Book notes and reviews

On Writing Well’s key message is to be economical in your writing. Find the most efficient way to express your ideas. Skip the fancy prose, because your readers will see through its pretentiousness, and instead focus on expressing your ideas clearly. As a writer you might worry that by doing this, you will lose any chance standing out and having your own un

The Checklist Manifesto may look like yet another self-help or productivity book. But I found it to be a well-written book on the power of the humble checklist. Its author, Atul Gawande, is a surgeon who has helped to create a checklist now used by hospitals worldwide. When hospitals began using the checklist, they reduced deaths and major complications dur

Originally published in the late 1990s, The Power of Now was written after its author, Eckhart Tolle, had an epiphany at age 29 and became “enlightened”. The book achieved huge success once it was recommended by popular talkshow host Oprah Winfrey. The author holds some very strong beliefs which almost feel like his own religion in a way. This may turn you

Nadia Eghbal’s recent book Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software, covers what the open source experience is like for maintainers today. It ends with the following sentence: “We don’t have all the answers yet, but I’m hoping this book helps point us towards the right questions.” This felt like a very apt conclusion, for I di

I recently read the book How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens. It explores the note-taking method of a famous German sociologist Niklas Luhmann, who published a huge amount of work in his lifetime (70 books and 400+ articles) - and it was quite possibly due to the efficient way he took notes. Although the book was primarily aimed at students and academic

Last month I finished reading The Pragmatic Programmer. I will admit I don’t necessarily enjoy reading software development books in my spare time, but I definitely got some good insights out of this book that I want to apply going forward. Build a knowledge portfolio Your knowledge portfolio is all the facts, experience and knowledge that you have related

A story that follows a three different people and eras. First we have Lily, a girl born in America to Chinese immigrant parents. As someone who can’t even speak Mandarin, she struggles with feeling like an American yet not being perceived as one by the people around her.

A very thoroughly-researched fiction book about the haenyeo women on Korea's Jeju island. I only really knew of Jeju as a popular vacation spot for Koreans (and foreign tourists too), but there's a lot of history there to unpack. From Japan's colonisation, the US taking over after WW2, to the horrific massacres that decimated the population - there's some h

The main character, Elena, who is now in her 60s, recounts a childhood spent growing up with her best friend Lina in Italy. The pair are both from poor(er) families, but do well in school. They end up leading diverging lives as their individual circumstances change. The story and characters are vividly written and I read the entire book in one sitting.

About a white writer stealing a story from Chinese American author and passing it off as her own, while making her penname be racially ambiguous hence the title “yellowface”. The main character doesn't think of herself as a racist but is very obviously one (a lot of little microaggressions throughout the whole book like being surprised when an Asian charact

About a bunch of cowboys who live on the border between Texas and Mexico, and then decide to leave their small town to make an epic journey up towards Yellowstone. For a book you'd assume to be totally about men, I was surprised (in a good way) with how well the women were written - both strong and weak characters alike. However I felt a bit let down with h

I thought this was going to be a lot longer than it actually was based on my Kindles reading percentage, but more than half the pages in the Kindle version are endnotes. The book is a little bit depressing cos it's talking about the obvious of how America has such a big divide between rich and poor, mostly due to politics and the optics of people determinin

A heartwarming book about a grumpy old man who gets into fights with his neighbours. I think the only problem I had with this book is that although Ove's heart may be in the right place, he is also an absolute dickhead. But since the book is written from his perspective and with a humorous tone, it's biased towards him coming across as more of a a likeable

About a group of scientists that hop between planets on multiyear research missions, looking for signs of life, before finally returning back home to earth at their end of their expedition. It's a novella so it kind of felt like the climax/plot twist came near the end and then was just sort of resolved but not quite as satisfyingly as you would get from a p

I felt pretty let down by this one - I find some of Emily Henry's books to be pretty decent for romance novels but this plot felt a bit too boring? Not sure that boring is the right word considering that it involves the girl dating her ex fiancés new girlfriend's ex-boyfriend (basically a couple swap) but I was expecting a bit more of a twist to the plot b

I wanted to go into this book hating on the author, because she starts off like a complete dumbass by setting off on a a multi-month hike in the wilderness with literally 0 hiking experience and no physical fitness.

