More Library Books

As usual, I went to the library with the intent to leave without picking up any books and failed.

I borrowed Michael Shermer's The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics and Tim Weiner's Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA.

I hadn't heard of The Mind of the Market but with the economics crisis I've been drawn to learn more about economics and the psychology of financial market.

This book focuses on the new field of neuroeconomics, investigating how psychology and biology affect the way we think about money. I had a friend in college who did some undergraduate research in this field so I'm looking forward to seeing if his work is featured in this book.

Click here to read an excerpt or here to visit Shermer's website.



Friends have been recommending Legacy of Ashes for months.

I don't know if I believe that this book, based on 50,000 documents (including CIA archives), will be everything folks say it is but I expect it will be full of drama and intrigue. It's been highly praised by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and many others -- it even won the National Book Award.

Interestingly, the CIA has condemned this book as incorrect and deceptive . . . I wonder what my friends who work in government think of this book. Hmm . . .

Click here to read an excerpt or here to read a New York Times review by Michael Beschloss titled "The C.I.A.’s Missteps, From Past to Present" published July 12, 2007.