https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/Recent content in Book Reviews on Jonathan McKayHugoen-usSun, 12 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/super-nintendo-the-game-changing-company-that-unlocked-the-power-of-play/Sun, 12 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/super-nintendo-the-game-changing-company-that-unlocked-the-power-of-play/https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8431120674 &lt;b&gt;Nintendo Lionizing, Not Nintendo History&lt;/b&gt; I went in hoping for a book about Nintendo: the oddhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/there-is-no-antimemetics-division/Sun, 12 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/there-is-no-antimemetics-division/https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7579089709 Perception warped, weaponized, what? There Is No Antimemetics Division is better read while half-brokenhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/press-reset-ruin-and-recovery-in-the-video-game-industry/Sat, 11 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/press-reset-ruin-and-recovery-in-the-video-game-industry/https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8515496283 Always Dying, Always Growing &#34;The clock is always ticking and the money is always running out.&#34;https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/play-nice/Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/play-nice/Special Sauce, No Recipe Play Nice is a history of ascent and decay. It explains how Blizzard rose, it&#39;s absorption across many corporate overlords, andhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/i-who-have-never-known-men/Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/i-who-have-never-known-men/&lt;b&gt;Nothing todo About Nothing&lt;/b&gt; I&#39;m comfortable with ambiguity, and enjoy it as a closer lens to reality than most literature dares provide. But rarelyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/emergence/Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/emergence/Not Ready to Leave the Tea Table It is a shame this is where the audiobooks end. Nineteen books in, this series has managed a rare shift. At the start, Ihttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/blood-sweat-and-pixels/Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/blood-sweat-and-pixels/Grind, Ship, Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. This is a book of narrative, not of analysis. Diablo, Destiny, orcs, trolls, studios, founders, launches. A studiohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/eon-the-way-%231/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/eon-the-way-%231/While the prose is not spectacular, the ideas are. While many people seem to be annoyed by the overly visual and geometric descriptions, I found themhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/first-in-an-insiders-account-of-how-the-cia-spearheaded-the-war-on-terror-in-afghanistan/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/first-in-an-insiders-account-of-how-the-cia-spearheaded-the-war-on-terror-in-afghanistan/First In, is a first person account of the events between the 19th of September until the 10th of November, told mainly from the perspective of Garyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/from-russia-with-love-james-bond-%235/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/from-russia-with-love-james-bond-%235/I enjoy James Bond films, and while awaiting the debut of Quantum of Solace, found From Russia with Love on the shelves of Kelly’s lake cabin I picked ithttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/grown-up-digital-how-the-net-generation-is-changing-your-world/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/grown-up-digital-how-the-net-generation-is-changing-your-world/A Net Genner on the Net Generation . I’ll admit, I didn’t read this book cover to cover. I spent about 3 hours reading it, which probably means that Ihttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/in-defense-of-the-nation-dia-at-forty-years/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/in-defense-of-the-nation-dia-at-forty-years/40 Years of Nearly Useless Trivia I will be the first to admit, my interests in this book are not aligned with the intended audience. Despite that fact, Ihttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/legacy-of-ashes-the-history-of-the-cia/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/legacy-of-ashes-the-history-of-the-cia/The title pretty well sums it up. Unfortunately the book contains precious little information about the CIA post September 11, which is understandablehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/naked-economics-undressing-the-dismal-science/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/naked-economics-undressing-the-dismal-science/Does exactly what it sets out to. Very &#39;Economist/Chicago School&#39; but if you take that for what it is, you can get a lot out of this book in a very shorthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/realities-of-foreign-service-life/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/realities-of-foreign-service-life/This book is a collection of essays from Foreign Service Officers (FSO&#39;s) and spouses, many of which seem to have already been published in the Americanhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/smart-mobs-the-next-social-revolution/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/smart-mobs-the-next-social-revolution/When this book was published, I was in 8th grade and 100mb zip drives were the hottest technology to enter my school. This book was written Facebook washttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/state-of-denial/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/state-of-denial/State of Denial is not a book about the Iraq war. It is a book about the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war. Woodward uses his legendaryhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-gamble-general-david-petraeus-and-the-american-military-adventure-in-iraq-2006-2008/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-gamble-general-david-petraeus-and-the-american-military-adventure-in-iraq-2006-2008/The most comprehensive and worthwhile backgrounder for the current situation in Iraq that I know of. Very much a contribution to the field.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-lexus-and-the-olive-tree/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-lexus-and-the-olive-tree/I thought that this book would be a good piece of airplane reading- interesting anecdotes describing one of the most important phenomona of the worldhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-lost-colony-artemis-fowl-%235/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-lost-colony-artemis-fowl-%235/Infinitely better than the movie.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-origin-of-species/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-origin-of-species/This book will make you smarter. Regardless of evolution&#39;s implications in biology, its implications for politics and economics make this book worthhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/tomorrow-when-the-war-began-tomorrow-%231/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/tomorrow-when-the-war-began-tomorrow-%231/I know this was 92, but seriously nobody thought of nightvision goggles? Also I am nearly certain petrol doesn&#39;t explode like that.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/wall-and-piece/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/wall-and-piece/Take the 10 minutes to look through this. Seriously. Awesome.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/tracker-foreigner-%2316/Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/tracker-foreigner-%2316/Don&#39;t spill your Tea over the Action If it took a whole book for Bren to descend from the space station to the planet, I expected a whole book for thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/protector-foreigner-%2314/Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/protector-foreigner-%2314/No Cake, Still Interesting I remember my birthday upon turning felicitous 9, and I can tell you it was a big deal. Protector spends much of its timehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/pretender-foreigner-%238/Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/pretender-foreigner-%238/Re-org-er Want to see how al-Sharaa drove to Damascus in victory, or how Satya Nadella reclaimed a stalled culture transformation? Skip the nonfictionhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/destroyer-foreigner-%237/Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/destroyer-foreigner-%237/Layover-er Destroyer is almost all plot, if logistics count as plot. Here they do. The novel reads like deployment orders disguised as fictionhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/explorer-foreigner-%236/Sat, 14 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/explorer-foreigner-%236/Diplomancer Explorer feels like a season finale: five books of setup suddenly widen into nested multilateral diplomacy, delivering the reward of a newhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/inheritor-foreigner-%233/Mon, 09 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/inheritor-foreigner-%233/Tea Drinker Reading Inheritor three years after the first two books, I had to reassemble Cherry&#39;s political map from fragments. Like Bren, I often didn&#39;thttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-ruthless-elimination-of-hurry/Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-ruthless-elimination-of-hurry/What a phrase! But upon purchasing the book i realize it&#39;s awfully short. Then i discover the title&#39;s provenance: not the author. The writing style ishttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/east-of-eden/Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/east-of-eden/Hits like a hammer, but jumps the shark on the 3rd generation.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-battle-of-maldon-together-with-the-homecoming-of-beorhtnoth-beorhthelms-son-and-the-tradition-of-versification-in-old-english/Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-battle-of-maldon-together-with-the-homecoming-of-beorhtnoth-beorhthelms-son-and-the-tradition-of-versification-in-old-english/Dry in the reading, rich in reflection. The meme escaping the battle was that of naive heroism: *Heart shall be bolder, harder be purpose more proud thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E6%88%91%E5%9C%A8%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E9%80%81%E5%BF%AB%E9%80%92/Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E6%88%91%E5%9C%A8%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E9%80%81%E5%BF%AB%E9%80%92/Last Mile I Deliver Parcels in Beijing is plainspoken and observant. Its appeal is simple: it shows a life most readers will not live, without asking forhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-persians/Sun, 11 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-persians/Gods, not Heroes The Persians initially reads as self-congratulation in disguise. Athens watches its enemy mourn Salamis. But Aeschylus resists the easierhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-war-like-no-other/Fri, 09 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-war-like-no-other/Footnotes to Thucydides A War Like No Other works best as a second pass through the Peloponnesian War. If you haven&#39;t read Thucydides, start there. If youhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/assassins-fate-the-fitz-and-the-fool-%233/Mon, 08 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/assassins-fate-the-fitz-and-the-fool-%233/Whispers louder than clash of swords This was the rare saga where scene setting and the falling action clearly outshone the drama. The long stretches ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/william-howard-taft-the-american-presidents-%2327/Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/william-howard-taft-the-american-presidents-%2327/Rule-Follower, Wrong Job It may be that nobody wanted to be president less than Taft. “I love judges, and I love courts. They are my ideals, that typifyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/catalina/Fri, 28 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/catalina/Vibes too Heavy I’m Tired What am I supposed to take away from this book? It delivers a heavy dose of atmosphere but withholds everything else. The plothttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fools-quest-the-fitz-and-the-fool-%232/Fri, 28 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fools-quest-the-fitz-and-the-fool-%232/A Pause in the Long Road Fool’s Quest isn’t a bad book, but it’s another sluggish one—Hobb’s own A Dance with Dragons Fitz remains locked in his posturehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fools-assassin-fitz-and-the-fool-%231/Tue, 25 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fools-assassin-fitz-and-the-fool-%231/Quiet Magic, Quiet Ruin Fool’s Assassin is an oddity in modern fantasy: no duels, no quests, almost nothing beyond Brownian motion. Its force comes fromhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/warren-g.-harding-the-american-presidents-%2329/Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/warren-g.-harding-the-american-presidents-%2329/Press president, buried by press This biography makes you root for Harding as a person more than most presidents. The author’s core project—rehabilitatinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-strength-of-the-few-hierarchy-%232/Tue, 18 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-strength-of-the-few-hierarchy-%232/Will of the Many Worlds James Islington has always been good at magical machinery—plots that lock cleanly into place, timelines that click. The Licaniushttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-ruthless-elimination-of-hurry-how-to-stay-emotionally-healthy-and-spiritually-alive-in-the-chaos-of-the-modern-world/Mon, 17 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-ruthless-elimination-of-hurry-how-to-stay-emotionally-healthy-and-spiritually-alive-in-the-chaos-of-the-modern-world/What a phrase! But upon purchasing the book i realize it’s awfully short. Then i discover the title’s provenance: not the author. The writing style ishttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-rose-field-the-book-of-dust-%233/Fri, 14 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-rose-field-the-book-of-dust-%233/Incomplete Selves Across Time My read of Amber Spyglass 20 years ago was less a story and more an involuntary life timestamp. I remember where I was whenhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/oceans-godori/Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/oceans-godori/Instant Noodles in Space Ocean’s Godori and Teo’s Durumi imagine a near future where Koreans have taken over space and brought their culture with themhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/sea-of-tranquility/Fri, 31 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/sea-of-tranquility/Milquetoast Time Travel Sea of Tranquility reads like an extension of a Chiang short story—minus Chiang’s good-natured acceptance of the inexplicablehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/woodrow-wilson-a-biography/Fri, 31 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/woodrow-wilson-a-biography/The History Scholar Who Lost History There are few presidents whose stories read like tragedies: Lincoln, Nixon, LBJ. Woodrow Wilson is one of them. Whathttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-dispossessed-an-ambiguous-utopia/Fri, 24 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-dispossessed-an-ambiguous-utopia/Yearning for Anarchy “Free your mind of the idea of deserving, the idea of earning, and you will begin to be able to think.” It took two attempts to gethttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-short-victorious-war-honor-harrington-%233/Sun, 19 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-short-victorious-war-honor-harrington-%233/The Short Microcosm War The Short Victorious War isn’t the best Honor Harrington novel, but it’s the most representative—an attempt at Clausewitz inhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/carls-doomsday-scenario-dungeon-crawler-carl-%232/Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/carls-doomsday-scenario-dungeon-crawler-carl-%232/A TikTok feed in book form—flashy, shallow, instantly forgettable. Unoriginal but entertaining.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dungeon-crawler-carl-dungeon-crawler-carl-%231/Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dungeon-crawler-carl-dungeon-crawler-carl-%231/Ingredients (by weight): 1 part Diablo by Blizzard 1 part Hunger Games 1 part Ready Player One Method: 1. Cream ingredients until smooth 2. Distillhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-autobiography-of-calvin-coolidge/Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-autobiography-of-calvin-coolidge/The Most Boring President The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge is an odd document—less a presidential memoir than a meditation on restraint. Coolidgehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/uncompromising-honor-honor-harrington-%2314/Tue, 07 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/uncompromising-honor-honor-harrington-%2314/End of the Solarian (and Honorific) Line Uncompromising Honor closes the Honor Harrington saga for now more with spectacle than substance. What shouldhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-rising-thunder-honor-harrington-%2313/Sun, 05 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-rising-thunder-honor-harrington-%2313/Exposition Ascendant With a lower overall rating than previous and subsequent entries, Rising Thunder seemed like a throwaway installment. It isn’t. Byhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/mission-of-honor-honor-harrington-%2312/Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/mission-of-honor-honor-harrington-%2312/Finally Worth the War A good book should distract from real life even when you’re not reading it. After eleven entries, David Weber’s Honor Harringtonhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/at-all-costs-honor-harrington-%2311/Mon, 29 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/at-all-costs-honor-harrington-%2311/Domestic Drudgery, Galactic Glory At All Costs is Weber at his most uneven. Much of the book bogs down in domestic drama and organizational grind—materialhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/herbert-hoover-a-life/Wed, 17 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/herbert-hoover-a-life/Badass Engineer, Failed President, Subpar Biography Herbert Hoover was a world-roaming engineer, mining executive, and world-famous humanitarian before hehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/blood-over-bright-haven/Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/blood-over-bright-haven/Burn It Down, Lightly At first this feels familiar. Scholomance, Iron Widow—another angry, gifted teenage heroine in the dark-academia mold. But here thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/homeschooling-for-excellence/Thu, 11 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/homeschooling-for-excellence/Read on a day where I&#39;m looking for anything to distract me from being sick. Useful more for the tips than for the thesis. Surprisingly little content onhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/war-of-honor-honor-harrington-%2310/Thu, 04 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/war-of-honor-honor-harrington-%2310/Diplomacy, Budgets, and Blasters At the beginning of War of Honor I was wondering if I should settle for the mediocrity of this series. Ten books in, thishttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-essential-w.s.-merwin/Mon, 01 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-essential-w.s.-merwin/Give me berries Something small, short, a bust of flavor and relish the memory These are blackberries, prickled with thorns of death, greed, hopelessnesshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/breakneck-chinas-quest-to-engineer-the-future/Fri, 29 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/breakneck-chinas-quest-to-engineer-the-future/The world lost something when Dan Wang moved back from China to Canada. A perspective worthy of Hessler, with insight worthy of James Scott. A simplehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/house-of-huawei-the-secret-history-of-chinas-most-powerful-company/Sun, 24 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/house-of-huawei-the-secret-history-of-chinas-most-powerful-company/Huawei is the one global tech giant that is unmistakably Chinese — which makes it a perfect subject for a corporate history. House of Huawei captures somehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/one-day-everyone-will-have-always-been-against-this/Fri, 15 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/one-day-everyone-will-have-always-been-against-this/Are we the baddies? Rockets fall. Lie flat, open your mouth, blunt the shockwave. Witness empire up close—papers for bodies that were lives that werehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fdr/Sun, 10 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fdr/FDR in Soft Focus I went into this book wanting to understand Franklin Roosevelt after watching his enormous footprints on other lives, from TR tohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/reagan-the-life/Wed, 16 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/reagan-the-life/Comfortably Aloof and Right (wing) On the American right, Reagan has already acquired mythic status. “Reagan Republican” is the purest form ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/on-power/Sun, 06 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/on-power/Not a book, more a director&#39;s commentary on the rest of Caro&#39;s oeuvre. Yet Caro&#39;s other books are so good I have no problem revisiting the Tri-Boroughhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/flag-in-exile-honor-harrington-%235/Sun, 29 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/flag-in-exile-honor-harrington-%235/Deus Ex Honor I understand the now Honor Harrington books run on a clear formula: Honor does the right thing, ruffles lesser egos, then redeems herself inhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/field-of-dishonor-honor-harrington-%234/Sat, 28 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/field-of-dishonor-honor-harrington-%234/Succeeds where Jack Campbell fails, providing some military scifi to fall asleep to without too many eye-rolls. The villains are cookie cutter, andhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-price-of-privilege-how-parental-pressure-and-material-advantage-are-creating-a-generation-of-disconnected-and-unhappy-kids/Sat, 28 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-price-of-privilege-how-parental-pressure-and-material-advantage-are-creating-a-generation-of-disconnected-and-unhappy-kids/Trophy Kids and Other Casualties Madeline Levine’s The Price of Privilege tries to dissect the malaise of affluent adolescents in the 2010’s, andhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/an-ordinary-man-the-surprising-life-and-historic-presidency-of-gerald-r.-ford/Fri, 27 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/an-ordinary-man-the-surprising-life-and-historic-presidency-of-gerald-r.-ford/Decent Man, Decent Presidency Gerald Ford was not meant to be president. But when history handed him the job, he handled it with anachronistic decency. Inhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fatherhood-a-history-of-love-and-power/Fri, 27 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fatherhood-a-history-of-love-and-power/Absentee Parenting For a book about fatherhood, there’s a surprising lack of fathers. Darwin shuffles through as the sole emotional protagonist—grievinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dreadnaught-the-lost-fleet-beyond-the-frontier-%231/Sat, 14 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dreadnaught-the-lost-fleet-beyond-the-frontier-%231/Dread not: missing this one Jack Campbell’s Dreadnaught reads like a war story written by someone who’s never navigated the fog of war—or bureaucracyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/an-unfinished-life-john-f.-kennedy-1917-1963/Mon, 09 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/an-unfinished-life-john-f.-kennedy-1917-1963/Positioned chronologically and literarily between excellent biographies of Truman and Eisenhower on one side, and Robert Caro’s towering work on Johnsonhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dogs-of-war-dogs-of-war-%231/Sat, 24 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dogs-of-war-dogs-of-war-%231/What it Takes to be a Good Dog Dogs of War grabs you with action, then pulls off sharp pivots into a more contemplative legal and politicalhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/awe-the-new-science-of-everyday-wonder-and-how-it-can-transform-your-life/Sun, 11 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/awe-the-new-science-of-everyday-wonder-and-how-it-can-transform-your-life/Awe, Categorized tl;dr: Great topic, limited book. This book offers a thin but structured exploration of awe. One of Dacher&#39;s most useful contributions ishttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E5%B0%8F%E7%8E%8B%E5%AD%90/Sun, 11 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E5%B0%8F%E7%8E%8B%E5%AD%90/我是唯一没有被打动的读者？ 读完《小王子》，我感到有些困惑。在阅读的过程中我显然没有完全理解，而读完之后，我也没能感受到其中所谓“特别”之处。 一开始我以为可能是翻译的问题，毕竟这是从法语翻译过来的童话。但看到豆瓣上这本书的评价极高，我开始觉得也许问题不在书，而在我自己。https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/akira-vol.-2/Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/akira-vol.-2/Blockbuster of the 80’s Reading volumes 2 through 5 of Akira found a new sensation: the pace is dictated not by the density of ideas, but by how fast youhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/akira-vol.-1/Wed, 23 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/akira-vol.-1/Not Enough for One Sitting Certainly a page turner. With sparse text and dynamic artwork, each page flies by. It’s not that the story is light, it’s justhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/y-the-last-man-vol.-1-unmanned/Wed, 23 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/y-the-last-man-vol.-1-unmanned/Wishing death on the world’s last man, not a good sign. DNF end of Book 1.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/last-argument-of-kings-the-first-law-%233/Fri, 04 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/last-argument-of-kings-the-first-law-%233/Unforgiving Realism I didn’t realize The Last Argument of Kings was considered grimdark fantasy until exploring reviews. To me, it&#39;s just realism. Thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/open/Fri, 04 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/open/Topspin and Emotional Spin Even for tennis prodigies, the odds of making it are astronomically low—maybe one in ten thousand. Both Agassi and Sampras beathttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/technological-revolutions-and-financial-capital-the-dynamics-of-bubbles-and-golden-ages/Thu, 27 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/technological-revolutions-and-financial-capital-the-dynamics-of-bubbles-and-golden-ages/AI Winter is Coming AI is a technological revolution. We take for granted that such revolutions occur. Yet understanding their economic and societalhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/before-they-are-hanged-the-first-law-%232/Mon, 24 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/before-they-are-hanged-the-first-law-%232/Middle Book Syndrome It doesn&#39;t feel like that much happens. Characters grow, but I also want some plot! Glokta starts and ends in the capital city. Logenhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-blade-itself-the-first-law-%231/Sat, 22 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-blade-itself-the-first-law-%231/I should be reading in Chinese or about stoic philosophy, but The Blade Itself is... distractingly enjoyable.