read further to get past the 2 seasons I had already watched. However, the first book pretty much wraps up the TV series. I am generally one of those “the book is always better” people but while the book is solid, I like what they have done with the TV series. Overall, the TV series is very true to the book, particularly the first 1/3 of it, but where the book is very efficient in its story telling, the TV series spends much more time flushing out the characters and expanding on threads mentioned, but not explored, in the book. I’m excited to start the 2nd book in the series, which I understand jumps to a different time period.

• Author: Hugh Howey
• Fiction      Apocalyptic

Great book. In the late 90s following Clinton’s welfare reform, the author takes on the challenge that the poor can work themselves out of poverty. She spends 1 month in 3 different parts of the US (Key West, Maine, Minneapolis) and in 3 different roles (Waitress, House Cleaner, Walmart clerk) and describes her experiences trying to make ends meet. In each role she works her hardest and tries to find the best job she can find as a recent housewife re-entering the workforce. Even with taking two jobs, she finds she can not make ends meet, sharing the experiences of colleagues who at the border of homelessness (living in hotels, cars, sharing trailers, etc). As a society, we should be ashamed.

• Author: Barbara Ehrenreich
• Nonfiction      Economics

Another recommendation for that Reacher replacement. Good book, a real page turner and I will read more of this character. However, I laugh that this character is essentially a female Reacher. Former military cop? Check. Drifter? Check. Lives by her own code and willing to work in the grey for justice? Check. Pretty much unbeatable in a fight? Check. Loves Coffee? Check.

• Author: LT Ryan
• Fiction      Crime

The author has studied tyrants from modern history and share his learnings about why it is so difficult for a tyrant to maintain power. Each chapter details the choices a tyrant needs to make to minimize threats to his reign, often engendering difficult decisions on who can be trusted and for how long. In these personalistic systems, it becomes nearly impossible to run a functioning country, with the tyrant running an internal patronage network that exploits either the people or resources of the country. A military is needed to keep order but is also an alternative power structure, so splitting the command and physically distancing the capital from the main forces are often required. Overall, few tyrants peacefully retire, so once you find yourself on the track, it’s a question of when, not if, you will meet your bloody end.

• Author: Marcel Dirsus
• Nonfiction      History

Subtitled “Mapping the Collapse of Globalization. This book is classic Zeihan exposition - big swings, told in a casual manner based on deep insights into demography and history that discounts contemporary events. The big picture idea is demography is destiny, which follows from the geography is destiny synthesis of Jared Diamond. To belittle it for a bit, this view of history would almost say that Europe, then America leading the global order could have been predicted in 10,000 BC based on purely on mountains, navigable rivers and shipping access. The big swing in this book is that America has all the components to lead the next several decades and that most other countries (China, Western Europe save France, Japan, etc) are doomed by their demography.

• Author: Peter Zeihan
• Nonfiction      Geopolitics

• Author: LT Ryan
• Fiction      Crime

• Author: Peter Romer
• Fiction      Crime

Subtitled “A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI”. Highly recommended book. Similar to his book Sapiens, Harari lays out a very accessible and convincing history of communication networks. After building his thesis, Harari defends liberal democracy and pivots this against some recent movements towards majoritarian dictatorship (i.e. Putin, Trump). Overall, Harari echoes Taleb’s Antifragile, stressing that networks should be prized for their self-correcting mechanisms rather than their efficiencies. The book ends with a haunting reminder that liberal democracies needed the printing press, newspapers and radios to flourish and that the AI may create the environment for totalitarianism to flourish.

• Author: Yuval Noah Harari
• Nonfiction      History

The last book of the trilogy I purchased, although the author continues to write this character. I enjoy this character but will take a break for a bit. I like how this book wrapped up as it tied off a red thread that drove the initial books and stopping here is satisfying. Book 4 will have to come up with a new motivation for this character.

• Author: LT Ryan
• Fiction      Crime

Taking place in 2025, I was drawn to this book. King’s 2025 is dystopian, split between have and have-nots where the have-nots are kept in line by free entertainment, in particular a show called the Running Man, where contestants can earn money by staying alive against hunters. King keeps it fairly brief, building the world enough to help the reader understand the stakes but not more.

• Author: Stephen King
• Fiction      Apocalyptic

In the 2nd book of the series, the author fills in the backstory to Book 1 as well as jumps in time to set-up two important protagonists integral to wrapping up the series in Book 3. Enjoyable if you are really interested in the world of Silo, but otherwise could seem like a bit of homework.

