Koncocoo

Best Asian History

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
An eye-opening account of life inside North Korea—a closed world of increasing global importance—hailed as a “tour de force of meticulous reporting” ( The New York Review of Books ). NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST In this landmark addition to the literature of totalitarianism, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick follows the lives of six North Korean citizens over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il (the father of Kim Jong-un), and a devastating famine that killed one-fifth of the population. Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, where displays of affection are punished, informants are rewarded, and an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life. She takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors, and through meticulous and sensitive reporting we see her subjects fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we witness their profound, life-altering disillusionment with the government and their realization that, rather than providing them with lives of abundance, their country has betrayed them. A fascinating and deeply personal look at the lives of six defectors from the repressive totalitarian regime of the Republic of North Korea, in which Demick, an L.A. Times staffer and former Seoul bureau chief, draws out details of daily life that would not otherwise be known to Western eyes because of the near-complete media censorship north of the arbitrary border drawn after Japan's surrender ending WWII.
Reviews
"We learn about a young man left an orphan whose father had been Party member, a pediatrician whose greatest dream was to be allowed to join the Party, a housewife with 2 young children and an abusive husband, a young woman and her "forbidden" boyfriend, a factory worker who had absolute loyalty to the regime, and several more. This book also covers the operation of the government and its regimentation over people's lives from a historical viewpoint, how this all changed (slightly for the better) during the starvation years of the 90's, and the newer changes (for the worse) under Kim Jong-un."
"Astonishing reveal of the harsh reality of life during the 1980's in North Korea under that strict propagandist regime."
"It follows a number of individuals lives while living in North Korea."
"I was completely rivited by this book!"
"While I am an author myself, I don't know the author and no one asked me to review this."
"The constant propaganda, brainwashing, fear of being turned in by a neighbor, wife or son, the limits and downright bans on their freedom of movement, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, freedom of economy, freedom to choose their own paths, and the absolute desert of information about the outside world is a staunch warning to everyone, including we Americans, who see the seedlings of many of these bans and controls and limits and increased surveillance and the drying up of information."
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Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques, Second Edition
A form of technical analysis, Japanese candlestick charts are a versatile tool that can be fused with any other technical tool, and will help improve any technician's market analysis. “An exciting and valuable addition to the literature of technical analysis this ancient Japanese technique is available to American traders in a comprehensive, well-written, and understandable format.”.
Reviews
"Happy with my purchase."
"Excellent book."
"The organization is logical, each section building on previous information."
"My husband is reading this book, and so far he said its as expected, which means it's great."
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The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World
The dramatic, pulse-pounding story of Harry Truman’s first four months in office, when this unlikely president had to take on Germany, Japan, Stalin, and the atomic bomb, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Baime is a master storyteller, and The Accidental President contains everything a reader could ever want from a work of history: characters that jump off the page, tension that makes your pulse pound, and smooth, smart writing that makes you think. Baime's biography uses new sources to paint Harry Truman as a complex and thoroughly American figure. Baime has put a spotlight on those four months, recounting them faithfully and with heart, so that you come away with not only a sense of history, but a sense of the man, Harry Truman, as well. As Grandpa himself said a few years later, ‘It’s hell to be President of the Greatest Most Powerful Nation on Earth.’” —Clifton Truman Daniel, Truman’s grandson and author of Growing Up with My Grandfather: Memories of Harry Truman. “An entertaining new history of Truman’s first months in office...filled with events that are strikingly proportionate to what the Trump administration has weathered since January.” —John Batchelor, The Daily Beast. "By relying mostly on primary sources, Baime allows for a better perspective of Truman, in which his political decisions are equally as significant as the correspondence with his beloved wife, daughter, and mother. His carefully crafted narrative transports the reader back in time... Each sentence is carefully constructed and colorfully packed with details that makes Harry Truman and this period in history come alive.
