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tirjan
Santa Clara County Library
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1 to 25 of 208 items
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The King and Queen of Malibu, BookThe True Story of the Battle for Paradise

by Randall, David K.
Book - 2016
Added Jan 01, 2020

Comment:

This brief but riveting book follows the life of Frederick and May Rindge following their departure from Cambridge, Mass and their purchase of an enormous ranch which consisted of virtually all of Malibu. The story of the fantastically wealthy couple and their efforts to maintain their ranch in the face of enormous population growth early in the 20th century is informative and entertaining. However, equally as fascinating is the author's description of the growth of Los Angeles & Santa Monica during those years. I highly recommend this book if you are someone interested in the historical development of Southern California.

The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War, Book

by Richards, Leonard L.
Book - 2007
Added Dec 27, 2019

Comment:

Should be required reading in any serious study of US history. Fabulous in exposing the true behavior and temperament of our countrymen just before and including the start of our Civil War. The idea of forcibly adding Cuba as a slave state seems preposterous if it wasn't true. The history books usually referenced in our educational system rarely depict the wretchedness of the household characters we have scrubbed squeaky clean for our history lessons. Loved reading this one from electronic cover to cover. Very packed with new information. New to me, at least.

Deep State, BookTrump, the FBI, and the Rule of Law

by Stewart, James B.
Book - 2019
Added Dec 27, 2019

Comment:

Meh. Good synopsis of the first three years of the corrupt Trump Administration but, if you've been following daily from 2016 to the present as I have, this isn't anything new. It might be OK for referral at some future time when people ask where did the American republic went off the rails and was sold out by self-serving, sycophants who knuckled under to a psychopath. Look no further than Stewart's book. Other than that, not much here. Many other books are probably better.

The Black Russian, Book

by Alexandrov, Vladimir E.
Book - 2013
Added Dec 05, 2019

Comment:

Truth is sometimes more amazing than fiction and to make history come alive in such a compelling narrative as Vladimir Alexandrov accomplished in The Black Russian makes wonderful reading. The life of Frederick Bruce Thomas is meticulously researched and beautifully told. Through intelligence, charm, hard work and a bit of guile Thomas accomplished an emigre's dream--something a black man in his time could never accomplish on his native soil. He ventured in the opposite direction of most nineteenth century immigrants, east across the Atlantic to the "old world" to eventually settle in Moscow, and achieved financial success, community acceptance, (near adulation), and the full use of his talents, before loosing it all in the tragic and violent political upheavals of Twentieth Century Europe. Not only does Alexandrov deftly develop character and create graphically detailed descriptions of place and action, he gives the reader enough historical backdrop to appreciate the full dimension of Thomas' ultimate tragedy.

Seeds of Resistance, BookThe Fight to Save Our Food Supply

by Schapiro, Mark
Book - 2018
tirjan's rating:
4.5 out of 5 stars
Added Aug 26, 2019

Comment:

Sun. Soil. Water. Seed. These are the primordial ingredients for the most essential activity of all on earth: growing food. All of these elements are being changed dramatically under the pressures of corporate consolidation of the food chain, which has been accelerating just as climate change is profoundly altering the conditions for growing food. In the midst of this global crisis, the fate of our food has slipped into a handful of the world’s largest companies. Seeds of Resistance will bring home what this corporate stranglehold is doing to our daily diet, from the explosion of genetically modified foods to the rapid disappearance of plant varieties to the elimination of independent farmers who have long been the bedrock of our food supply. Seeds of Resistance will touch many nerves for readers, including concerns about climate change, chronic drought in essential farm states like California, the persistence of the junk food culture, the proliferation of GMOs, and the alarming domination of the seed market and our very life cycle by global giants like Monsanto. But not all is bleak when it comes to the future of our food supply. Seeds of Resistance will also present hopeful stories about farmers, consumer groups, and government agencies around the world that are resisting the tightening corporate squeeze on our food chain.

