Whew, what a book. About 100 or so pages too long, but what a book. Ellenberg is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he is a heck of a writer, and he is ALL … ABOUT … GEOMETRY! Like, seriously all about geometry: theorems, charts, graphs, logic, reasoning, equations, letters, numbers … ALL the jazz. I wrote above that the book was about 100 pages too long (clocks in at a cool 422) because he spends a TON of those pages analyzing a shit-ton of charts, graphs, theorems, logic, and reasoning, but he is able to make…
Being a health and wellness guy, this book was right in my wheelhouse and it was a compelling, interesting, and detailed read by a very astute and smart guy who is incredibly insightful, honest about the “history” of exercise. However, check out these puzzling and paradoxical conclusions (at least from a present-day perspective): we never evolved to exercise, many of our beliefs and attitudes about exercise are myths, we are not supposed to “want” to exercise, and our tendencies to avoid exertion are ancient instincts that make total sense from an evolutionary perspective. How about that! Lieberman goes into great…
I’ve listened to a handful of Walter Isaacson’s podcasts but this is the first of his many incredible books that I’ve been able to sit down and read. He’s truly a magician as a writer, telling the story of the discovery of CRISPR, a gene-editing tool based on a virus fighting trick used by bacteria, which have been battling viruses for more than a billion years. The main subject of the book is Jennifer Doudna, a renowned biologist who was the principal discoverer of CRISPR in 2012, although she had been researching RNA — the molecule that actually does the…
Years ago I read a book called Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz, and I was immediately hooked on the story of what I perceived to be insane, crazy, delusional Americans dressing up in Confederate garb in the middle of that brutal Southern summer humidity to reenact Civil War battles that had taken place decades prior. It was a mystifying, hilarious book, written with a keen eye and delicate prose so as not to pass judgement on any of the main characters, so when I found Spying on the South at the bookstore a few weeks ago, I knew…
Yeah, Michael Lewis does it again. Reading his books is a total breeze as he is one of the best storytellers in the world, and in this one he turns the almost incomprehensible COVID-19 pandemic into a simplistic narrative about how it all went down, the people and players behind-the-scenes, how everything went badly wrong — and how the worst case scenario’s could have and should have been prevented. Lewis digs deep in The Premonition with the stories of a group of wonderful, talented, smart, sharp, and prescient group of doctors, scientists, public health officials, and government workers who spent…
“The history of racist ideas is the history of powerful policy makers erecting racist policies out of self-interest, then producing racist ideas to defend and nationalize the inequitable effects of their policies, while everyday people consume those racist ideas, which in turn sparks ignorance and hate.”
A stunning conclusion to a stunning book, and Kendi notes that it took him years of painstaking research, reading, comprehending, conversation with friends, family, and mentors, inner turmoil, self-reflection, self-doubt, and even overcoming his own ignorance and bias to arrive at that point. For whatever reason I put off reading this book until recently…
An excellent book by one of my favorite athletes, past or present — and one whose career was tragically cut short by life-threatening blood clots in 2015. Bosh was a multiple time all-star with the Toronto Raptors before joining up with LeBron James and Dwayne Wade to form the “Big 3” in Miami from 2011–2014, and this book details some of his best and brightest moments as an NBA professional, but also some of his toughest ones, such as being regarded as the “third wheel” on those championship Miami teams and how he had to overcome his own self-doubt and…
I can’t say that I found this book to be earth shattering, but I did enjoy the stories of individuals, cities, and corporations and how they transformed themselves to “solve problems before they happen”, as Heath puts it on his cover. Health describes his theory of “Upstream” or “Upstreaming”, by espousing the belief that efforts to prevent problems — any problems — from happening in the first place is a far better option than “downstream action”, where we react to problems after they have already occurred. He makes a compelling case, and of course, he is absolutely right. Reaction is…
A sweeping, painstaking journey into the heart of the opioid epidemic — where it started, how it got to this point, the people, places, and communities that are being torn apart at the seams — and everything in between. This is one of my favorite styles of non-fiction books because it weaves in and out between the stories of those that are personally impacted and also offers a host of facts, data, science, and opinion on how we can potentially turn the tide. As always, this is a complex, multi-layered issue that involves politics, doctors, community advocates, average, everyday Americans…
I had a difficult time getting into this book, and not because I disliked it in any way, but more so because it’s written in a “philosophical” style, which has always been hard for me to follow. However, because I went back and typed up my notes and was able to summarize them in short form, I think I was able to make sense of Odell’s thoughts and really came to appreciate her way of thinking. This is certainly not a self-help book in any way, nor is it a “guide” with bullet points for reading or discussion groups, but…
