The subtle art of not giving a fuck - Mark Manson. Something very different for me but I’ve heard good things.
I just finished Als wir träumten by Clemens Meyer.
I’m starting The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andrić and Meet Me in the Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman.
2 Likes
Finished Blindness Jose Saramago, it was meh. Has anyone read Cain by him? Is it any good?
Also finished Homage to Catalonia George Orwell. Good book, but I have some major gaps in my understanding of the Spanish Civil War.
Never split the difference, Robert Voss.
About negotiation tactics for all areas in life, based on the authors experience as a FBI hostage negotiator. Supposedly a bestseller which can be a warning sign. Halfway through I must admit it’s a enjoyable read that can be recommended for anyone interested. The author has made some interesting interviews available on Youtube, for starters.
I read that too, liked it.
1 Like
Life’s been conspiring against my audio bookish adventures the last few weeks but here are my latest listens:
A Flicker In The Dark by Stacy Willingham
Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak
French Braid by Anne Tyler
My Summer Darlings by May Cobb
Magpie by Elizabeth Day
One of The Girls by Lucy Clarke
Currently listening to: Atlas of The Heart by Brene Brown
2 Likes
The Bodies of Others: the New Authoritarians, COVID-19 and the War Against the Human. By Naomi Wolff
Holy Crap. Two chapters in and Wolf accurately captures the craziness of the lockdown orders and the fear rhetoric being used in early 2020. Will come back with a full review later.
I’ve basically given up on reading things to make me smarter. Action thriller novels have been my jam the past few months, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.
I burned through all five Jack Carr books in like six weeks, and then the first 5 Gray Man novels in about a month. Feels good to be able to speed read again, I lost that ability for a long time.
2 Likes
Just finished The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War
(ERC summer book)
pretty dry and a rehash of IB history
1 Like
Binging the Oregon Files series by Clive Cussler in anticipation of the new release coming out next month.
1 Like
I’m slogging my way through Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. We shift viewpoints approximately every four pages. I’m tempted to put it down, but at halfway through find it jussssst this side of the line, so I’ll finish. Maybe. I yearn to be captivated by a book, though. It’s been weeks. (Not currently doing Audible, so my reading is limited to nighttime, mostly.)
1 Like
Let me know what you think when you get to the end. This book has been on my shelf for over a year and I only made it a couple chapters in so far.
This seems to be a theme in Doerr’s writing
Same, Dude. Same. I want to escape reality, not face it. lol
Jan Böhmernann - “Alles alles über Deutschland” (Satire)
René Descartes - “meditations on the first philosophy”
Call me arrogant but I found Descartes attempt to evidently prove the existence of god a lot funnier than the book intended for humor.
How Emotions are Made by Lisa Feldmann Barrett - Really changed how I view emotions and feelings. They aren’t something innate, they are constructions we develop over time. Considering doing a PhD at some point applying this to chronic pain because seriously we use the word pain to mean so many things it loses all meaning. I am sure anyone here who has different types of pain, say sciatica vs deep C fibre discogenic pain vs being stabbed vs breaking a rib vs severe myofascial pain can attest that calling all them “pain” is really not useful to describe what sensation is going on. Makes it a nightmare when trying to deal with medics. “rate your pain on a scale of 1 - 10?” “How does genuinely considering taking a chefs knife and carving off chunks of my flesh just to make it stop every night sit on that scale” followed by the inevitable “but you still go the gym?” question that follows later…
Also currently rereading Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Murakami. Great Novel
1 Like
Still chipping away at that one myself! Very interesting and fascinating but not too easy to get through for me.
Its an excellent books. A great book to read about the same time is Damasio’s The Strange Order of Things. He posits the idea of reducing the dichotemous view of the nervous system as peripheral and central, instead seeing its more like one contiguous system where the subjective goodness/ badness (valence) of feeling emotions is influenced by a continuous appraisal of the homeostatic balance of the organism. The 2 books together make for an interesting alternative view of how to consider the nervous system and how important development is as an influence on the neural structures of adults. Yeah it is quite a lot to get your head around and requires a good amount of putting to one side what you think know about the nervous system
1 Like
That hurt my head.