reading list and book mini-reviews

Summary

Below is the current crop of books I'm reading along with ratings and mini-reviews for other novels I've recently finished. I'm always excited to start a new book, so recommendations are welcome!

NOTE! The ratings are a combination of how impactful the book was on my thinking about a particular topic or how well I think it was written/got its point across. Thus, at times whether I agree or disagree with the content/thesis/etc. of the book, it could still get 5 stars if the point it makes gets me to think about the subject in a new way or changes how I interpret the world around me.

Book reviews

My book reviews can be found at book reviews.

Select finished books

The ratings are a combination of how much of an impact the book had on my thinking about a particular topic or how well I think it was written/got its point across. Thus, at times whether I agree or disagree with the content/thesis/etc. of the book, it could still get 5 stars if the point it makes gets me to think about the subject in a new way or changes how I interpret the world around me.

Columns can be sorted by clicking on each table header.

date rating title author review
2023 5 of 5 stars The Right to Pain Relief and Other Deep Roots of the Opioid Epidemic Mark Sullivan
2023 4 of 5 stars Arundel Kenneth Roberts
2023 5 of 5 stars Islam and the Crusades: The Writings of Usama ibn Munqidh Usamah ibn Munqidh
2023 5 of 5 stars Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journey Michael Collins
2023 4 of 5 stars The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power Daniel Yergin
2023 5 of 5 stars The Big Bang Never Happened: A Startling Refutation of the Dominant Theory of the Origin of the Univ... Eric J. Lerner
2023 4 of 5 stars The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition Caroline Alexander
2023 5 of 5 stars The Wandering Earth: Classic Science Fiction Collection Liu Cixin
2023 5 of 5 stars Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas--Not Less Alex Epstein
2022 5 of 5 stars Taking the Back off the Watch: A Personal Memoir (Astrophysics and Space Science Library, 381) Thomas Gold
2022 5 of 5 stars The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind Julian Jaynes
2022 5 of 5 stars The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels Thomas Gold
2022 4 of 5 stars Ignition!: An informal history of liquid rocket propellants John Drury Clark
2022 4 of 5 stars The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia Peter Hopkirk
2022 5 of 5 stars Incredible Life: A Handbook of Biological Mysteries William R. Corliss
2021 4 of 5 stars From Third World to First: The Singapore Story: 1965-2000 Lee Kuan Yew
2021 5 of 5 stars The Big Book of Adventure Stories: The Most Daring, Dangerous, and Death-Defying Collection of Adven... Otto Penzler
2020 5 of 5 stars Wall & Melzack's Textbook of Pain E-Book: Expert Consult - Online and Print (Wall and Melzack's Text... Stephen B. McMahon
2020 5 of 5 stars The Archdruid Report: Green Wizardries: Collected Essays, Volume IV, 2010 (The Complete Archdruid Re... John Michael Greer
2020 5 of 5 stars France and England in North America, Volume 1 Francis Parkman
2020 5 of 5 stars France and England in North America, Volume 2 Francis Parkman
2020 5 of 5 stars The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo Bernal Díaz del Castillo
2019 4 of 5 stars Chronicle of the Narváez Expedition Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
2019 5 of 5 stars Columbus: The Four Voyages Laurence Bergreen
2019 5 of 5 stars Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed Ben R. Rich
2019 4 of 5 stars King Solomon's Mines (Allan Quatermain, #1) H. Rider Haggard
2019 5 of 5 stars The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1) Brandon Sanderson
2018 5 of 5 stars Conan: The Barbarian complete collection Robert E. Howard
2018 5 of 5 stars Heretic: One Scientist's Journey from Darwin to Design Matti Leisola
2018 5 of 5 stars Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past David Reich review link
2018 5 of 5 stars The Big Book of Science Fiction Ann VanderMeer
2018 4 of 5 stars "What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character Richard P. Feynman
2017 4 of 5 stars Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Charles Mackay
2017 4 of 5 stars The Technological Society Jacques Ellul
2017 4 of 5 stars The Gospel According to Jesus: What Does Jesus Mean When He Says "Follow Me"? John F. MacArthur Jr.
2017 5 of 5 stars The Long Journey Johannes V. Jensen
2016 5 of 5 stars The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith Cordwainer Smith review link
2016 5 of 5 stars The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind Gustave Le Bon
2016 4 of 5 stars A Deepness in the Sky Vernor Vinge
2016 5 of 5 stars The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power Gene Healy
2016 4 of 5 stars The Best and the Brightest David Halberstam
2015 4 of 5 stars The Real George Washington (American Classic Series) Jay A. Parry
2015 4 of 5 stars Jim Thorpe: World’s Greatest Athlete Robert W. Wheeler
2015 4 of 5 stars Wilderness Empire Allan W. Eckert
2015 5 of 5 stars The Sensory Order: An Inquiry into the Foundations of Theoretical Psychology Friedrich A. Hayek
2015 4 of 5 stars What Is Life? with Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches Erwin Schrödinger
2015 5 of 5 stars Human Action: A Treatise on Economics Ludwig von Mises
2015 5 of 5 stars Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1) Dan Simmons
2015 4 of 5 stars Physics of the Impossible Michio Kaku
2015 4 of 5 stars The Craft of Scientific Presentations: Critical Steps to Succeed and Critical Errors to Avoid Michael Alley
2015 4 of 5 stars The 48 Laws of Power Robert Greene
2015 5 of 5 stars Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future Peter Thiel review link
2015 4 of 5 stars War Is a Racket Smedley D. Butler
2014 5 of 5 stars The Frontiersmen Allan W. Eckert
2014 4 of 5 stars Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1) John Scalzi review link
2014 4 of 5 stars The Autobiography of Malcolm X Malcolm X
2014 5 of 5 stars The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York Robert A. Caro review link
2014 5 of 5 stars Master of the Senate Robert A. Caro
2014 4 of 5 stars The Right Stuff Tom Wolfe
2014 5 of 5 stars The Path to Power Robert A. Caro review link
2014 4 of 5 stars The Informant Kurt Eichenwald
2014 4 of 5 stars Den of Thieves James B. Stewart
2014 4 of 5 stars The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron Bethany McLean review link
2014 5 of 5 stars Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra review link
2014 5 of 5 stars Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco Bryan Burrough review link
2014 4 of 5 stars Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character Richard P. Feynman review link
2014 5 of 5 stars Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (Good to Great, 2) James C. Collins review link
2014 4 of 5 stars Moneyball Michael Lewis review link
2014 4 of 5 stars The Billion Dollar Molecule: One Company's Quest for the Perfect Drug Barry Werth review link
2014 4 of 5 stars The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger Marc Levinson review link
2014 4 of 5 stars How to Lie with Statistics Darrell Huff review link