Felt like I was reading a fanfiction, but not in a good way, because I've read some top-tier ones.

A multigenerational story set in 20th century India. The book touches on India's independence movement, but mostly focuses on the story of a 12 year old girl who marries a 40 year old window, and the family and community she helps to create in her small town.

Took an interest in this one after I saw the movie version was nominated for an Oscar!

3.5 stars. A romance novel about a codependent couple, one with bipolar disorder, who decides to go off her medication with some success. The author partially based the character off her own experiences with bipolar disorder, which is is cool that it's realistic, but at the same time the character is very flawed, selfish and pretty unlikeable so it's not a

A story about four sisters who are raised in a close knit, loving family in Chicago, alongside the story of William, a boy who grows up knowing no love at all.

Surprised this has under 4 stars on Goodreads but this is some good shit!

Sort of like an alternative history British empire where they gain their power through magic that's powered by translation (hence the name Babel).

I guess this book is about becoming a woman? Or wanting to become a mother? Kind of hard to sum up. It also had some slightly surrealist, Murakami vibes - which makes me wonder is that because it is similar, or do Japanese books translated to English generally end up like this? Also interesting to note is that the original book was written in Kansai-ben (a

3.5 starsI get that even though he's a prince, it doesn't automatically mean he's gonna have a happy life... but even so reading a book about him complaining about how his life was hard just felt really cringey. There's a lot of little jabs and accusations towards his family as well which is really something you can't walk back after the fact. Kinda sad and

A book about a summer romance with a movie star, which jumps between that summer and 30 years later when the woman, now a mother, narrates the story to her grown daughters. The romance is a bit more towards nostalgia and melancholy than romcom. I don't know what it is about the book, like it's just straight fiction but it really gripped me? I think also the

This novel is in the same universe as Leckie's other books, but I've honestly completely forgotten what they are about and I still enjoyed this one. The cool (or maybe a bit gross? idk) plot point of this book is that there's this alien race where to reach adulthood you have to merge with another so you end up with one consciousness across 2 bodies. Then th

I thought this book started off quite strong with an alternative history plot line, where a meteorite hitting earth and the threat of an extinction event kickstarts the space program in the 1950s.

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. It's a book about two people who have broken up due to a huge lack of communication and misunderstandings (which is actually very realistic?) but makes it frustrating to read. There's a side plot with the friendship which I actually enjoy a bit more. Didn't want to give it a 3 because it has more depth than your avera

A new book by Alistair Reynolds, yay! I quite like some of his sci-fi books but I found this one to be a little bit boring in comparison. I think because it lacks some of the epic or space opera-ness as it's more of a self-contained story? But nevertheless it touches on some interesting concepts as the main character finds himself reliving events across dif

This one's been on my list for a good couple of years now, and I finally got around to reading it. Basically it tries to dispel some of the myths around the Columbine school shooting. The shooters weren't loners - they had friends, went to prom, and they weren't the trench coat-wearing, loner goths that the media initially painted them to be.

Another epic fantasy masterpiece!! A lot of fun to read with the women-centric plot focusing on warriors, a dragon rider and a queen. This is a prequel to The Priory of the Orange Tree, and I had completely forgotten what happens in it, but still found this book easy to follow nonetheless. I probably should have refreshed my memory and it might have made th

A woman living in 1950s America who wants to be a scientist and not a housewife, and also ends up starring in a TV cooking show. On one hand there's misogyny and sexual assault but also some positive, uplifting female empowerment. I can't quite put my finger on why but the female empowerment bit doesn't feel very realistic.. like we are supposed to read thi

Gave this one a read because I saw it had a movie trailer and I quite like the way TJR writes her characters. But is this one of her older books or something because this is NOT IT. The plot centres around the main character realising her dead husband is alive 3 years later, and her having sex with him while keeping her current fiancé on the back burner. An