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/saga-compendium-one/Thu, 20 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/saga-compendium-one/Down, out, and liberal in the 2010s I didn’t know it was possible to write a period piece about the last decade, but here we are. I&#39;m still not sure whathttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/daring-to-be-different/Wed, 19 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/daring-to-be-different/Daring to be Different Completed: March 19, 2025 Last edited time: February 9, 2026 1:39 PM Status: OBE Type: Bookhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/truman/Thu, 13 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/truman/This isn&#39;t Robert Caro, but it&#39;s still pretty good. Truman is probably the most relatable president I&#39;ve read about. And as we enter into the twilight ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ubik/Sat, 08 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ubik/Decohere Ubik—the only book that reads you as you read it. Side effects include narrative dissonance and ontological vertigo. Do books need to make sensehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-worlds-i-see-curiosity-exploration-and-discovery-at-the-dawn-of-ai/Fri, 07 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-worlds-i-see-curiosity-exploration-and-discovery-at-the-dawn-of-ai/Wired for Thought The stamina required to endure the AI winter and emerge into the present era makes me grateful I didn’t choose academia. Worlds I Seehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/girl-unmasked-how-uncovering-my-autism-saved-my-life/Sun, 02 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/girl-unmasked-how-uncovering-my-autism-saved-my-life/Diversity over Diagnosis All members of my immediate family are neurodiverse, and I certainly never felt the same as those around me. Yet, much of thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-drop-of-corruption-shadow-of-the-leviathan-%232/Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-drop-of-corruption-shadow-of-the-leviathan-%232/Murder, Magic, Malaise If Romantasy is court intrigue with a swooning heartbeat, this is its jaded sibling: Mysterantasy—suspicious deaths, arcanehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-thinkers-the-rise-of-partisan-think-tanks-and-the-polarization-of-american-politics-studies-in-postwar-american-political-development/Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-thinkers-the-rise-of-partisan-think-tanks-and-the-polarization-of-american-politics-studies-in-postwar-american-political-development/Money into Power, via Intelligence ‘The Thinkers’ traces the rise of modern think tanks as an unseen influence of American policy. The pivot point ishttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/technology-and-the-rise-of-great-powers-how-diffusion-shapes-economic-competition-princeton-studies-in-international-history-and-politics/Wed, 26 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/technology-and-the-rise-of-great-powers-how-diffusion-shapes-economic-competition-princeton-studies-in-international-history-and-politics/Our present moment might not be so unprecedented.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/reprogramming-the-american-dream-from-rural-america-to-silicon-valleymaking-ai-serve-us-all/Fri, 07 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/reprogramming-the-american-dream-from-rural-america-to-silicon-valleymaking-ai-serve-us-all/Hillbilly Elegi-ble for AI This was a read to prepare for a job interview with the author/legend himself. In Reprogramming the American Dream, Scott putshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war/Tue, 04 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war/This is not a book, it is a screen saver. Sure, manipulating causality could be clever, but in the end every world visited is intentionally left so vaguehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/metro-2033-metro-%231/Sun, 02 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/metro-2033-metro-%231/Echos Underground I&#39;ve been on a Russian sci-fi kick this year, so Metro 2033 is a natural stop on this subway line. If this is Lovecraftian horror, signhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/mood-machine-the-rise-of-spotify-and-the-costs-of-the-perfect-playlist/Sun, 26 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/mood-machine-the-rise-of-spotify-and-the-costs-of-the-perfect-playlist/Hello Profits My Old Friend Mood Machine is a critique of capitalism masquerading as a book on Spotify. Rather than engage the author, I will explore thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/roadside-picnic/Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/roadside-picnic/Aliens don&#39;t care The Zone is neither good nor evil, it just is. Roadside Picnic, like much of the Russian scifi I&#39;ve read recently, is a refreshinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/solaris/Sun, 19 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/solaris/Postmodern Xenofiction A book inspired a movie. The movie inspired remakes. One remake inspired a notable soundtrack. The soundtrack I&#39;ve listened tohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-player-of-games-culture-%232/Tue, 14 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-player-of-games-culture-%232/Regrets of a Reader of Pages The premise of Player of Games reminded me of a Dune board game tournament—strategic, layered, and plenty of intrigue. (As anhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-anxious-generation-how-the-great-rewiring-of-childhood-caused-an-epidemic-of-mental-illness/Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-anxious-generation-how-the-great-rewiring-of-childhood-caused-an-epidemic-of-mental-illness/The Coddling of the Online Mind I spent 10 years working at Facebook, of which I spent 5 years in trust and safety (the part of the company responsiblehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-sunlit-man/Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-sunlit-man/1st Book of 2025: Entirely Forgettable. Read through this in one sleepless post-surgery night, and it just felt like a draft of a side-plot from ahttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/heavenly-tyrant-iron-widow-%232/Sun, 05 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/heavenly-tyrant-iron-widow-%232/Private Property is my Safe Word I have a rule in Sci-fi: If main characters engage in taboo sex while discussing esoteric politics, I&#39;m out. Based on thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-war-like-no-other/Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-war-like-no-other/Footnotes to Thucydides A War Like No Other works best as a second pass through the Peloponnesian War. If you haven’t read Thucydides, start there. If youhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/age-of-empires-2-dlc/Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/age-of-empires-2-dlc/It’s interesting that this is where I landed with my computer playing time. It’s also a good cautionary note for where AI falls short. It dissuaded mehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/bashees-of-inishirin/Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/bashees-of-inishirin/What did I get out of this film? I enjoyed it, perhaps over-chatGPTd it. I get the allegory ot the 1920’s Irish civil war, I understand Colm perhaps morehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/best-served-cold/Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/best-served-cold/Heat Before Serving There’s a limit to how much grimdark fantasy I can take, and Best Served Cold found that limit. The book begins with echoes of Victorhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/elder-race/Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/elder-race/ChatGPT, write a novella with sad narrator, based on this prompt: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/i-deliver-parcels-in-beijing/Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/i-deliver-parcels-in-beijing/Let&#39;s turn this into a review: I deliver Parcels in Beijing Competently written. One of the nicest things about reading is just the ability to get thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/inheritor/Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/inheritor/&lt;b&gt; Tea Drinker &lt;/b&gt; Reading Inheritor three years after the first two books, I had to reassemble Cherry’s political map from fragments. Like Bren, Ihttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/of-mice-and-men/Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/of-mice-and-men/Last week was at my college alma mater, and I was surprised at the memories that came back to me. The campus was permeated with fear and self criticismhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/one-battle-after-another/Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/one-battle-after-another/Author: Paul Thomas Anderson Score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Completed: January 1, 2025 Last edited time: January 2, 2026 12:43 PM Status: Reviewed Type: Film What washttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/precursor/Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/precursor/Author: CJ Cherryh Score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Completed: January 1, 2025 Last edited time: February 17, 2026 3:39 PM Status: Reviewed Type: Book &lt;b&gt;Diplomacy, &lt;i&gt;inhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/pretender/Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/pretender/&lt;b&gt;Re-org-er&lt;/b&gt; Want to see how power al-Sharaa drove in victory to Damascus, or how a CEO reclaims a stalled culture transformation? Skip thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-devils/Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-devils/Author: Joe Abercrombie Score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Completed: January 1, 2025 Last edited time: January 11, 2026 7:41 AM Status: Reviewed Type: Book &lt;b&gt;Cards on thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/overreach-how-china-derailed-its-peaceful-rise/Mon, 30 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/overreach-how-china-derailed-its-peaceful-rise/Not a new message, but a more first principles approach to Chinese international policy. A new author on China to keep tabs on.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-good-life-lessons-from-the-worlds-longest-scientific-study-of-happiness/Sat, 26 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-good-life-lessons-from-the-worlds-longest-scientific-study-of-happiness/Can a single book be responsible for a book slump? The Good Life is my argument for yes. Over the years, I&#39;ve found the way to keep reading is to makehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/echo-of-worlds-pandominion-%232/Sun, 13 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/echo-of-worlds-pandominion-%232/In this Familiar Multiverse Infinity Gate and Echo of Worlds present a familiar concept if you&#39;ve read other multiverse stories, like Dark Matter or Thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/day-zero-sea-of-rust-%230/Sun, 18 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/day-zero-sea-of-rust-%230/A Predictable End... of the World Not nearly as interesting as Sea of Rust. Especially for those that have read Sea of Rust, there&#39;s little point in thishttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/excession-culture-%235/Sat, 13 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/excession-culture-%235/Multiple POVs in quick succession dealing with unknown unknowns, not a good book to fall asleep to as I keep getting lost. Someday...https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/assyria-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-worlds-first-empire/Thu, 25 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/assyria-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-worlds-first-empire/Adventures in history and the land of Nod This may be the perfect book to fall asleep to. I know almost nothing about Assyria, but every night am excitedhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/nuclear-war-a-scenario/Fri, 12 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/nuclear-war-a-scenario/Gone in 60 Minutes &#34;Nuclear War, A Scenario&#34; begins with the premise of the United States being entirely obliterated. This could only happen by a nuclearhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/nettle-bone/Mon, 04 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/nettle-bone/Somewhere between a fairy tale and a clothing brand.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E7%A5%9E%E7%A7%98%E7%9A%84%E9%AD%94%E6%B3%95%E7%9F%B3-%E5%93%88%E5%88%A9%E6%B3%A2%E7%89%B9-%231/Thu, 25 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E7%A5%9E%E7%A7%98%E7%9A%84%E9%AD%94%E6%B3%95%E7%9F%B3-%E5%93%88%E5%88%A9%E6%B3%A2%E7%89%B9-%231/4th Read, 4 Languages This is my fourth time reading this book, each time I gain something different. The book has become my Rosetta Stone, as I use it tohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/empires-of-the-steppes-a-history-of-the-nomadic-tribes-who-shaped-civilization/Mon, 22 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/empires-of-the-steppes-a-history-of-the-nomadic-tribes-who-shaped-civilization/Empires Come and Go So much of history relies on a modern nation remaining to tell its story, so while most know of the Mongols, fewer know the stories ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-decameron/Sat, 13 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-decameron/I’ll be here all week millennium! One of me wishes this would be required reading for sex-ed. At least that way students would learn something whilehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-will-of-the-many-hierarchy-%231/Fri, 12 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-will-of-the-many-hierarchy-%231/Will you read of the Many Tropes? Will of the Many fills its checklist of sci-fi and fantasy tropes, better than even a fan-fic. Orphaned✓ teenage✓ boy✓https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-empress-of-salt-and-fortune-the-singing-hills-cycle-%231/Tue, 09 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-empress-of-salt-and-fortune-the-singing-hills-cycle-%231/With a few graceful red lights flickering into the waves, Vo sucks the reader into a world that is familiar to readers of Asian history (or fantasy ), buthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/victorious-in-defeat-the-life-and-times-of-chiang-kai-shek-china-1887-1975/Tue, 09 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/victorious-in-defeat-the-life-and-times-of-chiang-kai-shek-china-1887-1975/Another Dictator If I die as a dictator, I will go down in history like all dictators… Thus Mr. Chiang documented in his journal, and so history recallshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-eagle-and-the-lion-rome-persia-and-an-unwinnable-conflict/Thu, 04 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-eagle-and-the-lion-rome-persia-and-an-unwinnable-conflict/Imperial Hubris - Antiquity Edition The Eagle and The Lion is a slightly underwhelming exploration of the dynamic between the Roman and Persian empireshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/2024-on-goodreads/Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/2024-on-goodreads/2024 in books Life doesn’t get many turning points, but 2024 was one. After being tossed from the OpenAI rollercoaster, I&#39;ve expanded work on our familyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/he-who-drowned-the-world-the-radiant-emperor-%232/Fri, 24 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/he-who-drowned-the-world-the-radiant-emperor-%232/Bits of plot interspersed with long passages brooding on genitals and hands, or lack thereof. One of the darkest fantasy books i’ve read.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-to-take-smart-notes/Sun, 05 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-to-take-smart-notes/A good book, except I don&#39;t really think about the information I consume, and I&#39;m not sure where to carve out the time, since I&#39;m only consuminghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/raising-a-secure-child-how-circle-of-security-parenting-can-help-you-nurture-your-childs-attachment-emotional-resilience-and-freedom-to-explore/Sun, 05 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/raising-a-secure-child-how-circle-of-security-parenting-can-help-you-nurture-your-childs-attachment-emotional-resilience-and-freedom-to-explore/Ugh rolls eyes, my mom was right to recommend this one. It actually is a really good book, and the best I&#39;ve read so far when talking about how to parenthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-loom-of-time-between-empire-and-anarchy-from-the-mediterranean-to-china/Fri, 03 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-loom-of-time-between-empire-and-anarchy-from-the-mediterranean-to-china/OK, Boomer &#34;The Loom of Time&#34; presents itself as a work of meta-history, ambitiously attempting to weave a narrative that connects the thoughts ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-age-of-wood-our-most-useful-material-and-the-construction-of-civilization/Mon, 23 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-age-of-wood-our-most-useful-material-and-the-construction-of-civilization/The &#39;Age of Wood&#39; delves into the realms of chemistry, biology, and the intricate art of woodworking. The book offers a surprising amount of insight intohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-world-according-to-china/Sun, 15 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-world-according-to-china/The world according to China according to the Washington Consensus. Good info on Huawei, makes me want to write a book on the subject.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-coming-wave-ai-power-and-our-future/Sat, 07 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-coming-wave-ai-power-and-our-future/Precedent for Unprecedented Just because the author doesn’t understand history, doesn&#39;t mean it didn&#39;t happen. There were substantial technologicalhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/talon-of-the-silver-hawk-conclave-of-shadows-%231/Tue, 03 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/talon-of-the-silver-hawk-conclave-of-shadows-%231/剧情盔甲后的很 (The Plot Armor is Too Thick) 在第一个阶段，Talon的家和朋友都被灭门了。所以在这个故事中他好像一块白板，他的性格可以为了剧情的需求而改变。https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/glossy-ambition-beauty-and-the-inside-story-of-emily-weisss-glossier/Sat, 23 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/glossy-ambition-beauty-and-the-inside-story-of-emily-weisss-glossier/Perhaps the most vapid business book i’ve read, or is it the most staid fashion book? Not sure..https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-sales-acceleration-formula-using-data-technology-and-inbound-selling-to-go-from-0-to-100-million/Mon, 18 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-sales-acceleration-formula-using-data-technology-and-inbound-selling-to-go-from-0-to-100-million/Useful, by the numbers, book on creating sales teams. I probably should have done this when creating my leasing team.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/on-intelligence/Mon, 04 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/on-intelligence/A GPT recommendation. This one somewhat surprising because of the low following and seeming limited connection to artificial intelligence, but I leanedhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-search-how-google-and-its-rivals-rewrote-the-rules-of-business-and-transformed-our-culture/Sun, 20 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-search-how-google-and-its-rivals-rewrote-the-rules-of-business-and-transformed-our-culture/Google OpenAI and the Red Sea Published in 2005, John Battelle chronicles the rise of Google among a sea of competitors in a year when Google was worthhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-new-china-playbook-beyond-socialism-and-capitalism/Mon, 14 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-new-china-playbook-beyond-socialism-and-capitalism/Neither a playbook nor novel, but at least provides a counterpoint to the common American expert narrative that China has fallen off the bandwagon everhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/yellen-the-trailblazing-economist-who-navigated-an-era-of-upheaval/Thu, 10 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/yellen-the-trailblazing-economist-who-navigated-an-era-of-upheaval/Surprisingly little about Yellen. Could have been titled: Akerlof: life, times and family.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/outlive-the-science-art-of-longevity/Tue, 08 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/outlive-the-science-art-of-longevity/A reasonable starting point on what it means to physically live a good life. Good review of caloric restriction. Emotional health better in Harvard Studyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fourth-wing-the-empyrean-%231/Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fourth-wing-the-empyrean-%231/For the first few chapters, I thought the gaps in character and world building were intentional. But after the romance went from clumsy to 21st centuryhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/free-to-learn-why-unleashing-the-instinct-to-play-will-make-our-children-happier-more-self-reliant-and-better-students-for-life/Thu, 03 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/free-to-learn-why-unleashing-the-instinct-to-play-will-make-our-children-happier-more-self-reliant-and-better-students-for-life/Playground Rules: Playgrounds Rule When I was 9, I went on the carnival with my dad for 2 weeks during high season. He worked full time, leaving me mostlyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/carrie-soto-is-back/Sat, 29 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/carrie-soto-is-back/Inner Fictional Game of Tennis It&#39;s hard to exist on Goodreads without seeing Taylor Jenkins Reid. Reid takes the pacing of a blockbuster, and substituteshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-gardener-and-the-carpenter-what-the-new-science-of-child-development-tells-us-about-the-relationship-between-parents-and-children/Sat, 29 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-gardener-and-the-carpenter-what-the-new-science-of-child-development-tells-us-about-the-relationship-between-parents-and-children/Hand-Waving Advice Posits that parents should be more gardeners than carpenters. OK, but what does that mean? I thought it would mean gardening in the wayhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/macbeth/Fri, 28 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/macbeth/Interesting for parts: the language and references and moments. But this is not a story like other plays. Characters are pretty thin, plot is a bithttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-city-the-city/Tue, 11 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-city-the-city/Exactly what I want out of fiction. A well paced plot, a few characters to root for, and surprises that keep the story ahead of, or at least more complexhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/beacon-23-beacon-23-%231-5/Mon, 03 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/beacon-23-beacon-23-%231-5/Disjointed Even though this is a serial put together in 5 parts, the story didn&#39;t quite fit together. Some sort of cross between Story of your Life andhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-terraformers/Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-terraformers/Was interested in the first arc, somewhat distracted in the second. The narrative involving mass trait didn’t resonate, and by the end I was a bit boredhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-the-world-really-works-a-scientists-guide-to-our-past-present-and-future/Fri, 23 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-the-world-really-works-a-scientists-guide-to-our-past-present-and-future/Scattershot for Smil, but I don&#39;t regret reading it.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/end-times-elites-counter-elites-and-the-path-of-political-disintegration/Sun, 18 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/end-times-elites-counter-elites-and-the-path-of-political-disintegration/Great overall thesis, but what is the definition of an elite? And how are they overproduced? Feels like this book should be 1000 pages to support thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/translation-state/Tue, 13 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/translation-state/Some 菊花茶 Tea? I&#39;ve recently started to appreciate Chrysanthemum tea. For most of my life, I thought it bland, and if given the choice, would readily takehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/witch-king-the-rising-world-%231/Sun, 11 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/witch-king-the-rising-world-%231/<p>2</p>https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/crouching-tiger-what-chinas-militarism-means-for-the-world/Thu, 08 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/crouching-tiger-what-chinas-militarism-means-for-the-world/Brings nothing not better articulated in The Long Game. Yet maybe that&#39;s the point, the Trumpist hawks and liberal hawks are saying the same things withhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/assassins-quest-farseer-trilogy-%233/Tue, 30 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/assassins-quest-farseer-trilogy-%233/Some books that wander are lost After returning from the dead, our hero, Fitz, goes wandering. ... and wandering. ... and wandering. He checks voicemailhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/alfreds-basic-adult-piano-course-lesson-book-level-one/Thu, 25 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/alfreds-basic-adult-piano-course-lesson-book-level-one/Picking piano back up after about 20 years this was good sight reading practice. Hope to make it through the whole series.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/untethered-sky/Tue, 16 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/untethered-sky/Not on the same level as Green Bone Saga, Fonda&#39;s writing excels in interpersonal relationships, and a desert avian obsession is no substitute. If youhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/mixed-signals-how-incentives-really-work/Sun, 14 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/mixed-signals-how-incentives-really-work/A great framework on incentives being a tuple of {utility, social signal, self signal} lost in a sea of mediocre anecdotes about cognitive biases. Worthhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/change-agent/Thu, 11 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/change-agent/A goofy interpretation of CRISPR tech in the vein of face/off, combined with a future fugitive chase like Minority Report. At his best, Daniel Suarezhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/julius-ceasar/Wed, 10 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/julius-ceasar/Et tu, Brutus? Even if you haven&#39;t read this play before, if you&#39;ve gone through enough English text you&#39;ve read this play before. As one of six Romanhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/kill-decision/Sun, 07 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/kill-decision/Disappointing. A cross between Sicario and Dan Brown. A fever dream of the 2010&#39;s, what if all the conspiracies were true? I&#39;m no fan of the militaryhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/critical-mass-delta-v-%232/Thu, 27 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/critical-mass-delta-v-%232/Apparently space-engineering-drama is a whole sub-category at this point, but Suarez is the right author for the jobhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-best-and-the-brightest/Wed, 12 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-best-and-the-brightest/<p>TBW</p>https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/consider-phlebas-culture-%231/Tue, 28 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/consider-phlebas-culture-%231/Typical Action Movie Book Picking up a popular scifi book is a roll of the dice. Sometimes, through pure luck you find exceptional ideas or a rivetinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-korean-war/Tue, 28 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-korean-war/2nd Sino-American War The US Army has not accepted the simple fact that its performance in the Korean War was lousy. This year I’ve endeavored tohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/nothing-to-envy-ordinary-lives-in-north-korea/Mon, 27 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/nothing-to-envy-ordinary-lives-in-north-korea/Dystopian Scifi For those of us fortunate enough to live in the developed world, dystopia is contemplated more through fiction than reality. 1984 ishttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dawn-xenogenesis-%231/Sun, 19 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dawn-xenogenesis-%231/Aliens should be weird. Interesting concepts of how a superior biotech race could manipulate and control humans, even while trying to maintain ahttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/inferno-the-world-at-war-1939-1945/Wed, 15 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/inferno-the-world-at-war-1939-1945/Failed Gambits to Suicide Whatever the prowess of the Wermacht, the nation lacked the means to win. This was the conclusion reached by German centralhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/psychology-of-intelligence-analysis/Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/psychology-of-intelligence-analysis/Would Bayes’ theorem, by other words, smell so sweet? Yes, yes it would.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/arriving-today-from-factory-to-front-door-why-everything-has-changed-about-how-and-what-we-buy/Thu, 09 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/arriving-today-from-factory-to-front-door-why-everything-has-changed-about-how-and-what-we-buy/Useful summary of modern logistics, interrupted by complaints about amazon.