Reviews
"His previous books on Willow Run and the La Mans battle between Ferrari and Ford were just tremendous. Taking what Baime claims is four of perhaps the four most consequential months of any presidency, a point of which is probably correct, this book starts off with FDR's surprising death in Warm Springs, Georgia as World War II reaches its penultimate moments with the collapse of Germany and the beginning of the end of the Empire of Japan."
"I highly recommend this book to students of history, Truman, WWII, and/or the Presidency."
"Baime has produced a meticulously researched account of the period from April to August 1945, telling the dramatic story of how an underestimated man took the weight of the world on his shoulders. He took the oath, summoned the Cabinet, and began a series of meetings, in one of which he was informed for the first time of the Manhattan Project to build an atomic weapon. Over the next days and weeks he dealt with the complexities of guiding the US through the final days of the war in Europe, began to make plans for the post-war economy, made contact with other world leaders (some for the first time), discussed plans for the ongoing war with Japan, and above all had the first of a series of exchanges with Stalin, Molotov, and other Soviet officials which revealed sharp ideological differences. He oversaw the establishment of the United Nations, led negotiations at Potsdam with Churchill, Attlee, and Stalin, and approved the use of the atom bomb on Japan. Among the unanswered questions of twentieth century history are those which ask whether the Cold War was inevitable, or if Roosevelt could have done a better job than his successor in easing tensions with the Soviets, thus avoiding the creation of the Iron Curtain."
"A man who succeeded a legend and through his own good sense and sheer determination steered the nation and the world through monstrous turbulence."
"Good book."
"Excellent read."
"A first-rate read and an inventive look at Truman in 1945."
"I enjoyed this book about a wonderful."
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Best Korean History

The Girl with Seven Names
Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and to realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. ‘The most riveting TED talk ever’ Oprah.
Reviews
"Being so close to the border they could also get Chinese cell phone service and calls could be made to North Korea using Chinese cells. She withstood an interrogation by the Chinese police and was able to convince them she was Chinese due to her ability to speak Mandarin and her mastery of Chinese Characters, which she attributes to her father pushing her to study while she was in school. She has dangerous interactions with gangs, which she survives, was assaulted badly by an unknown assailant with a 1 liter beer bottle, an incident that did put her in the hospital and other adventures. They chose Laos, a backwater whose insufferable bureaucracy and corrupt civil service made things hard."
"The book is divided into parts, describing the author's life in North Korea, then her life in China (an entire decade), escape to South Korea, and finally, the ordeal of getting her mother and brother out of North Korea. In China, she makes a life and barely avoids deportation, being captured by human traffickers, and an arranged marriage to a complete zero."
"Few people that live outside North Korea (myself included) can fully understand the brutal horror that is a daily reality for the average people who are enslaved there."
"Having learned little about Korea in my lifetime, I felt so gratified to learn TRUTHS about the living standards dramatic differences in the North and South. I am so happy that she, mother and brother are together and finding joy in living."
"She informs the reader of the lack of freedom available to the citizens of North Korea through the day-to-day experiences of her life there."
"As for Hyeonseo, she is like a superhero to me and yet human in the fact that she loves her family and the freedom to make her own decisions about how she wants to live."
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Best European History

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
Hailed as “one of the most important works of history of our time” ( The New York Times ), this definitive chronicle of Hitler’s rise to power is back in hardcover with a new introductory essay by Ron Rosenbaum ( Explaining Hitler and How the End Begins ) commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of its National Book Award win. Ron Rosenbaum is the bestselling author of Explaining Hitler and The Shakespeare Wars and has written or edited six. other books.
Reviews
"I have not ready any other histories of Nazi Germany, but I can't imagine another more comprehensive account of the horror that was the Third Reich. In reading this book I began to get a clearer understanding of how such an atrocity could have come to exist. If Hitler's grandfather had not belatedly married his grandmother, he would have remained Adolf Schicklgruber and certainly would not have achieved any of the power that he did. But reading it, not as an obligation, but for an understanding of this bleak moment in our world's history, it is a masterpiece. If you choose to read this book, be prepared for an extremely detailed account of every correspondence, letter, speech, meeting that went on with each move and conjecture in this almost chess game of a war. Also, I started to get annoyed that there was so much on the war and nothing about the concentration camp atrocities and the genocide that was taking place."
