Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

February 22, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction – Kindle edition. Translated from the Hebrew. Harper, 2015. Originally published 2011. 541 pgs. Library copy. Subtitled “A Brief History of Humankind”, Harari’s book covers three “revolutions” that shaped the course of history – the Cognitive Revolution, the Agricultural Revolution, and the Scientific Revolution – before delving into a lesson in how culture binds the world together and a short speculation about the future. Beginning about 70,0000 years, the Cognitive Revolution led to the evolution of Neanderthals and other […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Africa, Chunkster, Economics, Europe, Hebrew, Indigenious Peoples, Middle East, Nonfiction, North America, Religion, South America, Translated, United States • Tags: Yuval Noah Harari

Pound Foolish by Helaine Olen

February 15, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction – Kindle edition. Portfolio, 2012. 304 pgs. Library copy.  Subtitled “Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry”, Olen covers how a financial illiterate populace is sold bad advice, bad get-quick-rich-schemes, and bad retirement strategies by an entire industry. Her book begins with a frank discussion of how America’s personal finance gurus – Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey, and the authors of The Millionaire Next Door, which I read earlier this year – and investing advocates such as Jim […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Economics, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Helaine Olen

Squeezed by Alissa Quart

February 11, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction – print. Ecco, 2018. 320 pgs. Library copy. With its provocative subtitle “Why Our Families Can’t Afford America”, I’ve had my eye on Quart’s book since it was published back in mid-2018. The book promised to examine how and why Americans were finding themselves unable to make ends meet and remain inside the middle class that they were born into. “…65 percent of all Americans worry about paying their bills – as the parents I’ve interviewed, murmuring anxiously at […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Economics, New York, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Alissa Quart

Cheap by Ellen Ruppel Shell

January 29, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction – print. Penguin Press, 2009. 320 pgs. Library copy. Since reading The Millionaire Next Door earlier this month, consumerism has been dominating my thoughts. I’ve been particularly contemplative of how people have rejected of material goods, attracted to articles like one in The Guardian by a man who lives “houseless” in Alaska and contemplating rereading Not Buying It.  In my search for more books on the topic, I was reminded of Shell’s book on consumerism. I borrowed her book from the library in […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Asia, Economics, Europe, Food, Nonfiction, North America, Scandinavia, Thailand, United States • Tags: Ellen Ruppel Shell

The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko

January 10, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction – print. Longstreet Press, 2001. Originally published 1996. 258 pgs. Borrowed from my dad. I grew up with the term “millionaire next door” in my vernacular. My mom (and, to a lesser extent, my dad) pontificated on the value of becoming an under-the-radar millionaire throughout my childhood. (Why buy new books when you can get them from the library from free?!?) Now that I’m an adult, I see how their understanding of this term has shaped how I approach […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Economics, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Thomas J. Stanley, William D. Danko

Dark Money by Jane Mayer

July 17, 2018 by Christina

Nonfiction — Kindle edition. Anchor, 2016. 464 pgs. Library copy.  Subtitled “The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right”, Mayer expands on her 2010 article for The New Yorker on the Koch brothers’ “war against Obama” and follow how the Kochs and other billionaire families in the United States, including the family of the current Secretary of Education, have reshaped the political landscape of America through campaign financing. “Presidents might surround themselves with Secret Service agents […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Chunkster, Economics, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Jane Mayer

Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

January 30, 2017 by Christina

Nonfiction – print. Harper, 2016. 263 pgs. Library copy. Subtitled “A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis”, Vance recounts his childhood raised by an often deride segment of America — the “hillbilly”, Scots-Irish living in the Appalachia region of the United States. Vance’s mother — a nurse — struggled with drug addiction throughout his life, and that coupled with the constant cycle of stepfathers and boyfriends in Vance’s life meant he often took refuge in the home of his grandparents, Mamaw […]

Categories: 2017 Reads, Economics, Nonfiction, North America • Tags: J.D. Vance

Our Lot by Alyssa Katz

June 15, 2014 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Bloomsbury, 2010. Originally published 2009. 304 pgs. Received from PaperBackSwap. Subtitled “How Real Estate Came to Own Us”, Katz’s book attempts to explain the explosive growth of the United States real estate market and the development of mortgage-backed securities leading to the housing bubble and the economic crisis of 2008. Starting right at the start of the Great Depression, Katz explains how President Roosevelt saw construction of homes — not just the bridges and tunnels history books […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Economics, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Alyssa Katz

The Price of Politics by Bob Woodward

October 16, 2012 by Christina

Nonfiction — Kindle edition. Simon & Schuster, 2012. 380 pgs. Borrowed from family member. Woodward’s twelfth book covers the 2011 debt ceiling crisis in the United States, a particularly partisan time in American politics where neither the Republicans nor the Democrats were willing to compromise to reach an agreement over raising the debt ceiling. Meanwhile, neither party had enough votes to ram their own bill through both the House of Representatives and the Senate since control was held by the Republicans […]

Categories: 2012 Reads, Economics, Honors Project, Mountain West, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Bob Woodward

The Cartoon Introduction to Economics by Grady Klein and Yoram Bauman (Volume One)

September 26, 2012 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Hill and Wang, 2012. 212 pgs. Library copy. I spotted this book back in July when I was still living in Seattle and had run out of reading materials. I was tempted to buy it but settled on a different book and noted the title down for future reference. It wasn’t until I was at the local public library on Saturday that I spotted the book and remembered my prior interest. Klein and Bauman introduce readers to […]

Categories: 2012 Reads, Comics, Economics, Honors Project, Nonfiction • Tags: Grady Klein, Yoram Bauman

Big-Box Swindle by Stacy Mitchell

August 15, 2012 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Beacon Press, 2006. 318 pgs. Library copy. Subtitled “The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses”, Mitchell traces the growth of mega-retailers — from big boxes like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Target, and Old Navy — and the precipitous decline of independent businesses. She goes on to explain the impact these companies and the big-box mentality on everything from increases in gasoline consumption to rising poverty rates, failing family farms, and decimated small towns. […]

Categories: 2012 Reads, Economics, Food, Honors Project, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Stacy Mitchell

On the Brink by Henry M. Paulson Jr.

July 23, 2012 by Christina

Nonfiction — Kindle edition. Grand Central Publishing, 2010. 496 pgs. Purchased. Subtitled “Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System”, Paulson’s book details the three years he served as the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury during the world’s most cataclysmic financial crisis since the Great Depression. Major institutions like the government-sponsored enterprises of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and private corporations including Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG, and Citigroup teetered on the edge of collapse – […]

Categories: 2012 Reads, Chunkster, Economics, Honors Project, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Henry M. Paulson Jr