📖 On page 115 of 430 of Dealing with China by Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

📖 Read pages 86 – 115 of 430 of Dealing with China by Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

Cleaning the Stables in Guangdong was interesting, but could have had some more details and data (or a better case study, given its potential value). Alas it was just a quick overview of two years of work, possibly because editors thought it might be overly boring, but really who is going to read this book, but people who want these types of details.

I find at times in the book, he becomes overly gracious and almost too complimentary which I take to mean that he is still ingratiating himself to colleagues and potential future relations.

The chapter on School for Success could itself have been a better and more in-depth case study, but was a short historical outline.

There are some occasional interesting tidbits hidden throughout the chapters which are generally illuminating, but I wish there were more useful insider tidbits of true value. So far I’m not reading anything much more valuable than could be found in overview newspaper articles covering some of the same topics.

Former head of Goldman Sachs and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson , Jr. and the cover of his 2015 book Dealing with China
Former head of Goldman Sachs and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson , Jr. and the cover of his 2015 book Dealing with China

📕 Finished reading Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

📕 Finished reading Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

What a lovely little volume, though a bit sappier in the end than I would have liked or expected given the realities of the earlier portions.

I’ve an interesting thesis about what the book is really about. Details to come…

📖 On page 157 of 206 of The Science of the Oven by Hervé This

📖 On page 157 of 206 of The Science of the Oven by Hervé This

… an odor in the kitchen is a symptom of odorant molecule loss (logically, kitchens should not smell good, because then we would be sure that the pleasing odors remained in the pots.)

–Hervé This, on page 154

Book cover for The Science of the Oven

📖 On page 88 of 425 of A Riddle in Ruby by Kent Davis

📖 On page 88 of 425 of A Riddle in Ruby by Kent Davis

He’s spending quite a bit of time setting up the world, but it’s an interesting YA novel with some science/technology/alchemy underlying the story.

📕 100.0% done with Fletch Reflected by Gregory Mcdonald

📕 100.0% done with Fletch Reflected by Gregory Mcdonald

I think this was the first (and only) in the Fletch series with an A and a B plot going on simultaneously. There wasn’t as much mystery or whodunnit as past books despite the number of suspects in something like Fletch’s Fortune. The ending was relatively interesting and certainly unexpected. I wouldn’t say it was very satisfying.

I’d rank this one toward the bottom of the series overall.

Fletch Reflected by Gregory Mcdonald
Fletch Reflected by Gregory Mcdonald

📖 49.0% done with Fletch Reflected by Gregory Mcdonald

📖 49.0% done with Fletch Reflected by Gregory Mcdonald

This one immediately follows Son of Fletch, literally by few hours. It didn’t start out with the same type of bang that most of the Fletch series has, instead it was about 20% into the story before we knew quite what ride we were on. Now that’s it’s going, it’s as interesting as most Fletch tales.

Fletch Reflected by Gregory Mcdonald
Fletch Reflected by Gregory Mcdonald

📖 On page 95 of 206 of The Science of the Oven by Hervé This

📖 On page 95 of 206 of The Science of the Oven by Hervé This

Oh, if only more of my cookbooks had fantastic sentences like this one:

Now the flow of a liquid in a canal varies as the fourth power of the diameter.

Then there’s this lovely statement, which is as applicable to jellies and consommés as it is to our political leaders:

Today, as heirs to the (political) ancien regime, we all want jellies, like bouillons and consommés, to be transparent.

I’ll note that chapter 4 has some interesting recipes as well as one or two long-term experiments which may be interesting to try.

Book cover for The Science of the Oven

📖 64.0% done with Son of Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald

📖 64.0% done with Son of Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald

This is where things begin to go sideways! Here comes the third act… Much of what I anticipated was going to happen has; the question now is how will he manage to extract himself (and his friends/family)?

Son of Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald
Son of Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald

📖 57.0% done with Son of Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald

📖 57.0% done with Son of Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald

We’re starting to go somewhere, but I can sadly already almost predict the ending. In particular, there was a ham-handed mention of a car that gave the whole thing away for me.

Of all of the Fletch books, so far this one seems to be the biggest influencer for the creation of portions of the movie Fletch Lives, which was otherwise made out of whole cloth based on the character.

“I suspect it’s not every man’s dream to discover his son is a cop-killing, escaped convict, racist, hate-group organizer.”

Highlight (yellow) Location 2276-2277
This revealing quote could have been its own stand-alone teaser text.

Added on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 1:46:53 AM

Son of Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald
Son of Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald

📖 25.0% done with Son of Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald

📖 25.0% done with Son of Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald

We’re off like a shot. Somehow it doesn’t seem terrifically believable that the escape convicts so easily take Fletch’s advice on where to hide, but he does a fantastic job of coralling them in the opeining.

Some of the overt “Southernness” feels overdone to me, but perhaps it was the effect of Mcdonald’s many years living in Tennessee which had a tarnishing effect.

Son of Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald
Son of Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald

📕 Finished reading Fletch and the Man Who by Gregory Mcdonald

📕 Finished reading Fletch and the Man Who by Gregory Mcdonald

There’s some great stuff in the last half of the book about Wheeler’s platform that is eerily prescient of the situation we now find ourselves in with regard to a heavily internet connected world and who owns it. It’s also an odd feeling reading this after experiencing what’s recently happened in the 2016 presidential election and it’s ensuing results.

Fletch and the Man Who
Fletch and the Man Who