Book Nook: Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson

Blurb A New York Times Notable Book for 2011One of The Economist‘s 2011 Books of the YearOne of NPR’s 10 Best Novels of 2011 From the National Book Award-winning author Denis Johnson (Tree of Smoke) comes Train Dreams, an epic in miniature, and one of Johnson’s most evocative works of fiction. Suffused with the history and landscapes of the American West―its otherworldly flora and fauna, its rugged loggers and bridge builders―this extraordinary novella poignantly captures the disappearance of a distinctly American way of life. It tells the story of Robert Grainer, a day laborer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century―an … Continue reading Book Nook: Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson

Book Nook: Vanderbilt, the Rise and Fall Of An American Dynasty, by Anderson Cooper

Blurb New York Times bestselling author and journalist Anderson Cooper teams with New York Times bestselling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to chronicle the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty—his mother’s family, the Vanderbilts. One of the Washington Post‘s Notable Works of Nonfiction of 2021 When eleven-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father’s small boat ferrying supplies in New York Harbor at the beginning of the nineteenth century, no one could have imagined that one day he would, through ruthlessness, cunning, and a pathological desire for money, build two empires—one in shipping and another in railroads—that would make him the … Continue reading Book Nook: Vanderbilt, the Rise and Fall Of An American Dynasty, by Anderson Cooper

Useful Economic & Political Data

I’m a visual data guy, so much of this will be charts. Job Cuts Posted: 4/18/25 Immigrant Crime Rates Government Job Growth Betting Odds, as of Oct. 23, 2024 Polling Averages as of Oct. 14, 2024 Seven swing states within 1 point. Silver Economic Indicators US Crude vs. World https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61545 Corporate Profits May 23, 2024 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPROFIT US vs. World Inflation Rate, Average Consumer Prices May 23, 2024 https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/PCPIPCH@WEO/WEOWORLD/USA US Field Production of Crude Oil May 23, 2024 Continue reading Useful Economic & Political Data