Josh Bokor

A funny, introspective, motivational book from the Queens-based chef turned rapper Action Bronson. It's part memoir, part short storytelling, part self help, part stream of consciousness while also being surprisingly enlightening. I enjoyed it. It's interesting reading about his perspective on his family heritage, life in NY, overeating, steroid usage, working out, cooking, being creative, putting a positive impact on others, and living life to the fullest.

A funny, introspective, motivational book from the Queens-based chef turned rapper Action Bronson. It's part memoir, part short storytelling, part self help, part stream of consciousness while also being surprisingly enlightening. I enjoyed it. It's interesting reading about his perspective on his family heritage, life in NY, overeating, steroid usage, working out, cooking, being creative, putting a positive impact on others, and living life to the fullest.

I love puzzles, but not as much as A.J. Jacobs. Jacobs is primarily a writer and has spent his time in this book delving through all things puzzles: the history of them, how they are beloved, why puzzles, and how Jacobs intertwines his life and challenges himself at tackling the craziest and toughest puzzles ever known. “The Puzzler” ranges all over, from classics like sudoku and crosswords to riddles to mazes all the way to even the most controversial or craziest puzzles. Jacobs not only details them but actually takes part, such as creating the American team in the World Jigsaw Championship, walking through the most challenging corn maze, and even creating his own puzzles and seeing how they work. I love puzzles, so naturally if you do you'll love this book. Even if you don't I think you'll find something to enjoy, whether it's Jacobs' personality and humor, the stories he tells, or even the puzzles themselves. Like “Seven Games” by Oliver Roeder, a fantastic book on games I read last Fall, I want to read even more books about the puzzle and game phenomenon and why humans love them so much and can't seem to stop playing them.

This book was ok for what it is. I'm not exactly the biggest fan of these type of cheesy romance dramas but this one was breezy and Serle's descriptions on the overall nature and environment of Italy was pleasant to envision. That being said, this book is pretty frustrating. It's funny that Serle is putting Katy, the story's lead protagonist, on this pedestal for readers to feel all this sympathy for her because of her mother's passing... and it's funny because Katy sucks. I have no reason to root for her in any way because she can't make a decision on her own without including her mother's opinions and views. Katy worships her mother, Carol, so highly and passionately that it's extremely annoying, irritating, and borderline in a way that's very grossly romantic...? Like as if Katy has a thing for her mother? It's weird. Also Eric, Katy's husband, is just thrown in the trash metaphorically by Katy pretty much the whole time for literally no reason at all. He's kind, loving, and trustworthy and Katy treats him like a villain. It's pretty dumb. And as pleasant as the descriptions are of Italy to read, I could see Italians being offended and grossed out by the surface level and stereotypical descriptions, similar to that of French people seeing “Emily In Paris.” Overall it was decent and I liked the twist but there's too many annoying things to make this redeemable.

As someone who has read a lot of memoirs, especially from those who have been part of the SNL cast, Leslie Jones' memoir is among the best. It not just shows how hilarious, charming, and charismatic Leslie is but also how powerful, strong, and resilient she truly is. Reading about her life was full of hilarity, failure, heartbreak, tragedy, confidence, and triumph. It was so dang good throughout and I couldn't put it down. I love the messages about being true to yourself, embracing what defines or doesn't define you, doing the best you can, embracing failure and stepping back up to the plate and keep on swinging. Highly recommend!

Very entertaining and joyful read! Although it's not the best written memoir out there, it's so fun to read about Tom Felton's childhood, acting career and of course his time in the wizarding world. He's full of humor and personality and it's printed all over the pages. I even loved his humility and humbleness throughout the book. He's a genuine soul.

This book was SO fun and SO interesting to read about the intricacies, details, and quirky tidbits about everything around where you live and interact with on a daily basis from biking to mail to sewage to squirrels to graffiti to street signs. This book is such a joy to read and I would say it's essential and educational for anyone who's remotely interested in what's going on with how things work in your community, along with what we and others can do to make it better. Also shout out to Spike Carlsen and Stillwater, MN! It's awesome to read about his journey and exploration through his community and the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

I really wanted to love this book. I really did. Unfortunately the stories, many that feature the rise of famed female country artists, are just way too repetitive, dull, and boring for me to hold interest. I wanted to learn more about the rise of women in country music but the way Moss writes these stories and filters through Maren Morris, Kacey Musgraves, and Mickey Guyton's stories are just way too repetitive for me to read an entire book on. I got halfway through earlier this year and thought I'd come back to it, but I don't think I see myself going back. There are just other more interesting books I'd rather spend my time with. I think you have to be an ultra fan of these artists and this genre to get more out of it than I did. This most likely should've been a series of short stories or should've been an extended piece on an online music publication to be honest. It's not nearly as fully fleshed out or thought out as I would've hoped.

