Shabbir's Diary

American Submarine Espionage

Blind Man's Bluff is the exciting and previously untold history of undersea warfare in the American Navy. This book is an excellent read, and it's become one of my two touchstones for well-told history. As America's undersea program comes under the spotlight during the recent accident off the coast of Hawaii, it's an appropriate time to look at how we got where we are, and consider in context the fact that accidents don't happen more often than this.

Blood, blood banks, and blood-borne epidemics

I picked up Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce, before my honeymoon. I had intended to read it in Cuba, but there really wasn't space in our luggage with all the other books I brought. So it sat on deck for months until I got around to it.

Money Laundering for fun and profit

I've recently finished The Merger: The Conglomeration of International Organized Crime, which profiles the history of organized crime in the last 30 years as it became global, and the failure of the best law enforcement agencies in the world to stop them.