Q4 2005 Reading List

Q4 2005 Reading List: "The quarter started on a down note, I was mildly disappointed with Sherwin Nuland's Leonardo da Vinci.... I hoped Nuland's work would not only shed light on the man, but also shine the lantern on the secrets of his success. Instead, Nuland told a good basic story, but fell short (I think) in illuminating the man and his genius.... I was also surprised to learn that da Vinci could rival today's venture capitalists at securing funding for his projects. ...Ellis, His Excellency and quickly moved to two more historical treatments of the birth of America, David Hackett Fischer's Washington's Crossing and another Ellis work, Founding Brothers.... Although he is hard to quote (a lesson that you don't have to say much to change the world), I found much in his life to follow. As the original military and political CEO, he's someone I thank my lucky red, white, and blue stripes for. I took a quick break from history, scarfing down a Robin Cook novel, Marker in one gulp. ...Since I was literally on a historical roll, I put the literary pedal to the metal and took on the American Iliad, Shelby Foote's three book series, The Civil War: A Narrative. A friend of mine who owns a local book store said his dad read the set over the period of a year and loved it. Since the Matrix is real, I set my iPod to ultra high speed play and digested"