Corey McCaffrey
A captivating journey through art and life
Patrick Bringley's book, part memoir, part art history, is page after page of fascinating insights into artwork, the artists who created them, a museum that collects and exhibits them, the museum goers who look at them, and—above all—the museum guards who stand unobtrusively against the walls of each gallery, quietly watching and thinking.
I was a bit skeptical about what to expect from the first of four books Sanderson wrote in a year for a Kickstarter campaign, but I don't know why I ever doubted him. Sanderson said this book was inspired by two of my favorites: The Princess Bride and Good Omens. For Cosmere fans, it's narrated by Hoid and features Hoid prominently in a supporting role, and there are a few other references and species scattered throughout. But it still holds up as a standalone story on yet another new world with yet another compelling new magic system—deadly fluidized spore oceans! Enjoy.
I can't say enough good things about this book. Mike Massimino is a great storyteller, and he infuses so much meaning into every step he took on his journey becoming and being an astronaut.
Even if you're not normally a fan of audiobooks, try this one! You can hear Mike tell his story in his own great voice.
Do I need to give this book a rating? Five stars are too many; three stars too few. Does a rating mean anything without a review? So she wanted to know whether I loved the book. I answered... that it didn't mean anything, but that I probably didn't love the book.
Disappointing follow-up in the Ender's Shadow series. I'll probably still read the final installment Shadows Alive anyway to see what happens. I can't say enough good things about both the Ender Quartet and the Shadow series, but I wish Card had stopped this series after Shadow of the Giant.
Great telling of the history, science, and drama behind the search for a planet between the Sun and Mercury to explain apparent oddities in Mercury's orbit.
This book should be at the top of your list for 8th grade graduation gifts. Look past the somewhat sensationalist title—this book is a practical, insightful guide for navigating high school toward college admissions with less stress, competition, and busyness.
Liquid Rules is a fun and fascinating book, and a great follow-up to Stuff Matters. Interesting and wide-ranging facts about all types of liquids were organized around charming and ceaselessly self-effacing vignettes from the author's transatlantic flight. The audiobook narration is perfect.
This is a great, brief audiobook narrated by the author. It vividly illustrates the tension many left-leaning, liberal Jews like me feel about being left behind by the progressive movement, and the confusion many of us feel about the rise of identity politics.
It's impossible for me to read this book without comparing it to my favorite book on the subject, How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss. Bari offers the American perspective, David the British. Bari leans into Judaism and Zionism, David sets them aside to focus on anti-Jewish racism irrespective of religion and Israel. Bari's book has breadth, looking at historical and present anti-semitism from the left, right, and radical Islam; David's book is more narrowly focused on recent examples from the left.
Bari's target audience is mainly (I think) other Jews; in the “How to Fight” chapter, she is speaking to Jews (e.g., “Lean into Judaism,” and “Nurture your Jewish identity”). David's target audience is (I think) everyone. In one example after another, he turns an antisemitic incident on its head, inviting people to consider how they would react if an analogous incident had been targeted at a different minority.
I even went so far as to search for any comments Bari and David may have written about each other's books, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they will be speaking with each other next week (3/18/2021): https://howtoacademy.com/events/bari-weiss-meets-david-baddiel-jews-dont-count/
I preferred Bari's book. I preferred her approach of embracing Israel and Judaism as inextricably linked to fighting anti-semitism over David's approach of minimizing their importance to the Jewish experience of a British atheist Jew. But I hope you'll read both anyway.
Not bad, but I thought the author's more recent book The More of Less was better, more or less. If you're already familiar with the author's material, you can either skip this one, or skim it for the practical suggested habits in each chapter.
I have been using YNAB for years and the YNAB method for years before that, so I am not really the target audience for this book. I wanted to read it anyway as a huge fan of Jesse, his company, his software, and—most of all—his brand and style of budget philosophy.
Unfortunately, there wasn't that much in this book for me. I picked up a few interesting tips in the budgeting for couples and budgeting for parents chapters, but not enough to recommend this highly to YNAB users, unless, like me, you're a super-fan.
But I tried to put myself in the shoes of someone who has never heard of YNAB. And from the perspective of a newcomer looking for high quality books about an ordinarily unappealing topic, I can easily rate this book at five stars.
Regardless of whether the idea of budgeting makes you squeamish, or you've tried dozens of budgeting systems but just haven't found the right one, this book is a fantastic introduction to the YNAB system. It is not a how-to guide or a lengthy sales pitch for his software. Instead, Jesse ensures anyone can feel confident using his system for free with pen and paper or the spreadsheet software of your choice.
But since Jesse won't say it, I will: the YNAB software is fantastic, and if you like what you find in this book, it's definitely worth at least trialing the software.
If you liked Dan's first 10% Happier book, you'll probably like this one too.
If you haven't read Dan's first 10% Happier book, you should probably read that one first.
Good short story. In hindsight, it feels like something that could have been set in the American Gods universe.
For Stormlight fans: this YA, soft sci-fi book reminded me heavily—in the best ways possible—of the Shattered Plains scenes from The Way of Kings, except with Starfighters instead of ladders and shards, Krell instead of Parshmen, Acclivity rings instead of gemhearts, and Spensa instead of Kaladin. Further comparisons could spoil the story, for example... M-Bot is Syl, and Spensa's growing magical bond with M-Bot unlocks some important superpowers for the sequel..
It was also reminiscent of Ender's Game and Armada but, in many ways, more fun and gripping than either.
Among the most influential and interesting books I have ever read, I am inspired to give (and scared not to give) myself an 8-hour sleep opportunity every night.
Set an alarm to go to bed each night. That's the key tip the author wants everyone to take away.
Read the rest of the book to learn why and how we can sleep better across a range of topics: mental and physical health, safety, memory, school and work productivity, childhood development, and aging, avoiding caffeine and alcohol, and on and on.
Fun, quick read. Don't worry about trying to make sense of the technology—how it works or why it's there—just accept the fantastical premise and enjoy Sanderson's short take on the buddy cop/detective genre.
I read this as part of Arcanum Unbounded. Did you like the interludes in the Wax and Wayne books, featuring gentleman adventurer serials in the broadsheets? Then this short story is for you!
Short, entertaining, audio-only overview of Albert Einstein's development of the Special and General Theories of Relativity. The performance—at times, overdone—dramatizes historical quotations and includes some Einstein myth-busting. Greene is elucidating as usual, but science enthusiasts won't find much new here they don't already know.
I read this as part of Arcanum Unbounded right after finishing Bands of Mourning.
This is a fun, weird, wild ride back through the original Mistborn trilogy, from a strange and surprising point of view. I think the original Mistborn trilogy stands fine on its own, but Secret History might be required reading to make sense of some parts of Bands of Mourning as well.
The main character is in fantastic form. I had almost forgotten how much I liked this character from the original trilogy.
I'm not sure why this is rated so much lower on average than Ready Player One. I thought they were both fun, quick reads, each enjoyable in their own way.