"Written by a man who lived through the years leading up to the Nazi Party's birth, growth, eventual election to power and all the subsequent insane and inhuman events that followed; a journalist keeping detailed diaries and then supplementing with years of detailed research through vast amounts of other documents, diaries, court records, interviews."
"In the late 90s, purchased still another copy and read it a third time."
"Shirer presents a straight forward and accurate accounting of Germany and the Third Reich. Armed conflict will never stop and the Holocaust may have targeted Jews and other “undesirables” but other societies have and are still persecuting people based on religious beliefs or ethnicity."
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Best Asian Politics

The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story
Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and to realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. ‘Hyeonseo Lee brought the human consequences of global inaction on North Korea to the world's doorstep … Against all odds she escaped, survived, and had the courage to speak out’ Samantha Power, U.S. representative to the U.N. Recently graduated from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, she has become a regular speaker on the international stage fostering human rights and awareness of the plight of North Koreans.
Reviews
"Being so close to the border they could also get Chinese cell phone service and calls could be made to North Korea using Chinese cells. She withstood an interrogation by the Chinese police and was able to convince them she was Chinese due to her ability to speak Mandarin and her mastery of Chinese Characters, which she attributes to her father pushing her to study while she was in school. She has dangerous interactions with gangs, which she survives, was assaulted badly by an unknown assailant with a 1 liter beer bottle, an incident that did put her in the hospital and other adventures. They chose Laos, a backwater whose insufferable bureaucracy and corrupt civil service made things hard."
"The book is divided into parts, describing the author's life in North Korea, then her life in China (an entire decade), escape to South Korea, and finally, the ordeal of getting her mother and brother out of North Korea. In China, she makes a life and barely avoids deportation, being captured by human traffickers, and an arranged marriage to a complete zero."
"Few people that live outside North Korea (myself included) can fully understand the brutal horror that is a daily reality for the average people who are enslaved there."
"As tensions between the U.S. and North Korea escalate, I cannot fathom a more pertinent story to inform the rest of the world of the plight of North Koreans...in their own country as well as much of Asia, and the rest of the world really. And no, it was not lost on me that this brave young woman and her family could not just stop to take a breather while living this gut-wrenching saga. You are an extraordinary young woman, daughter, sister, and world citizen with a voice for oppressed persons the world over."
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Best North Korean History

Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
With a New Foreword The heartwrenching New York Times bestseller about the only known person born inside a North Korean prison camp to have escaped. North Korea’s political prison camps have existed twice as long as Stalin’s Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. In Escape From Camp 14 , Blaine Harden unlocks the secrets of the world’s most repressive totalitarian state through the story of Shin’s shocking imprisonment and his astounding getaway. “The central character in Blaine Harden's extraordinary new book Escape from Camp 14 reveals more in 200 pages about human darkness in the ghastliest corner of the world's cruelest dictatorship than a thousand textbooks ever could . "U.S. policymakers wonder what changes may arise after the recent death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, this gripping book should raise awareness of the brutality that underscores this strange land. Without interrupting the narrative, Harden skillfully weaves in details of North Korea's history, politics and society, providing context for Shin's plight.” —The Associated Press. “A book without parallel, Escape from Camp 14 is a riveting nightmare that bears witness to the worst inhumanity, an unbearable tragedy magnified by the fact that the horror continues at this very moment without an end in sight.” —Terry Hong, Christian Science Monitor. “A remarkable story, [ Escape from Camp 14 ]. is a searing account of one man’s incarceration and personal awakening in North Korea’s highest-security prison.” — The Wall Street Journal. “As an action story, the tale of Shin’s breakout and flight is pure The Great Escape , full of feats of desperate bravery and miraculous good luck. As a human story it is gut wrenching; if what he was made to endure, especially that he was forced to view his own family merely as competitors for food, was written in a movie script, you would think the writer was overreaching. By doing so, Escape from Camp 14 stands as a searing indictment of a depraved regime and a tribute to all those who cling to their humanity in the face of evil.”—Mitchell Zuckoff, New York Times bestselling author of Lost in Shangri-La "This is a story unlike any other . Readers won’t be able to forget Shin’s boyish, emancipated smile—the new face of freedom trumping repression.” —Will Lizlo, Minneapolis Star-Tribune “Blaine Harden of the Washington Post is an experienced reporter of other hellholes, such as the Congo, Serbia, and Ethiopia. Harden deserves a lot more than; ‘wow’ for this terrifying, grim and, at the very end, slightly hopeful story of a damaged man still alive only by chance, whose life, even in freedom, has been dreadful.” — Literary Review. “With a protagonist born into a life of backbreaking labor, cutthroat rivalries, and a nearly complete absence of human affection, Harden’s book reads like a dystopian thriller.
