Mike's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 11 Apr 2025 12:09:04 -0700 60 Mike's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Shibumi 6635921 A classic spy novel from the bestselling author, Trevanian, about a westerner raised in Japan who becomes one of the world's most accomplished assassins.Nicholai Hel is the world’s most wanted man. Born in Shanghai during the chaos of World War I, he is the son of an aristocratic Russian mother and a mysterious German father and is the protégé of a Japanese Go master. Hel survived the destruction of Hiroshima to emerge as the world’s most artful lover and its most accomplished—and well-paid—assassin. Hel is a genius, a mystic, and a master of language and culture, and his secret is his determination to attain a rare kind of personal excellence, a state of effortless perfection known only as shibumi. Now living in an isolated mountain fortress with his exquisite mistress, Hel is unwillingly drawn back into the life he’d tried to leave behind when a beautiful young stranger arrives at his door, seeking help and refuge. It soon becomes clear that Hel is being tracked by his most sinister enemy—a supermonolith of international espionage known only as the Mother Company. The battle lines are ruthless power and corruption on one side, and on the other . . . shibumi.]]> 448 Trevanian 0307238431 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.20 1979 Shibumi
author: Trevanian
name: Mike
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1979
rating: 0
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Zen In The Art Of Writing 2177923 Zen In The Art Of Writing is more than just a how-to manual for the would-be it is a celebration of the act of writing itself that will delight, impassion, and inspire the writer in you. In it, Bradbury encourages us to follow the unique path of our instincts and enthusiasms to the place where our inner genius dwells, and he shows that success as a writer depends on how well you know one your own life.]]> 154 Ray Bradbury 1877741019 Mike 0 4.06 1973 Zen In The Art Of Writing
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Mike
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1973
rating: 0
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Moonraker 42275114 314 Ian Fleming Mike 4 4.29 1955 Moonraker
author: Ian Fleming
name: Mike
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1955
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/06
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<![CDATA[Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic]]> 61812418 From the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classes--this is a look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds.

With the advent of the internet, any topic we want to know about is instantly available with the touch of a smartphone button. With so much knowledge at our fingertips, what is there left for our brains to do? At a time when we seem to be stripping all value from the idea of knowing things--no need for math, no need for map-reading, no need for memorization--are we risking our ability to think? As we empty our minds, will we one day be incapable of thoughtfulness?

Addressing these questions, Simon Winchester explores how humans have attained, stored, and disseminated knowledge. Examining such disciplines as education, journalism, encyclopedia creation, museum curation, photography, and broadcasting, he looks at a whole range of knowledge diffusion--from the cuneiform writings of Babylon to the machine-made genius of artificial intelligence, by way of Gutenberg, Google, and Wikipedia to the huge Victorian assemblage of the Mundanaeum, the collection of everything ever known, currently stored in a damp basement in northern Belgium.

Throughout this tour, Winchester forces us to ponder what rational humans are becoming. What good is all this knowledge if it leads to lack of thought? What is information without wisdom? Does Rene Descartes's Cogito, ergo sum--"I think therefore I am," the foundation for human knowledge widely accepted since the Enlightenment--still hold? And what will the world be like if no one in it is wise?]]>
431 Simon Winchester 0063142902 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.14 2023 Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic
author: Simon Winchester
name: Mike
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
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<![CDATA[A Clean Kill (Garrett Mann, #1)]]> 193772001 An FBI agent hunting a serial killer has to up his game when a trail of murders is not what it seems in a riveting thriller by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Steven Konkoly.

Five dismembered bodies are found along the roadside, dumped in the middle of nowhere. This isn’t new to Special Agent Garrett Mann. Head of ARTEMIS, a specialized FBI task force hell-bent on hunting down cartel-related killings in the Southwest, Mann has seen this before.

He and his team have been tracking similar kills along thousands of miles of rural roads running north, south, and back again. When the latest slaughter yields a key piece of evidence, Mann thinks he’s found the killer and solved the case. That’s when the nightmare begins.

From a lakeside Minnesota mansion to an abandoned CIA black site in New Mexico, the hunt is on. But the closer Mann gets to his prey, the deadlier the stakes become. This is no ordinary serial killer. He’s not working alone—and the stakes go far beyond just preventing the serial killer’s next massacre. What Mann unravels is a powerful and far-reaching conspiracy beyond his wildest imagination.]]>
384 Steven Konkoly 1662509251 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.09 2024 A Clean Kill (Garrett Mann, #1)
author: Steven Konkoly
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average rating: 4.09
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<![CDATA[The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store]]> 85148114
ĚýĚýĚýĚýAs these charactersâ€� stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.]]>
400 James McBride 0593422961 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.25 2023 The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
author: James McBride
name: Mike
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
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<![CDATA[Throw Out Fifty Things: Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life]]> 6591012 304 Gail Blanke Mike 0 currently-reading 3.53 2009 Throw Out Fifty Things: Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life
author: Gail Blanke
name: Mike
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Ask a Philosopher: Answers to Your Most Important—and Most Unexpected—Questions]]> 51097001 A collection of answers to the philosophical questions on people's minds—from the big to the personal to the ones you didn't know you needed answered.

Based on real-life questions from his Ask a Philosopher series, Ian Olasov offers his answers to questions such

- Are people innately good or bad?
- Is it okay to have a pet fish?
- Is it okay to have kids?
- Is color subjective?
- If humans colonize Mars, who will own the land?
- Is ketchup a smoothie?
- Is there life after death?
- Should I give money to homeless people?

Ask a Philosopher shows that there's a way of making philosophy work for each of us, and that philosophy can be both perfectly continuous with everyday life, and also utterly transporting. From questions that we all wrestle with in private to questions that you never thought to ask, Ask a Philosopher will get you thinking.]]>
208 Ian Olasov 1250756189 Mike 5 3.75 Ask a Philosopher: Answers to Your Most Important—and Most Unexpected—Questions
author: Ian Olasov
name: Mike
average rating: 3.75
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rating: 5
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Leading Change 20342757 220 John P. Kotter Mike 0 currently-reading 4.19 1988 Leading Change
author: John P. Kotter
name: Mike
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew about Quantum Physics Is Different]]> 41832814 “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.�



Since Niels Bohr said this many years ago, quantum mechanics has only been getting more shocking. We now realize that it’s not really telling us that “weirdâ€� things happen out of sight, on the tiniest level, in the atomic world: rather, everything is quantum. But if quantum mechanics is correct, what seems obvious and right in our everyday world is built on foundations that don’t seemĚýobvious or right at all—or even possible.



An exhilarating tour of the contemporary quantum landscape,ĚýBeyond WeirdĚýis a book about what quantum physics really means—and what it doesn’t. Science writer Philip Ball offers an up-to-date, accessible account of the quest to come to grips with the most fundamental theory of physical reality, and to explain how its counterintuitive principles underpin the world we experience. Over the past decade it has become clear that quantum physics is less a theory about particles and waves, uncertainty and fuzziness, than a theory about information and knowledge—about what can be known, and how we can know it.Ěý Discoveries and experiments over the past few decades have called into question the meanings and limits of space and time, cause and effect, and, ultimately, of knowledge itself. The quantum world Ball shows us isn’t a different world. It is our world, and if anything deserves to be called “weird,â€� it’s us.]]>
370 Philip Ball Mike 5 4.14 2018 Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew about Quantum Physics Is Different
author: Philip Ball
name: Mike
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2018
rating: 5
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Great Plains 822943 304 Ian Frazier 0140131701 Mike 0 3.73 1989 Great Plains
author: Ian Frazier
name: Mike
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1989
rating: 0
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Family 1630191 Ian Frazier 0374153191 Mike 0 3.82 1994 Family
author: Ian Frazier
name: Mike
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1994
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Coyote V. Acme 1613488 Ian Frazier 0374130337 Mike 0 3.21 1996 Coyote V. Acme
author: Ian Frazier
name: Mike
average rating: 3.21
book published: 1996
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<![CDATA[Millennium Approaches (Angels in America, #1)]]> 92250
The play is a complex, often metaphorical, and at times symbolic examination of AIDS and homosexuality in America in the 1980s. Certain major and minor characters are supernatural beings (angels) or deceased persons (ghosts). The play contains multiple roles for several of the actors. Initially and primarily focusing on a gay couple in Manhattan, the play also has several other storylines, some of which occasionally intersect.]]>
119 Tony Kushner 1559360615 Mike 0 4.27 1993 Millennium Approaches (Angels in America, #1)
author: Tony Kushner
name: Mike
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1993
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<![CDATA[The Library of Humanity: The Most Influential Books of all Time]]> 188948130 : summaries, authors, dates, quotes, and messages of the most significant works ever written in every age and culture, including religious and philosophical texts, poems, plays, novels, and essays by the most outstanding authors.Three hundred books from ancient texts to modern-day works of art. You can explore the timeless wisdom of the greatest minds of our time. Experience the works of Homer, Shakespeare, Proust, and Hemingway, as well as today's contemporary classics. Be challenged, inspired, and captivated by timeless stories, poetic prose, and philosophical musings. This is your chance to experience the depth and breadth of literature all in one volume. With this book, you can delve into the beauty of the written word and explore the life-changing lessons of these timeless works.]]> 434 Chiaretto Calò Mike 0 currently-reading 4.14 The Library of Humanity: The Most Influential Books of all Time
author: Chiaretto Calò
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<![CDATA[The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality]]> 113955812 A brilliant new theory of the mind that upends our understanding of how the brain interacts with the world

“This thoroughly readable book will convince you that the brain and the world are partners in constructing our understanding.”Ěý—Sean Carroll, New York Times bestselling author of The Biggest Ideas in the Space, Time, and Motion

For as long as we’ve studied human cognition, we’ve believed that our senses give us direct access to the world. What we see is what’s really there—or so the thinking goes. But new discoveries in neuroscience and psychology have turned this assumption on its head. What if rather than perceiving reality passively, your mind actively predicts it?


Widely acclaimed philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark unpacks this provocative new theory that the brain is a powerful, dynamic prediction engine, mediating our experience of both body and world. From the most mundane experiences to the most sublime, reality as we know it is the complex synthesis of sensory information and expectation. Exploring its fascinating mechanics and remarkable implications for our lives, mental health, and society, Clark nimbly illustrates how the predictive brain sculpts all human experience. Chronic pain and mental illness are shown to involve subtle malfunctions of our unconscious predictions, pointing the way towards more effective, targeted treatments. Under renewed scrutiny, the very boundary between ourselves and the outside world dissolves, showing that we are as entangled with our environments as we are with our onboard memories, thoughts, and feelings. And perception itself is revealed to be something of a controlled hallucination.

Unveiling the extraordinary explanatory power of the predictive brain, The Experience Machine is a mesmerizing window onto one of the most significant developments in our understanding of the mind.]]>
304 Andy Clark 1524748463 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.28 2023 The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality
author: Andy Clark
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average rating: 4.28
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<![CDATA[Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential]]> 59660671 “One of my favorite books of the year. It completely reshaped how I think about information and how and why I take notes.� —Daniel Pink, bestselling author of Drive

A revolutionary approach to enhancing productivity, creating flow, and vastly increasing your ability to capture, remember, and benefit from the unprecedented amount of information all around us.

For the first time in history, we have instantaneous access to the world’s knowledge. There has never been a better time to learn, to contribute, and to improve ourselves. Yet, rather than feeling empowered, we are often left feeling overwhelmed by this constant influx of information. The very knowledge that was supposed to set us free has instead led to the paralyzing stress of believing we’ll never know or remember enough.

Now, this eye-opening and accessible guide shows how you can easily create your own personal system for knowledge management, otherwise known as a Second Brain. As a trusted and organized digital repository of your most valued ideas, notes, and creative work synced across all your devices and platforms, a Second Brain gives you the confidence to tackle your most important projects and ambitious goals.