A story about a farming colony that receives a spaceship every 15 years that comes and picks up their produce. Due to the effects of space travel, those on the ship don't see that much time pass in comparison, so each time they return to the planet the people there have aged significantly, which I thought was a pretty neat plot point. Overall it has quite a

This book outlines “attachment theory” - how people express themselves in relationships falls into roughly three buckets:* Secure: doesn't have any issues expressing love* Anxious: is more of the “clingy” type * Avoidant: is cold, tends to withdraw or easily break things offBasically if you're a secure type, you're all good but if you're an insecure type (a

Everyone wakes up one morning to find a box with a length of string inside of it, which shows how much life they have left. Besides the immediate implications of knowing how many years of life you have left, the book dives into how society would change - if you only had a year left to live, why would someone want to employ you, for example? - plus people wo

The book is set across three different eras - the first I found the most interesting, with it being an alternate history late 1800s America where gay marriage is legal (and people even do arranged marriages for it). We then jump 100 years forward to a Hawaiian living in America. It gets a bit confusing here because the main character's names are reused (whi

This was an interesting one. It's about women having the ability to turn into dragons en masse and leaving behind the patriarchy of the 1960s. Where it gets weird is it's not really straight fantasy (which would have been fun to read!) but more so some sort of menstruation allegory (almost? Or something similar anyway) in that the fact that women are capabl

Science fiction with a romance subplot is by far my favourite genre, and there sadly isn't enough of it so for that reason I'm biased into giving this book a 5, but would probably dock half a star or more otherwise. I binged this one in one sitting on the plane so I definitely enjoyed it!

This book was very... different. The main plot involves a house that defies science and is larger on the inside. But instead of just being a straightforward story it's told from the perspective of a researcher who wrote a manuscript compiling all the research and references from people who are discussing the film tapes that were made from exploring the hous

The plot follows a couple of criminals plus a monk who hates women, plus a 3ft tall badger-person (who is honestly so cute) as they go on a suicide mission.

A child loses his mother in a terrorist attack at an art museum. As he escapes the wreckage he steals a piece of art, and keeps it along with the guilt he has for stealing it for the next 10+ years into adulthood. I found it to be quite a gripping book. I definitely preferred when he was more of an idealistic child and not the troubled adult he becomes, tho

The story is a mix of fantasy and politics with a maidservant attempting to reclaim her magical powers who stumbles across a princess imprisoned by her own brother. With some strong female leads plus a lesbian romance this reminds me of The Priory of the Orange Tree. It's hard to put my finger on why but I didn't quite enjoy it as much as that one - it migh

This was a historical fiction book about the Nigerian Civil War that took place in the 1960s. It covers 5 viewpoints - upper-class twin sisters, a professor, a boy from a village and a British journalist - and the relationships they share with each other. Obviously as a wartime story it's very gripping and can be quite sad to read, but there was also drama

Our main character wakes up and realises she is missing the last 18 months of her life - because she is a clone and the last date her consciousness was downloaded from the “real” her was 18 months prior. As she attempts to piece together what her original body was doing in the last 18 months, the book also explores the ethical dilemmas that come with clonin

Every decade 6 of the world's top magicians are chosen to join a secret society that has access to the Library of Alexandria. Only 5 will make it through to their second year of study.

Basically the plot of the story is that there's an alternate reality earth with huge kaiju (think Godzilla) and it's the Kaiju Preservation Society's job to look after them.

Multi-POV book following the stories of Native Americans, some struggling with their identity of what it means to be a Native American, as they come together for a powwow in Oakland. I found it a bit hard at times to keep up with the different characters and how they are all connected to each other. Perhaps it would have been better as a longer book, or wit

After their father dies, two brothers set out on a journey across America to find their mother who walked out on their family 10 years prior. The elder brother, Emmett, spent some time in a juvenile prison so we are introduced to some of his dodgy acquaintances along the way. The book jumps between all these perspectives and eventually comes to a finish tha