Reviews
"However, after listening to the book, I felt like I had to write anything, at least saying thanks to the author and Shin, the protagonist, who had to endure unimaginable horror and is brave enough to share his story with the world. I had to pause many times listening to the book because I could not stop crying, or simply bear his horrible experience any more. After reading the book, I referred it to my family and friends hoping that more SKoreans be aware of the serious problems of NKoreans. I pray for NKoreans whose rights have been completely violated by their greedy, stupid, and less human dictators, Kim's family. I will continue to have interest in unification of two Koreas and support LiNK (Liberty in North Korean)."
"From watching classmates being beaten to death and his mother and brother being executed, to being tortured over hot coals at the age of 13 and suffering near starvation for the first 24 years of his life, to the soul-destroying work ethic and unparalleled cruelty of the prison guards, how Shin Dong-hyuk is still alive, let alone now living happily in America, is breathtaking."
"This book is shocking but SO important for everyone to read."
"While the story is unbelievable, the tone of the story failed to convey the humanity of this persons experiences."
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Best United States History

Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919 (The History of NYC Series)
New York was transformed in these two decades as the world's second-largest city and now its financial capital, thriving and sustained by the city's seemingly unlimited potential.
Reviews
"It is fascinating and though this urban history is over a hundred yes old it is so important to understand the foundations of today, but so much is similar."
"Great history, many detail were interesting but I will never remember all the names."
"Excellent historical account!"
"This book, however is so massive in scope, exacting and detailed in the particulars, and engaging to read that I abandoned that approach shortly after starting and began skipping about from topic to topic by level of interest in the subject area. There are many, MANY hours of fascinating material in here to digest (perhaps best at leisure), and if you are interested at ALL in history, the time period in question, or the city in particular you will find much to enjoy within, even if shortly after starting it becomes a tad daunting."
"My favorite sections were on the development of the ‘arteries and ligaments’ of the city; the radicals among the Jewish immigrants, and New York in World War I."