Who would've thought that Ben McKenzie, star of the hit TV show The O.C., would delve into the world of crypto and successfully argue that the entire world this digital tech is in is a straight up fraud? It's a surprising decision for McKenzie but crypto being a complete scam is not at all surprising to me going into this book. What was surprising were how these massive crypto companies rose to fame and their levels of insanity, hilarity, and stupidity that would ensue and eventually claim their downfall. This is a very interesting read since I didn't know too much about crypto, especially the details of it but it is also entertaining the way Ben would implement his perspective, interest, and personality into this book. This is very insightful and Ben and co. do a fantastic job at explaining in a way that is easy to follow and understand. Not only is this book and its subject matter massively important but it perfectly covers the way the murky poisonous greed of late stage capitalism would seep into our politics, our society, our world, with countless innocent lives being destroyed as a result.

Very solid motivational / self help / memoir hybrid book. It's interesting to read about his life, perspective, and ways that you can find more meaning to not only make your life better but to make others better. It's a refreshing book to read from someone who seems to have a very unique background and who has values and opinions that we can all agree on (hopefully...?)

This book rules. I love Chuck's style of writing, perspective, and analysis. This is the third book I've read from Chuck thus far and you definitely get a lot of his personality, charm, and hilarity through this one. Tons of great stories and insights and it's pretty interesting to see how much he has/hasn't changed by reading his takes from ‘03.

Although a little repetitive when reading about repeated extra-terrestrial encounters and sightings, this book was an entertaining and interesting read. This makes me want to read, watch, and listen to even more encounters from people. Aliens are real, folks.

As subject matter, this little collection of Greta Thunberg's speeches are extremely important, vital, and full of urgency when it comes to the climate crisis. As an actual read, it can be repetitive and a little dull. That being said, it's still a very important little book and great to have in your collection. I can't wait to read her book “The Climate Book” at some point too.

This is an interesting read on something I never even knew about: harvesting icebergs for freshwater. It is cool to read about the uses, history, culture, ethics, positives and negatives of icebergs and act of towing them. There are some parts that seem to go into the details heavily to where it can be difficult to follow but otherwise it's quite the educational read into how and why we should harvest icebergs for the sake of our planet's water crisis.

As a fan of both NPR (he hosts NPR's “All Things Considered”) and Pink Martini (he sings/tours with the band), Ari Shapiro's new book is a must for me. You don't have to be too familiar with his work and involvement with covering news stories but it certainly helps. It's an enjoyable book that looks into Ari as a person as well as going in depth at some of the stories he's covered as well as some fun facts about him. From reading this, he seems to be a genuine and caring soul and I totally recommend it for anyone interested in reading about some good stories, some that will make your eyes watery and some that will make you grin.

This book's subject matter is very important and essential to read when it comes to the rise of social media and how it has negatively impacted our society and the world at large through hate, addictive tactics, and corporate greed. That being said, much of this book for me I already knew the ins and outs of, so it was pretty redundant and repetitive for me. It's one of the few books I've listened to as an audiobook and the really dull narrator didn't help either. If you don't know much of about the stories and events that this book covers, then this would be a very well detailed and insightful read. If not, then I'd probably skip.

Beautifully written, Salman's book recounting his traumatic and deadly encounter that nearly took his life is definitely one of the best reads you'll find this year. It's full of many different emotions throughout and he even finds uplifting humor in moments which is both surprising and impressive. I can't imagine what he has been going through over the past couple years and this book certainly shows his strength, bravery, and honesty. Highly recommend!

Taylor goes through the evolution of the internet, social media, its influence and culture from the early 2000's to current day pretty accessibly and seamlessly. It's a proper telling of the many different media and tech companies that have dominated, shuttered, and how they've changed over time as well as the internet stars/users themselves. It's a really great read for those interested in learning how internet culture has changed or rediscovering how internet culture used to be. My only minor complaint is that this isn't an “untold story” by any means. It's been documented quite thoroughly throughout the years on numerous publications but you gotta entice readers with a catchy title.

