Steve Gross

Superior thriller. Somewhat like a higher-tech Reacher book.

Interesting piece of Edwardian history. The story does get bogged down with a cast of characters that are a little to large and not that distinct. Plus an awkward sentence here and there.

This book is divided into three parts - an explanation of Bitcoin technology, a biography of Ross Ulricht and the story of the Winklevoss twins' involvement with Bitcoin. The first part is pretty good, the next two get bogged down into libertarianism and politics and feels like a lot of filler.

The writing is so ornate and Max Carrados is so bland.

Fun overview of current trends in gambling. The last chapter was kind of pointless.

Enjoyable and often thoughtful overview of the dark side of the Internet and technology.

Interminable. Cardboard characters except for the protagonist, who is a cipher. Almost pornographic in places. Very English to the point of being hard to follow for Americans. Skip this.

Looong book. On the plus side, a lot of it reads like a novel. On the negative side, the organization is often confusing. The author poses a lot of interesting questions but never seems to clearly answer them. She also talks a lot about the people that are normally left out of history - women, slaves, etc, but then doesn't do much to add them here either.

This is a very raunchy book, definitely X rated. On the other hand, the author often has some good insights into the natures of men and women.

From the newly-revived school of Japanese puzzle mysteries. The writing is flat and the characters are uninteresting and a little weird.

I have great respect for Dr. Putnam. He has obviously done a huge amount of work and thinking in this book and the stories are quite vivid. Yet I can't but help thinking that he hasn't peeled back yet another layer of the onion in getting to the root causes of what he sees. Personally, I think that most of the social problems are the result of the revolution of the 60's and the increase in secularization of America. Still, a very worthwhile read.

The history of Chinese food actually starts in China in the 1700's. Of more interest to cooks and historians than the general reader.

Interesting history of Henry Folger, the world's greatest Shakespeare collector. Marred by some repetition and after a while, detailing the negotiations for each folio gets a little tedious. Notable for two instances of the term “vexatious intermeddler”.

Jonathan Sacks is a moral genius. His vision of a hopeful future is well worth reading.

History of DNA. Two big flaws in this book: first, the classic science writer's mistake of not introducing and explaining scientific terms upon first use. Second, for some reason, the author tries very hard to attach information theory to genetics and it seems forced.

Short but eye-opening presentation of how male to female ratios affect dating and marriage, among other important things. Rings true.

Worthwhile, all though the weakest of the three in this series

Would have given this four stars but it's really brutal and profane

Interesting plot, not completely a typical mystery.

A thick stew filled with lots and lots of stuff about The Great Gatsby and its author. Dense and somewhat meandering but interesting none the less.

A series of fun excurses into commonly believed word origins that aren't true.

Overwhelming amount of data here. It's hard to digest this book in a single reading. Chapter summaries would have been helpful.

I think Rollins is beginning to get a little tired in this series. The history/science is as interesting as always. The story of Baako often crept into sappiness.

Bryson doesn't have a bad book, but this one is easily his worst. An awful lot of curmudgeonly complaining. The “Here's what I was thinking in my head” conversations pall after a while. His liberal politics are also somewhat intrusive. I still laughed out loud in places but disappointing.

Book ranges from interesting case histories to just a lot of verbiage. Should have had more details.