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 2006 Hopkins and Company, LLC
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Thanks
Thanks to
revenue from Executive
Times subscriptions, buyers of books through our amazon.com links,
and clients of Hopkins & Company, we’ve continued our annual
practice of making a donation to a not-for-profit organization as a special
holiday thanks to our clients and friends. This year’s donation was made to Heifer International, a program whose
goal is to help end world hunger and poverty through self-reliance and
sustainability. If you’d like to join us in supporting this fine
organization, you can send your contribution to:
Heifer Project International
P.O. Box 8058, Little Rock,
AR 72203
You can check
out this organization on www.guidestar.org.
Guidestar is a national database of nonprofit organizations. You can
also visit Heifer’s website at http://www.heifer.org.
Triage
This month we
present our annual book issue, which many readers use to purchase holiday
gifts through our online links to amazon.com. (Another gift idea is a
subscription to Executive
Times.) We read, reviewed and listed a total of 180 books in Executive Times
during 2006, including recent reviews beginning on page 5. Starting on page
2, we recap the best and worst books we read this year. These books, plus
twenty others we read but did not review, close out our 2006 bookshelf at http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/2006books.html.
There were 11 books we added to the 2006 Shelf of Reproach; these are the
books we feel a little guilty for not reading. All of them are at http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/2006
Shelf of Reproach.html. We gave up entirely on 162 books this year for
one reason or another and feel not a twinge of guilt. All of them are at http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/2006
Shelf of Ennui.html. In memory of Milton
Friedman who died in November, we’ve selected a few of his best books on
page 4. We’ve filled our 2007 bookshelf with 160 books, including 20 added in
November, and 33 that have been read, but not yet reviewed. All are at http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/2007books.html.
Happy
Holidays!
Best Books of 2006
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Title (Link to
Review)
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Author
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Rating
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Review Summary
|
Purchase
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The
Long Tail
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Anderson,
Chris
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*****
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Niches. Simple concepts, summarized in our review
and excerpt, with huge implications and consequences for producers and
distributors. Our highest rating because of that potential impact.
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The Road
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McCarthy,
Cormac
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*****
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Hope. Sparse and perfect prose in
outstanding novel, set after nuclear calamity. An unnamed man and his son show
that when everything else is lost, what’s left is hope, faith, and mostly
love.
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The
Medical Malpractice Myth
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Baker,
Tom
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****
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Evidence.
A compelling,
factual case for getting to the root of a real problem in medicine: there
are more preventable mistakes being made by doctors and nurses. Big
payments to undeserving claimants are rare, and few cases of malpractice
are litigated.
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The
Battle for the Soul of Capitalism
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Bogle,
John C.
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****
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Lucidity. Straight talking on what’s gone
wrong in corporate America
and how to fix it. Forceful and optimistic, including well placed blame and
practical and achievable solutions.
|
|
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The
China Study
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Campbell,
T. Colin
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****
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Choices. Comprehensive research on diet and
health presents incontrovertible conclusion: avoiding animal-based foods
and consuming a plant-based diet leads to improved health, whether we like
that or not.
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House of
War
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Carroll,
James
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****
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Personal. Chronicles the rise of military
power from World War II to today, and leaves readers to reflect on many
unanswered questions. Author’s father was Air Force General, so Carroll
grew up inside and alongside the Pentagon.
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Dispatches
From the Edge
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Cooper,
Anderson
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****
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Precipice. CNN reporter’s memoir focuses on
war, disaster and survival, as seen through the sharp pain that formed his
character from the premature death of his father to the suicide of his
older brother.
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The
Year of Magical Thinking
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Didion,
Joan
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****
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Grief. Outstanding, emotionally raw and
powerful writing in the form of a memoir of the year following the death of
Didion’s husband, John Gregory Dunne. Also a memoir of grief itself, and a
tribute to him and to their marriage.
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Field
Notes from a Catastrophe
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Kolbert,
Elizabeth
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****
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Hot. Sober, clearly written book that
lays out the facts about global warming in a calm way, and calls attention
to what will happen if changes aren’t made.
|
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Fathers
and Daughters
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Markovits,
Benjamin
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****
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Seasons. Four connected novellas named for
the seasons, with characters seen from different points of view. Fine
literary fiction full of emotional depth and the bonds of relationships.
|
|
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A
Family Daughter
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Meloy,
Maile
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****
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Fragility. Author reprises the Santerres from
her debut novel Liars
and Saints, using this novel to take the perspective of a daughter,
Abby, on the fragility of the many family members, their secrets and
passions.
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American
Theocracy
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Phillips,
Kevin
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****
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Indictments. Prophetic political analyst explores
the coming perils from reliance on dwindling supplies of oil, the dominance
of the “debt and credit-industrial complex” and the growing influence of
the religious right.
|
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The
One That Got Away
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Raines,
Howell
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****
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Release. Introspective and instructive memoir
full of wisdom and fine writing by fired New York Times executive editor and avid fly fisherman.
|
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LBJ: Architect of
American Ambition
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Woods,
Randall B.
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****
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Larger. Thanks to tapes and records newly
released, even more information about the active and complicated U.S.
President can be uncovered, and under Woods’ scholarship, the impact of LBJ
can be understood in a more balanced way than was presented in earlier
biographies.
