Martin Stuhr-Rommereim is a fan of David Wellington who has written a series of Zombie novels, see November .... Wellington has also written a trilogy of Vampire novels and he recommends them:
Thirteen Bullets. NY: Three Rivers Press, 2007
99 Coffins. NY: Three Rivers Press, 2007
The Vampire Zero. NY: Three Rivers Press, 2008
Martin also recently finished,
Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos. New York, NY : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2008
Burling Library, 1st Floor, Latino Collection, PS3558.I376 D37x 2008
Sunday, January 11, 2009
The Ascent of Money
Niall Ferguson. The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World. New York: The Penguin Press, 2008
Reviewed by T. Hatch
Rock star historian Niall Ferguson's latest effort concerns the subject of money as the root of all progress. It is money that has freed mankind from the Hobbesian brutishness of hunter gatherer societies and the drudgery of subsistence agriculture. “Though the line of financial history has a saw-tooth quality its trajectory is unquestionably upward.” Well, that's one reading of history!
Ferguson chronicles the rise of money, credit, the bond and stock markets, insurance, real estate, and the world of international finance. Despite nearly all of the evidence of human misery and catastrophe that he weaves into this page-turner of a narrative Ferguson is reduced to offering apologies such as “A world without money would be worse, much worse, than our present world.”
In concluding this tour de force (which is likely to be well received at the Council on Foreign Relations and the Cato Institute) Ferguson makes an explicitly social Darwinist argument in favor of modern capitalism. It is tempting to compare his view of economics to that of William Graham Sumner and the root-hog-or-die days of the Gilded Age but that would be unfair to the late professor Sumner insofar as Ferguson is much softer on imperialism.
Consistent with a recently made new year's resolution let me lavish encomia upon The Ascent of Money by saying that Thomas L. Friedman is not the author and the illustrations are first class.
On order for Burling Library
Reviewed by T. Hatch
Rock star historian Niall Ferguson's latest effort concerns the subject of money as the root of all progress. It is money that has freed mankind from the Hobbesian brutishness of hunter gatherer societies and the drudgery of subsistence agriculture. “Though the line of financial history has a saw-tooth quality its trajectory is unquestionably upward.” Well, that's one reading of history!
Ferguson chronicles the rise of money, credit, the bond and stock markets, insurance, real estate, and the world of international finance. Despite nearly all of the evidence of human misery and catastrophe that he weaves into this page-turner of a narrative Ferguson is reduced to offering apologies such as “A world without money would be worse, much worse, than our present world.”
In concluding this tour de force (which is likely to be well received at the Council on Foreign Relations and the Cato Institute) Ferguson makes an explicitly social Darwinist argument in favor of modern capitalism. It is tempting to compare his view of economics to that of William Graham Sumner and the root-hog-or-die days of the Gilded Age but that would be unfair to the late professor Sumner insofar as Ferguson is much softer on imperialism.
Consistent with a recently made new year's resolution let me lavish encomia upon The Ascent of Money by saying that Thomas L. Friedman is not the author and the illustrations are first class.
On order for Burling Library
Catching up from 2008. Ann Patchett, Toni Morrison, and David Guterson
To make up for the lack of reviews posted in December of 2008, I'm going to list a few books that I've been reading, all novels with titles of one word --not counting initial articles. Starting with:
Patchett, Ann. Run. NY: Harper, 2007
Burling Library PS3566.A7756 R86 2007 (currently Smith Memorial)
Patchett explores the complexity of family relationships and explodes the idea of the nuclear family as we think about it in American culture. Tip and Teddy Doyle, African-American boys, are adopted into a Irish-Catholic political family. Their adopted mother dies when they are still quite young, but not too young for them to be devastated at losing her. Their uncle is a Catholic priest, their father a prominent politician disgraced by the misdeeds of his oldest son (his biological son). The bereived father throws himself into raising the two youngest with hopes that they will enter into politics. Meanwhile, their biological mother and her daughter, actually the biological daughter of her best friend who died when her daughter was still an infant, has lived close enough to the family to keep an eye on the well being of her two sons. As the novel progresses, they are all thrown together and the experiences that result have life changing impacts on each of the characters. A noteworthy detail, apparently something the novelest actually saw and that provided some of the inspiration for her novel, is when one of the characters notices a sign in the the window of a college dorm room that says Obama 2012.