I really struggled to get into this one. I found the story quite hard to follow, because of how many different characters get introduced throughout the book. It's a pity because there's a lot of cool sci-fi concepts here (i.e. uploading your brain to another body). Also this guy is horny AF, there is random unnecessary sex everywhere (aren't you a trained s

For a book published in 1891 I actually found it to be quite spicy (compared to something like Pride and Prejudice). It makes commentary on the double standard when it comes to a woman having to be “pure” while men get to go and sow their wild oats, which I was surprised by and thought was quite progressive (for its time) especially considering the book was

A collection of Asian-inspired short stories. My personal favourite was “State Change”, where everyone's soul manifests as an object such as an ice cube or a candle, and you have to focus on keeping it intact to stay alive. Another standout was “Mono no aware”, a heartwarming story about Go and being the last Japanese person aboard a spaceship. Some of the

Rex is a Bioform, a dog-like killing machine sent out to obey his master's orders because he is a Good Boy. But when he is freed from the innate need to listen to a master, he must decide on his own who is the enemy, and who must be killed.

Unlike a traditional self-help book where the author gives you direct advice on how to improve your life and attain happiness, Christensen uses examples and lessons learned from business, that you can then use as an analogy to apply to your own life. With the mention of Harvard reunions and the assumption that you are working long hours (and should consider

I read this after I read the quite excellent Netflix adaptation, so I went into it expecting good things but I felt.. underwhelmed? I'm not sure if it's because I knew what was going to happen, but the first person writing style didn't really grip me, it felt a bit dry and the main character Alina was a little bit annoying too (well, just like a real snarky

Lee and her girlfriend Mal are investigating an alleged monster sighting when Mal suddenly disappears in a blizzard. Mal's mysterious return 4 years later is of interest to MI5 agent Julian Sabreur. He's investigating a crime committed by a group of people who don't quite look human, and Mal is somehow involved.

This was a really surreal take on a pandemic that wipes out a good portion of the Earth. One example being that they decided to build rollercoasters that would euthanize sick kids that were strapped in without them realising (?!) The first half was pretty depressing because it was just death, death and more death but the second half felt a bit more hopeful.

Yet another comfy read from Becky Chambers. Pity it is only a novella - is it quite short. This was my first time reading solarpunk and I want to read more of it! Robots don't want to work in factories anymore because they've developed consciousness? No problems, just shut down your factories, send them on their way and work around it. It's a very utopian-s

I was expecting a continuation from the first Wayfarers book but this can almost be read as a standalone. A ship AI struggles with finding her identity and sense of purpose after being placed (illegally) in a human-like body. At the same time we follow the story of a genetically modified girl, Jane 23, destined to spend her life working in a factory, who es

The general premise of this book is that two “best friends” are secretly in love with each other for 10+ years. Maybe that's romantic for some people but I found the way it was written was just frustrating, like surely after a couple of years you'd get your shit together!!

Beautiful, drug-addicted singer Daisy and the band The Six come together to write an album in the 70s. The entire book is told in an interview format, which I think works really well, since it lets the different characters give their own (slightly different) perspectives on certain events.

So I knew this book was originally a Kylo Ren / Rey fanfic before I started reading it. Which made things unintentionally funny because you can't help but imagine Kylo Ren doing all this weird romance novel shit (pushing a car shirtless across a carpark? Ok). And when he repeatedly gets described as being “broad” and “massive” (kind of cringey tbh) all I co

From the title I thought it was going to be a quirky story about housewives banding together to kill off a vampire (or something like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) but honestly this was straight up a horror book. Giving it a 4/5 because although it made my skin crawl and I never want to read it again, it wasn't poorly written and if you're a horror fan y

Basically the premise is, “imagine that the first Emperor of the Ming dynasty was actually a woman” and go from there. In saying that it skips over a lot of the possible issues that come with a woman pretending to be a man and more focuses on the “attempting to become Emperor” bit.

Shizuka Satomi has sacrificed the souls of six violinists to the devil, and has now found her seventh soul in runaway teen and violin prodigy Katrina. When she visits a local donut shop, owner Lan Tran catches her eye. What she doesn't realise is that the donut shop hides a spaceship, and the Tran family are actually aliens from another planet.

