Bear Flag Blog

Almost forgot about this one! Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed - 8.5/10 A very readable tale of four central bankers, who oversaw the world financial system from World War One through the Great Depression - and h… more »

Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist by Thomas Levenson - 8/10 An excellent smallish book about Isaac Newton. During the course of the book I learned more not only about Newton but about counter… more »

A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester - 6/10 I really, really enjoyed Winchester's Krakatoa, his The Professor and the Madman, and his Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Outposts of the British Empire, so when I saw that he had writte… more »

Fearless, Dauntless, Courageous, Valiant, Relentless - the Lost Fleet series, by Jack Campbell - 7/10 A solid but not outstanding space-combat-opera series. The premise is interesting and the strategic thinking is compelling, but the characters are v… more »

This isn't a review, really, just some general thoughts. If you are a real purist, there might be a spoiler here, so be warned. To my surprise and delight I discovered that there was a new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Volume Three, issue one) o… more »