"There are 24 chapters with titles such as "Who Rules New York" (Ch.6), which concerns mayors, district leaders, muckrakers, reformers, "Sky Boom" (Ch.7), which concerns builders, engineers, and financiers, "Show Biz" (Ch.13), which concerns Broadway, Coney Island, and Tin Pan alley, and "Repressives" (Ch.17), which concerns street gangs and gambling. "History books" filled with imaginary dialogue and fictional accounts of emotions, include "Crisis of the Old Order: 1919-1933, The Age of Roosevelt" by Schlesinger, which is more like a book of fiction, and Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Okrent, which is more like a comedy book intented for idle amusement. Black and white reproductions of photos, magazine covers, magazine illustrations, posters, and paintings occur every few pages. For example, on page 241 is an illustration showing firemen and a curious crowd, with two streams of water, where billowing smoke comes out of an apartment building. Page 140 shows the cover of Scientific American, which has a drawing of the Singer Building in New York City, but the Singer Building is drawn next to Niagara Falls in order to show the relative heights. On page 316 is a photo of Macy's (1908) showing automobiles and several trolley cars. On page 505 is a photo of six children, a baby, and a mother, in a tenement building apartment. On page 613 is a full-page reproduction of a poster called, "QUEEN OF CHINATOWN (1899)" and at the bottom is the inscription, "HURLED BY HIGHBINDERS THROUGH THE RAT PIT'S DOUBLE TRAP." The poster shows a cutaway of an apartment house, showing two floors, where a white man climbs through the upper floor window, a Chinese man pushes him down through a trap door in the floor, and where another white man has already fallen through this trap door and is about to fall through a second trap door in the lower floor. Page 762 has a photo of "Mrs. H. Riordan, American Sufferagette" and she is posing in front of a grocery called, B.L. Jumping into the text, in Chapter 7 "SKY BOOM" (pages 131-166) we learn about these buildings: Flatiron Building designed by Daniel Burnham, Singer Sewing Machine Co.'s building called "The Singerhorn," Met Life tower designed by Napoleon Le Brun, and Woolworth Building designed by Cass Gilbert. To provide one more except, this is from Chapter 17 ("Repressives") (pages 559-620). (pages 595-596)."
"Just through one chapter."
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Best Historical Asian Biographies

The Girl with Seven Names
Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and to realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. ‘The most riveting TED talk ever’ Oprah.
Reviews
"Being so close to the border they could also get Chinese cell phone service and calls could be made to North Korea using Chinese cells. She withstood an interrogation by the Chinese police and was able to convince them she was Chinese due to her ability to speak Mandarin and her mastery of Chinese Characters, which she attributes to her father pushing her to study while she was in school. She has dangerous interactions with gangs, which she survives, was assaulted badly by an unknown assailant with a 1 liter beer bottle, an incident that did put her in the hospital and other adventures. They chose Laos, a backwater whose insufferable bureaucracy and corrupt civil service made things hard."
"The book is divided into parts, describing the author's life in North Korea, then her life in China (an entire decade), escape to South Korea, and finally, the ordeal of getting her mother and brother out of North Korea. In China, she makes a life and barely avoids deportation, being captured by human traffickers, and an arranged marriage to a complete zero."
"Few people that live outside North Korea (myself included) can fully understand the brutal horror that is a daily reality for the average people who are enslaved there."
"Having learned little about Korea in my lifetime, I felt so gratified to learn TRUTHS about the living standards dramatic differences in the North and South. I am so happy that she, mother and brother are together and finding joy in living."
"She informs the reader of the lack of freedom available to the citizens of North Korea through the day-to-day experiences of her life there."
"As for Hyeonseo, she is like a superhero to me and yet human in the fact that she loves her family and the freedom to make her own decisions about how she wants to live."
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Best Anthropology

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion --as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war --and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. There is nothing like a radically new angle of vision for bringing out unsuspected dimensions of a subject, and that is what Jared Diamond has done.”. - William H. McNeil, New York Review of Books. “A book of remarkable scope, a history of the world in less than 500 pages which succeeds admirably, where so many others have failed, in analyzing some of the basic workings of culture process.... One of the most important and readable works on the human past published in recent years.”. - Colin Renfrew, Nature. “No scientist brings more experience from the laboratory and field, none thinks more deeply about social issues or addresses them with greater clarity, than Jared Diamond as illustrated by Guns, Germs, and Steel . In this remarkably readable book he shows how history and biology can enrich one another to produce a deeper understanding of the human condition.”. - Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor, Harvard University. “Serious, groundbreaking biological studies of human history only seem to come along once every generation or so.
