What Books Have You Read Recently?

[MyTurn2Raise]

The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Best Read I've had in a long time!!!!! 10 out of 10.
This book is all about how human lives have moved from mediocrestan (characterized by normal distributions) to extremistan (mandelbrotian distributions). The world is not moving to the beat of the average or the mundane. Outliers are showing up with amazing frequency that blow the normal curve apart. Outliers are impacting our lives everyday. It's the black swan, the unexpected event, that is controlling what we do and where we are going. Taleb goes through and explains how this doesn't jive with most of our thinking. Our thinking has become outdated and harmful in the land of extremistan.
AN AWESOME READ!!

[Blarg]

I give the use of annoying made-up words two thumbs-upistan.

[ChipWrecked]

Last Dance: Behind the Scenes at the Final Four by John Feinstein.



I dunno.

I love college basketball, and I really enjoy Feinstein (author of 'A Season on the Brink' and 'A Good Walk Spoiled'). But I'm a little disappointed in this effort.

He does a good enough job of delving into the human element of the FF, chronicling out-of-work coaches preying on the crowd of employed coaches ("Got a job for me?") in the hotel lobby, and retelling the experiences of past Final Four participants like Princeton's Bill Bradley.

But, it feels kind of rushed, like he's trying to meet a deadline or something. Also, as the 2005 Final Four is the backdrop (sorry, MT2R) with North Carolina as a featured team, Feinstein makes use of the opportunity to retread several stories from his ACC book that I really loved, 'A March to Madness'.

I'm glad this book was done, but can't really give him more than a 'C' on it.