Turn The Page
Per my last entry, '17 for 2017', I'd like to highlight the fifth action listed that asks us to read a book, either once a month or once a week depending upon our own schedule. This entry will briefly review the three books I've enjoyed this year as they really speak to where I'm currently engaged: politics, soccer and international affairs.
Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich
I purchased this book before the 2017 presidential election out of curiosity and a need to read things outside of my normal media and news bubble. Ironically, I didn't finish it until late January 2017.
Throughout the book, the author, Peter Schweizer, repeatedly claims that he's not taking a side, assumedly against the Clintons and more importantly Hillary's candidacy, but rather hopes to expose the ways in which the Clintons got rich and allegedly mixed up with nefarious people in a global pay-to-play system. Although, one quick glance at the book's cover and you'd probably bet this wasn't a pro-Clinton page turner.
Almost 25% of the book's pages are dedicated to Schweitzer's 'works cited' section which reveal pages upon pages upon pages of links to a variety of news sources that he used to connect the coincidental dots to expose the Clintons.While I found the book to be anything but boring, I must say that the last lines of the book, where Schweizer thanks Stephen K. Bannon for his work on the project, really changed the way I felt about the entire piece. It immediately evolved away from an interesting and thought provoking piece of writing to a right wing tool used to cast doubt over the candidacy of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential race. Now, this is not to say that the are no connections or foul-play being committed within the 'coincidental Clinton dots', it's just to say that it doesn't matter if there is or is not. What matters is that this book, like way too much of the media and news with which we interact, was made to confuse the beliefs of the people on one side of the coin and galvanize those from the people on the other. In case you're not up to reading the book, all of the book's points are discussed here in its film version.
The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Soccer Is Wrong
If you're a soccer fan, player, coach or just general enthusiast, then this is the book for you. It's soccer's 'Money Ball' and should be read by anyone who loves the game. As an ex-player, super fan, coach and general student of the beautiful game, I found the book to be mesmerizing. It's a book I not only wish I would've read before coaching the New School Soccer team but it's one that I would've assigned the players during the off season as understanding the game is just as important as being able to run for long distances, sprint, etc. The book was a smooth read even while mildly saturated in game data, graphs and other statistical aids used to question numerous contemporary misconceptions.
Throughout the book, the authors, Chris Anderson and David Sally, discuss the sport's reticence to incorporate statistics as a means to increase efficiency, maximize player potential, score more goals and ideally win games. Soccer, or football, is the world's most played, watched and generally experienced sport and so, like anything with a long history, there's a general idea of how it should be coached, played and even enjoyed. Anderson and Sally believe that an evolutionary, albeit more of a 'revolutionary', shift towards using technology to track performances in the hopes of making good players great, great players legendary and legendary players gods will eventually grab hold. Once there's a profitability from using technology to get ahead, the sport and its teams will likely follow suit or lose the chance at staying ahead of the curve.
Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About The World
Prisoners of Geography touches upon two of my passions: international affairs and geography. Tim Marshall, the book's author, does an extremely good job of bringing to light the ways in which geopolitics have had, currently do and will always dictate the ebb and flow of international affairs. The book is broken into ten chapters which all focus their attention upon a certain 'map' or area of the world to be unpacked and understood within its particular geopolitical landscape.
The chapters discussing Russia, China, North/South Korea and India/Pakistan provided new angles from which to understand the historical and contemporary issues that confront each of these countries and/or regions. Marshall does a great job of laying out the factors and challenges that permeate these regions and the real lack of simple solutions to try and remedy millennia old geopolitical quagmires.
Originally, I had written more about the complex relationship between Russia and the United States and the new vantage point that I've adopted since reading this book, but I'm going to keep my opinions quiet and just say that this book is worth the read. Prisoners of Geography could be engaged with at any time to give context to world events but seems almost a must-read these days to inform people about why the world maybe is as it is and what we can expect moving forward.
Looking ahead . . .
