Favorite Books

What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies

by Tim Urban

Currently still reading but I know already I want this on my list.

The Little Drummer Girl

by John le Carré

What a story and what a group of characters. Incredible story telling though. Writing isn't easy. Sometimes I found my mind wandering and wasn't sure if the writing was a bit too slow for me. When this happened I went back and re-read the pages and found that I missed a lot. If you stick with it though you end up with entirely different life etched into your mind which I love. Watching the AMC TV series now which helps bring the characters even more to life.

The book was first published in 1983 and yet the politics haven't changed in the 41 years. The story could take place today. This is such a colossal failure of political leadership it boggles my mind.

Read based on book recommendations from the Ezra Klein Show with Thomas Friedman (Jan 19, 2024).

Why We're Polarized

by Ezra Klein

Didn't think I would find a book about American politics as interesting as I did. The writing and arguments are very compelling and helpful for understanding the specifics of U.S. politics but also what is generally happening in the world and Canada in regards to left-right wing ideologies and how they shape our current culture.

After reading this I've been binging on the Erza Klein podcast which is also very good. Hilarious because I found out about Erza Klein when he did an interview with my favorite cookbook author Mark Bittman.

The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle

by Steven Pressfield

Second time reading this. It's still amazing and full of advice when the self doubt creeps into while doing creative work.

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

by Eric Hoffer

Amazing! The book is very dense but also very approachable. Some fine thinking, sometimes I was just hanging trying to keep up with the discussion.

Written 60+ years ago but feels just if not more relevant today. Goes to show how human nature doesn't change.

Lolita

by Vladimir Nabokov

What a rollercoaster of a book. Beautiful and sometimes challenging writing about a complete psychopath. I can't write a review to do this book justice.

The Song of Achilles

by Madeline Miller

Far better than I was expecting. Looking forward to reading more of the author's books.

The Manual: 21st Century Edition

by Epictetus and Sam Torode

I love this book and read it every year. Happy to have an updated version that reads even better while still keeping the same valuable wisdom.

Storm of Steel

by Ernst Jünger

Brutal WW1 personal account from the German perspective. The author is a different breed if even half of what he wrote is true. The fact that he somehow lived through the ordeal is incredible. The vast waste of life and resources is sobering.

Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World

by Carl T. Bergstrom

Another great book on critical thinking. Different than Good Thinking which I also loved. This one talks more about the specifics of how misinformation is spread and techniques on how to detect and defeat it.

The Bell Jar

by Sylvia Plath

Amazing writing and great story telling. Went in knowing almost nothing about it or the author so did not expect how it turned out.

This Is How Your Marriage Ends: A Hopeful Approach to Saving Relationships

by Matthew Fray

Lots of great information in an easy to read format. The biggest idea I took from this was prioritizing relationships with people over being right.

Being right is overrated in relationships. I'll never forget his example of a child scared of monsters under the bed and how arguing that the child is obviously wrong only harms your relationship.

A Philosophy of Software Design

by John Ousterhout

It was as if the author reached into my head and wrote my own ideas around software development. I love when a find a book that explains my own ideas with more clarity. Having existing ideas explained better is just as valuable as reading about new ideas. I wish I had this book when I was starting my career in software.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

by Frederick Douglass

After listening to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History episode "Human Resources" on the Atlantic Slave Trade I noticed he quoted from this book so thought I'd give it a read as I've had it on my list for years.

Great read, and amazing primary source from a slave of that time. Incredible that he could teach himself to read and write under that situation. In many ways the book reminded me of "Man's Search For Meaning" for the strength of character Douglass has.

Recommend for anybody interested in BLM, American History, and human rights. Listen to Dan Carlin's podcast episoded titled "Human Resources" for additional breadth.

The VB6 Cookbook: More than 350 Recipes for Healthy Vegan Meals All Day and Delicious Flexitarian Dinners at Night

by Mark Bittman

This book changed my life. It's a hack to get you to eat more vegetables and less processed food and meat. The recipes and style of cooking really worked for me and have made my confident at hosting dinner parties with food I know my friends and family will love.

Cooking for people provides another way to love your friends and family that is difficult to describe until you do it. If you aren't comfortable cooking for a group do yourself a favor and learn.

The Sellout

by Paul Beatty

At times hilarious and almost always outrageous. I'm not quite sure what I read but the writing was amazing. It's about race and many other things.

As mentioned in a review by Jessica Woodbury on GoodReads I too am "hesitant to know how to talk about it. So much in this book is untouchable and off limits and taboo."

The Psychology of Money

by Morgan Housel

I great short book that aligns with my thoughts on money. The chapter on the seduction of pessimism was specifically interesting and how that seems to be hardwired into humans.

Update after second reading. Still amazing and can't recommend it enough. Short enough to read multiple times.

Recommend for anybody investing or wanting to understand feelings around money and investing.

Good Thinking: Why Flawed Logic Puts Us All at Risk and How Critical Thinking Can Save the World

by David Robert Grimes

What a great book! I've read a couple of critical thinking books in the last couple of years and this was by far the best. The use of stories and real examples makes understanding the fallacies and hazards to critical thinking much easier to understand and watch for.

I suspect everybody reading this book will come across or at least recognize an example of where the thinking may have led them astray. Reading this book will help inoculate yourself from the reams of bad information pushed by accident and on purpose.

I think everybody would benefit and enjoy this is book. Even better, read it with a friend or in a group to stimulate discussion.

