Ellen's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 26 Apr 2025 10:05:12 -0700 60 Ellen's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg After Virtue 332138
In this classic work, Alasdair MacIntyre examines the historical and conceptual roots of the idea of virtue, diagnoses the reasons for its absence in personal and public life, and offers a tentative proposal for its recovery. While the individual chapters are wide-ranging, once pieced together they comprise a penetrating and focused argument about the price of modernity. In the Third Edition prologue, MacIntyre revisits the central theses of the book and concludes that although he has learned a great deal and has supplemented and refined his theses and arguments in other works, he has ¡°as yet found no reason for abandoning the major contentions¡± of this book. While he recognizes that his conception of human beings as virtuous or vicious needed not only a metaphysical but also a biological grounding, ultimately he remains ¡°committed to the thesis that it is only from the standpoint of a very different tradition, one whose beliefs and presuppositions were articulated in their classical form by Aristotle, that we can understand both the genesis and the predicament of moral modernity.¡±]]> 304 Alasdair MacIntyre 0268006113 Ellen 0 to-read 4.19 1982 After Virtue
author: Alasdair MacIntyre
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]]> <![CDATA[The Courage to be Happy: True Contentment Is In Your Power]]> 43599070 The Courage To Be Disliked return with the must-have companion volume. In The Courage To Be Happy, Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga again distil their wisdom into simple yet profound advice to show us how we, too, can use twentieth-century psychological theory to find true happiness.]]> Ichiro Kishimi Ellen 0 to-read 3.97 2016 The Courage to be Happy: True Contentment Is In Your Power
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average rating: 3.97
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]]> <![CDATA[The Right to Oblivion: Privacy and the Good Life]]> 209349509 A visionary reexamination of the value of privacy in today¡¯s hypermediated world¡ªnot just as a political right but as the key to a life worth living.The portion of our lives that is not being surveilled and turned into data diminishes each day. We are given the chance to configure privacy settings on our devices and social media platforms, but we know our efforts pale in comparison to the scale of surveillance capitalism and algorithmic manipulation. In our hyperconnected era, many have begun to wonder whether it is still possible to live a private life, or whether it is no longer worth fighting for.The Right to Oblivion argues incisively and persuasively that we still can and should strive for privacy, though for different reasons than we might think. Recent years have seen heated debate in the realm of law and technology about why privacy matters, often focusing on how personal data breaches amount to violations of individual freedom. Yet as Lowry Pressly shows, the very terms of this debate have undermined our understanding of privacy¡¯s real value. In a novel philosophical account, Pressly insists that privacy isn¡¯t simply a right to be protected but a tool for making life meaningful.Privacy deepens our relationships with others as well as ourselves, reinforcing our capacities for agency, trust, play, self-discovery, and growth. Without privacy, the world would grow shallow, lonely, and inhospitable. Drawing inspiration from the likes of Hannah Arendt, Jorge Luis Borges, and a range of contemporary artists, Pressly shows why we all need a refuge from the not a place to hide, but a psychic space beyond the confines of a digital world in which the individual is treated as mere data.]]> 240 Lowry Pressly 067426052X Ellen 0 currently-reading 3.87 The Right to Oblivion: Privacy and the Good Life
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]]> <![CDATA[Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization]]> 125937631
The fiber-optic cables that weave the World Wide Web, the copper veins of our electric grids, the silicon chips and lithium batteries that power our phones and though it can feel like we now live in a weightless world of information¡ªwhat Ed Conway calls ¡°the ethereal world¡±¡ªour twenty-first-century lives are still very much rooted in the material.

In fact, we dug more stuff out of the earth in 2017 than in all of human history before 1950. For every ton of fossil fuels, we extract six tons of other materials, from sand to stone to wood to metal. And in Material World, Conway embarks on an epic?journey across continents, cultures, and epochs to reveal the underpinnings of modern life on Earth¡ªtraveling from the sweltering depths of the deepest mine in Europe to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan to the eerie green pools where lithium originates.

Material World is a celebration of the humans and the human networks, the miraculous processes and the little-known companies, that combine to turn?raw materials into things of wonder. This is the story of human civilization from an entirely new the ground up.]]> 512 Ed Conway 0593534344 Ellen 0 to-read 4.48 2023 Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization
author: Ed Conway
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average rating: 4.48
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]]> <![CDATA[The Sciences of the Artificial]]> 676046

"People sometimes ask me what they should read to find out about artificial intelligence. Herbert Simon's book The Sciences of the Artificial is always on the list I give them. Every page issues a challenge to conventional thinking, and the layman who digests it well will certainly understand what the field of artificial intelligence hopes to accomplish. I recommend it in the same spirit that I recommend Freud to people who ask about psychoanalysis, or Piaget to those who ask about child psychology: If you want to learn about a subject, start by reading its founding fathers." -- George A. Miller]]> 248 Herbert A. Simon 0262691914 Ellen 0 to-read 4.27 1969 The Sciences of the Artificial
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average rating: 4.27
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]]> The Will to Believe 6957998 350 William James 1438520816 Ellen 5 3.84 1896 The Will to Believe
author: William James
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1896
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction]]> 3892153 111 Walter Benjamin 0141036192 Ellen 5 4.02 1936 The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
author: Walter Benjamin
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average rating: 4.02
book published: 1936
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]]> <![CDATA[The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings]]> 3542180 488 David F. Lancy 0521716039 Ellen 0 to-read 4.18 2008 The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings
author: David F. Lancy
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2008
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]]> <![CDATA[One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This]]> 213870084 From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in the heart of an Empire which doesn¡¯t consider you fully human.

On Oct 25th, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: ¡°One day, when it¡¯s safe, when there¡¯s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it¡¯s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.¡± This tweet was viewed over 10 million times.?

One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This chronicles the deep fracture which has occurred for Black, brown, indigenous Americans, as well as the upcoming generation, many of whom had clung to a thread of faith in western ideals, in the idea that their countries, or the countries of their adoption, actually attempted to live up to the values they espouse.?

This book is a reckoning with what it means to live in the west, and what it means to live in a world run by a small group of countries¡ªAmerica, the UK, France and Germany.? It will be The Fire Next Time for a generation that understands we¡¯re undergoing a shift in the so-called ¡®rules-based order,¡¯ a generation that understands the west can no longer be trusted to police and guide the world, or its own cities and campuses. It draws on intimate details of Omar¡¯s own story as an emigrant who grew up believing in the western project, who was catapulted into journalism by the rupture of 9/11.?

This book is his heartsick breakup letter with the west. It is a breakup we are watching all over the U.S., on college campuses, on city streets, and the consequences of this rupture will be felt by all of us. His book is for all the people who want something better than what the west has served up. This is the book for our time.]]> 208 Omar El Akkad 0593804147 Ellen 0 to-read 4.68 2025 One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
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]]> <![CDATA[There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America]]> 215362634 Through the unforgettable stories of five Atlanta families, this landmark work of journalism exposes a new and troubling trend¡ªthe dramatic rise of the ¡°working homeless¡± in cities across America

The working homeless. In a country where hard work and determination are supposed to lead to success, there is something scandalous about this phrase. But skyrocketing rents, low wages, and a lack of tenant rights have produced a startling People with full-time jobs cannot keep a roof over their head, especially in America¡¯s booming cities, where rapid growth is leading to catastrophic displacement. These families are being forced into homelessness not by a failing economy but a thriving one.

In this gripping and deeply reported book, Brian Goldstone plunges readers into the lives of five Atlanta families struggling to remain housed in a gentrifying, increasingly unequal city. Maurice and Natalia make a fresh start in the country¡¯s ¡°Black Mecca¡± after being priced out of DC. Kara dreams of starting her own cleaning business while mopping floors at a public hospital. Britt scores a coveted housing voucher. Michelle is in school to become a social worker. Celeste toils at her warehouse job while undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer. Each of them aspires to provide a decent life for their children¡ªand each of them, one by one, joins the ranks of the nation¡¯s working homeless.

Through intimate, novelistic portraits, Goldstone reveals the human cost of this crisis, following parents and their kids as they go to sleep in cars, or in squalid extended-stay hotel rooms, and head out to their jobs and schools the next morning. These are the nation¡¯s hidden homeless¡ªomitted from official statistics, and proof that overflowing shelters and street encampments are only the most visible manifestation of a far more pervasive problem.

By turns heartbreaking and urgent, There Is No Place for Us illuminates the true magnitude, causes, and consequences of the new American homelessness¡ªand shows that it won¡¯t be solved until housing is treated as a fundamental human right.]]> 448 Brian Goldstone 0593237145 Ellen 0 to-read 4.67 2025 There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America
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]]> <![CDATA[Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth (Wave Books)]]> 216282964 It¡¯s not the dream that matters, it¡¯s the telling of the dream ¨C the words you choose, the risks you take in externalising your mind

This is a dreamlike portrait of a body in struggle to connect with itself and others. As the narrator contends with chronic pain, and with a pandemic raging in the background, she sets out to examine the literal and symbolic role of the mouth in the life of a writer.

Merging dreams and dailies, Pathemata recounts the narrator¡¯s tragicomic search to alleviate her suffering, a search that eventually becomes a reckoning with various forms of loss ¨C the loss of intimacy, the loss of her father and the loss of a pivotal friend and mentor. In exacting, distilled prose, her account blurs the lines between embodied, unconscious and everyday life.

With characteristic precision, humour and compassion, Nelson explores the limits of language to describe experience, while also offering a portrait of an unnerving and isolating time in our shared history. A stunning, original experiment in interiority by the adored author of Bluets and The Argonauts, Pathemata is a personal and poetic reckoning with pain and loss, both physical and emotional, as well as an uncanny meditation on love, affliction and resilience.]]> 80 Maggie Nelson Ellen 0 to-read 4.37 Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth (Wave Books)
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]]> <![CDATA[All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess]]> 127282281 A glorious call to throw off restraint and balance in favor of excess, abandon, and disproportion, in essays ranging from such topics as mindfulness, decluttering, David Cronenberg, and consent.

In her debut essay collection, ¡°brilliant and stylish¡± (The Washington Post) critic Becca Rothfeld takes on one of the most sacred cows of our time: the demand that we apply the virtues of equality and democracy to culture and aesthetics. The result is a culture that is flattened and sanitized, purged of ugliness, excess, and provocation.

Our embrace of minimalism has left us spiritually impoverished. We see it in our homes, where we bring in Marie Kondo to rid them of their idiosyncrasies and darknesses. We take up mindfulness to do the same thing to our heads, emptying them of the musings, thoughts, and obsessions that make us who we are. In the bedroom, a new wave of puritanism has drained sex of its unpredictability and therefore true eroticism. In our fictions, the quest for balance has given us protagonists who aspire only to excise their appetites. We have flipped our values, Rothfeld argues: while the gap between rich and poor yawns hideously wide, we strive to compensate with egalitarianism in art, erotics, and taste, where it does not belong and where it quashes wild experiments and exuberance.

Lush, provocative, and bitingly funny, All Things Are Too Small is a subversive soul cry to restore imbalance, obsession, gluttony, and ravishment to all domains of our lives.]]> 304 Becca Rothfeld 1250849918 Ellen 0 to-read 3.60 2024 All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess
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]]> <![CDATA[Poverty for Profit: How Corporations Get Rich off America¡¯s Poor]]> 195473593
Poverty is big business in America. The federal government spends about $900 billion a year on programs that directly or disproportionately impact poor Americans, including anti-poverty programs such as the earned income tax credit, Medicaid, and affordable housing vouchers and subsidies. States and local governments spend tens of billions more. Ironically, these enormous sums fuel the ¡°corporate poverty complex,¡± a vast web of hidden industries and entrenched private sector interests that profit from the bureaucracies regulating the lives of the poor. From bail bondsmen to dialysis providers to towing companies, their business models depend on exploiting low-income Americans, and their political influence ensures a thriving set of industries where everyone profits except the poor, while U.S. taxpayers foot the bill. In Poverty for Profit , veteran journalist Anne Kim investigates the multiple industries that infiltrate almost every aspect of the lives of the poor¡ªhealth care, housing, criminal justice, justice, and nutrition. She explains how these businesses are aided by public policies such as the wholesale privatization of government services and the political influence these industries wield over lawmakers and regulators. Supported by original investigative reporting on the lesser-known players profiting from the anti-poverty industry, Poverty for Profit adds a crucial dimension to our understanding of how structural inequality and structural racism function today.]]> 352 Anne Kim 1620977818 Ellen 0 to-read 4.31 Poverty for Profit: How Corporations Get Rich off America¡¯s Poor
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]]> <![CDATA[The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling (Exhalation)]]> 57479738 46 Ted Chiang Ellen 3 4.15 The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling (Exhalation)
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]]> <![CDATA[Antimemetics: Why Some Ideas Resist Spreading]]> 230403458 Antimemetics: Why Some Ideas Resist Spreading explores this paradox, uncovering the hidden forces that determine what we remember, what we forget, and why some ideas ¨C no matter how compelling ¨C resist going viral.