Discover the full potential of your ideas and translate what you know into more powerful, more meaningful improvements in your work and life by Building a Second Brain.]]>
269 Tiago Forte 1982167408 Mike 0 4.30 2022 Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential
author: Tiago Forte
name: Mike
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2022
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<![CDATA[Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI]]> 201182953 AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From Wharton professor and author of the popular One Useful Thing Substack newsletter Ethan Mollick comes the definitive playbook for working, learning, and living in the new age of AI

Something new entered our world in November 2022 â€� the first general purpose AI that could pass for a human and do the kinds of creative, innovative work that only humans could do previously. Wharton professor Ethan Mollick immediately understood what ChatGPT after millions of years on our own, humans had developed a kind of co-intelligence that could augment, or even replace, human thinking. Through his writing, speaking, and teaching, Mollick has become one of the most prominent and provocative explainers of AI, focusing on the practical aspects of how these new tools for thought can transform our world.Ěý

In Co-Intelligence, Mollick urges us to engage with AI as co-worker, co-teacher, and coach. He assesses its profound impact on business and education, using dozens of real-time examples of AI in action. Co-Intelligence shows what it means to think and work together with smart machines, and why it's imperative that we master that skill.Ěý

Mollick challenges us to utilize AI's enormous power without losing our identity, to learn from it without being misled, and to harness its gifts to create a better human future. Wide ranging, hugely thought-provoking, optimistic, and lucid, Co-Intelligence reveals the promise and power of this new era.]]>
253 Ethan Mollick 0593716728 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.38 2024 Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI
author: Ethan Mollick
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average rating: 4.38
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<![CDATA[We Have Always Lived in the Castle]]> 60727041 204 Shirley Jackson Mike 0 currently-reading 3.72 1962 We Have Always Lived in the Castle
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Mike
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1962
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters]]> 177058906 Want to know what chaos theory can teach us about human events? In the perspective-altering tradition of Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point and Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan comes a provocative challenge to how we think our world works—and why small, chance events can divert our lives and change everything, by social scientist and Atlantic writer Brian Klaas.

If you could rewind your life to the very beginning and then press play, would everything turn out the same? Or could making an accidental phone call or missing an exit off the highway change not just your life, but history itself? And would you remain blind to the radically different possible world you unknowingly left behind?

In Fluke, myth-shattering social scientist Brian Klaas dives deeply into the phenomenon of random chance and the chaos it can sow, taking aim at most people’s neat and tidy storybook version of reality. The book’s argument is that we willfully ignore a bewildering but for a few small changes, our lives—and our societies—could be radically different.

Offering an entirely new lens, Fluke explores how our world really works, driven by strange interactions and apparently random events. How did one couple’s vacation cause 100,000 people to die? Does our decision to hit the snooze button in the morning radically alter the trajectory of our lives? And has the evolution of humans been inevitable, or are we simply the product of a series of freak accidents?

Drawing on social science, chaos theory, history, evolutionary biology, and philosophy, Klaas provides a brilliantly fresh look at why things happen—all while providing mind-bending lessons on how we can live smarter, be happier, and lead more fulfilling lives.]]>
335 Brian Klaas Mike 0 currently-reading 4.09 2024 Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters
author: Brian Klaas
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average rating: 4.09
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<![CDATA[Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy!]]> 8354062 352 Bob Harris Mike 0 currently-reading 4.00 2006 Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy!
author: Bob Harris
name: Mike
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Book of Totally Useless Information]]> 790706
Why does orange juice taste funny after you brush your teeth?

Why is a left-handed pitcher known as a "Southpaw"?

Why is the National Hockey League Championship Trophy called the Stanley Cup?

When did it first become offensive to extend the middle finger?

Why are diamonds measured in carats?

What makes stainless steel stainless?

Why does a Mexican Jumping Bean jump?

Why do spokes on wagon wheels appear to move backward on television or movie screens?

What is a best boy, a key grip, and a gaffer?

Chockful of fascinating trivial facts and anecdotes, "The Book of Totally Useless Information" will entertain readers of all ages. Illustrated throughout, this useful book will satisfy the curiosity of everyone who wonders why.]]>
189 Don Voorhees 0806514051 Mike 0 3.47 1993 The Book of Totally Useless Information
author: Don Voorhees
name: Mike
average rating: 3.47
book published: 1993
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The Joy Luck Club 563002
With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.]]>
332 Amy Tan 0804106304 Mike 0 3.88 1989 The Joy Luck Club
author: Amy Tan
name: Mike
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1989
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<![CDATA[War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East]]> 56609471 In this World War II military history, Rommel's army is a day from Cairo, a week from Tel Aviv, and the SS is ready for action. Espionage brought the Nazis this far, but espionage can stop them—if Washington wakes up to the danger.As World War II raged in North Africa, General Erwin Rommel was guided by an uncanny sense of his enemies' plans and weaknesses. In the summer of 1942, he led his Axis army swiftly and terrifyingly toward Alexandria, with the goal of overrunning the entire Middle East. Each step was informed by detailed updates on British positions. The Nazis, somehow, had a source for the Allies' greatest secrets.Yet the Axis powers were not the only ones with intelligence. Brilliant Allied cryptographers worked relentlessly at Bletchley Park, breaking down the extraordinarily complex Nazi code Enigma. From decoded German messages, they discovered that the enemy had a wealth of inside information. On the brink of disaster, a fevered and high-stakes search for the source began.War of Shadows is the cinematic story of the race for information in the North African theater of World War II, set against intrigues that spanned the Middle East. Years in the making, this book is a feat of historical research and storytelling, and a rethinking of the popular narrative of the war. It portrays the conflict not as an inevitable clash of heroes and villains but a spiraling series of failures, accidents, and desperate triumphs that decided the fate of the Middle East and quite possibly the outcome of the war.]]> 434 Gershom Gorenberg 1610396286 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.28 2021 War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East
author: Gershom Gorenberg
name: Mike
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2021
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<![CDATA[Haifa Republic: A Democratic Future for Israel]]> 49687634 Haifa Republic: A Democratic Future for Israel is an urgent wake-up call. The philosopher Omri Boehm argues that it is long past time to recognize that there will not be a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people. After fifty years, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank constitutes annexation in all but name, even as the legitimate claims of the Arab population, soon to be a national majority, remain unaddressed. Meanwhile, daily life goes on under conditions rightly likened to apartheid. For liberals in Israel and America to continue to place their hopes in a two-state solution is a form of willful and culpable blindness, especially now that Israeli leaders across the political spectrum have begun to speak of ethnic cleansing. A catastrophe is in the making.

But Haifa Republic also offers grounds for hope. Catastrophe can be averted, Boehm contends, by reconfiguring Israel as a single binational state in which Palestinians and Jews both possess human rights and equal citizenship. The original Zionists—Theodor Herzl, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, and, early in his career, David Ben-Gurion—all advocated such a federation, and as prime minister, Menachem Begin successfully submitted a kindred plan to the Knesset. A binational federation offers a last chance for the two peoples who call Palestine home to live in peace and mutual respect and to have a truly democratic future in common.]]>
106 Omri Boehm 1681373947 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.31 2021 Haifa Republic: A Democratic Future for Israel
author: Omri Boehm
name: Mike
average rating: 4.31
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True North: A Memoir 107426 250 Jill Ker Conway 0679744614 Mike 0 3.88 1994 True North: A Memoir
author: Jill Ker Conway
name: Mike
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1994
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The Shipping News 77470
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family, The Shipping News shows why Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
--back cover

Cover illustration by David Blackwood

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337 Annie Proulx 0671510053 Mike 0 3.76 1993 The Shipping News
author: Annie Proulx
name: Mike
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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Prophet 126938525 From the extraordinary minds of award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author of H Is for Hawk Helen Macdonald and first time author Sin Blaché, Prophet is their electric debut, a tantalizing adventure fusing noir, sci-fi and a slow burn romance--set in a universe just one perilous step from our own.


Adam Rubenstein and Sunil Rao have been reluctant partners since their Uzbekistan days. Adam is a seemingly unflappable American Intelligence officer and Rao is an ex-MI6 agent, an addict and rudderless pleasure hound, with the uncanny ability to discern the truth of things--about everyone and everything other than Adam. When an American diner turns up in a foggy field in the UK after a mysterious death, Adam and Rao are called in to investigate, setting into motion the most dangerous and otherworldly mission of their lives.


In a surreal, action-packed quest that takes Adam and Rao from secret laboratories in Colorado, to a luxury lodge in Aspen, to the remote Nevada desert, the pair begins to uncover how and why people's fondest memories are being weaponized against them by a spooky, ever-shifting substance called Prophet. As the unlikely twosome battles this strange new reality, Prophet's victims' memories are materializing in increasingly bizarre favorite games, beloved pets, fairground rides, each more malevolent than the next. Prophet is like no enemy Adam and Rao - or the world - have ever come up against.


A tension-shot odd-couple romance, an unflinching send-up of corporate corruption, and a genre-bending tour de force, Prophet is a triumph of storytelling by a new writing duo with a thrilling future.]]>
534 Sin Blaché 0802162037 Mike 0 currently-reading 3.96 2023 Prophet
author: Sin Blaché
name: Mike
average rating: 3.96
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<![CDATA[Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life]]> 61406192 A National Bestseller!

"Read this book to connect with your highest self.� —Susan Cain, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Bittersweet and Quiet

“We need more awe in our lives, and Dacher Keltner has written the definitive book on where to find it.� —Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again

�Awe is awesome in both a superb analysis of an emotion that is strongly felt but poorly understood, with a showcase of examples that remind us of what is worthy of our awe.� —Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and Rationality


From a foremost expert on the science of emotions, a groundbreaking and essential exploration into the history, science, and greater understanding of awe

Awe is mysterious. How do we begin to quantify the goose bumps we feel when we see the Grand Canyon, or our utter amazement when we watch a child walk for the first time? Until recently, there was no science of awe, that feeling we experience when we encounter vast mysteries that transcend our understanding of the world. Revolution­ary thinking, though, has shown how humans have survived over the course of evolution thanks to our capacities to cooperate, form communities, and create culture—all of which are spurred by awe.

In Awe, Dacher Keltner presents a sweeping investigation and deeply personal inquiry into this elusive feeling. Revealing new re­search alongside an examination of awe across history, culture, and within his own life, Keltner shows us how cultivating awe in our ev­eryday lives leads us to appreciate what is most humane in our human nature. At turns radical and profound, brimming with enlightening and practical insights, Awe is our field guide for how to place this emotion as a vital force within our lives.]]>
335 Dacher Keltner 1984879693 Mike 0 currently-reading 3.90 2023 Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life
author: Dacher Keltner
name: Mike
average rating: 3.90
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<![CDATA[The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred]]> 54697346 From a star theoretical physicist, a journey into the world of particle physics and the cosmos -- and a call for a more just practice of science.
In The Disordered Cosmos, Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein shares her love for physics, from the Standard Model of Particle Physics and what lies beyond it, to the physics of melanin in skin, to the latest theories of dark matter -- all with a new spin informed by history, politics, and the wisdom of Star Trek.
One of the leading physicists of her generation, Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is also one of fewer than one hundred Black American women to earn a PhD from a department of physics. Her vision of the cosmos is vibrant, buoyantly non-traditional, and grounded in Black feminist traditions.
Prescod-Weinstein urges us to recognize how science, like most fields, is rife with racism, sexism, and other dehumanizing systems. She lays out a bold new approach to science and society that begins with the belief that we all have a fundamental right to know and love the night sky. The Disordered Cosmos dreams into existence a world that allows everyone to tap into humanity's wealth of knowledge about the wonders of the universe.]]>
352 Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 1541724690 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.10 2021 The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred
author: Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
name: Mike
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2021
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The Diamond Age 77585 Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson took science fiction to dazzling new levels. Now, in The Diamond Age, he delivers another stunning tale. Set in twenty-first-century Shanghai, it is the story of what happens when a state-of-the-art interactive device falls into the hands of a street urchin named Nell. Her life --- and the entire future of humanity --- is about to be decoded and reprogrammed....]]> 499 Neal Stephenson 0553573314 Mike 4 4.13 1995 The Diamond Age
author: Neal Stephenson
name: Mike
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1995
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1)]]> 58709846 The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience the Hugo Award-winning phenomenon from China's most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.

Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.]]>
400 Liu Cixin Mike 0 currently-reading 4.15 2006 The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1)
author: Liu Cixin
name: Mike
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2006
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Savages (Savages, #2) 8576027
When they refuse to back down, the cartel escalates its threat, kidnapping Ophelia, the boys' playmate and confidante. O's abduction sets off a dizzying array of ingenious negotiations and gripping plot twists that will captivate readers eager to learn the costs of freedom and the price of one amazing high.]]>
302 Don Winslow Mike 0 currently-reading 4.04 2010 Savages (Savages, #2)
author: Don Winslow
name: Mike
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/07/28
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<![CDATA[Now I Know: The Soviets Invaded Wisconsin?!: ...And 99 More Interesting Facts, Plus the Amazing Stories Behind Them]]> 49220452 A brand-new collection of fascinating facts spanning history and sports to science and pop culture that will have you proudly stating, “Now I know!�

Did you know that a measles outbreak led to the assigning of phone numbers? How about the fact that pirates are the reason we don’t use the metric system in the United States? Or that there’s actually a reason why stepping on a LEGO hurts so damn much?

Now I Know: Soviets Invaded Wisconsin?! is the ultimate challenge for even the biggest trivia buff. From the time a tomato plant stood up to a volcano to Portland’s great garbage battle of 2002, this book will put your general knowledge to the test and explain the most fascinating stories behind the world’s greatest facts.

Based on the very popular newsletter, you are guaranteed to learn something new despite how much you already think you know. Covering 100 topics, Now I Know: Soviets Invaded Wisconsin?! will surprise any know-it-all who thinks they have nothing new to learn.]]>
286 Dan Lewis 1507210167 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.22 Now I Know: The Soviets Invaded Wisconsin?!: ...And 99 More Interesting Facts, Plus the Amazing Stories Behind Them
author: Dan Lewis
name: Mike
average rating: 4.22
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<![CDATA[Liminal Thinking: Create the Change You Want by Changing the Way You Think]]> 32047284 184 Dave Gray 1933820624 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.12 2016 Liminal Thinking: Create the Change You Want by Changing the Way You Think
author: Dave Gray
name: Mike
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again]]> 58597190 Our ability to pay attention is collapsing. From the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections comes a groundbreaking examination of why this is happening—and how to get our attention back.

Like so many of us, Johann Hari was finding it much harder to focus than he used to. He found that a life of constantly switching from device to device, from tab to tab, is diminishing and depressing. He tried all sorts of self-help solutions—even abandoning his phone for three months—but in the long-term, nothing seemed to work. So Hari went on an epic journey across the world to interview the leading experts on human attention and to study their scientific findings—and learned that everything we think we know about this crisis is wrong.

In the U.S., teenagers now focus on a task for only sixty-five seconds on average, and office workers manage only three minutes. We think this inability to focus is a personal flaw, an individual failure to exert enough willpower over our devices. The truth is even more Our focus has been stolen by powerful external forces, and the science shows that these forces have been ramping up for decades—leaving us uniquely vulnerable, when social media arrived, to corporations determined to raid our attention for profit. These forces have been so successful that our collapse in attention is behind many of the wider problems society faces.

In Stolen Focus, Hari embarks on a thrilling journey, taking readers from veterinarians who diagnose dogs with ADHD, to Silicon Valley dissidents who exposed social media companies' furtive attempts to hack our focus; from a favela in Rio where everyone lost their attention in a particularly catastrophic way, to an office in New Zealand that discovered a remarkable technique to restore their workers' attention.

In this urgent, deeply researched book, Hari shows that if we understand the twelve true causes of this crisis—from the collapse of sustained reading to the disruption of boredom to rising pollution—we, as individuals and as a society, can finally begin to solve it by staging an attention rebellion. Finally, we have a way to get our focus back.
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348 Johann Hari 059313852X Mike 0 currently-reading 4.24 2022 Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again
author: Johann Hari
name: Mike
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2022
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<![CDATA[Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality]]> 18747254 An awesome, globe-spanning, and New York Times bestselling journey through the beauty and power of mathematics What if you had to take an art class in which you were only taught how to paint a fence? What if you were never shown the paintings of van Gogh and Picasso, weren't even told they existed? Alas, this is how math is taught, and so for most of us it becomes the intellectual equivalent of watching paint dry. In Love and Math, renowned mathematician Edward Frenkel reveals a side of math we've never seen, suffused with all the beauty and elegance of a work of art. In this heartfelt and passionate book, Frenkel shows that mathematics, far from occupying a specialist niche, goes to the heart of all matter, uniting us across cultures, time, and space. Love and Math tells two intertwined of the wonders of mathematics and of one young man's journey learning and living it. Having braved a discriminatory educational system to become one of the twenty-first century's leading mathematicians, Frenkel now works on one of the biggest ideas to come out of math in the last 50 the Langlands Program. Considered by many to be a Grand Unified Theory of mathematics, the Langlands Program enables researchers to translate findings from one field to another so that they can solve problems, such as Fermat's last theorem, that had seemed intractable before. At its core, Love and Math is a story about accessing a new way of thinking, which can enrich our lives and empower us to better understand the world and our place in it. It is an invitation to discover the magic hidden universe of mathematics.]]> 306 Edward Frenkel 0465069959 Mike 4 3.77 2013 Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality
author: Edward Frenkel
name: Mike
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2013
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[The Hobbit, or There and Back Again]]> 437049
"If you care for journeys there and back, out of the comfortable Western world, over the edge of the Wild, and home again, and can take an interest in a humble hero (blessed with a little wisdom and a little courage and considerable good luck), here is a record of such a journey and such a traveler. The period is the ancient time between the age of Faerie and the dominion of men, when the famous forest of Mirkwood was still standing, and the mountains were full of danger. In following the path of this humble adventurer, you will learn by the way (as he did) - if you do not already know all about these things - much about trolls, goblins, dwarves, and elves, and get some glimpses into the history and politics of a neglected but important period."

"For Mr. Bilbo Baggins visited various notable persons; conversed with the dragon, Smaug the Magnificent; and was present, rather unwillingly, at the Battle of the Five Armies. This is all the more remarkable, since he was a hobbit. Hobbits have hitherto been passed over in history and legend, perhaps because they as a rule preferred comfort to excitement. But this account, based on his personal memoirs, of the one exciting year in the otherwise quiet life of Mr. Baggins will give you a fair idea of the estimable people now (it is said) becoming rather rare. They do not like noise."

Description from back cover]]>
275 J.R.R. Tolkien 0618002219 Mike 0 4.36 1937 The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Mike
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1937
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<![CDATA[Void: The Strange Physics of Nothing (Foundational Questions in Science)]]> 32853661 The rising star author of The Physics of Wall Street explores why “nothing� may hold the key to the next era of theoretical physics

James Owen Weatherall’s previous book, The Physics of Wall Street, was a New York Times best-seller and named one of Physics Today’s five most intriguing books of 2013. In his newest volume, he takes on a fundamental concept of modern physics: nothing. The physics of ˛őłŮłÜ´Ú´Úâ€�protons, neutrons, electrons, and even quarks and gluons—is at least somewhat familiar to most of us. But what about the physics of nothing? Isaac Newton thought of empty space as nothingness extended in all directions, a kind of theater in which physics could unfold. But both quantum theory and relativity tell us that Newton’s picture can’t be right. Nothing, it turns out, is an awful lot like something, with a structure and properties every bit as complex and mysterious as matter. In his signature lively prose, Weatherall explores the very nature of empty space—and solidifies his reputation as a science writer to watch.]]>
233 James Owen Weatherall 0300224494 Mike 4 3.96 2016 Void: The Strange Physics of Nothing (Foundational Questions in Science)
author: James Owen Weatherall
name: Mike
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2016
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks]]> 63904237 “Unsettling, absolutely riveting, and—for better or worse—necessary reading.� —Brian Christian, author of Algorithms to Live By and The Alignment Problem

An entertaining account of the philosophy and technology of hacking—and why we all need to understand it.

It’s a signal paradox of our times that we live in an information society but do not know how it works. And without understanding how our information is stored, used, and protected, we are vulnerable to having it exploited. In Fancy Bear Goes Phishing, Scott J. Shapiro draws on his popular Yale University class about hacking to expose the secrets of the digital age. With lucidity and wit, he establishes that cybercrime has less to do with defective programming than with the faulty wiring of our psyches and society. And because hacking is a human-interest story, he tells the fascinating tales of perpetrators, including Robert Morris Jr., the graduate student who accidentally crashed the internet in the 1980s, and the Bulgarian “Dark Avenger,� who invented the first mutating computer-virus engine. We also meet a sixteen-year-old from South Boston who took control of Paris Hilton’s cell phone, the Russian intelligence officers who sought to take control of a US election, and others.

In telling their stories, Shapiro exposes the hackers� tool kits and gives fresh answers to vital Why is the internet so vulnerable? What can we do in response? Combining the philosophical adventure of Gödel, Escher, Bach with dramatic true-crime narrative, the result is a lively and original account of the future of hacking, espionage, and war, and of how to live in an era of cybercrime.

Includes black-and-white images]]>
434 Scott J. Shapiro 0374601186 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.05 2023 Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks
author: Scott J. Shapiro
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average rating: 4.05
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Slaughterhouse-Five 168646 Ěý
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time
Ěý
Slaughterhouse-Five , an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.�

An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut’s writing—the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit—that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it. Authors as wide-ranging as Norman Mailer, John Irving, Michael Crichton, Tim O’Brien, Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Strout, David Sedaris, Jennifer Egan, and J. K. Rowling have all found inspiration in Vonnegut’s words. Jonathan Safran Foer has described Vonnegut as “the kind of writer who made people—young people especially—want to write.� George Saunders has declared Vonnegut to be “the great, urgent, passionate American writer of our century, who offers us . . . a model of the kind of compassionate thinking that might yet save us from ourselves.�

More than fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut’s portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era’s uncertainties.]]>
215 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 0440180295 Mike 0 4.08 1969 Slaughterhouse-Five
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Mike
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1969
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<![CDATA[The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos]]> 37797634 There is an alternate cover edition for this ASIN here.

From the best-selling author of The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos comes his most expansive and accessible book to date—a book that takes on the grandest question: Is ours the only universe?

There was a time when “universe� meant all there is. Everything. Yet, in recent years discoveries in physics and cosmology have led a number of scientists to conclude that our universe may be one among many. With crystal-clear prose and inspired use of analogy, Brian Greene shows how a range of different “multiverse� proposals emerges from theories developed to explain the most refined observations of both subatomic particles and the dark depths of space: a multiverse in which you have an infinite number of doppelgängers, each reading this sentence in a distant universe; a multiverse comprising a vast ocean of bubble universes, of which ours is but one; a multiverse that endlessly cycles through time, or one that might be hovering millimeters away yet remains invisible; another in which every possibility allowed by quantum physics is brought to life. Or, perhaps strangest of all, a multiverse made purely of math.

Greene, one of our foremost physicists and science writers, takes us on a captivating exploration of these parallel worlds and reveals how much of reality’s true nature may be deeply hidden within them. And, with his unrivaled ability to make the most challenging of material accessible and entertaining, Greene tackles the core question: How can fundamental science progress if great swaths of reality lie beyond our reach?

Sparked by Greene’s trademark wit and precision, The Hidden Reality is at once a far-reaching survey of cutting-edge physics and a remarkable journey to the very edge of reality—a journey grounded firmly in science and limited only by our imagination.]]>
464 Brian Greene Mike 0 currently-reading 4.25 2011 The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos
author: Brian Greene
name: Mike
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Secrets of the Buzzer: A manifesto on buzzer speed for quiz and game show contestants]]> 58860026 86 Fritz Holznagel Mike 5 4.33 2015 Secrets of the Buzzer: A manifesto on buzzer speed for quiz and game show contestants
author: Fritz Holznagel
name: Mike
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/18
date added: 2023/05/18
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<![CDATA[Now I Know More: The Revealing Stories Behind Even More of the World's Most Interesting Facts (Now I Know Series)]]> 23211144 273 Dan Lewis 1440582165 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.07 2014 Now I Know More: The Revealing Stories Behind Even More of the World's Most Interesting Facts (Now I Know Series)
author: Dan Lewis
name: Mike
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Black Holes: The Key to Understanding the Universe]]> 61042729 By the star physicist and author of multiple #1 Sunday Times bestsellers, a major and definitive narrative work on black holes and how they can help us understand the universe.

