Simon's bookshelf: read en-US Thu, 08 May 2025 12:23:35 -0700 60 Simon's bookshelf: read 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Glorious Exploits 133287007 An utterly original celebration of that which binds humanity across battle lines and history.

On the island of Sicily amid the Peloponnesian War, the Syracusans have figured out what to do with the surviving Athenians who had the gall to invade their they’ve herded the sorry prisoners of war into a rock quarry and left them to rot. Looking for a way to pass the time, Lampo and Gelon, two unemployed potters with a soft spot for poetry and drink, head down into the quarry to feed the Athenians if, and only if, they can manage a few choice lines from their great playwright Euripides. Before long, the two mates hatch a plan to direct a full-blown production of Medea. After all, you can hate the people but love their art. But as opening night approaches, what started as a lark quickly sets in motion a series of extraordinary events, and our wayward heroes begin to realize that staging a play can be as dangerous as fighting a war, with all sorts of risks to life, limb, and friendship.

Told in a contemporary Irish voice and as riotously funny as it is deeply moving, Glorious Exploits is an unforgettable ode to the power of art in a time of war, brotherhood in a time of enmity, and human will throughout the ages.]]> 287 Ferdia Lennon Simon 4
Being written and read by the Irish author adds an additional level of interest. Some light humour.

A little drawn out at times.

3.75/5]]> 4.27 2024 Glorious Exploits
author: Ferdia Lennon
name: Simon
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/09
date added: 2025/05/08
shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, humour
review:
Set in 412 BC, in Sicily defeated Athenians are imprisoned and two Syracusan men, Lampo and Gelon, decide to make use of the prisoners ability to recite lines from Greek tragedies, specifically those by Euripides. This triggers a variety of activities to unfold.

Being written and read by the Irish author adds an additional level of interest. Some light humour.

A little drawn out at times.

3.75/5
]]> <![CDATA[Software Architecture: The Hard Parts: Modern Trade-Off Analyses for Distributed Architectures]]> 58153482 459 Neal Ford 1492086894 Simon 4 solution-architecture
This is one of those books that could be useful to refer back to when working through architectural challenges.

This book was however written in 2021 and many technologies have evolved since then as has the evolution of GenAI and Agentic services so some advice would likely differ.]]> 4.24 2021 Software Architecture: The Hard Parts: Modern Trade-Off Analyses for Distributed Architectures
author: Neal Ford
name: Simon
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/06
date added: 2025/05/06
shelves: solution-architecture
review:
Architecture is about tradeoffs and this is well portrayed in this book. This book is packed with great advice and is well articulated with stories, but I did skim over large portions.

This is one of those books that could be useful to refer back to when working through architectural challenges.

This book was however written in 2021 and many technologies have evolved since then as has the evolution of GenAI and Agentic services so some advice would likely differ.
]]> The Quiet Librarian 214175092 After the murder of her best friend, a librarian’s search for answers leads back to her own dark secrets in this sweeping novel about a woman transformed by war, family, vengeance, and love, from award-winning writer Allen Eskens.

Hana Babic is a quiet, middle-aged librarian in Minnesota whoÌýwants nothing more than to be left alone. But when a detective arrives with the news that her best friend has been murdered, Hana knows that something evil has come for her, a dark remnant of the past she and her friend had shared.

Thirty years before, Hana was someone Nura Divjak, a teenager growing up in the mountains of war-torn Bosnia—until Serbian soldiers arrived to slaughter her entire family before her eyes. The events of that day thrust Nura into the war, leading her to join a band of militia fighters, where she became not only a fierce warrior but a legend—the deadly Night Mora. But a shattering final act forced Nura to flee to the United States with a bounty on her head.

Now, someone is hunting Hana, and her friend has paid the price, leaving her eight-year-old grandson in Hana’s care. To protect the child without revealing her secret, Hana must again become the Night Mora—and hope she can find the killer before the past comes for them, too.]]> 320 Allen Eskens 0316566314 Simon 4 fiction, historical-fiction
A reasonable read although I found it dragged on at times so I sped up the audiobook I was listening to which made it more bearable.

3.5/5]]> 4.18 2025 The Quiet Librarian
author: Allen Eskens
name: Simon
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/03
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: fiction, historical-fiction
review:
Written in two time horizons, a teenager in war-torn Bosnia, and the same person 30 or so years later. Hana has a secret from her time in Bosnia and when her best friend is murdered she expects it is related.

A reasonable read although I found it dragged on at times so I sped up the audiobook I was listening to which made it more bearable.

3.5/5
]]> Gabriel's Moon 215198466 In his most exhilarating novel yet, Britain’s greatest storyteller transports you from the vibrant streets of sixties London to the sun-soaked cobbles of Cadiz and the frosty squares of Warsaw, as an accidental spy is drawn into the shadows of espionage and obsession.