Drawing on historical examples, internet phenomena, and the mechanics of attention, as well as her experiences in the technology sector, Nadia Asparouhova examines how cultural and technological systems shape what enters the public consciousness. She argues that while some ideas spread effortlessly, others are structurally resistant to spread, whether due to their complexity, our personal discomfort with these ideas, or a lack of incentives to share them.

As we collectively navigate a highly charged, memetic world where the hive mind dictates what we see and think about, Antimemetics offers a new way to think about our place in the information ecosystem. It¡¯s easy to be overwhelmed by the tide of viral noise, and often it seems like the only options are to either disengage or be swept away. But withdrawing from the conversation isn¡¯t the only answer. By noticing what gets lost in the memetic churn, we can reclaim our attention, find thoughtful ways to participate, and shape the exchange of ideas ¨C rather than letting it unconsciously shape us.]]> 166 Nadia Asparouhova Ellen 0 to-read 4.00 Antimemetics: Why Some Ideas Resist Spreading
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]]> Rejection 199635125
Sharply observant and outrageously funny, Rejection is a provocative plunge into the touchiest problems of modern life. The seven connected stories seamlessly transition between the personal crises of a complex ensemble and the comic tragedies of sex, relationships, identity, and the internet.

In ¡°The Feminist,¡± a young man¡¯s passionate allyship turns to furious nihilism as he realizes, over thirty lonely years, that it isn¡¯t getting him laid. A young woman¡¯s unrequited crush in ¡°Pics¡± spirals into borderline obsession and the systematic destruction of her sense of self. And in ¡°Ahegao; or, The Ballad of Sexual Repression,¡± a shy late bloomer¡¯s flailing efforts at a first relationship leads to a life-upending mistake. As the characters pop up in each other¡¯s dating apps and social media feeds, or meet in dimly lit bars and bedrooms, they reveal the ways our delusions can warp our desire for connection.

These brilliant satires explore the underrated sorrows of rejection with the authority of a modern classic and the manic intensity of a manifesto. Audacious and unforgettable, Rejection is a stunning mosaic that redefines what it means to be rejected by lovers, friends, society, and oneself.]]> 272 Tony Tulathimutte 0063337878 Ellen 0 to-read 3.87 2024 Rejection
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]]> <![CDATA[Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty]]> 10245602 Poor Economics, Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, two practical visionaries working toward ending world poverty, answer these questions from the ground. In a book the Wall Street Journal called ¡°marvelous, rewarding,¡± the authors tell how the stress of living on less than 99 cents per day encourages the poor to make questionable decisions that feed¡ªnot fight¡ªpoverty. The result is a radical rethinking of the economics of poverty that offers a ringside view of the lives of the world¡¯s poorest, and shows that creating a world without poverty begins with understanding the daily decisions facing the poor.]]> 320 Abhijit V. Banerjee 1586487981 Ellen 0 to-read 4.29 2011 Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty
author: Abhijit V. Banerjee
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average rating: 4.29
book published: 2011
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]]> ¤è¤Ä¤Ð¤È! 16 (Yotsuba&!, #16) 225572111
¾²¤«¤ËÒÆ¤í¤¤¤æ¤¯¼¾½Ú¡¢»Å¤¿¤À¤·¤¯¹ý¤®¤Æ¤¤¤¯š°ÈÕ¡£
ÏÄÐݤߤ«¤éʼ¤Þ¤Ã¤¿ÎïÓï¤Ï¡¢¤Ä¤¤¤Ë¥¯¥ê¥¹¥Þ¥¹¤òÄ¿Ç°¤Ë¤¹¤ë¡£
¥Ä¥ê©`¤òœÊ±¸¤·¡¢×ÔÜž³µ¤Î²¹ÖúÂÖ¤òÈ¡¤ê¡¢É½¤ËµÇ¤êɽ¤òϤê¤ë¡­¡­
¤½¤·¤ÆÄæÉϤ¬¤ê¤ÎÁ·Ï°¤Ë·Ã¤ì¤¿Ð¡Ñ§Ð£¤ÎУͥ¤Ç¡¢¤è¤Ä¤Ð¤ÎÇ°¤ËÏ֤줿¾¿¼«¤Î´Ì¿Í¤ÎÕýÌå¤È¤Ï!?±Õ±Õ> 256 Kiyohiko Azuma 404916194X Ellen 0 to-read 4.77 2025 ¤è¤Ä¤Ð¤È! 16 (Yotsuba&!, #16)
author: Kiyohiko Azuma
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.77
book published: 2025
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date added: 2025/03/22
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]]> <![CDATA[The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019¨C2025]]> 220062738 An inside view of the AI revolution, from the people and companies making it happen.

How did we build large language models? How do they think, if they think? What will the world look like if we have billions of AIs that are as smart as humans, or even smarter?

In a series of in-depth interviews with leading AI researchers and company founders¡ªincluding Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis, OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever, MIRI cofounder Eliezer Yudkowsky, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg¡ªDwarkesh Patel provides the first comprehensive and contemporary portrait of the technology that is transforming our world.

Drawn from his interviews on the Dwarkesh Podcast, these curated excerpts range from the technical details of how LLMs work to the possibility of an AI takeover or explosive economic growth. Patel¡¯s conversations cut through the noise to explore the topics most compelling to those at the forefront of the the power of scaling, the potential for misalignment, the sheer input required for AGI, and the economic and social ramifications of superintelligence. The book is also a standalone introduction to the technology. It includes over 170 definitions and visualizations, explanations of technical points made by guests, classic essays on the theme from other writers, and unpublished interviews with Open Philanthropy research analyst Ajeya Cotra and Anthropic cofounder Jared Kaplan.

The Scaling Era offers readers unprecedented insight into a transformative moment in the development of AI¡ªand a vision of what comes next.]]> 248 Dwarkesh Patel 1953953557 Ellen 0 to-read 4.09 The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019¨C2025
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]]> <![CDATA[The Way of Effortless Mindfulness: A Revolutionary Guide for Living an Awakened Life]]> 40899270 Discover a refreshingly different form of mindfulness to access natural wisdom, compassion, and joy?¡°In this groundbreaking guidebook, Loch Kelly offers contemporary versions of ancient practices . . . that can liberate our lives with meaning, connection, and clarity. What a beautiful book!¡± ¡ªDaniel J. Siegel, MD, author of Aware?What if you could open into a natural flow of wisdom, compassion, and joy in any moment? According to renowned meditation teacher Loch Kelly, this possibility is closer than you think. Whether you¡¯re an experienced meditator or are new to mindfulness practice, The Way of Effortless Mindfulness offers a new and effective approach to awakening and healing.?Loch teaches ¡°effortless mindfulness,¡± an advanced yet simple form of mindfulness that can liberate the deepest levels of suffering. Effortless mindfulness immediately introduces you to your awake, loving nature. By making a small initial effort of ¡°unhooking¡± awareness from chattering thoughts, you can begin the journey home.?Here you will How to shift out of thought and into your awake, loving natureThe different approaches of effortless mindfulness and deliberate mindfulnessUnique methods to liberate difficult mental and emotional statesMindful glimpses (micro-meditations) that can be done at any time with eyes openA contemporary version of ancient methods to navigate your consciousnessEffective practices drawn from ancient wisdom, contemporary neuroscience, and psychotherapyHow to make the "you-turn" from small self to no-self to true SelfThe Five Foundations of Effortless MindfulnessHow to learn to return and train to remain in an awake, compassionate flowHow to avoid the pitfalls to embodying awakening ?This reader-friendly guide is filled with innovative practices designed to give you small glimpses of your awake, loving nature. The Way of Effortless Mindfulness shows that awakening is not only possible, but is also available in the midst of your daily life.?]]> 218 Loch Kelly 1683642333 Ellen 0 to-read 3.90 The Way of Effortless Mindfulness: A Revolutionary Guide for Living an Awakened Life
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]]> <![CDATA[Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom]]> 176443397 In the vein of The Shock Doctrine and Evil Geniuses, this timely manifesto from an acclaimed journalist illustrates how corporate and political elites have used planned capitalism to advance their own interests at the expense of the rest of us¡ªand how we can take back our economy for all.

It¡¯s easy to look at the state of the world around us and feel hopeless. We live in an era marked by war, climate crisis, political polarization, and acute inequality¡ªand yet many of us feel powerless to do anything about these profound issues. We¡¯ve been assured that unfettered capitalism is necessary to ensure our freedom and prosperity, even as we see its corrosive effects proliferating daily. Why, in our age of unchecked corporate power, are most of us living paycheck to paycheck? When the economy falters, why do governments bail out corporations and shareholders but leave everyday people in the dust?

Now, economic and political journalist and progressive star on the rise Grace Blakeley exposes the corrupt system that is failing all around us, pulling back the curtain on the free market mythology we have been sold, and showing how, as corporate interests have taken hold, governments have historically been shifting away from competition and democracy and towards monopoly and oligarchy.

Tracing over a century of neoliberal planning and backdoor bailouts, Blakeley takes us on a deeply reported tour of the corporate crimes, political maneuvering, and economic manipulation that elites have used to enshrine a global system of ¡°vulture capitalism¡±¡ªplanned capitalist economies that benefit corporations and the uber-wealthy at the expense of the rest of us¡ªat every level, from states to empires. Blakeley exposes the cracks already emerging within capitalism, lighting a path forward for how we can democratize our economy, not just our politics, to ensure true freedom for all.]]> 360 Grace Blakeley 1982180854 Ellen 0 to-read 4.15 2024 Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom
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]]> <![CDATA[The Trading Game: A Confession]]> 188543465
'If you were gonna rob a bank, and you saw the vault door there, left open, what would you do? Would you wait around?

Ever since he was a kid, kicking broken footballs on the streets of East London in the shadow of Canary Wharf's skyscrapers, Gary wanted something better. Something a whole lot bigger.

Then he won a competition run by a 'The Trading Game'. The a golden ticket to a new life, as the youngest trader in the whole city. A place where you could make more money than you'd ever imagined. Where your colleagues are dysfunctional maths geniuses, overfed public schoolboys and borderline psychopaths, yet they start to feel like family. Where soon you're the bank's most profitable trader, dealing in nearly a trillion dollars. A day . Where you dream of numbers in your sleep - and then stop sleeping at all.

But what happens when winning starts to feel like losing? When the easiest way to make money is to bet on millions becoming poorer and poorer - and, as the economy starts slipping off a precipice, your own sanity starts slipping with it? You want to stop, but you can't. Because nobody ever leaves .

Would you stick, or quit? Even if it meant risking everything?]]> 352 Gary Stevenson 0593727215 Ellen 0 to-read 4.20 2024 The Trading Game: A Confession
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]]> <![CDATA[The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity]]> 226846256 In an economic future centered on artificially-intelligent platforms, how can their power be balanced to ensure a broad prosperity for everyone?

Our world is dominated by a handful of tech platforms. They provide great conveniences and entertainment, but also stand as some of the most effective instruments of wealth extraction ever created, seizing immense amounts of money, data, and attention from all of us.?An economy driven by digital platforms and AI influence offers the potential to enrish us, but also threatens to marginalize entire industries, widen the wealth gap, and foster a two-class nation.

