There are a lot of books on developing your personal finances, and it has been a while since I read one. I thought it might be interesting to read one written recently to see what advice has changed lately, and see if there is anything that I’ve been missing.

I liked the author’s writing style – approachable, patiently explaining the basics but not dumbing it down too much. He takes the time to address some of the reasons that someone would want to accumulate wealth – it is not just to get more strippers and blow. The author provides some other perspectives, and other ways of thinking about money besides “I should get as much of it as I can”.

To be the author of a book on accumulating wealth I think you should definitely be wealthy. I can see that he is stepping carefully when justifying the need for (over-)accumulating wealth. Certainly he understands his target audience but it is with a much more measured tone than perhaps Gordon Gecko would have taken.

Especially the anecdote on how he justified the purchase and use of a private jet – essentially trading money for more time with his kids. From an accounting point of view it made sense but it seemed to me that there may be some other considerations that he (unconsciously?) danced around.

I’d recommend this book for Americans getting started with investing, that have a lot of time as a resource, rather than old farts like me who are on the other side of the time equation. But even for me there were plenty of interesting insights and things to think about. Overall, it was worth reading.

Next I am reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard.

This book was given to me by my mom for Christmas. Written in London dry prose, the author talks about his experiences working at a rare book shop. I enjoyed this book mostly because I wasn’t sure if it was fiction or non, and at these levels of sarcasm and humor I’m still not sure.

A long time ago I met a friend at a concert, who brought along a friend I didn’t know, and after talking and drinking I told a terrible joke, and this new person laughed almost to the point of tears. I wasn’t sure at the moment whether the laugh was authentic or not, without any background info. But I felt sort of the same way reading this book, and to be honest I enjoyed it a lot more than the episode with my friend’s friend.

At first I thought that this might be a story, but it turns out to be full of (what the author clearly will admit to being) “ramblings”. The self-deprecation is turned to nearly maximum level, but we watch this book seller go from apprentice to veteran, and see very weird situations happening daily.

There were so many witty turns and comments that I felt like I wanted to highlight almost every page. Maybe I just need to read more English writers.

It was a fun book to read, maybe even more fun for booksellers as I’m sure they’ll be getting the jokes much more clearly than I would.

Next I am reading The Algebra of Wealth by Scott Galloway. Time to see how far behind I am with my financial future!

When I started reading this book I didn’t know the backstory of the author and what steps she had gone through to reach where she is now. Of course all this is explained later, but only now do I realize why people might be seeking out this book, and why the author is dispensing her wisdom.

First, the good points – this book shows the re-invention of the author, from heterosexual, religious, traditional wife and mother to three kids to homosexual, religious (?), non-traditional wife and mother to three kids. I guess the difficult point was that she had written several books about her previous lifestyle(s) and was prescribing that behavior – now her lifestyle was completely different and she was coming to terms with it in this book.

The author encourages a lot of self-reflection and independent thought. She emphasizes how little of this happened to her, and blames society (American, I guess) for expecting/forcing women to fit into traditional roles. It took courage for her to see her way out of it, and I think she is trying to lend some of that courage to readers who might need it.

There was a lot of drama in this book – so many passages felt like scripts that people could cut and paste into their own life. I didn’t like the self-helpy vibes that this book gave off – and how she paints with very broad strokes about the people and society that surrounds her.

But she does bring a lot of bravery into her writing and as they say, if the book helps just one person then mission accomplished.

Next I am reading Once Upon a Tome by Oliver Darkshire.

I enjoyed this book – it has been a while since I’ve read this sort of genre: fantasy/historical fiction. The author does a really good job of creating the setting, and building out the world that we are about to explore. It also includes a long distance train, which seems to me to be the perfect vehicle for intrigue.

While I enjoyed the parts featuring the Wastelands, I’m sure some people may find it challenging to read without getting the gross-out shivers. If icky/slimy/moldy/fungal stuff creeps you out then this book is definitely not for you.

