You might also be interested in my booklists from from 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021.
Natural Selection: Domains, Levels, and Challenges
Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America
Tower of Skulls: A History of the Asia-Pacific War: July 1937-May 1942
West Hunter 
What did you think of island in the see of time?
I’ve also read them, it’s an entertaining series.
‘The Swiss Banks’ is pretty good. The blurb shows a different side of Fehrenbach, Ivy degree and intelligence officer.
I’d also recommend ‘Evolution as Entropy’, Daniel Brooks and Eo Wiley.
I seem to have some overlap with your reading tastes. Any recommendations for something in the vein of The Anubis Gates?
I really enjoyed that one too so would like to see a response to this as well.
I’m confident it will be even better on a re-read, so there’s that to look forward to.
I was trying to think of something clever about how we can try to come up with some ridiculous theory about whatever to try to trick Cochran into calling us stupid but that it reminded him of some subplot in a real great story about whatever. But I don’t think i have the chops right now.
I wish you’d start blogging again.
Fehrenbach’s book on the Comanche is excellent.
Sidewinder also led me to “Scientists against Time” though I confess I only thumbed through it. I felt like the author either didn’t notice or took for granted the things which were important in unleashing the Promethean fire for that time, so I didn’t find much in the way of reproducible/actionable management ideas. Maybe I should read more closely (at least before cracking Leslie Groves book). As you may know I have ambitions on writing a book on the general topic of successful innovation and technological advance. It’s unfortunate nobody thought to send industrial psychologists to figure out what was going on in these places, presumably because they were confident enough to think this sort of thing would naturally continue.
I hadn’t heard of Theophanes somehow, thanks; better than Anna Comnena?
Not better, but it covers a fascinating time – the last war between the Byzantines and Sassanids.
Intereating.
Thank you again for a Christmas booklist.
I can’t seem to find the article but I thought I read it here. It was regarding possible textile bit-wear in European horses. If I am wrong sorry to bother you.
I’ve seen The Mythical Man-Month referenced elsewhere as one of the better business books. Quite relevant today as congress appropriates ever larger sums of money to be cast into the maw of not-getting-things-done.
I have known the main themes(***) of TMMM for most of my career in development (although I didn’t appreciated who Brooks was when I briefly crossed paths with him). But I have never read it. After 25+ years in the biz and going through some interesting growing pains at the current gig, I think I might pick it up and give it a serious read.
(*** summary here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month#Ideas_presented. I also thought that Brooks revised/changed something about some of his main ideas over time, but i’m not seeing that there. Maybe it was Knuth and something or other)
Read “Tower of Skulls” myself. It’s a great chronicle.
Did they put you on Twitter jail? What for?
Enquiring minds want to know
Hope he comes back here and starts writing lengthier blog posts again. I’ve learned so much from his earlier blogging.
I was wondering the same, nothing new on Twitter since Boxing Day ( 12-26 ) as of now.
Can anyone recommend good books on?
-The transatlantic slave trade/American slave history
-American Indian history
Definitely planning on reading The Mythical Man-Month at some point myself, it sounds interesting.
My list is here (109 books, ca. 100 pages/day):
Thanks for the list Greg. May I suggest : The Statue Within: An Autobiography – Jacob, Francois
Nobody wrote any books worth reading in 2015, I guess. 😉
Like a wimp, I used a heart attack as an excuse for sloth.
I liked that Crosby book, measure of reality. His other books about flora and fauna exchanges during European exploration and colonization were real good too.
The one quibble with the measure of reality is that he doesn’t seem to mention the fibonacci book that was the best seller that introduced arabic numerals to europeans. I may be misremembering, but I think he sort of downplays just how much better for doing arithmetic arabic numerals are, he thinks that if euros were skilled at abacus using they wouldn’t have needed them.
I recalled there was a paper you cited a few years ago shooting down your hypothesis about the importance of lactose tolerance (looking it up: Iain Mathieson, actually eight years ago). I see that the gene was present but uncommon in the Yamnaya, and seems to reach back even earlier, though without noticeable effects. I do wonder if it could have been a two-step process: another mutation that increased lactase persistence, though not as well, which was later superseded by the superior one, under the new pressure of more dairy already on the menu. The gene influences the environment, the environment influences selection on the gene, which then influences the environment further. Possible?
I’ve been thinking about this more because my own digestion does less well with dairy with every passing year. (And now gluten and tree nuts and fortified wines are out as well…)
You turn 70 late this year – my 70th is in the next few weeks. It’s the first birthday that has bothered me. I hope it does not disquiet you half so much. I very much hope you are well.
Parkinson’s: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2023.1181315/full