spikes

Just finished a series of books on Winston Churchill

I just finished 3 books on Winston Churchill. They were amazing, I highly recommend the whole series especially if you have a lot of time on your hands.

The Last Lion: Visions of Glory

The Last Lion: Alone

It's hard to believe you can read over 1,000 pages and only get to the start of when he becomes PM. To finish off his whole career you can read Churchill: A life

Reality is sometimes stranger than fiction.

Books from this summer

Here is this summer's reading list, most of it is fiction with two non-fiction books bracketing the light summer fare.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Great story about Greg Mortenson's quest to bring education to pakistan.

The Hidden River by Kate Grenville

Page turner that cover's a convicts quest to make it in Australia.

The Maytrees by Annie Dillard

Treatise on love, loss and redemption set in cape cod.

The Pleasure of My Company Steve Martin

Fun book on obsession, a little too happy ending for my taste.

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

Best read in short spurts.

The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson

The father of public health and his story. Cholera sucks, it turns out...

Just finished "The cities of the plain" by C. McCarthy

It is rare to find an author like Cormac McCarthy. He writes beautifully spare prose and makes a knife fight, roping wild dogs and lighting a cigarette on a corner all have the same descriptive depth and narrative interest. I read his border trilogy recently and believe it to be one of the best works of modern fiction I have ever read. He doesn't shy away from death and love and this trilogy is a eulogy for the eclipsed life of the cowboy in the west.

Just finished "Blood Meridian"

I just finished "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy. I'm starting on all the pretty horses. I feel that I missed something in Blood Meridian, it was a good book, but I think I missed the main metaphor. I did like the section where the Judge character explained why war was the ultimate game: because you have to wager the ultimate bet, your life.

Just finished 'Then we came to the end'

I just finished Josh Ferris's "then we came to the end," it covers office humor with a slight edge. Another summer reading recommendation. I'm going back to Cormac McCarthy and am going to read "The Border Trilogy" and "Blood Meridian."

Just finished "The no asshole rule"

I thought this book was pretty vague. For every "do" the author had a "don't" so it gave no predictable recommendations. I liked some of the stories but in general I recommend you skip this one....

Just finished "Predictably Irrational"

It was not bad for an academic writing popular press material. But I don't think it was as good as the black swan, freakonomics, moneyball, or the wisdome of crowds. It kept me interested but not captivated, worth a couple bart rides.

Fortunate Son

I just finished Fortunate Son by Walter Mosley. It's a modern parable about race relations and fate. It reminded me a little of 'peace like a river'. I give it 3 and 1/2 stars.

First, break all the rules

I just finished First break all the rules by Buckingham and Coffman. Here's what I want to remember:

Focus on a person's strengths, minimize their weaknesses, don't change people. Here are the questions they correlated with excellent managers at a wide variety of companies.

Base Camp: What do I get?

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment to do my work right?

Camp 1: What do I give?

3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best everyday?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

Camp 2: Do I belong here?

7. At work, do my opinions count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?

Camp 3: How can we all grow?

11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
12. This last year, have I had opportunities to learn and grow at work?

Loved the book, highly recommend it.

Special topics in Calamity Physics

I just finished a book by Marisha Pessl 'Special topics in calamity physics' I recommend it as summer or beach reading. It's a fun mystery set in the end of high school. The main character is intriguing.

The Golden Compass

Over vacation I finished "The Northern Lights", "The Amber Spyglass" and "The Subtle Knife" all by Philip Pullman. I wanted to go see the movie (which sucked) and so I read the books first. The books are seen as an attack on religion although I see them more as an attack on organized religion with a knod towards spirituality. They are basically dualistic (support the notion of the soul). If Pullman was really going to attack religion he should have pitched a completely mechanical/scientific world vs. a religious one. I enjoyed the series though and thought the section where the characters visited the afterworld was particularly interesting.

Bill Bryson

I just finished "Notes from a Small Island" which is about England and by Bill Bryson. Bill Bryson writes books that make me laugh out loud. Sometimes so hard I have to stop reading. He wrote "A walk in the woods" and "In a sunburned country", If you haven't read any of his books they are worth it.

The Road

So I went to see "No Country for Old Men" a couple weeks ago and thought it was a great movie. So I decided to read Cormac McCarthy's "The Road," it is an amazing treatise on fatherhood. It won the pullitzer prize and creates a powerful story of survival in a post apocalyptic world. Read it if you like tragedies.

Will in the World

Just finished "Will in the World" by Stephen Greenblatt. It's a great book that answered a question I never really thought about. How did the son of a glove maker become the most famous playwright in history? How did a guy who didn't even make it through highschool out-write and out-think the best scholars of his day? Most of Shakespeare's plays put me to sleep but this story helped give me insight into the psychology behind his plays and the issues he faced in life. Hopefully this will help keep me awake through the next performance of King Lear....

The Echo Maker

I just finished "The Echo Maker," by Richard Powers. It's a great fiction book about consciousness, self and love. I recommend it highly especially if you were ever in cognitive science or neuroscience. It's a nice essay on how we construct our perceptions and experiences of the self.