This book sets up a mystery, but its goal is not to answer every question, and that makes the book better. There are other issues – the dangers of capitalism and exploitation, corruption, and maybe even some allusions to the benefits of immigration.

One character that would seem to be critical to the story is oddly shunted aside – the Captain. She has an important role at the end, but that means ignoring what could be an interesting character for most of the story. And I did think that the way the story ended was just a bit too pat.

But overall it was an interesting and unique book, crossing categories as well as continents.

Next I am reading Untamed by Glennon Doyle.

Oh, ick, this was a bad reading experience for me. Not sure why I picked this book – there is a twist but I didn’t like the direction of the plot, most of the information is relayed by telling us directly rather than showing, and the whole effect felt like a blunt instrument more than an elegant message.

It also contained a lot of pandemic issues, contemporary politics, and class/financial distinctions. Technology was over-explained and felt like we didn’t really need to know this much detail. If the author could have built on the tensions between the haves and the have-nots more with a more leisurely and less obvious telling of the story, it could have been a better book.

I felt like I was in a constant state of cringing during the latter half. Hopefully the next book I read can help me to un-cringe a bit.

Next up is The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks.

Despite a slow start this book manages to make a close examination of Israel and Palestine entertaining as well as educational. It is a long book, and I was concerned in the first half that we were only seeing one side of the conflict, but the author remedies that in the second half, in a clever way that doesn’t let you forget what you learned in the first half.

The beginning is full of details, and while reading I wasn’t sure that taking in all this information would be worth it, but I should have had confidence that the writer knew what they were doing. There is some great writing in this book – and we can see the benefits of taking your time to say something, to linger on the moments and not rush through to the denouement.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author, despite the many famous books that he has written over the years. I chose this book to learn more about the issues, but I enjoyed the writing and the tradecraft so much that I suppose it is just a matter of time before I read his other books. Something to look forward to in the future.

Next I am reading The Winner by Teddy Wayne.

Reading books by someone who you (sort of) know always raises the stakes for me. You feel obligated to pay just a bit more attention to what they are saying, and make extra efforts to understand their opinions. Maybe for a book by an author you don’t know it is easier to dismiss things you don’t immediately understand or agree with. But I feel like I should at least put in a bit more effort to try to get things when there is a chance that someday I might come face to face with the author and have to give me opinion of their work.

This book is a collection of poetry by the daughter of one of my elementary school principals – someone who also grew up in Sonoma Valley and went to some of the same schools I did. Her work contains people and places that I am familiar with, which makes it more interesting to read.

I don’t read a lot of poetry (like almost none) but even by my rookie evaluation the author has some serious talent, and the book is full of lines that really spoke truth to me. I envy her the chance to really sit around and think about the world around her – processing the emotions and the episodes that make up your life and affect those around you. When you are caught up in a daily work grind like most people in the world, it is harder to have the time to do that. Professional poets have a rare opportunity – she doesn’t waste it in this book.

I read this book over one year, reading her seasonal sections during the season of 2024. It took a year to get through a short book, but I’m glad I did it that way as it allowed more time to reflect on each section.

It was an excellent collection – I hope that she’ll be able to continue to build on this in the future.

This book hooked me with the premise but soon careened off into a new direction and ended with something out of an old James Bond movie. I was prepared to accept the story in the beginning, but soon the plot became more and more ridiculous. The story is full of technology and tech bros, and a scary future that supposedly will happen if we continue down the road that we are on. It would have been nice to see this rather than it being told to us – the conversations about these issues were superficial and told in passing rather than being thoughtful about it.

The characters start off reasonably but they soon jump off the rails, too. The more I write here about the book the less I feel like it was worth the time to read. Hopefully my next book can get me back on track.

Next is The Little Drummer Girl by John Le Carre.

This book was a pleasure to read. Starting out from a summer camp crisis, it spirals into a big web of connections over several generations of people. The focus of the book is on the differences between the people who have money and the townies that are there to earn it.

