Fernando

I found the setting of the novel interesting to me; it checked some boxes that relate to my personal experiences. I used to be a gamer, and I'm in the tech industry. MIT and Harvard add that spice, like in comic book characters, where good or mad geniuses come from these institutions.
The story is well developed, and the choice of the characters is interesting, with their flaws and their upbringing, the evolution of their friendship across the years, with game development in the forefront is probably the main focus of the novel. There aren't many characters, just a handful that, as a reader, I can track over the pages. I liked some of the expedients that the author used to connect Sadie and Sam, I found them original and well placed within the narrative.

I had a personal interest in the subject, I love to cook, and to cook you need to shop for groceries. I heard about the author watching a series on TV from the History Channel. I believe the book is well-articulated and I was always curious to know how groceries make their way to the supermarkets, their provenience, and their journey. There are so many aspects that most of us are just blinded to, for example how they display their products, the general layout of the supermarket, inside and out. The author does a good job by using an example of a supermarket chain that is familiar to him.

This was the last book of the Kingsbridge series. I didn't read them in order since I started from the last book, #4, and then read #0, #1, and #2. Ken Follett is crafty at developing characters with the right pace, across decades. In all of his books, I could rediscover historical facts recounted in a fictional form but nonetheless I always felt as if I was witnessing an everyday moment just happening in a crucial time in history. In the case of the Column of Fire, Follett puts the spotlight on events that I never paid full attention to, critical milestones such as Protestants and their struggle in the late 16th century, and the intelligence services required to keep the English monarchs safe. The author ends with showing how the will of the Puritans to freely express their religious belief pushed them to adventure in a new world, even though, this passage is very short in the book.

The Pillars of the Earth deserves the buzz that surrounds it. It's a very long novel, but I'm pleased to see how the author was able to have a fluid narrative with a great development of the characters across the span of decades. Even though this is the first book of the Kingsbridge series, it's my 3rd overall, I read the Armor of Light (#4) and the prequel (#0). I see a common thread with the juxtaposition of villains and heroes, even though, here, some of the characters have more nuanced personalities. I liked the historical backdrop of medieval England, the author researched well the period and it transpires during the book. In the forewords, the author explains his fascination with Chatedrals and how long it took to begin writing a novel where the Cathedral was the center of the story. As with the other books of the series, Ken Follett can portray the everyday life of peasants or common men and women of the time, and the struggle for things that we take for granted in our modern society.

This is my first novel from Ken Follett, I enjoyed the read. I thought the characters were well-developed and they all fit nicely in the narrative. It took me a bit to pinpoint who was who at the beginning but as I proceeded reading each one started to fill in the character. I appreciated how the author used mundane characters to describe everyday life at the end of 18th-century England and later the beginning of the 19th century, spanning a few decades with social turmoil and technological advancement. I like historical fiction novels that recount the stories of plausible personalities and bring to life eras that used to be, I think Ken Follett did a great job with The Armor of Light in doing just that.

When I placed this title in my “to read” list I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. I have to say that there were a few reasons for me to be intrigued by this autobiography. First I love soccer, or “calcio” as it is called in my country, Italy, where I played in non-professional leagues.
My wife grew up a block away from where Tim Howard grew up, she went to the same elementary school, Judd all the way to high school in North Brunswick, NJ.
I am currently coaching a North Brunswick youth travel team and one of my two sons is a goalkeeper, like Tim. They go to high school at Saint Joseph of Metuchen, that Tim mentions in the book. So many references just hit home.
In general, I believe the book is well-structured, starting with the last World Cup game where Tim played and ending with the story of that game. The professional itinerary from rec soccer in North Brunswick, to the Imperials, MetroStars, Manchester United, and Everton, and last but not least the great work done for the national team.
His dealing with Tourette syndrome and his active participation in groups aimed at helping children with the syndrome is commendable, I didn't know about it.
His personal story is also compelling and inspiring, how he dealt with his divorce, the family, and his love for his mother.
I liked also the insider story of dealing with teammates and staff in his various teams, his technical notes on what was going on in his mind when making saves, and how to read and participate in games.
I really recommend reading it to whoever is passionate about this sport.

