In the interest of ripping off other bloggers and giving myself something to write about, I hereby introduce Book Log 2006, though I ask you to keep the following in mind:

1. I make no claims to being a critical reviewer. It's been a long time since I had to systematically pull a book apart, and I don't think I'd do much of a job of it now.

2. As most of my reading is done while commuting, don't expect the classics. Though I fully intend to get to some of the books you all recommended to me back when I asked about books you liked in high school/college. Someday.

3. My reading is also fairly well constricted by the acquisitions of the Beverly Public Library, as I'm too cheap to actually buy books I can check out for free. I will say that I've rarely been unable to find a book I've wanted, and now that they've gotten their accreditation back I can interlibrary most of the books I can't find.

That being said, let's get on with it.

Book Log 2006 #1: Hetty: The Genius and Madness of America's First Female Tycoon by Charles Slack

I knew about as much about Hetty Green as the author did going into his project: she was a woman of immense wealth who got into the Guinness World Book of Records for throwing nickels around like manhole covers, landing the not so coveted title of World's Greatest Miser. Her cheapitude led to her son losing his leg, and an argument over milk led to the apoplexy that killed her.

The truth, of course, is more complex than that. The heiress to a New Bedford whaling fortune, Hetty's formative years imprinted on her an odd combination of business acumen and Quaker values. These informed her adult years, where she made millions of dollars and spent as little of it as possible. Not that she would never spend, and she did when she felt the price was right - most often on litigation.

Slack does a pretty good job telling this story based on the available material, which includes less primary material than a biographer might like. Hetty didn't talk as much as her fellow tycoons, but she did attract enough newspaper coverage (and generate enough trial records) to leave a colorful paper trail.

There's a good mix of Hetty's business side and personal side, with her complicated family dynamics being perhaps the more entertaining part of the book. While I think I had at least some handle on Hetty's eccentricities by the end of the book, a fair bit of the explanation is supposition (Hetty not providing a lot of background on the subject herself in the few interviews she gave), though probably not too far off the mark.

Oh, and for the record, Hetty did try to get her son treatment for his leg. She just preferred to get it for free, and had to switch doctors often when charity hospitals found out who she was. I'm sure that didn't help the son's leg any, though.

I'd recommend the book, especially if you've heard of Hetty and have wondered what the story was behind her parsimony.