Morrison, Toni. A Mercy. NY: Knopf, 2008
Burling 3rd Floor PS3563.O8749 M47 2008
As usual, Morrison draws her readers right into another world. This time, her novel is set in colonial America during a time of the expansion of the slave trade. Florens is taken from her mother, a slave in the palacial estate of a Spanish plantation owner, as payment toward the plantation owner's festering debt with Jacob, an Anglo-Dutch trader. Jacob is opposed to owning slaves, but takes Florens because she is about the age of the daughter he and his wife just lost. Florens is raised by Lina, a servant in Jacob's household, herself abducted from her homeland in Africa. Sorrow, another child taken on by Jacob (but not purchased), wanders around freely and is pregnant with her second child. Other characters include two white men, who through various tricks and deceptions are permanently indentured, and a free African, a blacksmith who comes to help Jacob build a magnificent house. All of the characters have suffered great loss, whether it is the loss of their freedom and home, the loss of a parent, the loss of children, or the loss of a spouse or lover, the suffering is overwhelming. Some characters are able to find their way through suffering, but others cannot.
Guterson, David. The Other. NY: Knopf, 2008
Burling Library PS3557.U846 O75 2008 (currently Smith Memorial)
Two boys, growing up in Seattle, meet haphazardly on the high school track field, and become close as they hike through the forests and mountainous regions of the Pacific Northwest together. After college, the narrator, Neill Countryman, marries and becomes a high school English teacher. His friend, John Williams, always seeking the most extreme route, decides to live a life of complete seclusion without hypocrisy. The novel opens with the news of Williams' death and Countryman's inheritance of Williams' vast wealth.
Patchett, Ann. Run. NY: Harper, 2007
Burling Library PS3566.A7756 R86 2007 (currently Smith Memorial)
Patchett explores the complexity of family relationships and explodes the idea of the nuclear family as we think about it in American culture. Tip and Teddy Doyle, African-American boys, are adopted into a Irish-Catholic political family. Their adopted mother dies when they are still quite young, but not too young for them to be devastated at losing her. Their uncle is a Catholic priest, their father a prominent politician disgraced by the misdeeds of his oldest son (his biological son). The bereived father throws himself into raising the two youngest with hopes that they will enter into politics. Meanwhile, their biological mother and her daughter, actually the biological daughter of her best friend who died when her daughter was still an infant, has lived close enough to the family to keep an eye on the well being of her two sons. As the novel progresses, they are all thrown together and the experiences that result have life changing impacts on each of the characters. A noteworthy detail, apparently something the novelest actually saw and that provided some of the inspiration for her novel, is when one of the characters notices a sign in the the window of a college dorm room that says Obama 2012.
Morrison, Toni. A Mercy. NY: Knopf, 2008
Burling 3rd Floor PS3563.O8749 M47 2008
As usual, Morrison draws her readers right into another world. This time, her novel is set in colonial America during a time of the expansion of the slave trade. Florens is taken from her mother, a slave in the palacial estate of a Spanish plantation owner, as payment toward the plantation owner's festering debt with Jacob, an Anglo-Dutch trader. Jacob is opposed to owning slaves, but takes Florens because she is about the age of the daughter he and his wife just lost. Florens is raised by Lina, a servant in Jacob's household, herself abducted from her homeland in Africa. Sorrow, another child taken on by Jacob (but not purchased), wanders around freely and is pregnant with her second child. Other characters include two white men, who through various tricks and deceptions are permanently indentured, and a free African, a blacksmith who comes to help Jacob build a magnificent house. All of the characters have suffered great loss, whether it is the loss of their freedom and home, the loss of a parent, the loss of children, or the loss of a spouse or lover, the suffering is overwhelming. Some characters are able to find their way through suffering, but others cannot.
Guterson, David. The Other. NY: Knopf, 2008
Burling Library PS3557.U846 O75 2008 (currently Smith Memorial)
Two boys, growing up in Seattle, meet haphazardly on the high school track field, and become close as they hike through the forests and mountainous regions of the Pacific Northwest together. After college, the narrator, Neill Countryman, marries and becomes a high school English teacher. His friend, John Williams, always seeking the most extreme route, decides to live a life of complete seclusion without hypocrisy. The novel opens with the news of Williams' death and Countryman's inheritance of Williams' vast wealth.
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