Merged review:

When I placed this title in my “to read” list I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. I have to say that there were a few reasons for me to be intrigued by this autobiography. First I love soccer, or “calcio” as it is called in my country, Italy, where I played in non-professional leagues.
My wife grew up a block away from where Tim Howard grew up, she went to the same elementary school, Judd all the way to high school in North Brunswick, NJ.
I am currently coaching a North Brunswick youth travel team and one of my two sons is a goalkeeper, like Tim. They go to high school at Saint Joseph of Metuchen, that Tim mentions in the book. So many references just hit home.
In general, I believe the book is well-structured, starting with the last World Cup game where Tim played and ending with the story of that game. The professional itinerary from rec soccer in North Brunswick, to the Imperials, MetroStars, Manchester United, and Everton, and last but not least the great work done for the national team.
His dealing with Tourette syndrome and his active participation in groups aimed at helping children with the syndrome is commendable, I didn't know about it.
His personal story is also compelling and inspiring, how he dealt with his divorce, the family, and his love for his mother.
I liked also the insider story of dealing with teammates and staff in his various teams, his technical notes on what was going on in his mind when making saves, and how to read and participate in games.
I really recommend reading it to whoever is passionate about this sport.

I would rate it just below 4 stars. I was interested in the book after I heard a review about it on NPR. I read “Think fast think slow” by the same author, and that book was an eye-opener for me, Kahneman deservedly won a Noble Prize for that study.
The authors here try to raise awareness for “noise” in judgments. Judgment is applied in different fields: the justice system, corporations, sports etc. We are mostly familiar with judgment “bias” but not necessarily with judgment “noise”. The book is well organized, the authors do a good job in defining what a judgment noise is, the type of noise that can be present, and how to address them.
What I found less appealing is the narrative. In many sections of the book, the point that they were trying to make wasn't clear. In the end, it was commendable to show the limitations in applying countermeasures to noise, however, it seemed as if they were contradicting some of the main arguments for these countermeasures.
I bit below my expectations.

I really enjoyed this book, I don't give 5 stars easily, but the Act of Oblivion deserves it in my opinion. I always liked Rober Harris's writing style, I find his narrative compelling. He does thorough research for his historical novels and he's able to thrust me into the periods in history that he is writing about. While I was reading I felt as if I was adventuring in late seventeenth-century New England, post-Mayflower America with puritans looking out for each other to provide hiding for these two famous regicides.
The historical period is also dense with events of marked importance, both in the old and new world. The plague and the fire in London, New Amsterdam becoming New York, and some unhappiness of the new world citizens that seems to plant the seed for a future revolution against oppressive rulers.

I chose to read this book after the unfortunate events that developed in Ukraine in the last month. The Russian invasion and the misuse of historical facts to support the theory that aggression was justified even with human loss at stake.
The author goes back millennia to show all the different civilizations that had an impact on Ukraine's culture, from pre-roman time to the Vikings, the Kievan Rus' to the Cossacks, until the recent events of the Orange revolution and 2014 Crimea's annexation.
The struggle of a nation to reclaim its independence has deep roots, the price that the Ukrainian people had to pay in the past century was high in terms of human life, and a poor standard of living was imposed mostly from outside governing forces.
I appreciated how the author was able to touch many events in the history of Ukraine succinctly, giving the chance to many outsiders to place Ukraine on the map, geographically and historically.

