Author: Tim Graczewski
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Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World (2011) by Nick Bunker
I picked up this book at a local library book sale. Last year I read “An Empire on the Edge” by the same author and thought I would give “Making Haste from Babylon” a try. There is much one might comment upon in Nick Bunker’s narrative of the Pilgrim experience, but I’ll limit mine to…
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The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World (2018) by Bart D. Ehrman
How did a small, fringe sect of perhaps twenty illiterate, Aramaic-speaking Jews in early first-century Palestine come to dominate the entire Roman Empire just four centuries later? That’s the central question posed by renowned religious scholar Bart Ehrman in “The Triumph of Christianity” — a deeply engaging and thought-provoking book. The astonishing rise of Christianity,…
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One Matchless Time: A Life of William Faulkner (2004) by Jay Parini
William Faulkner is indisputably one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century. He was awarded virtually every honor a writer can receive during a lifetime (Nobel, Pulitzer, National Book Award, etc.) and his place in the American literary canon has held firm as we approach the centennial of his entry into the world…
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The Life of Thomas More (1998) by Peter Ackroyd
My all-time favorite play is “A Man For All Seasons,” Robert Bolt’s 1960 awarding-winning performance about the life and times of Sir Thomas More. I picked up this 1998 biography of More by the novelist Peter Ackroyd hoping to learn more about the main character, his beliefs, and his motivations. I was particularly intrigued because…
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Thomas Cromwell: The Rise and Fall of Henry VIII’s Most Notorious Minister (2009) by Robert Hutchinson
Sir Thomas More, canonized by the Catholic Church in 1935, was famously known as “A Man For All Seasons,” a brilliant, noble, pious, well-educated, devoted man and incorruptible defender of the crown and faith; he laid down his life in 1535 rather than sacrifice his religious beliefs. More’s life and death has inspired millions down…
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The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America’s Founding Fathers (2007) by Michael Barone
I was really excited to read this book. I found it in a box at a library book sale and was immediately captivated by its unique premise as captured in its subtitle: “The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America’s Founding Fathers.” I have read dozens of books and biographies about the American Revolution over the…
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Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco (1989) by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar
The Reagan ‘80s were a giddy time for investment bankers. There were tens of millions of dollars in fees to be made in orchestrating corporate mergers (never mind if the end result benefited shareholders, let alone employees). The most innovative and potentially lucrative transaction was the leveraged buyout (LBO), an operation where a company’s management…
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Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life (2019) by Rory Sutherland
Behavioral economics has been all the rage among business types for well over a decade now. I was first introduced to the field in 2012 when my employer at the time, consumer software maker Intuit, hired behavioral economics pioneer Dan Ariely to consult with the company. As part of the process the company had us…
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Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel (2016) by Tom Wainwright.
It’s often said that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Over the years I’ve learned that you could say the same thing about its title. Consider the case of “Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel” by longtime Economist reporter Tom Wainwright. It seems to me that there are four basic components to…
What's Tim Reading Now? 