Tag: Books

Posted on

Book Review: How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Antiracist

★★★★☆

This has been on the “to-read” list for awhile and I finally decided to check it out after Dr. Kendi did a (virtual) speaking event / QA session at our company.

We’re the same age and graduated high school the same year, so for me, this was an interesting contrast between my privileged white life and his life and the struggles that he and his family had to continuously faced because the deck is so continuously stacked against people of color.

I feel that this book is at its best when he shares vulnerable and deeply personal stories on his growth and evolving ideas of race, gender, and sexual preference.

This definitely provided a new perspective (for me) to consider when thinking about how lucky and privileged I’ve been and how much I’ve taken it for granted while others have struggled and sacrificed so much (up to and including their own lives).

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Posted on

Book Review: Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Tender

★☆☆☆☆

Ugh, oh God, no. What did I just read?

Animals and livestock get some disease that means humans can’t eat them anymore. Sooooo… we turn to raising and farming humans to get our meat fix. Sounds like it could be an interesting plot for a dystopian novel (it kind of reminded me of Ashfall by Mike Mullin).

But really, what was I expecting?

I think the whole point of this book was to be provocative, shocking and straight up gruesome. And it was all those things. And more. Including horrible.

From the overly descriptive details of factory farming (no doubt taken from existing farming / slaughter methods used when processing cattle), to the poorly written prose, to the loathsome characters, this book had almost no redeeming qualities.

Somehow, I managed to finish it, despite feeling almost nauseous during certain passages. But I really feel like it was a waste of time and I am a worse person for it. Definitely one of my least liked novels that I’ve read in a long, long time.

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Posted on

Book Review: The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis

Undoing

★★★★☆

I enjoyed this story about the founding fathers of behavioral economics and their seemingly unlikely friendship. Their work has influenced so many aspects of our lives.

We also learn about a number of their experiments, the how and why behind them, and what it ultimately means. Some of the examples were pretty jaw dropping and I found myself falling for some of the same fallacies they were pointing out. M

We are really irrational creatures.

Interestingly, I read Thinking, Fast and Slow a few years ago and just now realized that the author of that book is one of the psychologists that this book is about!

The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis

Posted on

Book Review: Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing by Jacob Goldstein

Money book

★★★☆☆

Quick read about the history of money in all its various forms. The historical aspects of this book are really interesting (and it delves into everything from the creation of paper currency, to stock exchanges, to digital currencies) though it never does a deep dive into any particular topic.

As other reviewers have mentioned, the writing style is really off-putting. It reads almost like a conversation or transcript and this maybe explains why it never digs into any topic with much detail.

That said, it was still interesting and is probably worth it to file away some of the knowledge for a trivia night at the local pub.

Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing by Jacob Goldstein

Posted on

Book Review: A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough

Life planet

★★★★☆

I love Sir David Attenborough and was excited to read this. It’s one part biography, another part dire warning letter to those of us who will be alive long after David Attenborough departs this world, and one part hope, talking about the things we are doing now and in the near future to (hopefully, maybe) avoid a climate disaster.

The first half of the book is definitely not a happy-feel-good story. He writes a letter to us and future generations, warning of the changes he has seen in his lifetime and the changes yet to happen due to climate change and our affect on the planet.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. He gives an overview of some of the sustainable ideas and technologies that various individuals, companies and even some governments are working on and the massive benefits they have if they are scaled up. It gives some hope that we might (maybe, hopefully) can turn things around. But time is definitely running out.

And given how people have generally responded to wearing masks and social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, we probably don’t have much hope.

A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough

Posted on

Book Review: Underland by Robert Macfarlane

Robert Macfarlane has to be one of my favorite nature writers as of late. His latest, Underland, takes us on a journey to the ground beneath our feet. The book focuses on a number of discrete stories and adventures, all of which are unified simply due to the fact that they take place in the ground beneath our feet and uses these experiences to describe the concept of “deep time”.

What is deep time?

For deep time is measured in units that humble the human instant: millennia, epochs and aeons, instead of minutes, months and years. Deep time is kept by rock, ice, stalactites, seabed sediments and the drift of tectonic plates. Seen in deep time, things come alive that seemed inert. New responsibilities declare themselves. Ice breathes. Rock has tides. Mountains rise and fall. We live on a restless Earth.

A few other reviews on Goodreads have mentioned that they felt the book didn’t ultimately have a point. I kind of agree with that — you could almost treat each section as its own short story.

That said, I loved every moment of it. Each section was beautifully written and I loved reading Macfarlane reflect on his experiences, reflecting on the things we are leaving behind for future generations, and pondering what each place (or the idea of each place) he visited means in the greater scheme of things to humanity.

Perhaps above all, the Anthropocene compels us to think forwards in deep time, and to weigh what we will leave behind, as the landscapes we are making now will sink into the strata becoming the underlands. What is the history of things to come? What will be our future fossils? As we have amplified our ability to shape the world, so we become more responsible for the long afterlives of that shaping. The Anthropocene asks of us the question memorably posed by the immunologist Jonas Salk: ‘Are we being good ancestors?

Posted on

Book Review: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

I loved the first half of this book. A young woman living in France during the early 1700’s makes a deal with the devil (The Darkness) before an arranged marriage she wants no part in. However, due to how she phrased her request (you might say, “the devil is in the details“), the devil gives her the ability to live forever, but no one will ever remember her — this leads to situations where people forget who she is the moment she walks through a doorway.

Anyway, the first half of the book mostly dealt with her experience in the immediate aftermath and then a varying number of years down the road. The second half of the book takes place in more recent times and I couldn’t totally get into it due to a newer character that gets introduced and their desires, motivations, and personality.

My favorite parts were flashbacks to various points in history, where she is experiencing new / different places and figuring out the limits of this curse / deal that she had made.

Finally, there is an interesting little plot twist with this new character that comes to light in the last quarter of the story that ends up affecting how the book ultimately ends. But I still really had to force myself to finish the second half.

Posted on

Book Review: “Heavier Than Heaven” by Charles Cross

2020 has been crazy. Somehow, I just finished my 65th book of the year — Heavier Than Heaven, a biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles Cross.

I vaguely remember how big of a deal Kurt Cobain’s death was when I was in middle school, but I never really thought too much about him as a person, or the deeper meaning behind various Nirvana songs. All this, despite being a huge part of the sound track of my teenage life.

One of my biggest takeaways after reading this book was: how can you help those who don’t want it?

What a tortured, tormented soul who really struggled with life. I honestly felt down and depressed after reading certain parts of this book. I would put it down and mope about the house while I processed what I just read.

That said, another part of the book that I really enjoyed and appreciated was hearing how much joy and life his daughter brought to his life and how much he loved being a dad.

Also, after reading this, I think it’s incredible and seemingly improbable that Nirvana actually happened.

I often found myself flipping between this book and Spotify to listen to various Nirvana songs that were mentioned, trying to appreciate them in a new light and really hear them and looking at various performances on YouTube.