Recovered book reviews.
20240123
This is a categorized list of the reviews I was able to reconstruct after Amazon deleted everything. The Biden Administration, probably in the person of Andy Slavitt, leaned hard on them not to post anything negative about Covid. “The Indoctrinated Brain” was over the limit.
I am immensely grateful to Travis Irvine for porting everything I could recover over to Goodreads. You can follow me there via this link. I post video reviews on Rumble along with my Toastmasters speeches - you can follow me there.
I will continue to work at it, especially to list books under every appropriate category instead of just the one I initially chose. I would like as well to include a short sentence about each book. There are a couple of instances in which I have included other people's reviews when I could not find my own. When the review is in the form of a video rather than a PDF, the entry should say so.
I got a couple of insights reading over this material. The first one is that most authors, as they have attempted to alert us to problems that they see, are whistling in the wind. I can say the same for myself as I write reviews. For all the trillions of words that have been spilled about Covid 19, vaccines, climate change and the like, not many minds are being changed.
The pen may be mightier than the sword, but it is not more powerful than the media, academia, public education, the healthcare industry and government propaganda. The books that have been written about how these powers that be have been able to shape our opinions are preaching to the converted. Yes, if we think we have been duped, we are interested in how it was done. But it is incredible the range of topics, and the number of people who don't even suspect they are being conned. Thanks to Margaret Anna Alice for the very a propos cartoon below.
My reading has been beneficial in the way I run my own life. Whereas the opinions of my first family were shaped by the society around them and public schooling, the children of my second family have pretty much absorbed my worldview. So far as I can see they are successful. I think there's a correlation. The investment has been worthwhile.
You readers of this blog, and previously, readers of my Amazon reviews are my secondary audience. Back when Amazon used to accept comments, perhaps six or eight years ago, we had some lively back-and-forth's in response to my reviews. I don't so often see it here on this blog. My observation about humanity is that not that many people have time enough to read extensively about current events. Although I don't have any way of knowing how many people follow links to my reviews, my guess it is not that many. Whatever readership the reviews get, I'm sure the number of people who are inspired to read the book is even smaller.
The average age of these 450 reviews 10 or more years. I have been keeping my eyes open for interesting books throughout retirement. My sense is that there were more good ones coming out then than now. The most significant recent topics of interest have been Covid and vaccines and transsexuality. Through the first, we learned a lot about bioengineering, viruses, the power of the global oligarchy, instruments of persuasion and so on by watcing them. As to the other, if anybody had told me twenty years ago that people could be convinced that carving up children’s bodies in the name of mental health was a good idea, I would have thought they were crazy.
Though I continue to read – just downloaded "Why Liberalism Failed" – more of my time is going to go into teaching myself Ukrainian and helping the kids with schoolwork.
That's the news from Lake WeBeGone this March 20, 2026. Ukraine seems to be prevailing in the war. The outcome of the Iran adventure remains up in the air.
Here are my reviews, by category (categories in bold)
AIDS
Confronting aids book review by others
Business
A Splendid Exchange- How Trade Shaped the World
Crowdfunding Checklist- How To Raise Money for A Best-Selling Kickstarter in 90 Days
Equality the Third World and economic delusion
How to Invest in Gold and Silver
The Man that Defied the System - El Hombre que Desafio al Sistema
The Power Of Real Estate Investing- 7 Steps To Make Money And Create A Lifetime Of Wealth
Think and grow Rich Napoleon Hill
Where Good Ideas Come From The Natural History of Innovation
Climate
A Guide to the Climate Apocalypse
Climate change reconsidered - singer
Climate diplomacy from Rio to Paris
Climate of the Past, Present and Future
Climate wars policy politics and environment
How to spend 50 billion to make the world a better place
The Fanatacism of the Apocalypse
Whole Earth discipline - Stewart Brand
Covid and Vaccines
1000 mLs of Truth. Book is a transcript of this videotaped deposition of Stanley Plotkin by Aaron Siri.
Cause unknown - Ed Dowd
Cancer Care - the use of repurposed drugs and metabolic interventions
Covid 19 and the global preditors - we are the prey Breggins
Covid-19 The Great Reset Klaus Schwab
Dissolving Illusions. Review of the original. 2024 revision is better production, but not much new material. Essential reading on the history of vaссіnes. See also A Midwestern Doctor on hot lot vaccines in history.
Forbidden Facts - Government deceit and suppression about brain damage from childhood vaccines - Gavin McGinness
Lies my government told me - Robert Malone
The Moth in the Iron Lung - Forrest Maready
Turtles All the Way Down Video Review
Vaccines - Truth, Lies and Controversy Peter Goetsch
Vax Facts - Paul Thomas
The Indoctrinated Brain video review
Diet
Food storage for self preservation
Dutton Edward
Breeding the Human Herd video review
J. philippe rushton a life history perspective
Race Differences in Ethnocentricism
The Silent Rape Epidemic - Finland
Education
Academically adrift limited learning on college campuses
An underground history of American education
Deutschland is auf keinem guten weg
Disrupt this - MOOCs and the promise of technology
Disrupt this - MOOCs and the promise of technology
Exceptional Children How to raise independent, motivated kids who learn with excellence
How to write a winning humorous speech
The Death and Life of the Great American School System
Evolution
1491 New Discoveries about the Americas before Columbus
A Short History of Man - Decline and Fall
Before the dawn - wade - Evolution is alive and well
Boomerang - Traveks in the Third World
Conciliance the unity of knowledge
Crumbling genome are we becoming less fit
Does altruism exist – related video
How many people can the earth support
Human Diversity The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class
Individualism and the Western Liberal Tradition
Into the cannibal's pot - lessons for America from post-apartheid South Africa
Noble savages - Napoleon Chagnon
On Genetic Interests – Video Commentary
The better angels of our nature
The Hand How Its Use Shapes the Brain, Language, and Human Culture
The Life History Approach to Human Differences A Tribute to J Philippe Rushton
The Nurture Assumption - Judith Rich Harris
The Uniqueness of Western Civilization (Avax)
The WEIRDest People in the World
Who we are and how we got here - David Reich
Finance
Banking on the Future- The Fall and Rise of Central Banking
Bitcoin Basics- 101 Questions and Answers
Bust- Greece, the Euro, and the sovereign debt crisis
Central bankers at the end of their rope
Cryptocurrency- The ultimate go-to guide for the Bitcoin curious
History of money from barter to Bitcoin
Looting Greece-A New Financial Imperialism Emerges
Losing Control- The Emerging Threats to Western Prosperity
Money and Power- How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World
More money than God - hedge funds
Parlay Your IRA into a Family Fortune
Phishing for Phools- The Economics of Manipulation and Deception
Recession-Proof- How to Survive and Thrive in an Economic Downturn
Red Notice- A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice
Setting Sun The End of US Economic Dominance
The Age of Ambition- Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China
The Age of Cryptocurrency- How Bitcoin and Digital Money Are Challenging the Global Economic
The Age of Debt Bubbles - Max Rangeley, Editor
The Big Short- Inside the Doomsday Machine
The Creature from Jekyll Island
The Death of Money - James Rickards
The Euro is to Blame-Economics for Spanish people
The International Monetary Fund in the Global Economy Banks, Bonds, and Bailouts
The Lords of Easy Money- How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy
The Modern Gold Trading System- A New Vision for Investors
The Nature of Happiness Part I
The Only Game in Town- Central Banks, Instability, and Recovering from Another Collapse
The Tyranny of the Federal Reserve
This Time Is Different- Eight Centuries of Financial Folly
Uncommon Sense- Economic Insights, from Marriage to Terrorism
What Has Government Done to Our Money
Government
Deadly deceits - 25 years with the cia mcgehee
Deconstructing Obama - The Life, Loves, and Letters of America's First Postmodern President
Nine Presidents Who Screwed Up America - And Four Who Tried to Save Her
No place to hide - Snowden
Righteous Indignation excuse me while I save the world
Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions
The Myth of American Democracy
The Open-Source Everything Manifesto Transparency, Truth, and Trust
The Secrets of the Federal Reserve
The Silencing - How the Left is Killing Free Speech
The Watchers The rise of Americas surveillance state
Unbridled Power- Hired by the IRS as its first -- and last -- official historian
History
A History of Reading in the West
Breve historia contemporanea de la Argentina
Clash of Civilizations - Samuel Huntington
Runaway Masters - Indians, Blacks and Whites two centuries ago in Florida
The Bible Unearthed- Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts
The invention of the Jewish gaucho
The Swerve – How the world became modern
Homeowner
International
A New Foundation for US Grand Strategy
Disunited Nations The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World
Preemption A Knife That Cuts Both Ways
Real Property Transactions in Ukraine
Remigration: Ein Vorschlag. Remigration - A Proposal. Martin Sellner
The Assassins' Gate America in Iraq
The Grand Chessboard American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives
The Passport Bros Guide to Finding Love Overseas
The roma - a balkan underclass
The Swedish Story From extreme experiment to normal nation
White Man's Game-Saving Animals, Rebuilding Eden, and Other Myths of Conservation in Africa
JQ
A People That Shall Dwell Alone
Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict
Revolutionary Jews from Marx to Trotsky
Separation and its Discontents by Kevin McDonald
Two Hundred Yeasr Together - двести лет вместе
Language
The Disappearing Dictionary- A Treasury of Lost English Dialect Words
Literature
Lynn, Richard
Race and sex differences in intelligence and personality
Race difference in intelligence
Sex difference in intelligence - Lynn
Medicine
Chinese patent medicines A beginner's guide
Digestive Wellness Strengthen the Immune System and Prevent Disease Through Healthy Digestion
Save Your Gallbladder and what to do if you
Philosophy
Politics
Adults in the Room-My Battle with the European and American Deep Establishment
American History Z - by Joey Oliver
Confidence Men- Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President
No One Left To Lie To - The Values of the Worst Family
The 12 step program for recovering Obama voters
The Making of the President 2016 - How Donald Trump Orchestrated a Revolution
The New Right - a book review about the European right
Trump’s Ten Commandments - Jeffrey Sonnenfeld
Psychometric
Does your family make you smarter – related video
Does your family make you smarter
How to control any conversation
Intelligence Race and Genetics conversations with Arthur Jensen
Political Correctness and the Destruction of Social Order Chronicling the Rise of the Pristine Self
Psilocybin Mushrooms - Graham's Review
Psychiatry the science of lies
Psychometric testing in a week
Race, Evolution and Behavior - Philippe Rushton
THE LIFE HISTORY APPROACH TO HUMAN DIFFERENCES
The Neuroscience of Intelligence
The Righteous Mind Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
The Science of Human Intelligence
The upside of the irrationality
Race
A escravadao no Brasil - dos Santos
America in Black and white Abigail and Stephen Thernstrom
An American dilemma - the Negro in america
Black American Students in an affluent suburb
Character Building - Booker T Washington
Ethnic Apocalypse Guillaume Faye
Et si l’Afrique Refussait le Developpement?
