surya

Apollo 1 till Challenger

Reviewed: 07-08-24

The book starts with the disaster of Apollo 1 and definitely provides a decent history of why USA didnt go back to space after the success of Apollo 11. But, the book does spend a lot of time outside of the key events that led to the Challenger disaster. The dots do somewhat connect looking back.

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1 person found this helpful

Dies iræ, dies illa, Solvet sæclum in favilla

Reviewed: 11-28-23

I read other election books from David Pietrisza including 1920, 1932 and 1948. Each of the elections were significant in their own respects but, this book is more than just the election. It is about the rise (and the fall) of three(if not 4 including Bobby Kennedy/H Humphrey).

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A cynics/critics view of the history or US

Reviewed: 06-29-23

I understand taking the counter point but this book assumes the worst of everyone and everything. Even putting my most cynical hat, I can find some shining moments in the US history but the author sees profit motive/ self serving cherry picked alternate reasoning for even that (WITHOUT ANY EVIDENCE).

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Political Drama or Romance Novel?

Reviewed: 12-27-22

I picked this title up thinking that I was going to get a geopolitical legal thriller "that will forever change my understanding of justice, heritage". But, all I got was a stupid romance novel. Well, did they set up the ground work for a followup multi-continental legal thriller? No, the following book picks up somewhere else with the same characters. So, this story is pretty much unfinished. Lets call it uncooked. Poorly developed characters that make impulsive decisions with big plot holes throughout makes this book. I searched for a nugget of wisdom to come away disappointed. Can't believe I wasted almost half a day on this.

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Cruz's attempt to justify his lack of a backbone.

Reviewed: 02-07-22

Having remembered that this book came out right around the time of the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, I thought it will be a justification of why appointing ACB before the election is crucial for the survival of the republic But, I began reading and this is a book for Ted Cruz to justify his out of mainstream ideology and how he subservient he is to a guy who insulted his family and his wife. He spends a critical part of each chapter not taking the objective constitutional perspective but a biased conservative outlook. I bided my time through this book looking for any nuggets of wisdom amidst a sermon of conservative talking points and before I knew it, the book was over. I regret spending 5 hrs on this book (I read at 2x speed) and wouldn't read again. Waste of time more than it is a waste of money.

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ZIG-ZAG Debacle

Reviewed: 01-16-22

After reading the Michael Lewis' book Premonition, I picked this up to get a single compendium of records on how CDC, FDA and other federal health agencies found themselves caught so off-guard with the pandemic This book continuously zig zags in chronology that you very quickly lose track of what time period you are looking at.

The book does have some organization and for some reason the author decided to follow individuals, and agencies over a chronology. It reminded me of one of those movies where you follow the lives of a handful individuals centered around 1 critical night. But, now the anchor point changes and you have no mile stone markers to position yourself in time as you jump back and forth.

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Few cute moments but gets monotonic very quickly

Reviewed: 10-16-21

As someone who is used to listening to serious non-fiction, picking this up made me think I was back in my teens reading Nicholas Sparks. As someone in mid 20s, I was okay with having a few sex scenes thrown here and there and I thought the author had an interesting story exploring the evolution of childhood besties into lovers. Boy, did the author ruin the chance. It's cliched and you tend to question if the characters in context were ever actually friends. Besides touching on few topics like marriage scams, the book quickly hides itself in a male-dominated world where the girl has to sacrifice everything (including her last name and livelihood) to be with her best friend.

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Seriously? A chick flick

Reviewed: 04-27-21

How on earth is this a NY Times Best Seller? More importantly, how on earth is this a thriller/suspense novel? Trust me, I read my share of thrillers and I thought this was a political thriller. But, it is a chick flick about the transformation of the second lady as she continues to hold her day-job as a detective. After researching the author, I infer that there are more novels that offer background of Sam Holland but I bet they are the same as this where the crime is very poorly put together and you have a whole of lot of family drama. I wish I could return this. Isn't worth that cup of coffee I spent on it.

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2 people found this helpful

Religious Propoganda

Reviewed: 06-01-20

I am a decent reader of historical titles and I picked this up after reading the Bonhoeffer title from the same author but I should have known how cherry picking the author takes to create a religious narrative. The author assumes faith as a requirement for morality which is far from established and all the evidence the author gives for the same are as mentioned earlier cherry picked to fit the narrative.

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A hate all book that deserves read by every one.

Reviewed: 03-13-20

I WANT to hate this book. But, I can't find a reason to. Let me establish where I am coming from. I am a hardcore capitalist. While most free market capitalists try to follow Andrew Carnegie's principle on Gospel of Wealth, I am one that thinks the rich owe the poor nothing and one of the greatest problems that the world faces today is the sense of entitlement that the less fortunate have. That is the reason for Occupy Wall Street/ Arab Spring or the Bernie Sander's rise. I follow the doctrine of Adam Smith that the "It's not the benevolence of the butcher, the baker or the brewer that you get to put food on the table, but by their sheer self interest". If elites like the Zuckerberg, the Bezos or the Gates decide to share their wealth, it is their purview but the poor/less fortunate have absolute zero claim on the same. Such free market capitalist in me tried to identify areas that the author is wrong. He sees the same facts that I see but interprets them differently and I see his view point. I might not agree with him but I sense his conviction. I developed an immense respect for the argument. I guess he alongside Bernie Sanders are the two socialists that I have respect for their convictions despite not agreeing with either on an iota of their argument.

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