December 23, 2017

Summary of 2017 Titles

Hope you enjoy the summary of my posts throughout 2017.  Thank you for great conversations throughout the year across various media! Also, at the bottom are posted summaries of titles from prior years.

Summary of 2017 Titles

Reviews

Pen and Sword
  Cicero wielded his pen so well, that centuries later it influenced Thomas Jefferson.  Pompey wielded his sword and came to be celebrated as Rome's greatest general.  Only Julius Caesar wielded both his pen and sword, that lets him rightfully tower in Roman History.

Do we have a Cicero Today?  I just completed Robert Harris' marvelous trilogy on Marcus Tullius Cicero.  Cicero and Caesar turn out to be two the singular figures from that era.
 
Sound Familiar? John Meacham's biography of Andrew Jackson has echoes for today that are unmistakable.
Second Half Of The Chessboard  'The Second Machine Age' is a terrific book about what progress in technology holds for us.

What's around the corner?  We are instilled with the progress that science has delivered and are proud of the one-person-one vote approach to self-government as the beacon of social arrangement. Hooray...?!

Changing the old story  The gap between what we are assuming and what is confronting us as reality is fast becoming a yawning gap in terms of human longevity.  How do we think about this?  What does it mean?  Are they opportunities to be realized?

Can the unbanked, bank? A new paper, Bank Accounts For The Unbanked: Evidence from a Big Bang Experiment, describes the recent Indian experiment at a very large scale to bring banking services to those without access to the financial system.

A Catholic tale for catholic minds  Conclave is set in the Vatican.  I set myself 15 days to read and savor the novel.  It was so engrossing, that I finished in 3 days and had to go to the next book on my list!

Influences and Re-influences of Blade Runner  We greatly enjoyed the new Blade Runner movie (BR-2049) - but first we ate our broccoli!

Loha garam hai  I watched the Bollywood blockbuster Sholay yet again and this time followed it up by reading the book by Anupama Chopra on the making of the movie.

Essays and Poems

Twelve mental mistakes we make  I am quite enthralled by the study of the mind and our behaviors by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky.  There are nearly two dozen mental mistakes described in the book by Daniel Kahneman.  I have identified twelve that have appealed most to me.

Stories or facts? We are living in a time that the story of human civilization is about the change! However to tell that story it seems to me that we need to do, as hard and as unnatural it is, is to record and use facts and statistics so we can gain knowledge. 

"Full-Fledgedness" - Summary of Feedback I am so encouraged that so many friends and family responded to my rather whimsical question on what makes a "full-fledged" individual.  I was even more pleased that I was not taken to task for not defining the term!

What makes a happy life? I had the chance to listen to Dr. Robert Waldinger last week at an excellent dinner event. 

Birds have flown away My lament on climate change.

Top 10 Sports Experiences  There is something about making the trek to the stadium, being with thousands of other spectators to both create a 'peak experience' and re-connect vitally with that sport.
Tanglewood  Hope you enjoy this anecdote of my brief 'tangle' with Larry Summers.

Travel

day@SCOTUS I am awed by my visit to the US Supreme Court to attend a hearing.
A visit with Queen Silvia of Sweden At the Royal Palace in Stockholm for a conference hosted by Queen Silvia of Sweden.

DeeKay! It was an honor and delight to have lunch with Daniel Kahneman who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2002 for his work in Behavioral Finance that he co-developed with Amos Tversky.

Whistle(r) Stop!We made a whistle stop to Whistler, Canada - our travel was as long as our stay!

Lighthouse Hopping in Maine My Dad and I went up the coast of Maine visiting lighthouses.

Riding With The King When I was invited to Memphis for a meeting after 20 years in a different context, I greatly looked forward to it.

Camden Rising I toured Camden City recently - the before, the after and the understanding of what is coming was eye opening - it is "Camden Rising" indeed!

Henri Matisse Exhibition  An exhibition at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts featured Henri Matisse.

Marsden Hartley's MaineWe visited the Colby Museum of Art to see an exhibit of the painter and poet of Maine native Marsden Hartley.

Fenway  Our work at the New England ALZH Association was recognized at Fenway Park.

Prior Year Summaries

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010



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