Race, Evolution and Behavior - Philippe Rushton
Racism - A short history - Princeton
Racism, Guilt, Self-Hatred and Self-Deceit
Soul of black folks W.E.B. DuBois
Take Your Choice - Separation or Mongrelization
The Future of the Negro in America
The ordeal of integration - orlando patterson
Tragic Failure- Racial Integration in America
Whiteness the original sin - Jim Goad
Russia-Ukraine
Abuse of Power - corruption in the office of the president
Bloodlands - Ukraine between the wars
Flight MH17 and the New Cold War
Letters from Russia - Marquis de Custine
Russia and the new world disorder
Stalin the Kremlin mountaineer
The Fourth Political Theory Alexander Dugin
The Gates of Europe - A History of Ukraine
Ukrainian Nationalism in the Age of Extremes
Science
2030 Technology that will change the world
3D Printing - the next industrial revolution
A Child's Introduction to Natural History
Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field- How Two Men Revolutionized Physics
Geography a visual encyclopedia
Green guide to butterflies of Great Britain and Europe
Introducing Epigenetics a Graphic Guide
Managing Spent Nuclear Fuel Strategy Alternatives and Policy Implications
Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future The Ingenious Ideas That Drive Today's Computers
Richard Dawkins How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think
Skeptic - Viewing the world with a rational eye
The complete book of trees of Britain and Europe
The past present and future of our networks
Toxic Legacy How the Weedkiller Glyphosate is Destroying our Health and the Environment
Self
A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again
Get a Job, Build a Real Career, and Defy a Bewildering Economy
How to Live to 100 Secrets from the World's Happiest Centenarians
New perspections on young childrens moral education eaude
The Gardener and the Carpenter
The importance of being little
What's Going on in There How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life
Sexes
Baby Bust New Choices for Men and Women in Work and Family
Hannah’s Children - The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth
How to dump your boyfriend in the mens room
Is there anything good about men
Male-female the evolution of human sexual differences
Marriage the dream that refuses to die
Regulating sex - the politics of intimacy and identity
The richer sex review and musings
The Value of Others - Orest Taraban
Thirty Seven Essays on Life Wisdom and Masculinity
Society
A Radically Beneficial World Automation, Technology and Creating Jobs
Antifragile - things that gain from disorder
Civilized Mans Deadly Sins Konrad Lorenz
Coming apart - the state of white America
Crunchy Cons The New Conservative Counterculture and Its Return to Roots
Domestic extremist - Peachy Keenan
Family and civilization - Zimmerman
Hate Inc Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another
How to Run Away from Home and Bring Your Family with You
iDisorder Understanding Our Obsession with Technology and Overcoming Its Hold on Us
Inequality and the collapse of privilege
Kingdom of fear Hunter S Thompson
Literature Lost Social Agendas and the Corruption of the Humanities
Mass Formation - Matias Desmet
Memoir on pauperism - Tocqueville
Moral Tribes Emotion, Reason and the Gap Between Us and Them
Rationality from AI to Zombies - Semantic Stopsigns
Reinventing Collapse - Dmitri Orlov
Restraint - an overstretched us
Signals Breakdown of the Social Contract
The Age of Entitlement - America since the Sixties
The end of history and the last man
The Indoctrinated Brain video review
The Twilight of the American Enlightenment - the 1950s and the crisis of liberal belief
The Uniqueness of Western Civilization.mp4
Towards a small family ethic revised
Tribe - On Homecoming and Belonging
Why our status quo has failed and is beyond reform
Warfare
After reading your blog, I've checked many referenced books. Many challenges then arrive but it's helpful to expand my viewpoints. Time always is a limiting factor but even at 80+ I remain curious about how people think.
Thank you. This is helpful. I recall finding a couple of your reviews when perusing books to buy. Will examine this in depth and tell you which ones I came across.