The Liberation of Paris, BookHow Eisenhower, De Gaulle, and Von Choltitz Saved the City of Light

by Smith, Jean Edward
Book - 2019
tirjan's rating:
4.5 out of 5 stars
Added Aug 05, 2019

Comment:

Following their breakout from Normandy in late June 1944, the Allies swept across northern France in pursuit of the German army. The Allies intended to bypass Paris and cross the Rhine into Germany, ending the war before winter set in. But as they advanced, local forces in Paris began their own liberation, defying the occupying German troops. Charles de Gaulle, the leading figure of the Free French government, urged General Dwight Eisenhower to divert forces to liberate Paris. Eisenhower’s most senior staff recommended otherwise, but Ike wanted to help position de Gaulle to lead France after the war. And both men were concerned about partisan conflict in Paris that could leave the communists in control of the city and the national government, perhaps even causing a bloodbath like the Paris Commune. Neither man knew that the German commandant, Dietrich von Choltitz, convinced that the war was lost, dissembled and schemed to surrender the city to the Allies intact, defying Hitler’s orders to leave it a burning ruin. In The Liberation of Paris, Jean Edward Smith puts this dramatic event in context, showing how the decision to free the city came at a heavy price: it slowed the Allied momentum and allowed the Germans to regroup. After the war German generals argued that Eisenhower’s decision to enter Paris prolonged the war for another six months. Was Paris worth this price? Smith answers this question in his superb, dramatic history of one of the great events of World War II—published seventy-five years after the liberation.

Lost Canyon, BookA Novel

by Revoyr, Nina
Book - 2015
tirjan's rating:
4.5 out of 5 stars
Added Jul 29, 2019

Comment:

Four people on a backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada find more adventure than they ever imagined. Each of them is drawn to the mountains for reasons as diverse as their own lives. Gwen Foster, a counselor for at-risk youth, is struggling with burnout from the demands of her job and with the loss of one of her teens. Real estate agent Oscar Barajas is adjusting to the fall of the housing market and being a single parent. Todd Harris, an attorney, is stuck in a lucrative but unfulfilling career--and in a failing marriage. They are all brought together by their trainer, Tracy Cole, a former athlete with a taste for risky pursuits. When the hikers start up a pristine mountain trail that hasn't been traveled in years, all they have to guide them is a hand-drawn map of a remote, mysterious place called Lost Canyon. At first, the route past high alpine lakes and under towering, snowcapped peaks offers all the freedom and exhilaration they'd hoped for. But when they stumble onto someone who doesn't want to be found, the group finds itself faced with a series of dangerous conflicts, moral dilemmas, confrontations with nature, and an all-out struggle for survival. Moving effortlessly between city and wilderness, Lost Canyon explores the ways that race, class, and culture shape experience and perception. It examines the choices good people must face in desperate situations. Set in the grand, wild landscape of the California mountains, Lost Canyon is a story of brewing social tensions and breathtaking adventure that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

A Student of History, BookA Novel

by Revoyr, Nina
Book - 2019
tirjan's rating:
4.5 out of 5 stars
Added Jul 24, 2019

Comment:

"Any Nina Revoyr novel is a cause for celebration, and her latest, A Student of History, is assured and marvelous, an absorbing rags among riches tale about a broke USC grad student who finds himself swept off his feet by Los Angeles's insular, powerful .01% class. It's a contemporary novel that feels like an instant classic, with the wry tragedy of The House of Mirth, the sinister glamour of Sunset Boulevard, and a fresh, original point of view." --CrimeReads Rick Nagano is a graduate student in the history department at USC, struggling to make rent on his South Los Angeles apartment near the neighborhood where his family once lived. When he lands a job as a research assistant for the elderly Mrs. W--, the heir to an oil fortune, he sees it at first simply as a source of extra cash. But as he grows closer to the iconoclastic, charming, and feisty Mrs. W--, he gets drawn into a world of privilege and wealth far different from his racially mixed, blue-collar beginnings. Putting aside his half-finished dissertation, Rick sets up office in Mrs. W--'s grand Bel Air mansion and begins to transcribe her journals--which document an old Los Angeles not described in his history books. He also accompanies Mrs. W-- to venues frequented by the descendants of the land and oil barons who built the city. One evening, at an event, he meets Fiona Morgan--the elegant scion of an old steel family--who takes an interest in his studies. Irresistibly drawn to Fiona, he agrees to help her with a project of questionable merit in the hopes he'll win her favor. A Student of History explores both the beginnings of Los Angeles and the present-day dynamics of race and class. It offers a window into the usually hidden world of high society, and the influence of historic families on current events. Like Great Expectations and The Great Gatsby, it features, in Rick Nagano, a young man of modest means who is navigating a world where he doesn't belong.

