Review

The Phantom Lover and Other Thrilling Tales of Thailand by Jim Algie. Most of the stories in this book are good. Probably the one I enjoyed the most is the story of See Ouey  who was a convicted multiple murderer in the past century. Ouey had immigrated from China to Thailand after having fought in […]

Looking at the Sun: The Rise of the New East Asian Economic and Political System by James M. Fallows (1995). Twenty years ago, journalist James Fallows spent more than five years in Asia collecting information and building a compelling case for how and why this area of the planet was growing so fast, especially in

Class Matters by Bill Keller. This book from The New York Times is both depressing and distressing, but some parts are quite enlightening and deserve special attention. One of the key messages is that class is not just about money or power. It is more about intangible resources, mostly coming from within the family. This

Triple by Ken Follett. This book is a really nice description of the stealing of uranium to produce nuclear weapons in Israel in the late 60’s. They made a fake company to buy a freighter, which would transport a covert shipment of uranium to Italy. At some point during the trip, they would stage the

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (2015). This is a pretty good psychological novel. I am quite delighted that I picked this one at the second hand book store. It is about Rachel, a woman that has found in alcohol a way to cope with her broken life and marriage. The history is

AIQ: How People and Machines Are Smarter Together by Nick Polson and James Scott. Imagine you could write a novel knowing for sure that it will be the biggest bestseller. Or that for a record company, there is no need to audition hundreds of bands, because they have devised a method to design a rock

The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli. This book is originally written in German and very easy and fast to read. There are not too many surprises to learn, but the references list contains a wonderful source of knowledge on behavioral psychology and I appreciate that a lot.

Pearl Harbor by Craig Nelson. This is one of those books that I will re-read in the future. Not because it is hard, but because it offers several layers of understanding the history of WW2. The horrendous descriptions of the war and scale of the destruction is quite shocking. The author can take you to

“The library book” by Susan Orlean. This book explores books and libraries, particularly focusing on the Los Angeles Central Library, which was severely damaged by a fire in 1986. The fire was suspected to be arson, with Harry Peak as the main suspect. However, the book is more about the impact of books and libraries