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/building-a-second-brain-a-proven-method-to-organize-your-digital-life-and-unlock-your-creative-potential/Wed, 01 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/building-a-second-brain-a-proven-method-to-organize-your-digital-life-and-unlock-your-creative-potential/Un-Noteworthy Do you take notes? Do you reference those notes? If yes to both, don&#39;t read this book. Go to Tiago&#39;s website instead and see if you findhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/leading-change/Sun, 29 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/leading-change/Some good advice interspersed into the most mind-numbing mid 90s business prose possible.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/potty-training-in-3-days-the-step-by-step-plan-for-a-clean-break-from-dirty-diapers/Sat, 28 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/potty-training-in-3-days-the-step-by-step-plan-for-a-clean-break-from-dirty-diapers/It works, more or less This morning while taking care of my youngest, my elder came up shouting ”拉了拉了拉了“ indicating his need to go to the potty. Afterhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/no-rules-rules-netflix-and-the-culture-of-reinvention/Thu, 26 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/no-rules-rules-netflix-and-the-culture-of-reinvention/A boundary test on reducing bureaucracy in a large organization with some interesting learnings.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/on-war/Mon, 23 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/on-war/Much less applicable to general topics or modern warfare than I thought.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-guns-of-august/Sat, 14 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-guns-of-august/Tidy Narrative Few books can make any claim to have stopped nuclear war. But as JFK famously read Tuchman’s Guns of August, his understanding of the realhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-world-undone-the-story-of-the-great-war-1914-to-1918/Wed, 11 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-world-undone-the-story-of-the-great-war-1914-to-1918/Mistakes were made. And made. And made.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/moby-dick/Tue, 03 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/moby-dick/A book about the culture. How it is created, the meaning we give it, the supposed truths that such culture creates. There is definitely meat on the boneshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-delicate-art-of-bureaucracy-digital-transformation-with-the-monkey-the-razor-and-the-sumo-wrestler/Tue, 03 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-delicate-art-of-bureaucracy-digital-transformation-with-the-monkey-the-razor-and-the-sumo-wrestler/This is a really poorly written book .https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/2023-on-goodreads/Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/2023-on-goodreads/3.5 Stars Rounding up. 2023 was a return to the new normal – full-time work resumed, but at OpenAI. Daily commutes resumed, but on a skateboard. On thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/behind-their-screens-what-teens-are-facing-and-adults-are-missing/Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/behind-their-screens-what-teens-are-facing-and-adults-are-missing/Teen Screens, Few Surprises I learned surprisingly little from this book. It offers some useful surveys and specifics, and I like the idea of making it ahttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/mercy-kill-star-wars-x-wing-%2310/Thu, 15 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/mercy-kill-star-wars-x-wing-%2310/Star Wars: Mission Impossible Mercy Kill follows the story of remaining members of Wraith squadron, which is the remaining members of Rogue squadronhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/obamas-wars/Tue, 06 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/obamas-wars/First: The title has a typo. It should be titled &#39;Obama&#39;s war&#39; as there is no reporting on decisions related to Iraq. The Good: Woodward has remarkablehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E5%8E%86%E4%BB%A3%E6%94%BF%E6%B2%BB%E5%BE%97%E5%A4%B1/Tue, 06 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E5%8E%86%E4%BB%A3%E6%94%BF%E6%B2%BB%E5%BE%97%E5%A4%B1/为何读历史？ 除了纯粹的好奇或享受故事之外，历史是我们的最容易探索不同时代的方法，通过做比较审视现代社会的情况和事件发生的根源。在西方，好多历史家已经把西方文化和政治 写成故事 ，但对西方作家来说，中国历史知只是一堆紊乱的事实的叠加，包含没完没了的名字、日期和事实。https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/wish-lanterns-young-lives-in-new-china/Fri, 02 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/wish-lanterns-young-lives-in-new-china/Outdated In China, every three years is a generation gap, and Wish Lanterns serves as a time capsule for a period in China 6-9 years ago where affluencehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/in-the-shadows-of-the-american-century-the-rise-and-decline-of-us-global-power-dispatch-books/Wed, 30 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/in-the-shadows-of-the-american-century-the-rise-and-decline-of-us-global-power-dispatch-books/What a great title! But... This is a muddled regurgitation of Mackinder’s 1904 geopolitical theory about dominating either the seas or the eurasianhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-golden-enclaves-the-scholomance-%233/Wed, 30 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-golden-enclaves-the-scholomance-%233/Some of the most jarring pacing you&#39;ll find in a fantasy novel. Not sure the plot survives the transition from a self-contained school to the wider worldhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/in-search-of-a-kingdom-francis-drake-elizabeth-i-and-the-perilous-birth-of-the-british-empire/Thu, 24 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/in-search-of-a-kingdom-francis-drake-elizabeth-i-and-the-perilous-birth-of-the-british-empire/Investors in the voyage got a 47x return. Disrupted the Spanish empire model. First unicorn.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-shortest-history-of-china-from-the-ancient-dynasties-to-a-modern-superpowera-retelling-for-our-times-shortest-history-series/Mon, 14 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-shortest-history-of-china-from-the-ancient-dynasties-to-a-modern-superpowera-retelling-for-our-times-shortest-history-series/The Shortest Wikipedia Article …is often not the best.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/raising-an-emotionally-intelligent-child-the-heart-of-parenting/Thu, 10 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/raising-an-emotionally-intelligent-child-the-heart-of-parenting/Doesn&#39;t live up to Gottman&#39;s other works. Ends up in the no-mans land between rigorous interpretation of scientific studies, and pragmatic step-by-stephttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-responsible-company-what-weve-learned-from-patagonias-first-40-years/Sat, 29 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-responsible-company-what-weve-learned-from-patagonias-first-40-years/2.5 stars. Decent frameworks take. from other sources, but the hard part is how to achieve such frameworks and responsible company fails to deliver. Farhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/peak-the-new-science-of-athletic-performance-that-is-revolutionizing-sports/Fri, 28 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/peak-the-new-science-of-athletic-performance-that-is-revolutionizing-sports/Not sufficiently scientific to challenge the conclusions of other books around nutrition or mental well-being, not sufficiently succinct to be a usefulhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/sam-walton-made-in-america/Sat, 22 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/sam-walton-made-in-america/Companies are Exploration Most successful people found a lottery ticket and then invent a story to make luck sound like skill. (1) Yet for some, it ishttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/means-of-ascent-the-years-of-lyndon-johnson-%232/Fri, 21 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/means-of-ascent-the-years-of-lyndon-johnson-%232/Johnson is the villain, Stevenson is the hero, and it&#39;s not a happy ending.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/six-of-crows-six-of-crows-%231/Wed, 19 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/six-of-crows-six-of-crows-%231/Fantasy Heist genre with characters interesting enough to keep turning the pages. Read it out of order, but the characters were interesting enough tohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/built-from-scratch-how-a-couple-of-regular-guys-grew-the-home-depot-from-nothing-to-30-billion/Sat, 15 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/built-from-scratch-how-a-couple-of-regular-guys-grew-the-home-depot-from-nothing-to-30-billion/It&#39;s like I need to read at least 20 founder books before I can separate winner&#39;s bias from what makes a company unique, but this counts as one of the 20.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/and-then-there-were-none/Thu, 13 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/and-then-there-were-none/Mechanical writing, heavily foreshadowed plot, and multiple povs made this book highly soporific. Only one character had the right motive, making thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/bigger-leaner-stronger-the-simple-science-of-building-the-ultimate-male-body/Mon, 03 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/bigger-leaner-stronger-the-simple-science-of-building-the-ultimate-male-body/Musclebound Motivation The formula is simple: Work out 5 days a week. Count and restrict your calories. Eat 3x the protein you used to (1). Sleep wellhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-path-to-power-the-years-of-lyndon-johnson-%231/Sun, 02 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-path-to-power-the-years-of-lyndon-johnson-%231/This is Game of Thrones for biographies, glad there are 3 more left.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/build-an-unorthodox-guide-to-making-things-worth-making/Sun, 25 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/build-an-unorthodox-guide-to-making-things-worth-making/Master&#39;s Advice, with a Whiff of Ass Assholes: These are mostly men and sometimes women who come in some flavor of selfish, or deceitful, or cruel. Tonyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-alloy-of-law-mistborn-%234/Sun, 25 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-alloy-of-law-mistborn-%234/World? Fascinating. Characters? Meh. Plot? Everything interesting happens in the epilogue. Readability? Off the charts. Could read while singing andhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/kingdom-of-characters-the-language-revolution-that-made-china-modern/Tue, 13 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/kingdom-of-characters-the-language-revolution-that-made-china-modern/Kingdom of Committee Meetings I fall asleep while reading books. Sometimes this is problematic for comprehension, so usually I find my place the next dayhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-hero-of-ages-mistborn-%233/Mon, 12 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-hero-of-ages-mistborn-%233/Sanderson fantasy is what Audible 3.5x was invented for. 3.5 stars.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-well-of-ascension-mistborn-%232/Tue, 06 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-well-of-ascension-mistborn-%232/Too much of a page turner. The premise -- the capital under siege by 3 competing armies after a successful rebellion -- is probably the best premise for ahttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/mistborn-the-final-empire-mistborn-%231/Mon, 05 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/mistborn-the-final-empire-mistborn-%231/Certainly a page turner, although the parallels to to Stormlight Archives are clear. It&#39;s like Sanderson has found a set of chords that will attracthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/what-is-mathematics-really/Wed, 31 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/what-is-mathematics-really/Ideal Formulas In America, math is religion. Its creed might be mostly separate from human affairs, but its method of teaching and acquisition is that ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-hunger-of-the-gods-the-bloodsworn-saga-%232/Mon, 29 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-hunger-of-the-gods-the-bloodsworn-saga-%232/Viking John Wick 2. Add in some divine wrestling matches and skyr. I&#39;m in.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/reading-for-our-lives-a-literacy-action-plan-from-birth-to-six/Sun, 28 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/reading-for-our-lives-a-literacy-action-plan-from-birth-to-six/Great primer on the mechanics of literacy, not much surprising but better depth and tips for how to do something with the research findings to help yourhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/richer-wiser-happier-how-the-worlds-greatest-investors-win-in-markets-and-life/Thu, 25 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/richer-wiser-happier-how-the-worlds-greatest-investors-win-in-markets-and-life/Hero worship, winner&#39;s bias, and superficial journalist book all rolled into one. Got this book from the y-combinator startups book list, and I&#39;m judginghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/what-we-owe-the-future/Sat, 20 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/what-we-owe-the-future/2.5 stars. Scattered and more surface level than I would have liked.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-order-of-time/Sat, 06 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-order-of-time/Forgotten Scent of the Madeleine If time is the fading cognitive impression of lower entropy states, then The Order of Time is timeless. And by that, Ihttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/what-is-real-the-unfinished-quest-for-the-meaning-of-quantum-physics/Thu, 04 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/what-is-real-the-unfinished-quest-for-the-meaning-of-quantum-physics/Unfinished Businesshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-shadow-of-the-gods-the-bloodsworn-saga-%231/Mon, 01 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-shadow-of-the-gods-the-bloodsworn-saga-%231/Viking John Wick combined with Viking Golden Compass combined with Norse Military Vocabulary 101. Page turner.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-bhagavad-gita/Wed, 27 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-bhagavad-gita/Divine Dark Night of the Soul I, too, would like a word with God on the eve of life’s most important battle. The Bhagavad Gita is one episode among manyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-to-be-perfect-the-correct-answer-to-every-moral-question/Tue, 26 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-to-be-perfect-the-correct-answer-to-every-moral-question/Gateway Drug Philosophy Most of us want to do the right thing most of the time, but outside of god, law, and politics, modern society offers littlehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-short-history-of-ethics-a-history-of-moral-philosophy-from-the-homeric-age-to-the-twentieth-century/Mon, 25 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-short-history-of-ethics-a-history-of-moral-philosophy-from-the-homeric-age-to-the-twentieth-century/Ships Passing in the Night Between the adherents of rival moralities, there exists no court of appeal. If you want to learn about ethics, don&#39;t starthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/starfighters-of-adumar-star-wars-legends-wraith-squadron-%234/Fri, 22 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/starfighters-of-adumar-star-wars-legends-wraith-squadron-%234/Continues the trend of completely undemanding Scifi to fall asleep to in an abridged fashion. A departure from the rest of the series, had some serioushttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/kill-it-with-fire-manage-aging-computer-systems-and-future-proof-modern-ones/Sat, 16 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/kill-it-with-fire-manage-aging-computer-systems-and-future-proof-modern-ones/More about organizations than code based, but really it’s usually the orgs and humans that get in the way.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/locklands-the-founders-trilogy-%233/Tue, 05 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/locklands-the-founders-trilogy-%233/The Colors Mix to Brown I&#39;m a fan of Robert Jackson Bennett is one of a handful of authors for whom I would read a new release no questions asked. Perhapshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-virgin-way-everything-i-know-about-leadership/Tue, 05 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-virgin-way-everything-i-know-about-leadership/Legitimately interesting advice mixed with cringeworthy anecdotes, nets out to a reasonable light business read. 60th book of 2022https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ages-of-american-capitalism-a-history-of-the-united-states/Sun, 03 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ages-of-american-capitalism-a-history-of-the-united-states/Much better than Greenspan&#39;s work. Good connection of overaching themes between economy and culture, an area most economists and historians miss. Adds ahttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/jade-legacy-the-green-bone-saga-%233/Sun, 03 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/jade-legacy-the-green-bone-saga-%233/4.5 stars. A fitting ending that perhaps drug the plot a little bit further than the apex, but overall the series was extremely satisfying.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/jade-city-the-green-bone-saga-%231/Wed, 15 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/jade-city-the-green-bone-saga-%231/Sucked me in, probably hurting my productivity at work. Jade City is a drama with real family dynamics and characters that make imperfect decisions andhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-chancellor-the-remarkable-odyssey-of-angela-merkel/Sun, 12 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-chancellor-the-remarkable-odyssey-of-angela-merkel/DNF @ 61% I was a bit worried when the book started off with scant details and little access to the famously private Merkel. Knowing nearly nothing abouthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-four-steps-to-the-epiphany-successful-strategies-for-products-that-win/Sun, 12 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-four-steps-to-the-epiphany-successful-strategies-for-products-that-win/Inverting the idea of a company from being product oriented to customer / problem oriented. What that means at a tactical level which was quite useful.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/american-gods-tenth-anniversary-american-gods-%231/Sat, 11 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/american-gods-tenth-anniversary-american-gods-%231/American drudgery. What is there to like about this book? Characters fade into the page like forgotten gods, and serve mainly as plot devices. The plothttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/heavens-river-bobiverse-%234/Wed, 08 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/heavens-river-bobiverse-%234/2.5 stars. Similar but not nearly as good as a fire upon the deep. The entire star fleet plot seemed useless. Still worked as a distraction for a fewhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/city-of-blades-the-divine-cities-%232/Thu, 02 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/city-of-blades-the-divine-cities-%232/Takes on moral injury rather than themes of societal oppression, and I don&#39;t know if the author did a worse job, or if I&#39;m just sadly closer to thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-smartest-kids-in-the-world-and-how-they-got-that-way/Wed, 01 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-smartest-kids-in-the-world-and-how-they-got-that-way/a bit journalistic, but good context on the pisa testhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/city-of-stairs-the-divine-cities-%231/Sun, 29 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/city-of-stairs-the-divine-cities-%231/Surprised it took me so long to get to this. Dead gods and a strong flavor of colonialism are good themes for fantasy. Good characters to explore thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-montessori-toddler-a-parents-guide-to-raising-a-curious-and-responsible-human-being/Sun, 29 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-montessori-toddler-a-parents-guide-to-raising-a-curious-and-responsible-human-being/Marie Condo, dogma, and better parenting advice cribbed from other books. This one is a pass.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-utopia-of-rules-on-technology-stupidity-and-the-secret-joys-of-bureaucracy/Sat, 14 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-utopia-of-rules-on-technology-stupidity-and-the-secret-joys-of-bureaucracy/2.5 stars. Graeber is too interested in dismissing bureaucracy as stupid to understand why it is effective. More analysis of hollywood blockbusters thanhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-master-of-djinn-dead-djinn-universe-%231/Sat, 07 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-master-of-djinn-dead-djinn-universe-%231/3.5 stars, great setting, solid writing. Somewhat disappointing characters and a predictable plot.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/silent-earth-averting-the-insect-apocalypse/Tue, 26 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/silent-earth-averting-the-insect-apocalypse/2.5 Stars. Only a few chapters of meat, the rest is generic sixth extinction type material. This reflects the reality that so little effort has been puthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-brief-history-of-equality/Mon, 25 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-brief-history-of-equality/Eurocentric and disjointed. Was excited to read and compare to books on the same subject with different theses: Capitalism, Alone; The great Levellerhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ambition-legend-of-the-galactic-heroes-%232/Wed, 20 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ambition-legend-of-the-galactic-heroes-%232/Literary Junkfood The other day I introduced my wife and mother in law to Goldfish crackers. Despite the fact that they&#39;ve lived in America for over 20https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/debt-the-first-5000-years/Sun, 17 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/debt-the-first-5000-years/This languished on my reading list for a long time, thinking it was a orthodox capitalist history. Exceeded expectations by being a reframing of financialhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dawn-legend-of-the-galactic-heroes-%231/Fri, 15 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dawn-legend-of-the-galactic-heroes-%231/character development is for western novels. this plot, tactics, and wikipedia style info dumps 100% of the time. And I like it.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-checklist-manifesto-how-to-get-things-right/Sun, 10 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-checklist-manifesto-how-to-get-things-right/less about the nuances of checklists, more about how awfully unsafe medicine is compared to airlineshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/memorys-legion/Tue, 05 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/memorys-legion/like their short stories better than they or novels. better than chiangs stores. i think it’s the charactershttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-dawn-of-everything-a-new-history-of-humanity/Sat, 02 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-dawn-of-everything-a-new-history-of-humanity/Seems like there is a high correlation between marxist or anarchist authors and good books. Must be some weird form of selection / filtering bias.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-science-of-success-how-market-based-management-built-the-worlds-largest-private-company/Thu, 31 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-science-of-success-how-market-based-management-built-the-worlds-largest-private-company/Applied Hayek Something in here clearly works, as evidenced by the success of Koch enterprises. But the guidelines are repetitions of basic economicshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/flying-blind-the-737-max-tragedy-and-the-fall-of-boeing/Sun, 27 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/flying-blind-the-737-max-tragedy-and-the-fall-of-boeing/Flying Blinded by Indignation For the same reason my 16 month old loves to point out every plane in the sky, I’m fascinated by the aviation industryhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/she-who-became-the-sun-the-radiant-emperor-%231/Wed, 23 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/she-who-became-the-sun-the-radiant-emperor-%231/surprisingly good, game of thrones + mulan + traitor baru thrown into one. Good setting.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/long-walk-to-freedom/Mon, 14 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/long-walk-to-freedom/Took a bit to get started, but a worthwhile long walk of a book in the end.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/postwar-a-history-of-europe-since-1945/Sat, 12 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/postwar-a-history-of-europe-since-1945/4.5 stars -- first time I feel like I understand the modern European perspective distinctly from America&#39;s.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-republic/Thu, 10 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-republic/What is Love Justice? (baby don’t ask me... no more) For the impact that Plato has on modern western thought, I had higher hopes. Frankly if philosophy ishttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/memory-vorkosigan-saga-%2310/Mon, 28 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/memory-vorkosigan-saga-%2310/I love Bujold but really can’t get into this series. Main character is a prick, and about a third of the way though I’m rooting for him to suffer all thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/battle-royale/Wed, 09 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/battle-royale/The bloody seed of the metaverse exists right here.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-motorcycle-diaries-notes-on-a-latin-american-journey/Sat, 05 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-motorcycle-diaries-notes-on-a-latin-american-journey/Che was kindof a mooch... More to come.