One of the best nonfiction books I’ve read in recent memory. That’s probably because I generally enjoy more fiction, and this reads like a novel. It’s a bit of a slow burn given the first section covers the structure of the Navy at the time and general history of the fleet and some of the people involved. This, while quite interesting, is distinct from the rest of the book which is grippingly dramatic. 

The audiobook version by narrated by Dion Graham is magnificently read, initially it’s surprising to hear the American accent given the Britishness of the book, but it’s perfect. The book feels balanced concerning who is right and wrong between the actors involved, giving perspectives from both sides where the historical sources permit. It’s generally also made quite clear throughout who’s account you are hearing at any given time, which helps to judge the biases of the statements. 

Maybe I would have preferred a different ending, something more finite, but I can’t fault the book for this given it’s non-fiction and the way it handled this ending was nicely done. 

It's always a pleasure to read one of Michael Lewis' books and this is no exception. For some reason I found it harder to follow than others I'd read of his. I'd already seen the film before which I think really helped understanding the idea of a CDO and synthetic CDO before going into this. It's well explained in the book as well but having both explanations made it a lot easier to handle. I found it harder to get a full grip on the people in this story though when compared to those in Liars poker. I'm not sure if it was my state of mind when reading or if he did a better job at painting people in Liars poker but I found them harder to get a handle on. 

The story / explanation of what happened in 2008 is amazing told here and it's hard not to go away from it feeling pretty angry with the whole system, that being said I read a lot of this on my lunch break at the bank I work for....

This is a sublimely written mystery novel with an elaborate and intricate plot. Unlike most of the genre it doesn't have a big reveal where it all comes together, rather it all just gradually unfolds and secrets are revealed throughout. The pace does increase towards the end and the zodiac calendar chapter structure does help convey this. 

The astrology used in the chapter headings and the larger sections is quite a nice idea, and I'm aware if you study what it's supposed to mean it can add an extra dimension to the book. I can't bring myself to read anything about astrology though... it's just such ****. The mostly subtle but occasional blatant astrology in the plot itself felt a bit odd given the world was so real except for those points, and broke the realism a little for me, the mental link between 2 characters did feel like an unnecessary addition.

Overall it's a great book, and my dislike of astrology didn't actually spoil my enjoyment of it much at all. The structure and writing is very much my style and it's worth the long investment to read.

I always love Michael Lewis books I've found. His writing style is really easy to read and does a great job at explaining sometimes complicated financial concepts. In this case I knew very little about SBF beyond his eventual imprisonment, and I always assumed he was a simple crook like a lot of the other crypto guys out there. It seems I was quite wrong about this though, whilst it does feel as though Lewis is maybe leaning a bit towards SBF as the hero rather than villain in this book it does show the shades of grey accompanying this case and gives a detailed history of the man and the company.

I'm already reading The Big Short, and Liars Poker has been one of my favourite books for years, so I will definitely be getting the rest of Lewis' work.

I struggle with this book, as whilst I really enjoyed reading it, I can't be sure why given how little seemingly happens. The writing is brilliantly atmospheric which goes well with the extremely odd characters and setting of the novel. There is character development but it's subtle and drawn out through the book, the style of the additional chapters edited and produced after the authors death didn't feel quite the same, and while still enjoyable were not as satisfying.

I wish this book had been fully written, and finished by Kafka, as is it's only half a book. I will go and find The Trial and The Metamorphosis next as I think with a full novel the experience could be great.

This was an introduction to Asimov for me, I picked this up in a little antique shop and enjoy Sci Fi so decided to give it a go. I'll certainly read more Asimov in the future, this classic style is always a treat.

Robot AL-76 Goes Astray
A humorous look at the limits of AI in this particular world of Asimovs, and interesting to see some justification for Earths fear of allowing robots like this to work on the surface. 3.5*

Victory Unintentional
This shows it's age a bit with some of the scientific ideas, however it's a really good short story. The final reveal is great. Each character is surprisingly well developed for such a short story. 4.5*

First Law
Probably my least favourite of the collection, the writing is still nice but the plot of this one doesn't feel like it fits in the world built by Asimov.  2.5*

Let's Get Together
An enjoyable tale of international intrigue during the dawning of the age of AI. The reveal felt a little predictable but still satisfying. 3.5*

Satisfaction Guaranteed
This is almost a trope of Humanoid Robot stories nowadays I think but back then it will have been more original an idea. It's a nice story but not amazing. 3.5*

Risk
Probably one of my favourites in the collection, characters are brilliantly written and there's a good balance of drama and humour. 4.5*

Lenny
Another intriguing story but a little slower, it's also quite predictable as far as they go. The nod to of mice and men is quite a nice touch though. 3*

Galley Slave
I love a bit of courtroom drama and this was so unexpected after the other stories in this collection. Maybe the idea of a full blown proof checking robot is a bit mad these days but they justify it well. 4.5*

I enjoyed this more than I expected to. I knew the author was an acclaimed fiction writer, though I hadn't read any of his work before, so I expected the writing to be top notch which it was. I wasn't sure I'd enjoy it though having not visited Rome or Italy, and whilst I liked it it's not something I'd say is top of my list for travel books.

However as a new parent this book really resonated with me, it's more of a book about the first year or two of raising children, in his case twins. If you're a new parent who likes to travel then I'd highly recommend this book.

I'm not sure exactly what age group this is targeting but young adult feels a bit too old. The plot is quite simple yet engaging which is a positive, and the characters are quite nicely done. There's some character development with Edward however the others are much more one dimensional. It needs some more exposition to explain the world,  I know there're others in the series but some of the plot points in this come across as very convenient and a bit "it's like this because of magic rules which were never hinted at or explained".

It's a classic and I can see why children would enjoy it but personally I found the female characters to be formulaic and the writing style a little dull. Many paragraphs are overly descriptive with a lot of "and x" chaining them together.

The world however is a good one, and with more depth I imagine it will be a decent series, I'll continue to read them to my son as he grows up but I think there're better examples of the genre. 

I wanted a short overview of Franklin Lloyd Wright and this seemed like a potentially good option, with an additional short look at another architect I hadn't heard of. Unfortunately it's not clear at all why these two were grouped together, and really it would have been better just covering one of them well. The content itself was quite interesting though a little disjointed. The writing is fine but with a few odd phrases, "she successfully succeeded" feeling quite wrong as a phrase... The narration for the audio book for the first half is horrendous. The narrator has not looked up how to pronounce any place names in Spanish or French and my sat nav does a better job. It really spoiled the first half of the book. I can't give this more than a 3 though the FLW section could be given a 3.5

 I went into this expecting the classic trilogy format where the middle book would be more glue holding things together than anything else but it’s not what you get here.

I had to check at the end whether there was a third book or if I’d just got confused.

. Again, in a similar vein to the first book I struggled sometimes to understand the motivations of some of the characters and as such engaging with them wasn’t easy. There are some more of the classic Sci FI themes in this installment, and they’re done well. The writing / translation is great as well so it’s a pleasant read. 

I can’t decide if I liked the ending or felt let down by it, I can say it was interesting at least. I will still read the third book but I don’t need to rush out to grab it right now.