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|
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Profit
with Honor
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Yankelovich,
Daniel
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****
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Stewardship. Sound and practical recommendations
on how to have both a free market and a civil society. Part of the Future
of American Democracy Series from Yale University
Press
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Worst
Books of 2006
|
Title (Link to
Review)
|
Author
|
Rating
|
Review Summary
|
Purchase
|
|
Rome, Inc.
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Bing,
Stanley (Gil Schwartz)
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*
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Minimal.
Reads as if Bing was
forced to complete an assignment in which he has minimal interest. Some
funny passages, but not enough. Continue to read his Fortune column and wait for his next book.
|
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Dog Days
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Cox,
Ana Marie
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*
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Wonked. Debut novel with some humor by the
writer of the wonkette blog, covers Washington politics and a presidential campaign,
presenting characters and situations readers will care not a whit about.
|
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The Number
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Eisenberg,
Lee
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*
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Bloviated.
What could have been
a succinct magazine article turned into a scattered and eccentric approach
to financial and life planning aimed at anxious baby boomers facing
retirement.
|
|
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Fired!
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Gurwitch,
Annabelle
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*
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Boring.
Some witty, mostly
boring stories from famous and interesting people about their experience of
being fired. Chances are you’ve heard better stories from friends and
neighbors.
|
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A
Death in Belmont
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Junger,
Sebastian
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*
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Presumption. A 1963 murder takes place in
Junger’s childhood neighborhood, and later, a handyman who worked on
Junger’s home confesses to murders attributed to the Boston Strangler.
Junger tries to connect the two to the frustration of many readers.
|
|
Legacy:
Best of Milton Friedman
Latest Books
Read and Reviewed:
(Note: readers of the web version of Executive Times
can click on the book covers to order copies directly from amazon.com. When you order through these links, Hopkins
& Company receives a small payment from amazon.com. Click on the title to read the review or
visit our 2005 bookshelf at http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/2005books.html).
|
Title (Link to
Review)
|
Author
|
Rating
|
Review Summary
|
Purchase
|
|
One
Good Turn
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Atkinson,
Kate
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***
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Connections.
Intelligent mystery
set in Edinburgh
with plethora of connections that come together at the end. Full of
loyalty, betrayal and revenge.
|
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Crisis
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Cook,
Robin
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**
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Crisis. Reprised characters explore
malpractice and concierge medicine in slow paced courtroom medical drama.
Somewhat entertaining escape novel.
|
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In the
Fold
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Cusk,
Rachel
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***
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Belonging. Dark comedy of being part of the
people and places that form us over time. Ensemble of strange characters
show variable morals and expectations based on where they are.
|
|
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Tough
Choices
|
Fiorina,
Carly
|
***
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Clichés.
Memoir tells her
side of the H-P story, as well as the many choices she made during her
career. Packed with clichés, but also with sage advice to choose the harder
career path over the easy one.
|
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Big Coal
|
Goodell,
Jeff
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***
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Dirty. Journalist takes a complex subject
and presents facts in a clear manner that may change some open minds about the
degree to which coal is an alternative to foreign oil.
|
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A
Spot of Bother
|
Haddon,
Mark
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***
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Quirky. Talented writer uses all his skills
to make the ups and downs of the extended and quirky Hall family a pleasure
to read. Readers will be undecided whether to laugh or cry.
|
|
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Imperium
|
Harris,
Robert
|
***
|
Politics. Lively political novel of Cicero’s rise to
consul, narrated by longtime secretary Tiro. Readers will enjoy Cicero’s political
machinations.
|
|
|
The Road
|
McCarthy,
Cormac
|
*****
|
Hope. Sparse and perfect prose in outstanding
novel, set after nuclear calamity. An unnamed man and his son show that
when everything else is lost, what’s left is hope, faith, and mostly love.
|
|
|
Gallatin
Canyon
|
McGuane,
Thomas
|
***
|
Characters. Ten short stories feature flawed
characters with emotional depth contained just below the surface.
|
|
|
In
the Line of Fire
|
Musharraf,
Parvez
|
***
|
Integrity. Blunt and entertaining memoir,
packed with personal stories of a life spent in risky service to his
country as well as instructive sermons explaining Pakistan to the rest of the
world.
|
|
|
Blue Screen
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Parker,
Robert B.
|
***
|
Partners. Usual Parker novel with an added
twist: two of his serial mystery brands merge as Sunny Randall partners
with Jesse Stone on a case, and they develop a good relationship.
|
|
|
The
Greatest Story Ever Sold
|
Rich,
Frank
|
***
|
Polemic. Rich documents the ways in which the
Bush administration presented a public relations version of reality that
departed from the truth, and formed public opinions based on an alternate
reality. We expect politicians to lie, but not this much.
|
|
|
St.
Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
|
Russell,
Karen
|
***
|
Imaginative. 25 year old author’s debut
collection of short stories are creative and imaginative, with a unique
voice.
|
|
|
There
Will Never Be Another You
|
See,
Carolyn
|
**
|
Children. Post 9/11 novel presents
interlocking relationships showing that even in an age of terror, what
endures is the special relationship between parents and children.
|
|
|
The Big
Boom
|
Stansberry,
Domenic
|
***
|
Family. Author reprises private eye Dante
Mancuso, who returns home to San
Francisco following his father’s death, and
investigates a murder, learning much about himself and the importance of
family.
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|
ã
2006 Hopkins and Company, LLC. Executive
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