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/deng-xiaoping-and-the-transformation-of-china/Fri, 28 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/deng-xiaoping-and-the-transformation-of-china/History&#39;s Finest Bureaucrat 冷静观察，站稳脚跟，沉着应付，韬光养晦，善于守拙，绝不当头，有所作为 Observe calmly; secure our position; cope with affairs calmly; hide our capacities and bidehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-secret-life-of-groceries-the-dark-miracle-of-the-american-supermarket/Tue, 25 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-secret-life-of-groceries-the-dark-miracle-of-the-american-supermarket/Things that I don&#39;t like about superficial journalist books: Over-reliance anecdotes , either the internship or the interview: Sure the author spent 2https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/order-without-design-how-markets-shape-cities/Sun, 23 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/order-without-design-how-markets-shape-cities/First book on urban problems i’ve read that was worth reading. Theoretical frameworks that pass the sniff test, a free market version of Jane Jacobshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/who-gets-in-and-why-a-year-inside-college-admissions/Sun, 23 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/who-gets-in-and-why-a-year-inside-college-admissions/the college admissions process is not only arbitrary, it’s capricious. Like assessing future based on the brand of car kids drive. Financial aid can behttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-bolivian-diary-authorized-edition/Sat, 22 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-bolivian-diary-authorized-edition/Camping Trip from Hell Real warfare is boring. Guerrilla warfare is also boring, just more uncomfortable. The Bolivian diary describes the petty squabbleshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/moneyball/Fri, 14 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/moneyball/Barbarous Statistics I don&#39;t follow baseball, but I can&#39;t escape statistics. Whether making hiring decisions, investment calls, or building experimentalhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-age-of-napoleon-the-story-of-civilization-%2311/Tue, 11 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-age-of-napoleon-the-story-of-civilization-%2311/First Durant history that I&#39;ve been able to compare to similar books elsewhere, and #11 doesn&#39;t come out well in the comparison. Covers Europe fromhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/paladin-of-souls-world-of-the-five-gods-%232/Wed, 05 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/paladin-of-souls-world-of-the-five-gods-%232/Amazing that I like this series so much but am not a fan of Bujold&#39;s other series. I enjoyed the main character, the different setting, and thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/rousseau-and-revolution-the-story-of-civilization-%2310/Sun, 02 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/rousseau-and-revolution-the-story-of-civilization-%2310/History&#39;s Dictionary History is an excellent teacher, with few pupils. After finishing this book I can understand why. 10 volumes into the Story ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/2022-on-goodreads/Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/2022-on-goodreads/2022 in Books If I had hoped that 2022 would be a return to a new normal, I was wrong. My wife and I went from 2:1 parenting to 1:1 parenting, movedhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/john-deere-100-first-words-more-than-100-words-to-spark-curious-young-toddler-minds-about-farm-construction-and-more-john-deere-kids/Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/john-deere-100-first-words-more-than-100-words-to-spark-curious-young-toddler-minds-about-farm-construction-and-more-john-deere-kids/So far my son has learned to ask for three books by name, and this is one of them. To be precise, he doesn&#39;t know the title, and instead asks for thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/peace-is-every-step-the-path-of-mindfulness-in-everyday-life/Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/peace-is-every-step-the-path-of-mindfulness-in-everyday-life/Turns out that when combined with strep throat induced insomnia, even this book can give you nightmares. That aside appreciated the small tidbits ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-long-way-to-a-small-angry-planet-wayfarers-%231/Sun, 26 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-long-way-to-a-small-angry-planet-wayfarers-%231/Snackable ‘misfits in space’ book with a more modern take on gender and sex but the rest of sci-fi tropes intact. I’ve just read this story one too manyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/starship-troopers/Fri, 24 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/starship-troopers/This is your dads sci-fi. Best read paired with forever war, links to enders game are clear. An only slightly post-fascist fascist work. Not painful likehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/secrets-of-the-nanny-whisperer-a-practical-guide-for-finding-and-achieving-the-gold-standard-of-care-for-your-child/Sun, 19 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/secrets-of-the-nanny-whisperer-a-practical-guide-for-finding-and-achieving-the-gold-standard-of-care-for-your-child/Having worked with three nannies this year, I found the content surprisingly unuseful. The vast majority goes about how to hire a nanny and run anhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-calculating-stars-lady-astronaut-universe-%231/Fri, 17 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-calculating-stars-lady-astronaut-universe-%231/Mathletes v. Machos I used to be good at math. Not &#39;A student&#39; good, I mean win the competitions, calculate faster than friends with a calculator good. Ashttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/iraq-100-stories-from-a-century-after-the-invasion/Thu, 16 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/iraq-100-stories-from-a-century-after-the-invasion/4 stars for this book existing 2 stars for how much I enjoyed ithttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/family-wealth-keeping-it-in-the-family--how-family-members-and-their-advisers-preserve-human-intellectual-and-financial-assets-for-generations/Sat, 11 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/family-wealth-keeping-it-in-the-family--how-family-members-and-their-advisers-preserve-human-intellectual-and-financial-assets-for-generations/Raw notes: Lawyers talking about principles of litigation Influence from the grave Capital is more than financialhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/leviathan-falls-the-expanse-%239/Thu, 02 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/leviathan-falls-the-expanse-%239/Leviathan Deflates She was reaching for supernatural answers, when memory and mundanity were enough. Frankly disappointing. Tiamat&#39;s Wrath had managed tohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/much-ado-about-nothing/Fri, 19 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/much-ado-about-nothing/aka: the dangers of attending a masquerade ball and credulity of accusations of adultery.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-search-for-modern-china/Thu, 18 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-search-for-modern-china/3.5 stars. Review TBRhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/black-water-sister/Tue, 02 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/black-water-sister/Offending the Culture Gods in Reassimilation A stressed lesbian medium fights gods, ghosts, gangsters, and grandmas in 21st century Penang. In a bookhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-god-changes-your-brain-breakthrough-findings-from-a-leading-neuroscientist/Tue, 02 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-god-changes-your-brain-breakthrough-findings-from-a-leading-neuroscientist/Mindgames Fast and loose with scientific conclusions. Approaching god as an applied linguistics topic is a compelling perspective with fascinatinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/radical-acceptance-embracing-your-life-with-the-heart-of-a-buddha/Tue, 02 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/radical-acceptance-embracing-your-life-with-the-heart-of-a-buddha/Pop Buddha In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, every story follows the same basic template with only the director&#39;s touches to differentiate one story fromhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-art-and-soul-of-dune/Tue, 02 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-art-and-soul-of-dune/It does not cost $165m to write a book, or adapt a book into a script. Building a fictional world with art in such a way that it is believable is an epichttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/billionaire-wilderness-the-ultra-wealthy-and-the-remaking-of-the-american-west/Sun, 24 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/billionaire-wilderness-the-ultra-wealthy-and-the-remaking-of-the-american-west/Nuanced Selfishness With an upcoming lake cabin purchase and investments in Montana, it&#39;s time to start reading about what&#39;s happening in the modern westhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/promise-of-blood-powder-mage-%231/Mon, 18 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/promise-of-blood-powder-mage-%231/&#39;Most Improved&#39; award slices both ways It&#39;s a good promise of Blood wasn&#39;t my first book in the Powder Mage universe, as I would have put the whole serieshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/touch-the-art-catch-picassos-rooster/Sun, 17 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/touch-the-art-catch-picassos-rooster/So far, this series is the best I&#39;ve found to engage my 11 month old son in reading. Since I was only able to buy these books used, anything destroyablehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/wrath-of-empire-gods-of-blood-and-powder-%232/Sat, 09 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/wrath-of-empire-gods-of-blood-and-powder-%232/Defeat is More Interesting One of the most satisfying elements of a fantasy or sci-fi sequel is the opportunity to explore the consequences of thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/never-touch-a-dragon/Wed, 06 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/never-touch-a-dragon/The tactile cover and pages are great for transitioning from touch-based object play to visual and audio cues around reading. This book was recommended byhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/sins-of-empire-gods-of-blood-and-powder-%231/Sat, 25 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/sins-of-empire-gods-of-blood-and-powder-%231/Sins of Fantasy Novels to Support Authors Surviving in a Capitalist System You&#39;re about the only decent person in this whole damned city. Sins of Empirehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/winters-orbit-winters-orbit-%231/Mon, 13 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/winters-orbit-winters-orbit-%231/DNF Chapter 6.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-wars-of-the-roses-the-fall-of-the-plantagenets-and-the-rise-of-the-tudors/Fri, 10 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-wars-of-the-roses-the-fall-of-the-plantagenets-and-the-rise-of-the-tudors/Civil War Pattern Matching A decade ago, I got front row seats to the low level Iraqi civil war playing outside my window. On a weekend off, I was stunnedhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-goblin-emperor-the-chronicles-of-osreth-%231/Mon, 30 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-goblin-emperor-the-chronicles-of-osreth-%231/Competent is Good Enough In special effects, faces are the hardest to passably recreate. This is because the human brain, through eons of evolution ishttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-body-a-guide-for-occupants/Thu, 26 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-body-a-guide-for-occupants/Skin Deep isn&#39;t always Bad Bill Bryson is like a series lectures from the world&#39;s ultimate science teacher. Like his previous science tome &#39;A Shorthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-warriors-apprentice-vorkosigan-saga-%232/Thu, 26 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-warriors-apprentice-vorkosigan-saga-%232/Build an Empire, Were it So Easy The Warrior’s apprentice takes a cocky 17 year old Miles as he machinates his way through warring factions to build ahttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/seeing-like-a-state-how-certain-schemes-to-improve-the-human-condition-have-failed/Thu, 12 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/seeing-like-a-state-how-certain-schemes-to-improve-the-human-condition-have-failed/Placeholder. Great book.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-year-of-the-flood-maddaddam-%232/Tue, 10 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-year-of-the-flood-maddaddam-%232/End of the World was Boring The fall of man was multidimensional. Ancestral primates fell out of the trees, then they fell from plant eating to meathttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/entangled-life-how-fungi-make-our-worlds-change-our-minds-shape-our-futures/Sun, 08 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/entangled-life-how-fungi-make-our-worlds-change-our-minds-shape-our-futures/Overly Entangled The chemists of the natural world get short shrift. The paucity of research about fungi belies the fact that there are somewhere betweenhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/life-ascending-the-ten-great-inventions-of-evolution/Fri, 06 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/life-ascending-the-ten-great-inventions-of-evolution/Enjoyed this much more than Hail Mary.... I guess if I want science better to go straight for the opinionated source.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/becoming/Wed, 04 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/becoming/politics by a non politician who becomes a politician fed up with politics. good readhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/project-hail-mary/Wed, 04 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/project-hail-mary/Space Sucks, Science is Fun Every science nerd dreams that someday their years of learning esoteric knowledge will pay off. So for many, the real worldhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/nomadland-surviving-america-in-the-twenty-first-century/Thu, 29 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/nomadland-surviving-america-in-the-twenty-first-century/Immersion reporting is much better than the regular sort, and it shows in this book. I&#39;ve spent about 4 years houseless, and much of what the author wrotehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/super-founders-what-data-reveals-about-billion-dollar-startups/Mon, 19 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/super-founders-what-data-reveals-about-billion-dollar-startups/Privilege Wins Why yes, I too would like to found a billion dollar company. So what does the data reveal about the best way to a billion dollar valuationhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-light-of-all-that-falls-the-licanius-trilogy-%233/Mon, 19 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-light-of-all-that-falls-the-licanius-trilogy-%233/No Lasting Impression It&#39;s harder than expected to write a review of Islington after a few months. I certainly remember the main characters, but likehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-renaissance-the-story-of-civilization-%235/Thu, 15 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-renaissance-the-story-of-civilization-%235/Death by Detail What was the renaissance, and what caused it? Read something else if you want to find out. 4500 pages into the Story of Civilizationhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/an-echo-of-things-to-come-the-licanius-trilogy-%232/Mon, 05 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/an-echo-of-things-to-come-the-licanius-trilogy-%232/99 Names of Caeden Certainty is hubris [...] it is arrogance and Bluster. Like most trilogies, Islington has the unenviable task of setting up a broaderhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/working-backwards-insights-stories-and-secrets-from-inside-amazon/Fri, 02 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/working-backwards-insights-stories-and-secrets-from-inside-amazon/placeholder Good intentions don&#39;t work, but mechanisms do.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-shadow-of-what-was-lost-the-licanius-trilogy-%231/Thu, 01 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-shadow-of-what-was-lost-the-licanius-trilogy-%231/Fantasy Soup When it comes to fantasy, the author can chose different gini coefficients for magic-power distribution. Egalitarian powers aren’t fun, sohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/foreigner-foreigner-%231/Fri, 18 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/foreigner-foreigner-%231/Wonder in Incomprehension There was nothing in the laws of the universe that said Atevi had to have human attributes, or respond when humans tried tohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/invader-foreigner-%232/Fri, 18 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/invader-foreigner-%232/Aliens are Invading! But First, Tea There is nothing more dangerous than politics without information. A book about politics and diplomacy should be myhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/amazon-unbound-jeff-bezos-and-the-invention-of-a-global-empire/Sat, 05 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/amazon-unbound-jeff-bezos-and-the-invention-of-a-global-empire/Everything Store -&gt; Everything Platform It&#39;s easy to get caught up in the impact that Amazon as a company has had on American politics. Lina Khan is nowhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-chosen-and-the-beautiful/Sat, 05 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-chosen-and-the-beautiful/Origami Permutations on Wealth Origami was never about the finished product. For me, it was the act of folding, taking an inert shape and transforming ithttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-taking-of-getty-oil-pennzoil-texaco-and-the-takeover-battle-that-made-history/Tue, 01 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-taking-of-getty-oil-pennzoil-texaco-and-the-takeover-battle-that-made-history/$10b buys a good story The more advanced the civilization, the longer its lawsuits. Getty Oil is about capitalist and legal sausage making. Forhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-bin-ladens-an-arabian-family-in-the-american-century/Sun, 30 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-bin-ladens-an-arabian-family-in-the-american-century/Wealthy Black Sheep Rich scions do more, even as they bicker. The Roosevelts helped their son through a breezy ascent in New York politics to becomehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-traitor-baru-cormorant-the-masquerade-%231/Sun, 23 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-traitor-baru-cormorant-the-masquerade-%231/Fundamental Decision Making Error Your error is fundamental to the human psyche: you have allowed yourself to believe that others are mechanisms, statichttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-age-of-faith-the-story-of-civilization-%234/Wed, 19 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-age-of-faith-the-story-of-civilization-%234/Western civilization is built on a lie. Since the enlightenment, historians and philosophers draw a line from classical culture to modern western thoughthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-to-hire-a-players-finding-the-top-people-for-your-team-even-if-you-dont-have-a-recruiting-department/Wed, 12 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-to-hire-a-players-finding-the-top-people-for-your-team-even-if-you-dont-have-a-recruiting-department/Review TBW.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/capitalism-in-america-an-economic-history-of-the-united-states/Sat, 08 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/capitalism-in-america-an-economic-history-of-the-united-states/Vigorous Self-Congratulation America has accepted that destruction is the price of creation. What created American prosperity? Capitalism in Americahttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/on-basilisk-station-honor-harrington-%231/Tue, 04 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/on-basilisk-station-honor-harrington-%231/46th book of 2021: On Wish-Fulfillment Station On Basilisk Station promises to take an exceedingly competent protagonist through harrowing circumstanceshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/empire-of-silver-a-new-monetary-history-of-china/Sun, 02 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/empire-of-silver-a-new-monetary-history-of-china/review TBR Caesar and Christ TBRhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fugitive-telemetry-the-murderbot-diaries-%236/Thu, 29 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fugitive-telemetry-the-murderbot-diaries-%236/43rd book of 2021: Fugitive Telemetry takes place in-universe between Exit Strategy and Network Effect (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3274092254)https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-guide-to-the-good-life-the-ancient-art-of-stoic-joy/Wed, 28 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-guide-to-the-good-life-the-ancient-art-of-stoic-joy/42nd book of 2021: Equanimous Two Stars How to find stoic joy in reading a mediocre book? Negative visualization: imagine a world where one never had thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-buried-an-archaeology-of-the-egyptian-revolution/Fri, 23 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-buried-an-archaeology-of-the-egyptian-revolution/41st book of 2021: Shallow Archeology What do the the last gasps of a civilization look like? One could argue that it resembles something like the Arabhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/who-the-a-method-for-hiring/Fri, 23 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/who-the-a-method-for-hiring/39th book of 2021: Voodoo Hiring Hey you, yes you. Who are the most talented people you know? Would they be a good fit for product manager, projecthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/caesar-and-christ-story-of-civilization-%233/Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/caesar-and-christ-story-of-civilization-%233/40th book of 2021: History of Flesh and Bone Greece may have been the freedom-loving philosophic pillar of western civilization, but it was Rome thathttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/on-the-house-a-washington-memoir/Sun, 18 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/on-the-house-a-washington-memoir/38th book of 2021: A Shot and a Beer They say don&#39;t judge a book by it&#39;s cover, but please, please judge this book by its delicious cover. John Boehner ishttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-anarchy-the-east-india-company-corporate-violence-and-the-pillage-of-an-empire/Tue, 13 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-anarchy-the-east-india-company-corporate-violence-and-the-pillage-of-an-empire/37th book of 2021: Chaos is a Ladder Set in the declining days of the Mughal empire, the Anarchy follows the rise of the East India Company. In a fewhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-desolation-called-peace-teixcalaan-%232/Mon, 12 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-desolation-called-peace-teixcalaan-%232/36th book of 2021: Body Politic Everybody had politics, even if only some people had sex. Narratives of collective action and dissonance are so oftenhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-complete-guide-to-buying-and-selling-apartment-buildings/Sat, 10 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-complete-guide-to-buying-and-selling-apartment-buildings/35th book of 2021: Incomplete, Incorrect There are many poorly written books on real estate; this is one. The amount of content that relates to motivationhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/jericho-season-3-jericho-graphic-novels-%231/Tue, 06 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/jericho-season-3-jericho-graphic-novels-%231/34th book of 2021: Dys-trope-ia I’m happy that this comic book series exists, a lower budget way to continue a plot that didn’t succeed in the meathttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/attention-factory-the-story-of-tiktok-chinas-bytedance/Sat, 03 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/attention-factory-the-story-of-tiktok-chinas-bytedance/33rd book of 2021: Red Ocean Strategy “We must face the fact that for 96% of people, their needs are so vulgar,” explained Gao Han, a senior UI designerhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/best-ever-apartment-syndication-book/Sat, 03 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/best-ever-apartment-syndication-book/Exaggerated, but Useful Real estate literature is a questionable genre. Many syndicators realize that thought leadership is essential to deal flow, andhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/young-china-how-the-restless-generation-will-change-their-country-and-the-world/Sat, 03 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/young-china-how-the-restless-generation-will-change-their-country-and-the-world/32nd book of 2021: Pivotal Generation For most of the world’s and China’s history, generations didn’t matter. Sons and daughters adopted the class andhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/billion-dollar-loser-the-epic-rise-and-spectacular-fall-of-adam-neumann-and-wework/Thu, 25 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/billion-dollar-loser-the-epic-rise-and-spectacular-fall-of-adam-neumann-and-wework/29th book of 2021: 21st Century Economy He is 1/4 crazy, 1/4 brilliant, and the other half is a fight between his ego and genuinely caring for peoplehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/catherine-the-great-portrait-of-a-woman/Mon, 22 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/catherine-the-great-portrait-of-a-woman/28th book of 2021: Power Politics I started my career watching Iraqi political brawls punctuated by assassinations, and now spend my days plottinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/real-estate-investing-master-commercial-residential-and-industrial-properties-by-understanding-market-signs-rental-property-analysis-and-negotiation-strategies/Mon, 22 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/real-estate-investing-master-commercial-residential-and-industrial-properties-by-understanding-market-signs-rental-property-analysis-and-negotiation-strategies/27th book of 2021: Shaky Foundations A house is made of materials, sometimes these materials are expensive, sometimes they are cheap. You can buy a househttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-life-of-greece-the-story-of-civilization-%232/Sun, 21 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-life-of-greece-the-story-of-civilization-%232/26th book of 2021: History does not leap, it saunters. History’s allure is either to understand how the world works, or experience worlds otherwisehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich-a-history-of-nazi-germany/Sat, 13 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich-a-history-of-nazi-germany/25th book of 2021: A Country Gone Mad &#34;Others demanded that the victims lie down on the ground to be shot through the neck, I did not approve of thesehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-to-avoid-a-climate-disaster-the-solutions-we-have-and-the-breakthroughs-we-need/Tue, 09 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-to-avoid-a-climate-disaster-the-solutions-we-have-and-the-breakthroughs-we-need/24th book of 2021: Global Warming Factfulness Global warming is a vast problem, but not intractably complex. We emit about: 52 billion tons of carbon /https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/growth-from-microorganisms-to-megacities-mit-press/Mon, 08 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/growth-from-microorganisms-to-megacities-mit-press/23rd book of 2021: Nothing Lasts Forever Humans are terrible at anything other than linear thinking. Our collective inability to understand the differencehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/honestly-adoption-answers-to-101-questions-about-adoption-and-foster-care/Sun, 21 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/honestly-adoption-answers-to-101-questions-about-adoption-and-foster-care/21st book of 2021: Trauma and Children “Making the decision to have a child - it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walkinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/emergency-skin-forward-collection-%233/Sun, 14 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/emergency-skin-forward-collection-%233/2021 #19: Path Dependency The problem with understanding civilization is that our small sample. There was only one Athens or one Rome, who&#39;s to say whathttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/summer-frost-forward-collection-%232/Sun, 14 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/summer-frost-forward-collection-%232/2021 #20: Hero&#39;s AI Journey Hero builds an AI. Hero falls in love with AI. AI becomes sentient and destroys humanity. Maybe there was something deeper tohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/oryx-and-crake-maddaddam-%231/Tue, 09 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/oryx-and-crake-maddaddam-%231/18th book of 2021: How the world ends. It’s not difficult to envision childhood trauma and sexual frustration as the shaper of global catastrophe. Afterhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/house-of-suns/Tue, 02 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/house-of-suns/17th book of 2021: Sex, Politics, Apathy. I have a rule when it comes to scifi: if the main character starts talking esoteric politics while engaging inhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-great-escape-health-wealth-and-the-origins-of-inequality/Mon, 01 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-great-escape-health-wealth-and-the-origins-of-inequality/16th book of 2021: Dismal Science With advocates like these, capitalism doesn’t need critics. My advice? Skip this book. Great Escape is a free flowinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/brain-rules-for-baby-how-to-raise-a-smart-and-happy-child-from-zero-to-five/Mon, 25 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/brain-rules-for-baby-how-to-raise-a-smart-and-happy-child-from-zero-to-five/15th book of 2020: Science Says... Emotions Matter Parenting is about brain development. This isn&#39;t a science, it&#39;s an art. Yet like most toddlerhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/islamic-empires-the-cities-that-shaped-civilization-from-mecca-to-dubai/Mon, 25 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/islamic-empires-the-cities-that-shaped-civilization-from-mecca-to-dubai/14th book of 2021: Nomadic Empires Everybody hates Dubai. The common critique runs that Dubai is “too new, too fake, too flashy, too lacking in historyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-promised-land/Sat, 23 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-promised-land/13th book of 2021: Director’s Cut Most of us suspect that we are pawns in a larger game. For me, the only advantage of working in the State Department washttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/exhalation/Sat, 23 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/exhalation/12th book of 2021: Sci-Factoids To be a nerdy American millennial is to have unprecedented privilege in asking &#39;what if?&#39; Not only do we benefit fromhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/bringing-up-b%C3%A9b%C3%A9-one-american-mother-discovers-the-wisdom-of-french-parenting/Tue, 19 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/bringing-up-b%C3%A9b%C3%A9-one-american-mother-discovers-the-wisdom-of-french-parenting/11th book of 2021: It’s Me who Decides Two things every parent craves: 1. Advice on how to be a better parent. 