Tim Wu¡ªthe preeminent scholar and former White House official who coined the phrase ¡°net neutrality¡±¡ªexplores the rise of platform power and details the risks and rewards of working within such systems. The Age of Extraction tells the story of an Internet that promised widespread wealth and democracy in the 1990s and 2000s, only to create new economic classes and aid the spread of autocracy instead.? Wu frames our current moment with lessons from recent history¡ªfrom generative AI and predictive social data to the antimonopoly and crypto movements¡ªand envisions a future where technological advances serve the greatest possible good. Concise and hopeful, The Age of Extraction offers consequential proposals for how to achieve a better economic balance and prosperity for all.]]> Tim Wu 0593321251 Ellen 0 to-read 0.0 The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity
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]]> <![CDATA[The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age]]> 40081165 "Persuasive and brilliantly written, the book is especially timely given the rise of trillion-dollar tech companies."--Publishers Weekly

From the man who coined the term "net neutrality," author of The Master Switch and The Attention Merchants, comes a warning about the dangers of excessive corporate and industrial concentration for our economic and political future.

We live in an age of extreme corporate concentration, in which global industries are controlled by just a few giant firms -- big banks, big pharma, and big tech, just to name a few. But concern over what Louis Brandeis called the "curse of bigness" can no longer remain the province of specialist lawyers and economists, for it has spilled over into policy and politics, even threatening democracy itself. History suggests that tolerance of inequality and failing to control excessive corporate power may prompt the rise of populism, nationalism, extremist politicians, and fascist regimes. In short, as Wu warns, we are in grave danger of repeating the signature errors of the twentieth century.

In The Curse of Bigness, Columbia professor Tim Wu tells of how figures like Brandeis and Theodore Roosevelt first confronted the democratic threats posed by the great trusts of the Gilded Age--but the lessons of the Progressive Era were forgotten in the last 40 years. He calls for recovering the lost tenets of the trustbusting age as part of a broader revival of American progressive ideas as we confront the fallout of persistent and extreme economic inequality.]]> 154 Tim Wu 0999745468 Ellen 0 to-read 4.15 2018 The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age
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average rating: 4.15
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]]> Stoner 166997
John Williams¡¯s luminous and deeply moving novel is a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero, standing, like a figure in a painting by Edward Hopper, in stark relief against an unforgiving world.]]> 292 John Williams 1590171993 Ellen 0 to-read 4.35 1965 Stoner
author: John Williams
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1965
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]]> East of Eden 4406
Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aaron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness enveloped by a mysterious darkness.

First published in 1952, East of Eden is the work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. A masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years, East of Eden is a powerful and vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis.]]> 601 John Steinbeck 0142000655 Ellen 0 currently-reading 4.41 1952 East of Eden
author: John Steinbeck
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1952
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]]> <![CDATA[Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)]]> 15839976 "I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them."

"I live for you," I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow¡ªand Reds like him¡ªare nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.]]> 382 Pierce Brown 0345539788 Ellen 0 to-read 4.26 2014 Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
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]]> <![CDATA[Capital in the Twenty First Century]]> 18736925 Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality.

Piketty shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality¡ªthe tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth¡ªtoday threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, Piketty says, and may do so again.]]> 685 Thomas Piketty 067443000X Ellen 0 to-read 4.04 2013 Capital in the Twenty First Century
author: Thomas Piketty
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2013
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]]> <![CDATA[Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It When It's Gone]]> 38122407 What is democracy really? What do we mean when we use the term? And can it ever truly exist? Astra Taylor, hailed as a "New Civil Rights Leader" (LA Times), provides surprising answers.

There is no shortage of democracy, at least in name, and yet it is in crisis everywhere we look. From a cabal of thieving plutocrats in the White House to rising inequality and xenophobia worldwide, it is clear that democracy--specifically the principle of government by and for the people--is not living up to its promise.

In Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It When It's Gone, Astra Taylor shows that real democracy--fully inclusive and completely egalitarian--has in fact never existed. In a tone that is both philosophical and anecdotal, weaving together history, theory, the stories of individuals, and conversations with such leading thinkers as Cornel West, Danielle Allen, and Wendy Brown, Taylor invites us to reexamine the term. Is democracy a means or an end, a process or a set of desired outcomes? What if the those outcomes, whatever they may be--peace, prosperity, equality, liberty, an engaged citizenry--can be achieved by non-democratic means? Or if an election leads to a terrible outcome? If democracy means rule by the people, what does it mean to rule and who counts as the people?

The inherent paradoxes are too often unnamed and unrecognized. By teasing them out, Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It When It's Gone offers a better understanding of what is possible, what we want, and why democracy is so hard to realize.]]> 368 Astra Taylor 125017984X Ellen 0 to-read 4.21 2019 Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It When It's Gone
author: Astra Taylor
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2019
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]]> <![CDATA[Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism]]> 75560036
Capitalism is dead. Welcome to technofeudalism. The perfect Christmas gift for the political visionaries in your life.

In his boldest and most far-reaching book, the visionary economist and number-one bestselling author Yanis Varoufakis shows how the owners of big tech became the world's feudal overlords ¨C replacing capitalism with a fundamentally new system that enslaves our minds, defies democracy and rewrite the rules of global power.

But as Varoufakis also reveals, technofeudalism contains new opportunities to thwart and overturn it, bringing into focus more clearly than ever the revolution we need to escape our digital prison.

¡®An epochal, once-in-a-millennium shift . . . this isn't just new technology. This is the world grappling with an entirely new economic system and therefore political power¡¯ Observer

¡®An urgent demand to seize the means of computation¡¯ CORY DOCTOROW

A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR]]> 224 Yanis Varoufakis Ellen 0 to-read 4.04 2023 Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism
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name: Ellen
average rating: 4.04
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]]> A Simpler Life 59692890
The modern world can be a complicated, frenzied, and noisy place, filled with too many options, products, ideas and opinions. That explains why what many of us long for is simplicity: a life that can be more pared down, peaceful, and focused on the essentials.

But finding simplicity is not always easy; it isn¡¯t just a case of emptying out our closets or trimming back commitments in our diaries. True simplicity requires that we understand the roots of our distractions ¨C and develop a canny respect for the stubborn reasons why things can grow complex and overwhelming.

This book is a guide to the simpler lives we crave and deserve. It considers how we might achieve simplicity across a range of areas. Along the way, we learn about Zen Buddhism, modernist architecture, monasteries, psychoanalysis, and why we probably don¡¯t need more than three good friends or a few treasured belongings.

It isn¡¯t enough that our lives should look simple; they need to be simple from the inside. This book takes a psychological approach, guiding us towards less contorted hearts and minds. We have for too long been drowning in excess and clutter from a confusion about our aspirations; A Simpler Life helps us tune out the static and focus on what properly matters to us.]]> 216 The School of Life 1912891689 Ellen 3 3.93 A Simpler Life
author: The School of Life
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.93
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]]> <![CDATA[Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language]]> 220459559 ¡°Packed with fascinating facts, of-the-moment observations, and a sparkling voice, Algospeak is a gift to any word nerd. Deftly covering everything from emoji etymologies and trendbait to Taylor Swift fanilects... Adam Aleksic is the wise, yet accessible internet linguistics oracle we need.¡±
¡ªAmanda Montell, author of The Age of Magical Overthinking and Cultish

From ¡°brainrot¡± memes and incel slang to the trend of adding??¡°-core¡± to different influencer aesthetics, the internet has ushered in an unprecedented linguistic upheaval. We¡¯re entering an entirely new era of etymology, heralded by the invisible forces driving social media algorithms. Thankfully, Algospeak is here to explain. As a professional linguist, Adam Aleksic understands the gravity of language and the way we use he knows the ways it has morphed and changed, how it reflects society, and how, in its everyday usage, we carry centuries of human history on our tongues. As a social media influencer, Aleksic is also intimately familiar with the internet¡¯s reach and how social media impacts the way we engage with one another. New slang emerges and goes viral overnight. Accents are shaped or erased on YouTube. Grammatical rules, loopholes, and patterns surface and transform language as we know it.?Our interactions, social norms, and habits¡ªboth online and in person¡ªshift into something completely different.


As Aleksic uses original surveys, data, and internet archival research to usher us through this new linguistic landscape, he also illuminates how communication is changing in both familiar and unexpected ways. From our use of emojis to sentence structure to the ways younger generations talk about sex and death (see unalive in English and desvivirse in Spanish), we are in a brand-new world, one shaped by algorithms and technology. Algospeak is an energetic, astonishing journey into language, the internet, and what this intersection means for all of us.]]> Adam Aleksic 0593804082 Ellen 0 to-read 4.88 Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language
author: Adam Aleksic
name: Ellen
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]]> <![CDATA[Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear]]> 24453082 Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.]]> 276 Elizabeth Gilbert 1594634718 Ellen 0 to-read 3.95 2015 Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
author: Elizabeth Gilbert
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2015
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]]> <![CDATA[Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: or, How Capitalism Works¡ªand How It Fails]]> 36490332 In Talking to My Daughter About the Economy, activist Yanis Varoufakis, Greece¡¯s former finance minister and the author of the international bestseller Adults in the Room, pens a series of letters to his young daughter, educating her about the business, politics, and corruption of world economics.

Yanis Varoufakis has appeared before heads of nations, assemblies of experts, and countless students around the world. Now, he faces his most important¡ªand difficult¡ªaudience yet. Using clear language and vivid examples, Varoufakis offers a series of letters to his young daughter about the economy: how it operates, where it came from, how it benefits some while impoverishing others. Taking bankers and politicians to task, he explains the historical origins of inequality among and within nations, questions the pervasive notion that everything has its price, and shows why economic instability is a chronic risk. Finally, he discusses the inability of market-driven policies to address the rapidly declining health of the planet his daughter¡¯s generation stands to inherit.

Throughout, Varoufakis wears his expertise lightly. He writes as a parent whose aim is to instruct his daughter on the fundamental questions of our age¡ªand through that knowledge, to equip her against the failures and obfuscations of our current system and point the way toward a more democratic alternative.]]> 224 Yanis Varoufakis 0374718431 Ellen 0 to-read 4.20 2013 Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: or, How Capitalism Works¡ªand How It Fails
author: Yanis Varoufakis
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2013
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]]> <![CDATA[Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech]]> 59801798
The "rich and gripping" true story of the first time machines came for human jobs¡ªand how the Luddite uprising explains the power, threat, and toll of big tech and AI today?(Naomi Klein) The most urgent story in modern tech begins not in Silicon Valley but two hundred years ago in rural England, when workers known as the Luddites rose up rather than starve at the hands of factory owners who were using automated machines to erase their livelihoods.

The Luddites organized guerrilla raids to smash those machines¡ªon punishment of death¡ªand won the support of Lord Byron, enraged the Prince Regent, and inspired the birth of science fiction. This all-but-forgotten class struggle brought nineteenth-century England to its knees.

Today, technology imperils millions of jobs, robots are crowding factory floors, and artificial intelligence will soon pervade every aspect of our economy. How will this change the way we live? And what can we do about it?

The answers lie in Blood in the Machine . Brian Merchant intertwines a lucid examination of our current age with the story of the Luddites, showing how automation changed our world¡ªand is shaping our future.]]> 416 Brian Merchant 0316487740 Ellen 0 to-read 4.16 2023 Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech
author: Brian Merchant
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.16
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]]> <![CDATA[Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress¨Dand How to Bring It Back]]> 214175076 A provocative exploration about the architecture of power, the forces that stifle us from getting things done, and how we can restore confidence in democratically elected government¡ª¡°the best book to date on the biggest political issue that nobody is talking about¡± (Matthew Yglesias)

America was once a country that did big things¡ªwe built the world¡¯s greatest rail network, a vast electrical grid, interstate highways, abundant housing, the Social Security system, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and more. But today, even while facing a host of pressing challenges¡ªa housing shortage, a climate crisis, a dilapidated infrastructure¡ªwe feel stuck, unable to move the needle. Why?