The Players Ball, BookA Genius, A Con Man, and the Secret History of the Internet's Rise

by Kushner, David
Book - 2019
tirjan's rating:
4.5 out of 5 stars
Added Jul 16, 2019

Comment:

“An engrossing microcosm of the internet's Wild West years” (Kirkus Reviews), award-winning journalist David Kushner tells the incredible battle between the founder of Match.com and the con man who swindled him out of the website Sex.com, resulting in an all-out war for control for what still powers the internet today: love and sex.

The King of California, BookJ.G. Boswell and the Making of A Secret American Empire

by Arax, Mark
Book - 2003
tirjan's rating:
4 out of 5 stars
Added Jul 11, 2019

Comment:

In three generations the Boswells of cotton country Georgia become the Cotton barons of California. Well researched and well written.

The Third Chimpanzee, BookThe Evolution and Future of the Human Animal

by Diamond, Jared M.
Book - 1992
tirjan's rating:
4.5 out of 5 stars
Added Jul 01, 2019

Comment:

Not surprisingly, The Third Chimpanzee is very dissimilar from Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse. However, Third Chimp goes into deeper exploration of the human migration from Africa to the Middle East and to Australia/New Zealand, then Asia and Western Europe and finally to the Americas and Pacific Islands. Very thought provoking stuff. Throughout the book Diamond comes at human evolution based on his first hand knowledge of Stone Age peoples because of research he did in Papua New Guinea beginning in the 60s. The grandchildren of those primitive peoples now work in airports, run computers and are aware of what is going on elsewhere in the world. Their grandparents didn’t know there were even other people alive beyond their village or group of villages. Diamond further details how earlier civilizations disappeared because of environmental degradation and population growth beyond the ability of their area to support such overpopulation. Examples include the Middle East, North Africa, the Mayan, Inca and Easter Island peoples of the New World. And it doesn’t look good for many of the 7 billion people living today. (note: he refers to 5 billion which it was when he published in 2003) Not for the faint of heart but a very interesting read. Looking forward to his Upheaval; Turning Points for Nations in Crisis (published in 2019).

War! What Is It Good For?, BookConflict and the Progress of Civilization From Primates to Robots

by Morris, Ian
Book - 2014
tirjan's rating:
4 out of 5 stars
Added Jun 11, 2019

Merchants of Truth, BookThe Business of News and the Fight for Facts

by Abramson, Jill
Book - 2019
tirjan's rating:
3.5 out of 5 stars
Added May 18, 2019

Comment:

I had written and long comment on this book but the website timed out and I lost it. Therefore, I now copied this from Amazon: The definitive report on the disruption of the news media over the last decade. With the expert guidance of former Executive Editor of The New York Times Jill Abramson, we follow two legacy (The New York Times and The Washington Post) and two upstart (BuzzFeed and VICE) companies as they plow through a revolution in technology, economics, standards, commitment, and endurance that pits old vs. new media. Merchants of Truth is the groundbreaking and gripping story of the precarious state of the news business told by one of our most eminent journalists. Merchants of Truth raises crucial questions that concern the well-being of our society. We are facing a crisis in trust that threatens the free press. Abramson’s book points us to the future.

Why the West Rules--for Now, BookThe Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future

by Morris, Ian
Book - 2010
tirjan's rating:
5 out of 5 stars
Added Apr 21, 2019

Comment:

Great book. As influential on my thinking as Guns, Germs and Steel but much better. I like Jared Diamond's work but now I'm hooked on Morris. From one of the many Amazon reviews: "A 14,000 year review of human history using a value called social development. He gives the year 2000 a base value of 1000 divided into four categories: urbanism, energy, communication and military. Each gets 250 points. History starts in 14,000BCE with a 4 or 5 score while today society gets a score of over 1000. Almost all this gain has been in the last 250 years. Progress has been ragged and often runs into ceilings and drops back for several centuries ( like the dark ages). He then uses this score in graph form and explains what was going on historically to give these results. He then takes it a step further to compare Western (Middle east to USA) and Eastern ( China) civilizations. We watch the lines run parallel for a long period and diverge and crossover and he this way we have a race. He explains key historical events and shows how that shows up in the values and on the graphs. All very good and very informative and unique to see history told this way."

A Death in Live Oak, Book

by Grippando, James
Book - 2018
tirjan's rating:
4 out of 5 stars
Added Mar 09, 2019

Comment:

Grippando is an excellent writer - if you're into murder mysteries. A Death in Live Oak pretty accurately exposes, through fiction, the relationship between black and white fraternities at University of Florida and Florida State. While the stench of racism has diminished over the last 100 years there remains deep-seated prejudice among whites and blacks. But the college kids are out of their element when skinheads make their move to try to reinforce white privilege - and a throwback to Jim Crow. Worth reading.

