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Collected reviews from decades of reading — organized by subject and written for clarity, context, and long-term reference.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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…
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Today, Goldman Sachs sits unrivaled atop the world of international investment banking. That hasn’t always been the case. In fact, for much of the firm’s 150-year existence Goldman Sachs has been a relatively small and inconsequential second-tier player on Wall Street. So what happened? That is what I was hoping to find out when I…
What's Tim Reading Now? 