Corey McCaffrey
Thought-provoking hard science fiction about trying to start a colony in a neighboring solar system. It's cleverly written as being narrated by the spaceship's on-board AI.
I read this as part of Arcanum Unbounded. It is a very short prequel featuring a favorite character at a pivotal point in his life. I don't think it's essential to read this, but it's worth a few minutes for Mistborn fans.
Bands of Mourning is great. Nevertheless, it's probably my least favorite Mistborn entry so far. The second half of the book does a substantial amount of world-building and introduces some new aspects to the magic system, and it felt rushed and somewhat unexplained compared to what I've gotten used to from this series. Nonetheless, it was still a great book, and I am looking forward to the next installment, The Lost Metal.
It was interesting to learn the origin story of the Silo in book one, but otherwise mostly disappointing. The protagonist is not particularly relatable or likable, especially compared to the heroine introduced in book one.
“Some say that my teaching is nonsense; others call it lofty but impractical. But to those who have looked inside themselves, this nonsense makes perfect sense.”
I had never heard of this book until recently, when I saw two or three strong recommendations for it within the same month. I can understand why some people draw parallels to stoicism or secular mindfulness, and I can imagine a dedicated student engaging in extensive exegesis could benefit from this text, but I found it uninspiring and too mystical. I remain in the “this is nonsense” camp.
Fun and entertaining. Victorian-ish nanotech. It was sort of like steampunk but with neither steam nor punk. It's also heavy on low-level computer science topics, which have a special place in my heart.
Entertaining entry in the post-apocalyptic dystopia genre. However, the two sequels in this trilogy were a bit of a letdown.
Clever and thought-provoking; really enjoyed the world-building centered around cloistered mathematicians and physicists and their relationship with engineers and the rest of the outside world.
Really fun, quick read.
It also reminded me that even 80s geeks can have wildly different expertise in different sub-genres...
One of the first puzzles to get solved was something about Dungeons and Dragons that felt so esoteric to me that I almost lost interest in the book, thinking “These are not the 1980s references you were looking for.”
Later, I was rewarded with a clue that should have been so obvious to anyone who played text adventures. But, bafflingly, the clue was so challenging to the general population of players in the book that this puzzle went unsolved by any character for a significant length of time in the book.
Picked it up when I heard that a TV series is in the works. It's an entertaining twist on modernized mythology, but it's nothing like Percy Jackson.
Good, though I am a little surprised by its immense popularity. It's Holocaust fiction that focuses on a family of Righteous Gentiles trying to get by in their town amidst the rise of the Nazi party and surviving the war (rations, bombings, etc.).
The mother's nonstop verbal abuse (and occasional physical abuse) is jarring— she constantly refers to her husband and daughter as “asshole” and “bitch” respectively, and the daughter picks up this habit with her friends. But it's always written out in German, so it's somehow meant to be more endearing?
If, God forbid, you or a loved one ever need surgery, and you have an opportunity to ask questions before the operation, ask the surgeon whether he or she uses the WHO Safe Surgery Checklist. If you don't think this sounds like a big deal one way or the other, please read this book.
My former law firm's IP department used a variety of checklists to great effect. If you're not using checklists in your job, consider reading this book to understand how nearly every industry and profession can benefit.
This book is good for fans of The Minimalists. If you're not familiar, start with their TED talks, their blog, or their podcast. However, by the time you are acquainted with them, most of this book will be a review of familiar stories.
Failed to inspire me. There are better introductions to focused work (Deep Work by Cal Newport is my favorite. Essentialism was pretty good too.)
Scythe was very good; Thunderhead was great.
Scythe could have worked well as a standalone novel, but Thunderhead—for better or worse—has massive cliffhangers on several fronts. Looking forward to seeing how this all plays out in book 3.
“I have yet to come across a living vibration, but if I do, I will certainly have many things to ask it. Although I expect its responses may be, well, monotonous.”
Very good, but book 2 is still the best of the trilogy.
“We couldn't count our chickens before they'd hatched.”
“Or put our eggs in one basket... I wonder which expression came first, the chickens or the eggs.”
Quick read. If you can ignore the occasional sprinkling of Christian scripture (author is a former pastor), the rest is pretty good guidance for suburbanite families.
I'm glad I finished the series, but I found it a lot less compelling than the first two books.
I recommend Cal Newport's So Good They Can't Ignore You instead. And also his more recent book Deep Work.
I've been following Cal Newport's blog, Study Hacks, for a while, so a lot of the ideas presented here were familiar, but it was still a great, great book with organization, depth, and insight that has inspired directly measurable improvements to my productivity and satisfaction with work.
Great concept and cool magic system involving various abilities for manipulating time.
A skeptical, cynical introduction to secular meditation and mindfulness, nestled within a memoir full of ABC News inside baseball.