America is today the victim of a vetocracy that allows nearly anyone to stifle progress. While conservatives deserve some blame, progressives have overlooked an unlikely culprit: their own fears of ¡°The Establishment.¡± A half-century ago, progressivism¡¯s designs on getting stuff done were eclipsed by a desire to box in government. Reformers put speaking truth to power ahead of exercising that power for good. The ensuing gridlock has pummeled faith in public institutions of all sorts, stifled the movement¡¯s ability to deliver on its promises, and, most perversely, opened the door for MAGA-style populism.

A century ago, Americans were similarly frustrated¡ªand progressivism pointed the way out. The same can happen again. Marc J. Dunkelman vividly illustrates what progressives must do if they are going to break through today¡¯s paralysis and restore, once again, confidence in democratically elected government. To get there, reformers will need to acknowledge where they¡¯ve gone wrong. Progressivism¡¯s success moving forward hinges on the movement¡¯s willingness to rediscover its roots.]]> 416 Marc J. Dunkelman 154170021X Ellen 0 to-read 4.03 Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress¨Dand How to Bring It Back
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]]> <![CDATA[House of Huawei: The Secret History of China's Most Powerful Company]]> 214490408 The untold story of the mysterious family dynasty at the center of China's Huawei.

On December 1, 2018, Meng Wanzhou, daughter of Ren Zhengfei, founder and CEO of China's most powerful company, Huawei Technologies, was detained at the request of U.S. authorities as she prepared to board a flight out of Vancouver, Canada. The detention of Huawei's female scion set the U.S.-China trade skirmish on fire - and, for the first time, revealed the Ren family's prominence in Beijing's power structure.

In The Listening State, acclaimed Washington Post reporter Eva Dou exposes the untold story of the rise of Ren Zhengfei and the mysterious family dynasty at the center of Huawei, whose connections to state apparatus reveal a deeper truth about China's surveillance web and its global ambitions. Through its technologies, Huawei has helped solidify and enforce China's growing police state, in which outspoken entrepreneurs like Jack Ma have been silenced, tycoons have disappeared, and executives must put patriotism above profit.

Based on over a decade of on-the-ground reporting and an astonishing trove of confidential documents never published in English, The Listening State paints an epic story of familial and political intrigue that shines a clarifying light on how business and government work together in an authoritarian state, and how companies fit into China's international ambitions under Xi Jinping.

The story of Ren Zhengfei and Huawei exposes the human face of China's modern security state and gets to the heart of the central questions of the U.S.-China trade How did these turbocharged Chinese companies emerge? Who really controls them? And what does China's growing surveillance web mean for the Chinese people - and for the rest of the world?]]> 448 Eva Dou 0593544633 Ellen 0 to-read 3.93 2025 House of Huawei: The Secret History of China's Most Powerful Company
author: Eva Dou
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.93
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]]> <![CDATA[No Trade Is Free: Changing Course, Taking on China, and Helping America's Workers]]> 62191013 384 Robert Lighthizer 0063282135 Ellen 0 to-read 4.00 No Trade Is Free: Changing Course, Taking on China, and Helping America's Workers
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name: Ellen
average rating: 4.00
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]]> <![CDATA[How Asia Works: Success and Failure in the World's Most Dynamic Region]]> 16144575 320 Joe Studwell 080211959X Ellen 0 to-read 4.26 2013 How Asia Works: Success and Failure in the World's Most Dynamic Region
author: Joe Studwell
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2013
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]]> <![CDATA[A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness]]> 10357675 A First-Rate Madness, Nassir Ghaemi, who runs the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts University Medical Center, draws from the careers and personal plights of such notable leaders as Lincoln, Churchill, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., JFK, and others from the past two centuries to build an argument that the very qualities that mark those with mood disorders- realism, empathy, resilience, and creativity-also make for the best leaders in times of crisis. By combining analysis of the historical evidence with the latest psychiatric research, Ghaemi demonstrates how he thinks these qualities have produced brilliant leadership under the toughest circumstances.individuals and society at large-however high the price for those who endure these illnesses.]]> 340 S. Nassir Ghaemi 1594202958 Ellen 0 to-read 3.70 2011 A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness
author: S. Nassir Ghaemi
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2011
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]]> The Garden of Forking Paths 10438328 10 Jorge Luis Borges 110122245X Ellen 0 to-read 4.28 1941 The Garden of Forking Paths
author: Jorge Luis Borges
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1941
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]]> Abundance 176444106 Abundance is a once-in-a-generation, paradigm-shifting call to rethink big, entrenched problems that seem mired in systemic from climate change to housing, education to healthcare.

To trace the global history of the twenty-first century so far is to trace a history of growing unaffordability and shortage. After years of refusing to build sufficient housing, the entire country has a national housing crisis. After years of slashing immigration, we don¡¯t have enough workers. After decades of off-shoring manufacturing, we have a shortage of chips for cars and computers. Despite decades of being warned about the consequences of climate change, we haven¡¯t built anything close to the clean energy infrastructure we need. The crisis that¡¯s clicking into focus now has been building for decades¡ªbecause we haven¡¯t been building enough.

Abundance explains that our problems today are not the results of yesteryear¡¯s villains. Rather, one generation¡¯s solutions have become the next generation¡¯s problems. Rules and regulations designed to solve the environmental problems of the 1970s often prevent urban density and green energy projects that would help solve the environmental problems of the 2020s. Laws meant to ensure that government considers the consequences of its actions in matters of education and healthcare have made it too difficult for government to act consequentially. In the last few decades, our capacity to see problems has sharpened while our ability to solve them has diminished.

Progress requires the ability to see promise rather than just peril in the creation of new ideas and projects, and an instinct to design systems and institutions that make building possible. In a book exploring how can move from a liberalism that not only protects and preserves but also builds, Klein and Thompson trace the political, economic, and cultural barriers to progress and how we can adopt a mindset directed toward abundance, and not scarcity, to overcome them.]]> 304 Ezra Klein 1668023482 Ellen 0 to-read 4.11 2025 Abundance
author: Ezra Klein
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.11
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]]> There Are Rivers in the Sky 202468422 From the Booker Prize finalist author of The Island of Missing Trees, an enchanting new tale about three characters living along two rivers, all under the shadow of one of the greatest epic poems of all time.

In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the bank of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia, erudite but ruthless, built a great library that would crumble with the end of his reign. From its ruins, however, emerged a poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, that would infuse the existence of two rivers and bind together three lives.

In 1840 London, Arthur is born beside the stinking, sewage-filled River Thames. With an abusive, alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother, Arthur¡¯s only chance of escaping destitution is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a leading publisher, Arthur¡¯s world opens up far beyond the slums, and one book in particular catches his interest: Nineveh and Its Remains.

In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a ten-year-old Yazidi girl, is diagnosed with a rare disorder that will soon cause her to go deaf. Before that happens, her grandmother is determined to baptize her in a sacred Iraqi temple. But with the rising presence of ISIS and the destruction of the family¡¯s ancestral lands along the Tigris, Narin is running out of time.

In 2018 London, the newly divorced Zaleekah, a hydrologist, moves into a houseboat on the Thames to escape her husband. Orphaned and raised by her wealthy uncle, Zaleekah had made the decision to take her own life in one month, until a curious book about her homeland changes everything.

A dazzling feat of storytelling, There Are Rivers in the Sky entwines these outsiders with a single drop of water, a drop which remanifests across the centuries. Both a source of life and harbinger of death, rivers¡ªthe Tigris and the Thames¡ªtranscend history, transcend fate: ¡°Water remembers. It is humans who forget.¡±]]> 464 Elif Shafak 0593801717 Ellen 0 to-read 4.38 2024 There Are Rivers in the Sky
author: Elif Shafak
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2024
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]]> <![CDATA[Hack Your Bureaucracy: Get Things Done No Matter What Your Role on Any Team]]> 60021175 ¡°A deeply empowering and practical book: for anyone, anywhere, who just wants to GET STUFF DONE.¡±
--Cecilia Mu?oz, former Director, White House Domestic Policy Council under President Obama


Whether you just started your first entry-level job, run the entire company, or just feel trapped by your condo association bylaws, it¡¯s time to it¡¯s time to learn how to get big things done and make a lasting impact with Hack Your Bureaucracy.

From local government to the White House, Harvard to the world of venture capital, Marina Nitze and Nick Sinai have taken on some of the world¡¯s most challenging bureaucracies¡ªand won. Now, they bring their years of experience to you, teaching you strategies anyone can use to improve your organization through their own stories and those of fellow bureaucracy hackers, including:




- Find Your Paperclip: use small steps to achieve big change

- Set Your North Star: keep your end goal in sight

- Cultivate the Karass: assemble an adept team and network

- Don¡¯t Waste a Crisis: turn every opportunity into a chance for change

And more!



Change doesn¡¯t happen just because the person in charge declares it should, even if that person is the CEO of your company or the President of the United States. Regardless of your industry, role, or team,?Hack Your Bureaucracy?shows how to get started, take initiative on your own, and transform your ideas into impact.



"We think that changing the world requires inspirational leaders, but the truth is that real change is driven by regular people working behind the scenes. This is a deeply empowering and practical book for those people: for anyone, anywhere, who just wants to GET STUFF DONE. Marina and Nick may claim that they're not magicians, but I have watched them in action. The skills that they are passing along in this book feel like magic because they work."¨DCecilia Mu?oz, former Director, White House Domestic Policy Council under President Obama



¡°If you¡¯ve ever been frustrated by red tape, think of this book as a pair of scissors. Marina Nitze and Nick Sinai are master bureaucracy busters, and their experience in the White House shows how you can root out inefficiency in your own backyard.¡±¨DAdam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of THINK AGAIN and host of the TED podcast WorkLife



"I¡¯ve never read a book with so many good ideas. Every page that I read, I kicked myself, thinking back on all the times I tried to make change and failed. If Hack Your Bureaucracy had been written 30 years earlier, I would have accomplished so much more in my life."¨DSteven Levitt, author of Freakonomics and University of Chicago professor



"A master class on intrapreneurship. If you want to drive change in large organizations, Hack Your Bureaucracy is a must read."¨DEric Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Futures and former CEO of Google



"To tackle the biggest challenges we face on the planet, we will have to make bureaucracies work. Marina and Nick show us how. Practical, insightful, and totally spot-on, Hack Your Bureaucracy is essential reading for everyone from frustrated leaders to ambitious newcomers." ¨DJen Pahlka, Founder, Code for America and former U.S. Deputy CTO



¡°Whether you are revamping your small business, helping to improve the PTA, or leading a scaled organization, this book has something for you. Marina and Nick take solving complex organizational problems and driving outcomes to a new level. Hack Your Bureaucracy is a step-step-guide on how to have impact one practical step at a time. Their bureaucracy hacking advice is thoughtful, tested and useful wisdom for those leading in any sector.¡± ¨DTara McGuinness, co-author of Power to the Public, founder, New Practice Lab



"Nick and Marina are incredibly gifted change agents, and in Hack Your Bureaucracy, they provide hard-won lessons and wisdom that will be invaluable to everyone from entrepreneurs trying to build great companies to innovators working to change institutions of all kinds from the inside out. Like working with Nick and Marina, the book is energizing, inspiring, and an absolute blast¡ª a how-to manual for driving change unlike any other."¨DTodd Park, cofounder of Devoted Health, Athenahealth, and Castlight Health and former U.S. CTO



"Having worked for decades in the Defense Department, including having had the top three jobs, I know how important it is to empower people. I¡¯ve seen it with both military service members and DoD civilian employees across a variety of roles: with hustle, grit, organizational savviness, and teamwork, you can take a good idea all the way through successful execution. In Hack Your Bureaucracy, Nick and Marina¡ªworld-class bureaucracy hackers themselves¡ªpresent an actionable and fun guide to getting things done, even in the most challenging of environments."¨DSecretary Ash Carter, former Secretary of Defense



