Reading Period: July 09 - Present
1. Black Wave (A), by Kim Ghattas
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43565323-black-wave
Phenomenal book. Was strangely a bit hard for me to get into it, but once I was hooked it was a great read. Fascinating bit of history, covering Iran and Saudi Arabian since the Iranian revolution in 1978. It's a part of the world that I don't think too much about, but is relevant for much of modern geopolitics (especially given that we are currently at war with Iran). It's also pretty depressing to think through the oppression being enforced at the moment, and how backward much of the world is in respect to women's rights. There's also a pattern of liberal leaders teaming up with religious fundamentalists to enact change against authoritarianism, only to wind up crushed by the religious right immediately after which leads to an order of magnitude worse authoritarianism.
I'd say this is probably the most informative book I've read on the middle east, would highly recommend.
2. AI Engineering (A), by Chip Huyen
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216848047-ai-engineering
Given I'm familiar with much of the underlying subject matter, I chose this book mostly to get a bird's eye view of the field and an general overview of the topics at hand. I thought it was very informative, but will need to do actually thorough studying on the chapter topics to actually understand everything, it went through material pretty quick so without a pen and paper on hand, and a LLM to answer follow-ups, it was hard to solidify my thinking.
3. The Brain: A Very Short Introduction (A), by Michael O'Shea
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/74637.The_Brain
Honestly a pleasant surprise. Crazy interesting read, and exactly what I wanted from a "short" introduction. It's unbelievable how our brains work honestly, and I absolutely need to choose this as my next topic somehow and learn at a much deeper level. Also, lots of overlap with AI interpretability and a bit spooky to start learning the basics of neuroscience only after being so steeped in AI literature.
4. Cribsheet (A), by Emily Oster
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40121328-cribsheet
Really good! I'd say it was much better than Expecting Better, she really improved her writing here and I thought it was less biased/more concrete. Raising a child is a totally different ballgame, and honestly a lot more interesting than just pregnancy. I thought her advice was really quite useful, and a great basis for understanding what parents actually should think about.
5. Good Inside (A), by Becky Kennedy
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59627738-good-inside
Really good! Basically what I expected, but I can't think of many areas of improvement. The book is essentially about how parenting should work, and is a bit of a philosophical take on the issue (you should treat your kid as fundamentally good, and not blame them directly for misbehaving, they're just a kid trying to figure it out!). Somewhat written for a different audience (they mentioned breaking the cycle quite a bit, but honestly I had great parents). But I think well worth the read for any parent.
6. Barbarians at the Gate (A), by Bryan Burrough
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/781182.Barbarians_at_the_Gate
This might end up being a top book for me. I'm a bit unsure where to slot it, but probably top 20. It makes me like finance, and it's just an immensely engaging story. High finance in the late 80's, with this book and Wall Street, is simply iconic. I understand why so many people have read this book over the past forty years and have chosen a career in investment banking as a result. There's glamor (private jets, lavish spending, golf), personal drama (small interconnected group of power players), and there's savagery (last minute bids, head-fakes, lying). What's not to love?
The story and characters are new to me: I've heard praise of the book but went in with very historical context. As such, it's a bit hard to untangle how good the book is on its own, or if the story is just lightning-in-a-bottle and would have been great even with a different author. However, my sense is that the authors did a phenomenal job (apparently they wrote it in ~6 months). I've read many nonfiction finance books, and I think only Black Edge might be better written, I think this trumps Liar's Poker and other Michael Lewis books. I'd highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in finance and/or history. An incredible work of nonfiction, I was throughly impressed.
7. Sunrise on the Reaping (A), by Suzanne Collins
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214331246-sunrise-on-the-reaping
Honestly, nothing really new here. I read the Hunger Games series likely over a decade ago, and this addition felt a bit unnecessary. There wasn't really anything novel or interesting, we already know how the games work and that Snow is a bad guy. The original series seems way more fresh and worthwhile.
8. Old Man's War (A), by John Scalzi
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36510196-old-man-s-war
Cool premise (old people on Earth go off to fight an intergalactic war if they choose, instead of the nursing home). Didn't like the ending unfortunately, and thought overall it was a pretty mediocre book.
8. In Praise of Shadow (A), by Junichiro Tanizaki
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34473.In_Praise_of_Shadows
Interesting musings on Japanese architecture and culture. Really just a short, poetic series of small essays, but thought it was a good break from my traditional consumption.
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