2. Validation that everybody else they knowhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/zen-mind-beginners-mind-informal-talks-on-zen-meditation-and-practice/Mon, 18 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/zen-mind-beginners-mind-informal-talks-on-zen-meditation-and-practice/10th book of 2020: I Can&#39;t Handle the Truth There&#39;s no need to remember what I say, there&#39;s no need to understand what I say That&#39;s a good thing, as Ihttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/if-not-winter-fragments-of-sappho/Wed, 13 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/if-not-winter-fragments-of-sappho/7th book of 2021: Sweet Morsel If Not, Winter is lyrical but accessible reminder of universal human experience and how little we can retain of even thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/lights-out-pride-delusion-and-the-fall-of-general-electric/Wed, 13 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/lights-out-pride-delusion-and-the-fall-of-general-electric/8th book of 2021: GE- Not the Company we Want, but the Company We Deserve GE was born not of Edison&#39;s invention, but from JP Morgan&#39;s financial acumenhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/whats-going-on-in-there-how-the-brain-and-mind-develop-in-the-first-five-years-of-life/Mon, 11 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/whats-going-on-in-there-how-the-brain-and-mind-develop-in-the-first-five-years-of-life/5th book of 2021: First Principles of Parenting One constant of learning to be a parent is contradictory advice. People and authors are sufficientlyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-eerie-silence-renewing-our-search-for-alien-intelligence/Thu, 07 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-eerie-silence-renewing-our-search-for-alien-intelligence/4th book of 2021: Somewhere between zero and infinity In modernity, we accept that evidence and experimentation can lead us to answering some of life’shttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/end-of-an-era-how-chinas-authoritarian-revival-is-undermining-its-rise/Wed, 06 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/end-of-an-era-how-chinas-authoritarian-revival-is-undermining-its-rise/3rd book of 2021: Reversion to the Mean A common fallacy among China watchers is assuming that liberal democracies are the norm or a logical endpoint ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/theres-no-such-thing-as-bad-weather-a-scandinavian-moms-secrets-for-raising-healthy-resilient-and-confident-kids-from-friluftsliv-to-hygge/Tue, 05 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/theres-no-such-thing-as-bad-weather-a-scandinavian-moms-secrets-for-raising-healthy-resilient-and-confident-kids-from-friluftsliv-to-hygge/2nd book of 2021: Free Play friluftsliv is the nordic concept of getting outdoors as a means to cure all maladies. With the craze started by books likehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire-all-6-volumes/Mon, 04 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire-all-6-volumes/1st book of 2021: The Forest and the Trees. After reading this near 4000 page epic, I found myself made of questions. What is Rome? What is history? Whathttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/2021-on-goodreads/Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/2021-on-goodreads/2021 was a strange year. My first year as a dad changed how I spent time as well as the topics that interest me, and the second year of the pandemic madehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/astrophysics-for-people-in-a-hurry/Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/astrophysics-for-people-in-a-hurry/Watch cosmos instead. Or take even a little bit of time to read a full book on the subject.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/chinese-breeze-graded-reader-series-level-1-300-word-level-%E4%BD%A0%E6%9C%80%E5%96%9C%E6%AC%A2%E8%B0%81-n%C7%90-zu%C3%AC-x%C7%90huan-shu%C3%AD-whom-do-you-like-more/Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/chinese-breeze-graded-reader-series-level-1-300-word-level-%E4%BD%A0%E6%9C%80%E5%96%9C%E6%AC%A2%E8%B0%81-n%C7%90-zu%C3%AC-x%C7%90huan-shu%C3%AD-whom-do-you-like-more/A book with a reasonable narrative using only 300 word-groups! Very helpful.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/chinese-breeze-graded-reader-series-level-1-300-word-level-%E9%94%99-%E9%94%99-%E9%94%99-cu%C3%B2-cu%C3%B2-cu%C3%B2-wrong-wrong-wrong/Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/chinese-breeze-graded-reader-series-level-1-300-word-level-%E9%94%99-%E9%94%99-%E9%94%99-cu%C3%B2-cu%C3%B2-cu%C3%B2-wrong-wrong-wrong/Best of the 300 word level books, simple but worth starting out .https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/chinese-breeze-graded-reader-series-level-2-500-word-level-%E5%A6%82%E6%9E%9C%E6%B2%A1%E6%9C%89%E4%BD%A0-r%C3%BAgu%C7%92-m%C3%A9iy%C7%92u-n%C7%90-if-i-didnt-have-you/Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/chinese-breeze-graded-reader-series-level-2-500-word-level-%E5%A6%82%E6%9E%9C%E6%B2%A1%E6%9C%89%E4%BD%A0-r%C3%BAgu%C7%92-m%C3%A9iy%C7%92u-n%C7%90-if-i-didnt-have-you/The best of the level 2 graded readers, without a doubt.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/chinese-breeze-graded-reader-series-level-2-500-word-level-%E5%A6%88%E5%A6%88%E5%92%8C%E5%84%BF%E5%AD%90-m%C4%81ma-h%C3%A9-%C3%A9rzi-mother-and-son/Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/chinese-breeze-graded-reader-series-level-2-500-word-level-%E5%A6%88%E5%A6%88%E5%92%8C%E5%84%BF%E5%AD%90-m%C4%81ma-h%C3%A9-%C3%A9rzi-mother-and-son/很没有意思。 为什么我应该学“蒙太奇”？ 我真的不知到。https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/chinese-breeze-graded-reader-series-level-2-500-word-level-%E6%88%91%E5%AE%B6%E7%9A%84%E5%A4%A7%E9%9B%81%E9%A3%9E%E8%B5%B0%E4%BA%86-w%C7%92-ji%C4%81-de-d%C3%A0y%C3%A0n-f%C4%93iz%C7%92u-le-our-geese-have-gone/Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/chinese-breeze-graded-reader-series-level-2-500-word-level-%E6%88%91%E5%AE%B6%E7%9A%84%E5%A4%A7%E9%9B%81%E9%A3%9E%E8%B5%B0%E4%BA%86-w%C7%92-ji%C4%81-de-d%C3%A0y%C3%A0n-f%C4%93iz%C7%92u-le-our-geese-have-gone/Not as bad as the first few pages make it seem. Actually funny at some points, but not the best among the level 2 books.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-art-of-living-the-classical-manual-on-virtue-happiness-and-effectiveness/Mon, 21 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-art-of-living-the-classical-manual-on-virtue-happiness-and-effectiveness/Guests at the Banquet of Life I always think there is more to the art of living than there is. Less a book than a lecture, an exhortation to use what I&#39;llhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-art-of-happiness/Sat, 19 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-art-of-happiness/Wait, this isn’t by the Dalai Lama this is quoted and analysis by a psychologist. I think I’ll go elsewhere.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-last-graduate-the-scholomance-%232/Sat, 19 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-last-graduate-the-scholomance-%232/Animal Farm levels of allegory about life-or-death instincts deployed in the pursuit of status, the willful blindness of the wealthy toward inequality ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-eskimos-keep-their-babies-warm-and-other-adventures-in-parenting-from-argentina-to-tanzania-and-everywhere-in-between/Wed, 02 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-eskimos-keep-their-babies-warm-and-other-adventures-in-parenting-from-argentina-to-tanzania-and-everywhere-in-between/83rd book of 2020. Parenting Short Stories. Eskimos keep their babies by putting them in the same jacket that Mom is in. Want more details? Read anotherhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-danish-way-of-parenting-what-the-happiest-people-in-the-world-know-about-raising-confident-capable-kids/Wed, 02 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-danish-way-of-parenting-what-the-happiest-people-in-the-world-know-about-raising-confident-capable-kids/84th book of 2020: Light and fluffy, not enough fruit in the center. One should be a PARENT: P - Play: Kids should play, it’s a means to control their ownhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/battle-hymn-of-the-tiger-mother/Mon, 30 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/battle-hymn-of-the-tiger-mother/81st, 82nd books of 2020: Work = Success China does well with standard education. In the 2018 PISA results, China Singapore, Macao, and Hong Kong scoredhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/little-soldiers-an-american-boy-a-chinese-school-and-the-global-race-to-achieve/Sun, 29 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/little-soldiers-an-american-boy-a-chinese-school-and-the-global-race-to-achieve/81st, 82nd books of 2020: Work = Success China does well with standard education. In the 2018 PISA results, China Singapore, Macao, and Hong Kong scoredhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/rhythm-of-war-the-stormlight-archive-%234/Thu, 26 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/rhythm-of-war-the-stormlight-archive-%234/79th book of 2020: Rhythm of ‘body keeps score’, followed by the rhythm of bore. Too often in fantasy, the hero&#39;s journey consumes so much availablehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-twelve-caesars/Tue, 24 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-twelve-caesars/49th book of 2020: Millenia of bad emperors Quoted as a primary source often enough to warrant a read. For a work nearly 2000 years old, it remainshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-cold-millions/Sun, 22 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-cold-millions/76th book of 2020: Class struggle isn&#39;t new &#34;What was it about these steep, western, water-locked cities, Seattle, Spokane, San Francisco? All three I’dhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-five-dysfunctions-of-a-team/Sat, 21 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-five-dysfunctions-of-a-team/77th book of 2020: 5 Dysfunctions of a Framework A good framework in business literature can simplify an otherwise complex space, provide predictivehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-deadly-education-the-scholomance-%231/Fri, 13 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-deadly-education-the-scholomance-%231/75th book of 2020: Lost in Calculations Read through this in one sitting, which was about as long as I think I would be able to suspend my disbelief. Thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-distant-mirror-the-calamitous-14th-century/Mon, 09 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-distant-mirror-the-calamitous-14th-century/74th book of 2020: Marches of Folly. The 14th century in Western Europe really drives home the way other civilizations can look down upon western culturehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-partnership-charter-how-to-start-out-right-with-your-new-business-partnership-or-fix-the-one-youre-in/Mon, 09 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-partnership-charter-how-to-start-out-right-with-your-new-business-partnership-or-fix-the-one-youre-in/73rd book of 2020 - 同床异梦 - Same Bed, Different Dreams ‘It’s easier to hire an employee than to find a partner.’ Partners in business are a diceyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/rendezvous-with-rama-rama-%231/Thu, 05 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/rendezvous-with-rama-rama-%231/72nd book of 2020 - Nice Escape. It’s November 3rd, as the American republic follows perilously close to last days of the Roman republic: a contestedhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/genghis-khan-and-the-making-of-the-modern-world/Tue, 27 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/genghis-khan-and-the-making-of-the-modern-world/71st book of 2020. Tidy History of an Important Story, Perhaps Too Tidy The story of Genghis Khan is of course amazing. If I could start over withhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/running-on-empty-overcome-your-childhood-emotional-neglect/Sat, 24 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/running-on-empty-overcome-your-childhood-emotional-neglect/70th book of 2020: Generational echoes of neglect. Born to parents of the greatest generation, childhood for both my parents was an alternating gauntlethttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/an-elegant-puzzle-systems-of-engineering-management/Fri, 23 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/an-elegant-puzzle-systems-of-engineering-management/69th book of 2020: An elegant turd. After being in the business of ‘managing’ for about two years, it feels like I’ve learned enough to write a book. Ihttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-phoenix-project-a-novel-about-it-devops-and-helping-your-business-win/Fri, 23 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-phoenix-project-a-novel-about-it-devops-and-helping-your-business-win/68th book of 2020: We all work on the phoenix Project Using fiction as a means to teach the audience can be dicey, and while part of me wishes there was ahttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/oracle-bones-a-journey-between-chinas-past-and-present/Sat, 17 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/oracle-bones-a-journey-between-chinas-past-and-present/三年一个代沟: In China, a common expression holds that every three years brings a generation gap. When I lived in Beijing in 2011, you could see the buildingshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/arabs-a-3000-year-history-of-peoples-tribes-and-empires/Fri, 16 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/arabs-a-3000-year-history-of-peoples-tribes-and-empires/67th,61st books of 2020: Civilization is Just Another Tale... Arabs: a 3000 year journey. “Ink is thicker than blood” What does it mean to be an Arabhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/cribsheet-a-data-driven-guide-to-better-more-relaxed-parenting-from-birth-to-preschool/Sat, 10 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/cribsheet-a-data-driven-guide-to-better-more-relaxed-parenting-from-birth-to-preschool/51st book of 2020 Science of Newborns Says: It’ll probably be all-right. After finishing Expecting Better, it’s natural to read the science of infants andhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/heres-the-plan.-your-practical-tactical-guide-to-advancing-your-career-during-pregnancy-and-parenthood/Sat, 10 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/heres-the-plan.-your-practical-tactical-guide-to-advancing-your-career-during-pregnancy-and-parenthood/Kids and career are going to be tough. While there are a lot of books on how to be a good parent there are fewer on how to maintain a career while doinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-fifth-trimester-the-working-moms-guide-to-style-sanity-and-big-success-after-baby/Sat, 10 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-fifth-trimester-the-working-moms-guide-to-style-sanity-and-big-success-after-baby/5th trimester is a reasonable book about the first few months coming back to work after taking maternity leave. While not as good as Here&#39;s the Planhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-happiest-baby-on-the-block-the-new-way-to-calm-crying-and-help-your-newborn-baby-sleep-longer/Sat, 10 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-happiest-baby-on-the-block-the-new-way-to-calm-crying-and-help-your-newborn-baby-sleep-longer/Happiest Baby is a simple formula and brings a decent number of anecdotes, a substantial amount of confidence and a fair amount of detail for dealing withhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/destiny-disrupted-a-history-of-the-world-through-islamic-eyes/Mon, 05 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/destiny-disrupted-a-history-of-the-world-through-islamic-eyes/67th,61st books of 2020: Civilization is Just Another Tale... Arabs: a 3000 year journey. “Ink is thicker than blood” What does it mean to be an Arabhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/caesar-life-of-a-colossus/Sun, 27 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/caesar-life-of-a-colossus/60th book of 2020. If Caesar hadn’t crossed the rubicon, would it matter? As an upstanding member of western civilization, one cannot help but pick uphttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/valuation-of-hotels-for-investors/Mon, 21 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/valuation-of-hotels-for-investors/Determine whether comparables or cap rate method is the most important. Make sure you know the local market and what are the prevailing practices in thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/one-minute-to-midnight-kennedy-khrushchev-and-castro-on-the-brink-of-nuclear-war/Tue, 15 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/one-minute-to-midnight-kennedy-khrushchev-and-castro-on-the-brink-of-nuclear-war/58th book of 2020 Man plans and god laughs, nuclear war doesn’t change the equation. * If Kennedy had followed the general’s advice and launchedhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/primal-leadership-realizing-the-power-of-emotional-intelligence/Mon, 14 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/primal-leadership-realizing-the-power-of-emotional-intelligence/Primal leadership is the application of emotional intelligence to leadership. According to Goleman, one of the most important jobs of a leader is tohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/destined-for-war-can-america-and-china-escape-thucydidess-trap/Thu, 10 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/destined-for-war-can-america-and-china-escape-thucydidess-trap/54th book of 2020. tl;dr: Read the cover, read the appendix, skip the rest. ‘Destined for War’ introduces the Thucydides trap, named after Thucydides’https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/richistan-a-journey-through-the-american-wealth-boom-and-the-lives-of-the-new-rich/Mon, 07 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/richistan-a-journey-through-the-american-wealth-boom-and-the-lives-of-the-new-rich/54th book of 2020: Rich People Problems. Since 2000, the number of wealthy people in the united states has exploded. Millionaire isn’t much of ahttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-ride-of-a-lifetime-lessons-learned-from-15-years-as-ceo-of-the-walt-disney-company/Sun, 06 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-ride-of-a-lifetime-lessons-learned-from-15-years-as-ceo-of-the-walt-disney-company/52nd Book of 2020: Iger for President? Ride of a Lifetime packages a few blindingly obvious life lessons in a bite-sized book. This was the first timehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/colonel-roosevelt-theodore-roosevelt-%233/Sat, 05 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/colonel-roosevelt-theodore-roosevelt-%233/44th, 47th, 51st books of 2020: Roosevelt Trilogy: The most interesting American Theodore Roosevelt wasn’t supposed to be president. Coming from a wealthyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/altered-traits-science-reveals-how-meditation-changes-your-mind-brain-and-body/Tue, 25 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/altered-traits-science-reveals-how-meditation-changes-your-mind-brain-and-body/48th book of 2020: Mind Traits and States Altered traits promises to be an objective look at how meditation can cause long-lasting, provable changes inhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/japanese-death-poems/Mon, 24 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/japanese-death-poems/Empty-handed I entered the world Barefoot I leave it My coming, my going Two simple happenings That got entangled For each of us, the last day is cominghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/theodore-rex/Tue, 18 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/theodore-rex/44th, 47th, 51st books of 2020: Roosevelt Trilogy: The most interesting American Theodore Roosevelt wasn’t supposed to be president. Coming from a wealthyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-mind-illuminated-a-complete-meditation-guide-integrating-buddhist-wisdom-and-brain-science/Sun, 16 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-mind-illuminated-a-complete-meditation-guide-integrating-buddhist-wisdom-and-brain-science/You are not in control of your mind. There is no doer of deeds or experiencer of events. The Mind Illuminated serves as a how-to guide to the practice ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-to-buy-run-your-own-hotel/Tue, 11 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-to-buy-run-your-own-hotel/45th book of 2020: A mix of obvious and bad advice. The author ran a hotel for 18 months and then wrote a book. With precious few numbers and astoundinglyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-rise-of-theodore-roosevelt-theodore-roosevelt-%231/Sat, 08 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-rise-of-theodore-roosevelt-theodore-roosevelt-%231/44th, 47th, 51st books of 2020: Roosevelt Trilogy: The most interesting American Theodore Roosevelt wasn’t supposed to be president. Coming from a wealthyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-precipice/Mon, 03 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-precipice/43rd book of 2020. This is how the world ends. The Precipice is about ways in which humanity could perish. According to Ord, the chances that humanityhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/hotel-success-handbook-practical-sales-and-marketing-ideas-actions-and-tips-to-get-results-for-your-small-hotel-bb-or-guest-accommodation./Fri, 31 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/hotel-success-handbook-practical-sales-and-marketing-ideas-actions-and-tips-to-get-results-for-your-small-hotel-bb-or-guest-accommodation./Started this book knowing nothing about running hotels. Finished this book knowing nothing about running hotels. The chapters were full of ideas likehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-age-of-extremes-1914-1991/Tue, 28 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-age-of-extremes-1914-1991/When I was 13, I got to fly in a prop plane, and for the first time viewed my home, school, and everything I knew from 2000 ft. For the first time, mapshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/samsung-rising-the-inside-story-of-the-south-korean-giant-that-set-out-to-beat-apple-and-conquer-tech/Mon, 27 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/samsung-rising-the-inside-story-of-the-south-korean-giant-that-set-out-to-beat-apple-and-conquer-tech/42nd book of 2020: scraping the bottom. I&#39;ve probably read too many books about business in the tech industry, but reading so many allows me tohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-age-of-empire-18751914/Mon, 20 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-age-of-empire-18751914/42nd book of 2020: A History of the Belle Epoche: Strap in for an abstract ride. This book was eating vegetables in between the main course (age ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/high-output-management/Thu, 16 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/high-output-management/39th book of 2020: Silicon Valley’s Plato Among the many &#39;management and tech&#39; books I&#39;ve tackled, only Grove offers a definition of his subject: “Thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/napoleon-a-life/Thu, 16 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/napoleon-a-life/38th book of 2020. One of the great stories of humanity. Napoleon’s story is the real world fantasy for any bookish boy who fancies himself smarter thanhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-age-of-capital-18481875/Tue, 14 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-age-of-capital-18481875/37th book of 2020. As I read through the Age of Capital, the history felt surprisingly relevant. The first economic boom of the 1850s, fueled by Sanhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-canticle-for-leibowitz-st.-leibowitz-%231/Fri, 03 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-canticle-for-leibowitz-st.-leibowitz-%231/A Canticle for Leibowitz follows the arc of a post-apocalypse humanity, through three story arcs: 1. Through the discovery of key artifacts during the newhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/friday-night-lights/Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/friday-night-lights/33rd book of 2020. When Competition is Everything. Reading through Friday Night Lights, I couldn&#39;t help but marvel at twin formative experiences growinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-age-of-revolution-17891848/Wed, 17 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-age-of-revolution-17891848/31st Book of 2020: Birth of Modernity I’ll be honest, ask me about European history before 1900, and you’d be treated to a blank stare and a mystifiedhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/deaths-of-despair-and-the-future-of-capitalism/Wed, 10 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/deaths-of-despair-and-the-future-of-capitalism/30th book of 2020: American Carnage. In deaths of despair, the authors discuss the rising trend of three types of fatalities: drugs, alcohol, and suicidehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/glitch/Wed, 10 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/glitch/A quick 10 minute read, surprisingly good character development, but no plot. Not bad.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/shorefall-the-founders-trilogy-%232/Mon, 08 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/shorefall-the-founders-trilogy-%232/Shorefall was a James Bond film, set in the Foundryside universe. Start with a caper, introduce a cookie-cutter villain, then spend the next few dayshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/better-a-surgeons-notes-on-performance/Tue, 02 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/better-a-surgeons-notes-on-performance/26th book of 2020. Quick read, interesting stories. Better is more a series of articles than a coherent book. In some ways, it felt like Gawande washttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/mbs-the-rise-to-power-of-mohammed-bin-salman/Tue, 02 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/mbs-the-rise-to-power-of-mohammed-bin-salman/28th book of 2020. MBS is a reasonable way to catch up on the last 10 years of Saudi politics. I&#39;ve stayed relatively unplugged from Saudi politics sincehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/network-effect-the-murderbot-diaries-%235/Tue, 02 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/network-effect-the-murderbot-diaries-%235/27th book of 2020. You would think that the narrative of a grumpy antisocial robot who just wants to get back to watching TV serials would get boringhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/oathbringer-the-stormlight-archive-%233/Thu, 28 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/oathbringer-the-stormlight-archive-%233/Not as compelling as the second book, mainly because a lot of the plot reveals were telegraphed so clearly in the first two books, it felt like I alreadyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-enlightened-capitalists-cautionary-tales-of-business-pioneers-who-tried-to-do-well-by-doing-good/Thu, 28 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-enlightened-capitalists-cautionary-tales-of-business-pioneers-who-tried-to-do-well-by-doing-good/26th book of 2020. A book of stories with few answers. Each chapter tells the story of a different executive who found ways to make their company moral ashttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/grant/Fri, 15 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/grant/27th book of 2020: This man Fights. Grant was not destined to rise through the ranks. Had the civil war not created a dire need for somebody, (anybody!)https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/words-of-radiance-the-stormlight-archive-%232/Fri, 15 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/words-of-radiance-the-stormlight-archive-%232/Better than the first book. Shallan is a far more interesting character than Kaladin, and the twists related to her story were the most surprising thinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/bury-my-heart-at-wounded-knee-an-indian-history-of-the-american-west/Thu, 23 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/bury-my-heart-at-wounded-knee-an-indian-history-of-the-american-west/20th book of 2020. Heartbreaking. Along with slavery, this feels like the original sin of the American dream. Even a few weeks later I&#39;m still strugglinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-way-of-kings-the-stormlight-archive-%231/Thu, 23 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-way-of-kings-the-stormlight-archive-%231/2025 Re-review Sometimes, a fragment of a book stays with you - like a song you can&#39;t get out of your head. That&#39;s what has happened with Sanderson&#39;shttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/capitalism-alone-the-future-of-the-system-that-rules-the-world/Wed, 25 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/capitalism-alone-the-future-of-the-system-that-rules-the-world/18th book of 2020. This book has a great start, giving a framework to think about modern economies, nearly declaring an economic &#39;end of history&#39; in thathttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/churchill-walking-with-destiny/Mon, 23 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/churchill-walking-with-destiny/17th book of 2020. I came into this book with essentially no understanding of WW2, and what I did understand came from the American perspective, thinkinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/golden-gates-fighting-for-housing-in-america/Mon, 23 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/golden-gates-fighting-for-housing-in-america/Never have I read so much on a topic I find so interesting to learn so little. An interesting snapshot into the housing debate currently taking place inhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/facebook-the-inside-story/Sat, 07 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/facebook-the-inside-story/15th book of 2020. An Outsider&#39;s view. If you want an entertaining remix of the facts, I would recommend watching &#39;The Social Network.