Huge alien beings known as Architects have the power to wipe out planets, and no one knows why they do it. Enter the crew of the Vulture God, a salvage ship that discovers evidence of the Architects returning after 50 years of peace in the galaxy.

Walden is the sort of book you see referenced in popular media all the time. When the male lead in k-drama Hometown Cha-cha-cha was shown reading it (did not expect that!), I figured it was finally time for me to get around to it.

12-year old Edward is the sole survivor of a plane crash that kills his parents and his brother. The book starts off in the hours before the plane takes off, as we are introduced to Edward and his family, as well as other people who boarded the same plane. At first it feels a little bit pointless, getting to know all these people who are going to die. It ge

A comfy sci-fi read. I really enjoyed the care the author put into building out its cast of alien species. The aliens aren't just humans with different skins, but there's some thought put into their cultural differences and histories as well. And even within the humans, there's a varied mix of cultures too, depending on whether you were rich and managed to

As a poor cousin sent to live amongst her more privileged relations, Fanny Price is a fairly meek and boring leading character, as far as Jane Austen books go. She's content to be a wallflower, and her poor self-esteem isn't helped by comments from her aunts like “remember, wherever you are, you must be the lowest and the last”. Yikes.

The book starts off quite strong. We're in New York, and a plague has broken out. Either you're immune to the plague, or you catch it and die. The plague somehow strengthens the ability for a small percentage of the population to use magic. Society collapses, and people flee the city. However once the book moves onto the bit where you travel the countryside

I always go into romance novels with low expectations, so this one turned out to be a pleasant read. It helped that the two main characters both had family issues they were dealing with so it wasn't just a romance novel. The way these issues were resolved didn't feel that satisfying, though. There's also a side plot where they start researching a cult for a

This is one of those books that starts off very confusingly, as you're thrust into the stories of five seemingly disconnected lives.

Linus works as a caseworker for magical children living in orphanages. He's a very boring, by-the-books type of person but this all changes when he spends a month investigating an orphanage with potentially dangerous children who all have highly classified case files.

The Four Winds follows a broken family as they migrate from drought-ridden Texas to the green “promised land” of California during the Great Depression. The main character, Elsa, is a downtrodden woman, which is at least a step up from the previous Kristen Hannah book I read (“The Great Alone”) where the main character was downtrodden and abused. I'm not th

3.5 rounded down to a 3.

The book starts off quite abstract as we are introduced to the concept of New York being “born” into a human body. Once we are introduced to the five boroughs of NY, also in human form, it becomes a lot easier to follow. Basically there's a big bad enemy trying to kill off New York (the city and the person) and the boroughs have to team up to try and stop t

The Elven Emperor and three of his sons die in a tragic airship accident, leaving the throne to his exiled half-Goblin son.

At the old age of 24, Frederica Merriville has no plans on marriage of her own, and is instead keen to see her younger sister Charis matched with a husband worthy of her beauty. She enlists the help of a distant cousin, Alverstoke, to hold a ball to debut Charis into London society.

Sophy bursts into her cousins' lives, all 5'9” of her, with a pet monkey, a parrot and a dog. Unlike the women in an Austen novel, she can handle horses, her father's finances, and even owns a pistol. Schemes and matchmaking attempts ensue.

16 yr old Mia Corvere is a darkin - someone that has the ability to control shadows, and has a small shadow-cat as her familiar. She sets off on a journey to find assassin hogwarts so that she can train to take revenge on the people that killed her family.

The Raven Tower tells the story of a god who lives in a rock. These small gods take the forms of forests, animals and other entities and are sustained by the prayers and offerings from people.

Sci-fi with a side of romance. Jainan's husband Taam dies in an accident, and so he is quickly married off to Taam's cousin Kiem to maintain the treaty between their two planets. Turns out it's not an accident and a murder-mystery ensues.

A Deadly Education follows El (short for Galadriel) who is in her junior year at the magic school Sholomance. The school is a highly hazardous place. There are murderous creatures out to kill El and all her classmates, and even if you make it to graduation, there's an all-out bloodbath waiting for you when you try to leave the school grounds.

