This isn’t really a bookshelf, at least not in the usual sense, because these books were mostly checked out of the local library and then returned.
Since retirement, I have done more than help design and build a cabin, play golf, and travel. One of the biggest changes in my life has been the time and motivation to read books. Here are a few books that I have found most interesting. A few are just for balance.
The library does not keep track of what books I read, because otherwise the library might be forced to report my suspicious behavior. I keep track. There are 138 books on my list and I’m sure that there are a few more that I have read but forgotten about. On the other hand, there are books on my list that I got partway through and lost interest in.
- Madeleine Albright, Memo to the President: How We Can Restore America’s Reputations and Leadership. This was written at the start of the Obama Whitehouse. She is a very harsh critic of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld. The advice is almost all about foreign policy. Not a surprise. She explains the general strategy, such as the purpose of foreign policy is to unite friends and divide enemies. The last part of the book is an analysis of problem spots around the world, country by country.
- Madeleine Albright, Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937 – 1948. Her father was a Check ambassador until he fled to England with his family. She recounts the mistakes made by western countries that allowed Hitler to win early victories, and her life in London during the blitz.
- Tom Clavin, Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival. This is the story of Joe Moser, an American P38 pilot who was shot down over France. The story traces the day-to-day life of Joe together with a concurrent overview of the war from August 1944 to the end of World War II in Europe.
- Jennet Conant, 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos. This is a historical account of the storefront in Sante Fe that served as the gateway to Los Alamos during the development of the first atomic bomb.
- Dalai Lama, Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World. Here is a religious leader who finds no conflict between science and religion. He does not attempt to convert readers to a particular faith but claims that people can follow a highly ethical lifestyle regardless of their particular religious beliefs.
- John Dean, Conservatives Without Conscience. A close observer of the Nixon Watergate scandal, John Dean argues that winning elections, rather than what is best for the country, has continued to be central to conservative thinking.
- Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel. The central question here is why some societies have flourished while others have struggled to survive. Diamond argues that among people of roughly comparable intellect, those in regions where animal species and vegetation could be domesticated advanced rapidly and people in areas lacking such animals and vegetation continued in the hunter/gatherer lifestyle.
- Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Societies such as the Maya and Anasazi developed complex social structures and build extensive monuments and dwellings. Why did these societies collapse and what can we learn that will help our society survive? The answer almost always is related to the environment and how difficult it is to sustain. Of special interest to me are the innovative scientific techniques used to determine when and how changes took place. Scientists are able to determine when deforestation took place, the diets of the people and how the diets changed over time, and what varieties of trees were growing 10,000 years ago even though no wood remnants still exist.
- Kurt Eichenwald, 500 Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars. This book traces events from 9/11 until the start of the Iraq War. This reads like a murder mystery, except it really happened.
- Richard Feynman, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. I don’t understand the physics, but his love of discovery cannot be questioned.
- Al Franken, Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them. Whatever you think of Al Franken, he makes very convincing arguments.
- Anne Garrels, Naked in Baghdad: The Iraq War as seen by NPR’s Correspondent. This is a story about the Iraq War from a correspondent who roamed the streets of Baghdad without the cover of an armed escort.
- Mary Graber. Debunking The 1619 Project: Exposing the Plan to Divide America. This is a response to the original 1619 Project written by Hannah-Jones. The two books agree on most of the details but differ widely in their points of view. Graber credits the founding fathers with creating a government founded on equality and human rights.
- Nikki Haley, Can’t Is Not an Option: My American Story. After reading this book, I have some understanding of the rise of the Tea Party. This is also a story about winning against all odds.
- Nikole Hannah-Jones. The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story. This is a story of slavery in America and how virtually everything in American history is related to black history. Hanah-Jone describes the founding fathers as slave owners who were primarily motivated in maintaining the status quo.
- Greg Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb. This is a detailed recollection of the. development of the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos.
- Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs. This is a must-read. Steve did not build products that the public wanted, but rather he designed great products that created their own demand. He lived in typical suburbia with an unlocked back door. He could be mean-spirited. Early in his career, he was asked to work the night shift because he refused to bathe and coworkers couldn’t stand the smell. He was driven by the simplicity and elegance of design. Even circuit boards that were designed never to be seen were beautifully designed. I have also read and enjoyed Isaacson’s books on Einstein and Ben Franklin.
- Walter Isaacson, The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing and the Future of the Human Race. This book describes the development of Covid 19 immunization and the science that led up to it.
- Lawrence Krauss, Quantum Man: Richard Feynman’s Life in Science. The author made an honest and sincere effort to teach me some quantum physics. At least he and I tried. What came across clearly, however, was the incredible life and contributions made by the greatest physicist since Einstein.
- Kati Marton, The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World. This is an incredible story about nine intellectuals who fled from the invigorating cafe society of Budapest to make huge impacts in science, art, and theater in America.
- Kati Marton, Enemies of the People: My Family’s Journey to America. Kati Marton returned to Budapest to investigate her parents’ role as international correspondents during the 1956 rebellions.
- John McCain, Why Courage Matters. Some stories of heroism, but not a very inspiring book.
- Chris Mooney, The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science – and Reality. Chris Mooney reports that for Democrats, there is a positive correlation between the amount of science that a person knows and how likely they are to believe in evolution and global warming caused by humans; for Republicans, there is a negative correlation.
- Chris Mooney, The Republican War on Science. This book documents the distrust of science and the scientific community by Republicans during the past 25 years.
- Joseph Nye, The Future of Power. Smart power is a balance between a reliance on military strength and the use of persuasion; that is, between hard power and soft power. A show of military strength can increase resistance and extremism. Persuasion can be bought for a modest amount of humanitarian aid. Too much reliance on soft power can allow reckless behavior.
- Lisa Randall, Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World. Randall is a theoretical physicist who tried to explain to me why the search for the Higgs boson was so important. Physicists claim that the Higgs boson is what gives everything it’s mass. She had better luck explaining to me why the study of physics is itself important even to people outside of physics.
- David Sanger, Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power. This book covers the world’s trouble spots and how the Obama Doctrine differs from the Bush Doctrine. Obama prefers to ‘lead from behind’ by providing technological tools but encouraging other countries to step up and do the hard work in areas of the world that affect them the most. There is also a prolonged discussion of the precedence established in the use of technology such as drones and cyber attacks that could come back to haunt the United States as other countries develop their own ability to use these technologies. After reading this book, I understand more about what is going on in the world’s trouble spots. It is rather scary.
- Sean Smith, Grant. Generals on both sides of the Civil War studied at West Point and practiced their skills in the Mexican-American War.
- Mary Trump, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. If you read one book about Donald Trump, this should be it. As a psychologist and family member, Mary Trump explains how Fred Trump was able to nurture his son to lie, cheat, and be physically immune from the ability to accept defeat or apologize under any circumstances.
- Chris Wallace, Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World. The book starts on the day Roosevelt died and Truman was sworn in as president and continues until bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
- Edward Wilson, The Social Conquest of Earth. Wilson argues that there are two opposing forces at work in human evolution. Selfish behavior promotes individual survival. Selfless behavior promotes group survival. A balance between these behaviors has allowed humans to survive in spite of the huge cost attributed to a large brain.