&#39; It&#39;s equallyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-making-of-a-manager-what-to-do-when-everyone-looks-to-you/Sat, 07 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-making-of-a-manager-what-to-do-when-everyone-looks-to-you/Julie Zhuo had a great career at Facebook starting from managing people at 25 to becoming the de-facto head of design for the entire company. Making of ahttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-slow-regard-of-silent-things-the-kingkiller-chronicle-%232.5/Sun, 01 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-slow-regard-of-silent-things-the-kingkiller-chronicle-%232.5/A riveting description of picking things up and setting them down again.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-wise-mans-fear-the-kingkiller-chronicle-%232/Sun, 01 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-wise-mans-fear-the-kingkiller-chronicle-%232/13th book of 2020. A story of a boy who needs to take some time off from magic (code?) and travels east (Iraq?) where he learns how to navigate palacehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/vc-an-american-history/Mon, 24 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/vc-an-american-history/A nice, if dry history of VC in the US. While the recent history of VC firms like Greylock, Sequoia was interesting, I&#39;m still partial to the descriptionhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/expecting-better-why-the-conventional-pregnancy-wisdom-is-wrong-and-what-you-really-need-to-know/Tue, 11 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/expecting-better-why-the-conventional-pregnancy-wisdom-is-wrong-and-what-you-really-need-to-know/11th book of 2020. Didn&#39;t know the first thing about pregnancy, and I&#39;ve been on a kick with books based on studies for everyday health topic (How not tohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-omnivores-dilemma-a-natural-history-of-four-meals/Mon, 03 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-omnivores-dilemma-a-natural-history-of-four-meals/10th book of 2020. 2.5 Stars. &#34;If corn could have an opinion it would marvel at the absurdity of it.&#34; Ummm what? I think corn would think that industrialhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-not-to-diet/Tue, 28 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-not-to-diet/Not Empty Calories Mother says to eat more vegetables, Chinese mother says to eat more gojiberries, and those in the gym tell me to eat more protein. Whohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-managers-path-a-guide-for-tech-leaders-navigating-growth-and-change/Tue, 28 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-managers-path-a-guide-for-tech-leaders-navigating-growth-and-change/9th book of 2020: Recursive Programming Management Most people don’t start as a manager asking themselves, “what does it mean to manage other people?”https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-name-of-the-wind-the-kingkiller-chronicle-%231/Tue, 28 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-name-of-the-wind-the-kingkiller-chronicle-%231/7th book of 2020. A story about a boy who thinks he’s smarter than everybody else (check), who grew up with a traveling troop of nomads (carnival?), washttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-not-to-die-discover-the-foods-scientifically-proven-to-prevent-and-reverse-disease/Sat, 18 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-not-to-die-discover-the-foods-scientifically-proven-to-prevent-and-reverse-disease/6th book of 2019. tl;dr: How Not to Diet is better, but this book isn&#39;t bad. After getting back into shape in 2019, I decided that 2020 would be the yearhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/mind-of-the-raven/Mon, 13 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/mind-of-the-raven/3rd book of 2020. Sometimes I wonder if every topic is interesting when the right level of curiosity is brought to bear. Bernd Heinrich makes Ravens, andhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/scale-the-universal-laws-of-growth-innovation-sustainability-and-the-pace-of-life-in-organisms-cities-economies-and-companies/Sun, 12 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/scale-the-universal-laws-of-growth-innovation-sustainability-and-the-pace-of-life-in-organisms-cities-economies-and-companies/4th book of 2019. Scale: a superlinear hot mess with some great ideas Scale taught me that I need to pay much closer attention to subtitles of bookshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-curse-of-bigness-antitrust-in-the-new-gilded-age/Wed, 08 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-curse-of-bigness-antitrust-in-the-new-gilded-age/4th book of 2020. The Curse of Bigness: Read Master Switch Instead. I&#39;ve read and immensely enjoyed Tim Wu&#39;s previous books &#39;The Master Switch&#39; andhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/atomic-habits-an-easy-proven-way-to-build-good-habits-break-bad-ones/Sat, 04 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/atomic-habits-an-easy-proven-way-to-build-good-habits-break-bad-ones/1st book of 2020 Atomic Habits is a solid framework with dubious science. I like habits, at current count, there are ~40 things I do every day, spendinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/alphabet-squadron/Fri, 03 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/alphabet-squadron/2nd book of 2020 When I was a kid, the X-Wing series was perfect for my imagination. After devouring a few of the books, I could spend entire eveningshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/adults-in-the-room-my-battle-with-europes-deep-establishment/Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/adults-in-the-room-my-battle-with-europes-deep-establishment/46th Book of 2019 I will summarize this book with a parable: &#39;Yanis negotiates with a brick wall&#39; Yanis - &#34;Brick wall, you look reasonable I think we canhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/airbnb-short-tourist-rentals-more-strategy-to-earn-your-property-and-make-money-with-airbnb-short-and-tourist-rentals-a-fast-and-simple-business-in-real-estate/Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/airbnb-short-tourist-rentals-more-strategy-to-earn-your-property-and-make-money-with-airbnb-short-and-tourist-rentals-a-fast-and-simple-business-in-real-estate/19th book of 2021: Slapdash Basic chapters on what it means to buy rental properties, no insight into short term stays at all. I could write a better bookhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/car-goes-far-i-like-to-read/Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/car-goes-far-i-like-to-read/Kinda disappointed by the 1 star reviews here. The sparse words and for some reason strange illustrations have made this my son&#39;s favorite book, despitehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/why-we-sleep-unlocking-the-power-of-sleep-and-dreams/Sun, 29 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/why-we-sleep-unlocking-the-power-of-sleep-and-dreams/81st book of 2019. &#34;Sleep is the bridge from despair to hope.&#34; A good overview of the biological reasons for sleep, combined with some practical tips andhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/videocracy-how-youtube-is-changing-the-world-with-double-rainbows-singing-foxes-and-other-curious-trends/Sat, 28 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/videocracy-how-youtube-is-changing-the-world-with-double-rainbows-singing-foxes-and-other-curious-trends/78th book of 2019. Read it to learn more about YouTube. Got some glimmers of interesting information about the transition from videos to channels, but styhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/senlin-ascends-the-books-of-babel-%231/Wed, 27 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/senlin-ascends-the-books-of-babel-%231/76th book of 2019 Didn’t like the protagonist, didn’t enjoy the setting, just felt like i was on a plane going nowhere as Senlin went from one cringehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/china-a-history/Tue, 26 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/china-a-history/73rd book of 2019. If you liked &#39;Fire and Blood&#39; by George RR Martin, this might be the book for you. A bit heavy on the 10,000 ft. view narrative ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-dinosaurs-a-new-history-of-a-lost-world/Tue, 26 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-dinosaurs-a-new-history-of-a-lost-world/75th book of 2019https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-secret-commonwealth-the-book-of-dust-%232/Tue, 26 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-secret-commonwealth-the-book-of-dust-%232/74th book of 2019. Not disappointing. Picking up a beloved childhood series as an adult can be a gamble. It&#39;s like rewatching films in high definitionhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-short-history-of-nearly-everything/Sun, 10 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-short-history-of-nearly-everything/72nd book of 2019. Breezy read, the author put a lot of effort into making it fun, and those efforts paid off. Essentially a romp through 19th centuryhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/energy-and-civilization-a-history/Thu, 07 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/energy-and-civilization-a-history/70th book of 2019 - Big History Done Right. Tap tap.... tap tap tap. You hear that sound? That&#39;s me furiously typing downstairs, trying to absorb thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/thunderhead-arc-of-a-scythe-%232/Sun, 03 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/thunderhead-arc-of-a-scythe-%232/68th book of 2019 When I&#39;m bored and on a plane, sometimes I write book reviews (i.e. right now). Other times I watch marvel movies. This book fitshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/scythe-arc-of-a-scythe-%231/Thu, 31 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/scythe-arc-of-a-scythe-%231/67th book of 2019. Scythe -- an interesting, somewhat meditative YA scifi novel on death. The premise was fun, and I appreciate how the author went tohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/why-nations-fail-the-origins-of-power-prosperity-and-poverty/Wed, 30 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/why-nations-fail-the-origins-of-power-prosperity-and-poverty/Great ideas, but I left the book less convinced of the theses than after reading the blurb. Ideas: Nations succeed or fail because of &#39;extractive&#39;https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/iron-and-magic-the-iron-covenant-%231/Tue, 29 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/iron-and-magic-the-iron-covenant-%231/66th book of 2019 I get it, inventing an imagined reality is hard. But sometimes the results are just less than the sum of their parts, and despite a lothttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/collapse-how-societies-choose-to-fail-or-succeed/Tue, 22 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/collapse-how-societies-choose-to-fail-or-succeed/collapse raw notes ~some times we reach the top of the s curve +greenland ~overview of the environment ~mining vs oils industry ~forestry, fishinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/age-of-myth-the-legends-of-the-first-empire-%231/Sun, 13 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/age-of-myth-the-legends-of-the-first-empire-%231/64th Book of 2019: Disappointingly Bland. I&#39;ve been on a hot streak of fantasy this year, really enjoying The Raven Tower, as well as Foundryside, andhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/kochland-the-secret-history-of-koch-industries-and-corporate-power-in-america/Sat, 12 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/kochland-the-secret-history-of-koch-industries-and-corporate-power-in-america/63rd book of 2019. 4.5 stars, here’s how America runs. Through personal experience I know tech and government. Finance has been reported on to death. Buthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/middlegame-alchemical-journeys-%231/Wed, 09 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/middlegame-alchemical-journeys-%231/63rd book of 2019. I judged this book by its cover. With Middlegame as the title and birthday-cake hand on the cover, I assumed this novel was abouthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/super-pumped-the-battle-for-uber/Sun, 29 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/super-pumped-the-battle-for-uber/60th book of 2019: If Bob Woodward were to take on Uber. Read this alongside [b:The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the Newhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-priory-of-the-orange-tree-the-roots-of-chaos-%231/Sat, 28 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-priory-of-the-orange-tree-the-roots-of-chaos-%231/59th book of 2019. I liked the two main characters Iad and Tane, didn&#39;t really like the secondary characters, and didn&#39;t like the plot. Throughout thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-upstarts-how-uber-airbnb-and-the-killer-companies-of-the-new-silicon-valley-are-changing-the-world/Fri, 27 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-upstarts-how-uber-airbnb-and-the-killer-companies-of-the-new-silicon-valley-are-changing-the-world/58th book of 2019. 2.5 stars. From the vantage point of 2019, the waves of Airbnb and Uber have both crested, and the limits of marketplace stylehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-holy-bible-king-james-version/Sat, 21 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-holy-bible-king-james-version/57th book of 2019 Depending on the source you believe, this book is the product of 700+ years of writing, condensed and edited during the Roman Empire. Ithttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/sons-of-wichita-how-the-koch-brothers-became-americas-most-powerful-and-private-dynasty/Wed, 18 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/sons-of-wichita-how-the-koch-brothers-became-americas-most-powerful-and-private-dynasty/57th book of 2019. Gossip Girl: Koch Brothers Edition This was a quick read, and felt like watching a season of Succession more than reality. We watch ourhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dark-age-red-rising-saga-%235/Mon, 02 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dark-age-red-rising-saga-%235/55th Book of 2019 &#34;There&#39;s never a right call, just people who make hard ones.&#34; At this point in the series, our heroes are no longer heroic, nor do theyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-memory-called-empire-teixcalaan-%231/Sun, 01 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-memory-called-empire-teixcalaan-%231/54th book of 2019 -- I enjoyed it. It felt like a sci-fi version of bureaucratic fiction (i.e. 驻京办主任) where the grinding gears of tradition and successionhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-colony-in-a-nation/Sun, 25 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-colony-in-a-nation/This was a frustrating book. I came into this book hoping to learn more about how policing works from the perspective of the policed, and the underlyinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-history-of-western-philosophy/Sun, 25 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-history-of-western-philosophy/<p>TBW</p>https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/doomsday-book-oxford-time-travel-%231/Sun, 25 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/doomsday-book-oxford-time-travel-%231/The premise was great, and the focus on everyday Medieval life was fascinating, but I disliked every single character from the future timeline (i.e. justhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/when-genius-failed-the-rise-and-fall-of-long-term-capital-management/Sun, 25 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/when-genius-failed-the-rise-and-fall-of-long-term-capital-management/Misaligned incentives, hubris, and too much leverage. It&#39;s the hero&#39;s journey of finance, and I like reading about it every time.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-5-love-languages-the-secret-to-love-that-lasts/Sun, 04 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-5-love-languages-the-secret-to-love-that-lasts/48th book of 2019. Came into this book expecting to hate it. I was asked, ‘What’s your love language?’ and none fit, so I assumed the framework washttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-martian-chronicles/Tue, 23 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-martian-chronicles/45th book of 2019 Came into this book with a strong recommendation from a friend thinking that I would get a novel similar to Foundation or Childhood&#39;shttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/childhoods-end/Fri, 12 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/childhoods-end/45th book of 2019. A unique take on first contact, perhaps the perfect antidote to (三体) the three body problem. In the hundreds of sci-fi books I&#39;ve readhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-democracies-die-what-history-reveals-about-our-future/Sat, 29 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-democracies-die-what-history-reveals-about-our-future/One good way to gain perspective on the current presidency is to compare it to the myriad examples from the past where democracies have failed over timehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-4-hour-workweek/Fri, 28 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-4-hour-workweek/This felt like &#39;the Game&#39; for entrepreneurs. I do run a company spending ~4h a week, and I don&#39;t think I&#39;ve read so much bad advice in a single bookhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/empire-of-things-how-we-became-a-world-of-consumers-from-the-fifteenth-century-to-the-twenty-first/Mon, 24 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/empire-of-things-how-we-became-a-world-of-consumers-from-the-fifteenth-century-to-the-twenty-first/Upon discovering this book, a globe trotting history spanning view of consumers and consumer culture, I was excited. Placing current events through thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fall-or-dodge-in-hell/Mon, 24 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fall-or-dodge-in-hell/After having been burned by Seveneves, I followed the advice of other reviews and read the first third of the book, until they enter the matrixhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/an-open-hearted-life-transformative-methods-for-compassionate-living-from-a-clinical-psychologist-anda-buddhist-nun/Thu, 20 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/an-open-hearted-life-transformative-methods-for-compassionate-living-from-a-clinical-psychologist-anda-buddhist-nun/An Open Hearted life is a mix of psychology and buddhist teachings, a sort of &#39;Buddhism lite&#39; that provides a gateway into integrating compassion intohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-broken-ladder-how-inequality-affects-the-way-we-think-live-and-die/Tue, 11 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-broken-ladder-how-inequality-affects-the-way-we-think-live-and-die/Great read, learned a lot. This book focuses on how inequality affects the mind, and changes the way we make decisions. The thesis is that those at thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/to-kill-a-mockingbird/Sat, 08 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/to-kill-a-mockingbird/A great American novel I missed when too busy reading Dragonlance growing up, now it&#39;s time to catch up. For the first 2/3 of the book, I wasn&#39;t sure whathttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-prize-the-epic-quest-for-oil-money-and-power/Sat, 01 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-prize-the-epic-quest-for-oil-money-and-power/The Prize: Could only find the abridged version, but enough people recommended it so I gave it a try. Frankly, I wish every historical topic had a bookhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/children-of-time-children-of-time-%231/Thu, 30 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/children-of-time-children-of-time-%231/This was a book about first contact between humans and an alien race that is actually alien, similar to &#39;A Mote in God&#39;s Eye&#39; or &#39;A Deepness in the Sky&#39;https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-right-stuff/Thu, 30 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-right-stuff/Recommended, fun read. The Right Stuff is a period piece about the rise of astronauts and how they were shaped by mass media, government bureaucracy, andhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-deepness-in-the-sky-zones-of-thought-%232/Thu, 16 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-deepness-in-the-sky-zones-of-thought-%232/The plot is completely unrelated to its predecessor, &#39;A fire upon the deep&#39;. However, the themes of the book are similar about first contact betweenhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-outlaw-sea-a-world-of-freedom-chaos-and-crime/Tue, 07 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-outlaw-sea-a-world-of-freedom-chaos-and-crime/I came into this book hoping to learn something. Instead, I got a few Atlantic articles, welded together about as soundly as the rusting ships the authorhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/foundryside-the-founders-trilogy-%231/Mon, 06 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/foundryside-the-founders-trilogy-%231/Who would have though that the best criticism of social media I&#39;ve found could come from a fantasy book? “Every innovation—technological, sociological, orhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/triumphs-of-experience-the-men-of-the-harvard-grant-study/Sat, 04 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/triumphs-of-experience-the-men-of-the-harvard-grant-study/This feels like the &#39;capital in the 21st century&#39; for individuals. Vaillant (and all the study leaders before and after him) have followed a small grouphttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ai-superpowers-china-silicon-valley-and-the-new-world-order/Thu, 18 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ai-superpowers-china-silicon-valley-and-the-new-world-order/AI Superpowers is an odd combination of tech history, economics treatise, and personal memoir. Like the eclectic topics, the book is a mixed bag, but washttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/binti-binti-%231/Sun, 14 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/binti-binti-%231/The only thing that seemed unique to me in the book was the plot twist about 20% of the way through. So short that there&#39;s no harm in picking it up, buthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-last-of-us-american-dreams-%232/Sun, 14 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-last-of-us-american-dreams-%232/So short... read this in about 5 minuteshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-hidden-world-imperials-%233/Sat, 13 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-hidden-world-imperials-%233/It seems like every thing I didn&#39;t like in the previous two books came out in full force. A romance plot that should have been the payoff of three bookshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/radical-markets-uprooting-capitalism-and-democracy-for-a-just-society/Tue, 09 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/radical-markets-uprooting-capitalism-and-democracy-for-a-just-society/Radical economics introduces a few ideas that serve as valuable thought experiments, even though none could be considered a serious policy proposal. Thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-left-hand-of-darkness/Tue, 02 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-left-hand-of-darkness/A book more of ideas than plot, I liked the premise and enjoyed Le Guin&#39;s curious explorations of gender (akin to Ancillary Mercy) rather thanhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/tiamats-wrath-the-expanse-%238/Wed, 27 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/tiamats-wrath-the-expanse-%238/This book hijacked my brain, I ended up reading it through in two sessions. Tiamat&#39;s Wrath rewards you for being a fan. It brings up so much from thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-billionaire-raj-a-journey-through-indias-new-gilded-age/Tue, 19 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-billionaire-raj-a-journey-through-indias-new-gilded-age/The title and subtitle are very descriptive of what you will find in this book: Billionaire Raj: focuses on stories of wealthy individuals, not India as ahttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-fire-upon-the-deep-zones-of-thought-%231/Fri, 15 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-fire-upon-the-deep-zones-of-thought-%231/Redwall mixed with Foundation. Apparently the original title for the book was &#39;Among the Tines&#39; but the editor rejected it. For being a space opera, ahttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/meditations/Fri, 15 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/meditations/A masterclass in equanimity. This was never meant to be a book, so I read it as series of &#39;notes to self&#39; on how to live life, and strive for happinesshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/factfulness-ten-reasons-were-wrong-about-the-world-and-why-things-are-better-than-you-think/Tue, 05 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/factfulness-ten-reasons-were-wrong-about-the-world-and-why-things-are-better-than-you-think/Not as good as enlightenment now on the state of the world, or something like thinking fast and slow about cognitive biases. The survey that the authorhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/head-on-lock-in-%232/Tue, 05 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/head-on-lock-in-%232/Not as good as lock in, but I don&#39;t think sports corruption would ever be that interesting to me. Worth reading though. Like it&#39;s predecessor, charactershttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/infinite-infinite-%231/Tue, 05 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/infinite-infinite-%231/It was OK. The book was entertaining enough to read, but no ideas will really stick with me more than a week after finishing.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/lock-in-lock-in-%231/Tue, 05 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/lock-in-lock-in-%231/My favorite scalzi book to date. Really liked the premise and the characters. The ending seemed a bit of a disappointment, but it was a fun ride to gethttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-consuming-fire-the-interdependency-%232/Wed, 20 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-consuming-fire-the-interdependency-%232/Better than the first book in the series.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/in-evil-times-imperials-%232/Sat, 02 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/in-evil-times-imperials-%232/Not awful, not great. Snodgrass seems to do better in the confines of a school than describing the reach of an empire, but still a reasonable jet-lag read.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ninefox-gambit-the-machineries-of-empire-%231/Sat, 02 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ninefox-gambit-the-machineries-of-empire-%231/Felt like a mix between Embassytown and Ancillary Justice. Military Scifi set in a world where mathematics and calendar rituals enable fantastichttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-high-ground-imperials-%231/Sat, 02 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-high-ground-imperials-%231/Entertaining. Very similar to Red Rising, with the lower class chip-on-his-shoulder male protagonist and royal princess classmate. Enough to convince mehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/army-of-none-autonomous-weapons-and-the-future-of-war/Sat, 26 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/army-of-none-autonomous-weapons-and-the-future-of-war/Disappointing. The first half of strong with a history of autonomous weapons, and a great taxonomy of the different types of autonomy, hinting at how thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/norse-mythology/Sat, 19 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/norse-mythology/Didn&#39;t get the hype. A pretty standard retelling of norse myths, felt kinda like reading a short story textbook more than anything else.