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Very helpful tips from top performers, conveniently categorised and with added commentary, too, by Tim Ferriss.
Read this in the recommendations of strangers on Facebook and it's one of the most gruesome horror I've read. The perfect diet book, actually, because you'll lose your appetite within the first chapter.
In a nutshell: Five boys and a Scoutmaster are on an island, soon to be joined by a man, ravaged by a mysterious disease, who's escaped from a military research centre. Things go bad, very bad, and it's pretty much up to the kids to survive.
The above does not do justice to the horror contained in the tale. Shades of Lord of The Flies with its frequent kids vs adults juxtaposition, but really, a solid, frightening Man vs Monster story.
On my fourth BuJo but still a lot to learn. A beautiful book that's also packed with wisdom. Begs another reading to cull all the helpful tips and advice, plus reminders on elements I've not yet incorporated.
3.5 stars. This was a long slog especially in the first half. There are many themes explored: race, identity, independence, inequality, but it's all told as from a distance. The protagonist works for a celebrity who decides to build a school in West Africa. We never even know the name of the protagonist even though the tale is told from her POV.
But the writing is brilliant, and she describes perfectly emotional reactions. Love her insights into elitism as well. Some parts are humorous, though because the distance from the story is such (imagine you're viewing the tale via an old TV set), it never gets to funny the way On Beauty did.
Note: This was my first encounter with W Gibson.
This was not the easiest collection of short stories to read, because the author's descriptions of the future are so vivid, manic, and unapologetically hard-core specific you get disoriented at the world he's painting. In his world(s), social divides are magnified and the synthetic get woven into the real, reinforcing rather than mitigating human flaws. The stories buzz with energy, the characters are gritty, emotive, and the science seems just out-there plausible.
Three of the 10 stories are author collaborations. Favourites are New Rose Hotel (corporate espionage in a way I've never read), Red Star, Winter Orbit (Russian astronauts in space), and Burning Chrome (which has the most beautiful descriptions of computer hacking, and viruses).
Will pick up Gibson's Neuromancer soon.