Project Hail Mary

by Andy Weir

This was an incredibly fun read to geek out to. I loved how the story unfolded without knowing much about the general direction. If you loved "The Martian" by the same author you'll like this book even though they aren't related.

I've read this once and listened to the even better audiobook twice.

The Laws of Human Nature

by Robert Greene

Best book of the year. I think there are probably a lot of problems and I bet he took a lot of liberty with some of the stories but the amount of self reflection and learning I received from reading this book was outstanding.

The Selfish Gene

by Richard Dawkins

Was not expecting to gain so much insight about behaviour and psychology as I did from this book. Very interesting and very readable. What impressed me was how well the ideas he had were communicated in the book.

The chapter on altruism and The Prisoner's Dilemma were especially interesting in explaining group behaviour during Covid restrictions.

This Is Water

by David Foster Wallace

Oh my I wasn't sure what to expect but damn this was a beautiful bit of writing. Read it out loud to people you care about and then go learn who the author was if you don't already know (I didn't).

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

by Carl Sagan

I really like Carl Sagan and the way he thinks. Some sections in the book are a semi-dated (UFO sightings) but if you replace UFO with 5G the psychology still applies.

The second part of the book and the final chapters were really good. If you like Carl Sagan and are interested in critical thinking and science you will like this book. If not but you are interested in liberty and freedom you will really like this book as it shows the role of education and democracy.

Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West

by Cormac McCarthy

Wanted to read something to contrast "The Inconvenient Indian" I recently finished. Yikes, what a novel! Difficult and not an easy read but this one is going to stick with me for a while.

Felt like a mash up between Quentin Tarantino and Henry David Thoreau. This is capital L literature. Many times I read a page and was left not understanding what was going on while at the same time feeling this is significant.

This isn't for everybody but I'm glad to have read it and will try some more of his novels because of it.

Anything You Want

by Derek Sivers

It is so enjoyable and refreshing when a book-story is the length it should be I just loved the stories, lessons, and philosophy. So nice when somebody can explain the thoughts in your head better than you can so you can then share them and discuss them with others.

I've heard Derek talk before and even remember the passion he had around learning Ruby on Rails back in the day. It's great to hear his story and the world is a better place for him being in it.

Do yourself a favour and listen to the audiobook version even if you read the book.

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I really want to give this book 3 stars and maybe fewer based on all the times I was yelling at the author. And yet I kept reading because he has some interesting points. The problem is all the side journeys you need to follow to get to the nuggets at the end I feel I missed half of the concepts.

It doesn't help that the author is difficult to like.

The book is about exactly what the subtitle says but you need to read the book to understand the importance of the topic with his examples. The gist being that humans aren't capable of thinking in terms of extreme events and so we ignore them and they cause great harm (or good). As the world is changing to produce more of these improbable events a new non-intuitive way of thinking is needed to help hedge against the impacts.

I'm sure this is a horrible summary and the author would murder me with words or just as likely write me off as incompetent. I'm good with either outcome.

The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

by Neil Strauss

One of those risky to admit to reading books but damn this was such a crazy story and the author is a great writer.

The Three-Body Problem

by Liu Cixin

First time reading sci-fi from a Chinese author. Loved the plot and the incredible concepts. Some might be far fetched but honestly it doesn't matter. I think this would make an amazing movie with big enough budget. If you are looking for character development or literature you might be disappointed but if you want a fun read and our brain intrigued go for it.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

by Carson McCullers

Hard to believe this was written by somebody so young. The character development and story is suburb. Only giving 4 stars because it still didn't grip me completely and found I had to push a bit to finish it.

Update: I still think of the characters in this book years after reading it. The book gripped me more than I realized immediately after finishing.

Passionate Marriage: Keeping Love and Intimacy Alive in Committed Relationships

by David Schnarch

I can't rate this book high enough. I gained a huge amount of insight about my self. The book's material goes well beyond relationships and can impact any aspect of your life but the core message is about love and intimacy.

The frank eroticism was surprising and tastefully done. I would recommend this book to anybody in a relationship or that wants to be in one.

Never Let Me Go

by Kazuo Ishiguro

The novel annoyed me but for some reason I kept at it. It tries too hard to be a page turner using annoying techniques. At the end of each chapter to the point I made a mental note to skip the last paragraph in each chapter for this reason. The ending also needlessly explains the whole plot like a James Bond movie where the villain reveals the grand plan.

I loved the premise and the issues that the book touched out. Many deep themes about betrayal, racism, love, sex, and illness. The biggest impact for me was showing the pandora's box scientific progress can open leaving humanity to deal with it the best it can.

Edit: I still think about this book 5 years later. While I might have been annoyed with the writing the story definitely moved me.

Matterhorn

by Karl Marlantes

Devastating novel of the Vietnam war told from the American perspective. Incredibly detailed. Characters and story are compelling and believable with many sides to love and hate.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

by Yuval Noah Harari

Good pace and lots of interesting concepts. It covers so much ground that it is just touching on topics but is a great starting point and opens up lots of opportunity for discussion.

Recommend continuing into the future with Homo Deus after reading this.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

by Dennis E. Taylor

Fast paced, enjoyable fun read, not very deep. Lots of interesting ideas around von Neumann probes (self replicating space craft). Maybe too much insider 20th century geeky references. The ending just stops so the three books in the series (I think) are really one book. Not that this is a distraction but the material could be adapted well to a movie or TV series, which I'm sure the author had in mind when it was written.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr