Francisco
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.
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 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.
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.
Learn how we can stop judging people, comparing people and instead empathize more with others and value our own needs and everybody else too. According to the author, our language was built on the assertion of powers. Kings, rulers, and dictators of early history helped shaped modern language to subjugate and control the lesser. Marshall Rosenberg aims to change that.
There are a lot of lessons here but I think that all of the real-life examples in the book are utopic so to speak. I still believe that are people that we just can't reason with, but perhaps I'm the one in the wrong, who knows. In all of the examples, the author is successful in bringing the other person to reason, but most examples are a bit dated. On modern “social media” society using this method as is would probably be dealt with ridicule, especially if you are dealing with people over a chat box or a comment section.
Applying NVC fully on my life is perhaps overkill, I guess? Following this book fully would lead to a lot more verbosity and almost artificial conversations in my opinion, but using some of these lessons we can improve our base communication by a lot and develop more meaningful connections with others.
But still, there are some valuable lessons here especially do deal with hard situations socially, with our families or at work. Great to deal with kids, peer-reviewing colleagues, and just overall achieve more deep and meaningful relationships with others.
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.
A brief insight into the life's work of Stephen Hawking, this book, despite being released posthumously, feels more like an intro to the work of this brilliant man rather than a conclusion.
The questions range from the beginning of the universe into humanity's future, with black holes, space colonization and AI in the midst of it.
A casual read. Read this before the rest of Hawking's work if you may.
This was the most wholesome book I've ever read. Calling this a children's book is a little bit of a disservice. It is an absolute masterpiece for all ages. It has a much more playful tone compared to the Lord of the Rings, but it sets up the big story perfectly, showcasing every race's traits and setting up the story of the Ring very subtlely.
A must-read for any fantasy fan, as this is pretty much the framework that spawned modern fantasy as we know it.
Very well written overview of the current research of the universe and astrophysics. From dark matter and energy to exoplanets, this book covers most important aspects of the universe and manages to do so with a easily understandable writing style.
Also, the final message of the book on chapter 12 is powerful.
Was undecided between a 3 and a 4 so consider this a 3.5 stars book.
It's a great book still, just not as good as Dune. If you loved Dune, pick it up, otherwise, I think it's not worth the investment (I loved Dune, so this was a no brainer).
Compared to Dune the pacing is more consistent, taking place in the same time frame basically. It's also a lot richer in politics and scheming. Overall it's a good read if you are familiar with the Dune universe.
A very good book, with a lovely story and an even better world/universe building.
The story takes place on alternate history, 10000 into the future, where humans spread throughout the galaxy, colonizing different worlds. The story takes place in Dune, also known as Arrakis, a harsh, desert-like world ravaged with storms and housing one of the most fearsome creatures on all the universe, the giant sandworm (if you played DnD, this is where purple worms come from).
Worldbuilding is amazing and I don't want to spoil it for you. It's politically intense. The ecology aspect of it is also very interesting. There is advanced technology with a hint of the supernatural (you'll find out about it later).
The story itself is an archetypal chosen one plot, where this chosen one has flaws and both a pragmatic/cruel side and a human/compassionate side.
The only takeaway is that I wish it was longer. Not necessarily longer, but more fleshed out. I think each of the “books” in this book (basically Frank Herbert divides dune into 3 books internally, kinda like big chapters) could be full featured books in a trilogy. The problem here is not the shortening of the pace of the story, it's the consistency of it, starting slow and ending very abruptly. The writing itself suffers from this, being very detailed at places where it's not needed, and very succinct in others, basically, I would like a little bit more consistency, that's all.
Probably a little bit of confirmation bias, but a lot of present-day fantasy fiction is inspired by this book, so kudos to Frank Herbert for inspiring some modern-day fiction works (Game of Thrones comes to mind).
TL, DR: Sub-par pacing consistency, decent characters (main characters, mother and son, are well put though), lovely story and writing and great worldbuilding.
Impressive revelations made by Varoufakis here, it's a book I recommend to everyone, especially European citizens. Besides pointing the many flaws in the EU and the Euro, he also points solutions to those problems. Most importantly, he proves that the errors of the very powerful will always end up screwing those at the bottom of the chain, us common folk.
