Category Archives: Book Reviews

Book Review – Good to Go

Good to Go: What the athlete in all of us can learn from the strange science of recovery
by Christie Aschwanden, 2019

Your body needs sleep to recover from exertion. Otherwise, there’s no consistent scientific proof that any other common or marketed form of recovery product or recovery activity does any good, outside of a well-documented placebo effect. Even common things like icing or ibuprofen (and other NSAIDs) may actually be doing more harm than good. If you think something is working for you (and it’s definitely not bad for you), keep doing it, but I would definitely suggest not spending money on the latest recovery fads or products.

Book Review – Children of the Fleet

Children of the Fleet
by Orson Scott Card, 2017

I enjoyed most all of the Ender’s Game books and the Shadow Series by Orson Scott Card. However, Children of the Fleet is just tedious, and I wouldn’t recommend it. The conflict is incredibly contrived, and the characters are constantly arguing with themselves. It seemed like half the book was made up of internal arguments inside characters’ heads that read like dialogue.

Book Review – How Google Works

How Google Works, 2017
by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg

Well-written book by Google executives about how to work with smart creatives. While the specifics of hiring, 20% time, and investing in new ventures are discussed, it is really the overarching culture-building that is emphasized. Recommended.

I listened to this one on tape while running. Anyone that knows my exercise preferences can then tell you that it took me a long time to read this book. Yes. True. Hence why the review is so short: it’s taken me at least a year to read the book, and I don’t remember specifics from the first half of the book.

Book Review – The Book of Dust (Vol 1): La Belle Sauvage

The Book of Dust (Volume 1): La Belle Sauvage
by Philip Pullman, 2017

I enjoyed Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy (Golden Compass or Northern Lights, Subtle Knife, and Amber Spyglass) as a kid. This new trilogy, The Book of Dust, revisits that universe. The first book, which I listened to on a recent road trip, takes place before the Golden Compass, and Lyra is a baby. The next two books supposedly take place after the events of the original trilogy, with the second volume due out in October.

This book is pretty dark. Pullman said the trilogy name could easily be ‘His Darker Materials’. So buyer beware before giving it to an impressionable child.

A thriller, like the originals. Well-written, though relies a bit too much on the supernatural at points.

Book Review – The Long Tail

The Long Tail: How Endless Choice is Creating Unlimited Demand
by Chris Anderson, 2006

A bit outdated on its examples, but it’s still fun to read about Myspace and early Amazon. Documents the early ability of the internet to offer a scalable solution to long-tail demands. Many more products can be in inventory for an online retailer than a brick-and-mortar store, as sales are aggregated across space. Digital goods take this to the extreme by having no significant inventory costs, allowing for the “stocking” of every possible item. Some fun graphs from the book:

Book Review – Robot-Proof

Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
by Joseph Aoun, 2017

Written by the president of Northeastern University, this short book makes numerous suggestions for crafting successful universities in the near-future. As more jobs become automated and skill upgrades become more frequent for workers, universities need to adapt. The whole book is worthwhile and suggested. Here are two suggestions I particularly like:

-Include experiential learning in classes, and focus on technological literacy, data literacy, and human literacy. Core cognitive capacities should include critical thinking, systems thinking, cultural agility, and entrepreneurship.

-In focusing on lifelong learning, allow students to build custom degrees/certificates, taking only the classes most relevant to their personal situation and goals. One possibility to promote lifelong learning would be to create a subscription model in which students can take X classes per semester/year as they move forward in their career.

Book Review – The Undoing Project

The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds
by Michael Lewis, 2016

Prospect Theory, along with Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman’s other work on behavioral biases and heuristics, has significantly influenced modern thinking on human behavior. This book by Michael Lewis peals back the curtain to tell of the setting in which their work was created. You learn the story of Amos’ and Daniel’s past, as well as understanding the academic conversation that their work altered/overturned. I was already very familiar with their work (see review of Thinking, Fast and Slow, here), so this book didn’t add much to my academic understanding, but it did humanize scientific theory development a bit.

