*Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Glide to Thriving in the Age
of Acceleration by Thomas L. Friedman is a big book with some
excellent insights and analysis. But
like the title, the books is too long, a bit confusing and also included too
much cut and paste from interviews, columns and conversations. Still, there is gold if you have the patience
for the search. Friedman believes that
the year 2007 was a major inflection point with the release of the iPhone,
together with advances in silicon chips, software, storage, sensors, and
networking, creating a new technology platform that opened unbounded
opportunities and challenges. Despite his obvious wisdom, Friedman could have
benefited from a tough editor, yet I thought the discussion of “Mother Nature’s
Political Party” was worth the slog.
*The End of your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe is true story
of a literary son and his activist mother, who start a “book club” that brings
them together as they try to make her battle with pancreatic cancer more
humane. Over the next two years, Will and Mary Anne have conversations that are
wide-ranging and personal, prompted by
an eclectic array of books and a shared passion for reading. Their list jumps
from classic to popular, from poetry to mysteries, from fantastic to spiritual
but ultimately focuses on relationships and life.
*Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future by Joichi Ito and
Jeff Howe of MIT’s Media Lab tries to describe how everything digital is getting
faster, cheaper, and smaller at an exponential rate. This and the growing power/impact of the
Internet have created an explosive force that has changed the process and
prospect for continued innovation and how we live. There are some excellent
insights, but too much breathless, journalistic retelling of familiar stories
with less about the future than I had hoped.
*Books for Living continues Will Schwalbe’ s journey through
his voracious, eclectic reading addiction. Each of the 26 short chapters is
about a favorite book ranging from Stuart Little, David Copperfield, Song of
Solomon, Bird by Bird and is a candid and personal essay with special
recognition to lost friends and his
boarding-school librarian who shaped his reading habits by introducing him to James Baldwin. I agree with Schwlbe
that, “Good books often answer questions you didn’t even know you wanted to
ask.”
