'Good Economics for Hard Times' by Esther Duflo & Abhijit Banerjee

Good Economics for Hard Times, Esther Duflo & Abhijit Banerjee (3.0)

I had thought there would be more economic theory in this book; given the authors are famous economists (and the title), but it ended up being partly about economics and partly about politics. They tend to go together – as our main political parties believe in different economic theories. The book looks at history with a somewhat ‘who was in charge’ position to try to predict what we should do in the present and future. Sadly, the main theme of this book was ‘economists never get it right’. Much of the data presented is interesting and the point that we shouldn’t always assume we are due a growth economy is important. Unfortunately, those who likely should heed the few lessons the book outlines are not likely to read this book. Overall it was a bit depressing without enough guidance to a happy future – though they do warn nothing is easy and happy doesn’t necessarily mean strong growth.

'Ines of My Soul' by Isabel Allende

Ines of My Soul, Isabel Allende (3.0)

An interesting historical fictional story about the Spanish entry into Chile told from the point of view of a woman who stood besides the ‘conqueror’. As with most historical fiction, my biggest issue is how to tell what is real and what is fabricated. In this case I believe the journey happened and main characters were present. Sadly, the most interesting parts concerned several groups of indigenous people and they were given the least pages. If you like to learn about the basics of history of this area and like a dose of romance thrown in, this book will appeal to you.

'Permanent Record' by Edward Snowden

Permanent Record, Edward Snowden (4.0)

Already a fan of what Edward Snowden unveiled for us based on the award winning documentary, ‘Citizen Four’, I didn’t expect to be more impressed. Until reading this book, I hadn’t realized the breadth of experiences he had and the extent to which he had gone, prior to meeting with journalists to verify his assumptions and keep his family isolated from his actions. While the movie focuses on his meeting with the journalists in Hong Kong and the days after, the book spends more time on his background and life up until he contacts the journalists. His own words describe the path that led him to become the most famous whistleblower in our history. I appreciated how he described his aptness for the role: he had enough exposure to understand the abuse and was young enough to be idealistic about our country. I also recommend reading this in order to understand the extent and power of our technology. He has a simple, clear way of explaining concepts (e.g. how nothing is actually deleted with ‘memory’, it’s written over). While he obviously paints himself in the best possible light, I believe history will eventually remember him as a hero.

'Children of War' by Martin Walker

Children of War, Martin Walker (3.5)

I will call this book a guilty pleasure. A friend who knew how much we loved the food and wine of the area introduced me to Bruno, the Chief of Police in a small, fabricated town in southwestern France in what appears to be his 7^th outing. The trope of this book is Bruno’s main pastime: in between great detective work, he serves 4-course farm to table meals to friends and acquaintances. In this particular Bruno adventure I liked how Mr. Walker had him dealing with parallel stories concerning children of war, one present day and one from WWII. Both were interesting. I knock this book from worthy literature down to ‘guilty pleasure’ because while I enjoyed the descriptions of mouth-watering dishes, it was hard to believe a local police officer would deal with terrorists in the afternoon and run home to grab food from the garden and make his 4 course meal. The juxtaposition didn’t work for me.

'Inheritance' by Dani Shapiro

Inheritance, Dani Shapiro (3.0)

While this book was compelling and thought provoking, the first third was rather annoying. Ms. Shapiro comes across as whiny and overly dramatic. The whole book is her story of taking a DNA test and finding out her lineage is not what she thought it was. When she finds this out, she really has a breakdown. She can’t contemplate how her beloved father, who had died in her youth, was not her biological father. While none of us knows how we would deal with this information, I felt it did him a disservice as he was obviously her father and always would be. As the book goes on, she does seem to value the ‘nurture’ of her childhood as much as the ‘nature’, so I enjoyed the last two thirds more. I felt fortunate that my identity is not dependent on DNA, and I value my parents for their contributions to my upbringing more than my hair color.