This is a great follow up to Schrier's previous book and this time it focuses more on stories about video game studios closing and the aftermath of what happens to the workers themselves. Enjoyed these stories and it's both engaging and heartbreaking to see how these closures affect so many people's lives. He touches on possible solutions to the video game industry's volatility and unfairness and doesn't go too in depth, but I feel like that's for another book.

Overall, I enjoyed reading through Graham Coxon's life and musical journey chronologically from his early days to his heydays being in Blur to his solo/other collaborative ventures. I appreciate his ability to be open, humble, and brutally honest when it comes to his perspective on music, Blur, his identity, and his struggles. That being said, Coxon is downplaying himself HARD. He's truly one of the greatest guitarists from the 90's hands down and throughout this entire book he acts like he's an amateur at best. For Christ sake, man! It's very disappointing and also frustrating to read about this, especially his lackluster and grumpy attitude towards Blur and his bandmates. I wanted to rip the pages out when I read his pissy attitude towards having to go record their excellent comeback record ‘The Magic Whip' in Hong Kong instead of relaxing at The Four Seasons. Like what the hell dude?! Anyways... I still enjoyed this book regardless and it's interesting to read about Blur from his perspective since he's the more quiet and subdued member of the group compared to Damon Albarn. Graham's unabashed honesty and introspection, as frustrating as it can be at points, is unlike other musicians memoirs out there.

This is an intelligent, personal, and moving memoir that chronicles Vice President Harris' life and career by blending her personal stories and experiences with policies and actions she's implemented as senator and attorney general. It's a very solid read that showcases who she is and what she aims to do for her 2020 presidency campaign since this was released back in 2019. It covers a variety of issues including housing, immigration, addiction, climate change, gay rights, and more. There's empathy, personality, humor, emotion, and grit throughout this book and it's a powerful read. I definitely recommend it!

This is an intelligent, personal, and moving memoir that chronicles Vice President Harris' life and career by blending her personal stories and experiences with policies and actions she's implemented as senator and attorney general. It's a very solid read that showcases who she is and what she aims to do for her 2020 presidency campaign since this was released back in 2019. It covers a variety of issues including housing, immigration, addiction, climate change, gay rights, and more. There's empathy, personality, humor, emotion, and grit throughout this book and it's a powerful read. I definitely recommend it!

With Xiaowei Wang's ‘Blockchain Chicken Farm,' it was one of these cases where the title intrigued me before knowing anything about it. It was quite interesting to read their main theme throughout these short essay-like stories that tie together, which is about the disconnections and connections between China's rural and urban tech sectors, mainly having to do with the interesting tech innovations that rural Chinese communities are doing, especially in agriculture. Topics include chickens being tracked through the blockchain, pigs being tracked with AI, pearls being harvested on livestreams, Chinese made goods' common stigmas, and even the future of technology that's being presented versus the future we would actually want. I liked the tie ins of Xiaowei's perspective, storytelling, and interviewing rather than the author just being black and white with the reporting. At points it was a bit difficult to follow everything since this isn't a topic that I'm at all knowledgeable in but it's an insightful read regardless.

This is for sure one of those books that on paper should be a knock out of the park for me: one music nerd gushing his love of music and how it has directly effected his life, all the music specifically originating from the 90's. Based on his podcast of the same name, Rob Harvilla quickly goes through the 60 songs that defined not just the 90's, but his 90's. There's much to appreciate about this book, especially Harvilla's detailed and personal feelings about each song along with its cultural and personal impacts. My largest complaint is that he simply covers each song way too quickly, leaving a page or two (sometimes a couple paragraphs) for each song and ends up glossing over a lot of content that I'd like him to delve more into. I get it, you can only do so much when you have to cover 60 songs in one book, but I was left wanting a lot more. His writing was pretty goofy and self indulgent rather than documentational, but it was entertaining for the most part. It's far better and more enjoyable than Steven Hyden's writing, which I found insufferable when I read his book about Radiohead's Kid A. It's not as insightful and charismatic as Chuck Klosterman's or Tom Breihan's writings about music (both I highly, highly recommend), but it's a light and fun read that does make me want to listen to Harvilla's podcast instead, hoping that he dives much deeper into these songs.