{"id":1346,"date":"2009-03-09T10:42:26","date_gmt":"2009-03-09T18:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simonburrow.com\/\/?p=1346"},"modified":"2009-03-09T10:42:26","modified_gmt":"2009-03-09T18:42:26","slug":"the-best-books-i-read-in-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/?p=1346","title":{"rendered":"The Best Books I Read in 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Another list&#8230; Another controversy.\u00a0 I read about fifty books in 2008 and learned something from all of them.\u00a0 These are the six that I have recommended to others:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In fiction I really enjoyed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Guernsey-Literary-Potato-Peel-Society\/dp\/0385340990\/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1234541408&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Mary Shafter and Anne Barrows.\u00a0 It is a small tale about the WWII told well.<\/li>\n<li>In nonfiction history I recommend two books. \u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Team-Rivals-Political-Abraham-Lincoln\/dp\/0743270754\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1234541714&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>A Team of Rivals<\/strong><\/em><\/a> about Lincoln&#8217;s cabinet by Doris Kearns Goodwin.\u00a0 This book shows how Republicans ended slavery and ended the federal system.\u00a0 It is a great but long read.<\/li>\n<li>The second book in nonfiction history is\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Alexander-Hamilton-Ron-Chernow\/dp\/0143034758\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1234542273&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>Alexander Hamilton<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Ron Chernow.\u00a0 Until I read this book I was a Jeffersonian democrat.\u00a0 Now I&#8217;m in flux again as Madison intended.\u00a0 Read the book and you&#8217;ll understand.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Let-Their-People-Come-Breaking\/dp\/1933286105\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1234542457&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>Let Their People Come<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Lant Pritchett is the best immigration book I read in 2008.\u00a0 It makes a compelling case that allowing more migration is the cheapest and easiest way to help the poor of the world.<\/li>\n<li>I read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell\/dp\/0316017922\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1234542868&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>Outliers<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Malcolm Gladwell in December and recommended it to both of my book groups.\u00a0 It tries to explain among other things why Bill Gates is the richest man in the world and is full of fact and ideas that are not mainstream and intuitive.\u00a0 it is a fun and popular read.<\/li>\n<li>About Global Warming I read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Cool-Skeptical-Environmentalists-Warming-Vintage\/dp\/030738652X\/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1236624046&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Cool It<\/strong><\/a> by Bjorn Lomborg.\u00a0 He argues that fighting against human caused global warming will cause more human suffering than just adjusting to it.\u00a0 Resources, he argues, could be better spent fighting malaria, poverty or illiteracy.\u00a0 It is an interesting and convincing (to me) spin on a controversial topic.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What have you read lately that you you would recommend?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another list&#8230; Another controversy.\u00a0 I read about fifty books in 2008 and learned something from all of them.\u00a0 These are the six that I have recommended to others: In fiction I really enjoyed The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Shafter and Anne Barrows.\u00a0 It is a small tale about the WWII [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommendations"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99jGb-lI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1346"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1523,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346\/revisions\/1523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}