Reviews
"Two decades ago a UCLA geography professor named Jared Diamond published Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. Diamond hypothesized that the arc of human history was dramatically shifted by geographic, environmental, biological, and other factors, resulting in the worldwide dominance of the leading industrial powers during the past 500 years. “Why did wealth and power [among nations] become distributed as they now are, rather than in some other way?” “[W]hy did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents?” “[W]hy were Europeans, rather than Africans or Native Americans, the ones to end up with guns, the nastiest germs, and steel?” In his award-winning book, Diamond posited a “unified synthesis”—a unified field theory of history. Drawing from his wide-ranging knowledge of medicine, evolutionary biology, physiology, linguistics, and anthropology as well as geography, he surveyed the history of the past 13,000 years and identified plausible answers to the questions he had posed. For example, geographers complained that Diamond referred to Eurasia as a single continent rather than separately to Asia, North Africa, and Europe. There were complaints that Diamond had overlooked the contrast between temperate and tropical zones (he didn’t) and that he had only explained what happened 500 years ago but not subsequently (untrue). However, regardless of the sequence, that shift from hunter-gatherer society to agriculturally based settlements set in motion the course of events that have led to the “civilization” in which we live. Furthermore, he explains that the east-west orientation of Eurasia from the Bering Strait to the Atlantic Ocean made it possible for the development of agriculture and animal husbandry to spread quickly to distant lands. This, in turn, spelled the emergence of labor specialization and eventually the growth of empires as well as the appearance and spread of communicable diseases contracted from domesticated animals."
"very interesting book if you are into deep history and anthropology."
"The book's Pulitzer Prize is well-deserved, and it's little surprise that other books consistently reference "Guns, Germs, and Steel" as an authority."
"Ultimately, this book is a long and ingenius answer to a single question: "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brougt it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?""
"I throughly enjoyed this book and found it a very intriguing read with logical and non-stereotypical explanations of why/how some societies have succeeded, while others have failed."
"a classic!"
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Best Historical Event Literature Criticism

By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia
By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean is nothing less than the story of how humans first started building the globalized world we know today.
Reviews
"Several times during the narrative the author confuses the cardinal directions, for example, saying that the Caspian Sea is west of the Don River."
"The steppe has been a cultural highway, and among its passengers have been domestication of the horse, the idea of the chariot, artistic trends, religions, crops, the plague, pilgrims, diplomats and pillaging armies. However, some of the text concerns events in the more developed regions such as the long confrontations between the Romans/ Byzantines and the various empires based in Iran; the book is quite good on these, There's also a lot of Chinese history. Bothe these can be a bit tedious but reading about them in parallel so to speak helps one realize the continuity and connectedness of it all, rather than the usual consideration in isolation of each other."
"In broad historic terms, Sir Barry shakes the kaleidoscope through which world (or at least Eurasian) history is viewed, from a series of discrete eras to a very long term view, and from a series of individual cultures to the way in which those cultures were tied together by the steppes. For an American or European reader, the traditional view of Eurasian history is that of one center of civilization giving way to another (the Fertile Crescent, the Mediterranean, Northern Europe), a sort of updated Whig version of history that culminates with "the west". It's tempting to say that Sir Barry gives us a new way of looking at world history, but it's not accurate: this isn't world history: it excludes the whole western hemisphere, most of Africa, and much of non-Chinese Asia."
"This book is especially interesting because it deals with the Silk Road and all the cultures it touched."
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Best Business Investments

Options as a Strategic Investment: Fifth Edition
The market in listed options and non-equity option products provides investors and traders with a wealth of new, strategic opportunities for managing their investments. Lawrence G. McMillan is a professional trader and the author of the bestselling Options as a Strategic Investment .
