Collapse by J. Diamond

Jared Diamond (Guns, germs and steels) describes how societies collapsed under or survived through various problems, including ecological ones. He tells the story of past societies: Easter Island and its fascinating statues, the Anasazi of the southwestern U.S., the Maya, the Vikings in America, Greenland and Iceland, New Guinea and Japan. He also considers modern societies, telling the story of modern Montana, describing an ecological background to Rwanda's genocide, the twin histories of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the mounting ecological problems of China and the exhaustion of Australia.

The whole thing is very interesting and well-told.

On the other hand, I was much disappointed by the last part "Practical lessons" which I found utterly unconvincing as the author, after having piled up all the reasons why the current affluence of the First World is unstainable and completely out of reach of the rest of Humankind, ends up full of optimism. I must have missed something...

Strange Victory, by E. R. May

The story of German victory over France in 1940 and how it came as a surprise in front of apparent material Allied superiority. The book describes the political developments in France, Great Britain and Germany running up to September 1939 before turning to a comparison of their armies. The comparison is first on a material level, where the difference is not great and often in favour of the Allies and especially France, then on the organizational level, especially decision-making and "intelligence", where the failings of the Allies are deep. Finally it gives a detailed narration of the "Battle of France" and how a rather risky German plan eventually routed the French army, partly through luck, but, as Pasteur said, luck favors the prepared mind, not those who are "always a little behind time and slow of mind", as one French general was described by his superiors at the time.

Le nouvel âge du capitalisme par E. Cohen

E. Cohen raconte l'ascension et la chute d'Enron et Vivendi Universal ou le capitalisme financier contemporain. L'ouvrage est intéressant sur l'historique de ces deux firmes, un peu court à mon goût sur les conséquences de ces crises. E. Cohen remarque que, loin de discréditer le capitalisme anglo-saxon, ces crises ont, paradoxalement, renforcé l'exportation de ces normes, notamment en Europe. Mais je n'ai pas trouvé dans son livre d'explication à ce paradoxe ni sur la mesure dans laquelle ces normes seront aptes à éviter d'autres crises.
**

Les Oeufs du Destin, de Mikhail Boulgakov.

Une aventure épique et délirante dans le Moscou des années 1920... Savoureux!
****

Night draws near, by Anthony Shadid

An Arab-American reporter in Irak both before and after the war... Details how the US gov't bungled the "liberation" of Irak ending up FOOBAR and the reactions of many Iraqi people at the same time xenophobic, expecting prosperity to be delivered by the US army and tired of so many wars and decades of oppression.
Could be shorter.
**

The Big Nowhere, by James Ellroy

A maelstrom of ambition, violence and perversion where nothing is what it seems and every ideal is turned on its head. Dark but superb, if slightly disgusting.
I wonder how close/how far it is to the historical truth?
***