Origin Story, BookA Big History of Everything

by Christian, David
Book - 2018
tirjan's rating:
5 out of 5 stars
Added Mar 05, 2019

Comment:

It's not for everyone but I loved it. Obviously, it is a big challenge to cover everything from the Big Bang up to space travel and cell phones in 300 pages but Christian does an excellent job. For me it was humbling yet comforting. Restores my faith in the Scientific Method and our place in the scheme of things.

Downhill From Here, BookRetirement Insecurity in the Age of Inequality

by Newman, Katherine S.
Book - 2019
tirjan's rating:
3.5 out of 5 stars
Added Feb 25, 2019

Comment:

Newman states what is pretty obvious in 2019 that Millennials are pretty much screwed if all they have going into their retirement years relying solely on Social Security. In fact, not that many of them have defined benefit company-provided retirement packages but for those that do, they can expect to get the same treatment as the late-stage Baby Boomers did. That is, their employers welshed on their promised retirement and health benefits. In fact, considerable tension developed between the two groups because older retirees made out much better financially that similar workers on;t a few years younger. And you can forget about young people just coming into the workforce. But the argument doesn't end by comparing only age differences. The divides between gender, race, education level and location account to greatly different outcomes in people's lives. Many people now realize that they will have to work until they drop unless social legislation reverses what is now in place. And, in the Age of Trump, such legislation is going the exact opposite direction with the Feds looking to raid the Social Security and Medicare accounts that have kept generations out of the poor house in their later years. A good read bt definitely not uplifting.

The Other Slavery, BookThe Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America

by Reséndez, Andrés
Book - 2016
tirjan's rating:
4.5 out of 5 stars
Added Feb 07, 2019

Comment:

The Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery in 1863. Black African Americans were freed, although true equality wasn't available until far into the future. But what about Native American slaves; they didn't get heir legal freedom until 1924. In fact just as with the African Americans the Natives didn't receive true freedom until much later. Resendez does an excellent job of describing the horrors inflicted upon the Native peoples beginning in the 15th Century right up until the 20th. Not hard reading but hard to read without feeling ashamed for what the European colonizers did to the poor unfortunates they came into contact with. Well documented, interesting reading and hard to ignore.

A Terrible Country, BookA Novel

by Gessen, Keith
Book - 2018
tirjan's rating:
4 out of 5 stars
Added Jan 13, 2019

Comment:

In the 90s and aughts Putin’s Russia solidified control of all resources and industry in the country. This resulted in suppression of any kind of opposition, even if it posed no realistic threat to the administration. A Terrible Country, though an entertaining novel, reveals just how much Putin’s kleptocracy makes life for ordinary Russians is little better than Stalin’s oppressive dictatorship. Against this background, the story revolves around the experience of an American academic who was born in Russia and has gone back to Moscow to do research. And to take care of his elderly grandmother. And to become involved with a small group of dissidents. And to fall in love. Things go well until they don’t. Don’t read this if you’re thinking you’d like to visit Moscow as a holiday. I’ve visited there and don’t intend to do it again. However, I believe Gessen captured the essence of what living in today’s Russia is like.

Inspector Oldfield and the Black Hand Society, BookAmerica's Original Gangsters and the U.S. Postal Detective Who Brought Them to Justice

by Oldfield, William
Book - 2018
Added Dec 27, 2018

Comment:

In the years between the Civil War and 1900 as many as 2 million Italians emigrated to the US. Most worked in mines and menial jobs but things were better in the US than they were in the Home Country. Italy was only unified as a country in 1861 and Sicily and Southern Italy were pretty much ungoverned by Rome and crime among Sicilians went unchecked. So Sicilian mobsters came to the US to prey on hard-working Italians to extort money from them. Long before there was an FBI the most effective federal law enforcement entity in the US was the Office of the Postal Inspector. The book tells the story of Inspector Frank Oldfield and his diligent pursuit of the Black Hand Society, a Sicilian mafia organization in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. But the chase goes far beyond that geographical area as the Blackhanders operated a web that stretched to the west coast and east to New York. Good history of the turn of the century legal system and the way politicians could be bought back then. Makes you wonder just how much is still a part of America.