While the discussion of Kahneman and Tversky’s personal relationship and eventual difficulties may have been accurate, it was just sad to read. And I worry that Lewis may have been reading too much into it at points. With that qualification, I enjoyed the book. There are even ample basketball references to tide over the sports fan in me. I listened on CD.

Book Review – Smarter Faster Better

Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business
by Charles Duhigg, 2016

Wide-ranging book on productivity that covers examples from many disparate fields. Some of the main ideas include creating the environment for good teamwork (everyone valued and talking), being flexible and AGILE, pushing decision to those closest to the matter at hand, and preparing good mental models. The examples are interesting, but make it hard to keep track of the list of takeaways. I would love a checklist of the main topics covered, especially because I listened to the book on tape and wasn’t taking notes while listening.

Book Review – The Swarm

The Swarm: The Second Formic War
by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston, 2016

Follows the protagonists from the First Formic War on their journey to prepare for the second alien invasion, some small number of years later. Time is a difficult concept in these books, as disaster always is made to feel imminent, but travel across the solar system takes months or years. First book in (presumably) a trilogy of books related to the Second Formic War.

Use of Smart AudioBook Player on Phone

Maria and I listen to a lot of books together, and I listen to my own books while running or walking outside. I thought it would be useful to detail the tools we use to listen.

Smart AudioBook Player is an app available for Android. I’m not sure of its Apple equivalent. This app conveniently organizes all the audiobook files you add, collapsing multiple audio files into one book seamlessly. You can have multiple books in your library, which you rotate between as needed. The total remaining time of the book is easily displayed, and there are pause, jump forward, and jump back (10sec or 1 minute) buttons. You can easily grab the book cover to display in the app from an embedded Google image search in the app. We use the full version, which costs about $2. The full version allows you to alter the playback speed, and we listen to most books on 1.2x or 1.4x. I have not altered any other settings.

To get audiobooks to load, we check out audiobooks from our library. I then burn these CD’s to my computer. The benefit of burning them (instead of just listening to the CDs) is that I can keep a library of available books to listen to that does not depend on library due dates, and I never have to return a book in the middle of reading it. The audio files are then transferred to the phone, which allows the app to add them. To be specific, I have Google Drive on both my phone and computer, so I share the files that way. Once the files are in Google Drive, I can access them and move them on my phone, so I copy them from Google Drive to my phone’s memory (“My Files” app). I have an audiobook folder that I add them to on the phone.

Each audiobook is about 0.25-1.25 GB of data. I keep about 5 books on the phone at once, though I have a backlog of 10-20 books on my computer ready to be added as we finish books. If your phone has lots of storage, you could keep many books on it.

To listen to the books, we just use my phone’s speaker when we are seated together at the kitchen table. We typically listen to books during breakfast. If we want to listen in the car, we need a louder speaker to hear over the engine. We use the UE Boom 2 bluetooth speaker, wirelessly connected to my phone. You can turn the volume up or down on the Boom with your phone’s volume switch (which I find more convenient) or the speaker’s volume switch. When I go out for walks or runs, I use bluetooth headphones or wired headphones to listen to the app.

I typically listen to two to four audiobooks at a time. The first is the one Maria and I are reading together. I also have my own audiobooks for contemplative lunchtime walks (typically something philosophical), exercise (typically something related to sports or hobbies), and/or drives to work (content could be anything, and I typically just use the CDs from the library in my car instead of using this app). Audiobooks have overtaken physical books for the thing I read the most over the last two years; perhaps 60-75% of the books I read now are audiobooks.

We used to use the hoopla and Overdrive apps, which let you quickly access audiobooks, but they tended to be “returned” before we finished with them and I would have constant issues streaming the books. By having the files on the phone, there are no streaming issues as you listen to them, and you do not need a data or wifi connection. I have not tried Audible or other fee-based options, as everything I have discussed in this post is free (besides the $2 upgrade to the full version of the Smart AudioBook Player app). Let me know if you have other suggestions of how to listen to or read more books!