"I spent nearly three years as the U.S. Air Force Chief Information Officer working every day to hack my bureaucracy. I wish I knew then what I see now in the straightforward and well-thought prescriptions laid out in this book¡­ a must-read for enlightened organizations and leaders looking to inspire the process changes and cultural mindset shifts necessary to hack their bureaucracies!"¨DBill Bender, Lt Gen (Ret) USAF, SVP, Customer Excellence, Leidos



"Nick and Marina are masters of the dark arts of bureaucracy hacking. Hack Your Bureaucracy is full of dozens of tactics that I've used, and many more that I plan to! Anyone who wants to make change at scale--in the U.S. Air Force, or in any organization of significance--should read this book." ¨DLauren Knausenberger



"Hack Your Bureaucracy should be on the desk of every government official in the land--federal, state, and local. It offers powerful tools to strengthen and expand our democracy by making it work for everyone."¨DAnne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America



"The U.S. federal government is the largest and most unwieldy living organism in the world. In Hack Your Bureaucracy, Marina Nitze and Nick Sinai use their own experience as agents of change in the civil service to give a master class on how to get things done. This book is essential reading for anybody working in any large institution, not just government."¨DCarl Malamud, Public Resource



"A masterful guide to hacking the bureaucracy. Nick and Marina don't just talk the talk. When I was standing up the DoD Joint AI Center (JAIC), the organization took on a completely new life after Nick jumped in to help us. And as a relatively recent military retiree, I can attest that the VA online experience is 50x better today than it was just a few years ago. If you aren't energized by this book, you don't have a pulse!"¨DJack Shanahan, retired United States Air Force lieutenant general and former Director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center

]]> 368 Marina Nitze 0306827751 Ellen 0 to-read 4.14 2022 Hack Your Bureaucracy: Get Things Done No Matter What Your Role on Any Team
author: Marina Nitze
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.14
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]]> <![CDATA[Investigating Pristine Inner Experience: Moments of Truth]]> 12296608 472 Russell T. Hurlburt 1107009944 Ellen 0 to-read 4.50 2011 Investigating Pristine Inner Experience: Moments of Truth
author: Russell T. Hurlburt
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2011
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]]> A Confession 26244 108 Leo Tolstoy 1598184717 Ellen 0 to-read 4.18 1880 A Confession
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1880
rating: 0
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]]> Honeybees and Distant Thunder 62919004 Tender and intense,?Honeybees and Distant Thunder is the unflinching story of love, courage and rivalry as three young people come to understand what it means to truly be a friend.

In a small coastal town just a stone's throw from Tokyo, a prestigious piano competition is underway. Over the course of two feverish weeks, three students will experience some of the most joyous¡ªand painful¡ªmoments of their lives. Though they don't know it yet, each will profoundly and unpredictably change the others, for ever.

Aya was a child prodigy who abruptly gave up performing after the death of her mother, and is now trying for a comeback; Masaru, a childhood friend of Aya who came to the piano through her insistence that he learn to play, is now reunited with her after many years, and is equally invested in both his and her success; Akashi, who is older and married, works in a music store and is the ¡°old man¡± of the competitors, hoping for a final chance at success; and Jin, a sixteen-year-old prodigy, the free spirited son of a beekeeper who travels constantly, and has no formal training (and doesn¡¯t even own a piano) yet whose mesmerizing insight into music has brought him to the attention of one of the world¡¯s most celebrated pianists, the late Maestro Von Hoffman.

Each of them will break the rules, awe their fans and push themselves to the brink. But at what cost?

Beloved in Japan, Riku Onda?immerses us in the world of music¡ªfrom piano masterpieces to the buzz of bees and the rumble of thunder¡ªwhich?crescendos to a surprising ending in this?rich and vibrant novel.]]> 432 Riku Onda 163936403X Ellen 0 to-read 3.85 2016 Honeybees and Distant Thunder
author: Riku Onda
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2016
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto's First Immigrant Neighbourhood]]> 23282304
The Ward finally tells the diverse stories of this extraordinary and resilient neighbourhood through archival photos and contributions from a wide array of voices, including historians, politicians, architects, story??tellers, journalists and descendants of Ward residents. Their perspectives on playgrounds, tuberculosis, sex workers, newsies and even bathing bring The Ward to life and, in the process, raise important questions about how contemporary cities handle immigration, poverty and the geography of difference.]]> 320 John Lorinc 1552453111 Ellen 0 to-read 4.09 2015 The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto's First Immigrant Neighbourhood
author: John Lorinc
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2015
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date added: 2025/01/16
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]]> <![CDATA[The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma]]> 18693771 A pioneering researcher transforms our understanding of trauma and offers a bold new paradigm for healing.

Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world's foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers' capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments¡ªfrom neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga¡ªthat offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain's natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk's own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal¡ªand offers new hope for reclaiming lives.]]> 464 Bessel van der Kolk 0670785938 Ellen 5 favourites 4.36 2014 The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
author: Bessel van der Kolk
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2014
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Sovereign Child: How a Forgotten Philosophy Can Liberate Kids and Their Parents]]> 222825841
But what if this conventional wisdom is wrong? What if our deepest ideas of how learning works, how knowledge grows, and the nature of personhood all point to the brute fact that parenting philosophies have missed a critical detail?

In The Sovereign Child, Aaron Stupple explains Taking Children Seriously, the only parenting philosophy that accounts for the fact that children are people¡ªtheir reasons, desires, emotions, and creativity all work precisely the same way that those of adults do. Because of this, much of the conventional wisdom simply cannot work as intended.

Using examples gleaned from his years as a father of five, Aaron takes a close look at the unavoidable harms of rule enforcement and the startling alternatives available when parents never give up on treating children as if their reasons for their choices matter as much as anyone else's.]]> Aaron Stupple 1544547986 Ellen 0 to-read 3.43 The Sovereign Child: How a Forgotten Philosophy Can Liberate Kids and Their Parents
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name: Ellen
average rating: 3.43
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]]> Butter 200776812 The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story.

There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine.

Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Center convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation¡¯s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can¡¯t resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer," Asako Yuzuki¡¯s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.]]> 464 Asako Yuzuki 0063236400 Ellen 0 to-read 3.50 2017 Butter
author: Asako Yuzuki
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.50
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]]> The Vegetarian 25489025
Celebrated by critics around the world, The Vegetarian is a darkly allegorical, Kafka-esque tale of power, obsession, and one woman¡¯s struggle to break free from the violence both without and within her.]]> 188 Han Kang 0553448188 Ellen 0 to-read 3.61 2007 The Vegetarian
author: Han Kang
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2007
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]]> The Emperor of Gladness 219848315 Ocean Vuong returns with a big-hearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai¡¯s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.

Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Vuong¡¯s writing ¨C formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness ¨C are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life¡¯s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.]]> 416 Ocean Vuong 059383187X Ellen 0 to-read 4.34 2025 The Emperor of Gladness
author: Ocean Vuong
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.34
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]]> Autocracy, Inc. 183932735 224 Anne Applebaum 0241627893 Ellen 0 to-read 4.21 2024 Autocracy, Inc.
author: Anne Applebaum
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
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]]> Daughters of Shandong 195888874
A propulsive, extraordinary novel about a mother and her daughters¡¯ harrowing escape to Taiwan as the Communist revolution sweeps through China, by debut author Eve J. Chung, based on her family story

Daughters are the Ang family¡¯s curse.

In 1948, civil war ravages the Chinese countryside, but in rural Shandong, the wealthy, landowning Angs are more concerned with their lack of an heir. Hai is the eldest of four girls and spends her days looking after her sisters. Headstrong Di, who is just a year younger, learns to hide in plain sight, and their mother¡ªabused by the family for failing to birth a boy¡ªfinds her own small acts of rebellion in the kitchen. As the Communist army closes in on their town, the rest of the prosperous household flees, leaving behind the girls and their mother because they view them as useless mouths to feed.

Without an Ang male to punish, the land-seizing cadres choose Hai, as the eldest child, to stand trial for her family¡¯s crimes. She barely survives their brutality. Realizing the worst is yet to come, the women plan their escape. Starving and penniless but resourceful, they forge travel permits and embark on a thousand-mile journey to confront the family that abandoned them.

From the countryside to the bustling city of Qingdao, and onward to British Hong Kong and eventually Taiwan, they witness the changing tide of a nation and the plight of multitudes caught in the wake of revolution. But with the loss of their home and the life they¡¯ve known also comes new freedom¡ªto take hold of their fate, to shake free of the bonds of their gender, and to claim their own story.

Told in assured, evocative prose, with impeccably drawn characters, Daughters of Shandong is a hopeful, powerful story about the resilience of women in war; the enduring love between mothers, daughters, and sisters; and the sacrifices made to lift up future generations.]]> 400 Eve J. Chung 0593640535 Ellen 0 to-read 4.45 2024 Daughters of Shandong
author: Eve J. Chung
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.45
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]]> Orange 1 (¥ª¥ì¥ó¥¸, #1) 16126395 192 Ichigo Takano 408846804X Ellen 0 to-read 4.31 2012 Orange 1 (¥ª¥ì¥ó¥¸, #1)
author: Ichigo Takano
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2012
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]]> Tinkers 4957350
At once heartbreaking and life affirming, Tinkers is an elegiac meditation on love, loss, illness, faith, and the fierce beauty of nature.]]> 192 Paul Harding 1934137197 Ellen 0 to-read 3.41 2009 Tinkers
author: Paul Harding
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2009
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]]> <![CDATA[Surveillance State: China's Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control]]> 56269193
Surveillance State tells the gripping, startling, and detailed story of how China¡¯s Communist Party is building a new kind of political shaping the will of the people through the sophisticated¨Dand often brutal¨Dharnessing of data.

It is a story born in Silicon Valley and America¡¯s ¡°War on Terror,¡± and now playing out in alarming ways on China¡¯s remote Central Asian frontier. As ethnic minorities in a border region strain against Party control, China¡¯s leaders have built a dystopian police state that keeps millions under the constant gaze of security forces armed with AI. But across the country in the city of Hangzhou, the government is weaving a digital utopia, where technology helps optimize everything from traffic patterns to food safety to emergency response.

Award-winning journalists Josh Chin and Liza Lin take readers on a journey through the new world China is building within its borders, and beyond. Telling harrowing stories of the people and families affected by the Party¡¯s ambitions, Surveillance State reveals a future that is already underway¨Da new society engineered around the power of digital surveillance.]]> 310 Josh Chin 1250249295 Ellen 0 to-read 4.16 Surveillance State: China's Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control
author: Josh Chin
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.16
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]]> <![CDATA[Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology]]> 60321447
You may be surprised to learn that microchips are the new oil¡ªthe scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everything¡ª from missiles to microwaves, smartphones to the stock market ¡ª runs on chips. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower. Now, America's edge is?slipping, undermined by competitors in Taiwan, Korea,?Europe, and, above all, China. Today, as Chip War reveals, China, which spends more money each year importing chips than it spends importing oil,?is pouring billions into a chip-building initiative to catch up to the US. At stake is America's military superiority and economic prosperity.

Economic historian Chris Miller explains how the semiconductor came to play a critical role in modern life and how the U.S. become dominant in chip design and manufacturing and applied this technology to military systems. America's victory in the Cold War and its global military dominance stems from its ability to harness computing power more effectively than any other power. But here, too, China is catching up, with its chip-building ambitions and military modernization going hand in hand.?America has let key components of the chip-building process slip out of its grasp, contributing not only to a worldwide chip shortage but also a new Cold War with a superpower adversary that is desperate to bridge the gap.

Illuminating, timely, and fascinating, Chip War shows that, to make sense of the current state of politics, economics, and technology, we must first understand the vital role played by chips.]]> 464 Chris Miller 1982172002 Ellen 0 to-read 4.38 2022 Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology
author: Chris Miller
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.38
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]]> Dandadan, Vol. 1 60433195 218 Yukinobu Tatsu 1974734633 Ellen 0 to-read 4.33 2021 Dandadan, Vol. 1
author: Yukinobu Tatsu
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2021
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]]> <![CDATA[Consequences of Capitalism: Manufacturing Discontent and Resistance]]> 54546067

Is there an alternative to capitalism? In this landmark text Chomsky and Waterstone chart a critical map for a more just and sustainable society.

