Smart Brevity – Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, Roy Schwartz
Smart Brevity is here to teach you how to cater your communication to the over-stimulated worker, and community, of today. There are 4 Core ideas for the writing system presented. The authors really like their bullet points and figure that’s the correct way to do your communication. Their strongest point is that you probably write…
Style: Non-fiction
Defiant – Brandon Sanderson
Defiant brings us the final face off between The Superiority and the few races that have gathered with Humanity to say no to the enslavement of everyone. Our protagonist, Spensa, has to wrangle with her reality warping powers as a second being has melded with her soul and she now has to provide the control…
Genre: Science FictionStyle: Fiction
The Cost of Being a Girl – Yasemin Besen-Cassino
In The Cost of Being a Girl, Besen-Cassino, looks at how part-time employment in the teenage years affects the income of teenage girls vs boys. The biggest takeaway is similar to what I’ve read in the past about wages for women, they make less, are asked to do more emotional labour, and get penalized if…
Style: Non-fiction
Elantris – Brandon Sanderson
This is the oldest book in Brandon Sanderson’s writing that I’ve read, being published first in 2005. As such I found a few parts of the writing clearly still in development. Unlike other more current books, I was easily able to guess where the author was going early in the book. This didn’t diminish my…
Genre: FantasyStyle: Fiction
Translation State – Ann Leckie
Translation state takes a look at what it means to be human, and in this case, what it means to belong somewhere. We start meeting our 3 main characters, Enae, Reet and Qven and slowly are exposed to how they don’t belong in the place that they exist. For Qven specifically we see how they’ve…
Genre: Science FictionStyle: Fiction
The Color of Law – Richard Rothstein
The Color of Law looks at how redlining affected the wealth of Black Americans after Word War 2. From not letting Black Vetrans get the financing that all Vetrans were supposed to be eligible for, to breaking up Black neighbourhoods for “public projects” this is a sobering look at how white people stole wealth from…
Style: Non-fiction
The Promise of Access – Daniel Greene
Daniel Greene looks at the politically expedient idea that the problem with the workforce is that they don’t have access to computers (technology) and the skills to use said electronic devices. This lets politicians off the hook in addressing the structural problems (poverty, homelessness) that contributes to lack of work and skill development and simply…
Style: Non-fiction
The Three-Body Problem – Cixin Liu
Sure it’s an interesting idea, but I’m not sure if it’s the translation or the original writing…I just didn’t like it. The most interesting thing was the protein folding idea for turning things into a super-computer and how it related to the countdown seen in images and retina, but those few pages weren’t enough for…
Genre: Science FictionStyle: Fiction
Ruined by Reading – Sharon Schwartz
Ruined by reading was a very different book than I expected. I didn’t expect this memoir on the affect of reading to the author’s life to be a keep but it continually asked thought provoking questions about the nature of power and our imagination. Schwartz questions the very nature and content of a book and…
Style: Non-fiction
Gardens of the Moon – Steven Erikson
Welcome to a land of magic and gods that sometimes walk among humans, at the very least they spend a bunch of energy influencing human affairs to their liking. We start by joining the Malazan Empire’s forces as they are decimated in at the city of Pale by the Moon King, but we quickly learn…
Genre: FantasyStyle: Fiction