An east asian-inspired fantasy book, where each race has the ability to control an element - in the case of the Kaigenese (based off of the Japanese), it's the ability to wield water/ice. The technology in the world is on par with ours (satellites, mobile phones) but for some reason the Kaigenese are very traditional and don't use any technology at all, so

From the title and cover I actually thought this was some sort of YA-ish romance book (oops, probably getting confused with “the space between us”) but it's actually a decent soft sci-fi novel.

I enjoyed Weir's first book about a science dude on Mars, but decided to give his second one a miss after hearing lackluster reviews about his attempt at a female protagonist. For his third book, he's gone back to his tried-and-true approach of having a science dude talk about a lot of science shit and although my eyes glaze over as all the science shit hap

I love a good sci-fi novel!! The main character Mahit becomes the new ambassador for her small mining station and gets to fulfill her childhood dream of visiting the Empire. Of course there's one small problem in that her predecessor died under mysterious circumstances and a bunch of politics ensue.

Beautifully written. Twin sisters run away from their home in the South. Both are black, but one goes on to pass as a white woman while the other eventually returns to her hometown. To be honest it initially made me question - if no one can tell the difference, why not pretend to be white when it's convenient? The book takes place in the 50s onwards where t

Sort-of memoir/book about the author's experiences of helping to produce a film about his life. Miller is really good at painting himself as a very ordinary guy (slightly veering into pathetic/loser territory). Apparently he's also written a bestselling book. It's almost confusing - because I couldn't see why he's famous (from the way he writes about himsel

As a fantasy-romance book with under 3000 reviews, I was definitely hesitant to give this one a go (you can't trust Goodreads ratings!!). However I was pleasantly surprised and found it to be quite well-written. The two main characters (Stephen the paladin and a perfume-maker named Grace) manage to endearingly bumble their way into a relationship. It's quit

I give this one a 3.5/5 because while it wasn't necessarily terrible, I wouldn't recommend anyone else to read it.

It reminds me a lot of The Way of Kings in that the main character is an underdog from a lower “class”, who strives to become as strong as the warrior nobles (a feat considered impossible). However, unlike TWOK it only follows one character's perspective, and he spends all his time surrounded by dudes as they train together and fight against each other. Eve

Jo, a woman doing birds nest research in rural America meets girl who claims to be an alien sent down to witness 5 “miracles” before she returns home to her planet. She ends up co-parenting this child with neighbour Gabe, as they debate whether they should hand over the child to police.

A good Austen novel, but the real question is, is it better than Pride and Prejudice? I'm probably very biased having watched at least two movie adaptations of the P&P, but I'd probably say no. I do like that the main character is 27 (basically decrepit by Regency era standards). The build-up of romance is vaguely there throughout the book but some of it is

Krakauer's probably best known for his book “Into the Wild”. I'd also recently read his book about Mormonism. However I had no idea he had first-hand experience climbing Mt Everest, in which multiple people on his expedition team died.

Having also read Michelle Obama's recent memoir, I'm going to have to say I enjoyed her's more. She spoke from the heart and was a bit more personal. Barack's was a bit more of a play-by-play of his interactions with leaders across the world, and the work that goes into his policies (war in the middle east, affordable care act). Of course that was still int

The first half was quite boring, I was considering giving up on the book but it did get better in the second half.

Not sure I'm starting off 2021 on the right foot by reading some alien abduction / romance with a fair bit of smut but yoloThere was a bit too much cringey “omg I love u” when the two barely know each other and the main character can be a bit of a quirky tryhard at times and wow they're stupid for bringing a dog along to the tournament (as much as I love do

Short story anthology. I really loved Ted's other book of short stories so I decided to give this one a read. These contain his earlier works (from the 90s) as well as the short story that inspired the acclaimed sci-fi movie Arrival.

As the author rightly points out, most productivity books are written by men. It's good to see this book tackle things from a slightly different perspective - a woman who's trying to balance both her career ambitions as well as raising a family and running a household.

