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Review: Starship Troopers
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein My rating: 4 of 5 stars The movie was satire of the book, right? The movie was campy (and as a woman told me just a reason to show boobs). The book reveals nuggets of insights about human nature within organizations. While I enjoyed both, I appreciate the book…
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Review: An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths
An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths by Glenn Reynolds My rating: 2 of 5 stars On page 36 there is a quote about Athens, GA where I live about a wireless network downtown anyone can use. When I first moved here,…
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Review: I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai My rating: 4 of 5 stars A memoir about growing up as a young girl in Swat of Pakistan. She explains life there both before and during Taliban involvement. I vaguely recall the news about her…
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Review: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck My rating: 2 of 5 stars I wanted to learn more about how to use the growth mindset. I personally tend to fall too much into the fixed mindset. Only this book fell too much into the Self-Help traps: “This is how I am. What…
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Review: Twelve Years a Slave
Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup My rating: 3 of 5 stars An autobiography about a mixed race free man kidnapped into slavery hit a little too close to home. His experience being free made acclimating to the difficult masters more challenging. More amazing me is he did not break under the weight of…
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Review: The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God by Carl Sagan My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book was originally Glasgow University Gifford Lectures for the theme The Search for Who We Are in 1985. Sagan does a great job explaining difficult concepts clearly and with compelling evidence. Unfortunately,…
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Review: What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures
What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell My rating: 4 of 5 stars Pro-tip: All the chapters are articles published for Gladwell by The New Yorker. Most are behind their paywall. However, his web site has an an archive where I found the ones mentioned below. The publication date is noted at…
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Review: Divergent
Divergent by Veronica Roth My rating: 2 of 5 stars The dystopian environmental use of Factions reminded me of the Houses in Harry Potter. People have a label by which they belong to another group of people who behaviorally are supposed to be like themselves. They are natural allies and yet frictions exist within the…
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Review: Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang
Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang by Paul J. Steinhardt My rating: 3 of 5 stars Tone of this book felt defensive. Too much reliance on ad hominems? I like the ekpyrotic theory presented by the authors and hope theirs is what wins out over the Big Bang. View all my reviews