I had heard about this book a long time ago, but finally got around to reading/listening to it a couple of months ago. The first thing you notice is that the author is the same person reading it, so it gives you a sense of feeling more involved. The author’s voice is very, how shall I say, “sad.” It’s almost as if you spend the first part of the book waiting for something bad to happen, and only after a few chapters do you get used to his voice as a normal narrator.

This book is about a Mount Everest ascent that went wrong, costing the lives of numerous people. The main character, Jon, grew up as a mountain hiker, but eventually settled down as a writer for Outdoor magazine. He eventually got the chance to scale Mount Everest on Outdoor Magazine’s dime, so he was able to finally try to realize his dream. He starts off the book explaining the history of Mount Everest and who first scaled it, while also explaining its lure and danger. As I mentioned, after hearing all of this, along with the author’s voice, you just expect something bad to happen. Anyways, he finally gets out there and begins the long ascent up with one of the most famed hikers in the world, Rob Hall, leading him and his group. It is amazing all the things that have to go into scaling this mountain, and how they would literally have to “train” on the way up…going up a few thousand feet, then coming back down to spend the night. They would stay at different base camps along the way so their lungs could acclimatize to the thin oxygen, as well as get them used to the cold and help determine who were the stronger climbers, and those who would need help higher up on the mountain.

As boring as this may all sound, the author did a good job of keeping it interesting by doing a lot of character development. It actually was difficult to try and figure out who was who for awhile, but in the end you knew everyone’s name, their history, their flaws, their desires…everything. I believe this is what made the book all the more impactful as you come to hear the end of the story when a blizzard catches many of the hikers on the same day as they reach the top, and eventually trapping them up there. I’m not sure how the author did it, but he was able to detail almost everything that went on with all the hikers in a very good timeline. He would give one view point from one of the hikers he interviewed after the fact, but then completely contradict with another hiker’s viewpoint…so you could almost understand how crazy things were up there and how panicky things were.

The craziest story of them all is about a large Texan man, whom they thought had frozen to death, so they left him and another hiker on the mountain since they couldn’t bring them down to the safer base camp. Come to find out, a few hours later, this Texan man comes stumbling into camp, frostbitten and somewhat bewildered saying he didn’t remember seeing them earlier, but that a light just clicked on in his head, and he decided he wasn’t ready to die, so he got up and walked down the mountain in near blindness b/c of the blizzard. Anyways, despite everyone being surprised that he made it down, they didn’t think he would make it through the night. The following morning, as the remaining hikers were getting ready to go further down the mountain the main base camp, they basically forgot about the Texan. The author, Jon, decided to go check on him just in case, and sure enough he was still alive and was pissed off! He had been cursing and yelling all night b/c his tent had broken in the high winds, and the tarp kept smothering his face and suffocating him, but since he was so frostbitten, he couldn’t move, and basically had to struggle for his life the whole night. Due to the high winds, none of the other hikers heard his screams. You feel sorry for the guy, but you are laughing the whole time thinking what this big Texan is going through and how he is now just pissed off b/c everyone keeps leaving him for dead. He eventually did make it and get air lifted down the mountain by helicopter, so all ended well for him.

In the end, eight hikers were killed on the mountain, and although most people would like to blame a single decision, the author is very good about pointing out that it was the result of a cumulative number of small bad decisions that mounted up to cause such a disaster. The book is very good, albeit humbling, and I’d recommend it to most.

I really don’t have that much to say about this audiobook as I couldn’t even get through more than a few hours of it. It is not really a book per say, but just a compilation of her writings throughout the past few years. Therefore, there really isn’t a flow to it, and it is just bash, bash, bash of liberals. It is one thing to be a Conservative and not like a Liberals view point on some things, but she seems to have taken it to a personal level. I somewhat enjoyed her first book (Slander), but this one was over the top and just became redundant. Sure, I probably got a few tidbits of information that may be useful in a debate, but overall the book was just bad. The book is technically about 13 hours long, but I could only take 3 hours of it before deciding to stop. So, take my advice and avoid this one if you can.

This was the first book I can remember in a long time where I just couldn’t seem to finish it. Barbie’s parents gave me this book and told me it was a great book and that I would love it, and from what I heard from others who had raved about it, I thought so to. Unfortunately, as I began reading the book, I just couldn’t get into it. There were definitely some interesting things about his life, especially all the travel in France and London as he tried to barter a deal with those governments to get the USA recognized. Also, his roller coaster relationship with Benjamin Franklin was also quite intriguing , but nothing really got me hooked.