'Covid-19 has revealed glaring failures and monstrous brutalities in the current capitalist system. It represents both a crisis and an opportunity. Everything depends on the actions that people take into their own hands.'

How does politics shape our world, our lives and our perceptions? How much of 'common sense' is actually driven by the ruling classes' needs and interests? And how are we to challenge the capitalist structures that now threaten all life on the planet?

Consequences of Capitalism exposes the deep, often unseen connections between neoliberal 'common sense' and structural power. In making these linkages, we see how the current hegemony keeps social justice movements divided and marginalized. And, most importantly, we see how we can fight to overcome these divisions.]]> 388 Noam Chomsky 0241482615 Ellen 0 to-read 4.36 2020 Consequences of Capitalism: Manufacturing Discontent and Resistance
author: Noam Chomsky
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.36
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]]> <![CDATA[The End is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses]]> 49947205
Do tough times create tougher people? Can humanity handle the power of its weapons without destroying itself? Will human technology or capabilities ever peak or regress? No one knows the answers to such questions, but no one asks them in a more interesting way than Dan Carlin.

In The End is Always Near, Dan Carlin looks at questions and historical events that force us to consider what sounds like fantasy; that we might suffer the same fate that all previous eras did. Will our world ever become a ruin for future archaeologists to dig up and explore? The questions themselves are both philosophical and like something out of The Twilight Zone.

Combining his trademark mix of storytelling, history and weirdness Dan Carlin connects the past and future in fascinating and colorful ways. At the same time the questions he asks us to consider involve the most important issue imaginable: human survival. From the collapse of the Bronze Age to the challenges of the nuclear era the issue has hung over humanity like a persistent Sword of Damocles.

Inspired by his podcast, The End is Always Near challenges the way we look at the past and ourselves. In this absorbing compendium, Carlin embarks on a whole new set of stories and major cliffhangers that will keep readers enthralled. Idiosyncratic and erudite, offbeat yet profound, The End is Always Near examines issues that are rarely presented, and makes the past immediately relevant to our very turbulent present.]]> 288 Dan Carlin 0008340927 Ellen 0 to-read 3.89 2019 The End is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses
author: Dan Carlin
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2019
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]]> The System of Objects 22616 A tour de force of the materialist semiotics of the early Baudrillard.

The System of Objects is a tour de force¡ªa theoretical letter-in-a-bottle tossed into the ocean in 1968, which brilliantly communicates to us all the live ideas of the day.

Pressing Freudian and Saussurean categories into the service of a basically Marxist perspective, The System of Objects offers a cultural critique of the commodity in consumer society. Baudrillard classifies the everyday objects of the ¡°new technical order¡± as functional, nonfunctional and metafunctional. He contrasts ¡°modern¡± and ¡°traditional¡± functional objects, subjecting home furnishing and interior design to a celebrated semiological analysis. His treatment of nonfunctional or ¡°marginal¡± objects focuses on antiques and the psychology of collecting, while the metafunctional category extends to the useless, the aberrant and even the ¡°schizofunctional.¡± Finally, Baudrillard deals at length with the implications of credit and advertising for the commodification of everyday life.

The System of Objects is a tour de force of the materialist semiotics of the early Baudrillard, who emerges in retrospect as something of a lightning rod for all the live ideas of the day: Bataille's political economy of ¡°expenditure¡± and Mauss's theory of the gift; Reisman's lonely crowd and the ¡°technological society¡± of Jacques Ellul; the structuralism of Roland Barthes in The System of Fashion; Henri Lefebvre's work on the social construction of space; and last, but not least, Guy Debord's situationist critique of the spectacle.]]> 224 Jean Baudrillard 1844670538 Ellen 0 to-read 4.06 1968 The System of Objects
author: Jean Baudrillard
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1968
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]]> Simulacra and Simulation 22613 Simulacra et Simulation in 1981 marked Jean Baudrillard's first important step toward theorizing the postmodern. Moving away from the Marxist/Freudian approaches that had concerned him earlier, Baudrillard developed in this book a theory of contemporary culture that relies on displacing economic notions of cultural production with notions of cultural expenditure.

Baudrillard uses the concepts of the simulacra¡ªthe copy without an original¡ªand simulation. These terms are crucial to an understanding of the postmodern, to the extent that they address the concept of mass reproduction and reproduceability that characterizes our electronic media culture.

Baudrillard's book represents a unique and original effort to rethink cultural theory from the perspective of a new concept of cultural materialism, one that radically redefines postmodern formulations of the body.

Sheila Glaser is an editor at Artforum magazine.]]> 164 Jean Baudrillard 0472065211 Ellen 0 to-read 4.01 1981 Simulacra and Simulation
author: Jean Baudrillard
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1981
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]]> <![CDATA[Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880-1940]]> 187357 495 David E. Nye 0262640309 Ellen 0 to-read 3.96 1990 Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880-1940
author: David E. Nye
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1990
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]]> No One Writes Back 17591572 No One Writes Back is the story of a young man who leaves home with only his blind dog, an MP3 player, and a book, traveling aimlessly for three years, from motel to motel, meeting people on the road. Rather than learn the names of his fellow travelers¡ªor even invent nicknames for them¡ªhe assigns them numbers. There's 239, who once dreamed of being a poet, but who now only reads her poems to a friend in a coma; there's 109, who rides trains endlessly because of a broken heart; and 32, who's already decided to commit suicide. The narrator writes letters to these men and women in the hope that he can console them in their various miseries, as well as keep a record of his own experiences: "A letter is like a journal entry for me, except that it gets sent to other people." No one writes back, of course, but that doesn't mean that there isn't some hope that one of them will, someday...]]> 203 Jang Eun-Jin 1564789608 Ellen 0 to-read 4.25 2009 No One Writes Back
author: Jang Eun-Jin
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/30
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]]> <![CDATA[Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech]]> 32150534
Forty years ago, Samsung was a rickety Korean agricultural conglomerate that produced sugar, paper, and fertilizer, located in a backward country with a third-world economy. With the rise of the PC revolution, though, Chairman Lee Byung-chul began a bold experiment: to make Samsung a major supplier of computer chips. The multimillion- dollar plan was incredibly risky. But Lee, wowed by a young Steve Jobs, who sat down with the chairman to offer his advice, became obsessed with creating a tech empire. And in Samsung Rising, we follow Samsung behind the scenes as the company fights its way to the top of tech. It is one of Apple's chief suppliers of technology critical to the iPhone, and its own Galaxy phone outsells the iPhone.

Today, Samsung employs over 300,000 people (compared to Apple's 80,000 and Google's 48,000). The company's revenues have grown more than forty times from that of 1987 and make up more than 20 percent of South Korea's exports. Yet their disastrous recall of the Galaxy Note 7, with numerous reports of phones spontaneously bursting into flames, reveals the dangers of the company's headlong attempt to overtake Apple at any cost.]]> 416 Geoffrey Cain 1101907258 Ellen 0 to-read 3.61 2020 Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech
author: Geoffrey Cain
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics]]> 26530355 Misbehaving is his arresting, frequently hilarious account of the struggle to bring an academic discipline back down to earth¡ªand change the way we think about economics, ourselves, and our world.

Traditional economics assumes rational actors. Early in his research, Thaler realized these Spock-like automatons were nothing like real people. Whether buying a clock radio, selling basketball tickets, or applying for a mortgage, we all succumb to biases and make decisions that deviate from the standards of rationality assumed by economists. In other words, we misbehave. More importantly, our misbehavior has serious consequences. Dismissed at first by economists as an amusing sideshow, the study of human miscalculations and their effects on markets now drives efforts to make better decisions in our lives, our businesses, and our governments.

Coupling recent discoveries in human psychology with a practical understanding of incentives and market behavior, Thaler enlightens readers about how to make smarter decisions in an increasingly mystifying world. He reveals how behavioral economic analysis opens up new ways to look at everything from household finance to assigning faculty offices in a new building, to TV game shows, the NFL draft, and businesses like Uber.

Laced with antic stories of Thaler¡¯s spirited battles with the bastions of traditional economic thinking, Misbehaving is a singular look into profound human foibles. When economics meets psychology, the implications for individuals, managers, and policy makers are both profound and entertaining.]]> 358 Richard H. Thaler 039335279X Ellen 0 to-read 4.16 2016 Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics
author: Richard H. Thaler
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2016
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]]> Men Without Women 33652490 Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.

Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all.

Marked by the same wry humor that has defined his entire body of work, in this collection Murakami has crafted another contemporary classic.]]> 242 Haruki Murakami 0385689454 Ellen 0 to-read 3.75 2014 Men Without Women
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future]]> 35356384
Drawing on decades of research and a wide range of historical and global examples, from 1930s Europe to contemporary Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, to the American South during Jim Crow, Levitsky and Ziblatt show how democracies die--and how ours can be saved.]]> 320 Steven Levitsky 1524762938 Ellen 0 to-read 4.16 2018 How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future
author: Steven Levitsky
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2018
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]]> <![CDATA[Love for Imperfect Things: How to Accept Yourself in a World Striving for Perfection]]> 39736045 A #1 internationally bestselling book of spiritual wisdom about learning to love ourselves, with all our imperfections, by the Buddhist author of The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down.

When you care for yourself first, the world begins to find you worthy of care.

No one is perfect, but that shouldn't hold us back from love--for the world, for one another, or even for ourselves. In this beautifully illustrated guide, Buddhist teacher Haemin Sunim (whose name means "spontaneous wisdom") draws on examples from his own life and on his years of helping others to introduce us to the art of self-care. When we treat ourselves with compassion, empathy, and forgiveness, we learn to treat others the same way, allowing us to connect with people on a deeper level, bounce back from failure, deal with feeling hurt or depressed, listen more attentively, express ourselves more clearly, and have the courage to pursue what really makes us happy so we can feel complete in ourselves. With more than thirty-five full-color illustrations, Love for Imperfect Things will appeal to both your eyes and your heart, offering you comfort, encouragement, and wisdom so that you can learn to love yourself, your life, and everyone in it.]]> 272 Haemin Sunim 0143132288 Ellen 0 to-read 4.25 2016 Love for Imperfect Things: How to Accept Yourself in a World Striving for Perfection
author: Haemin Sunim
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2016
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]]> <![CDATA[Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective]]> 25670869
Controversial at its heart, yet refreshingly provocative, this book challenges readers to consider life without a destination and discovery without a compass.]]> 154 Kenneth O. Stanley 3319155245 Ellen 0 to-read 4.00 2015 Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective
author: Kenneth O. Stanley
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
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]]> <![CDATA[The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power]]> 169354 The Prize recounts the panoramic history of oil -- and the struggle for wealth and power that has always surrounded oil. This struggle has shaken the world economy, dictated the outcome of wars, and transformed the destiny of men and nations.

The Prize is as much a history of the twentieth century as of the oil industry itself. The canvas of history is enormous -- from the drilling of the first well in Pennsylvania through two great world wars to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and Operation Desert Storm.]]> 928 Daniel Yergin 0671799320 Ellen 0 to-read 4.43 1991 The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power
author: Daniel Yergin
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1991
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]]> <![CDATA[Catastrophe Ethics: How to Choose Well in a World of Tough Choices]]> 174156496
The moral challenges of today are unfamiliar in the history of philosophy. Climate change is the paradigm example of what Travis Rieder calls ¡°The Puzzle¡±:?How do you make your everyday choices fit?with what the planet urgently needs? How do we decide the right thing to do in the face of a massive collective challenge? Should you drink water from a plastic bottle or not? Drive a Tesla? Or is that just what Elon Musk and all the other corporations want you to think? What makes individual ethics difficult to think about in the case of catastrophic climate change makes ethics difficult to think about in many other contexts as well. The Puzzle, as Rieder explains, is everywhere now.