Of all the many scientific marvels occurring in our universe, perhaps none have been more consistently intriguing and mysterious than black holes. What are they, exactly? How do they form? And what can they tell us about the nature and future of our universe?

Renowned physicist Brian Cox has dedicated his career to presenting complicated scientific ideas in an engaging way, from his popular BBC podcast "The Infinite Monkey Cage," to his frequently sold-out speaking events, to his bestselling books written with fellow physicist Jeff Forshaw. Now the two team up once again with Horizons, an exploration of these amazing objects--and why they continue to confirm that Einstein's theory of general relativity is such a brilliant explanation of the universe around us.]]>
289 Brian Cox 0062936700 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.26 2022 Black Holes: The Key to Understanding the Universe
author: Brian Cox
name: Mike
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2022
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<![CDATA[After the Trade Is Made: Processing Securities Transactions]]> 6212843 After the Trade Is Made reflects the changes that have taken place in recent years as a result of new products, technological breakthroughs, and the globalization of the securities industry. Comprehensive and easy to understand, it provides brokers, operations personnel, and individual investors with definitive and up-to-the-minute explanations of each step in the trading process-from the moment a customer decides to buy or sell a security through the final requirements of record keeping.

Written for both securities professionals and individual investors, whether domestic or in other countries, this new edition clearly explains the core of underwritings, new and established trading markets, transaction processing, margin, and more-while providing critical insights into the most recent wave of industry changes.

David M. Weiss, a veteran securities professional, traces the entire process of buying or selling a security, from order management to transaction processing to the final posting on the firm's books and records. He covers the specialized attributes of each function in a typical brokerage firm, as well as their relationships with commercial banks, transfer agents, clearing corporations, and depositories.

After the Trade Is Made is the definitive resource for anyone eager to understand and confidently navigate the vast and often surprising world of securities.

]]>
724 David M. Weiss 1440623791 Mike 0 currently-reading 3.88 1993 After the Trade Is Made: Processing Securities Transactions
author: David M. Weiss
name: Mike
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/04/27
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<![CDATA[Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac: 8,888 Questions in 365 Days]]> 8525800 The all-time champion and host of Jeopardy! gives you the chance to test your trivia mettle in this ingeniously organized book of 8,888 questions. For example–February 21: In 1912, on this day, Teddy Roosevelt coined the political phrase “hat in the ring,â€� so Ken Jennings fires off a series of “ringâ€� questions.ĚýIn 1979, who became the first NFL quarterback with four Super Bowl rings? What rings are divided by the Cassini Division? Also on this date, in 1981, the “gothâ€� music scene was born in London, so here’s a quiz on black-clad icons like Darth Vader, Johnny Cash, and Zorro. Do you know the secret identities of Ivanhoe’s Black Knight or Men in Black’s Agent M? In this ultimate book for trivia buffs and other assorted know-it-alls, the 365 entries feature “This Day in Historyâ€� factoids, trivia quizzes, and questions categorized by Jennings as “Easy,â€� “Hard,â€� and “Yeah, Good Luck.â€� Topics cover every subject under the sun, from paleontology to mixology, sports feats to Bach suites, medieval popes to daytime soaps. This addictive gathering of facts, oddities, devilishly clever quizzes, and other flights of fancy will make each day a fun and intriguing new challenge.]]> 543 Ken Jennings Mike 0 currently-reading 3.83 2007 Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac: 8,888 Questions in 365 Days
author: Ken Jennings
name: Mike
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (Ernest Cunningham, #1)]]> 60669112
I'm Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I'd killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it's a little more complicated than that.

Have I killed someone? Yes. I have.

Who was it?

Let's get started.

EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE

My brother

My stepsister

My wife

My father

My mother

My sister-in-law

My uncle

My stepfather

My aunt

Me]]>
384 Benjamin Stevenson Mike 0 currently-reading 3.83 2022 Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (Ernest Cunningham, #1)
author: Benjamin Stevenson
name: Mike
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of the World]]> 44567032 An entertaining, deeply informative explanation of how high-level financial crimes work, written by an industry insider who’s an expert in the field.

The way most white-collar crime works is by manipulating institutional psychology. That means creating something that looks as much as possible like a normal set of transactions. The drama comes later, when it all unwinds.

Financial crime seems horribly complicated, but there are only so many ways you can con someone out of what’s theirs. In Lying for Money, veteran regulatory economist and market analyst Dan Davies tells the story of fraud through a genealogy of financial malfeasance, the Great Salad Oil swindle, the Pigeon King International fraud, the fictional British colony of Poyais in South America, the Boston Ladies� Deposit Company, the Portuguese Banknote Affair, Theranos, and the Bre-X scam. Davies brings new insights into these schemes and shows how all frauds, current and historical, belong to one of four categories (“long firm,� counterfeiting, control fraud, and market crimes) and operate on the same basic principles. The only elements that change are the victims, the scammers, and the terminology.

Davies has years of experience picking the bones out of some of the most famous frauds of the modern age. Now he reveals the big picture that emerges from their labyrinths of deceit and explains how fraud has shaped the entire development of the modern world economy.]]>
284 Dan Davies 1982114959 Mike 5 One of the most entertaining finance books ever

Davies provides a front-row seat to some of the most audacious (and ill-fated) schemes in history, all the while refining a theory of fraud and chicanery that informs and illuminates. Plus, he’s a cracking good writer and incredibly funny, which is a rare treat for a business book.]]>
4.26 2018 Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of the World
author: Dan Davies
name: Mike
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/23
date added: 2023/04/23
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One of the most entertaining finance books ever

Davies provides a front-row seat to some of the most audacious (and ill-fated) schemes in history, all the while refining a theory of fraud and chicanery that informs and illuminates. Plus, he’s a cracking good writer and incredibly funny, which is a rare treat for a business book.
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Underworld 55173167 Underworld is a story of men and women together and apart, seen in deep, clear detail and in stadium-sized panoramas, shadowed throughout by the overarching conflict of the Cold War. It is a novel that accepts every challenge of these extraordinary times -- Don DeLillo's greatest and most powerful work of fiction.]]> 835 Don DeLillo Mike 0 currently-reading 4.03 1997 Underworld
author: Don DeLillo
name: Mike
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Introducing Epigenetics: A Graphic Guide (Graphic Guides Book 0)]]> 33010074 291 Cath Ennis 1848319037 Mike 0 currently-reading 3.82 2017 Introducing Epigenetics: A Graphic Guide (Graphic Guides Book 0)
author: Cath Ennis
name: Mike
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #4)]]> 8698
"HE LOST ALL FAITH IN THE STRAIGHTFORWARD OPERATION OF CAUSE AND EFFECT THE DAY HE GOT UP INTENDING TO CATCH UP WITH SOME READING AND ENDED UP ON A PREHISTORIC EARTH WITH A MAN FROM BETELGEUSE AND A SPACESHIP-LOAD OF ALIEN TELEPHONE SANITISERS...".

Left at the end of LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING with the address for God's Final Message To His Creation, Arthur Dent let this crucial information slip his mind. He tries everything to jog his memory - meditation, mind-reading, hitting himself about the head with blunt objects. But none of it works. Of course, as everyone knows, the answer lies in making life flash before your eyes...
Source: douglasadams.com]]>
167 Douglas Adams 0330491237 Mike 0 4.09 1984 So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #4)
author: Douglas Adams
name: Mike
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1984
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/03/20
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Davos Man 60151194 From the New York Times's Global Economics Correspondent, a masterwork of explanatory journalism that exposes how billionaires' systematic plunder of the world--brazenly accelerated during the pandemic--has transformed 21st-century life and dangerously destabilized democracy.

The history of the last half century in America, Europe, and other major economies is in large part the story of wealth flowing upward. The most affluent people emerged from capitalism's triumph in the Cold War to loot the peace, depriving governments of the resources needed to serve their people, and leaving them tragically unprepared for the worst pandemic in a century.

Drawing on decades of experience covering the global economy, award-winning journalist Peter S. Goodman profiles five representative Davos Men-members of the billionaire class-chronicling how their shocking exploitation of the global pandemic has hastened a fifty-year trend of wealth centralization. Alongside this reporting, Goodman delivers textured portraits of those caught in Davos Man's wake, including a former steelworker in the American Midwest, a Bangladeshi migrant in Qatar, a Seattle doctor on the front lines of the fight against COVID, blue-collar workers in the tenements of Buenos Aires, an African immigrant in Sweden, a textile manufacturer in Italy, an Amazon warehouse employee in New York City, and more.

Goodman's rollicking and revelatory expos� of the global billionaire class reveals their hidden impact on nearly every aspect of modern widening wealth inequality, the rise of anti-democratic nationalism, the shrinking opportunity to earn a livable wage, the vulnerabilities of our health-care systems, access to affordable housing, unequal taxation, and even the quality of the shirt on your back. Meticulously reported yet compulsively readable, Davos Man is an essential read for anyone concerned about economic justice, the capacity of societies to grapple with their greatest challenges, and the sanctity of representative government.]]>
480 Peter S. Goodman 0063078325 Mike 4 4.21 2022 Davos Man
author: Peter S. Goodman
name: Mike
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/16
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<![CDATA[Customer Data Platforms: Use People Data to Transform the Future of Marketing Engagement]]> 55933307 Master the hottest technology around to drive marketing successĚý

Marketers are faced with aĚýstarkĚýand challenging customers demand deep personalization, but they are increasingly leery of offering the type of personal data required to make it happen. As a solution to this problem,ĚýCustomer Data Platforms have come to the fore, offering companiesĚýaĚýway to capture, unify, activate,Ěýand analyze customer data. CDPs are the hottestĚýmarketingĚýtechnologyĚýaroundĚýtoday,Ěýbut areĚýthey worthyĚýof the hype?ĚýCustomer Data PlatformsĚýtakes a deep dive into everything CDPĚýso you can learn how to steer your firm toward the future of personalization.Ěý

Over the years,Ěýmany of usĚýhave built byzantine “stacksâ€� of various marketing and advertising technologyĚýin an attemptĚýto deliver the fabled “right person,Ěýright message, right timeâ€� experience.ĚýThis can lead toĚýsiloed systems, disconnected processes, and legacy technical debt.ĚýCDPs offer a way toĚýsimplify the stack and deliverĚýa balanced and engaging customer experience.ĚýCustomer Data PlatformsĚýbreaks down the fundamentals, including how Ěý

Understand the problems of managing customer data Understand what CDPs are and what they do (and don't do) Organize and harmonize customer data for use in marketing Build a safe, compliant first-party data asset that your brand can use as fuel Create a data-driven culture that puts customers at the center of everything you do Understand how to use AI and machine learning to drive the future of personalization Orchestrate modern customer journeys that react to customers in real-time Power analytics with customer data to get closer to true attribution InĚýthisĚýbook, you’ll discover how to build 1:1 engagement that scales at the speed of today’s customers.Ěý]]>
221 Martin Kihn 1119790123 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.22 Customer Data Platforms: Use People Data to Transform the Future of Marketing Engagement
author: Martin Kihn
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<![CDATA[Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs]]> 8525803 NATIONAL BESTSELLERĚý•Ě�A witty, charming, and engaging dive into trivia’s colorful history, from America’s highest-earning game show contestant of all timeĚý“Insightful, informative, and written with a strong dose of humor and humility. . . . I loved this book.”—Will Shortz, crossword editor,ĚýThe New York TimesĚýKen Jennings is trivia’s undisputed king—and as he traces his rise from anonymous computer programmer to nerd folk icon, he explores his newly conquered the world of trivia itself.ĚýĚýTrivia, he has found, is centuries older than his childhood obsession with it. Whisking us from the coffeehouses of seventeenth-century London to the Internet age, Jennings chronicles the ups and downs of the trivia the quiz book explosion of the Jazz Age; the rise, fall, and rise again of TV quiz shows; the nostalgic campus trivia of the 1960s; and the 1980s, when Trivial Pursuit® again made it fashionable to be a know-it-all.Jennings also investigates the shadowy demimonde of today’s trivia subculture, guiding us on a tour of trivia across America. He goes head-to-head with the blowhards and diehards of the college quiz-bowl circuit, the slightly soused faithful of the Boston pub trivia scene, and the raucous participants in the annual Q&A marathon in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, “The World’s Largest Trivia Contest.â€� And, of course, he takes us behind the scenes of his improbable 75-game run onĚýJeopardy!ĚýBut above all,ĚýBrainiacĚýis a love letter to the useless fact. (Who knew that there’s a crater on Venus named after Laura Ingalls Wilder? Ken Jennings, that’s who.) Engaging and erudite,ĚýBrainiacĚýis an irresistible celebration of nostalgia, curiosity, and geeky obsession—in a word, trivia.]]> 288 Ken Jennings Mike 0 4.08 2006 Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs
author: Ken Jennings
name: Mike
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2006
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<![CDATA[Blood in the Garden: The Flagrant History of the 1990s New York Knicks]]> 58805673 INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A SELECTION ON BARACK OBAMA’S SUMMER READING LIST The definitive history of the 1990s New York Knicks, illustrating how Pat Riley, Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Charles Oakley, and Anthony Mason resurrected the iconic franchise through oppressive physicality and unmatched grit.For nearly an entire generation, the New York Knicks have been a laughingstock franchise. Since 2001, they’ve spent more money, lost more games, and won fewer playoff series than any other NBA team. But during the preceding era, the Big Apple had a club it was madly in love with—one that earned respect not only by winning, but through brute force. The Knicks were always looking for fights, often at the encouragement of Pat Riley. They fought opposing players. They fought each other. Hell, they even occasionally fought their own coaches. The NBA didn’t take kindly to their fighting spirit. Within two years, league officials moved to alter several rules to stop New York from turning its basketball games into bloody mudwrestling matches. Nevertheless, as the 1990s progressed, the Knicks endeared themselves to millions of fans; not for how much they won, but for their colorful cast of characters and their hardworking mentality. Now, through his original reporting and interviews with more than two hundred people, author Chris Herring delves into the origin, evolution, and eventual demise of the iconic club. He takes us inside the locker room, executive boardrooms, and onto the court for the key moments that lifted the club to new heights, and the ones that threatened to send everything crashing down in spectacular fashion. Blood in the Garden is a portrait filled with eye-opening details that have never been shared before, revealing the full story of the franchise in the midst of the NBA’s golden era. And rest assured, no punches will be pulled. Which is just how those rough-and-tumble Knicks would like it.]]> 362 Chris Herring Mike 4 4.37 2022 Blood in the Garden: The Flagrant History of the 1990s New York Knicks
author: Chris Herring
name: Mike
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/07
date added: 2023/01/07
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Although I was an engaged and attentive fan of the 1990s Knicks, I learned a great deal from Herring’s deep research and remarkable sourcing � especially about the enigmatic Anthony Mason. (I do wish that he’d mentioned the scuffle with Manute Bol, which was something to witness.)
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<![CDATA[Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them: A Cosmic Quest from Zero to Infinity]]> 61330421 A fun, dazzling exploration of the strange numbers that illuminate the ultimate nature of reality.For particularly brilliant theoretical physicists like James Clerk Maxwell, Paul Dirac, or Albert Einstein, the search for mathematical truths led to strange new understandings of the ultimate nature of reality. But what are these truths? What are the mysterious numbers that explain the universe? In Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them, the leading theoretical physicist and YouTube star Antonio Padilla takes us on an irreverent cosmic tour of nine of the most extraordinary numbers in physics, offering a startling picture of how the universe works. These strange numbers include Graham’s number, which is so large that if you thought about it in the wrong way, your head would collapse into a singularity; TREE(3), whose finite nature can never be definitively proved, because to do so would take so much time that the universe would experience a Poincaré Recurrence—resetting to precisely the state it currently holds, down to the arrangement of individual atoms; and 10^{-120}, measuring the desperately unlikely balance of energy needed to allow the universe to exist for more than just a moment, to extend beyond the size of a single atom—in other words, the mystery of our unexpected universe.Leading us down the rabbit hole to a deeper understanding of reality, Padilla explains how these unusual numbers are the key to understanding such mind-boggling phenomena as black holes, relativity, and the problem of the cosmological constant—that the two best and most rigorously tested ways of understanding the universe contradict one another. Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them is a combination of popular and cutting-edge science—and a lively, entertaining, and even funny exploration of the most fundamental truths about the universe.]]> 354 Antonio Padilla 0374600570 Mike 0 currently-reading 3.90 2022 Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them: A Cosmic Quest from Zero to Infinity
author: Antonio Padilla
name: Mike
average rating: 3.90
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Clockers 11421926 The New York Times–bestselling author’s “harrowingâ€� novel about a cop and a crack dealer—the basis for the acclaimed Spike Lee film (The New York Times). Ěý Rocco Klein, a veteran homicide detective in a New Jersey city just outside Manhattan, has lost his appetite for the wild drama of the street. When a warm June night brings yet another drug murder, Klein has no sense that the case is anything special. A black twenty-year-old steps forward to confess, but a little digging reveals that he’s never been in any kind of trouble, whereas his brother runs a crew of street-corner cocaine dealers—clockers—in a nearby housing project. Ěý Soon Klein is sure that Victor Dunham is innocent, sure that his brother, Strike, is the real killer. And suddenly Rocco’s hunger for the job is back. Ěý At once an explosive murder mystery and a riveting portrait of two lives on a collision course, Clockers is a gritty tale of suspense from the award-winning screenwriter for HBO’s The Wire, a New York Times–bestselling novelist who “gets so deep under the skin of both the cops and the clockers that it’s hard to believe he himself has never been eitherâ€� (People). Ěý “Page after page explodes with prose as vivid as kinetic art.â€� —Chicago Tribune Ěý “PowerfulĚý.Ěý.Ěý. HarrowingĚý.Ěý.Ěý. Remarkable.â€� —The New York Times Book Review Ěý “TriumphantĚý.Ěý.Ěý. An astounding accomplishment.â€� —The Philadelphia Inquirer]]> 613 Richard Price 0547524080 Mike 0 4.12 1992 Clockers
author: Richard Price
name: Mike
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Spooky Action at a Distance: The Phenomenon That Reimagines Space and Time--and What It Means for Black Holes, the Big Bang, and Theories of Everything]]> 25943569 Long-listed for the 2016 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing AwardDelightfully readable, Spooky Action at a Distance is a mind-bending voyage to the frontiers of modern physics that will change the way we think about reality.What is space? It isn't a question that most of us normally ask. Space is the venue of physics; it's where things exist, where they move and take shape. Yet over the past few decades, physicists have discovered a phenomenon that operates outside the confines of space and nonlocality--the ability of two particles to act in harmony no matter how far apart they may be. It appears to be almost magical. Einstein grappled with this oddity and couldn't come to terms with it, describing it as "spooky action at a distance." More recently, the mystery has deepened as other forms of nonlocality have been uncovered. This strange occurrence, which has direct connections to black holes, particle collisions, and even the workings of gravity, holds the potential to undermine our most basic understandings of physical reality. If space isn't what we thought it was, then what is it? In Spooky Action at a Distance, George Musser sets out to answer that question, offering a provocative exploration of nonlocality and a celebration of the scientists who are trying to explain it. Musser guides us on an epic journey into the lives of experimental physicists observing particles acting in tandem, astronomers finding galaxies that look statistically identical, and cosmologists hoping to unravel the paradoxes surrounding the big bang. He traces the often contentious debates over nonlocality through major discoveries and disruptions of the twentieth century and shows how scientists faced with the same undisputed experimental evidence develop wildly different explanations for that evidence. Their conclusions challenge our understanding of not only space and time but also the origins of the universe-and they suggest a new grand unified theory of physics. “An important book that provides insight into key new developments in our understanding of the nature of space, time and the universe. It will repay careful study.� —John Gribbin, The Wall Street Journal“An endlessly surprising foray into the current mother of physics' many knotty mysteries, the solving of which may unveil the weirdness of quantum particles, black holes, and the essential unity of nature.� —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)]]> 305 George Musser Mike 4 3.99 2015 Spooky Action at a Distance: The Phenomenon That Reimagines Space and Time--and What It Means for Black Holes, the Big Bang, and Theories of Everything
author: George Musser
name: Mike
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2015
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[A Brief History of Black Holes: And why nearly everything you know about them is wrong]]> 61391669
Black holes are not just a curiosity; they are some of the most important objects for understanding how our universe works and how it came to be. And yet they are incredibly misunderstood; take everything you think you know about black holes and get rid of it.

This book will be a book about black holes like no other; it will journey beyond the event horizon and consider what the â€insideâ€� of a black hole is truly like, and flip it on its head. It will take black holes and turn them from something beyond comprehension for the average person on the street to a level of understanding you never thought possible, through unique analogies and ideas the human brain has a hope of actually picturing. This book will show you why you should be calling them white mountains â€� and not black holes.]]>
269 Becky Smethurst 1529086728 Mike 4 4.56 2022 A Brief History of Black Holes: And why nearly everything you know about them is wrong
author: Becky Smethurst
name: Mike
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2022
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[Existential Physics: A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions]]> 59695048
“An informed and entertaining guide to what science can and cannot tell us.� � The Wall Street Journal

“Stimulating . . . encourage[s] readers to push past well-trod assumptions […] and have fun doing so.� � Science Magazine

From renowned physicist and creator of the YouTube series “Science without the Gobbledygook,� a book that takes a no-nonsense approach to life’s biggest questions, and wrestles with what physics really says about the human condition

Not only can we not currently explain the origin of the universe, it is questionable we will ever be able to explain it. The notion that there are universes within particles, or that particles are conscious, is ascientific, as is the hypothesis that our universe is a computer simulation.Ěý On the other hand, the idea that the universe itself is conscious is difficult to rule out entirely.Ěý
Ěý
According to Sabine Hossenfelder, it is not a coincidence that quantum entanglement and vacuum energy have become the go-to explanations of alternative healers, or that people believe their deceased grandmother is still alive because of quantum mechanics. Science and religion have the same roots, and they still tackle some of the same Where do we come from? Where do we go to? How much can we know? The area of science that is closest to answering these questions is physics. Over the last century, physicists have learned a lot about which spiritual ideas are still compatible with the laws of nature. Not always, though, have they stayed on the scientific side of the debate.

In this lively, thought-provoking book, Hossenfelder takes on the biggest questions in Does the past still exist? Do particles think? Was the universe made for us? Has physics ruled out free will? Will we ever have a theory of everything? She lays out how far physicists are on the way to answering these questions, where the current limits are, and what questions might well remain unanswerable forever. Her book offers a no-nonsense yet entertaining take on some of the toughest riddles in existence, and will give the reader a solid grasp on what we know—and what we don’t know.]]>
269 Sabine Hossenfelder Mike 0 currently-reading 3.89 2022 Existential Physics: A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions
author: Sabine Hossenfelder
name: Mike
average rating: 3.89
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The Year of Magical Thinking 420
Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later—the night before New Year’s Eve—the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma.