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fire-blood-a-targaryen-history-%231/Mon, 14 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fire-blood-a-targaryen-history-%231/A rousing collection of faux-history wikipedia entries and tax policy musings, interwoven with a gossip column and dragons. I really enjoyed it.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/orientalism/Mon, 14 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/orientalism/This is the &#39;surgeon generals warning&#39; of international studies, and I&#39;m astounded I managed to get a degree in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizationshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/when-breath-becomes-air/Sat, 05 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/when-breath-becomes-air/At first I thought it was a bit pretentious, but by the end I felt that Kalanithi got to the non-fiction equivalent of the hero&#39;s journey. Death is thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-death-and-life-of-great-american-cities/Fri, 04 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-death-and-life-of-great-american-cities/Does a great job trashing standard dogmas, but felt like it introduces new dogmas in their place. I kept hoping for some objective way to measure singlehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-new-geography-of-jobs/Fri, 04 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-new-geography-of-jobs/Fast read, but felt incomplete. I liked Moretti&#39;s ability to make me think of America as a collection of countries, each on a different trajectory ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/aftermath-star-wars-aftermath-%231/Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/aftermath-star-wars-aftermath-%231/I should have waited and read the other reviews first.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-fall-of-hyperion-hyperion-cantos-%232/Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-fall-of-hyperion-hyperion-cantos-%232/Hyperion was great, but only half the story. This book changes the narrative structure to a first person account from M. Severn, and a third personhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/hyperion-hyperion-cantos-%231/Mon, 31 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/hyperion-hyperion-cantos-%231/Came into this book with no expectations and was pleasantly surprised. A series of short stories that hang together better than cloud Atlas, withhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-ascent-of-money-a-financial-history-of-the-world/Mon, 31 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-ascent-of-money-a-financial-history-of-the-world/Simple but useful as a means of understanding finance from the fundamentals and origin. Didn&#39;t learn as much as House of Morgan , but the book was ahttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-space-barons-elon-musk-jeff-bezos-and-the-quest-to-colonize-the-cosmos/Mon, 31 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-space-barons-elon-musk-jeff-bezos-and-the-quest-to-colonize-the-cosmos/Got through the whole book and didn&#39;t really learn anything other than gossip and trip details of the three founders. I would have a appreciated a storyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-house-of-morgan-an-american-banking-dynasty-and-the-rise-of-modern-finance/Mon, 03 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-house-of-morgan-an-american-banking-dynasty-and-the-rise-of-modern-finance/3 stars for giving an entertaining overview of gilded age banking, but the 4th star is for giving a history book about how the finance system came to behttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/barbarians-at-the-gate-the-fall-of-rjr-nabisco/Thu, 15 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/barbarians-at-the-gate-the-fall-of-rjr-nabisco/Sadly, only the abridge version was available for audiobook. Read that, but probably should have read the entire book instead. Still, I was surprised thathttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fear-trump-in-the-white-house/Thu, 15 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fear-trump-in-the-white-house/Good summary, I feel like I haven’t missed anything after skipping out on the news for the last two years. Now I’ll continue to tune out and wait for thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/frenemies-the-epic-disruption-of-the-ad-business-and-everything-else/Thu, 15 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/frenemies-the-epic-disruption-of-the-ad-business-and-everything-else/A jumbled overview of the challenge faced by ad agencies today. Tries to explain the current situation while overlaying a narrative, and a biography ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-emperor-of-all-maladies-a-biography-of-cancer/Thu, 15 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-emperor-of-all-maladies-a-biography-of-cancer/More history than insight, would have liked more insight.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-ice-dragon/Thu, 15 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-ice-dragon/Worst grrm book I’ve read.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-moon-is-a-harsh-mistress/Thu, 15 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-moon-is-a-harsh-mistress/Started out slow, but by about 3/4 of the way through I couldn’t put it down. Definitely conveys many opinions about the authors politics, but not so badhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-mote-in-gods-eye-moties-%231/Thu, 15 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-mote-in-gods-eye-moties-%231/Two 70’s Sci-fi writers discover a species hitherto unknown to man, a species so fascinating that they struggle immensely to describe these creatures inhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/thinking-in-bets-making-smarter-decisions-when-you-dont-have-all-the-facts/Thu, 15 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/thinking-in-bets-making-smarter-decisions-when-you-dont-have-all-the-facts/Not as in depth as I would have hoped. Put names on a few concepts which I found interesting such as resulting: judging the soundness of a strategy basedhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/exit-strategy-the-murderbot-diaries-%234/Wed, 10 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/exit-strategy-the-murderbot-diaries-%234/I, too, love murderbot!https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/leonardo-da-vinci/Wed, 10 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/leonardo-da-vinci/I thought I would have liked this book. I’m interested in the person and the era. However the frequent lapses into comparing Leonardo to other innovatorshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-great-bridge-the-epic-story-of-the-building-of-the-brooklyn-bridge/Wed, 10 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-great-bridge-the-epic-story-of-the-building-of-the-brooklyn-bridge/Continues to make me think that writing code is similar to the construction industry. Construction in 1870s was also very similar to what it’s like todayhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/thinking-fast-and-slow/Wed, 10 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/thinking-fast-and-slow/How did I not read this book earlier? A rare book that avoids the trap of explaining too much and predicting too little. The foundation of other goodhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/principles-summary/Wed, 19 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/principles-summary/Was more interested in the autobiography than the principles part, but most principles seemed either obvious or lacking evidence.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/artificial-condition-the-murderbot-diaries-%232/Tue, 07 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/artificial-condition-the-murderbot-diaries-%232/The narrator is so compelling, these books are just fun. I&#39;m going to read every book in this series.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ancient-greece-from-prehistoric-to-hellenistic-times/Tue, 24 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ancient-greece-from-prehistoric-to-hellenistic-times/Learned a ton in this book. Perfect companion for a week long trip in the Greek islands. Probably a must read if you never took a course in the classics.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/annihilation-southern-reach-%231/Tue, 24 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/annihilation-southern-reach-%231/2026: OH MY GOD IT&#39;S AN ALLEGORY FOR HUMANITY&#39;S FIRST CONTACT WITH AI Original read: 2018 I.... didn&#39;t get it. Maybe I&#39;ll like the movie better?https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/enlightenment-now-the-case-for-reason-science-humanism-and-progress/Tue, 24 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/enlightenment-now-the-case-for-reason-science-humanism-and-progress/It feels like this is the thesis that Pinker wanted to develop when he wrote &#39;the better angels of our nature.&#39; The fist half of the book, which dealthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/happy-city-transforming-our-lives-through-urban-design/Tue, 24 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/happy-city-transforming-our-lives-through-urban-design/The thesis of this book is that cities should be designed around pedestrians and more livable spaces rather than cars and commutes, and that this sort ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/provenance-imperial-radch/Mon, 02 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/provenance-imperial-radch/Fun, but I didn’t really like the protagonist, and this wasn’t as interesting as the ancillary series.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-fifth-season-the-broken-earth-%231/Wed, 27 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-fifth-season-the-broken-earth-%231/Fit together nicely. Different perspectives, enjoyable fantasy.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-obelisk-gate-the-broken-earth-%232/Wed, 27 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-obelisk-gate-the-broken-earth-%232/Very much a direct continuation of the first book, didn&#39;t expand the world as much as I expected, but also didn&#39;t feel like the first half of a storyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-stone-sky-the-broken-earth-%233/Wed, 27 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-stone-sky-the-broken-earth-%233/Satisfying conclusion, pulled some of the same tricks as the original on a grander scale, but ended the series on a good note. Worth reading this serieshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/specops-expeditionary-force-%232/Sat, 28 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/specops-expeditionary-force-%232/The conceit got repetitive. It&#39;s pretty rare that I get 90% through a book and am not motivated to finish.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/all-systems-red-the-murderbot-diaries-%231/Mon, 23 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/all-systems-red-the-murderbot-diaries-%231/Fun. Reminded me of all you need is kill, combined with Andy Weir.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/we-are-legion-we-are-bob-bobiverse-%231/Tue, 17 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/we-are-legion-we-are-bob-bobiverse-%231/Good fun. Feels like a similar tone to Andy Weir.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-march-of-folly-from-troy-to-vietnam/Sun, 25 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-march-of-folly-from-troy-to-vietnam/Not as good as I had hoped considering all the recommendations, but still interesting.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/directorate-s-the-c.i.a.-and-americas-secret-wars-in-afghanistan-and-pakistan-2001-2016/Sun, 25 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/directorate-s-the-c.i.a.-and-americas-secret-wars-in-afghanistan-and-pakistan-2001-2016/Great read. Some timeless lessons here about the ability of organizations to fool themselves, and small events leading to lasting consequences. This bookhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/remote-office-not-required/Sat, 13 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/remote-office-not-required/Read this book to help run teams that are split across London and California. instead of any analysis for how to make remote work effective, I gothttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ancillary-justice-imperial-radch-%231/Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ancillary-justice-imperial-radch-%231/I probably blasted through this too fast, but enjoyed it. I&#39;ll be reading the series. I appreciated the commentary on translation, the first person AIhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/crushing-it-in-apartments-and-commercial-real-estate-how-a-small-investor-can-make-it-big/Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/crushing-it-in-apartments-and-commercial-real-estate-how-a-small-investor-can-make-it-big/Learned a few new good things. I wish there were more numbers and analysis of markets rather than generic strategies on value add and making offers withhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/free-speech-a-very-short-introduction/Tue, 18 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/free-speech-a-very-short-introduction/More informative than other books I&#39;ve read on the subject, a solid grounding in the underlying philosophy and a dispassionate view of the competinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-launch-pad-inside-y-combinator-silicon-valleys-most-exclusive-school-for-startups/Sun, 09 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-launch-pad-inside-y-combinator-silicon-valleys-most-exclusive-school-for-startups/Makes me want to start a startup.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/freedom-for-the-thought-that-we-hate-a-biography-of-the-first-amendment/Tue, 30 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/freedom-for-the-thought-that-we-hate-a-biography-of-the-first-amendment/I liked the overview of the subject, and the author does a good job of illustrating how malleable the concepts around the 1st amendment are, but thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/weapons-of-math-destruction-how-big-data-increases-inequality-and-threatens-democracy/Tue, 30 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/weapons-of-math-destruction-how-big-data-increases-inequality-and-threatens-democracy/Didn&#39;t have anything insightful or actionable. Something along the lines of &#39;be careful with ML, it can do things you don&#39;t expect&#39; followed by a lot ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-to-make-big-money-in-small-apartments/Tue, 31 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-to-make-big-money-in-small-apartments/The concepts were good, but this would have been more useful as an article, not a book.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/too-like-the-lightning-terra-ignota-%231/Fri, 19 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/too-like-the-lightning-terra-ignota-%231/I didn&#39;t really enjoy this book. There&#39;s so much going on, but nothing had depth, and even the plot didn&#39;t make it far. The politics felt shallow, writtenhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-red-web-the-struggle-between-russias-digital-dictators-and-the-new-online-revolutionaries/Sun, 05 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-red-web-the-struggle-between-russias-digital-dictators-and-the-new-online-revolutionaries/tl;dr - Russian authorities were slower than their Chinese/American counterparts understanding the potential impact of the web, but now they get it, sohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/alibaba-the-house-that-jack-ma-built/Wed, 18 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/alibaba-the-house-that-jack-ma-built/A great compliment to porter erisman&#39;s book, but lacks much inside perspective on the company. A decent primer on Chinese tech.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/indonesia-etc-exploring-the-improbable-nation/Sun, 08 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/indonesia-etc-exploring-the-improbable-nation/More etc. than about Indonesia. I wish there were more history and macro level analysis, but the memoir format of the book was palatable.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/embassytown/Thu, 28 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/embassytown/Mystifying in the way good scifi should be. More fun to think about than it was to read, but so many good ideas! Also, the closest you&#39;ll come to readinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/behind-the-cloud-the-untold-story-of-how-salesforce.com-went-from-idea-to-billion-dollar-company-and-revolutionized-an-industry/Wed, 20 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/behind-the-cloud-the-untold-story-of-how-salesforce.com-went-from-idea-to-billion-dollar-company-and-revolutionized-an-industry/This book was so bad it was good. 111 lessons about how to bullshit your way to becoming a billionaire, written in pure bullshit (空话). It&#39;s informative tohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/disrupted-my-misadventure-in-the-start-up-bubble/Tue, 19 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/disrupted-my-misadventure-in-the-start-up-bubble/tl;dr: Go watch Silicon Valley instead. First: Read this. Choice quote: &#34;The author, however, continually expresses his disappointment for all thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/el-narco-inside-mexicos-criminal-insurgency/Sun, 17 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/el-narco-inside-mexicos-criminal-insurgency/A good overview.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-lean-startup/Fri, 08 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-lean-startup/Neither about startups nor about being lean. This book should be titled &#39;The Effective Organization&#39;. Lots of really good insights in here, greathttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/morning-star-red-rising-saga-%233/Sun, 21 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/morning-star-red-rising-saga-%233/I enjoyed it. Pulpy, to be sure. By this point the 30 pages of fun are familiar: action begets betrayal, begets melancholic pontification. Repeat thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/prisoner-of-the-state-the-secret-journal-of-premier-zhao-ziyang/Wed, 27 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/prisoner-of-the-state-the-secret-journal-of-premier-zhao-ziyang/I liked the content. It&#39;s better to read books by Chinese politicians than books by Americans about Chinese politicians. Zhao Ziyang seems like an olderhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/work-rules-insights-from-inside-google-that-will-transform-how-you-live-and-lead/Fri, 22 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/work-rules-insights-from-inside-google-that-will-transform-how-you-live-and-lead/I didn&#39;t expect this to be a book about HR (people ops), but I still found it to be enlightening. Working at Facebook, it&#39;s interesting to see how much ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/terms-of-use/Mon, 11 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/terms-of-use/A thriller about a social tech company entering the Chinese market and rigging US elections? You have my attention. Welcome to Circles (not to be confusedhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/losing-the-signal-the-untold-story-behind-the-extraordinary-rise-and-spectacular-fall-of-blackberry/Fri, 08 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/losing-the-signal-the-untold-story-behind-the-extraordinary-rise-and-spectacular-fall-of-blackberry/3.5 stars (that means I liked it) Blackberry&#39;s fall is more than a story of the iPhone. Books about where things went wrong, like [b:The Fight to Savehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/california-a-history-modern-library-chronicles/Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/california-a-history-modern-library-chronicles/Too many trees, not enough forest.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/containment-children-of-occam-%231/Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/containment-children-of-occam-%231/Fun to read, but after thinking about the story, the plot just doesn&#39;t hang together. The more I think about it the more disappointed I am.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-signal-and-the-noise-why-so-many-predictions-failbut-some-dont/Mon, 28 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-signal-and-the-noise-why-so-many-predictions-failbut-some-dont/The Prior Before reading this book, I thought there was a 70% chance I would rate this book 3 stars or higher. The Signal Silver&#39;s chapter on Poker washttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-man-in-the-high-castle/Sat, 26 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-man-in-the-high-castle/2.5 stars. The Amazon series is better. I didn&#39;t like any of the characters, the mysticism seemed pointless, and didn&#39;t like pkd&#39;s style of writing. Stillhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-song-machine-inside-the-hit-factory/Tue, 22 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-song-machine-inside-the-hit-factory/Kinda just ruined my childhood, but that&#39;s ok, still a fun read.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/golden-son-red-rising-saga-%232/Fri, 18 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/golden-son-red-rising-saga-%232/The first half starts off well. Golden Son has a tactical writing style averaging one betrayal per chapter, which is impressive for a 51 chapter book. Buthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-snowball-warren-buffett-and-the-business-of-life/Thu, 10 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-snowball-warren-buffett-and-the-business-of-life/Solid. Enjoyed the subject matter more than the authors commentary, but thankfully the latter was minimal.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-to-get-filthy-rich-in-rising-asia/Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-to-get-filthy-rich-in-rising-asia/A dishonest book in every way, but not bad.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/superforecasting-the-art-and-science-of-prediction/Sun, 15 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/superforecasting-the-art-and-science-of-prediction/After spending a year in Baghdad, one of the most common subjects that comes up with other political analysts is that the closer you get to the issue, thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ancillary-mercy-imperial-radch-%233/Tue, 03 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ancillary-mercy-imperial-radch-%233/Tactics weren&#39;t convincing, politics weren&#39;t convincing. but I was already sucked into the universe. I felt like an AI given a command to finish out thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ancillary-sword-imperial-radch-%232/Tue, 03 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ancillary-sword-imperial-radch-%232/Meh. Pride and prejudice and programs and politics. Should be my thing, but not really my thing.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/red-rising-red-rising-saga-%231/Tue, 03 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/red-rising-red-rising-saga-%231/I was tempted by a tagline calling this book a combination of Hunger Games, Ender&#39;s Game, and Game of Thrones. This book is not like Game of Thrones, andhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/lost-stars-star-wars/Thu, 15 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/lost-stars-star-wars/Did you ever wonder, after seeing the episode 7 trailer, how a star destroyer could crash into a planet without disintegrating mid flight? Turns out thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/poorly-made-in-china-an-insiders-account-of-the-tactics-behind-chinas-production-game/Thu, 15 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/poorly-made-in-china-an-insiders-account-of-the-tactics-behind-chinas-production-game/Paul does a good job descripbing quality fade, and I like the subject. But the author was very broad in describing &#39;Chinese people&#39; or &#39;Chinese Factories&#39;https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/river-town-two-years-on-the-yangtze/Sat, 12 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/river-town-two-years-on-the-yangtze/Not a book about China. This is a book about what it is like to be a foreigner in China, and Hessler nails it. I spent 20 months in Beijing hell-bent onhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/hooked-how-to-build-habit-forming-products/Wed, 12 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/hooked-how-to-build-habit-forming-products/Meh. Not as good as Nudge, even Habit had more depth. the focus on product was nice, but I felt like the author was trying really hard to fit examples tohttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/chinas-disruptors-how-alibaba-xiaomi-tencent-and-other-companies-are-changing-the-rules-of-business/Mon, 03 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/chinas-disruptors-how-alibaba-xiaomi-tencent-and-other-companies-are-changing-the-rules-of-business/Not recommended. The author seemed overly concerned with describing &#39;China&#39;s Disruptors&#39; as a monolithic unit. The entire narrative was surface levelhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/strange-stones-dispatches-from-east-and-west/Mon, 27 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/strange-stones-dispatches-from-east-and-west/Refreshing. Picked up this book on a recommendation from Jason ([b:Blocked on Weibo: What Gets Suppressed on China&#39;s Version of Twitter|15824230|Blockedhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dealing-with-china-an-insider-unmasks-the-new-economic-superpower/Fri, 24 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dealing-with-china-an-insider-unmasks-the-new-economic-superpower/tl;dr: Chinese leaders are pragmatists.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-medium-is-the-massage/Fri, 17 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-medium-is-the-massage/Me after hearing the recommendation and starting the book. Me after reading the book. Maybe I read it wrong, should have evaluated the book on a more metahttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fooled-by-randomness-the-hidden-role-of-chance-in-life-and-in-the-markets-incerto/Sat, 11 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/fooled-by-randomness-the-hidden-role-of-chance-in-life-and-in-the-markets-incerto/I was waiting for statistical support of the authors apparent thesis that traders are dumb. It never came.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-martian/Sat, 13 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-martian/As good as everyone says it is. Don&#39;t let the weird looking cover put you off. Go read it now. If you don&#39;t believe me, go watch the trailer for thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/freedom-daemon-%232/Sat, 06 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/freedom-daemon-%232/Meh. The commentary on the state of capitalism was much better captured in Capital in the 21st Century, and there were very few ideas not alreadyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/seveneves/Tue, 26 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/seveneves/Book 1: &#39;Gravity&#39; with the ISS and an astroid. 4 Stars. Book 2: BSG in LEO. 2 stars. Book 3: Red vs. Blue, Earth Gulch Chronicles. 2 stars. My advice? Puthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/alibabas-world-how-a-remarkable-chinese-company-is-changing-the-face-of-global-business/Sun, 17 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/alibabas-world-how-a-remarkable-chinese-company-is-changing-the-face-of-global-business/&#34;I see a lot of US companies sending professional managers to China. They are making their boss in the US happy, but not the Chinese customer.