Book: Robert E. Howard's - Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian

Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian: The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus by Robert E. Howard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Book: BitCoin Standard

The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking by Saifedean Ammous
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Author certainly has a political agenda, which is somewhat contrary to my own liberal views, and he can be a bit condescending, but I think we all need to listen to the ones we don't necessarily agree with to understand where they are coming from. And personally he has made a number of good points, that maybe obvious to someone with an economics background, but weren't to me. Certainly I can't say I agree with all the points being made, and at times he brushes counter arguments aside a bit to easily with arguments such as "... if one would do that they would harm themselves as they have invested in bitcoin ...", which by itself isn't enough. It's not like that stopped counterfeiters from making fake money because it would harm the value of the currency they are duplicating. Overall a good book and highly recommended, and I might have to invest in bitcoin myself

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Book: 101 Fun Games To Play with Friends, Family & Children

Games: 101 Fun Games To Play With Friends, Family & Children by Ace McCloud
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Even this book was only one hour, and it was an hour to long. It was rambling about games pretty much everyone one knows, and little to no detail in case you don't. I was struggling through it, while I no problem completing most courses within a week, this took me three months. That says it all.

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Book: Of Dice and Men

Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It by David M. Ewalt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed a good bit of it, especially the history of TSR, but somehow was expecting a bit more still.
As the author said up front, maybe I failed my gather information check ;-)

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Book: Make it Stick

Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

We'll see how much of it will actually stick ;-)

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Book: The Fall of Gondolin

The Fall of Gondolin by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good Story, but a bit repetitive as it's the same story a couple of times over

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Book: Pirate Women

Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas by Laura Sook Duncombe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's okay, not to bad, but really a bit heavy handed on the feminism.

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Book: Sawbones

The Sawbones Book: The Hilarious, Horrifying Road to Modern Medicine by Justin McElroy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Based on Episodes from the Podcast
https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/sawbones/

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Book: How we'll live on Mars

How We'll Live on Mars by Stephen L. Petranek
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Book: Game of Thrones Psychology

Game of Thrones Psychology: The Mind Is Dark and Full of Terrors by Travis Langley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Actually Pretty Good, more a Psychology book then a Game of Thrones reference book

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Book: The Art of Seduction

The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I personally like Robert Greene's style, the Machiavellian approach to life lessons, so different from my own I might add, combined with the historical references. If you like the 48 Laws of Power, the Art of War you'll like this one too, even some of the examples overlap between the books.

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Book: Raising Human Beings

Raising Human Beings: Creating a Collaborative Partnership with Your Child by Ross W. Greene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Book: Batman and Psychology

Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight by Travis Langley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I didn't grow up on Comic Books and really know characters like Batman more from my sons, so I had a lot to learn, and it was interesting putting that in context with the little psychology I knew.

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Book: The God Delusion

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed it for being direct and challenging believes, but he can come across as a bit condescending, especially if you do follow any of the mainstream religions. On the other hand Atheists don't have nearly as many spokesmen as the religious community. He clearly is not a fan of conservatives like George W. Bush or Tony Blair nor religious leaders the likes of Pat Robertson.

QUOTES

“A child is not a Christian child, not a Muslim child, but a child of Christian parents or a child of Muslim parents. This latter nomenclature, by the way, would be an excellent piece of consciousness-raising for the children themselves. A child who is told she is a 'child of Muslim parents' will immediately realize that religion is something for her to choose -or reject- when she becomes old enough to do so.”

“Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.”

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Book: How to Build a Car

How to Build a Car: The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Formula 1 Designer by Adrian Newey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A good mix of technical details, sports history and personal autobiography. Adrian's personal story is interesting and moving, and he doesn't shy away from the hard topics, his mistakes and faults, including his guilt involving Senna's Crash in 1994. Great respect for the man, but then I'm also a Red Bull Racing fan, at least in part as I'm Austrian. The following are the Teams, Engineers and Drivers who make an appearance in the book:

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Book: God is Disappointed in You

God Is Disappointed in You by Mark Russell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Author is trying hard not to offend Christians, while still making the point that most of what's in the Bible is pretty absurd. It's a good read to refresh you knowledge of that's actually in the "good" book.

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Book: The Teenage Brain

The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults by Frances E. Jensen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wish I could have liked it a bit more, and the beginning was good, but some chapters just didn't apply to me and my children, such as drug usage, concussion, etc. There are parts of the books that I wanted to skip forward, but I wasn't sure if I may miss something important among the long stories to make her point. Not bad, but could have been better.

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Book: Get Well Soon

Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Overall a good book, and I really enjoyed the time with the author, who's commentary lightens up the mood, just a bit but not to much to take away from the seriousness of the topic. I was aware of some of the material, like the black death, dancing plague and Cholera but others especially more modern ones I didn't know as much about such as Polio, LE and Lobotomy (not really a disease). In most books I read Woodrow Wilson, who I at first thought was a great liberal president, comes up as a rather negative character, this is no difference. 

The Chapters line up for the most part with specific diseases or outbreaks:

 

Diseases affect people, so there are as usual the references to the Heroes, Villains and Victims:

In some way Typhoid Mary is maybe the most interesting character, as I'm not sure if she was a villain or a victim of society. A short biography of her life is shown below. What do you think?

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Parenting

Parenting Books

The following are the list of books, which I've come across, and incorporated into my own parenting style:

Which books should be recommended reading for all new parents?