This powerful book is Didion� s attempt to make sense of the “weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness ... about marriage and children and memory ... about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself."]]>
227 Joan Didion 140004314X Mike 5 a moving elegy & examination of grief

Didion’s experience of her husband’s death and daughter’s illness is both unique and tragically familiar. Anyone who has lost a family member or dear friend may recognize some of their own experience in hers.]]>
3.94 2005 The Year of Magical Thinking
author: Joan Didion
name: Mike
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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a moving elegy & examination of grief

Didion’s experience of her husband’s death and daughter’s illness is both unique and tragically familiar. Anyone who has lost a family member or dear friend may recognize some of their own experience in hers.
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<![CDATA[Now I Know: The Revealing Stories Behind the World's Most Interesting Facts (Now I Know Series)]]> 18886032 Covering 100 outrageous topics, Now I Know is the ultimate challenge for any know-it-all who thinks they have nothing left to learn.Praise for the Webby Award-winning “I eagerly read Now I Know every day. It’s always fresh, always a surprise, and always interesting!� —Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and Wikia ​Did you know that there are actually twenty-seven letters in the alphabet, or that the US had a plan to invade Canada? And what actually happened to the flags left on the moon? Even if you think you have a handle on all thing’s trivia, you’re guaranteed a big surprise with Now I Know. From uncovering what happens to lost luggage to New York City’s plan to crack down on crime by banning pinball, this book will challenge your knowledge of the fascinating stories behind the world’s greatest facts.]]> 258 Dan Lewis 1440563632 Mike 0 currently-reading 3.88 2013 Now I Know: The Revealing Stories Behind the World's Most Interesting Facts (Now I Know Series)
author: Dan Lewis
name: Mike
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2013
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<![CDATA[How to Cook Everything Fast: A Better Way to Cook Great Food (How to Cook Everything Series Book 6)]]> 22405720 1061 Mark Bittman Mike 0 currently-reading 4.25 2013 How to Cook Everything Fast: A Better Way to Cook Great Food (How to Cook Everything Series Book 6)
author: Mark Bittman
name: Mike
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2013
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Babel 59729042 A novel that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire.

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.

Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide�

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?]]>
560 R.F. Kuang Mike 0 currently-reading 4.14 2022 Babel
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Mike
average rating: 4.14
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<![CDATA[Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher]]> 10968874 Learn how to think like a physicist from a Nobel laureate and "one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century" (New York Review of Books) with these six classic and beloved lessonsĚýIt was Richard Feynman's outrageous and scintillating method of teaching that earned him legendary status among students and professors of physics. From 1961 to 1963, Feynman delivered a series of lectures at the California Institute of Technology that revolutionized the teaching of physics around the world. Six Easy Pieces, taken from these famous Lectures on Physics, represent the most accessible material from the series.ĚýIn these classic lessons, Feynman introduces the general reader to the following atoms, basic physics, energy, gravitation, quantum mechanics, and the relationship of physics to other topics. With his dazzling and inimitable wit, Feynman presents each discussion with a minimum of jargon. Filled with wonderful examples and clever illustrations, Six Easy Pieces is the ideal introduction to the fundamentals of physics by one of the most admired and accessible physicists of modern times.Ěý"If one book was all that could be passed on to the next generation of scientists it would undoubtedly have to be Six Easy Pieces."- John Gribbin, New Scientist]]> 180 Richard P. Feynman Mike 4 4.30 1994 Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher
author: Richard P. Feynman
name: Mike
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1994
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[Prince Caspian (The Chronicles of Narnia, #2)]]> 317501 The four Pevensies help Caspian battle Miraz and ascend his rightful throne.

NARNIA... the land between the lamp-post and the castle of Cair Paravel, where animals talk, where magical things happen... and where the adventure begins.

Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are returning to boarding school when they are summoned from the dreary train station (by Susan's own magic horn) to return to the land of Narnia—the land where they had ruled as kings and queens and where their help is desperately needed.]]>
216 C.S. Lewis 0020442408 Mike 0 3.94 1951 Prince Caspian (The Chronicles of Narnia, #2)
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Mike
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1951
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<![CDATA[Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance]]> 57054609 An instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller

The definitive guide to communicating and connecting in a hybrid world.

Email replies that show up a week later. Video chats full of “oops sorry no you go� and “can you hear me?!� Ambiguous text-messages. Weird punctuation you can’t make heads or tails of. Is it any wonder communication takes us so much time and effort to figure out? How did we lose our innate capacity to understand each other?

Humans rely on body language to connect and build trust, but with most of our communication happening from behind a screen, traditional body language signals are no longer visible -- or are they? In Digital Body Language, Erica Dhawan, a go-to thought leader on collaboration and a passionate communication junkie, combines cutting edge research with engaging storytelling to decode the new signals and cues that have replaced traditional body language across genders, generations, and culture. In real life, we lean in, uncross our arms, smile, nod and make eye contact to show we listen and care. Online, reading carefully is the new listening. Writing clearly is the new empathy. And a phone or video call is worth a thousand emails.

Digital Body Language will turn your daily misunderstandings into a set of collectively understood laws that foster connection, no matter the distance. Dhawan investigates a wide array of exchanges—from large conferences and video meetings to daily emails, texts, IMs, and conference calls—and offers insights and solutions to build trust and clarity to anyone in our ever changing world.]]>
279 Erica Dhawan 1250246539 Mike 0 currently-reading 3.87 Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance
author: Erica Dhawan
name: Mike
average rating: 3.87
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<![CDATA[QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Princeton Science Library)]]> 18841495 Celebrated for his brilliantly quirky insights into the physical world, Nobel laureate Richard Feynman also possessed an extraordinary talent for explaining difficult concepts to the general public. Here Feynman provides a classic and definitive introduction to QED (namely quantum electrodynamics), that part of quantum field theory describing the interactions of light with charged particles. Using everyday language, spatial concepts, visualizations, and his renowned "Feynman diagrams" instead of advanced mathematics, Feynman clearly and humorously communicates both the substance and spirit of QED to the layperson. A. Zee's new introduction places both Feynman's book and his seminal contribution to QED in historical context and further highlights Feynman's uniquely appealing and illuminating style.

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181 Richard P. Feynman Mike 4 4.40 1985 QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Princeton Science Library)
author: Richard P. Feynman
name: Mike
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1985
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe]]> 41962724
Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves (a phenomenon predicted by calculus). Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes “backwards� sometimes; how to make electricity with magnets; how to ensure your rocket doesn’t miss the moon; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.

As Strogatz proves, calculus is truly the language of the universe. By unveiling the principles of that language, Infinite Powers makes us marvel at the world anew.Ěý]]>
389 Steven H. Strogatz 132888001X Mike 4 4.42 2019 Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe
author: Steven H. Strogatz
name: Mike
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/21
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<![CDATA[The Complete Works of Flavius Josephus: History of the Jewish War against the Romans, The Antiquities of the Jews, Against Apion, Discourse to the Greeks concerning Hades & Autobiography]]> 39597212 The War of the Jews
The Antiquities of the Jews
Against Apion
Discourse to the Greeks concerning Hades
The Life of Flavius Josephus: Autobiography

Titus Flavius Josephus was a first-century Romano-Jewish scholar, historian and hagiographer, who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry. He initially fought against the Romans during the First Jewish–Roman War as head of Jewish forces in Galilee, until surrendering in 67 CE to Roman forces led by Vespasian after the six-week siege of Jotapata. After Vespasian became Emperor in 69 CE, he granted Josephus his freedom, at which time Josephus assumed the emperor's family name of Flavius. He fully defected to the Roman side and was granted Roman citizenship. Josephus recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the first century CE and the First Jewish–Roman War, including the Siege of Masada. His most important works were The Jewish War (c. 75) and Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94).]]>
2223 Flavius Josephus 8026885023 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.21 100 The Complete Works of Flavius Josephus: History of the Jewish War against the Romans, The Antiquities of the Jews, Against Apion, Discourse to the Greeks concerning Hades & Autobiography
author: Flavius Josephus
name: Mike
average rating: 4.21
book published: 100
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<![CDATA[Plays Well with Others: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Relationships Is (Mostly) Wrong]]> 59818744 303 Eric Barker 0063050951 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.42 Plays Well with Others: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Relationships Is (Mostly) Wrong
author: Eric Barker
name: Mike
average rating: 4.42
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<![CDATA[This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future]]> 59627569 The shocking, definitive account of the 2020 election and the first year of the Biden presidency by two New York Times reporters, exposing the deep fissures within both parties as the country approaches a political breaking point.

This is the authoritative account of an eighteen-month crisis in American democracy that will be seared into the country’s political memory for decades to come. With stunning, in-the-room detail, New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns show how both our political parties confronted a series of national traumas, including the coronavirus pandemic, the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and the political brinksmanship of President Biden’s first year in the White House.

From Donald Trump’s assault on the 2020 election and his ongoing campaign of vengeance against his fellow Republicans, to the behind-the-scenes story of Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate and his bitter struggles to unite the Democratic Party, this book exposes the degree to which the two-party system has been strained to the point of disintegration. More than at any time in recent history, the long-established traditions and institutions of American politics are under siege as a set of aging political leaders struggle to hold together a changing country.

Martin and Burns break news on most every page, drawing on hundreds of interviews and never-before-seen documents and recordings from the highest levels of government. The book asks the vitally important (and disturbing) question: can American democracy, as we know it, ever work again?]]>
473 Jonathan Martin 1982172509 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.17 2022 This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future
author: Jonathan Martin
name: Mike
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
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<![CDATA[The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups]]> 35305272
In The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle goes inside some of the world’s most successful organizations—including the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team Six, IDEO, and the San Antonio Spurs—and reveals what makes them tick. He demystifies the culture-building process by identifying three key skills that generate cohesion and cooperation, and explains how diverse groups learn to function with a single mind. Drawing on examples that range from Internet retailer Zappos to the comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade to a daring gang of jewel thieves, Coyle offers specific strategies that trigger learning, spark collaboration, build trust, and drive positive change. Coyle unearths helpful stories of failure that illustrate what not to do, troubleshoots common pitfalls, and shares advice about reforming a toxic culture. Combining leading-edge science, on-the-ground insights from world-class leaders, and practical ideas for action, The Culture Code offers a roadmap for creating an environment where innovation flourishes, problems get solved, and expectations are exceeded.

Culture is not something you are—it’s something you do. The Culture Code puts the power in your hands. No matter the size of your group or your goal, this book can teach you the principles of cultural chemistry that transform individuals into teams that can accomplish amazing things together.]]>
260 Daniel Coyle 0804177007 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.44 2017 The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups
author: Daniel Coyle
name: Mike
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2017
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<![CDATA[The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories]]> 46314
Andersen's tales, such as "The Snow Queen," "The Ugly Duckling," "The Red Shoes," and "The Nightingale," are remarkable for their sense of fantasy, power of description, and acute sensitivity, and they are like no others written before or since. Unlike the Brothers Grimm, who collected and retold folklore, Andersen adopted the most ancient literary forms of the fairy tale and the folktale and distilled them into a genre that was uniquely his own.]]>
1101 Hans Christian Andersen 0385189516 Mike 0 4.27 1850 The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories
author: Hans Christian Andersen
name: Mike
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1850
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<![CDATA[This is True [v1]: Deputy Kills Man With Hammer: And 500 Other Bizarre-but-True Stories and Headlines from the World's Press]]> 670451
+ How did he get so popular so fast? Well, for one thing, he writes funny stuff." --New York Times

+ "Quirky stories... punctuated by Cassingham's humorous tag lines." --Editor & Publisher

This is True is one of the first Internet-based features, created by Randy Cassingham as an e-mail newsletter in early 1994. True's mission is to provoke thought through social commentary. But if readers aren't entertained by the stories, they won't read very many. Thus its vehicle, weird-but-true news from legitimate news sources from around the world. The result spans the gamut of the crazy things we humans think we can get away with: this collection of jaw-dropping examples of the human thought process, and the realization that we can do better � a lot better!

What sort of stories?

+ A jury in a murder trial deliberated with the help of a seance to ask the victim who had killed him.

+ A woman had to sue her ex-husband to regain custody ...of her breast implants.

+ A man legally changed his name to one with 291 letters in it, and then went home to tell his wife.

The weird-but-true stories come from all over the world, each one punctuated by Randy's wild commentary -- a tagline that is humorous, ironic, opinionated, or (with luck) some combination of the three. "Truth is stranger than fiction," Randy likes to say, "because fiction has to make sense."