Reading allows us the chance to learn about new things, visit new places and escape our immediate reality all while never leaving the comfort of where we chose to turn pages. Reading, as my Peace Corps Colombia site-mate once said, is often much more of a solitary endeavor than many people think which is why it becomes harder to do once you have a 9-5 professional life that you try to balance with a 5-9 personal life. Furthermore, I hope to up my reading quota to two books a month for April, May, June and July and push for a book a week by the end of 2017.
I hope that you've enjoyed this blog and please don't hesitate to leave a book recommendation in the comment section below.
Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich
I purchased this book before the 2017 presidential election out of curiosity and a need to read things outside of my normal media and news bubble. Ironically, I didn't finish it until late January 2017.
Almost 25% of the book's pages are dedicated to Schweitzer's 'works cited' section which reveal pages upon pages upon pages of links to a variety of news sources that he used to connect the coincidental dots to expose the Clintons.While I found the book to be anything but boring, I must say that the last lines of the book, where Schweizer thanks Stephen K. Bannon for his work on the project, really changed the way I felt about the entire piece. It immediately evolved away from an interesting and thought provoking piece of writing to a right wing tool used to cast doubt over the candidacy of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential race. Now, this is not to say that the are no connections or foul-play being committed within the 'coincidental Clinton dots', it's just to say that it doesn't matter if there is or is not. What matters is that this book, like way too much of the media and news with which we interact, was made to confuse the beliefs of the people on one side of the coin and galvanize those from the people on the other. In case you're not up to reading the book, all of the book's points are discussed here in its film version.
The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Soccer Is Wrong
If you're a soccer fan, player, coach or just general enthusiast, then this is the book for you. It's soccer's 'Money Ball' and should be read by anyone who loves the game. As an ex-player, super fan, coach and general student of the beautiful game, I found the book to be mesmerizing. It's a book I not only wish I would've read before coaching the New School Soccer team but it's one that I would've assigned the players during the off season as understanding the game is just as important as being able to run for long distances, sprint, etc. The book was a smooth read even while mildly saturated in game data, graphs and other statistical aids used to question numerous contemporary misconceptions. Throughout the book, the authors, Chris Anderson and David Sally, discuss the sport's reticence to incorporate statistics as a means to increase efficiency, maximize player potential, score more goals and ideally win games. Soccer, or football, is the world's most played, watched and generally experienced sport and so, like anything with a long history, there's a general idea of how it should be coached, played and even enjoyed. Anderson and Sally believe that an evolutionary, albeit more of a 'revolutionary', shift towards using technology to track performances in the hopes of making good players great, great players legendary and legendary players gods will eventually grab hold. Once there's a profitability from using technology to get ahead, the sport and its teams will likely follow suit or lose the chance at staying ahead of the curve.
Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About The World
Prisoners of Geography touches upon two of my passions: international affairs and geography. Tim Marshall, the book's author, does an extremely good job of bringing to light the ways in which geopolitics have had, currently do and will always dictate the ebb and flow of international affairs. The book is broken into ten chapters which all focus their attention upon a certain 'map' or area of the world to be unpacked and understood within its particular geopolitical landscape. The chapters discussing Russia, China, North/South Korea and India/Pakistan provided new angles from which to understand the historical and contemporary issues that confront each of these countries and/or regions. Marshall does a great job of laying out the factors and challenges that permeate these regions and the real lack of simple solutions to try and remedy millennia old geopolitical quagmires.
Originally, I had written more about the complex relationship between Russia and the United States and the new vantage point that I've adopted since reading this book, but I'm going to keep my opinions quiet and just say that this book is worth the read. Prisoners of Geography could be engaged with at any time to give context to world events but seems almost a must-read these days to inform people about why the world maybe is as it is and what we can expect moving forward.
Looking ahead . . .
Reading allows us the chance to learn about new things, visit new places and escape our immediate reality all while never leaving the comfort of where we chose to turn pages. Reading, as my Peace Corps Colombia site-mate once said, is often much more of a solitary endeavor than many people think which is why it becomes harder to do once you have a 9-5 professional life that you try to balance with a 5-9 personal life. Furthermore, I hope to up my reading quota to two books a month for April, May, June and July and push for a book a week by the end of 2017.
I hope that you've enjoyed this blog and please don't hesitate to leave a book recommendation in the comment section below.
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