Well, this is swell. I received an email this morning saying that Raj Shah likes my book, “The Alchemy of Air.”  For those of you who don’t know,  Shah came out of the Dept. Agriculture, through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and now heads USAID, the central agency for distributing tens of billions of dollars in US civilian aid to foreign countries.  In other words, he’s kind of a big deal (and take a look at the photo — he’s not even 40 years old yet). Young, talented — and very good taste in literature.

Here’s the email:

Dear Professor Hager,

I am writing from FiveBooks at TheBrowser.com. Each day on FiveBooks, we feature an interview with an expert — a scholar, artist, politician, journalist, or other eminent figure — who recommends and discusses the five best books in his or her field. I thought you might be interested to know that  Dr Rajiv Shah has recommended your book, The Alchemy of Air, as one of five must read books on Breakthroughs in Development. Here is the link:
http://thebrowser.com/interviews/rajiv-shah-on-breakthroughs-development