&#34; Every techhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/now-i-know-who-my-comrades-are-voices-from-the-internet-underground/Thu, 14 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/now-i-know-who-my-comrades-are-voices-from-the-internet-underground/The best book I&#39;ve read on digital activism, and the best book I&#39;ve read in 2015. Parker focuses on heart wrenching stories that take place in Chinahttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-end-of-power-from-boardrooms-to-battlefields-and-churches-to-states-why-being-in-charge-isnt-what-it-used-to-be/Wed, 13 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-end-of-power-from-boardrooms-to-battlefields-and-churches-to-states-why-being-in-charge-isnt-what-it-used-to-be/A dangerous simplification. The author claims that power is diluting due to revolutions happening in the areas of More, Mobility, and Mentality. This is ahttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/data-and-goliath-the-hidden-battles-to-collect-your-data-and-control-your-world/Fri, 08 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/data-and-goliath-the-hidden-battles-to-collect-your-data-and-control-your-world/Schnier is at his finest when he describes the extent and exploits of the U.S. Government surveillance, and I think the first few chapters of this bookhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/little-brother-little-brother-%231/Sun, 03 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/little-brother-little-brother-%231/Fun, but squarely in the uncanny valley between fiction and non fiction. Taken as a collection of short vignettes, it was entertaining. However, thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/old-mans-war-old-mans-war-%231/Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/old-mans-war-old-mans-war-%231/Competent, but not nearly as interesting as [b:All You Need Is Kill|6255949|All You Need Is Kill|Hiroshihttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-millionaire-next-door-the-surprising-secrets-of-americas-wealthy/Wed, 25 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-millionaire-next-door-the-surprising-secrets-of-americas-wealthy/Not a complex book. Nothing really new, but even if it&#39;s thesis can be summed up in one 4 words (spend below your means) it&#39;s good to be reminded of thathttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/irrational-exuberance/Thu, 12 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/irrational-exuberance/Some ideas that were probably more novel when the book was first written. Interesting analysis of feedback loops, but nothing to particularly recommendhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-box-how-the-shipping-container-made-the-world-smaller-and-the-world-economy-bigger/Mon, 09 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-box-how-the-shipping-container-made-the-world-smaller-and-the-world-economy-bigger/I wish this book were twice as long and more detailed, but still a very fun read. A non-fiction page-turner, if you will.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-housing-boom-and-bust/Wed, 04 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-housing-boom-and-bust/Have you ever talked with a stranger about relationships? Sometimes a normal conversation turns into a diatribe about the stranger&#39;s recent divorce andhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/no-place-to-hide-edward-snowden-the-nsa-and-the-u.s.-surveillance-state/Mon, 23 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/no-place-to-hide-edward-snowden-the-nsa-and-the-u.s.-surveillance-state/My recommendation? Read through section 3, skip the rest. Greenwald goes from polemic to rabid, and it just becomes painful to read. Its like watchinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/nudge-improving-decisions-about-health-wealth-and-happiness/Thu, 19 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/nudge-improving-decisions-about-health-wealth-and-happiness/it started off really good, discussing the power of defaults, and what it means to be a architect. but the list of nudge ideas at the end of the book washttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/creativity-inc.-overcoming-the-unseen-forces-that-stand-in-the-way-of-true-inspiration/Thu, 12 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/creativity-inc.-overcoming-the-unseen-forces-that-stand-in-the-way-of-true-inspiration/It had a bunch of common sense advice, good things to be reminded of at regular intervals, and it&#39;s clear that Pixar has a strong corporate culture. Buthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-long-earth-the-long-earth-%231/Tue, 10 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-long-earth-the-long-earth-%231/this book = his dark materials + origin of the species + the sum of all fears. although it is less enjoyable than any of those books. I&#39;m not sure why thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/young-money-inside-the-hidden-world-of-wall-streets-post-crash-recruits/Wed, 04 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/young-money-inside-the-hidden-world-of-wall-streets-post-crash-recruits/Enough to convince me that finance is not a great career path.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/hatching-twitter-a-true-story-of-money-power-friendship-and-betrayal/Mon, 02 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/hatching-twitter-a-true-story-of-money-power-friendship-and-betrayal/2.5 stars. Nothing but boardroom drama, kinda like watching an episode of gossip girl, which I suppose isn&#39;t all bad. Although the recounts of Facebook&#39;shttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-diamond-age-or-a-young-ladys-illustrated-primer/Mon, 02 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-diamond-age-or-a-young-ladys-illustrated-primer/Started out quite good, ended up a jumbled, mildly racist mess.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-world-of-ice-fire-the-untold-history-of-westeros-and-the-game-of-thrones/Thu, 08 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-world-of-ice-fire-the-untold-history-of-westeros-and-the-game-of-thrones/It&#39;s like reading wikipedia in fictional form, which is what I was doing for Song of Ice and Fire anyways.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/decoding-the-new-consumer-mind-how-and-why-we-shop-and-buy/Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/decoding-the-new-consumer-mind-how-and-why-we-shop-and-buy/Lots of hand waving and overuse of the word &#39;increasingly&#39;. The facts are scattershot trivia, nothing unified or edifying here. I&#39;m out.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/far-from-the-tree-parents-children-and-the-search-for-identity/Mon, 01 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/far-from-the-tree-parents-children-and-the-search-for-identity/Not sure how to rate this book. It wasn&#39;t fun to read. It starts with a deaf child being molested by her father and rarely gets more cheery. I teared uphttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/wool-omnibus-silo-%231/Sun, 09 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/wool-omnibus-silo-%231/Wow. Some great twists, an appealing narrative structure, and a realistic antagonist. Great scifi.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-everything-store-jeff-bezos-and-the-age-of-amazon/Mon, 03 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-everything-store-jeff-bezos-and-the-age-of-amazon/Biased? Probably. Interesting? Yes. Lots of cool info about the intersection of tech and retail.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ready-player-one-ready-player-one-%231/Fri, 31 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/ready-player-one-ready-player-one-%231/The robotic obsession with references to 80&#39;s pop culture was tiresome, and the world itself seemed devoid of forward looking creativity. I didn&#39;t findhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/all-you-need-is-kill/Sat, 11 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/all-you-need-is-kill/I enjoyed it as an opportunity to ponder the value of experience, routine, and what it means to become an expert. This book felt very similar to [b:Thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-master-switch-the-rise-and-fall-of-information-empires/Fri, 10 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-master-switch-the-rise-and-fall-of-information-empires/Great history, best book I&#39;ve read on the tech industry so far.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/viral-loop-the-power-of-pass-it-on/Tue, 30 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/viral-loop-the-power-of-pass-it-on/I would recommend this book to somebody in the government (or in the developing world) trying to understand how Silicon Valley works. It does well as anhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/alone-together-why-we-expect-more-from-technology-and-less-from-each-other/Sat, 20 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/alone-together-why-we-expect-more-from-technology-and-less-from-each-other/The book is split up into two parts. The first part on robot toys is worthless, the second on new forms of communication is merely bad. I would recommendhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/who-owns-the-future/Thu, 11 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/who-owns-the-future/The best book I&#39;ve read so far about society-level changes that are happening due to internet technology. That would be higher praise if I had read morehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-great-indian-phone-book-how-the-cheap-cell-phone-changes-business-politics-and-daily-life/Sun, 13 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-great-indian-phone-book-how-the-cheap-cell-phone-changes-business-politics-and-daily-life/This book was short! Very informative, the information about gender and phone usage was very helpful, but the link between anecdotal stories and thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-man-who-mistook-his-wife-for-a-hat-and-other-clinical-tales/Sun, 13 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-man-who-mistook-his-wife-for-a-hat-and-other-clinical-tales/Somewhat showing its age, Many ideas that may have been fresh when he wrote it, especially on the limitations of science and meditation when dealing withhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-better-angels-of-our-nature-why-violence-has-declined/Sun, 15 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-better-angels-of-our-nature-why-violence-has-declined/Just as wide reaching as guns germs and steel, but better. Unfortunate stereotypical views towards China and the Middle East, and the book could also usehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-power-of-habit-why-we-do-what-we-do-in-life-and-business/Sat, 17 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-power-of-habit-why-we-do-what-we-do-in-life-and-business/Uneven. Beginning chapters were good, the Target data mining section was interesting, and the appendix was useful, but the remaining 70 percent was thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/made-to-stick-why-some-ideas-survive-and-others-die/Sat, 10 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/made-to-stick-why-some-ideas-survive-and-others-die/short. useful.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-clash-of-civilizations-and-the-remaking-of-world-order/Mon, 28 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-clash-of-civilizations-and-the-remaking-of-world-order/Not recommended. It is a mediocre theory that seriously overfit data from the mid-90&#39;s and has led to some really problematic ideas and policies sincehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-storm-of-swords-a-song-of-ice-and-fire-%233/Sun, 20 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-storm-of-swords-a-song-of-ice-and-fire-%233/I made the mistake of starting season 4 before all the episodes were out, then realized that I could just continue with the books. No more productivityhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-diary-of-edward-the-hamster-19901990/Thu, 03 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-diary-of-edward-the-hamster-19901990/Perhaps the highest enjoyment/word ratio of any book I&#39;ve read.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/anathem/Sat, 22 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/anathem/The ideas were great, and the pseudophilosophy was fun. Actually I found myself bored in the action sequences that seemed to jar with the morehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/cracking-the-pm-interview-how-to-land-a-product-manager-job-in-technology/Mon, 17 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/cracking-the-pm-interview-how-to-land-a-product-manager-job-in-technology/I tried but did not crack the PM interview. This book was not nearly as useful as cracking the coding interview. There is useful info about the processeshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/private-empire-exxonmobil-and-american-power/Tue, 04 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/private-empire-exxonmobil-and-american-power/The sum was less than the parts. A lot of great information about the culture of Exxon, it&#39;s two most prominent CEO&#39;s Raymond and Tillerson, and a lot ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/bloodline-star-wars/Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/bloodline-star-wars/It was probably competent, but I didn&#39;t enjoy it. Lots of politics, it felt too much like an allegory of American politics in the 21st century. One thinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-9/11-commission-report-final-report-of-the-national-commission-on-terrorist-attacks-upon-the-united-states/Wed, 28 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-9/11-commission-report-final-report-of-the-national-commission-on-terrorist-attacks-upon-the-united-states/As a visa officer in Riyadh after 9/11, I figured this book was required reading. (And it was handed out in our consular training course) But from thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/open-for-business-vol.-2-lessons-in-chinese-commerce-for-the-new-millennium/Wed, 14 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/open-for-business-vol.-2-lessons-in-chinese-commerce-for-the-new-millennium/As it was number two in the series, I hoped for some more interesting or advanced content. I was disappointed. Texts a still boring, essentially uselesshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/open-for-business-lessons-in-chinese-commerce-for-the-new-millenium-1-textbook-and-exercise-book/Sat, 10 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/open-for-business-lessons-in-chinese-commerce-for-the-new-millenium-1-textbook-and-exercise-book/I used it for 朗读 practice. Texts are boring, there is not much content, and the level is definitely not advanced. Don&#39;t waste your money.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E9%A9%BB%E4%BA%AC%E5%8A%9E%E4%B8%BB%E4%BB%BB/Tue, 30 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E9%A9%BB%E4%BA%AC%E5%8A%9E%E4%B8%BB%E4%BB%BB/官僚主义造成的作品。作者曾经在政府工作这个事实很明显。我觉得情节不是世界上最好的，不过我特别享受塑造的角色。 总的来说，很好玩儿。https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/cloud-atlas/Mon, 22 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/cloud-atlas/I felt cheated, every time I started to enjoy a story, it would stop and I would be forced to read something else, by the time I got to cavendish parthttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E9%BB%84%E9%87%91%E7%BD%97%E7%9B%98-%E9%BB%91%E8%B4%A8%E4%B8%89%E9%83%A8%E6%9B%B2-%231/Wed, 17 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E9%BB%84%E9%87%91%E7%BD%97%E7%9B%98-%E9%BB%91%E8%B4%A8%E4%B8%89%E9%83%A8%E6%9B%B2-%231/跟电影相比，肯定好多了。但是这个翻译有很多缺点，所以我了解中国人之所以给这本书较低的评价。https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E5%8D%81%E5%80%8B%E8%A9%9E%E5%BD%99%E8%A3%A1%E7%9A%84%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B/Sat, 01 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E5%8D%81%E5%80%8B%E8%A9%9E%E5%BD%99%E8%A3%A1%E7%9A%84%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B/在很多情况下，余华肯定以偏概全，但是我觉得还是有意思。https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E5%9B%BD%E9%99%85%E9%87%91%E8%9E%8D%E5%8D%B1%E6%9C%BA%E8%A7%82%E5%AF%9F%E5%88%86%E6%9E%90%E4%B8%8E%E5%BA%94%E5%AF%B9/Fri, 31 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E5%9B%BD%E9%99%85%E9%87%91%E8%9E%8D%E5%8D%B1%E6%9C%BA%E8%A7%82%E5%AF%9F%E5%88%86%E6%9E%90%E4%B8%8E%E5%BA%94%E5%AF%B9/Read this book to understand the Chinese view on global finance, and from that perspective, this book was very helpful.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/language-of-the-dragon-a-classical-chinese-reader-2/Mon, 27 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/language-of-the-dragon-a-classical-chinese-reader-2/不如看百度百科。这本书当中的描述偶尔让我糊涂，也没有描述最难的部分。如果你有起码现代汉语的了解，你可以看一眼目录来选择项看得课文，然后去网络找到更好的描述。 In the age before pleco, 百度百科, and 百度, I can see how this book would havehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/skunk-works-a-personal-memoir-of-my-years-at-lockheed/Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/skunk-works-a-personal-memoir-of-my-years-at-lockheed/This is about the first book I ever read. Not sure how much of it I understood when I was 9, but it was able to keep my attention better than Goosebumpshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E8%90%BD%E5%B0%BD%E8%8A%B3%E5%8D%8E/Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E8%90%BD%E5%B0%BD%E8%8A%B3%E5%8D%8E/Pried it out of my teachers hands after I found out she wrote this book a few years ago. After reading the first two stories, one about revenge gonehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E5%93%88%E5%88%A9%E6%B3%A2%E7%89%B9%E4%B8%8E%E5%AF%86%E5%AE%A4-%E5%93%88%E5%88%A9%E6%B3%A2%E7%89%B9-%232/Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E5%93%88%E5%88%A9%E6%B3%A2%E7%89%B9%E4%B8%8E%E5%AF%86%E5%AE%A4-%E5%93%88%E5%88%A9%E6%B3%A2%E7%89%B9-%232/Exposition disguised as a mystery This is my third time reading this book because I have not read the Arabic version. I originally thought, and stillhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E4%B8%89%E4%BD%93-%E4%B8%89%E4%BD%93-%231/Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E4%B8%89%E4%BD%93-%E4%B8%89%E4%BD%93-%231/This book seemed to be some combination of a 余华 novel about the cultural revolution, a fictionalized version of a Brian Greene book, and a Stephensonhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E5%85%84%E5%BC%9F-%E4%B8%8A/Wed, 31 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E5%85%84%E5%BC%9F-%E4%B8%8A/I read this after reading 活着 thinking that since I liked the former, 兄弟 would also be worth reading, and good Chinese practice. It was good Chinesehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E6%B4%BB%E8%91%97/Sat, 20 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E6%B4%BB%E8%91%97/《活着》的书名不太准确。我觉得《他们都死去了》更合适。https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E9%A5%A5%E9%A5%BF%E6%B8%B8%E6%88%8F-the-hunger-games-%231/Tue, 24 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E9%A5%A5%E9%A5%BF%E6%B8%B8%E6%88%8F-the-hunger-games-%231/这个中文版特别容易看。 我觉得还比哈利波特容易。而且，翻译的质量不错。 It was a fun read, the voyeuristic thinking that takes place in a last-man-standing game is hard to ignore. There werehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/tales-and-traditions-for-low-advanced-students-3-readings-in-chinese-literature-3-chinese-and-english-edition/Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/tales-and-traditions-for-low-advanced-students-3-readings-in-chinese-literature-3-chinese-and-english-edition/我非常喜欢这个系列。 可是那个名城古迹部分非常无聊。而且有的传统故事的主题重复，所以我觉的这本书就是还可以。https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/empires-of-the-word-a-language-history-of-the-world/Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/empires-of-the-word-a-language-history-of-the-world/Great book, but the kindle version is a mess, and the organization seemed haphazard. Of course that comes with the territory for a book of such scope.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/graded-chinese-reader-2-selected-abridged-chinese-contemporary-short-stories/Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/graded-chinese-reader-2-selected-abridged-chinese-contemporary-short-stories/The inline pinyin is annoying, the translations are sloppy, but this is still the best graded reader currently available. Rather than inventing storieshttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/short-term-spoken-chinese-threshold-vol.-2/Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/short-term-spoken-chinese-threshold-vol.-2/<p>还可以</p>https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E6%88%91%E6%98%AF%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C%E4%B8%8A%E6%9C%80%E5%B9%BD%E9%BB%98%E7%9A%84%E4%BA%BA/Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E6%88%91%E6%98%AF%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C%E4%B8%8A%E6%9C%80%E5%B9%BD%E9%BB%98%E7%9A%84%E4%BA%BA/最后的故事有意思，好笑，但是其它的都太无聊了.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E5%A2%9E%E8%BF%9B%E6%84%9F%E6%83%85%E7%9A%84%E6%97%85%E8%A1%8C/Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E5%A2%9E%E8%BF%9B%E6%84%9F%E6%83%85%E7%9A%84%E6%97%85%E8%A1%8C/Roast guinea pig - just the sort of word I need to be learning.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E5%9C%A8%E6%AD%BB%E4%BA%A1%E8%BE%B9%E7%BC%98/Sat, 03 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E5%9C%A8%E6%AD%BB%E4%BA%A1%E8%BE%B9%E7%BC%98/Another decent graded reader from Blaine Ray. It&#39;s pretty clearly originally meant for Spanish though. The conversations go something like: &#34;I really likehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E7%BB%88%E7%94%9F%E9%9A%BE%E5%BF%98%E7%9A%84%E6%97%85%E8%A1%8C/Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%E7%BB%88%E7%94%9F%E9%9A%BE%E5%BF%98%E7%9A%84%E6%97%85%E8%A1%8C/It&#39;s the next best thing after 汉语风。 I find it hard to believe that this book is meant for students with only 100 hours of instruction, but it had a goodhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-far-away-is-the-sun-and-other-essays-readings-in-chinese-culture-series-intermediate-1-english-and-chinese-edition/Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/how-far-away-is-the-sun-and-other-essays-readings-in-chinese-culture-series-intermediate-1-english-and-chinese-edition/Lots of 汉字 typos. Covers material also in other Cheng and Tsui books, has lots of useless vocabulary and not much actual text. No CD. All in all, therehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/learn-chinese-characters-by-radicals/Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/learn-chinese-characters-by-radicals/This was useful as an introduction to 部首. The most helpful part was explanations of部首旁 with their associated radicals. But a book that is simply a list ofhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-third-eye/Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-third-eye/It&#39;s too bad there&#39;s only one book at the 750 word level. 汉语风 is definitely the best graded reader series out there, and it is especially critical betweenhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/i-really-want-to-find-her-chinese-breeze-graded-reader-series-level-1-300-word-level/Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/i-really-want-to-find-her-chinese-breeze-graded-reader-series-level-1-300-word-level/比较没有意思但是，我很喜欢中文风https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-history-of-iraq/Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-history-of-iraq/Suggested reading for Iraq familiarization for working at the U.S. Embassy. Interesting, but I quickly realized it had nothing to do with my job inhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D9%88-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%82%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9/Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D9%88-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%82%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9/Let me summarize the book: Arabs were against the holocaust, but hated and hate zionism. That&#39;s it. This book goes into excruciating detail about thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/i-am-number-four-lorien-legacies-%231/Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/i-am-number-four-lorien-legacies-%231/Yes I read this book - don&#39;t judge me. OK judge me. I read it 6 months ago and I&#39;m really having a hard time remembering anything interesting orhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-shia-revival-how-conflicts-within-islam-will-shape-the-future/Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-shia-revival-how-conflicts-within-islam-will-shape-the-future/Vali Nasr is America&#39;s resident &#39;Shia expert&#39; and in no small part due to this book.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-brief-history-of-time/Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-brief-history-of-time/This book definitely has a target audience - somebody who hasn&#39;t read anything about theoretical physics, doesn&#39;t want to think about it too hard, but athttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/catching-fire-the-hunger-games-%232/Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/catching-fire-the-hunger-games-%232/还行吧。我觉得这本书的语言水平适合我，但是我们为什么需要等到最后一部才看饥饿游戏的事件呢？https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/hannibal-and-me-what-historys-greatest-military-strategist-can-teach-us-about-success-and-failu-re/Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/hannibal-and-me-what-historys-greatest-military-strategist-can-teach-us-about-success-and-failu-re/At first I worried that the book would be a Gladwell-eque adventure in drawing sweeping conclusions from limited anecdotes, but I actually found it to behttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/modern-arabic-short-stories-a-bilingual-reader-arabic-edition/Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/modern-arabic-short-stories-a-bilingual-reader-arabic-edition/This is the perspective of reading the book in Arabic from a native English speaker: How do I describe a collection of short stories like this? Clearlyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-kingdom-arabia-and-the-house-of-saud/Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-kingdom-arabia-and-the-house-of-saud/A story of a family rather than a story of a nation. But the lines in a nation bearing the family&#39;s name are blurred, and this is still the starting blockhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%AA%D8%B1-%D9%88%D8%AC%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%86%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%A1-harry-potter-%235/Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%AA%D8%B1-%D9%88%D8%AC%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%86%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%A1-harry-potter-%235/Sadly one of the best Harry Potter books with the worst translation. Every mark of a lazy editing process and poor proofreading are present: typos in thehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/al-kitaba-wa-l-uslub-arabic-edition/Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/al-kitaba-wa-l-uslub-arabic-edition/Intermediate in vocabulary but basic in style and grammar. Save one page, does no analysis on style past the sentence level. Most of the book is spent onhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dubai-co.-global-strategies-for-doing-business-in-the-gulf-states/Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dubai-co.-global-strategies-for-doing-business-in-the-gulf-states/[Translated from an Arabic version] I began reading Dubai and Co shortly after I finished Christopher Davidsons’s work entitled “Dubai: The vulnerabilityhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dubai-the-vulnerability-of-success-uk-edition/Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/dubai-the-vulnerability-of-success-uk-edition/Despite the myriad of articles and sound bites about the latest achievements of Dubai, works dedicated to an in depth analysis of the city state have beenhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-season-of-inquiry-congress-and-intelligence/Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-season-of-inquiry-congress-and-intelligence/A good description of the changing atmosphere of Congress and the CIA in the aftermath of Vietnam.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/neuromancer-sprawl-%231/Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/neuromancer-sprawl-%231/Throughout Neuromancer, I found it difficult not to be reminded of Snow Crash. It is clear that Neuromancer influenced Snow Crash- and I together theyhttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-road/Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-road/Growing up with a father who constantly believed that civilization was going to end, post apocalyptic books hold a special draw to me. So after watchinghttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/atlas-shrugged/Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/atlas-shrugged/Seriously, Ayn Rand needed an editor. We get to watch an interesting struggle take place in the first 300 pages, only to watch it repeated three morehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-host-the-host-%231/Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-host-the-host-%231/I couldn&#39;t help be reminded of the Animorphs series that I read in elementary school. Too many aspects were the same, if only expanded to fill the 600https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-arabic-language-in-america/Sat, 01 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-arabic-language-in-america/Mostly outdated. The only real worthwhile part is al-Batal&#39;s essay on why the communicative approach is necessary for attaining proficiency.https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-andromeda-strain-andromeda-%231/Tue, 22 Jan 2002 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/the-andromeda-strain-andromeda-%231/This week, my wife tested positive for COVID. We don&#39;t know where she got it, may as well have been outer space. I watched our internal quarantinehttps://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-reference-grammar-of-modern-standard-arabic/Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000https://jonathanmckay.com/reviews/a-reference-grammar-of-modern-standard-arabic/What makes Arabic hard? This question is one of the fundamental and repeated queries of the Arabic student. Neophytes may think it’s the alphabet, others