• Author: Hugh Howey
• Fiction      Apocalyptic

The final book in the series pulls all the plot lines together. I’ll avoid saying more but just note that it’s a bit more fast paced vs the slow burn of book 1. There are also two adjacent stories after the ending that have a bearing on a main character’s future but are technically not part of the trilogy.

• Author: Hugh Howey
• Fiction      Apocalyptic

It’s amazing to think that Michael Lewis had a front row seat to the collapse of FTX. Just impeccable timing. I recall some controversy around the book, with the accusation that Lewis took it a bit easy on Sam. For the most part, I think Lewis stays balanced and if you have read Michael Lewis before, his approach to Sam is the same as his approach to most his subjects. A bit skeptical, but wanting to find what makes the person special. The growth and the collapse of FTX was major financial news so I was mostly familiar with the story, however I really enjoyed the easy prose of Lewis to fill in the gaps and highlight some of the pivotal moments. In the last chapter, after FTX has collapsed and Lewis is profiling the bankruptcy examiner, John Ray, I do feel as if Lewis became a bit close to Sam, although at no point does Lewis excuse Sam’s behavior. “Sam being Sam” is not presented as an excuse, rather is the explanation of how such a collapse can occur. Overall, Sam is a fascinating character, less so because the intelligence or success, but rather due to his emotional detachment and extreme risk tolerance. He actively sought risk and was not troubled by losses. While many of us dwell too much on losses, it would’ve served Sam better if he was able to pause at one point and contemplated that yes, it could all be lost.

• Author: Michael Lewis
• Nonfiction      Business

I have read about Oliver Sacks in NeuroTribes, which detailed his many contributions to neurology and specifically, autism. As such, I picked up this book expecting to learn a lot about his early research into behavior. Surprisingly, this biography is only up to his university years, up to which point he was enthralled by chemistry. While this is a biography, you will learn a lot about the origins of the periodic table and chemical reactions as it seems this learning journey shaped a lot Sacks’ childhood.

• Author: Oliver Sacks
• Nonfiction      Biography

This. Fucking. Guy. It’s a guilty pleasure reading these types of books which capture several years of headlines in a tidy little book as well as broaden out the characters involved to provide a background to the event. The whole story is really absurd, with Twitter being bought as a personal plaything with really no strategy. The book ends in March 2024, in which case it appears TwiXer may go bankrupt. Just one year later, TwiXer gets bailed out with fresh capital from xAI, itself a shell company with fresh capital from Elon’s minions. We are still waiting for some justice in this world.

• Author: Kate Conger
• Nonfiction      Business

Sanderson’s world-building is unparalleled - it is incredible to think of the amount of details and multi-dimensional characters he builds into his stories. Part of the enjoyment is seeing story and character arcs ebb and flow and to have every major plot line resolve itself. Although there is another 5 books, The Winds and Truth was expected to wrap up some major plot lines. While some things were resolved, I was left a bit unsatisfied. While the series will continue, this was the end of a major story arc and for me, too much is still left up in the air

• Author: Brandon Sanderson
• Fiction      Fantasy

Recommended by Claude.ai when I asked for top Science Fiction Books. Classified as “Hard Science Fiction”, which means that it has a stronger basis in science for its concepts than other in the genre. Takes a while to build, but super imaginative, thinking through all the uncertainties that may be arise from an actual alien encounter. Each character is some form of altered human, ranging from cyborg to vampire and even multiple personalities. Recommended.

• Author: Peter Watts
• Fiction      Sci-Fi

• Author: Peter Romer
• Fiction      Crime

I’ve been more interested in fairy tales as I brush up on my storytelling to Mason and as such, have been trying to learn more about fairy tales and legends. I also like mythology and comic book superheroes, so it’s all part of the same thread. This book was not what I was looking for. It is more about the Brother themselves, who in English we find noteworthy for their fairytales, while they were much more known during their lifetimes for their contributions to German language and culture. I enjoyed learning about the day to day lives during Napoleonic times and up to the unification of Germany. Fun fact, Jakob Grimm, an expert on the German language, refused to capitalize nouns.