Why We Sleep is an informative book, the author is a neuroscientist specializing in the area of sleep and a strong advocate for it. We all know how important sleep is, but I believe we typically only scratch the surface. The understanding of the effects of the various phases in our sleep gives us an opportunity to act on them for our benefit. The lack of sleep in our society is causing damage to our health and increasing the risks of accidents, low performance at work, sports, and learning.
The author presented arguments for increasing the quality and quantity of sleep, he corroborated these arguments with results of scientific studies conducted on different sets of subjects.
He also offers viable ways to improve our sleep hygiene with improved habits, technological aid, better and informed decisions.
It's amazing to see that with something so cheap we can boost our health outcomes, reduce risks, live fuller lives, be better at work and sports.

What a read! if I could give it more stars I would. I typically prefer books with more dialogs, but the author does such a great job with his narrative and descriptive language that the story just flows. The characters are well developed and realistic. Doerr is able to bring you back in time and helps you feel what the characters feel throughout the book with a perfect choice of words. There are so many stories worth telling that are set during world war II. A war changes dramatically how one perceives the world that surrounds us. The metaphors and the prose that the author uses allow you to be part of that world.
The story is mostly set in Saint-Malo, on the northeast coast of France, but also Germany, and briefly other parts of Europe. The story revolves around two main characters, Marie-Laure and Werner, both teenagers when the war takes hold of the world. Marie-Laure is a blind girl with a vivid imagination, Werner is a talented and bright boy who would love to become an engineer. Their stories evolve and alternate in the book until at last, they meet.
The book is a worthy winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Guns, Germs, and Steel is a very well-written and thought stimulating book. There are connections that I wouldn't typically make between geography and history and the author place them in plain sight. The breadth of the book is significant in terms of time and space, it touches on early periods of human development throughout recent times, and all the corners of this planet. I appreciated also the scientific approach that the author used to argue his theories. At the end of the book, he explains why the classification of history in humanity rather than science is somewhat inaccurate. Historians need to resort to different methods compared to what the scientific method would require, but this doesn't make their processes less rigorous.
Geography was, according to the author, a key element in giving a head start to early civilizations in the fertile crescent. Also, the fact that the Euroasia continent spreads in an east-west axis rather than a north-south one helped the diffusion of technologies in a shorter period of time compared to continents with the north-south axis (i.e. Africa, North-South America). These facts could have arguably provided a chain of events that placed Europe and Asia with an advantage.

First I would rate the book more 3.5 stars than 4. The book I believe is part of a genre of popular science of its own. I liked how the author tried to bridge a gap between archeology and what the non-expert perceives or understands. The author tries to make the point that cities were and are essential to human progress, they bring people with all backgrounds together and they have to manage to live and prosper in close proximity. Citizens were in a fertile environment for innovation, and innovation and progress didn't happen only with scientific discoveries but also with social development. The author argues that cities allowed the birth of the middle class and this new social entity fueled new product development and consumption.
I was expecting a little more in-depth analysis of the early cities, I would have liked her to describe more how the Mesopotamian cities and other early prototypes of cities functioned. The book started drifting away from archeological finds and history and focus more on parallels with modern city living, I wish there was less of the latter.

Beyond Infinity is a gem of a book. I agree that popular mathematics is a tougher subject than popular science, the closest cousin that I can think of. Eugenia Cheng does a great job of picking the right metaphors and analogies to explain mathematical concepts that could be intimidating. Her enthusiasm transpires in the book and it's contagious. I didn't need much of a convincing since I always liked math, but she made me rediscover the beauty of it.
She is down to earth, funny and insightful. She was able to find a narrative from page 1 to the end, to find a way to pause when necessary but at the same time keep you engaged.

This was the fourth and last book of the Bravo Shaw series and the one I enjoyed the least. The scenes described throughout the book were disappointing, it looked like as if the author tried in a way to take pages from Dante's Inferno with way less complexity and depth, trivializing some of what anyone can think of the images used in history to visualize the devil's and his comrades.
It's a shame considering the premises of the series, it's never easy to end a story but in my opinion, this was not a good ending.

