I Owe You: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay

I am about 1/3 of the way through John Lanchester's I Owe You: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay and am enjoying it. This is an account of the recent meltdown of the world's financial system written in terms that are understandable by those among us who are not derivatives traders. We've all heard and read about credit default swaps and hedge funds and derivatives. But if you are like me, much of this goes in one ear and out the other. I get the gist, but the details escape me. I Owe You is the perfect tool to put the whole financial crises in perspective and explain, in some detail, how we got into the mess we are in. While the book is written for the average reader, it requires some concentration and re-reading to get all the facts straight, so it might not be the thing to bring to the beach.

Given the complexity of modern finance, it is not surprising that many of the financial products described here ended up being so Byzantine that the people who cooked them up could not keep them straight. No wonder the rest of us are confused.

-Paul

The Wave: in Pursuit of Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean

If you are not afraid of the ocean, you should be. And if you read The Wave: in Pursuit of Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey, you definitely will be. At the very least, you will stay out of choppy seas.

Casey spends time with extreme surfers who cruise the world looking for enormous waves to surf, waves so large that they need to be towed onto them with jet skis. She describes huge ocean-going ships and their encounters with towering rogue waves, freak monsters that dwarf the waves around them. Some ships return to tell their tales; others only offer clues through their wreckage. Casey talks with scientists who study waves, and she relates what we know about them and what remains to be learned. This is a very good treatment of something most of us take for granted.

This book should appeal to anyone interested in science, sailing, and especially to fans of surfing. In fact, to me the biggest negative of this book is the excessive time the author spends on surfers and surfing.

If you like this book, try anything by Jon Krakauer or Sebastian Junger.


-Paul