Gabriel Dax is a young man haunted by the memories of a every night, when sleep finally comes, he dreams about his childhood home in flames. His days are spent on the move as an acclaimed travel writer, capturing the changing landscapes in the grip of the Cold War. When he’s offered the chance to interview a political figure, his ambition leads him unwittingly into a web of duplicities and betrayals.

As Gabriel’s reluctant initiation takes hold, he is drawn deeper into the shadows. Falling under the spell of Faith Green, an enigmatic and ruthless MI6 handler, he becomes ‘her spy�, unable to resist her demands. But amid the peril, paranoia and passion consuming Gabriel’s new covert life, it will be the revelations closer to home that change the rest of his story.]]> 272 William Boyd 0802164870 Simon 4 fiction, thriller, mystery
4.25/5]]> 3.87 2024 Gabriel's Moon
author: William Boyd
name: Simon
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/03
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: fiction, thriller, mystery
review:
Gabriel is a travel writer who inadvertently gets involved in international espionage. This is an engaging well written thriller with many words I had to look up.

4.25/5
]]> <![CDATA[Warrior King (Courtney publication, #23; Courtney chronological, #9)]]> 201990109 South Africa, 1820
When Ann Waite discovers a shipwreck in Algoa Bay she is stunned to find survivors: a scarred sailor and a little boy. As the man walks away into the distance alone, Ann is left to raise the young child, Harry, in place of the baby she tragically lost at sea.

Disaster and hardship befall Ann and Harry, and desperation drives them into the path of the mysterious shipwrecked man once more. Ralph Courtney has recently escaped Robben Island with two fellow prisoners and is destined to seek his fortune at Nativity Bay, the fabled place about which his father told him stories.

But far from being a land of paradise, Ralph, Ann and their fellow settlers find themselves facing unfamiliar challenges. It isn't long before they learn their new home borders the Zulu kingdom, where the warrior king Shaka's empire spans the continent. When Ralph encounters King Shaka, it is only the beginning of a daring new adventure of loyalty and survival.]]> 464 Wilbur Smith 1838779701 Simon 5
4.5/5]]> 4.44 2024 Warrior King (Courtney publication, #23; Courtney chronological, #9)
author: Wilbur Smith
name: Simon
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/25
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, adventure
review:
An engaging historical novel starting in 1820 in the outskirts of South Africa with a variety of characters including immigrants, escaped prisoners, sailors and the Zulu empire. The adventure is well portrayed from a variety of viewpoints, particularly Ralph and Ann's.

4.5/5
]]> <![CDATA[Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity]]> 59383944 Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller

The secret to leading growth is your mindset

Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman is one of the tech world's most accomplished executives in enterprise growth, having led Snowflake to the largest software IPO ever after leading ServiceNow and Data Domain to exponential growth and the public market before that. In Amp It Up Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity, he shares his leadership approach for the first time.

Amp It Up delivers an authoritative look at what it takes to transform an organization for maximum growth and scale. Slootman shows that most leaders have significant room to improve their organization's performance without making expensive changes to their talent, structure, or fundamental business model--and they don't need to bring in an army of consultants to do it. What they do need is to align people around what matters and execute with urgency and intensity every day.

Leading for unprecedented growth means declaring war on mediocrity, breaking the status quo, and making conflicted choices daily, all with a relentless focus on the mission. Amp It Up provides the first principles to guide that change, and the tactical advice for organizing a company around them.

Perfect for executives, entrepreneurs, founders, managers, and leaders of all kinds, Amp It Up is a must-read resource for anyone who seeks to unleash the growth potential of a company and scale it to heights they never thought possible.]]> 208 Frank Slootman 1119836409 Simon 4 business, leadership
Some key points I noted:
- Raise your standards, Bust it up, Align your people, Sharpen your focus, Pick up the pace, and Transform your strategy.
- Hire for aptitude. Look for hunger, attitude, and innate abilities.
- Be a mission-driven company. The mission should be big, clear and not about money.
- Imagine a radically different future that is not tethered to the past.
- Put execution ahead of strategy.
- Hire drivers, not passengers.
- Follow Lenceoni trust pyramid; the 5 disfunctions of a team. 5. Inattention to results, 4. Avoidance of accountability, 3. Lack of commitment, 2. Fear of conflict, 1. Absense of trust.
- Put analysis before solutions.
- Fail fast.
- Align incentives for customer success.
- Growth should be prioritised over profitability.
- Product manage yourself.
- Communication skills are important.
]]> 3.97 2022 Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity
author: Frank Slootman
name: Simon
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/24
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: business, leadership
review:
Written by the Snowflake and ex ServiceNow CEO, Frank Slootman, this has some good leadership advice.

