We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler. Pub 2013. This book was a re-gift from a friend (who herself received it as a re-gift). My friend reported being surprised at enjoying this one, as she did not enjoy the author’s more famous book. At the heart of this book is a surprising... Continue Reading →
The Feather Thief, by Kirk Wallace Johnson. Book report #18 (2022)
The Feather Thief, by Kirk Wallace Johnson. Pub 2018 I first heard about this story and book in an episode of the podcast This American Life. It is one of those stories of a seemingly oddball crime by an oddball character that takes the journalist and ultimately the reader to some fascinating places and times.... Continue Reading →
When We Cease to Understand the World, by Benjamin Labatut. Book report #12 (2022)
When We Cease to Understand the World, by Benjamín Labatut. Translation by Adrian Nathan West. Pub 2020 This book was an impulse purchase. At the bookstore to collect some books for work, I overheard the clerk telling another customer about this one and was intrigued by her effusive praise for the strange science and compelling... Continue Reading →
2021 Reading Challenge – summary
I didn't quite make it through the entire 2021 list, but was very close. The goal was 34 books, and I got to 33, including one that did not make the official list due to redundancy. Here's the final book list for 2021: 1 - Book with a murder in it Death in a Darkening... Continue Reading →
Everything in Its Place, by Oliver Sacks. Book report #28 (2021)
Everything in Its Place, by Oliver Sacks. Pub 2019 A now-former work colleague recommended Oliver Sacks as good reading. As this same person had recommended Harari's Sapiens, which was excellent, I took their advice again and was not disappointed. This is the most recent of Sacks' books, a posthumous one. It is a collection of essays... Continue Reading →
A Scientific Romance, by Ronald Wright. Book report #17 (2021)
A Scientific Romance, by Ronald Wright. Pub 1997 I first read this book pre-2000, so not too long after it was published. It became a Desert Island book, one that I always list as an all-time favourite. Like others on this year's list for me, it's a favourite that I had not read in many... Continue Reading →
Maxwell’s Demon, by Steven Hall. Book report #15 (2021)
Maxwell's Demon, by Steven Hall. Pub 2021 This was a surprise find for me at the bookstore last month. I was looking for a copy of Hall's Raw Shark Texts that I read a few years ago to send to a friend (my own copy was a Kindle version). When I went online to order... Continue Reading →
The Confidence Game, by Maria Konnikova. Book report #7 (2021)
The Confidence Game, by Maria Konnikova. Pub 2016 I've read several long-form articles by this author, and wanted to read this one to try to understand a) my own gullibility, and b) the psychology of some I've encountered at work - people who fake or mask something about themselves to get a job, and then... Continue Reading →
Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. Book report #6 (2020)
Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. Pub 2008 I read this book with a friend at work; he chose it as something we could each read and then talk about. I should have been wary - the last time I did this, the book was The Tipping Point, also by Malcolm Gladwell. That book was remarkable in... Continue Reading →
Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Book report #3 (2020)
Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Pub 2011 (English translation 2014) I chose this book after seeing it on Bill Gates’ top-ten book list, reading a bit about it, and then finding it during my January top-up splurge. I was daunted by the length of it (466 pages), and skeptical about getting through it. A previous... Continue Reading →
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