Mr Fred
Great young reader story about trust, confidence, forgiveness, and such. Entertaining as always.
A good thriller that kept me turning pages, and Ray Mason remains a proper antihero for us to root for, sorta. Though the plot (satanist ritual killings??) was as preposterous as it sounds at first blush, and spinning a deeper and deeper conspiracy around it doesn't make up for how much of it hinges on this ridiculous premise.
Suspending disbelief makes it an enjoyable novel still, but I still wish it was just a little bit less whack to begin with.
Alas
An uncharacteristic choice for me, a self help book, which I usually despise. They either trivialize complex situations with assertions of unearned wisdom, or worse they espouse a rather unabashed self-aggrandizement as they recount their journey of self-discovery that the author gets preeeetttyy close to as he humble-brags about the years he spent fucking everything that walks in a couple dozen countries.
And yet it's a pretty solid read. Stop giving a fuck about things that don't matter, and double down on the fucks you give about the things that align with your values. Can't disagree with that.
Wooooow talk about a high octane thriller. I already know I liked Kernick's writing and this did not disappoint. The chapters switching narrators were a nice touch. You feel like you almost know what's going on for a long time until it all falls into place. Great book.
This one was interesting. A continued series after the death of the original author, that does not always go well. I was pleasantly surprised. It's a suspenseful read that was hard to put down.
Still, while Lagercrantz tells a story full of action and suspense, he sometimes gets lost in mathematical or technical details (specific Android app names?) that seem aimed at building plausibility but instead strike as a filler where plot development should've gone.
In this novel, Liesbeth comes across as broken yet determined to fight for justice as ever, but the character development remains limited to third party discussions about the childhood spent with her sister. Unfortunately, rather than more mysterious and unapproachable, it keeps her, the most interesting character of the story, looking shallower than necessary.
Overall, a good read and I have enough questions about the continuation of the story that I'm certain I'll pick up the next volume.
3.5 rounded up to 4.
Interesting, and it appears, timeless, view at a medical internship in the US. Full of disillusion and blunt analysis, but also much less entertaining than the witty and cynical House of God, which I enjoyed a lot more.
A blunt and oddly touching view behind the scenes of the funeral industry in the United States, as well as the relationship this society has with death, or rather, tries very hard not to have.
Good detailed book about Mütter himself (and I want to go visit the museum now!), but even more fascinatingly, Aptowicz describes a medical profession that during Mütter's time and with his contribution, grew up rapidly from the wild guesses and savage amputations to an ever more methodical and defined profession.
Picked this book up on the recommendation of a dear friend, did not regret.
A great book with several excellent short stories. All the more surprising how rapidly it finished and did away with the main character (pardon me for this spoiler, but I hope 130 years in, everyone knows the broad strokes of the story about Holmes).
Pretty good book. Interesting for the most part, but disturbing at times when she seems to go a lot further in her value judgments than a doctor should (“should we really spend money on keeping this person alive?”), as if it was a surgeon's job to define the economical balance between insurers and the insured.
Still, it was an enlightening read about what can and can't be done with brain surgery, what's hard about it, and so on. Recommended!
An outstanding book. About a man who does what's right, because that's how things are done, and when he thinks he's done, maybe he's not quite yet.
Bluntly cynical, at times grossly violent, and finally, soft and, in a way, romantic. A much different book from the first one in the series, but a worthy sequel and makes be want to read Nesbø more often.
A really gripping tale, for young and not so young adults, about a mysterious tree fused into an old country house. I liked that every character bore depth and we end up caring about each in their own way.
Great book for nerds, and also written with refreshing honesty, making the main character plausible and relatable. An amazing story.
Turns out, a war crime doesn't become any more glamorous or less gruesome if committed with an air of moral superiority.
A fast moving thriller with lots of twists and turns. Entirely preposterous but if you suspend disbelief you'll enjoy yourself and don't be able to set it down.
The descriptions of Sicilian idiosyncrasies are accurate and intriguing. The story is oddly complex but it's the perfect kind of dilemma that allows us to learn Montalbano as not so much a man of the law, as a man fighting for justice in an unjust world.
All in all a good, entertaining read.
Usually I don't get much out of management books that promise to have it all figured out (organizations are complex beasts) but this one outlined a bunch of principles the author applied to push competent control deep into the organization, to great success. Some of the principles I already apply to my teams, others I can learn from or more intentionally employ.
Overall a great read for all who want to lead, not command.
Good primer on the value of psychological safety in the workplace, especially when it comes to allegedly unmanageable millennials. Nothing truly unique or groundbreaking in here, but a definite must-read for the boomers who don't understand why their “human capital” keeps quitting faster than they can fire them when the quarterly numbers don't add up.
A wonderful story, for young readers ostensibly, but Ende has, as always, put together the German language masterfully, and painted a picture of a world so vivid in its imagination, so full of surprises, so believable yet so absurd that it's hard to even think about putting down the book for the sheer delight of it all. What blessing that there's a sequel.
A good and entertaining read, written in the lead up to Charles' coronation. What I liked about this is the disdain Bond has for the villain and his henchmen, and I laughed at the political references exposing the far right the world over for the cosplaying buffoons they are.
Of course, while Higson lets the character briefly introspect, he stops short of exploring the self hatred and biting cynicism that so defines the classic literary Bond.
Even as his love interest might have double crossed him and asks him later if he ever indeed thought of her as a “bitch”, he lies “no, I'm in awe of you”, in a way the old Bond never would have.
Perhaps an older, wiser Bond went to therapy and worked out some of his issues?