Reading for the Week of 4/24/2022

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them.

Books

Finished

• George Marshall: Defender of the Republic by David L. Roll. An interesting biography of Marshall’s life.
• Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom by Carl Bernstein. This was a fantastic look at the making of a journalist, rich in detail. I’ll have more to say about this in a post coming in the next couple of weeks.

In Progress

• John le Carré: The Biography by Adam Sisman. I’ve had this book since 2015 and am finally getting around to reading it.
• In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920-1954 by Isaac Asimov. I’ve read Asimov’s memoirs 14 times, but the last time I read his first two volumes was 12 years ago. I felt an urge to come back to them, and I’ll have a lot more to say about them in some posts I plan on writing.

Articles/posts

• I Finally Reached Computing Nirvana. What Was It All For? | WIRED by Paul Ford (WIRED, 4/1/2022)
• Disney should leave Florida. It’s time for DeSantis’s own theme park.  by Dana Milbank (Washington Post, 4/22/2022). I think this line from the piece says it all: “DeSanty World would make the Carousel of Progress turn in reverse.”
• Ron DeSantis’s war on Disney points to an ominous GOP future by Greg Sargent (Washington Post, 4/21/2022)
• How To Choose The Perfect Bookmark by Melanie Novak (blog, 4/24/2022). I tend to use my business cards as bookmarks, as they don’t really get used for anything else these days.
• Orrin Hatch, Seven-Term Senator and a Republican Force, Dies at 88 by Robert D. MacFadden (NY Times, 4/23/2022). A strangely uneven and contradictory obit, I thought.
• Jack Higgins, best-selling author of ‘The Eagle Has Landed,’ dies at 92 by Phil Davison (WaPo, 4/11/2022)
• Macron May Keep the Presidency, but Le Pen Has Already Won by Rachel Danadio (NY Times, 4/22/2022)
• I Spoke to the Experts. Bitcoin Isn’t Going to Change by Peter Coy (New York Times, 4/20/2022)
• The American retirement system is built for the rich by Daniel Hemel (Washington Post, 4/20/2022)
• Book review of Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past by Richard Cohen by Douglas Brinkley (Washington Post, 4/22/2022)
• Arlington County Board approves Amazon plans for PenPlace at HQ2 by Teo Armus (Washington Post, 4/23/2022)
• Copilot Is Like GPT-3 but for Code—Fun, Fast, and Full of Flaws | WIRED by Clive Thompson (WIRED, April 2022)
• Reading Around New York by Anika Burgess (New York Times, 11/4/2021). A great photo essay of New Yorkers reading books in public.
• How Jordan Calhoun, Lifehacker Editor, Spends His Sundays by Tammy La Gorce (New York Times, 4/22/2022)
• The Limits of ‘Lived Experience’ by Pamela Paul (New York Times, 4/24/2022). I was saddened when I learned that Pamela Paul gave up her position as editor of the Times book review. But now I see she has become an opinion writer for the Times and I am happy once again.
• Vaccine ease by Mike Dariano (The Waiter’s Pad, 4/25/2022)
• A 63-Year-Old Runner Changed the Way I Think About Regret by Lindsay Crouse (New York Times, 4/24/2022)
• Key Largo (1948): Bogart & Bacall & Huston by Melanie Novak (Golden Age of Hollywood, 4/27/2022)
• Henry Winkler Breaks the Curse of Stardom by Matthew Clam (New York Times, 4/27/2022)

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on April 30, 2022.