The chapters in this book include a lively, meaningful tour of traditional moral reasoning looking at the contributions of Plato, Hegel, and Kant, among others. But they could not grasp the Puzzle we now face. Old-fashioned exercises, like trolley problems involving sacrificing one person on this track for a bunch of people on the other, don't address the huge, consequential, and complex crises our global community faces today. The tools most of us unthinkingly rely on when we try to ¡°do the right thing¡± don¡¯t help when it comes to reasoning about individual responsibility for large collective problems.

Expanding our suite of ethical concepts is now urgently required. Rieder defines exactly how to change our thinking, addressing mundane issues like bottled water and life-changing decisions like whether to have children. This is a way to live a morally decent life in our scary, always complicated world. It¡¯s how to build your own catastrophe ethics.]]> 336 Travis Rieder 0593471970 Ellen 0 to-read 3.60 Catastrophe Ethics: How to Choose Well in a World of Tough Choices
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]]> <![CDATA[I'm Laughing Because I'm Crying]]> 207567772 ¡°Do you know what happens if you laugh while crying? Hair grows out of your butthole.¡± It was a constant truism Youngmi Mayer¡¯s mother would say threateningly after she would make her daughter laugh while crying. Her mother used it to cheer her up in moments when she could tell Youngmi was overtaken with grief. The humorous saying would never fail to lighten the mood, causing both daughter and mother to laugh and cry at the same time. Her mother had learned this trick from her mother, and her mother had learned this from her mother before it had also helped an endless string of her family laugh through suffering.

In I¡¯m Laughing Because I¡¯m Crying, Youngmi jokes through the retelling of her childhood as an offbeat biracial kid in Saipan, a place next to a place that Americans might know. She jokes through her difficult adolescence where she must parent her own mother, who married her husband because he looked like white Jesus (and the singer of The Bee Gees). And with humor and irreverence and full-throated openness, she jokes even while sharing the story of what her family went through during the last century of colonialism and war in Korea, while reflecting how years later, their wounds affect her in New York City as a single mom, all the while interrogating whiteness, gender, and sexuality.

Youngmi jokes through these stories in hopes of passing onto the reader what her family passed down to The gift of laughing while crying. The gift of a hairy butthole. Because throughout it all, the one thing she learned was one cannot exist without the other. And like a yin and yang, this duality is reflected in this whip-smart, heart-wrenching, and disarmingly funny memoir told by a bright new voice with so much heart and wisdom.

?]]> 256 Youngmi Mayer 0316569232 Ellen 0 to-read 4.25 2024 I'm Laughing Because I'm Crying
author: Youngmi Mayer
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.25
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]]> <![CDATA[The Rise and Fall of the EAST: How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology Brought China Success, and Why They Might Lead to Its Decline]]> 195917358
A Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2023

Chinese society has been shaped by the interplay of the EAST¡ªexams, autocracy, stability, and technology¡ªfrom ancient times through the present. Beginning with the Sui dynasty¡¯s introduction of the civil service exam, known as Keju, in 587 CE¡ªand continuing through the personnel management system used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)¡ªChinese autocracies have developed exceptional tools for homogenizing ideas, norms, and practices. But this uniformity came with a huge downside: stifled creativity.

Yasheng Huang shows how China transitioned from dynamism to extreme stagnation after the Keju was instituted. China¡¯s most prosperous periods, such as during the Tang dynasty (618¨C907) and under the reformist CCP, occurred when its emphasis on scale (the size of bureaucracy) was balanced with scope (diversity of ideas).

Considering China¡¯s remarkable success over the past half-century, Huang sees signs of danger in the political and economic reversals under Xi Jinping. The CCP has again vaulted conformity above new ideas, reverting to the Keju model that eventually led to technological decline. It is a lesson from China¡¯s own history, Huang argues, that Chinese leaders would be wise to take seriously. The long history of China¡¯s relationship between stability, diversity, and prosperity, and how its current leadership threatens this delicate balance

A Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2023

Chinese society has been shaped by the interplay of the EAST¡ªexams, autocracy, stability, and technology¡ªfrom ancient times through the present. Beginning with the Sui dynasty¡¯s introduction of the civil service exam, known as Keju, in 587 CE¡ªand continuing through the personnel management system used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)¡ªChinese autocracies have developed exceptional tools for homogenizing ideas, norms, and practices. But this uniformity came with a huge downside: stifled creativity.

Yasheng Huang shows how China transitioned from dynamism to extreme stagnation after the Keju was instituted. China¡¯s most prosperous periods, such as during the Tang dynasty (618¨C907) and under the reformist CCP, occurred when its emphasis on scale (the size of bureaucracy) was balanced with scope (diversity of ideas).

Considering China¡¯s remarkable success over the past half-century, Huang sees signs of danger in the political and economic reversals under Xi Jinping. The CCP has again vaulted conformity above new ideas, reverting to the Keju model that eventually led to technological decline. It is a lesson from China¡¯s own history, Huang argues, that Chinese leaders would be wise to take seriously.]]> 411 Yasheng Huang 0300274912 Ellen 0 to-read 4.26 2023 The Rise and Fall of the EAST: How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology Brought China Success, and Why They Might Lead to Its Decline
author: Yasheng Huang
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.26
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]]> <![CDATA[Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys]]> 55918690 288 Joe Coulombe 1400225434 Ellen 0 to-read 3.39 2021 Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys
author: Joe Coulombe
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2021
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]]> <![CDATA[Trade Wars Are Class Wars: How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace]]> 52009042 A provocative look at how today¡¯s trade conflicts are caused by governments promoting the interests of elites at the expense of workers

Trade disputes are usually understood as conflicts between countries with competing national interests, but as Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis show in this book, they are often the unexpected result of domestic political choices to serve the interests of the rich at the expense of workers and ordinary retirees.
?
Klein and Pettis trace the origins of today¡¯s trade wars to decisions made by politicians and business leaders in China, Europe, and the United States over the past thirty years. Across the world, the rich have prospered while workers can no longer afford to buy what they produce, have lost their jobs, or have been forced into higher levels of debt. In this thought-provoking challenge to mainstream views, the authors provide a cohesive narrative that shows how the class wars of rising inequality are a threat to the global economy and international peace¡ªand what we can do about it.]]> 288 Matthew C. Klein 0300244177 Ellen 0 to-read 4.13 2020 Trade Wars Are Class Wars: How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace
author: Matthew C. Klein
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2020
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]]> <![CDATA[Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals]]> 31283667
Tyler Cowen, in a culmination of 20 years of thinking and research, provides a roadmap for moving forward. In this new book, Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals, Cowen argues that our reason and common sense can help free us of the faulty ideas that hold us back as people and as a society. Stubborn Attachments, at its heart, makes the contemporary moral case for economic growth and delivers a great dose of inspiration and optimism about our future possibilities.


As a means of practicing the altruism that Stubborn Attachments argues for, Tyler Cowen is donating all earnings from this book to a man he met in Ethiopia earlier this year with aspirations to open his own travel business.]]> 127 Tyler Cowen Ellen 0 currently-reading 3.70 Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals
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name: Ellen
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]]> <![CDATA[I Hate Running and You Can Too: How to Get Started, Keep Going, and Make Sense of an Irrational Passion]]> 54110572
Packed with wisdom, humor, attitude, tips, and quotes¡ªand more than sixty illuminating charts¡ª I Hate Running and You Can Too delivers a powerful message of motivation from a truly relatable mentor.

Leonard nails the love-hate relationship most runners have with the sport. He knows the difficulty of getting off the couch, teaches us to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, embraces the mix of running with walking. And he shares all that he¡¯s learned¡ªcelebrating the mantra of ¡°Easy, light, smooth, and fast,¡± observing that any body that runs is a runner¡¯s body.

Plus Leonard knows all the practical stuff, from training methods to advice for when you hit a setback or get injured. Even the answer to that big question a lot of runners occasionally Why? Running helps us understand commitment, develop patience, discover self-discipline, find mental toughness, and prove to ourselves that we can do something demanding. And, of course, burn off that extra serving of nachos.]]> 160 Brendan Leonard 1579659888 Ellen 0 to-read 4.32 I Hate Running and You Can Too: How to Get Started, Keep Going, and Make Sense of an Irrational Passion
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name: Ellen
average rating: 4.32
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]]> <![CDATA[The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America]]> 36738590
Privacy was not always a matter of public import. But beginning in the late nineteenth century, as corporate industry, social institutions, and the federal government swelled, increasing numbers of citizens believed their privacy to be endangered. Popular journalism and communication technologies, welfare bureaucracies and police tactics, market research and workplace testing, scientific inquiry and computer data banks, tell-all memoirs and social media all propelled privacy to the foreground of U.S. culture. Jurists and philosophers but also ordinary people weighed the perils, the possibilities, and the promise of being known. In the process, they redrew the borders of contemporary selfhood and citizenship.

The Known Citizen reveals how privacy became the indispensable language for monitoring the ever-shifting line between our personal and social selves. Igo's sweeping history, from the era of "instantaneous photography" to the age of big data, uncovers the surprising ways that debates over what should be kept out of the public eye have shaped U.S. politics and society. It offers the first wide-angle view of privacy as it has been lived and imagined by modern Americans.]]> 592 Sarah E. Igo 0674737504 Ellen 0 to-read 3.99 2018 The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America
author: Sarah E. Igo
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2018
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]]> Martyr! 139400713 M?czennik! Kavego Akbara to opowie?? o tym, jak niestrudzenie przez ca?e ?ycie pr¨®bujemy odnale?? sens ¨C w wierze, sztuce, w nas samych i w innych ludziach. W tej historii osierocony syn ira¨½skich imigrant¨®w, od niedawna niepij?cy, wiedziony g?osami artyst¨®w, poet¨®w i w?adc¨®w, podejmuje poszukiwania, kt¨®re prowadz? go do ?miertelnie chorej malarki, do?ywaj?cej swych dni w Muzeum Brookly¨½skim.

Cyrus Shams jest m?odym m??czyzn?, zmagaj?cym si? z baga?em przemocy i straty: wskutek bezsensownego wypadku zestrzelono nad Teheranem samolot z jego matk? na pok?adzie; z kolei ?ycie ojca w Ameryce okre?la?a praca na farmie drobiu na ?rodkowym Zachodzie. Cyrus jest alkoholikiem, narkomanem i poet?, kt¨®rego obsesja na punkcie m?czennik¨®w popycha go do zg??bienia tajemnic w?asnej przesz?o?ci ¨C kluczem do rodzinnego sekretu jest wujek, kt¨®ry przed laty galopowa? po ira¨½skich polach bitwy, przebrany za Anio?a ?mierci, by dodawa? otuchy i nie?? pocieszenie umieraj?cym, oraz pewien obraz z brookly¨½skiej galerii sztuki.

Ta elektryzuj?ca, zabawna, ca?kowicie oryginalna i g??boka powie?? zapowiada pojawienie si? nowego g?osu na literackiej scenie.]]> 331 Kaveh Akbar 0593537610 Ellen 0 to-read 4.22 2024 Martyr!
author: Kaveh Akbar
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
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]]> <![CDATA[Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China]]> 1848 9780743246989

The story of three generations in twentieth-century China that blends the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history¡ªa bestselling classic in thirty languages with more than ten million copies sold around the world, now with a new introduction from the author.

An engrossing record of Mao¡¯s impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love, Jung Chang describes the extraordinary lives and experiences of her family members: her grandmother, a warlord¡¯s concubine; her mother¡¯s struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents¡¯ experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a ¡°barefoot doctor,¡± a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving¡ªand ultimately uplifting¡ªdetail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.]]> 562 Jung Chang Ellen 0 to-read 4.28 1991 Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
author: Jung Chang
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1991
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]]> Demon Copperhead 60194162 "Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver 0063251922 Ellen 0 currently-reading 4.46 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
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]]> <![CDATA[LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media]]> 38242140 ]]> 416 P.W. Singer 1328695743 Ellen 0 to-read 4.26 2018 LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media
author: P.W. Singer
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2018
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]]> <![CDATA[Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents¨Dand What They Mean for America's Future]]> 61273798 A groundbreaking, revelatory portrait of the six generations that currently live in the United States and how they connect, conflict, and compete with one another¡ªfrom the acclaimed author of Generation Me and iGen

The United States is currently home to six generations: the Silents, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, Generation Z, and Generation Alpha. They have had vastly different life experiences and thus, one assumes, they must have vastly diverging beliefs and behaviors--but what are those differences, what causes them, and how deep do they actually run?

