Book Reviews

I've recently had some time to read non-political science stuff (rejoice!).  Over the summer I am going to hold myself to the one book/week rule; that is, I am going to read one book a week, come hell or high water.  So if you have some recommendations of good books (fiction or non-fiction) - I'd like to hear them.  The next books on my list to read are:

Ori and Rom Brafman - Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
John Vaillant - The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed (been wanting to read this forever since I actually saw the Golden Spruce before it was vandalized)
Phillip Pullman - His Dark Materials Trilogy (I "read" The Golden Compass as an audiobook on my iPod when I was out in Vegas for New Year's and would like to finish the rest of the trilogy)
 
Anyways, the four books I have read in the past few weeks are:

Tucker Max - I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
If you have an off-color sense of humor, I highly recommend this book.  And I don't just mean a little off color...I mean that I can pretty much guarantee that no matter who you are you will be offended by something in this book.  However, it is hilariously funny.  It is rare that a book makes me literally laugh out loud and this book had me cracking up in several spots.  Definite recommend if your mind is in the gutter like mine.

Bill Chen and Jarrod Ankenman - The Mathematics of Poker
This is a book that needed to be written.  I could not agree more with Chris Ferguson in his intro when he says that he has always told people that there are good game theory books and good poker books, but no good books on how the two relate.  This is that book.  I have only thoroughly read about 100 pages and skimmed through the rest, but this book is definitely recommended to anyone who wants to think about poker on a deeper level.  It's not really a strategy book, but more a way to change the way you think about the game.  It was helpful for me because it laid out some basic stats principles and game theory principles that I knew but was having difficulty thinking about how to apply them to poker.  I really like this book a lot, but I know probably the majority of people I know who like poker won't like this book.  Don't pick it up if you don't like math or strategy board games.  Otoh, if you like math, Chess, Diplomacy, or Scotland Yard (or any kind of strategy game) and you play poker, do yourself a favor and buy it.

Steve Berry - The Venetian Betrayal
I have read every single one of Steve Berry's books.  He was my Dan Brown replacement after I read all of Dan Brown's books (The DaVinci Code, Angels and Demons, Digital Fortress, etc.).  This book came out right before Christmas and I was really excited to see that Santa had put it under the tree for me.  However, I have to say I just don't like this book as much as some of his others.  It's not bad, but it just hasn't grabbed me the same way his other books did.  I could literally not put The Amber Room down once I started reading it and finished it in a day.  I had similar experiences with The Romanov Prophecy, The Templar Legacy, The Third Secret, and The Alexandria Link.  This book is certainly not bad, it just didn't grab me like the others.  It has all your favorite characters though (Cotton Malone, Cassiopeia Vitt, Henrik Thorvaldsen, Stephanie Nelle, etc.)  He's scheduled to come out with another one next December, so it will be interesting to see if that one is any better.  I don't think anyone has ever said that Steve Berry is an excellent writer, but he usually knows how to write a thriller (just like Dan Brown).  Alas, this book was just not that thrilling.  Maybe because they have already been developed in the other books, but I felt the characters were all pretty two dimensional as well. 

This book really had me wishing that Neal Stephenson would come out with another book already as I ripped through both Cryptonomicon, and all of the Baroque Cycle books (a combined ~4000 pages of novel) in the Summer of 2005  (when I was traveling for work nearly every week and therefore desperate for entertainment) like a junkie who needs to score another hit.  Since reading those books, I haven't found anything that comes even close to the genius of these books.  If you haven't read them, do yourself a favor and immediately proceed to your nearest bookstore.  Come to think of it, maybe I will re-read them.  They are some of the best (if not the best) fiction I have ever read.

James McManus - Positively 5th Street
A poker book that is non-fiction but not strategy and certainly not boring.  McManus is sent to Vegas to cover a murder trial and ends up playing in the WSOP Main Event.  I would recommend this book to anyone, not just people who know something about poker.  It is very well-written, entertaining, and he does a good job of explaining the poker world to people who don't know that much about it.  A movie is in the works.