Part of the fun for me was discovering the connections between characters, and guessing at who, where and when. The book jumps frequently between several time frames, the most recent of which is 1975. Sometimes the jumps seemed to be happening too quickly and it was hard to follow a specific character’s track, but the author included a small indicator at the start of each chapter to show where you were in the timeline, and I thought it was an elegant solution.

Speaking of 1975, the book made sure to point out some of the ways that women had it worse back then. I couldn’t help but remember the Phillip morris magnets on my parent’s refrigerator when I was growing up: You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby! The book is largely female-centric, and it is the female characters that largely drive the story and overcome obstacles. I’m fine with girl power type books, but occasionally it does feel a little out of balance.

But the author did a great job of laying out a complex story across several timelines and brought it all to a very satisfying resolution. It was a very entertaining reading experience.

Next I am reading Glass Houses by Madeline Ashby.

It was a total coincidence that I read this book so close to the book on Shackleton exploring Antarctica in the early 1900’s. These two events are separated by 130 years, and it was fun to see what the differences were between the two.

This book describes the third (and final) expedition of James Cook during an age of exploration – the world was yet to be mapped and there were still big blank areas out there. It is hard to imagine what life might have been like when you didn’t know what was across the sea. Cook’s voyage made first contact with several native peoples, and he carried out the goofy imperialistic ceremonies to claim these people and their land as property of the British Crown.

The examination of imperialism and native issues is nicely handled, and the author seemed to have done his research to get a native perspective where possible. He even pokes fun at the British crew of long ago – how they reported (again and again) the sexual prowess of the native women of Tahiti and Hawaii – by noting that there was no evidence of similar comments regarding the British sailors’ prowess passed down through history.

While telling the story I sometimes got the feeling that the author wasn’t entirely neutral in this, so I think it is important (as with any history book) to read this with a grain or two of salt. The book was quite long and described the journey in detail – some might think it was overlong but I liked this aspect.

Two extra things I got from this book – learning about an American on board who was impressed into the British marines. John Ledyard spent three years on this voyage, and once it was over:

“…he embarked on a trek of more than six thousand miles, mostly on foot, across Europe and Russia in an attempt to reach Alaska, but he was arrested in Siberia under orders from Catherine the Great. Ledyard died in Cairo in 1788, aged thirty-seven, while preparing an expedition to search for the source of the Niger River.”

It seemed like there was a lot of exploration going on at the time and that some people just lived on a grander scale.

The second extra thing I enjoyed was the artwork that was included – sketches and paintings by members of the voyage that showed these far off destinations to readers back in England. The style and detail were especially captivating for me.

Probably the best thing about this book was that I read it in ignorance of the result of the expedition. Either I didn’t know or forgot what happened during this historical voyage, and thanks to my cluelessness the book was that much better.

Next I am reading The God of the Woods by Liz Moore.

I am not a big fan of tennis, but I heard that this biography was worth reading even for people like me who know little about the game. I do remember (vaguely) the presence of Agassi in the media when I was growing up, and some of these stories rang bells for me.

This book was extremely well-written, and does a great job of describing Agassi’s tennis career, and how he got started, kept it going, and left it. It is mixed with episodes and anecdotes from his life at the time, and it was interesting to read what things he felt were important to relate.

It is easy to get caught up in the story of his tennis career, but I think that hardcore tennis fans might have actually seen the matches that he describes which would be way more interesting for them. Sometimes matches are described in great detail, others just a quick sentence or two, but it seems like he felt nearly every one should be included, which occasionally felt repetitive to me.

There is enough writing about what happened between the big tennis matches to keep the reader interested. It is also an interesting snapshot of the pre-internet world of celebrity tennis.

It was a long book but I got enough out of it to be glad that I read it. Next I am reading The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides.

This was a semi-surreal story in an empty setting which is hard to categorize. That is a good thing as far as I am concerned – and I enjoyed this book because it was so different from conventional format books that I often read.

At first the story seems small and simple, and even though you don’t have answers, at least you can feel the tension of the situation and you trust the author to guide you. Slowly you realize that this setting is not actually the world that you know – the tether is there but it is frayed and could break at any time.

