This will finish the "what do you read this summer" posts.

Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson is basically a Bill Gate biography up to about 1993.  It focuses mainly on Bill's interaction with computers in general and then Microsoft specifically, but it also includes not necessarily Microsoft related information about Bill.  I think it is a good source of "how did Microsoft get started" information...if you are looking for that type of info, that is.

The Interpretation of Financial Statements by Benjamin Graham and Spencer Meredith is a primer on common financial terms.  If you aren't too familiar with how financial statements work or what their line items mean, this book is a good place to start.

Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies was quite the conversation piece last year when it was released.  It is a first person account of the counter-terrorism efforts of the United States government over the last 20 years or so.  As Clarke says himself in the book, it is written form his perspective, but that aside, it provides a glimpse of where we stand and how we got to where we are.  If Clarke's account of Clinton's efforts are to be believed, it also gave me a bit of respect for him.

The Supreme Court by William Rehnquist is a detailed history of the United States Supreme Court up to the (almost) present day.  Like All the Laws but One, it is written for those without a background in the law.  It explains the history, the purpose, and the day-to-day operations of the Supreme Court.  It was a very interesting read and I am saddened that he is no longer around to write similar books in the future.

Apple Confidential 2.0 by Owen Linzmayer is a history of Apple from its founding to about 2003.  For the most part I found it very informative, though two things stood out as annoying.  First is the style of the book.  Rather than taking a time line approach, the author takes a topical approach and then does that topic chronologically.  This makes the book a bit disjointed.  For instance, if you have never heard of "Copland" (and I hadn't), you have to wait till near the end of the book to understand how it fits in the time line.  The other thing is that, though the author is critical of Apple general and Steve Jobs specifically, he often makes incorrect claims about market share, product performance, and the like.  It's not annoying Apple fan boy literature, but it isn't exactly unbiased either.  Then again, it's hard to find a book on either Apple or Microsoft that feels unbiased.

It's My Party, Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America by Christine Whitman was of interest to me, because she was the governor of New Jersey when I lived there.  The book describes Whitman's opinion on what it means to be a Republican, where the party stands right now, and where it needs to go.  It was an interesting read, though I think her logic is flawed in many cases.  One major instance of this is brushing aside issues such as gay marriage and abortion as though her position is the only logical and acceptable one.  If such things were so obvious, the issues wouldn't be hotly debated as they are.  That aside, it is an first person account of roughly the last 50 years of Republican politics.

For the last little while, I've intended to review the books I've read lately.  Of course, I was so involved with reading the next book that I never quite got around to it...until now.

The first book on my list is Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card.  I made the mistake of reading Ender's Shadow a few years ago, which resulted in my getting hooked.  I subsequently read Ender's Game, Shadow of the Hegemon, and Shadow Puppets.  The long awaited Shadow of the Giant is the final book (I hope!) in the Shadow series.  It was quite the page turner for me.  The scenarios are a little contrived (as they are in the other books), but plot is more engaging.  If you've read the others, I'd certainly recommend reading this to round out the series.

Next up is The Dark Side of Camelot by Seymour Hersh.  Hersh has become a favored author of mine, which is a bit odd.  He writes, presently, for the New Yorker to which I once subscribed.  When I was a subscriber, however, I hardly read it.  Hmm.  Anyway, this is written in sort of a "tell all" biography of John F. Kennedy.  I got the impression after reading Chain of Command that Hersh was anti-Republican.  I think now that he is simply a blunt muck-raker and will point out flaws he finds in either party.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins is somewhat of an odd choice for me.  I read it, because it appeared to be a book about an insiders' view on world economic trends.  It turned out to be a not-too-thrilling auto-biography.  Perhaps I'm a victim of the economic machine that Perkins describes, so his book is lost on me.  At any rate, it wasn't too inspiring.

The late William Rehnquist's All the Laws but One is a history of US civil rights in war time.  Rehnquist takes a balanced look at the needs of the government to protect the people in time of war and at the rights of the people that government is there to protected.  It is a scholarly work but one that is suited for a common, non-lawyer audience.

Antonin Scalia's A Matter of Interpretation, however, is a work that is likely more suited for lawyers.  While much of it made sense to me, I can't help but think I missed some points due to my lack of background in the law.  The format of the book is Scalia's view on how the laws should be interpreted, followed by response by four others, followed by Scalia's counter-response.  I make note of this, because I expected this was a single author text when I got it.

J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was better than its predecessor Order of the Phoenix but still left a bit to be desired.  The plot felt contrived just as it did in Order of the Phoenix.  For instance, I couldn't help but think that Harry and Dumbledore didn't meet too often, because it would have threatened the plot flow.  In reality, however, I think they would have met together more frequently, shared more information, and accomplished much more.  This is fiction, however, so it is still a must read for those who have trudged through the first five books.

