Stuff Matters - Mark Miodownik - did you ever thought about how crucial reinforced concrete is to our civilization or why does paper yellow with age? The book goes into everyday things like chocolate, plastic. glass and uncovers them from manufacturing, historical perspectives. There is also always a personal story behind, which makes the book read as a novel, rather than an encyclopedia.
Looking for Alaska - John Green - the book about growing up, friendship, first love, physical traction. It is hopeful and sad, but not doomed-all-the-way (like the Adolescence) movie, but more like Dead Poets Society-sad. And, btw, Netflix did a miniseries here too - Looking for Alaska. All in all, not a must-read, but I see how this can cut to the heart when the mood is right.
Джедайские техники - Максим Дорофеев - классика методичек по личной продуктивности на русском. Если время уходит куда-то не туда, с этим стоит разобраться.
Fall of Giants - Ken Follett - a monumental trilogy… A weak attempt to bind historical background and fictional plot together. Historical insight is superficial and not deep enough so that if one is interested in history can much faster gain the same or more information in shorter time. Regarding the fictional\adventurous part, I would say it’s not that much adventurous at all, but the biggest problem is that all actors stay static personality-wise. They react to events happening to them, but their inside personality is not developing. They still are the same people in the end of the book.
Bending Adversity - David Pilling - advertised to me by a friend as “one of a few worthy non-fiction books about the state of modern Japanese society”. Indeed, it became a great source of insights for our Japan trip in 2024. As much as it allowed to grasp a bit how Japanese people perceive the world, it also significantly reduced the wow-effect from the trip itself. It is always a choice whether to be well prepared or be open to surprises.
Deep Learning - Andrew Glassner (link) - wanted to refresh transformer architecture knowledge, but the book is so cool that I ended up reading about 70% of it. The authors took the challenge not to use even a single math equation and they kept the promise.
Morele ambitie - Rutger Bregman (link) - extremely hyped book by a Dutch journalist aiming to make the whole world a better place. Although, he definitely tries to make a change, to some it may seem too pretentious and arrogant view of other people’s lives and values. As one of my friends said: “if you have extra money - donate to the voedselbank, if you have extra time - do smth for your local community”. In general I like what De Correspondent does, but I enjoyed more another popular non-fiction book by the same author.
Elon Musk - Walter Isaacson (link) - 900 pages masterpiece by Isaacson, as always. He becomes more than a family member for his investigation subjects’, present during all life events and the perception is that he knows more than the book hero himself. Indifferently, what I think of Elon, this is a fascinating book, especially for those who doesn’t read twitter.
Misschien moet je iets lager mikken - Milio van de Kamp (link) - not a book, but rather a life report by a white Dutch guy living in a poor Amsterdam district during the 90ies. He tells by example what it means to be poor: it shapes people low self-esteem for years ahead, aggression becomes a default reaction, financial literacy is not heard of. Milio explains his neighbours’ mutual distrust towards police and officials in general, About the gap between children from different districts and schools of the same city. Luckily his story ends well as he got through university and became a lecturer himself, trying to help other children with similar background.
City of Thieves - David Benioff (link) - surprisingly well written story about the WWII and Siege of Leningrad, especially for a foreign, not a russian-speaking person. It is still an entertaining and thrilling read, but decorations around the main storyline are trustworthy.
Greenlights - Matthew McConaughey (link) - I like the actor, but as much as I liked the first half of the book (about his childhood and shaping of life principles) as much I also didn’t like the second half - about esoteric and spiritual…
The Son - Philipp Meyer (link) - another attempt for American literature, but I, again, didn’t like it from the beginning, which lead me to read the plot on the wiki and stop with the reading.
Books I stopped reading, but may return to
Emotional Intelligence Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (Daniel Goleman)
Made to Stick Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (Dan Heath Chip Heath)
Ongezien opgegroeid (Lindsay C. Gibson)
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz (Erik Larson)
The View from the Cheap Seats (Neil Gaiman)
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