I would give it a 3.5. I liked the premises of the book and how the discourse started, showing when extreme cases of specialization work and when they don't, in sport as in many other fields. The author starts with known cases such as Tiger Woods and chess player prodigy Susan Polgar (and her sisters). In these cases, golf and chess, early specialization clearly helped produce outstanding performers, in many other fields, early specialization, as the author shows, is counterproductive. We are better off exploring and experimenting with other disciplines before choosing what may be our calling. The book clearly makes the case for breadth rather than dept, including examples from NASA, Roger Federer, scientists.
The reason why I lowered the score is more due to the fluidity of the narrative, sometimes I found it hard to follow. It seemed as if each chapter was too disconnected from every other one. Also, some chapters were more compelling than others, in my view.

When I started reading the first book I was intrigued by the historical references. I like good historical fiction books, even though the Bravo Shaw series isn't exactly one, however, there are good historical anchors.
I found the second book of the series more fluid in the narrative, less distracting with unnecessary details and long digressions. There are more cliffhangers at the end of the chapters that keep you wanting to know more. All in all, I believe it's a good thriller and it connects nicely with the first book of the series, in this case, we don't have much of contraposition between the order of the Observantines and the Knights of St. Clement but more a fight of Good vs. Evil.
I can say that I'm hooked, and I think this was the intent of the author all along. I feel like wanting to binge read the whole 4 books like I would with a good Netflix series. I'll start reading the 3rd of the series soon.

Superforecasting is a well-written book that gives food for thoughts and tools to navigate in our everyday decision-making process. The author describes what qualities a superforecaster should have, and how to counteract some of our first instincts that can hinder good forecasting. I liked also the links to previous works such as the one done by Daniel Kahneman. I read Daniel K.'s book “Thinking fast, thinking slow” a must read that open minds. Daniel K. introduced concepts such as system 1 (thinking fast) and system 2 (thinking slow). The author of Superforecasting shows how those two modes of thinking affect who attempts to make predictions or simply answer a question. We need to understand what our brain is primed to do to put a brake on our instincts sometimes.
Another important aspect of forecasting is the statistical nature of it. We also need to have metrics and facts to substantiate our claims within a statistical framework. I liked the scientific approach and the narrative throughout the book, it flows nicely, and it is based on a research program sponsored by a national intelligence agency.
At one point he mentions an anecdote about Fermi, the question being “how many piano tuners are in Chicago”, the steps followed to answer this question and give a first-hand estimate are very helpful and relevant.

I was looking for a good historical fiction book. I wouldn't consider “The Testament” a true historical fiction book but the plot intrigued me. It starts with the introduction of the Obervantine order in 1422, in a remote convent in Trebizon, modern Turkey. A few pages later we fast forward to the present time New York where the main characters are introduced. From there it's a twisting plot with two orders fighting against each other for centuries. The Observantines want to preserve a cache of secrets dating from the time of Jesus, the archenemies, Knights of St. Clement, on the other hand, are constantly trying to find and exploit these secrets. The author for my taste is a little too descriptive and wordy, especially in certain sections of the book. Sometimes his digressions can take away from the story and make you wonder “where were we again?”, I understand that he can use words like an artist uses a paintbrush, but I would have preferred a sense of measure. This said I believe that the first and third sections of the book are probably the best, the pace really picks up towards the end of the book. I would consider reading the remaining books of the series.

I've always been fascinated with neuroscience and the understanding of the inner works of our brain. As the author points out, there are more books on cognitive psychology and less concerning how we deal with emotions. This was even truer a few decades ago.
The book is well written and the author takes the reader through his personal scientific journey from the beginning of his career to what is now this branch of neuroscience. As some other readers noticed, in the beginning, it seems that the author may be too self-centered, it seems as if he's more interested in showing his accomplishments than anything else. However, in the end, everything makes sense. The book layout takes you from discovering the six dimensions of the emotional brain, to assess your own set point in a scale for each one of those dimensions, and ultimately in the last chapter describes some of the tools that might help us to change our setpoints, toward one side or the other.
I liked his scientific approach, he doesn't jump to conclusions but rather he uses well-designed experiments and technology to assess the effectiveness of certain methods that aim to assess or change our emotional states.
He simplifies the discourse so it's accessible to everyone but he offers a glimpse on how our brain areas and connections are continuously changing entities.