I ended up stopping my reading of the book after many hours of trudging through the pages and just not ‘getting’ it. However, eventually someone had the audio book version of it, and it was the abridged version, so I thought I would give it a try and finish the book. After finding my place in the book and comparing that to the audiobook version, I was ready to go. The reader was actually the same reader of a former book I read, so I was hoping this would peek my interest, but to no avail. Luckily, I only had about another few hours left on the audiobook from where I stopped reading, and I was done in no time. John Adams was actually fairly impressive, as well as his wife who somehow continued to support him despite not being there for months, if not years, at a time. However, what did catch my interest was his son, John Quincy Adams. Since John Quincy traveled with his father, he ended up speaking a few languages and having one of the most knowledgeable backgrounds of any one else in the USA. There is no wonder why eventually became a President like his father before him.

Now this is a book that took me a little while to get into. It was actually an audio book, so it was much easier to let it continue then a normal book, but either way it was worth it. The book is about how Intelligence has factored into previous wars, and how countries have either managed to use it for their own success, or somehow failed even though the intelligence was there. It starts off with a lot of naval time battles back in the Napoleon era and how they used spies in the harbors to try and calculate where and when large fleets were located and when they had left. Since there was no radio, radar, etc., the data was often late, but nonetheless it was still useful. This part of the book was somewhat of a bore as it continually talked about ships at sea and the near misses that countries had while trying to find other ships.

The book eventually kicks into gear with more high tech intelligence when Morse code comes into play and how the British first start running wires across countries to increase the speed at which signals can be relayed. Of course then it comes down to encryption, and the book talks about the different styles of encryption and how to break them. The basics of encryption are to alter the original message into a non-readable format so that the enemy can’t read it, but have “key” so that the receiving party can decode it to read the original message. This “key” is the crux of all encryption. In the beginning, it used to be simple replacements of letters for other letters. However, in the english language, there are certain letters which appear more often than others, so if you are able to read the encrypted message and determine which letters are being used most often, then that is your first clue as to the algorithm being used since you can decipher what real letter it stands for. Obviously, as time progressed, the encryption methods became more robust, especially once the famous Enigma machine came out during WWII. This machine took years to decrypt as the key was ever changing. However, one of the main reasons it was decrypted was due to the laziness of the operators, and not necessarily from its design. Another cipher machine used was Purple. This machine was used by the Japanese prior to WWII, and was also eventually hacked.

The book ends with more modern day scenarios, especially with reference to the Al Quaeda group. Despite the vastness of technology, human intelligence has become the most important factor for this terrorist group. The book talks about spies, and double agents used during the Cold War, and actually references a few of them by name, one of which who falsified having 27 agents working under him, and was thus expensing 27 accounts to the governments. For obvious reasons, the book does not go into the more famous spies of today being used against terrorist organizations, but never doubt that they aren’t out there gathering intelligence to keep us safe.

In conclusion, if you are into war books, or books that deal with spies, ciphers, etc., then I’d have to recommend this book. John Keegan is one of the best story writers out there for this type of information.

After having read Harry Potter and being disappointed, I wanted to read something that had a lot of excitement, so Barbie recommended “The Camel Club.” I have this thing about not wanting to read books that are part of series unless I read them in order, so finding one of Barbie’s books is not so easy since a lot of writers have a character that they write about in multiple books. Barbie assured me the book was not part of a series and that I would be thoroughly entertained, and she was absolutely right.

The book is based in Washington D.C. and is all about conspiracy theorists and the whole political and national defense scene. From the first couple of chapters where a Federal employee is killed and made to look a suicide, the book goes through chapter after chapter of page turning excitement. Honestly, I would read a minimum of 30-50 pages at a turn, b/c I didn’t want to stop. The final night, I read for the final 100 pages even though it was 10pm when I started. You basically get into the book, and don’t want to come out of it. I don’t want to go into details about the specifics of the book, especially since my mom just started reading it and I don’t want to ruin it for her. If you decide to read it, you will not be disappointed. As Barbie and I said, it is one of those books that you easily see being turned into a movie sometime in the future. The last book I read that had that “movie” quality was “The Da Vinci Code,” which they obviously ended up turning into a movie, albeit not a very good movie compared to the book. So, if they ever end up making this a movie, you can say you heard, I mean read, it hear first.

While writing this post I decided to go to amazon.com and see what other reviewers had to say about this book, and oddly enough it only received 3 out of 5 stars. I didn’t read the specific comments, but either the author has some REALLY good books that I haven’t read yet and the reviewers are comparing this one to those, or I am off my rocker. I’d like to think the former is the right thing, as I don’t consider myself crazy just yet.

Anyways, as a side note, some of you may have noticed that I still have the book “John Adams” as the book I’m currently reading on the right side of my website. This is somewhat true, as I actually read half of it, got bored, and just couldn’t finish it. My goal is to listen via an audiobook for the rest of the book, so technically, I’m still reading it, although I’m really not, if that makes any sense.