The main character has a year of rest and relaxation - by bingeing on pills that let her sleep for days at a time, only waking up to eat and watch TV.

As someone who has only read one of King's books (the one on JFK's assassination) and is currently not aspiring to be a fiction author, I don't think I was the target reader for this book. Some of the writing tips from King:* Read a lot (King reads 70 - 80 books a year) especially in the genre that you want to write in* Write a lot. King was submitting shor

I found this didn't grip me as much as Bad Blood did (the book about Theranos, another dodgy startup with a charismatic founder). Probably because the stakes were lower and they actually did have a real product (albeit one that's not really profitable).

A detailed look into the history of Scientology. Honestly scary how much they can get away with without the US government being able to do anything. E.g. all the stalking they do to try and get people who leave to come back, or how they abuse their followers (technically willingly, but cmon they're basically brainwashed).

Half of the Galvin family's 12 children (incl 10 boys!) have schizophrenia. A riveting read into the Galvin family, the toll schizophrenia takes, and the advances made in the research of schizophrenia over the last 50+ years.

The author has had a very, very impressive career helping to champion the art of hostage negotiation within the FBI. It goes into detail on both Ruby Ridge and Waco, which has coincidentally been mentioned in a couple of other books I have recently read (like Educated) so it's been good to get that additional context on American history.

3.5 stars - I wouldn't recommend you go out and read it, but it's not complete trash either.

A meandering look at the Mormon religion - its history, right from its founder Joseph Smith and his secret proclivities for polygamy, the founding of Utah, through to present-day Mormonism and its many offshoots (notably the fundamentalist Mormons who still practice polygamy). Krakaeur also makes a connection between some of the violence committed by Mormon

Listened to this one (+ its follow-up, “Habits for Happiness at work”) for free through Audible.

So I watched the movie a long time ago and the movie did a really, really good job of translating the vibe of the book to the big screen. So if you've seen the movie, you kind of know what you're getting. The plot revolves around a husband his wife who goes missing. It's revealed that the husband actually hated his wife and seemingly doesn't seem too outwar

There was a lot more action in this than the first book (which I gave 4 stars).

Alex is a girl with an edgy dark past who can see ghosts. So she ends up at Yale with the job of watching over a bunch of rich kids in secret societies perform very unethical magic (e.g. operating on some random dude to tell the future).

One of those books about slavery and the treatment of Black people in America that is really hard to read, but worth reading.

Letters between two time-traveling agents on opposite sides of a war. It started out really slow and I didn't really see the point of it but everything came together towards the end. I preferred the parts of the book that weren't letters and were proper descriptions of what was happening.

Plot tl;dr - the main character, Genly, is on a planet where everyone is is neither male or female. It reminds me of the Ancillary Justice series where everyone is referred to as a “she” (although this book came 40 years earlier!)The book defaults to “he” pronouns for everyone. I wish it used “she” instead, since it becomes very easy when reading to just im

Wells had his own affair and this book was apparently partially based off that - I'm not sure if we're supposed to feel sympathetic as the main character and his mistress have a whole Romeo/Juliet “I can't bear to be parted from you and I might kill myself” moment because the guy is cheating on his wife! No sympathy for you sir!

Pretty intense book, composed entirely of people's accounts of living in the USSR during its collapse. It took me a while to get into it, and I felt it got better / more interesting / easier to read about a third or a half of the way in. I think this book is best paired with some prior reading or knowledge on this period in history (unfortunately I lacked t

Decided to pick this one up because it's considered an Australian classic - buts it's more a classic in the sense that it was really popular when it was published, not really because it's groundbreaking in any way. Giving it somewhere between a 3 and a 4, but bumping it down to a 3 because while I did enjoy it, I wouldn't recommend anyone go out of their wa

The author acknowledges that Atomic Habits builds upon some of the content laid out in The Power of Habit, and so if you had to pick one of the two to read, this one is not it! The one benefit this book provides is that James Clear provides more practical advice on how to build your habits (which The Power of Habit doesn't do).