• Author: Ann Schmiesing
• Nonfiction      Biography

This is my 3rd Perlstein, covering the period from 1972 to 1976 in about 800 pages. The depth that Perlstein brings is fascinating, helping one to understand the feelings and culture of the time. Events are shaped by the current environment, however when we look back at the main events, we almost forget all the surrounding or competing stories. This book really helps illustrate how Nixon was almost able to push past Watergate, how depressed the country felt afterwards and how Reagan rose up by making everyone feel good by denying that there was not really anything wrong with Watergate. For me, Reagan is truly the intellectual forebear of Trump - willing to defend his allies through anything, an ability to recast reality, lie freely and find fault in anyone that challenges him. Fuck that dude.

• Author: Rick Perlstein
• Nonfiction      Politics

"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon I’ve been meaning to read this for 25 years, harkening back to my days working at Borders booksellers when this was a best seller. This felt like a couple stories in one, particularly as we follow one of the duo from his origins in Prague, through NYC and then the war. There is a lot of Golden Age Comics lore, although this was more used as part of the setting of the story as the main plot points were being about tragedy of the Jews during WWII as well as the relationships with Sammy Clay and Rosa Saks. Enjoyable read."

• Author: Michael Chabon
• Fiction      Novels

• Author: Peter Romer
• Fiction      Crime

• Author: Brandon Sanderson
• Fiction      Fantasy

Book one of the John Puller series. John Puller is essentially a Reacher clone, big due, military police background, goes by last name, loves coffee, etc. As I’ve read all the Reachers, then Puller it is.

• Author: David Baldacci
• Fiction      Crime

Really interesting story. I was picturing some woodsman, but it turned out he was more of a scavenger that just liked being with himself and reading. I liked how the writer approached the subject, revealing a little bit at a time from his discovery, detailing how he lived and then what happened after he was finally caught. While society looks at him as crazy, he really shines a mirror on to whether we are all crazy to toil like we do and not be alone with our thoughts.

• Author: Michael Finkel
• Nonfiction      Biography

• Author: David Baldacci
• Fiction      Crime

My teenage nephew is reading this and thought it would be a good series to start reading in Dutch. I liked the simple world-building, and that a new generation is being introduced to Greek Mythology.

• Author: Rick Riordan
• Fiction      Fantasy

• Author: David Baldacci
• Fiction      Crime

Subtitled “How the Dutch Language (almost) Conquered America”. I am reading more Dutch books as I am preparing for my naturalization tests. This was interesting as it includes the area of New York State where my ancestors came from and there was even a the name Van Etten referenced in the book as being common in those parts, among other names. In certain areas of NY and NJ, Dutch remained the everyday language until the 2nd half of the 19th century, after which it started dying out, with the last speakers themselves passing in the mid-20th century. In general, there used to be a lot more foreign languages spoke in the USA up until the 20th century, when mass media real took off (my grandfather, for instance, went to primary school in Polish in Riverside, NJ).

• Author: Philip Droge
• Nonfiction      History

Subtitled “A Mind-Bending Journey among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See.” The author writes about her attempt to embed herself in the NY art community to better understand contemporary art scene and develop her eye for good art. While learning about art, the book is mainly about art culture - the studio owners, the philanthropists, the collectors and the artists themselves. However, I took away that this is mostly just a service business, catering to the extremely rich to make them feel important and supported by very many poorly paid studio workers and artists that strive to just get near that wealth.

• Author: Bianca Booker
• Nonfiction      Culture

I am particularly enjoying Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series at this moment of time, being reminded that Nazis were terrible people eventually held accountable. Bernie is a Berlin policeman, and the series follows him from after the Great War, through Hitler’s rise and fall as well as the rebuilding afterwards. Bernie detests the Nazis, however he is not a freedom fighter and keeps his head down enough to get by, often being used as a pawn by Nazis. This is one of the later books which finds Bernie in 1954, but put in a situation where he needs to recall his activities during the war.

• Author: Philip Kerr
• Fiction      Crime

The sole Web London novel, who is the sole member of a FBI tactical force team to survive an ambush. As opposed to the John Puller novels I’ve read from the author, this character carries a lot more baggage, both in his past and from the survivor’s guilt that comes along once the story ramps up. This was written in 2001, so I guess this will be all there is from this character, however I found it interesting to read about a protagonist who is very capable, but also very flawed and unsure of himself.

• Author: David Baldacci
• Fiction      Crime

De Cock is tasked to find the murderer of businessman, who was dispatched in an old shed by the dock, among the smell of rotting wood. As he gets closer, there are more victims, and the smell of rotting wood is the key to solving the case.