Rich Dad's Prophecy by Robert Kiyosaki is a book I picked up at an airport on a return flight from North Carolina last year.  Shortly after returning home, it settled on my bookshelf and began collecting dust.  Like other books in the Rich Dad series, it is a guide to money management.  It warns of an impending stock market crash as a result of mandatory stock sales in ERISA-based retirement accounts in the coming years as baby boomers hit retirement age.  The goal of the books isn't doom and gloom but rather awareness and preparedness.  I'm not sure that I subscribe to Robert's logic, but I recognize he's richer than I am by a long shot and is worth listening to.

Thanks to amazon.com and the magic of ebooks, I spent most of the last day reading Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. (unlike yesterday, I now know that Da Vinci is not spelled DaVinci).  For the ten people out there who've not read it or been told what it contains, consider this a spoiler alert.

Overall, I liked the book.  It was adventurous, pseudo intellectual, and generally playful.  One of the main points, however, struck a nerve.  I speak, of course, about the sacred feminine so often referred to in the text.  First, let me state what I understand to be the author's point, then I'll state what my issues are based on that understanding.

The Priory believe in the sanctity of women, their innate ability to produce life.  They exult them, as did many religions prior to Christianity, as goddesses.  They believe that man's (the gender, not all humankind) ability to commune with Deity happens only via woman.  In short, woman is divine and man partakes of that divinity via union with woman.

The reason that I take issue with this line of thought is this - despite the numerous overtones and undertones of balance - yin / yang, male / female, black / white - humankind, the Priory perspective is not balanced.  The female is divine and the male is not.  That seems more than a little unbalanced to me.

What I would consider balanced is this - believing in the sanctity of man and woman, that woman cannot produce life without man nor can man without woman, that ultimate communion with Deity (creating life, thus becoming a creator like unto Deity) for man requires the woman and for woman requires man.  If one is divine, then so is the other.  If one is not, then neither is the other.  This is balanced.  This more correctly reflects the difference between man and woman.  Each needs the other to be whole.

This in no way is meant to disparage woman or the sacred feminine but simply to recognize that woman is only half of the equation.  Had the text reflected this as well, I think the ideas that seemed radical would have been much easier to swallow.  Then again...it's only a work of fiction, perhaps Brown was after a good thriller and not trying to be an ideologue.

I think I'll have to put up a page devoted to the books I've read / am reading.  I just finished 7 Habits of Highly Effective People this week and figured I'd read The DaVinci Code for a change of pace.  There are two points that I want to make about 7 Habits.

First, I'd say that some of the supporting arguments feel a bit contrived (perhaps that's just my skepticism), nevertheless the points are valid.  I think perhaps the most striking thing I'll remember from the book was near the beginning when discussing integrity.  The basic idea was that if you don't act with integrity, in time, everything you say or do will be viewed sceptically.  I have, arguably, a suspicious nature but for some people significantly more so than others.  There are some people I won't trust to be honest about anything unless I have at least one other source to verify the claim.

Second, it's very idealistic.  There are things that would be difficult to pull off.  Covey even acknowledges this himself.  At one point he says that if you practice this (I believe it was habit 5 seek first to understand then to be understood) others will likely feel you are trying to manipulate them.  (That's something I can well relate to, since I've heard it often against me and other missionaries.)  He recommended explaining what you were doing before doing it.  Something like - I'm trying out a recommended practice from the 7 habits...

I definitely think it was worth the time to read it.  It reminded me of another Covey book, Spiritual Roots of Human Relations, which I started reading back in high school.  One of these days I might even finish it.  :-)

I just finished reading Seymour Hersh's Chain of Command : The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib.  As regular readers of my blog will know, especially last fall, I'm not a George W. Bush fan.  This book does not paint a stunning picture of him or his administration.  However, I don't think it is a simple matter of gravitating toward like minded opinions.  Hersh makes several compelling arguments.  If nothing else, it gave me a better understanding of the United States' relationship with countries of the Middle East.

I finally finished Kenneth Pollack's The Persian Puzzle today.  It is a book about US-Iranian relations.  It gives a brief look at the Iran over the last several thousand years, then focuses on the past fifty years or so.  It concludes with Pollack's advice, for lack of a better term, for US foreign policy with Iran.

One reason I'd recommend this book is that as a result of it, I have more respect for both Presidents Clinton and Bush (W) than I had before.  Regular readers of my blog know my feelings about Bush, and those who know me personally know that I feel similarly about Clinton.  I found this book to be unbiased, notwithstanding that it was written by a US citizen and non partisan.  If you're looking for a good read, check it out.

Now it's time for me to get back to 7 Habits, Code Complete, and Expert C# Business Objects...