Sean

Larry Haun literally wrote the book on carpentry and he is responsible for developing many of the techniques still used today in production framing of houses, and yet, as a member of the same Union he was in for decades, I barely knew of him. At first I was surprised and almost angry that he had been glossed over by the Union. He seems like an ideal person to learn about and from in my apprenticeship. Now, having read this book, I think it’s likely that Larry created that separation.

He has a lot of great videos, books, and columns discussing best practices for construction, but this book makes it clear that his passion for construction leads him in the opposite direction of the industry. He pines for smaller scale, traditionally designed structures. He loves to build homes, not houses.

This book has chapters devoted to many different types of houses, but it isn’t a technical manual. Each chapter is as much about the circumstances and inherent qualities of the region that fueled the various building styles as it is the building techniques.

At times he can be pretty heavy handed with his views on consumerism and society, but this is his book. He could leave diplomacy in the pages of Fine Homebuilding.

All in all, a good read. You don’t need more than an appreciation of homebuilding to understand the construction aspects, but the real point here is the rest of the writing. His views shared from a life lived watching the homes he built bloat and the industry and world became more wasteful. All the while keeping his own home humble, compact, and loving. I am always at risk of dropping out of society and relocating to the mountains to build an off grid cabin, and this book gives me that itch. And a few new building styles to consider.

This is an easily digestible primer on the science of motivation and how to effectively use it to one’s advantage, either with oneself or as a manager. SPOILER: Don’t confuse this with a guide to manipulation, the key to success is to make things truly meaningful for the individual. The old “What’s in it for me?” tactic.

What a downer. Updike didn't go out of his way to make Rabbit likeable, and yet you can't help but relate to the feeling ofvwakingvup and suddenly feeling trapped by a life you never expected. If this were a single book this would be an angry review about how depressing this book was, but I'm moving on to the next one. Let's see where he runs to.

Why set out to travel the country if you don’t want actually experience the people, places, or things? This reads like 300 pages of the absolute worst Seinfeld fan fiction you can imagine. I can’t even finish it. I kept waiting for him to have a revelation about his slur disposition and repent, but I went and read a couple other reviews and realized he does not. I only picked this up because Bill Bryson, and this book in particular, have been recommended dozens of times. I read one other of his books years ago and didn’t remember not liking it, but now I realize I don’t remember it at all. I will be leaving this one in the first Little Free Library I encounter. Good riddance.

This was a great quick read. I’m a big fan of Prosek’s work, so I picked this up blindly without realizing it was written for a young audience. It’s a good account of dealing with loss on several levels. It doesn’t offer closure on all of the issues it raises, which is good. The most important lesson from these issues for a kid is not closure, but survival. Divorce and other forms of loss are survivable, even if that’s hard to see. It was the perfect read for my recent flight.