61–70 of 264 posts
Non fiction: Probably "Becoming Trader Joe" really shows how business decisions are path very situational and path dependent. i.e. the whole store brand schtick of Trader Joe's started because of alcohol regulations
Cultural/anthropological journalism tends to fall into a handful of traps (fawning over "exotic" cultures, or dismissing them as backwards), and this is one of a small handful of books that avoid those errors. I highly recommend it to anybody who's interested in medical anthropology, or more generally to anyone looking to understand (a tiny fragment of) the immigrant experience in the US.
[1]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12609.The_Spirit_Catches...
I re-read The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson; it represents what I love about Sci-Fi: Interesting ideas on the edge of plausibility; a speculative society based on their consequences; a clever story and setting. Leaves me with a "Could be build that?" feeling. It's inspiring one my current side-projects; a molecular and protein modeler/simulation.
Starting FORTH by Leo Brodie - Written in a casual, funny, beginner friendly way, and even though I'm not a beginner I still enjoyed it immensely. Now if only Forth were more popular! Edit: realised OP said `thing' not `things' so I deleted some books.
It introduced me to a new topic, which is analyzing social situations and apply problem solving skills to them. Something that never occurred to me for some reason. I now realize there are smart people working and having interesting thoughts and conclusions in this topic. So much more to explore. (Open to recomindations too!)
The book also seems to give more useful information about how to handle difficult social situations. I was pretty down on work and becoming cynical (still am though hah!) The advice I often get is stuff like be agreeable, don't rock the boat, dont say anything with passion ("corp speak"), to get ahead and get what you want. This feels bad to me. Often it appears in corporations the only people that are getting ahead are those types of yes people. I feel like this book gave me the tools to have differing opinions and express them successfully.
I also liked the book shows that a lot of these difficult conversations are actually in your control. Most people seem to have terrible communication skills I'm learning. Often I would write off a bad conversation as the other person just being an asshole or difficult or something. after reading this it seems like it is possible to handle a lot of these a lot better.
Disjointed thoughts off the top of my head, but I found the book pretty enlightening. Id recommend it if you struggle with expressing your opinions in emotional conversations.
The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. It definitely lives up to its reputation.
There are some beautiful aspects of the book that will always stay with me. The Grand Inquisitor monologue is captivating, Alyosha is a deeply interesting character, Mitya's stories of gallivanting on a troika through Russia, and everything that is Grushenka...
But as a whole, I can't say I understood it. I didn't understand how these characters came together, or how the ending tied these (albeit interesting!) stories together.
Karamazov was the first Dostoevsky book I read. When it came to The Idiot, I was shocked by how different the writing style felt. It flowed more, the dialogue drove a lot of the narrative, and it generally was just a lot less dense.
I'm hardly an English Major let alone a scholar of Russian Lit so I'm sure the thoughts here are pedestrian.
as for my own entries…
- Lapvonia by Moshfegh and Hollow by Catling are both sort of magical-realism set in medieval European villages, which would normally be considered "fantasy" but I assure you are very much not fantasy novels as any normal reader would consider. They are rather stories about the medieval setting set from the perspective of how people a thousand years ago understood and perceived their real world.
- and also on that medieval-tales motif, The Mere Wife by Headley is a contemporary retelling of Beowulf (the hero is a cop named Ben Wolff), great fun and well-styled.
- Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Beaton is winning tons of awards and deservedly so.
- Termination Shock and Ministry for the Future are stabs at possible approaches for solving climate change by very prominent SF writers, which miss the mark for various reasons, but worth a look as they're the dominant themes for the next few years of science fiction.
I often felt like they were describing me to myself as I was reading... Highly recommend if you deal with perpetual dissatisfaction with your performance or achievements and would like to learn how to accept yourself for who you are and live a "lighter" existence.
It is kind of a stereotype though of tech dudes to be into stoicism, but whatever, this book really just puts me in such a good frame of mind any time I open it.
Easily The City & The City by China Miéville. The premise is great, the characters are fun, the plot will keep you engaged. A noir detective story about a murder that happens in the space between two cities which are in superposition. That is, they share the same geographic space, but citizens are forced to live in only one of the cities by a seemingly omnipotent power called Breach that maintains the borders of the…
Kraken is the hunt for a giant squid after it vanished from a London museum.
Un Lun Dun is a young adult story of two friends who end up in a whimsical version of London.