Unspeakable: Facing up to Evil in an Age of Genocide and Terror by Os Guinness

Not an enjoyable book, but an important topic nonetheless. Much good history and philosophy and a lot of honesty. Fair to all points of view, to the point of some mistaken moral equivalences. Abu Ghraib might be symbolic of American evil, but abortion would be a far more serious example. I found the book poorly written; a good editor could have made it enormously better, I am sad to say. The Christian view of evil and our response to it and our living with it is portrayed well, without really an answer. The answer of course is what we are waiting for, what I would simply call the Glorious Appearing. No other answer will do. None other will be needed.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

This is a wonderful story of finding a need and having a unique ability to address it. It is a timely tale of compassion, a story of real women's liberation and of the importance of education. Overall this is a great book and hopeful. There are two troubling things. One is the madrasa movement that is massive and heavily financed and all male, making Mortenson's efforts tiny in comparison. Second, there is an ambivalence about what the U.S. as a nation is doing in the area. This aspect of the book is inconsistent, awkward, and morally naive.

The Undiscovered Mind by John Horgan

This book sheds light on the "explanatory gap" between neuroscience and cognition and consciousness, a gap that deeper inquiry causes to widen all the more. SSRI, placebos, psychotherapy, evolutionary psychology - all fall alarmingly short in this book.

The Devil's Delusion by David Berlinski

Berlinski exposes the weak arguments of "scientific" militant atheism. His eloquent preface sets the tone. The rest of the book delivers the blow. Writing with his usual wit, he yet deals with deep philosophical arguments and exposes the shallow presumptions of some scientists. Those who are buffeted by prevailing "scientific" contempt can find shelter and ammunition here.

The Appeal by John Grisham

Fairly good but not really one of his best. Seems fairly clear that Grisham opposes limits on damage awards, though overall the book is fairly balanced.

5/2008

Fortune's Formula by William Poundstone

A book about gambling and probability and investing. It features Claude Shannon, a mathematical genius, and a host of other mathematicians, economists, investors, and criminals. The "Kelly Criterion" is a theme running through the whole book. It is a theory about risk and how much of your bankroll to hazard on a bet or investment. The efficient market theory and random walk theory are featured as well.

The big question is whether one can beat the market. My impression is that there are perhaps some small areas of "inefficiency" in the market that a very smart mathematician can exploit, but that in practice most (but not all) of these plans fail due to hubris or lack of discipline or (and this is well shown in the book) someone cheating or changing the rules.

The takeaway message to me is diversify and don't try to time or predict the market (see Solin above).

5/2008

Blind Eye by James B. Stewart

"A terrifying story of a doctor who got away with murder" (Front cover). Michael Swango went to med school at SIU, where I did my residency. He killed patients wherever he went but kept ahead of the authorities, even going to mission hospitals in Africa, where he continued his murderous ways.

4/2008