And I liked that the author made it clear up front that there are no answers to some of the big questions that come up. I think that kind of honesty is necessary to do what the writer is trying to do. But as soon as we know that answers are not forthcoming, and things are not going according to the rules we consciously and unconsciously know – it feels like anything can happen. Including a great deal of introspection.

There are a lot of haunting scenes – places devoid of people and vast empty spaces. I also go for this kind of stuff in books so I was extremely satisfied to find so much of that here. Where can I find more of this?

My only criticisms are that I felt the sections of the story are oddly divided. As we open up to this new reality there are phases that are described, but the time spent in each one felt out of balance to me.

I really enjoyed this odd duck of a book – it nicely broke up the style of reading I’ve been doing lately.

Next I am reading Open by Andre Agassi.

This is a small town murder mystery with an interesting twist – we can follow both the detective and the suspect, knowing more than each one does while trying to connect the dots ourselves.

But it seems like the main goal of this book is to introduce a place, and the people that live there. Characters and locations are introduced, there is a lot about gardening, books, and a local library. I felt like the writer was trying to make a cozy environment, and it seems like there are six other books after this one set in the the same place, so I guess it worked.

I’m not sure I liked the main character – the detective – in this book. He has some stereotypical cop qualities (divorced, can’t make a relationship work, burned out from life in the big city) and he seems quick to anger in a very relaxed and cozy little town.

The writing is quite good, though, and it often describes scents and nature – with a special emphasis on gardening and plants.

The murder mystery itself wasn’t a big surprise – more an exercise in seeing these people in their natural environment and getting to know them.

In the end I think I enjoyed this book somewhat – I’m not sure if I’ll continue the series or not but if the next book comes up at the library and I’m between books, I guess I’d pick it up.

Next I am reading I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman.

Despite enjoying books on travel I haven’t read much on the age of exploration, partly because I’m not sure I trust historical accounts that may gloss over inconvenient information. But this book has maybe shifted my opinion a bit and I’ll keep my eyes open for more on this age.

The book chronicles the unsuccessful attempt of Ernest Shackleton to cross the Antarctic continent, but ends up following a much more dangerous journey to survive. The author uses the diaries and notes of the expedition members to recreate the events, and it feels extremely real, with a slightly dated feeling (the book is about 70 years old).

I really enjoyed reading about the logistics of an expedition of this scale, and what they needed to bring and what they ultimately used. Occasionally the author got caught up in detailing the minute by minute drudgery of what the members suffered through – the idea is to give the reader a sense of their struggle, but I thought towards the end that it felt like a little too much information – at a certain point the details could be dialed down a little to bring the story to a satisfying conclusion.

The biggest enemy of the expedition was the cold – and this book is filled with descriptions of what it is like to suffer – from cold wind, cold water, cold (and wet) sleeping bags, and cold dinner.

The writer seems to make efforts to portray members mostly in a good light. Even one guy who might be seen as a burden on the team is treated with kid gloves. Maybe this is how writers have to deal with subjects that are still alive back in the 50’s. I liked the idea that there were people whose only occupation in life was scrimping and scraping up the money to go out and explore – what a lifestyle! The whole book was a satisfying time travel experience, and I enjoyed it overall.

Next I am reading The Suspect by L.R. Wright.

Nice to read something by one of the masters! In my mind I tend to think that books by Agatha Christie are going to be really old and hard to relate to, but despite some of the cultural points most of the book felt modern and interesting even today.

It is hard to express just how clever this book is. It uses our assumptions (that sometimes I didn’t realize I was making) against us, and hides the murderer from us in a fair way. The way the story is written is such that events move quickly, but not so quickly that we are overwhelmed.

If I had to critique something, I would say that because of the situation, there is (necessarily) a lot of smoke to try to see through. Distinguishing the smoke from the fire is the trick here, and in the end I was surprised just how much was camouflage.

This was a great one! Next I am reading Endurance by Alfred Lansing.