Greed and Glory, BookThe Rise and Fall of Doc Gooden, Lawrence Taylor, Ed Koch, Rudy Guiliani, Donald Trump, and the Mafia in 1980s New York

by Deveney, Sean
Book - 2018
tirjan's rating:
3 out of 5 stars
Added Oct 20, 2018

Comment:

The 1980s in New York City, a gilded era buttressed by fast money from a real estate boom and the explosion of Wall Street wealth. The Mets and Giants, bolstered by lightning-rod personalities like Dwight Gooden and Lawrence Taylor, brought the city sporting glory while its celebrity wealthy added a tabloid-friendly touch of intrigue and national envy. Iconoclastic real estate developer Donald Trump gained national celebrity for his deal-making skill and the flaunting of his outsize ego. Even mayor Ed Koch had gained coast-to-coast fame and mention as a potential future president. Beneath the opulence was a tenuous foundation, one that collapsed spectacularly over the last half of the decade. Away from the cameras focused on the city's nouvelle riches, New York was beset by crisis after crisis--homelessness, AIDS, crack cocaine, organized crime. The swell of outrage over the unwillingness of the city elite to address those problems took years to finally reach a tipping point.

Agents of Innocence, Book

by Ignatius, David
Book - 1997
tirjan's rating:
4.5 out of 5 stars
Added Oct 10, 2018

Comment:

This is may be Ignatius' best spy thriller of all. It was published in 1997 but wasn't in the SCCL system until I requested it. I've read all the rest of his books and wanted to see what I was missing. The time frame is Lebanon of the 70's and 80's as well as the rise of Fatah and the splinter group Black September. Of importance is the fact that at the time the CIA was in decline in effectiveness because professionals were being replaced by political appointees. The murder of the Israeli Olympic team and the later bombing of the Beirut marine barracks in 1983 are a direct result of that US Intelligence laxity. Very good story line, very realistic character development, great surprise ending.

House of Trump, House of Putin, BookThe Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia

by Unger, Craig
Book - 2018
tirjan's rating:
4.5 out of 5 stars
Added Oct 05, 2018

Comment:

House of Trump, House of Putin offers the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House. It is a chilling story that begins in the 1970s, when Trump made his first splash in the booming, money-drenched world of New York real estate, and ends with Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States. That moment was the culmination of Vladimir Putin’s long mission to undermine Western democracy, a mission that he and his hand-selected group of oligarchs and Mafia kingpins had ensnared Trump in, starting more than twenty years ago with the massive bailout of a string of sensational Trump hotel and casino failures in Atlantic City. This book confirms the most incredible American paranoias about Russian malevolence.

The Storm, BookA Novel

by Anwar, Arif
Book - 2018
tirjan's rating:
3.5 out of 5 stars
Added Aug 29, 2018

Comment:

Shahryar, a recent PhD graduate and father of nine-year-old Anna, must leave the US when his visa expires. In their last remaining weeks together, we learn Shahryar’s history, in a vil­lage on the Bay of Bengal, where a poor fisherman and his wife are preparing to face a storm of historic proportions. That story intersects with those of a Japanese pilot, a British doctor stationed in Burma during World War II, and a privileged couple in Calcutta who leaves everything behind to move to East Pakistan following the Partition of India. Inspired by the 1970 Bhola cyclone, in which half a million-people perished overnight, the structure of this riveting novel mimics the storm itself. Building to a series of revelatory and moving climaxes, it shows the many ways in which families love, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another. A pretty convoluted story line but a good one. Very nice effort for a first novel.

Russian Roulette, BookThe Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump

by Isikoff, Michael
Book - 2018
tirjan's rating:
5 out of 5 stars
Added Aug 15, 2018

Comment:

RUSSIAN ROULETTE is a story of political skullduggery unprecedented in American history. It weaves together tales of international intrigue, cyber espionage, and superpower rivalry. After U.S.-Russia relations soured, as Vladimir Putin moved to reassert Russian strength on the global stage, Moscow trained its best hackers and trolls on U.S. political targets and exploited WikiLeaks to disseminate information that could affect the 2016 election. The Russians were wildly successful and the great break-in of 2016 was no "third-rate burglary." It was far more sophisticated and sinister -- a brazen act of political espionage designed to interfere with American democracy. At the end of the day, Trump, the candidate who pursued business deals in Russia, won. And millions of Americans were left wondering, what the hell happened? This story of high-tech spying and multiple political feuds is told against the backdrop of Trump's strange relationship with Putin and the curious ties between members of his inner circle -- including Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn -- and Russia.
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