Deep Work by Cal Newport

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a totally decent mashup of books about mindfulness, flow, and the books about ditching your phone. I've been reading so many of these types of books lately, and it's usually either researchers who have dedicated their lives to studying a particular type of psychology now termed behavioral economics and, alternatively, guys who write about other people's research. I find the latter category kind of unfair but often they do better summaries of the research because they're not so personally invested.

View all my reviews

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Murakami books are all over the place. It's not a consistent standard, and you can't predict if you'll like one based on the others you've read. But I enjoy how very readable his books are. I find myself flying through his books, even the ones I think are terrible. This was my favorite one I've read so far, but I still didn't love it-- the ending was especially bothersome to me, but I did love parts of it. At first you think, oh I hope this doesn't turn into a laundry list of who this vaguely boring male character sleeps with, and then for a second you think- oh it's so wonderful, it's about life, and loneliness, and death-- and then bam he hits you with his laundry list. But for the middle of the book, I give it 4 stars.

View all my reviews

The Red Parts by Maggie Nelson

The Red Parts by Maggie Nelson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A lot of interesting thoughts about death, tragedy, feminism, and the justice system. And Nelson’s prose kept me rolling along despite the dark topic of her aunt’s murder.

View all my reviews

Fox 8 by George Saunders

Fox 8 by George Saunders
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kind of sad. It's hard out there for a fox with humans destroying habitats. Very short book to fill my animal-perspective category for Book Riot's Reading Challenge and George Saunders never fails.

View all my reviews

The Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen

The Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh boy, Ibsen is dark. This one was too dark for me- everyone is the worst.

View all my reviews

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really enjoyed this throughout, but it finished in a way that could technically be an ending but isn't because there's supposed to be a sequel. Has a YA feel to it, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it for younger people cause of the drug use and graphic descriptions of violence (didn't seem scary for adults though).

View all my reviews

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There are lots of really beautiful parts to this. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

“You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak as your weakest link.
This is but half the truth.
You are also as strong as your strongest link.
To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of the ocean
by the frailty of its foam.
To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy.”
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

View all my reviews

The Creative Curve by Allen Gannett

The Creative Curve: How to Develop the Right Idea at the Right Time by Allen Gannett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was pretty solid, there was even some new information here which is pretty exciting for me since I read a lot of books on these general psychology-behavioral economics-business topics.

My main complaint is that we can't completely control the four laws of creativity. The current cultural zeitgeist, for example, is completely out of our control; if that culture has no interest in us or vice versa, then that's that. Likewise, not all people have access to high-quality creative communities either because of geography, lack of wealth, or family responsibilities.

View all my reviews

The Cold War: A New History by John Lewis Gaddis

The Cold War: A New History by John Lewis Gaddis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was really excited to read this because I love Gaddis and I am excited about classified documents that become available over time. I was also excited about this book being short so I could get a bird's-eye view of the issues that are in some ways playing out again with various states. But I didn’t find enough riveting material or amazing themes in this to justify how obnoxiously non-chronological this account was. Gaddis constantly jumped back and forth through time in a way that I found dizzying.

View all my reviews

A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The actual plot in the story is a little overwrought, but I like the characters, their experiences, and Nora's moment of realization.

I'm also impressed with such early feminist perspectives.

View all my reviews

What I Believe by Bertrand Russell

What I Believe by Bertrand Russell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My version contains, “What I Believe,” “The Good Life,” “What is a Christian,” and “Fear, the Basis of Religion.”

The best of the bunch is “What I Believe.” Feminism! Consent! Birth control! In the 1920s! How can you not love Bertrand Russell?

I love his logic, and I agree with a lot of what he says, indeed for years that was all there was to it for me. However now, after much reading, I'm a Christian primarily because I believe in human rights, and justifying it all back through a number of steps that are perhaps not as logical as Bertrand, I arrive at God and agreement with the teachings of Christ. (I am told this is not good enough by my Evangelical friends, but luckily they don't get to decide who is and isn't a Christian. I am equally unimpressed by their version of Christianity.) Although clearly Russell is highly ethical, I don't think he really addresses ethics as the argument for God.

“The Good Life,” is solid but it feels very incomplete to me. “What is a Christian,” is both descriptive and an analysis and I didn’t find it particularly useful. Finally, “Fear,” brings up some solid points but seems to apply not to “religion” generally but Christianity specifically, and while I don’t disagree with his points, it seems unfair in its incompleteness.

View all my reviews

Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen

Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lots of amazing lines, especially, "It is the very mark of the spirit of rebellion to crave for happiness in this life." But it leaves everything a depressing mess... just like real life I guess.

