The Ascent of Money

The Ascent of Money
Niall Ferguson
2008

The recent financial crisis makes me interested in reading more books about finance. So I picked up this book in Costco.

It touched several areas: bank, bond, stock market, insurance and real estate. Gave me some historical perspective about these topics.

Worth to read.

A Biography of the Continent Africa

A Biography of the Continent Africa
John Reader
1997

It took half a year and finally a huge snow storm to finish reading this book.

The book discussed the form of the continent from geology point of view. He also discussed the emergency of human beings. Since the humans are originated in Africa. This let me fell the history of Africa part of my own history.

It's well known that about African slaves' suffering in the Atlantic slave trade. The book also revealed the story of the slaves who are inside the Africa during the same period, which I did not realize before.

The scramble of Africa started with Belgium. This part of the history helps me to understand the ethnic cleansing happened in Rwanda about ten years ago.

Overall, it is a masterpiece on Africa. Highly recommended.