-biafra
bahanonu [at] alum.mit.edu

other entires to explore:

book review, part 1.0 — the rediscovery of man: the complete short science fiction of cordwainer smith
18 november 2017 | books

Chinese conquests of Venus, cats fighting off extra-dimensional dragons, Soviet telepathic experiments gone wrong, and much much more! Cord[...]wainer's The Rediscovery of Man is a grand, unique vision of Mankind's future and is a must read for anyone interested in a delightful journey that will both get them to ponder many new ideas and leave a smile on their face.

satellite-based videos: eastern europe during the russia-ukraine conflict
30 november 2022 | satellite

To visualize the nighttime lights of Eastern Europe, with a focus on times before and after the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, I updated [...]my geoSatView R code originally built to view forest fires in the west coast of the United States to use satellite data from VNP46A1 and other datasets collected from the Suomi NPP VIIRS satellite.

I then created higher-quality movies in MATLAB by using the VNP46A2 Black Marble dataset collected by the same satellite, which has reduced cloud and other artifacts due to additional data processing. This allowed me to quantitate a permanent reduction in nighttime lights within Ukraine (in line with my initial hypothesis) and identify a multi-stage reduction of nighttime lights in Kiev's outer neighborhoods/metropolitan area that was greater than that seen in the city core/center. This highlights the utility of public satellite data to quickly test hypotheses and visualize large-scale changes.

I will go over how the Black Marble dataset is collected and processed along with how I created the movies and the advantages/disadvantages of each data source.

Using this platform and codebase, in follow-up posts I will look at 2021 Texas power crisis during the winter storms, vegetation changes in deforested areas or after conservation efforts, and other events.

guild wars 2 chef excel guide
08 september 2012 | guild wars 2

The chef's ingredients are scattered throughout the Guild Wars 2 map, but the profession is a cheap way to get 10 levels quickly. Because I[...] am OCD and would rather not read text when I can browse a spreadsheet, compiled information from a couple of sources that is more easily searchable.

Manifest Destiny
25 August 2012 | designs

A banner for our Guild Wars 2 group. President Polk helped complete th[...]e original Manifest Destiny. The font is Blackadder ITC and helps maintain the somewhat classical feel. However, the sole use of black, white and red is very modern.

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