This is Volume 1 of the series, collecting the first year of stories and headlines from mid-1994 to mid-1995. The title comes from an actual newspaper headline which is included in the book.]]>
152 Randy Cassingham 0935309217 Mike 0 4.00 1995 This is True [v1]: Deputy Kills Man With Hammer: And 500 Other Bizarre-but-True Stories and Headlines from the World's Press
author: Randy Cassingham
name: Mike
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1995
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<![CDATA[People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present]]> 57605399 Auschwitz, the marketing of the Jewish history of Harbin, China, and the little-known life of the "righteous Gentile" Varian Fry. Throughout, she challenges us to confront the reasons why there might be so much fascination with Jewish deaths, and so little respect for Jewish lives unfolding in the present.


Horn draws upon her travels, her research, and also her own family life—trying to explain Shakespeare’s Shylock to a curious ten-year-old, her anger when swastikas are drawn on desks in her children’s school, the profound perspective offered by traditional religious practice and study—to assert the vitality, complexity, and depth of Jewish life against an antisemitism that, far from being disarmed by the mantra of "Never forget," is on the rise. As Horn explores the (not so) shocking attacks on the American Jewish community in recent years, she reveals the subtler dehumanization built into the public piety that surrounds the Jewish past—making the radical argument that the benign reverence we give to past horrors is itself a profound affront to human dignity.]]>
244 Dara Horn 0393531570 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.43 2021 People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present
author: Dara Horn
name: Mike
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2021
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<![CDATA[Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause]]> 54308335 "Ty Seidule scorches us with the truth and rivets us with his fierce sense of moral urgency." --Ron ChernowIn a forceful but humane narrative, former soldier and head of the West Point history department Ty Seidule's Robert E. Lee and Me challenges the myths and lies of the Confederate legacy—and explores why some of this country’s oldest wounds have never healed.Ty Seidule grew up revering Robert E. Lee. From his southern childhood to his service in the U.S. Army, every part of his life reinforced the Lost Cause that Lee was the greatest man who ever lived, and that the Confederates were underdogs who lost the Civil War with honor. Now, as a retired brigadier general and Professor Emeritus of History at West Point, his view has radically changed. From a soldier, a scholar, and a southerner, Ty Seidule believes that American history demands a reckoning.In a unique blend of history and reflection, Seidule deconstructs the truth about the Confederacy—that its undisputed primary goal was the subjugation and enslavement of Black Americans—and directly challenges the idea of honoring those who labored to preserve that system and committed treason in their failed attempt to achieve it. Through the arc of Seidule’s own life, as well as the culture that formed him, he seeks a path to understanding why the facts of the Civil War have remained buried beneath layers of myth and even outright lies—and how they embody a cultural gulf that separates millions of Americans to this day.Part history lecture, part meditation on the Civil War and its fallout, and part memoir, Robert E. Lee and Me challenges the deeply-held legends and myths of the Confederacy—and provides a surprising interpretation of essential truths that our country still has a difficult time articulating and accepting.]]> 300 Ty Seidule 1250239273 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.52 2021 Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause
author: Ty Seidule
name: Mike
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2021
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<![CDATA[Team Improv 123: How to Build Strong Teams with Improvisation Play]]> 60098503 31 Heather Lutkin Mike 0 currently-reading 0.0 Team Improv 123: How to Build Strong Teams with Improvisation Play
author: Heather Lutkin
name: Mike
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<![CDATA[The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together (One World Essentials)]]> 53928578 A powerful new exploration about the self-destructive bargain of white supremacy and its rising cost to all of us--including white people--from one of today's most insightful and influential thinkers.

Heather C. McGhee's specialty is the American economy--and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. As she dug into subject after subject, from the financial crisis to declining wages to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a common problem at the bottom of them racism--but not just in the obvious ways that hurt people of color. Racism has costs for white people, too. It's the common denominator in our most vexing public problems, even beyond our economy. It is at the core of the dysfunction of our democracy and even the spiritual and moral crises that grip us. Racism is a toxin in the American body and it weakens us all. But how did this happen? And is there a way out?

To find the way, McGhee embarks on a deeply personal journey across the country from Mississippi to Maine, tallying up what we lose when we buy into the zero-sum paradigm--the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others. Along the way, she collects the stories of white people who confide in her about losing their homes, their dreams and their shot at a better job to the toxic mix of American racism and greed. This is the story of how public goods in this country--from parks and pools to functioning schools--have become private luxuries; of how unions collapsed, wages stagnated, and inequality increased; and of how this country, unique among the world's advanced economies, has thwarted universal healthcare. It's why we fail to prevent environmental and public health crises that require collective action. But in unlikely places of worship and work, McGhee also finds proof of what she calls the Solidarity gains that come when people come together across race, to the benefit of all involved.

The Sum of Us is a brilliant analysis of how we arrived divided and self-destructing, still the richest country in the world, but spiritually starved and vastly unequal. At the heart of the book are the humble stories of Americans yearning to be a part of a better America, including white supremacy's collateral white people themselves. With startling empathy, this heartfelt message from a Black woman to a multiracial America leaves us with a vision for the future of our country--one whose population has ties to every place on the globe--where we finally realize that life can be so much more than zero-sum.]]>
394 Heather McGhee 0525509577 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.63 2021 The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together (One World Essentials)
author: Heather McGhee
name: Mike
average rating: 4.63
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<![CDATA[Quantum Physics for Beginners: From Wave Theory to Quantum Computing. Understanding How Everything Works by a Simplified Explanation of Quantum Physics and Mechanics Principles]]> 57406422 Master the basics of quantum physics without feeling overwhelmed by complex math!� Over 10,000 copies sold � BookAuthority's best Wave Mechanics books for beginners BookAuthority's best Quantum Mechanics books for beginners2023 bonuses Bonus 1 - Quantum Discover everything you need to know about quantum tunneling, including how particles can pass through barriers, in this brand-new chapter.Bonus 2 - Physics and In this fully illustrated digital article, Carl J. Pratt explores the superpowers of some of the most famous heroes from the Marvel and DC universes using the laws of classical and quantum physicsHave you always been curious about quantum physics and its mysteries but don’t know where to begin?

You have found the right place, your journey to learn quantum physics starts now!

Award-winner scientist, Carl J. Pratt, presents the most exhaustive and clear introduction to the topic. “Quantum Physics for Beginners� peels away layers of mystery to reveal what is behind most modern technological innovations.

In this book you will

� What quantum physics is: History, experiments, and achievements in quantum mechanics� Quantum Physics VS Classical Physics� What Light is: Wave theory, electromagnetic theory, and Wave-particle duality dilemma.� Einstein’s theory that changed Physics: The Photoelectric effect explained� Quantum theories: including String Theory, Quantum Gravity, Quantum entanglement, and Quantum Fields Theory� Schrodinger’s equation: is the cat dead or alive?� The Heisenberg uncertainty principle� Three real-world applications: Quantum computing, Quantum key distribution, and ultra-precise clocks� BONUS 1: Physics and Superheroes to download� BONUS 2: New quantum tunneling chapter� AND MORE...Even if this is the first time you hear these terms, don't be discouraged by these big words. This book is written specifically for people approaching this topic for the first time.

Professor Pratt will take you by the hand on a two-century journey to discover the principles that govern the universe.

Quantum physics can be easy, accessible, and interesting for everyone.

Are you ready? Let’s deep dive into quantum physics today!

Click BUY NOW and start your journey!]]>
106 Carl J. Pratt Mike 0 currently-reading 4.02 Quantum Physics for Beginners: From Wave Theory to Quantum Computing. Understanding How Everything Works by a Simplified Explanation of Quantum Physics and Mechanics Principles
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From Eternity to Here 7930783
The answers can be traced to the moment of the Big Bang -- or possibly before.
Time pervades our lives -- we keep track of it, lament its loss, put it to good use. The rhythms of our clocks and our bodies let us measure the passage of time, as a ruler lets us measure the distance between two objects. But unlike distances, time has a direction, pointing from past to future. From Eternity to Here examines this arrow of time, which is deeply ingrained in the universe around us. The early universe -- the hot, dense, Big Bang -- was very different from the late universe -- cool, empty, expanding space -- and that difference in felt in all the workings of Nature, from the melting of ice cubes to the evolution of species.

The arrow of time is easy to perceive, much harder to understand. Physicists appeal to the idea of entropy, the disorderliness of a system, which tends to increase according to the celebrated Second Law of Thermodynamics. But why was entropy ever small in the first place? That's a question that has been tackled by thinkers such as Ludwig Boltzmann, Stephen Hawking, Richard Feynman, Roger Penrose, and Alan Guth, all the way back to Lucretius in ancient Rome. But the answer remains elusive.

The only way to understand the origin of entropy is to understand the origin of the universe -- by asking what happened at the Big Bang, and even before. From Eternity to Here discusses how entropy relates to black holes, cosmology, information theory, and the existence of life. The book tells a story that starts in the kitchen, where we can turn eggs into omelets but never the other way around, and takes us to the edges of the universe. Modern discoveries in cosmology -- dark energy and the accelerating universe -- and quantum gravity -- the possibility of time before the Big Bang -- come together to suggest a picture of a multiverse in which the arrow of time emerges naturally from the laws of physics.]]>
448 Sean Carroll 110115215X Mike 4 4.13 2009 From Eternity to Here
author: Sean Carroll
name: Mike
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2009
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[Donald Trump v. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President]]> 54897158
Michael S. Schmidt’s Donald Trump v. The United States tells the dramatic, high-stakes story of those who felt compelled to confront and try to contain the most powerful man in the world as he shredded norms and sought to expand his power.

Schmidt has broken many of the major stories of the Trump era, from the news of Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email account to the report on former FBI director James Comey’s contemporaneous memos of conversations with Trump that led directly to the appointment of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Now he takes us inside the defining events of the presidency, chronicles them up close, and records the clash between an increasingly emboldened president and those around him, who find themselves trying to thwart the president they had pledged to serve, unsure whether he is acting in the interest of the country, his ego, his family business, or Russia. Through their eyes and ears, we observe an epic struggle.

Drawing on secret FBI and White House documents and confidential sources inside federal law enforcement and the West Wing, Donald Trump v. The United States is vital journalism, recording the shocking reality of a presidency like no other, a riveting contemporary history, and a lasting account of just how fragile and vulnerable the institutions of American democracy really are.

With unparalleled reporting, a Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times reporter continues to break news about the most important political story of our lives as he chronicles the clash between a president and the officials of his own government who tried to stop him.]]>
423 Michael S. Schmidt 1984854674 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.25 2020 Donald Trump v. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President
author: Michael S. Schmidt
name: Mike
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2020
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Acts of God 28105448 257 Mary Morris 1250102758 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.33 2000 Acts of God
author: Mary Morris
name: Mike
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2000
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A Brief History of Time 40198846
Told in language we all can understand,ĚýA Brief History of TimeĚýplunges into the exotic realms of black holes and quarks, of antimatter and “arrows of time,â€� of the big bang and a bigger God—where the possibilities are wondrous and unexpected. With exciting images and profound imagination, Stephen Hawking brings us closer to the ultimate secrets at the very heart of creation.]]>
226 Stephen Hawking Mike 4 4.29 1988 A Brief History of Time
author: Stephen Hawking
name: Mike
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1988
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know]]> 55305389 The bestselling author of Give and Take and Originals examines the critical art of rethinking: learning to question your opinions and open other people's minds, which can position you for excellence at work and wisdom in life.

Intelligence is usually seen as the ability to think and learn, but in a rapidly changing world, there's another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn. In our daily lives, too many of us favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt. We listen to opinions that make us feel good, instead of ideas that make us think hard. We see disagreement as a threat to our egos, rather than an opportunity to learn. We surround ourselves with people who agree with our conclusions, when we should be gravitating toward those who challenge our thought process. The result is that our beliefs get brittle long before our bones. We think too much like preachers defending our sacred beliefs, prosecutors proving the other side wrong, and politicians campaigning for approval--and too little like scientists searching for truth. Intelligence is no cure, and it can even be a curse: being good at thinking can make us worse at rethinking. The brighter we are, the blinder to our own limitations we can become.

