Recent Books -- Stalin's War, James, Nuclear War, The Snowball, Clear Thinking, Erdrich, Butler to the World, Dungeon Crawler Carl
10 December 2024
- Stalin’s War: A New History of World War II by Sean McMeekin. An interesting new perspective on the war for me. If you accept the book, Stalin played the rest of the Allies like a fiddle to achieve his goals, and there is some truth to that. I didn’t realize just how generous the US was with lend-lease shipments to the USSR. That said, I suspect the US was happy to have the USSR bear the brunt of casualties in the war at the expense of some material goods.
- James by Percivil Everett. A fantastic retelling of Huck Finn. Makes me want to reread the original.
- Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen. Oof. In case you are feeling a little too light and happy this week, pick this up. Super depressing and even if unlikely, all too likely.
- The Snowball by Alice Schroeder. A biography of Warren Buffet, incredibly boring. Couldn’t be bothered to finish it. If you want interesting stuff about Warren Buffet, just read his shareholder letters.
- Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish. Would have been a great long magazine article. Not really book length material, but a useful framework for thinking more clearly and avoiding common cognitive biases.
- The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich. This book gets great reviews, and the premise is compelling, but I gave up 30% of the way in. I just didn’t care about any of the characters beyond the protagonist, and that wasn’t enough for me.
- Butler to the World: The Book the Oligarchs Don’t Want You to Read - How Britain Helps the World’s Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, and Get Away with Anything by Oliver Bullough. I didn’t realize how lax the UK was on money laundering relative to the US.
- Dungeon Crawler Carl byMatt Dinniman. What a stupidly fun book. Ridiculous, fast-paced, fun. The whole series is a hoot.
