Digg’s Top Reads for 2013:
1)
My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of
Israel by Ari Shavit. To understand the
soul of Israel, its duality, its hope and its condemnation you should read this
book. Here is Tom Friedman’s review and
one of the most telling excerpts from the book.
“Bottom line, I think Zionism was
about regenerating Jewish vitality. The
Israel tale is the tale of vitality against odds. So the duality is mind-boggling. We are the most prosaic and prickly people
one can imagine. We cannot stand
puritanism or sentimentality. We do not
trust high words or lofty concepts. And
yet we take part daily in a phenomenal historical vision. We participate in an event far greater than ourselves. We are a ragtag cast in an epic motion
picture whose plot we do not understand and cannot grasp. The scriptwriter went mad. The director ran away. The producer went bankrupt. But we are still here, on this biblical
set. The camera is still rolling. And the camera pans out and pulls up, it sees
us converging on this shore and clinging to this shore and living on this shore. Come what may.”
2)
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
by Reza Aslan. Aslan’s controversial
historical account of Jesus became an instant controversial best seller
following the awkward interview by Fox News’ Lauren Green who wondered why a
Muslim would write about Jesus. Aslan
places the time of Jesus in historical context and then provides the background
into the Greatest Story Ever Sold.
“Thus began the long process of
transforming Jesus from a revolutionary Jewish nationalist into a peaceful spiritual
leader with no interest in any earthly matter.
That was a Jesus the Romans could accept, and in fact did accept three
centuries later when the Roman emperor Flavius Theodosius made the itinerant
Jewish preacher’s movement the official religion of the state, and what we now
recognize as orthodox Christianity was born.”
3)
The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western
Europe, 1944-1945 (The Liberation Trilogy) by Rick Atkinson. The final installment of Atkinson’s
tremendous trilogy that traced Americans in World War II from North Africa,
through Italy and now western Europe is a World War II buff’s must read. Even at 896 pages, the book seems short as it
delves into the personalities of the war effort’s leaders, the trials and
tribulations of the soldiers in the air and on the ground, and the share
magnitude to wage war on such a scale.
“Of more than six thousand jumpers
from the 101st Airborne, barely one thousand had landed on or near
the H-hour objectives on this Tuesday morning.
Most of the fifteen hundred-odd had drifted far beyond the eight mile-square
enclosing the division drop zones would be killed or captured; a few made their
way to safety with maps torn from local telephone books by French farmers.”
4)
Where the Jobs Are: Entrepreneurship and the
Soul of the American Economy by John Dearie and Courtney Geduldig. Research driven book about how America has
failed via broken immigration system, inadequate education, tax code, etc. to spark the true economic engine of America:
Start Ups. Loaded with common sense
which means the ideas will net get approved.
“The Partnership for a New
American Economy, a bipartisan group of more than 500 business leaders and
mayors unite din support of immigration reform, has found that more than 40% of
Fortune 500 companies – including 7 of the 10 most valuable brands in the world
– were founded by immigrants or a child of immigrants.”
5)
After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis,
the Response, and the Work Ahead by Alan Blinder. This is the fifth book I have read about the
financial crisis and Blinder goes where others have not gone before by
including recommended actions as well as assessing not the only causes, but some
of the government and Federal Reserve responses. A good read for wonks like me.
“Why, then, did Geithner allocate
so little TARP money to preventing foreclosures? The main reason was that he, Summers, and
others in the administration were not convinced that there was a
foreclosure-mitigation plan that could work on a large scale, was legal, and
would have a large economic impact at a reasonable cost.”
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