The book can be a bit tough to read at times though, for someone not well versed in economics and banking jargon. Yanis explains almost every notion that we might not understand, but it still remains though to understand when you never came across those terms. Despite this, it was still a very illuminating book.
An interesting, average story of Bast, finishing just moments shortly before the beginning of the Name of The Wind. You get a little bit of backstory of Kvothe's “apprentice”, that doesn't add a whole lot to the overall scheme of things (The Kingkiller Chronicle that is) and that's all there is to it really.
Too short and not as striking as the other works of Pat Rothfuss, but still a pleasant quick read.
Well well. You have come this far have you? You have read the Name of the Wind and you want the followup on the story.
BLACKENED BODY OF GOD. DON'T READ THIS BOOK. IT'S GOOD, JUST AS GOOD AS THE FIRST ONE, BUT IT WILL HURT YOU.
If you read this book you will love it, then you'll feel empty, devoid of meaning. After a couple of minutes you are gonna browse the KingkillerChronicles subreddit, then you'll search for info of the next book, Doors of Stone. THEN YOU'LL FIND NOTHING. LESS THAN NOTHING.
You'll be enraged, then frustrated, then you'll agonize overnight about the story and the characters and everything. The amount of foreshadowing put on the last book is way too much. BUT THERE IS NO BOOK, and we are back on the sad train.
Now, a couple of days go by and things get better. Eventually, work is gonna keep you busy, you'll forget a little bit about the third book being a long way off...EXCEPT NOT, EVERY SINGLE MINUTE OF THE DAY I REMEMBER ABOUT THIS DREADED STORY AND HOW IT WILL PROBABLY END. THEORIES EVERYWHERE.
Seriously, it's fucking great. Unbelievably great. Emotional with a great world building behind it, the excellent magic system, all the good things about the Name of The Wind basically. The only issue is that the foreshadowing about the “THIRD SILENCE” is too much, and leaves a lot of plot to close on the last book, which doesn't exist causing me extreme amounts of despair.
Well, back to my boring life then.
I needed a good few hours to let this book settle in before writing my first meaningful review.
This book tells the story of Kvothe, the Kingkiller, the Bloodless, etc, he goes by many names. He is an archetypal modern fantasy bard (if you play DnD it will seem awfully familiar), good with swords, magic, and music. The way that Pat Rothfuss sets up the book is just genius, having Kvothe tell the story of his past adventures in just 3 days (that's why the Chronicle has three parts) one for each day. Basically, there are two stories in the book. In most chapters, you will see Kvothe narrating his story in first person speech and in some chapters (usually called “interlude” chapters) you will see the current day events narrated in the third person, where Kvothe is retired and now owns a tavern.
The worldbuilding is spot on. Languages, cultures, ancient history, currencies, politics, everything is there. The world feels real and believable, meaning that despite having magic and strange creatures, everything makes sense. If you played and liked fantasy RPGs, either tabletop of video games, you probably will love this book like I did.
The story itself is full of typical fantasy clichés, the plot twists, the nemesis, the lover, the outcast, the sidekicks, the main character that's good at everything. Despite that, the writing ability of Rothfuss just takes these typical elements and make them absolutely fantastic and fresh. And the way he writes about music? Stunning. I don't want to sound like a twat but you could literally feel the songs he described (maybe it was just me, completely zoned out in this story)
Overall probably one of the best books I will ever read. Probably would be #1 if there was an actual conclusion to the story (book three pleaseeeeeeeeee)
I just quit reading this book from start to finish so I'm not gonna give it a rating.
This is basically all of the more meaningful work of Lovecraft. As usual, most short stories have the same feeling of fear of the unknown and what cannot be unseen. Rarely does the author describe the horror themselves because just the idea of it's existence is usually enough.
Some short stories are boring and repetitive, I just recommend reading some of the more interesting ones:
- Call of Cthulhu
- The Dunwich Horror
- Color out of Space
- The Shadow over Innsmouth
- Music of Eric Zhan
Warning: the author is super racist even for 1920s standards, so if that bothers you just keep away from his work.