Professor of psychology Jean Twenge does a deep dive into a treasure trove of long-running, government-funded surveys and databases to answer these questions. Are we truly defined by major historical events, such as the Great Depression for the Silents and September 11 for Millennials? Or, as Twenge argues, is it the rapid evolution of technology that differentiates the generations?

With her clear-eyed and insightful voice, Twenge explores what the Silents and Boomers want out of the rest of their lives; how Gen X-ers are facing middle age; the ideals of Millennials as parents and in the workplace; and how Gen Z has been changed by COVID-19, among other fascinating topics. Surprising, engaging, and informative, Generations will forever change the way you view your parents, peers, coworkers, and children, no matter what your generation.]]> 560 Jean M. Twenge 1982181613 Ellen 3 4.00 2023 Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents¨Dand What They Mean for America's Future
author: Jean M. Twenge
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a Generation for Failure]]> 36556202
First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt show how the new problems on campus have their origins in three terrible ideas that have become increasingly woven into American childhood and what doesn¡¯t kill you makes you weaker; always trust your feelings; and life is a battle between good people and evil people. These three Great Untruths are incompatible with basic psychological principles, as well as ancient wisdom from many cultures. They interfere with healthy development. Anyone who embraces these untruths¡ªand the resulting culture of safetyism¡ªis less likely to become an autonomous adult able to navigate the bumpy road of life.

Lukianoff and Haidt investigate the many social trends that have intersected to produce these untruths. They situate the conflicts on campus in the context of America¡¯s rapidly rising political polarization, including a rise in hate crimes and off-campus provocation. They explore changes in childhood including the rise of fearful parenting, the decline of unsupervised play, and the new world of social media that has engulfed teenagers in the last decade.

This is a book for anyone who is confused by what is happening on college campuses today, or has children, or is concerned about the growing inability of Americans to live, work, and cooperate across party lines.]]> 352 Jonathan Haidt 0735224900 Ellen 0 to-read 4.23 2018 The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a Generation for Failure
author: Jonathan Haidt
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.23
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]]> <![CDATA[Good Work: Reclaiming Your Inner Ambition]]> 213618261
In Good Work, Paul Millerd invites us to question everything we thought we knew about work. Paul traces his winding path through candid personal stories: from chasing elusive "good jobs," to desperately seeking escape from worldly responsibilities, to an unexpected discovery that changed everything. Sitting at a table halfway around the world, a profound question emerged: What if work doesn't have to suck? What if it can be the center of a life well-lived?

This isn't a book about climbing the corporate ladder or "crushing it" as a creator or entrepreneur. It's an exploration of what happens when you dare to question everything you've been told about work and its role in our life. Millerd shares his journey of opening himself up to questions like:

What truly constitutes "good work" beyond a job?
How might embracing uncertainty lead to fulfillment?
What lies beyond "losing your edge"? Is there a new source of motivation?
Can you prioritize family without sacrificing opportunity?
What is the most ambitious life path? Is it external or internal?

What began as an escape attempt became a mission to redefine work. Good Work challenges conventional wisdom, offering not a step-by-step guide, but a companion for those brave enough to question the status quo and seek a more ambitious life path.]]> 224 Paul Millerd 1965701000 Ellen 0 to-read 4.15 2024 Good Work: Reclaiming Your Inner Ambition
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name: Ellen
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]]> Intermezzo 208931300 An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family¡ªbut especially love¡ªfrom the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties¡ªsuccessful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father¡¯s death, he¡¯s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women¡ªhis enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude¡ªa period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.]]> 454 Sally Rooney 0374602638 Ellen 0 to-read 3.87 2024 Intermezzo
author: Sally Rooney
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.87
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]]> <![CDATA[Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered]]> 1117634 ¡ªNewsweek

One the 100 most influential books published since World War II
¡ªThe Times Literary Supplement

Hailed as an "eco-bible" by Time magazine, E.F. Schumacher's riveting, richly researched statement on sustainability has become more relevant and vital with each year since its initial groundbreaking publication during the 1973 energy crisis. A landmark statement against "bigger is better" industrialism, Schumacher's Small Is Beautiful paved the way for twenty-first century books on environmentalism and economics, like Jeffrey Sachs's The End of Poverty, Paul Hawken's Natural Capitalism, Mohammad Yunis's Banker to the Poor, and Bill McKibben's Deep Economy. This timely reissue offers a crucial message for the modern world struggling to balance economic growth with the human costs of globalization.]]> 352 Ernst F. Schumacher 0060916303 Ellen 0 to-read 4.10 1973 Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered
author: Ernst F. Schumacher
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1973
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]]> <![CDATA[Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight-Loss Drugs]]> 201319612 The bestselling author of Lost Connections and Stolen Focus offers a revelatory look at the drugs upending weight loss as we knew it¡ªfrom his personal experience on Ozempic to what these drugs mean for our society¡¯s deeply dysfunctional relationship with food, weight, and our bodiesIn January 2023, bestselling author Johann Hari started to inject himself once a week with Ozempic, the diabetes drug that produces significant weight loss. He?wasn¡¯t alone¡ªcredible predictions suggest that in two years, a quarter of the U.S. population will be taking this class of drug. Proponents say that this is a biological solution to a biological problem. While 95 percent of diets fail, the average person taking one of the new drugs will lose a quarter of their body weight in six months, and keep it off for as long as they take it. Here is a moment of liberation from an illness that massively increases your chances of diabetes, dementia, and cancer, and causes 10 percent of all deaths.?Still, Hari was wildly conflicted. The massive rise in obesity rates around the world in the last half century didn¡¯t happen because something went wrong with human biology. It happened because something went disastrously wrong with our We began to eat food designed to be maximally addictive. We built cities that are impossible to walk or bike around. We became much more stressed, making us seek out more comfort snacks. From this perspective, the new weight loss drugs arrive at a moment of madness. We built a food system that poisons us, then decided en masse to inject ourselves with a different potential poison that puts us off all food.A personal journey through weight loss combined with scientific evidence from experts, Magic Pill explores, as only Hari can, questions How did we get to this point? What does it reveal about our society that we couldn¡¯t solve this problem socially, and instead turned to potentially risky pharmaceutical solutions? And will this free us from social pressure to conform to an ideal body type¡ªor make that pressure even more dangerously intense?]]> 320 Johann Hari 0593728637 Ellen 0 to-read 4.26 2024 Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight-Loss Drugs
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average rating: 4.26
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]]> The Psychology of Money 41881472 242 Morgan Housel 0857197681 Ellen 5 to-read, favourites 4.27 2020 The Psychology of Money
author: Morgan Housel
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/09/19
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review:

]]> Project Hail Mary 54493401
Except that right now, he doesn¡¯t know that. He can¡¯t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he¡¯s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he¡¯s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it¡¯s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery¡ªand conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he¡¯s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?]]> 476 Andy Weir 0593135202 Ellen 0 did-not-finish 4.49 2021 Project Hail Mary
author: Andy Weir
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/19
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves: did-not-finish
review:

]]> The Great Passage 34945597 A charmingly warm and hopeful story of love, friendship, and the power of human connection, award-winning Japanese author Shion Miura¡¯s novel is a reminder that a life dedicated to passion is a life well lived.

Inspired as a boy by the multiple meanings to be found for a single word in the dictionary, Kohei Araki is devoted to the notion that a dictionary is a boat to carry us across the sea of words. But after thirty-seven years creating them at Gembu Books, it¡¯s time for him to retire and find his replacement.

He discovers a kindred spirit in Mitsuya Majime¡ªa young, disheveled square peg with a penchant for collecting antiquarian books and a background in linguistics¡ªwhom he swipes from his company¡¯s sales department.

Led by his new mentor and joined by an energetic, if reluctant, new recruit and an elder linguistics scholar, Majime is tasked with a career-defining completing The Great Passage, a comprehensive 2,900-page tome of the Japanese language. On his journey, Majime discovers friendship, romance, and an incredible dedication to his work, inspired by the bond that connects us words.

]]> 224 Shion Miura 1477825002 Ellen 0 to-read 3.85 2011 The Great Passage
author: Shion Miura
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> Confessions 19161835 Her pupils killed her daughter.
Now, she will have her revenge.

After calling off her engagement in wake of a tragic revelation, Yuko Moriguchi had nothing to live for except her only child, four-year-old Manami. Now, following an accident on the grounds of the middle school where she teaches, Yuko has given up and tendered her resignation.

But first she has one last lecture to deliver. She tells a story that upends everything her students ever thought they knew about two of their peers, and sets in motion a maniacal plot for revenge.

Narrated in alternating voices, with twists you'll never see coming, Confessions explores the limits of punishment, despair, and tragic love, culminating in a harrowing confrontation between teacher and student that will place the occupants of an entire school in danger. You'll never look at a classroom the same way again.]]> 240 Kanae Minato 0316200921 Ellen 0 to-read 3.91 2008 Confessions
author: Kanae Minato
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Penance 31423183 The tense, chilling story of four women haunted by a childhood trauma.

When they were children, Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuko were tricked into separating from their friend Emily by a mysterious stranger. Then the unthinkable occurs: Emily is found murdered hours later.

Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuko weren't able to accurately describe the stranger's appearance to the police after Emily's body was discovered. Asako, Emily's mother, curses the surviving girls, vowing that they will pay for her daughter's murder.

Like Confessions, Kanae Minato's award-winning, internationally bestselling debut, Penance is a dark and voice-driven tale of revenge and psychological trauma that will leave readers breathless.]]> 240 Kanae Minato Ellen 0 to-read 3.83 2009 Penance
author: Kanae Minato
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction]]> 22237171 A groundbreaking new book from the bestselling author of Shop Class as Soulcraft

In his bestselling book Shop Class as Soulcraft, Matthew B. Crawford explored the ethical and practical importance of manual competence, as expressed through mastery of our physical environment. In his brilliant follow-up, The World Beyond Your Head, Crawford investigates the challenge of mastering one's own mind.

We often complain about our fractured mental lives and feel beset by outside forces that destroy our focus and disrupt our peace of mind. Any defense against this, Crawford argues, requires that we reckon with the way attention sculpts the self.

Crawford investigates the intense focus of ice hockey players and short-order chefs, the quasi-autistic behavior of gambling addicts, the familiar hassles of daily life, and the deep, slow craft of building pipe organs. He shows that our current crisis of attention is only superficially the result of digital technology, and becomes more comprehensible when understood as the coming to fruition of certain assumptions at the root of Western culture that are profoundly at odds with human nature.

The World Beyond Your Head makes sense of an astonishing array of common experience, from the frustrations of airport security to the rise of the hipster. With implications for the way we raise our children, the design of public spaces, and democracy itself, this is a book of urgent relevance to contemporary life.]]> 257 Matthew B. Crawford 0374292981 Ellen 0 to-read 3.76 2015 The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction
author: Matthew B. Crawford
name: Ellen
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hojoki: Visions of a Torn World]]> 72085 96 Kamo no Ch¨­mei 1880656221 Ellen 0 to-read 4.12 1212 Hojoki: Visions of a Torn World
author: Kamo no Ch¨­mei
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1212
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Origins and History of Consciousness]]> 129503 493 Erich Neumann 0691017611 Ellen 0 to-read 4.30 1949 The Origins and History of Consciousness
author: Erich Neumann
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1949
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Stand 87591651
For hundreds of thousands of fans who read The Stand in its original version and wanted more, this new edition is Stephen King's gift. And those who are listening to The Stand for the first time will discover a triumphant and eerily plausible work of the imagination that takes on the issues that will determine our survival.]]> Stephen King Ellen 0 to-read 4.42 1978 The Stand
author: Stephen King
name: Ellen
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1978
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>