Reviews
"I liked it so much that I bought two of McMillan's subsequent publications: McMillan on Options, Second Edition (Wiley Trading) (cited as McMillan, 2004) and Options for Volatile Markets: Managing Volatility and Protecting Against Catastrophic Risk (Bloomberg Financial) (cited as McMillan, 2011). Although new to this book, much of the information on volatility was previously published in McMillan 2004 (pages 241-568) and McMillan 2011 (pages 171 - 204). While one might criticize McMillan for repackaging the same material in different books, on the positive side: If you buy this book, you do not need to buy the other two. While hypothetical examples are useful in explaining how to construct a position or to illustrate a position's sensitivity to individual variables (i.e., the Greeks: delta, gamma, vega and theta), they often do not give one a practical sense of whether the trade would be profitable or even feasible. Throughout the book McMillan advises his readers to construct option positions that are insensitive or "delta-neutral" to changes in the price of the underlying stock (e.g. Chapter 40 explains how to create a position that is neutral with respect to both gamma and delta and would profit at a specific rate (vega) if implied volatility increases or decreases (pages 835 - 836). Unlike McMillan's example, the only way I could come close to achieving a delta / gamma neutral position was to specify a more modest return from vega e.g. -100.00 < position vega < 100.00. McMillan 2004 (page 505) includes a similar example of a huge position (555 contracts) that is delta/gamma neutral with limited vega risk. Later (page 516) McMillan concedes that this is a "theoretical example", but in this book, McMillan appears to be advising his readers to actually make these large trades. Note that in "Options for Volatile Markets" (McMillan 2011) McMillan recommends a different collar strategy: buy six-month puts and sell one month calls with strike prices approximately 2% OTM (page 149)."
"That said, I would recommend reading the early introductory chapters but then concentrating only on chapters that describe the trading technique that you are interested in (Calls, Puts, Vertical Spreads, etc)."
"One of the best options book that I have read!"
"This is the absolute bible of options trading strategies."
"Very Comprehensive reference text."
"Quite a comprehensive book."
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Best Chinese Biographies

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
He takes great pains to provide a balanced picture of the people and events he witnessed and gives due credit to the tireless and dedicated Sherpas. He also avoids blasting easy targets such as Sandy Pittman, the wealthy socialite who brought an espresso maker along on the expedition. In the end, despite his evenhanded and even generous assessment of others' actions, he reserves a full measure of vitriol for himself. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport; while his account of the life and death of Christopher McCandless, who died of starvation after challenging the Alaskan wilderness, delves even more deeply and disturbingly into the fascination of nature and the devastating effects of its lure on a young and curious mind." Gracefully and efficiently written, carefully researched, and actually lived by its narrator, it shares a similar theme with another sort of book, a novel called " The Great Gatsby ." — The Wall Street Journal "Krakauer is an extremely gifted storyteller as well as a relentlessly honest and even-handed journalist, the story is riveting and wonderfully complex in its own right, and Krakauer makes one excellent decision after another about how to tell it.... To call the book an adventure saga seems not to recognize that it is also a deeply thoughtful and finely wrought philosophical examination of the self." " Into Thin Air is a remarkable work of reportage and self-examination.... And no book on the 1996 disaster is likely to consider so honestly the mistakes that killed his colleagues." "In this movingly written book, Krakauer describes an experience of such bone-chilling horror as to persuade even the most fanatical alpinists to seek sanctuary at sea level."
Reviews
"The recent release of Everest (or reinterpretation) prompted me to read this as well as other books about the climbing season in question."
"Gripping story of the tragic Everest ascent on which many members of various climbing groups lost their lives."
"I believe Krakauer did an excellent job of backing up his facts and represented what happened at Everest as best as he could."
"one of the most amazing, exciting, horrifying, detailed adventures I've ever read about."
"I found this book to be engaging, interest, and well-written. I didn't realize when I bought the book, that it is highly controversial."
"Definitively a good book to read for all who knows a bit about survival in cold environments, and maybe just a dramatic story for those who have never had any experience with it."