View all my reviews

How to Break Up with Your Phone by Catherine Price

How to Break Up with Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life by Catherine Price
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

No shocking new information here, just the intervention we all need.

View all my reviews

The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis

The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read a lot of behavioral economics, and I've read Kahneman and Thaler, but I was missing the context of the history of Kahneman and Tversky, followed later by Thaler, being the inventors of this discipline. I was also missing the context of the in-between location of the discipline between psychology and economics, but more importantly as the source of strife between psychologists and economists. This book also expressed my frustrations with my economics classes, and I'm even more annoyed now that I realize my economics professors were basically just ignoring research that was at that point already 20 years old. I was also interested in learning about how this research came out of Israel. I was maybe a little less interested in the ins-and-outs of Kahneman and Tversky's personal relationship and about which Lewis left me a bit confused.

View all my reviews

A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell

A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought I would feel smarter than I do when I finished this book. Nonetheless an interesting review of the classical philosophers. I don't think it would have killed him to throw in at least one woman, at a minimum with reference to western feminist philosophy, especially considering he included some not terribly deep political philosophers (who weren't necessarily concerned with consciousness or the cosmos but only political realities). I know this suggestion makes me sound like a millennial, but I assure you I'm not.

Bertrand correctly predicted that science would take over a lot of the inquiries on reality- as it has in consciousness and the cosmos, though he wasn't correct that, as in theoretical physics, it would never be based in thought experiments. I wish someone wrote a summary of philosophers and their central ideas picking up where Russell left off.

View all my reviews

The Unwinding of the Miracle by Julie Yip-Williams

The Unwinding of the Miracle: A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything That Comes After by Julie Yip-Williams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I lost both of my parents to cancer, my dad when he was 61 and I was 31, and my mom when she was 60 and I was 38. Since losing my dad I’ve read a lot, including a number of these end of life books. The good ones come from people who either gave thought to how to live life before being diagnosed or read a lot of literature throughout their life. The worst are a hodgepodge of memoir and random “deep” thoughts with no organizing theme.

In this case, Yip-Williams life story is somewhat interesting though spread out throughout the book. I’m especially interested in her solo-legally-blind travels. Otherwise, I would only recommend this to people who want to mine the book for colon cancer specifics, which admittedly might be useful.

Also, the whole thing about her husband's hypothetical second wife was a bit much. Granted I'm not dying of cancer, but I really love my husband, and I imagine (and hope) that if I died he'd marry someone completely awesome. The last thing I'd want to do is leave them with a list of musts and can'ts to make them feel guilty about their decisions when I'm not even around. Wanting your kids to be raised a particular way is completely understandable, I'd want them to be loved by a stepmom more than I'd worry about their music classes. And I'd even want them to be happy enough to be able to call her mom. Real love is about them, not me.

For me, the best part of the book might be her husband's epilogue. It's truthful and full of selfless love. It also provides a pretty good analysis of the reality of a bad cancer diagnosis and a long terrible illness.

If you want end-of-life wisdom I recommend: Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl who survived the Holocaust, The Bright Hour by Nina Riggs who died of cancer, and Bright-Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich (about the annoying positivity forced on cancer patients and others). Or you know, actual books about philosophy, religion, and literature generally.

View all my reviews

The Burglar's Christmas by Willa Cather

The Burglar's Christmas by Willa Cather
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a completely cheesy very short story.

View all my reviews

The End of the World Running Club by Adrian J. Walker

The End of the World Running Club by Adrian J. Walker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I didn't love the beginning, and not because of the characters as a lot of other reviewers remarked. I thought the characters were pretty realistic and sufficiently decent people to rally behind. Rather, it was the lack of unique action that was getting me down in what seemed to be an action book. However, once they got to the running, I started to appreciate the literary elements of the book, and by the end of the book, I was into it. It wasn't a "for fun" book for me, and it wasn't fully literary, but I think it had a good payout for being a combo of genres.

View all my reviews

Mass for Shut-Ins by Todd Robinson

Mass for Shut-Ins by Todd Robinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Love poems, recovery poems, personal reflections, familial relationships, and Nebraskan scenes that make you feel and see more clearly.

View all my reviews

Loving vs. Virginia by Patricia Hruby Powell

Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case by Patricia Hruby Powell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm not a huge fan of historical fiction that focuses on actual historical people- such as the Lovings were, because I get frustrated trying to figure out which parts are based in fact and which are pure invention. This was short and fairly well done though, and worth it for me.

View all my reviews