Reading List May - July 2017

It's been a while since I've written a book review blog post and I've covered several books recently, so I wanted to capture them all in a short annotated bibliography instead of review each one individually. Without further adieu:

• Farewell Kabul, by Christina Lamb

• Excellent follow-up to her earlier work, The Sewing Circles of Herat. Farewell Kabul covers post-9/11 Afghanistan to 2013, and she paints a very full, illuminating picture. The only complaint I have about this book is that there are some repeated stories from her earlier works on Afghanistan. If I had to pick one quote to summarize her take on the West's involvement in Afghanistan, it would be: "At this point another 30,000 troops was never going to be enough. We had ended up locked into a war with the Taliban, who weren't our enemy and were nothing to do with 9/11, and what's more we were doing it with one hand tied behind our backs, because our supposed ally Pakistan was swinging both ways."

• Why Didn't They Teach Me This In School? by Cary Siegel

• A good set of principles for personal finances, I really wish I HAD been taught this sooner but never late than never. The one tip I hadn't heard before? Get a 15 year fixed mortgage instead of a 30 year mortgage.

• What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, by Haruki Murakami

• It's no surprise to me that my best friend bought me this book and it turned out to be one of my favorites so far this year. Murakami is a Japanese writer who also happens to run marathons (over 25 of them) and this is a short memoir about why he runs. I love it. He articulates things about running that I have always known to be true but could never put into words before. This is a phenomenal memoir.

• Invention by Design, by Henry Petroski

• I have seen Petroski's books on the shelves of all of my engineering professors but I had never read one of his books until now. It was a fantastic read - he is accessible but also conveys really fascinating technical information. I will definitely be reading more of his books soon!