Organizational psychologist Adam Grant is an expert on opening other people's minds--and our own. As Wharton's top-rated professor and the bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take, he makes it one of his guiding principles to argue like he's right but listen like he's wrong. With bold ideas and rigorous evidence, he investigates how we can embrace the joy of being wrong, bring nuance to charged conversations, and build schools, workplaces, and communities of lifelong learners. You'll learn how an international debate champion wins arguments, a Black musician persuades white supremacists to abandon hate, a vaccine whisperer convinces concerned parents to immunize their children, and Adam has coaxed Yankees fans to root for the Red Sox. Think Again reveals that we don't have to believe everything we think or internalize everything we feel. It's an invitation to let go of views that are no longer serving us well and prize mental flexibility over foolish consistency. If knowledge is power, knowing what we don't know is wisdom.]]>
319 Adam M. Grant 1984878115 Mike 0 4.38 2021 Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know
author: Adam M. Grant
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average rating: 4.38
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Mike Nichols: A Life 54865044 686 Mark Harris 0399562257 Mike 0 4.50 2021 Mike Nichols: A Life
author: Mark Harris
name: Mike
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2021
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<![CDATA[Einstein's Fridge: How the Difference Between Hot and Cold Explains the Universe]]> 57150863 This entertaining, eye-opening account of how the laws of thermodynamics are essential to understanding the world today—from refrigeration and jet engines to calorie counting and global warming—is “a lesson in how to do popular science right� (Kirkus Reviews).Einstein’s Fridge tells the incredible epic story of the scientists who, over two centuries, harnessed the power of heat and ice and formulated a theory essential to comprehending our universe. “Although thermodynamics has been studied for hundreds of years…few nonscientists appreciate how its principles have shaped the modern world� (Scientific American). Thermodynamics—the branch of physics that deals with energy and entropy—governs everything from the behavior of living cells to the black hole at the center of our galaxy. Not only that, but thermodynamics explains why we must eat and breathe, how lights turn on, the limits of computing, and how the universe will end. The brilliant people who decoded its laws came from every branch of the sciences; they were engineers, physicists, chemists, biologists, cosmologists, and mathematicians. From French military engineer and physicist Sadi Carnot to Lord Kelvin, James Joule, Albert Einstein, Emmy Noether, Alan Turing, and Stephen Hawking, author Paul Sen introduces us to all of the players who passed the baton of scientific progress through time and across nations. Incredibly driven and idealistic, these brave pioneers performed groundbreaking work often in the face of torment and tragedy. Their discoveries helped create the modern world and transformed every branch of science, from biology to cosmology. “Elegantly written and engaging� (Financial Times), Einstein’s Fridge brings to life one of the most important scientific revolutions of all time and captures the thrill of discovery and the power of scientific progress to shape the course of history.]]> 316 Paul Sen 1501181327 Mike 5 4.51 2021 Einstein's Fridge: How the Difference Between Hot and Cold Explains the Universe
author: Paul Sen
name: Mike
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2021
rating: 5
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<![CDATA[Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, #3)]]> 7021986 465 Jim Butcher 1440653909 Mike 0 4.22 2001 Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, #3)
author: Jim Butcher
name: Mike
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1)]]> 6219313 HARRY DRESDEN � WIZARD

Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he's the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the "everyday" world is actually full of strange and magical things—and most don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a—well, whatever. There's just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks.

So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name. And that's when things start to get interesting.

Magic - it can get a guy killed.]]>
336 Jim Butcher Mike 4 4.01 2000 Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1)
author: Jim Butcher
name: Mike
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2000
rating: 4
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date added: 2021/07/05
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<![CDATA[Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution]]> 56136476 A startling new look at quantum theory, from the bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and The Order of Time.

One of the world's most renowned theoretical physicists, Carlo Rovelli has entranced millions of readers with his singular perspective on the cosmos. In Helgoland, he examines the enduring enigma of quantum theory. The quantum world Rovelli describes is as beautiful as it is unnerving.

Helgoland is a treeless island in the North Sea where the twenty-three-year-old Werner Heisenberg made the crucial breakthrough for the creation of quantum mechanics, setting off a century of scientific revolution. Full of alarming ideas (ghost waves, distant objects that seem to be magically connected, cats that appear both dead and alive), quantum physics has led to countless discoveries and technological advancements. Today our understanding of the world is based on this theory, yet it is still profoundly mysterious.

As scientists and philosophers continue to fiercely debate the meaning of the theory, Rovelli argues that its most unsettling contradictions can be explained by seeing the world as fundamentally made of relationships rather than substances. We and everything around us exist only in our interactions with one another. This bold idea suggests new directions for thinking about the structure of reality and even the nature of consciousness.

Rovelli makes learning about quantum mechanics an almost psychedelic experience. Shifting our perspective once again, he takes us on a riveting journey through the universe so we can better comprehend our place in it.]]>
252 Carlo Rovelli 0593328906 Mike 4 4.31 2020 Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution
author: Carlo Rovelli
name: Mike
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2020
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika]]> 9663913 392 ±·Ä岵Äĺ°ůÂáłÜ˛Ô˛ą Mike 0 currently-reading 4.23 1970 The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika
author: ±·Ä岵Äĺ°ůÂáłÜ˛Ô˛ą
name: Mike
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1970
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Death Check (The Destroyer, #2)]]> 18846415 162 Warren Murphy 1936666677 Mike 0 currently-reading 3.99 1972 Death Check (The Destroyer, #2)
author: Warren Murphy
name: Mike
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1972
rating: 0
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Mafia Fix (The Destroyer, #4) 1278005 144 Warren Murphy 075925317X Mike 0 to-read 3.75 1972 Mafia Fix (The Destroyer, #4)
author: Warren Murphy
name: Mike
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1972
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/05/25
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<![CDATA[Chinese Puzzle (The Destroyer, #3)]]> 990490 176 Warren Murphy 0759245592 Mike 0 to-read 3.77 1972 Chinese Puzzle (The Destroyer, #3)
author: Warren Murphy
name: Mike
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1972
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Created, The Destroyer (The Destroyer, #1)]]> 17289229
That's what happened to Remo Williams, a New Jersey cop framed for a murder he didn't commit. Framed by the very people who saved him, in fact. And now, trained in esoteric martial arts by Chiun, master of Sinanju, he's going to become the ultimate killing machine. Remo will be America's last line of defense against mad scientists, organized crime, ancient undead gods, and anything else that threatens the Constitution. Remo Williams is the Destroyer.

An action-adventure series leavened with social and political satire, the Destroyer novels have been thrilling readers worldwide for decades.]]>
187 Warren Murphy 1936666669 Mike 0 3.91 1971 Created, The Destroyer (The Destroyer, #1)
author: Warren Murphy
name: Mike
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1971
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life (And how anyone can harness it. Even you.)]]> 54165974 Ěý
Don’t miss the authors� TED Talk, “Why great leaders take humor seriously,� online now.

“The ultimate guide to using the magical power of funny as a tool for leadership and a force for good.”—Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of When and Drive

We are living through a period of unprecedented uncertainty and upheaval in both our personal and professional lives. So it should come as a surprise to exactly no one that trust, human connection, and mental well-being are all on the decline.
Ěý
This may seem like no laughing matter. Yet, the research shows that humor and laughter are among the most valuable tools we have at our disposal for strengthening bonds and relationships, diffusing stress and tension, boosting resilience, and performing when the stakes are high.Ěý
Ěý
That’s why Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas teach the popular course Serious Business at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where they help some of the world’s most hard-driving, blazer-wearing business minds infuse more humor and levity into their work and lives.

In Humor,ĚýSeriously, they draw on findings by behavioral scientists, world-class comedians, and inspiring business leaders to reveal how humor works and—more important—how you can useĚýmore of it, better.

Aaker and Bagdonas unpack the theory and application of what makes something funny, how to mine your life for material, and simple ways to identify and leverage your unique humor style. They show how to use humor to rebuild vital connections; appear more confident, competent, and authentic at work; and foster cultures where levity and creativity can thrive.

President Dwight David Eisenhower once said, “A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.â€� IfĚýDwight DavidĚýEisenhower, the second least naturally funny president (after Franklin Pierce), thought humor was necessary to win wars, build highways, and warn against the military-industrial complex,Ěýthen you might consider learning it too.]]>
227 Jennifer Lynn Aaker 0593135296 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.11 2020 Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life (And how anyone can harness it. Even you.)
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name: Mike
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<![CDATA[Twenty-Six Seconds: A Personal History of the Zapruder Film]]> 31824082 The moving, untold family story behind Abraham Zapruder's film footage of the Kennedy assassination and its lasting impact on our world. Abraham Zapruder didn't know when he ran home to grab his video camera on November 22, 1963 that this single spontaneous decision would change his family's life for generations to come. Originally intended as a home movie of President Kennedy's motorcade, Zapruder's film of the JFK assassination is now shown in every American history class, included in Jeopardy and Trivial Pursuit questions, and referenced in novels and films. It is the most famous example of citizen journalism, a precursor to the iconic images of our time, such as the Challenger explosion, the Rodney King beating, and the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. But few know the complicated legacy of the film itself. Now Abraham's granddaughter, Alexandra Zapruder, is ready to tell the complete story for the first time. With the help of the Zapruder family's exclusive records, memories, and documents, Zapruder tracks the film's torturous journey through history, all while American society undergoes its own transformation, and a new media-driven consumer culture challenges traditional ideas of privacy, ownership, journalism, and knowledge. Part biography, part family history, and part historical narrative, Zapruder demonstrates how one man's unwitting moment in the spotlight shifted the way politics, culture, and media intersect, bringing about the larger social questions that define our age.]]> 463 Alexandra Zapruder 1455574805 Mike 0 currently-reading 3.94 2016 Twenty-Six Seconds: A Personal History of the Zapruder Film
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name: Mike
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2016
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<![CDATA[Becoming the Parent You Want to Be]]> 426682 Becoming the Parent You Want to Be provides parents with the building blocks they need to discover their own parenting philosophy and develop effective parenting strategies.ĚýĚýThrough in-depth information, practical suggestions, and many lively first-person stories, the authors address the many dilemmas and joys that the parent of young children encounter and demonstrate a range of solutions to the major issues that arise in the raising of babies, toddlers and preschoolers.ĚýĚýFull of warmth, clarity, humor, and respect, Becoming the Parent You Want to Be gives parents permission to be human: to question, to learn, to make mistakes, to struggle and to grow, and, most of all, to have fun with their children.]]> 448 Laura Davis 0553067508 Mike 0 4.15 1997 Becoming the Parent You Want to Be
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name: Mike
average rating: 4.15
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<![CDATA[Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language]]> 37834053 Because Internet is for anyone who's ever puzzled over how to punctuate a text message or wondered where memes come from. It's the perfect book for understanding how the internet is changing the English language, why that's a good thing, and what our online interactions reveal about who we are.

Language is humanity's most spectacular open-source project, and the internet is making our language change faster and in more interesting ways than ever before. Internet conversations are structured by the shape of our apps and platforms, from the grammar of status updates to the protocols of comments and @replies. Linguistically inventive online communities spread new slang and jargon with dizzying speed. What's more, social media is a vast laboratory of unedited, unfiltered words where we can watch language evolve in real time.

Even the most absurd-looking slang has genuine patterns behind it. Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch explores the deep forces that shape human language and influence the way we communicate with one another. She explains how your first social internet experience influences whether you prefer "LOL" or "lol," why ~sparkly tildes~ succeeded where centuries of proposals for irony punctuation had failed, what emoji have in common with physical gestures, and how the artfully disarrayed language of animal memes like lolcats and doggo made them more likely to spread.]]>
273 Gretchen McCulloch 0735210950 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.12 2019 Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language
author: Gretchen McCulloch
name: Mike
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2019
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