I had heard about this book in a tech podcast that I regularly listen to, and they suggested that once you read this book, or listen to in my case, you will never want to eat at a fast food restaurant again. Of course, this puts a big leaning suggestion in the back of your mind when reading this book, and is constantly something that you are waiting to read/hear. However, it never really came for me. It started off with some good background information on how some of major fast food companies came be and what their founders did to become so affluent. McDonald’s was started by a couple of brothers, but it was another guy who saw it and decided to fly around the country and get people to franchise it. He eventually bought out the original brothers for the name and rights, and of course the rest is history. The best story is actually about the Carl’s Jr. founder who wanted to integrate the Mexican restaurant “Green Burrito” with Carl’s Jr. to increase sales. The board, who he had hired and obviously made filthy rich, decided the founder was crazy and subsequently dismissed him from the company. Not to be outdone, the founder secretly started looking for investors, and within just 6 months made a take over purchase of Carl’s Jr. and fired the entire board. I’m not sure if it was a public stock take over, or what. All I know is the board didn’t realize what was happening until too late. As the old saying goes, don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

The rest of the book is basically a long sad tale of how the farmers, ranchers, and everyone else that has anything to do with selling products to the fast food industry, are being exploited. The fast food companies wield so much power, they can pretty much set the prices b/c some company is going to be willing to give them the price b/c they buy so much. McDonald’s is the #1 purchaser of beef in the world, and #2 in the purchase of chicken, just behind Kentucky Fried Chicken. Since the demand is so high, the industry has become very industrialized, and animals are not being treated right, as they are just going to be slaughtered. This has also caused a specific branch of ecoli to be found in a decent number of the meat sold. Of course, no one I have ever met has had this happen, but it apparently can be dangerous. They do do random meat sample tests to try and prevent things, but things do get through.

All in all, I did enjoy the book, but didn’t get the feeling that I shouldn’t eat fast food. I like to eat meat, and with it comes inherent risks, although I would think it is less than the risks taken when eating non-cooked things such as salad. I’m sure someone out there will want to prove this statement wrong, but there has to be some justification to the advice to not eat non-cooked food while traveling.

Nelson Demille is an author who I can feel confident in when I am reading one of his books. He wrote probably one of my most favorite books, “The Gold Coast,” and now after reading “The Charm School,” I’m fairly certain it wasn’t a fluke. “The Charm School” was recommended to me highly, almost to a fault, by Barbie and her mom, so I came into it with some seriously high expectations. Unfortunately, like a good movie that is ruined by too much hype, it didn’t live up to it, but was extremely entertaining. I flew through the book in under a week, and for a person who normally takes a good month to finish a book, it proves that it is definitely a page turner.rnrnOK…now is the time to stop reading if you are going to read the book.

The book is set back in the Cold War era and is based in and around the U.S. embassy in Moscow. It is about a school that the Russians have set up with captured American POWs from the Vietnam War who are used to train Russian KGB men and women to think, act, talk, walk, and do everything American. The reason being that after they have graduated from this school, they KGB students can then be sent to America disguised as Americans, and eventually infiltrate everything and every occupation that is American. If you think about it, this is a great concept and is kind of scary to think that your next door neighbour John Smith, who says he is from Des Moines, Iowa and acts just like any other American, is actually a Russian born KGB spy. The ramifications of such a school that is successful is unbelievable. The entire book revolves around this school and how the embassy is going to shut it down or bring it to light, so if you have read this, I haven’t given away too much. Either way, if you like action based books and page turners, this is right up your alley. Enjoy.

“Busting Vegas” is another true story by Ben Mezrich about some MIT students and how they managed to win millions of dollars at the Casinos playing Black Jack. If you don’t know Vegas odds, Craps has the best odds for the player, i.e. you, unless you know how to count cards or do some other tricks in Blackjack, at which point BlackJack is the best game for you. At first I thought this was going to be another card counting game like his last book, “Bringing Down the House,” but the MIT students don’t count cards at all, unless you consider being able to cut a 6 shoe deck exactly 52 cards in. If you didn’t understand that last sentence, you probably won’t like the book. Anyways, if you plan on reading the book, stop here, as I am about to tell you there tricks, which may or may not ruin the book for you.

So, there are three ways in which these guys are able to tip the odds into their favor, all of which are technically legal. The main thing about all of these is you need to have the table to yourself, which is usually available to high enough rollers, which these MIT students were able to do.