• Author: Peter Romer
• Fiction      Crime

I found this at one of the numerous free book cabinets around Amsterdam. After the Quake is an anthology of 5 short stories that have (very) tangential connections to the Kobe earthquake of 1995. The quake is indeed not the centerpiece, although the idea of loss does frame each story. As in many of Murakami’s works, the stories illustrate how life, while sometimes sad and challenging, also has moments of beauty that arise from these struggles.

• Author: Haruki Murakami
• Fiction      Novels

Passed on by Imke. Covering 30 years of modern Afghanistan, the book tells the story of two women who form an unlikely bond and persevere through the hardships of the error. A reminder that although life may treat you unfairly, it is still something special and surprising.

• Author: Khaled Hosseini
• Fiction      Historical Fiction

Book 1 of 2 featuring Agent Shaw, a specialist in an international police organization. Who this organization reports to or what their mandate is? Not really explained. While this was a page turner, Baldacci took too many freedoms making every character seem exemplary while the rest of the world is just sheep. For example, several characters are polyglots just to show they are smart (and not French or German, but Russian, Farsi and a random Chinese dialect). The underlying story rests on a mastermind manipulating world events that is built on some level of believability before veering back and forth on shaky ground. Not my favorite Baldacci, but still an easy read.

• Author: David Baldacci
• Fiction      Crime

Subtitled “The World's Most Famous Hacker Teaches You How to Be Safe in the Age of Big Brother and Big Data”. Written in 2017, it’s a good reminder of how modern technology has made it almost impossible to really disappear. I found his breakdown of the steps Edward Snowdon took were the most interesting as a real example. Otherwise, becoming and staying “invisible” is just truly exhausting and expensive and as he states several times, one slip up is all it takes to connect any hard won “invisible” profiles back to you. Interesting, with a few tips for every users but primarily a book that reminds you that the best defense is just not being anyone important.

• Author: Kevin Mitnick
• Nonfiction      True Crime

Book 7 of the Bernie Gunther series. The author jumps around the timeline both within the book and through the series itself, so you experience Gunther at several different times in his life. After the Great War, he is always beaten down, but it definitely builds in the years after World War II. This book starts in 1954 but jogs down memory lane, first to the Weimar Republic and later to the Nazi and back to 1954, which has very Cold War vibes.

• Author: Philip Kerr
• Fiction      Crime

Book 12 of the Bernie Gunther series. I’m reading these as I find them at a used English bookstore here in Amsterdam. This book find Bernie in 1956 on the run in France trying to reach West Germany, although most of the book is about his recollection of a case from 1939 taking place at Hitler’s Eagles Nest. Kerr’s portrayal of Fascism is a mirror to today’s Trump administration - corrupt incompetence masquerading under a facade of inevitability. Gunther himself is not a Nazi, but is constantly used as a pawn by Nazis, showing that even those that try to just get on with an honest life are tarred by their associations. Each Nazi he meets has their own motivations, characterized less by true loyalty but rather than enrichment through being close to the leader. The true believers try to convince themselves that glory might be possible if only the leader wasn’t surrounded by such sycophancy, although sycophancy is what the leader breeds. In Fascism, no one is redeemable.

• Author: Philip Kerr
• Fiction      Crime

An arrest is made by two men who say they were sent by the De Cock and the person arrested later turns up dead. As the city looks to De Cock to explain, he has to unravel the mystery as well as how it connects to the nightmare of a potential suspect about a field of poppies (een veld papavers).

• Author: Peter Romer
• Fiction      Crime

Continuing with many of the themes from his prior book, The Martian, this book features another wise ass who is problem solving in space. The books are engaging with just the right amount of scientific grounding.

• Author: Andy Weir
• Fiction      Sci-Fi

Recommended by Austin. Good book, although it started to tail off at the end as he delved into adjacent topics. The history of soap was interesting, as well as noting the limited regulations that apply to the beauty and health-adjacent industries. It’s good to see consensus on washing hands with soap, which appears to have been the initial revolution in preventing the spread of bacteria and being “clean”. Every step thereafter (daily showering, body washes, moisturizers, deodorant, etc) seems to be somewhat disputed on whether there is any noticeable increase in cleanliness versus actively harming your skin’s biome. I like how the author concluded that a daily shower really isn’t needed but he does it anyway to reset himself, noting that things can be psychological needs as well as physical.

• Author: James Hamblin
• Nonfiction      Science