Francisco

Timeless.

A very good take on anti-intellectualism that is not so distant from our own reality if you pay close attention (yes, our “western reality”). Not about to spoil most of the core meaning, I believe that this is a book that should be entirely interpreted by oneself. For a book published in 1953, everything in it it's still relevant, more than ever I daresay.

The pacing and the characters are very good. Personally I just wished the very poetic and metaphorical writing could be a little bit toned down. Sometimes I felt like I was reading a fever dream.

I loved it. It was hilariously fun and sad at the same time and came with a very powerful message about war and tragedies that can happen to us. So it goes.

A fictional story of a fictional character that served in the US Army during WW2. It's all fiction but inspired by Kurt Vonnegut's experiences in the war and the bombing of Dresden. Vonnegut then adds aliens to the mix but that is up to one's interpretation of what they are doing there.

“Children's Crusade” is an alternative title to the book but wasn't used a lot because of an actual event during the crusades (look it up). Why? Because most people in the army were children of 16~20 years old, let that sink in. This fictional protagonist was one of those poor kids.

Short, simple and gets the point across.

If you are familiar with agile methodologies this book will be basically a confirmation of what you may already know. A very high-level overview of the software development process, and a correct one in my opinion. I only wish it was a little bit longer and more detailed.

The key points of this book are very good: “Show us the software”, “be ready to ship at all times”, “let developers manage their work”, “no long term detailed planning”. These are some examples, but overall the book focuses on making teams where developers are motivated, happy and productive.

Developers reading this book might feel bored by the oversimplification of anything technical, but with that, this book becomes a perfect read for the business side (or non-technical) folk who wish to better understand the software development process.

Despite not being a full-blown 5 star to me, it's a must-read for tech workers.

In an age where pretty much everyone needs to write professionally, be it through instant messaging, email or any other form of written conversation, this book's advice is more important than ever. Be direct, be organized, keep the reader hooked, avoid lame stuff, don't be afraid to repeat yourself, don't use fancy stuff to be fancy, write as you talk, read that stuff out loud and don't be afraid of cutting stuff out. These are the main takeaways for me.

The author's advice ranges from technical writing and writing in the workplace, to art criticism, sports and family memoirs. All of those very different subjects were equally interesting to me. The author also talks about motivation to write, the audience you are writing for and other conceptual aspects you think off before writing. You will be surprised by what he has to say about this. I can tell you one thing right now. You, the writer, will always be the most important reader, and probably, the only one that matters.

The book also focuses on journalists and the editorial process and the importance of maintaining a unique voice and not letting other people redact and refactor your work at a whim. This advice also applies to us non-journalists. Many non-journalists get their work reviewed and redacted by our superiors. Please stand your ground and keep your style.

Every single piece of advice in this book is packed with examples from the author, or other non-fiction works that he references as excellent writing. This makes it a lot easier to visualize most of this new knowledge.

To me, it's a 5 star. It's well written obviously, and it's filled with advice that you can apply right away, in your daily life, at your work, and even at your hobbies.

I entered this book wanting to know more about alcohol and the process behind making it, but I left this book mostly with new knowledge about plants, which is not a bad thing per se.

It's the perfect combination of Botanics and being drunk. I also learned that you don't need 2 ounces of bourbon to make a nice cocktail, which is good for my health.

The book is filled with pretty interesting details about the history of many natural ingredients, and just overall nice to knows. Did you know that 90% of the Chinese star anise supply is used on making Tamiflu (flu medicine)? And how a guy lost everything and died alone in the jungle to give quinine to the world... lot's of nice stories about ingredients that are present on much of the world's liquor.

Ah, and alcohol, of course, the first 1/4 of the book falls heavy on that and you get a look into every possible way of making it.

Overall is a pretty good book. The only critique I have is that it turns into a encyclopedia when we get to the botanical part and is hard to read through some times, other than that, I enjoyed most of what I learned here.