1. The first method used is to somehow find a dealer with small hands. This way, when they are re-shuffling the decks, you are able to see what the bottom card is. What you are looking for is an ace. When the ace is seen and when the dealer asks you to cut the deck, you cut it exactly 52 cards in, and then wait for that card to show up. You then increase your bets substantially when that 52nd card is about to come up, and assuming you are the only person at the table, you can give yourself a tremendous advantage over the house.
2. The second method is to find an old trusty dealer who always shuffles the deck perfectly. Assuming the dealer will always shuffle correctly, you can watch a hand play out and memorize the sequence of cards that were played and put back in the shuffle deck. Then, depending on the number of shuffles, you can assume the dealer added one card in b/t each card in your sequence. Then all you do is wait for that sequence to appear, and make your bets accordingly. I could be off on the exactness of this method as I read the book a few weeks ago, but I am pretty sure this is how it went.
3. The final method is almost a complete replica of the first method, but you are looking for a face card. You then cut to the 52nd card, but instead of trying to get the 10 or face card on one of your hands, you try and have it hit the dealer as a bust card. Since you won’t bust yourself on your 6 hands (maximum allowed), and you assume the dealer won’t deal himself a 17 or higher, you can force the dealer the bust himself, thus allowing all your hands to win, instead of just the one hand like in the first method.

All these methods are based on mathematical calculations. I believe the house has about a 2% advantage on a normal blackjack hand, but with the 3rd method listed here, you can have a 50% advantage, which completely negates the small house advantage. Assume you are betting hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you can see why they became rich rather quickly.

Of course, as with the first MIT kids in “Bringing down the house,” this group of kids eventually became banned from all casinos around the world, including the famous casino Monte Carlo that Barbie and I once gambled at. An overall fun read if you are into gambling.

I read this book a few weeks ago, but when I first saw it in the book store I couldn’t believe that someone was able to write a book about a dog that would keep anyone entertained for a full 300 pages. Then, I heard a sample of the book on audible.com read by the author, and the passage that they read sounded similar to some of the experiences we had with Kymba at the dog training school. Still, I didn’t go out and buy the book. Eventually, Barbie got the book from a friend and began reading it. Within a couple of days she was finished, but physically with the book, and emotionally. I literally watched her as she read the book every night in bed go through a roller coaster of emotions. She would be laughing and nodding her head agreeance, as if she could fully understand what the author was trying to say, then the next night she would be in tears, trying to convince herself to continue reading. Needless to say, I was hooked and had to read this book that brought forth so much emotion.

If you have ever had a slightly crazy dog, then you will fully understand the hardships the author had to endure with Marley. However, if you are a dog lover, then you will also understand why he stuck through it and gave the dog all the benefits of the doubt, no matter what the disaster that had occurred. Luckily for the reader, the author is newspaper writer, so he is able to fully detail the different scenarios that Marley goes through, and also bring you into his world of love and hate for the dog. In the end, you have developed a sense of love and forgiveness for this overzealous and slightly crazy 100lb. beast. So, give the book a shot, unless for some reason you are one of those “cat people” that just don’t get dogs.

With the Tour de France on the horizon, I decided to read Lance Armstrong’s first book, “It’s not about the bike.” I had always been told this was his best book, and it didn’t disappoint. I thought the book was going to be a little bit about his fight with cancer, with the majority of it being about cycling, but it was the exact opposite. This is probably the reason why the book was such a success, b/c he didn’t focus on his athletic ability, but his struggles, which probably relates to a lot of families out there. Armstrong is one of those Type A personalities, who won’t be told no, and that is part of the reason he has been so successful in cycling, and formerly triathlons. I don’t know if it had something to do with his recovery from cancer, but I’m sure it didn’t hurt. The most amazing thing is that he went from feeling like an indestructible person one day, to having surgery 3 days later to remove the cancer. Talk about having your life turned upside down. One day you are on top of the world, and the next you are fighting for your life.

One thing that this book was able to show was that you should always look for a second opinion. Luckily for Lance, a doctor that was familiar with his cycling career, and just happened to mail him a letter offering any advice he wanted. Because of this, Lance was able to get a second, and even 3rd opinion, on the best way to treat his cancer, which eventually saved his cycling career. Apparantely, there are different levels of chemotherapy, most of which will totally wipe you out, rendering your lungs very weak, and they will never be able to recover. As a pro cyclist, this would obviously end Armstrong’s career, assuming he survived in the first place. Luckily for him, another doctor recommended a separate type of chemo which wouldn’t hurt his lungs as much, and thanks to this option, Lance was able to go on to become a 7 time back to back Tour de France winner.

The book is a very quick read, and one I’d recommend if you have any interest in cycling, or if you want to learn a little bit about cancer and the procedures that a patient must go through. It’ll help give you a good perspective as to what Lance really has gone through, which makes his cycling accomplishments that much more impressive.

In case you didn’t know it, Lance was a triathlete first. Here is a fun video of Lance competing in a national sprint championship back in 1989: Lance as a Triathlete