The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz My rating: 4 of 5 stars At first, I was a bit disappointed; ‘The Hard Thing’ seemed like a simple “this is my story, so learn some lessons from it” management book....
Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion by Paul Bloom My rating: 4 of 5 stars Well-researched and well-argued, though it would have been better titled ‘Against the Cult of Empathy’ or (even more low-key) ‘Against Just Empathy.’ View all my reviews Share:ShareClick to share on Facebook (Opens in new...
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek My rating: 3 of 5 stars The core idea of the book is really solid – potentially game-changing, really – but it’s not a book-sized idea. After the first couple of chapters, ‘Start with Why’ became...
This Is Not Fame: A “From What I Re-Memoir” by Doug Stanhope My rating: 4 of 5 stars While ‘Digging Up Mother’ was a bittersweet narrative (two interwoven bittersweet narratives, really) stitched together by entertaining anecdotes, ‘This Is Not Fame’ replaces narrative with throughlines of life lessons learned from a...
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach My rating: 4 of 5 stars Entertaining. I can see why Roach is so popular! The format of the book did get a bit formulaic after a while; once the novelty had worn off, given the...
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson My rating: 3 of 5 stars Maybe my expectations were to high due to the book’s reputation, but it was a middling reading experience. The premise and plot concept were very interesting, but the execution was ham-fisted: vast swaths of info-dumps, awkward pacing, and a...
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline My rating: 5 of 5 stars Despite occasionally trying a bit too hard, this book is great! I was on the edge of my seat for a good 70% of the time, and it was the most fun I’ve had reading a book in...
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman My rating: 5 of 5 stars I appreciate Neil Gaiman, but I’ve never been a fanboy or anything. So I expected to enjoy ‘the Graveyard Book.’ I just wasn’t prepared for how *much* I’d enjoy it! The book is simultaneously familiar and novel (no...
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger My rating: 5 of 5 stars Insightful, humbling, and terrifying. Worth every moment spent reading. View all my reviews Share:ShareClick to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in...
TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking by Chris J. Anderson My rating: 4 of 5 stars There’s a bunch of really solid material in here. Though, as a word of warning, this book is best used as a reference manual rather than something to be read straight...