Book Reviews

An interesting read. The author is a Yale graduate who has written a few books on fishing but he gave this one a different ‘spin’. Connecticut is on the 41st parallel so he decided to go around the world fishing that parallel for trout.

He fishes much of the time with an Austrian who is a amateur expert on native trout. Johannes loves to snorkel in streams and net trout and then take pictures of them, snip a fin for a DNA sample, and then return them to the stream. He is a fanatic about finding native trout and James the author is in good company.

A thoughtful look at Baby Boomers from an economic point of view. Chris Farrel is a senior economics contributor at Marketplace on American Public Media’s radio programs.

This book has so much food for thought and is an optimistic look at what boomers can look forward to, an engaged, vibrant, and productive time of life…if we choose to. Here are a couple of key quotes.

Who would have thought that one reason civilization grew faster in EurAsia is that the continent is laid out ‘east to west’ vs North America / South America and Australia which is  ‘north to south’?

Who would have believed that the domestication of animals was so complex and vital to human development?

We all hate germs but I didn’t realize how much of a factor germs were in European development across the world.

This book kept being recommended to me and now I can see why.  As a huge extrovert I have become sensitive to introverts in my classes and meetings I run and always try to find ways to ensure they get time to speak. But The Quiet took my understanding to a whole new level.

I love that the author takes a view that both extraverts and introverts are equal, we need both, but then demonstrates very persuasively that our society has become a nation that prefers the views of extroverts. She believes much of the reasoning behind the collapse of the technology boom was the result of most leaders of investors / entrepreneurs were strong E’s and they were not listening to the strong I’s who were looking at data (with little emotion) and not getting caught up in the tidal wave of thinking.