Tag Archive: Book of the Year

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon? [Why China Has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World] by Yong Zhao

Educated in China before receiving his post graduate PhD at the University of Illinois,  Zhao slays the myth of China’s educational supremacy.  Fraud, corruption and an inability to think outside the box are rampant in a system that the Chinese have been trying to overhaul for over a century.  Meanwhile, the West continues to hold it up as “the Holy Grail” of everything our educational systems should aspire to become in order to compete economically with China.

Runner Up: Small Is the New Big [and Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas] by Seth Godin

What the other guys liked: New York Times Bestsellers List

Pharmageddon by David Healy

A scathing exposé of how Big Drug companies have perverted medical research and the healthcare system.  The anecdotes and revelations herein will make your head spin. In short: “Pharmaceutical companies sell diseases rather than cures…The focus of the pharmaceutical industry is not to create cures, but to create blockbuster medicines that can be marketed and re-marketed indefinitely. By 2001, blockbuster drugs like Lipitor represented 45% of the pharmaceutical industry’s annual sales [which were over $300B in 2012] around the world.”  

Runner Up: Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss

Loaded with food for thought. For a small taste of what is served up in this book (and your grocery aisle) consider this:  Tobacco giant Philip Morris became the largest food manufacturer in North America when it purchased General Foods and Kraft in the 1980s. In the late ’90s, after observing the lengths their food companies were willing to go in laboratories to masque and short circuit the human body’s natural defences against too much salt, sugar, and fat, it told its food companies they would “face as great, if not greater, issues of public trust” as the tobacco industry had over nicotine. Philip Morris encouraged them to “find ways to lessen dependence on salt, sugar, fat.” Perhaps realizing that there was a fat chance of that ever happening, the tobacco giant divested itself of its food holdings shortly thereafter.

Related Statistic: There are now 29 million children and adults being treated for diabetes in Canada and the United States. Globally, the number is estimated to be more than 371 million people. Furthermore, the number of people with diabetes has doubled in the past decade alone.

Related/Runner Up Statistic: Roughly 10% the Pharmaceutical Industry’s total drug revenue in 2012 was attributed to drugs sold for the management of diabetes and high cholesterol

What the other guys liked:  New York Times Bestseller List

World War Z  by Max Brooks

I actually listened to this one in it’s abridged audio book format. It is the only zombie story everyone needs to hear.  It is a tight and entertaining traipse through today’s human condition with enough brain candy for everyone regardless of their love or hate for the zombie genre. This incredibly fresh take on an otherwise stale story-line is made even fresher with the addition of a horde of accomplished narrators. If this doesn’t get you thinking about the world you live in, you might be a zombie.

What the other guys liked:  New York Times Bestseller List

“Moonwalking with Einstein” by Joshua Foer

It’s a book about memory.  I forget what I liked about it, but I seem to recall passing more nuggets of wisdom from this book along to anyone who would listen than from any other book.  I am pretty sure there is some stuff in there that we can all use to remember better; however, that would imply that there is a lot happening today that we really want to remember.

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanche, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by Dale L. Walker

The story of a white boy captured and raised by the Comanche to become their most famous and feared war chief (and the last to surrender).  He would then become one of the most successful cattle ranchers in Texas.

hmmm – none come to mind (but please let me know if I missed any)

“Shock Doctrine” by Naomi Klein

A real eye opener that became more poignant as the events of this year progressed.  Synopsis:  ‘In order to push through profoundly unpopular economic policies that enrich the few and impoverish the many, there needs to be some kind of collective crisis or disaster – either real or manufactured. A crisis that opens up a “window of opportunity” when people and societies will be too disoriented to protect their own interests…’  Despite what sounds like a dry and boring subject this is actually an excellent and easy read for the average person on the street.  Regardless of political lean, you should read this book even if it is the only book you ever read.  There will definitely be some revelations (at least one per chapter) as it describes the underbelly of some of the most newsworthy global disasters of our time and how they were used by hook and by crook to further the economists’ dreams of a free market utopia that is, well…you be the judge.

“What is the What” by David Eggars.

This epic story of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, puts the origins and the tragedy of Darfur into a very readable perspective. It is a must read for everyone and should probably be front and centre on every school board’s required reading lists for grade eight’s in order to put their own lives, prejudice and/or perceived realities of the world they live in into context.

Honourable Mention: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” by J.K. Rowling smashed US sales records when it sold 8.3 million copies in the first 24 hours after its release.  It represented a fun and nicely knotted, albeit, at times long-winded and thick, end to the series (however, it will probably play better on the big screen).

I haven’t written it yet.

Worst book of the ^year century millennium EVER!!! Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

Why did the Ayatollah Khomeini order a hit on its author?  Was it to save the unsuspecting reader from hurting their heads trying to read such crap? Or maybe it was a subliminal act of psycho-terrorism designed to entice people to purchase a book that is pure torture to read.  Whatever the reasons, BEWARE!  Do not go there!!!!!

It’s still The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

Note: The Da Vinci Code has celebrated it’s 2^nd full year on the various bestseller lists north and south of the border and it has still not hit paperback.