I enjoyed the book, I picked it mostly because of the subject of mathematics, however mathematics is more the background of the story, the essence of the novel is its characters. In particular the main character, Milo Andret, a mathematician, a womanizer, and an alcoholic. The book is divided in two parts, in the first part we learn of Milo's youth and his ascending career, a career that takes him from his native Michigan to Berkley, Princeton, and Ohio. The first part is narrated in the third person while in the second part the narrative turns in the first person, as we learn that the story was indeed told by his son, Hans Andret, who also suffers from his own addiction, to drugs in his case. Like his father, he has a talent for mathematics that shows since early age.
Even though in some chapters I felt as if the story was dragging itself nowhere, with some superfluous details, if you step back and look at the big picture you can see how well the author develops not just the two main characters, but everyone involved in Milo's life. The intricacy of all the figures in this novel is remarkable, at the end it makes you feel as if you have closely known them for what they are.
Milo uncommon understanding of topology, his field in mathematics, eventually leads him to win the Fields Medal, the highest award for a mathematician. The obsession with these topics is not unusual in mathematics and other scientific fields.
We learn from the book how this obsession, tied with his personality, creates fault lines with people close to him, family, lovers, and friends.

I enjoyed the book, it touched several aspects of our lives and the author identifies some exceptional individuals that excelled in some particular fields such as singing, running, longevity etc.
The book is structured in three parts: thinking, doing, and being. Each part is further divided into some traits, for example, language, memory, resilience etc.
I'm not sure why the author chose these particular aspects of our lives (memory, happiness, ...), but we all have to start and stop somewhere. I like the fact that the book made me rethink of the concept of nature vs. nurture. I see that it is an oversimplification, genetic and environment are intertwined after all and if we embrace this view we can better tackle the problem of how to improve each aspect to make our lives better in the future.
Rowan Hooper is an evolutionary biologist, I liked his writing style, it made the narrative flow nicely from the beginning to the end, I might have enjoyed some chapters more than others but it's a matter of personal taste.

I enjoyed this book, it was easy to read and it refreshed my memory from what I learned in school. I'm from Rome and now I leave in the US. I spent several years in the eternal city, and I was always interested in history, in particular, ancient history. Rome is an open museum, with layers and layers of history preserved in its architecture, ancient buildings and remains, but also in the common knowledge of the everyday people. The book is well documented and touches some interesting milestones of Roman history such as its sackings. The author uses these dramatic events to anchor these specific periods and then describes the life in the city during these times. I found the narrative engaging and it motivated me to explore once again this great city.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it's full of useful information and interesting facts that help understand what we experience in our everyday life. I'm an engineer, a good home cook and I grew up in Italy with good homemade meals, my parents had a big garden where all sorts of fresh vegetables were available. The access to this just picked food items imprinted in my brain what flavor was, the smell, the taste, the visual, the context. This book was able to put all of this in perspective, it covers well many aspects related to how we experience food from a sensorial point of view to a psychological one. I recommend this book to anyone who is passioned about good food and is curious to understand how and why we like what we like.

The book was well articulated and introduced me to an aspect of soccer that I haven't discovered to the depth that this book uncovered: scouting for talent. In particular talent in Africa, where soccer is practiced by millions, like in many other parts of the world, however in many countries in Africa soccer can be the ticket out of poverty. The reality is that it is really like a lottery ticket, only a tiny percentage makes it to professional soccer, despite having the talent, there is much more needed to be able to accomplish those dreams.
I play and coach soccer and I found this book very informative and entertaining. It takes you on the journey of three young players, selected by a skilled talent scout to play in a soccer academy in Qatar. From their stories, there is a lot to learn. The author at the end cites also other valuable sources for additional reading.