"There are two very important lessons that I will take away from this book, and to Mr. Krakauer I am eternally grateful because he allowed me to learn them from the warmth of my home, rather than in a -150F gale on top of the world. If you make rash decisions (and you will, Krakauer notes repeatedly thought this work that lucidity is nigh impossible above 28,000 feet) it is very likely that you will die. Hundreds of horrifically under-qualified individuals attempt this climb without specific glacier navigation experience, relying on the skill and knowledge of world class guides to make up for their considerable shortcomings. Indeed, several family members of the deceased have decried Krakauer's prose, both in private and through the media, as speculative, misleading and downright slanderous. Much of this is a matter of perspective, but for my part it seems as though this book's narrative was written by an objective observer who reported his perceptions with as little subjective judgment as possible."
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Best WWII Biographies

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life raft. Appearing in paperback for the first time—with twenty arresting new photos and an extensive Q&A with the author— Unbroken is an unforgettable testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit, brought vividly to life by Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand. Hailed as the top nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography and the Indies Choice Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year award “Extraordinarily moving . Hillenbrand’s writing is so ferociously cinematic, the events she describes so incredible, you don’t dare take your eyes off the page.” — People “A meticulous, soaring and beautifully written account of an extraordinary life.” —The Washington Post “Ambitious and powerful . a startling narrative and an inspirational book.” —The New York Times Book Review “Magnificent . [Hillenbrand] has crafted another masterful blend of sports, history and overcoming terrific odds; this is biography taken to the nth degree, a chronicle of a remarkable life lived through extraordinary times.” —The Dallas Morning News “An astonishing testament to the superhuman power of tenacity.” — Entertainment Weekly “A tale of triumph and redemption . nothing less than a marvel.” — Washingtonian “[Hillenbrand tells this] story with cool elegance but at a thrilling sprinter’s pace.” —Time “Hillenbrand [is] one of our best writers of narrative history. Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2010 : From Laura Hillenbrand, the bestselling author of Seabiscuit , comes Unbroken , the inspiring true story of a man who lived through a series of catastrophes almost too incredible to be believed. Growing up in California in the 1920s, Louie was a hellraiser, stealing everything edible that he could carry, staging elaborate pranks, getting in fistfights, and bedeviling the local police. But as a teenager, he emerged as one of the greatest runners America had ever seen, competing at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he put on a sensational performance, crossed paths with Hitler, and stole a German flag right off the Reich Chancellery. Stationed on Oahu, he survived harrowing combat, including an epic air battle that ended when his plane crash-landed, some six hundred holes in its fuselage and half the crew seriously wounded. Drifting for weeks and thousands of miles, they endured starvation and desperate thirst, sharks that leapt aboard the raft, trying to drag them off, a machine-gun attack from a Japanese bomber, and a typhoon with waves some forty feet high. I found it in diaries, letters and unpublished memoirs; in the memories of his family and friends, fellow Olympians, former American airmen and Japanese veterans; in forgotten papers in archives as far-flung as Oslo and Canberra.
Reviews
"I read it about 5 years ago, before the current movie was started & before Louis Zampirini died."
"I read this book over the course of a week and found it immensely pleasurable to read."
"I love Torrance and there is an interesting story about a letter being sent all around the world before it actually gets to Torrance from Japan. The book leaves littlle out when following Louis Zamperini as he grows up, goes to the Olympics then is in the military in WWII."
"I do not care for historical non-fiction books but Laura Hillenbrand brought this book into the most realistic and factual story about an American hero in WWII in the Pacific who's plane gets shot down, survives in a raft for 47 days in shark-infested waters, and captured by the brutal Japanese. I am so happy that they have made a movie and I only hope that it will truly reflect what the author was trying to convey in her story of Louie."
"Edward Herrmann's masterful narration of 'Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption' takes you through the lifelong journey of Louie Zamperini from a troubled youth, Olympic competitor, prisoner of war, and prisoner of his own mind. The best line to describe this story without spoiling the plot is to use a couple of lines from the book itself, "The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when they make their tormentors suffer [...] Louie had chained himself, once again, to his tyrant.""
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