Books

Come for the brief, yet informationally dense, deep dive into the the history of the world's oldest disease. Stay for the fun factoids of how tuberculosis has shaped the world (from cowboy hats and Adirondack chairs to WW1 and the existence of the state of New Mexico). Then marvel at how John Green speaks to how this disease is personal to him and writes what reads like an elegy that is as deeply moving as any one you've heard before. An incredible use of 6 hours. Would read a book like this for every single disease.

Mary Roach is a great writer of the science non-fiction "gross but fascinating" sub-genre, but this book did not speak to me the way other books of hers have, although it was still mostly enjoyable. I love reading about the "pioneering" of new science, but I think I was left bored in several chapters of the book because the areas of "replaceable" human anatomy I am most interested in (artificial hearts, lab grown appendages, etc.) are not quite real or mastered yet while the the areas that have been mastered (various forms of plastic surgery) I was just not as interested in reading about. Of note: Mary Roach wrote within this book, by far, the best 'Acknowledgements' section I have ever read.

I love brain science and I loved this book. Dr. Theodore Schwartz discusses (1) the various methods/instruments used in surgery and how they have evolved over time (2) the most important/influential brains surgeons throughout history, their contributions, and their peculiarities (3) details various cases of neurological disease in important historical figures (4) his personal experiences in the operating room and (5) his opinions and recommendations for the field in general. I believe that if I was a medial student or resident, I would be able to take a lot from this book.

An instant classic. You MUST read this as the audiobook. I do not wish to spoil why, but I do not know how I would have read large parts of this book and processed it in my head otherwise. More fun, more human, and more heartbreaking than Weir's other novel, The Martian.

I have been a fan of Thompson's & Klein's podcasts/writing for a while, moreso Thompson than Klein, and was excited to read this book when I found out about it.I have become supply-side pilled over the past few years since COVID and wish more Americans held a positive-sum view on various hot topics of political debate instead of a zero-sum view. Reasonable adults should be able to agree that markets are real, incentives matter, and you should first try to address the root problem of "not enough supply to go around" by finding ways to expand said supply before you compound the problem further by subsidizing demand in a way that just exacerbates the supply issue. Many solutions presented in this book do not seem to map cleanly onto today's left/right spectrum, which unfortunately leaves them in a political no-man's land. While this isn't really a critique of Abundance itself, the book is really more of a collection of synthesized essays of their author's previous writings that were organized into an easy-to-read "airport" book. I finished this book happy to have read it, but was left wanting it to have gone more in-depth in most of its chapters.

I would have never read this book without it having been recommended to me by a friend because it codes as "girl fiction", but I quite enjoyed this book! It is incredibly funny. I have never read a book before where the main POV character was neurodivergent.

I enjoyed this book. Bast is a cool and interesting side character. And I am glad this book was written in the traditional prose of the rest of the Kingkiller chronicles, but boy do I wish Patrick Rothfuss could finish my favorite fantast series of all-time :(

I read this book after one of my friend's said it remained her favorite book of all-time even today as an adult. I'm thankful for the rec, because this was a really good book! While it is written as a children's book I was surprised at how genuinely frightening it got at times, especially during the parts of the book where Ella was subject to sexual violence.

This was a solid book that had several moments and characters I liked, but good grief how on earth did I happen to read yet another dystopian sci-fi book written outside of chronological order from the POV of an unreliable narrator? These types of books are not my jam.

I can see why this book is regarded as a classic, but this book was not for me. It was a bit too weird. But mainly I just think I don't like a dystopian sci-fi book that is written outside of chronological order from the POV of an unreliable narrator.

Dune's universe is incredible and I deeply respect how innovative and influential Frank Herbert was on all sci-fi that came after him, but damn... the Dune books sure do get pretty weird quite fast after the first novel. I'm hopping off the sandworm here.

Brave New World is way too weird for my tastes and easily the worst book I have ever read. I only started this book because it was a "classic" and the other books I wanted were still on hold. This book was torture for me as I am a completionist and force myself to finish everything I start.

I had somehow never read this classic. What a mistake! This book is incredible and the girl who reads the audiobook has the best southern drawl.

Fear is the mind-killer. This book was incredible! The universe is so rich... the science, the religion, the cultures, the political systems. I had no idea how to much of Star Wars is straight up robbed from Dune hahaha. The dinner party scene was my favorite from the entire book and I was disappointed it was left out of the movie.

Such a fun book full of preposterous questions with incredibly detailed scientific answers!

I remember this one being my favorite of the Narnia series and do not understand why people hate on it.

A good coffee table book with pretty pages.

Come for the astronaut memoir. Stay for the best book on leadership and perspective on managing a team I’ve ever read.