Category Archives: Books
Sapiens
Last year, I read 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari, which I reviewed here. Several friends recommended I read Harari’s earlier book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Now I know why. It’s an excellent book. As the … Continue reading
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
You’ve probably had the experience of being completely absorbed in an activity, totally focused, losing track of time, your body moving effortlessly, your mind clear of all distractions and worries. You were “in the zone.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls this state … Continue reading
The Sum of Us
In the 1920’s and 30’s, towns and cities across the United States built large, beautiful public swimming pools for their communities. Montgomery, Alabama was one such town. Its Oak Park pool was one of the largest in the region. It … Continue reading
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster
Around the world we humans are adding an average of fifty-one billion (51,000,000,000) tons of greenhouse gasses to Earth’s atmosphere every year. To avoid a climate disaster, we need to get to zero. 51 billion to zero. That’s how Microsoft … Continue reading
The Good Ancestor
We were warned. Lots of people warned us about the possibility of a global pandemic years before the outbreak of COVID-19. But we didn’t listen and we didn’t prepare. We’ve known for decades about the catastrophic effects of greenhouse gas … Continue reading
Always Day One
Always Day One: How the Tech Titans Plan to Stay on Top Forever by Alex Kantrowitz takes its title from an Amazon corporate motto. “It’s always Day 1” is designed to inspire Amazon employees with a startup mentality; lean, fast, … Continue reading
A History of Future Cities
People make cities, but cities also make people. That’s one of the key messages from Daniel Brook’s 2013 book A History of Future Cities. The book tells the stories of four cities, St. Petersburg, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Dubai. All four … Continue reading
Meditations
Meditations, written nearly two thousand years ago by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, is one of the most influential books in Western philosophy. It deserves years of study. I’ve read it just once. So I won’t be “reviewing” this book … Continue reading
Measure What Matters
Do you make New Year’s resolutions? It’s only mid-January 2021 so there’s still time. On the other hand, it’s mid-January and plenty of people have already abandoned theirs. Maybe New Year’s resolutions are broken so often because they’re so vague, … Continue reading
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Reading, and writing about what I read, helped me stay sane this awful year. I’m glad to wrap up 2020 with Isabel Wilkerson’s acclaimed book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Caste: The Origins of Our DiscontentsBy Isabel WilkersonRandom House, … Continue reading
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