Tom Randall

Thoughts on the philosophy of science and science's relation to religion.

The spiritual precursor to the zombie genre, and it happens to be better written than anything I've read in the genre.

Great pacing, holds up over time. At least as good as the classic film.

Loved the pacing and the dark psychology. I rarely like a book where I hate all the characters but this is an exception.

Between reading this and Washington this year, Chernow is now one of my favorite biographers

I can see why some people don't love it, but I thought it was beautiful. Thoroughly enjoyed it all, even the parts that are left unexplained.

It was fine, but too localized to this guy's personal experience. I get that it's a memoir, but just didn't have much of interest for me.

Not as interesting as I expected.

Really liked this one. A narrower theme than his earlier books, which improved the final product significantly.

Excellent biography, engaging throughout. Predictably, the parts about the war were the best, but the real interesting sections are during the presidency.

Thorough history, but the topic is maybe too broad.

Superb, and sad in a lot of ways. Highly recommend.

Carnies are weird but they just aren't that scary.

I'm sure this was worth reading in 2006, but there's nothing new here now.

No real theme, just a kitchen-sink approach to social science. Some interesting bits.

One of the most poorly-written books I've ever picked up. Takes place in my hometown but even that was unconvincing.

Strange, but I loved it. Definitely one to come back and reread later.

Pretty damning picture of the war on drugs and addiction from a 1970s perspective. The “loss of identity” theme was the most interesting to me.

Most interesting parts were the beginning (explorers) and the end (inventors). The middle dragged somewhat.

Pretty good but no better than the Sissy Spacek movie.

Aldous Huxley takes mescaline and writes about it. Nothing wrong with that.

Decent pop psychology book, but more Nate Silver than Malcolm Gladwell.

Some very good parts on the nullification debate. Overall the scope was too narrow for me and I didn't feel like I had great context without knowing more about Jackson's life pre-White House.

More traditional than the movie, but very good in its own right.

Hilarious. The chapter on hangovers puts it over the top.