Some key points I noted:
- Raise your standards, Bust it up, Align your people, Sharpen your focus, Pick up the pace, and Transform your strategy.
- Hire for aptitude. Look for hunger, attitude, and innate abilities.
- Be a mission-driven company. The mission should be big, clear and not about money.
- Imagine a radically different future that is not tethered to the past.
- Put execution ahead of strategy.
- Hire drivers, not passengers.
- Follow Lenceoni trust pyramid; the 5 disfunctions of a team. 5. Inattention to results, 4. Avoidance of accountability, 3. Lack of commitment, 2. Fear of conflict, 1. Absense of trust.
- Put analysis before solutions.
- Fail fast.
- Align incentives for customer success.
- Growth should be prioritised over profitability.
- Product manage yourself.
- Communication skills are important.

]]> Starter Villain 61885029
Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.]]> 264 John Scalzi 0765389223 Simon 4 sci-fi, humour
3.75/5]]> 4.09 2023 Starter Villain
author: John Scalzi
name: Simon
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/21
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves: sci-fi, humour
review:
An enjoyable, amusing and quirky read of Charlie inheriting a supervillain business from his estranged billionaire uncle. A little drawn out.

3.75/5
]]> Backlash (Scott Harvath, #18) 42202017
They were fearless; men of honor who have been known throughout history by different names: Spartan, Viking, Samurai.

Today, men like these still strike from the shadows. They are highly prized intelligence agents, military operatives, and assassins.

One man is all three.

Two days ago, that man was crossed�badly.

Now, far from home and surrounded by his enemy, Scot Harvath must battle his way out.

With no support, no cavalry coming, and no one even aware of where he is, it will take everything he has ever learned to survive.

But survival isn’t enough. Harvath wants revenge.

In the most explosive novel Brad Thor has ever written, page after captivating page of action, intrigue, loyalty, and betrayal will keep you hooked until the very last sentence.]]> 378 Brad Thor 1982104031 Simon 4 adventure, action, fiction 4.29 2019 Backlash (Scott Harvath, #18)
author: Brad Thor
name: Simon
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/08/22
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: adventure, action, fiction
review:
I think this was my first Brad Thor read. I found it to be an action-packed read that was mostly enjoyable but I found the last quarter (or so) to be a bit over the top with bravado and lacking for me. 3.5 stars.
]]> And Then There Were None 16299
"Ten little boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine. Nine little boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight. Eight little boys traveling in Devon; One said he'd stay there then there were seven. Seven little boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in half and then there were six. Six little boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five. Five little boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four. Four little boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three. Three little boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two. Two little boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one. One little boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none."

When they realize that murders are occurring as described in the rhyme, terror mounts. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. Who has choreographed this dastardly scheme? And who will be left to tell the tale? Only the dead are above suspicion.]]> 264 Agatha Christie 0312330871 Simon 4 mystery, fiction, crime
Well written and an enjoyable read.

4.25/5]]> 4.28 1939 And Then There Were None
author: Agatha Christie
name: Simon
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1939
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/13
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves: mystery, fiction, crime
review:
An engaging mystery centred around 10 strangers being lured to a mansion on Soldier Island. Each is then accused of holding a guilty secret. A person dies and then the story escalates.

Well written and an enjoyable read.

4.25/5
]]> <![CDATA[Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future]]> 216336470 Instant New York Times and USA Today Bestseller.

Tech visionary and co-founder of Manas AI Reid Hoffman shares his unique insider’s perspective on an AI-powered future, making the case for its potential to unlock a world of possibilities.

"An essential companion." � Fei-Fei Li
"An important read." —Bill Gates
"Brilliant mind. Compassionate heart. Bold ideas…Read this book!� —Van Jones
"Refreshingly optimistic and welcome perspective." � Ariana Huffington
"A fascinating and insightful book." —Yuval Noah Harari

As taught at UPenn's Wharton and Stanford.

Superagency offers a roadmap for using AI inclusively and adaptively to improve our lives and create positive change. While acknowledging challenges like disinformation and potential job changes, the book focuses on AI’s immense potential to increase individual agency and create better outcomes for society as a whole.

Imagine AI tutors personalizing education for each child, researchers rapidly discovering cures for diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer, and AI advisors empowering people to navigate complex systems and achieve their goals. Hoffman and co-author, tech and culture writer Greg Beato envision a world where these possibilities, and many more, become a reality.

Superagency challenges conventional fears, inviting us to view the future through a lens of opportunity, rather than fear. It’s a call to action � to embrace AI with excitement and actively shape a world where human ingenuity and the power of AI combine to create something extraordinary.

Entrepreneur Reid Hoffman is a co-founder of LinkedIn, Inflection AI, and Manas AI. He is also host of the podcasts Possible and Masters of Scale. ]]> 286 Reid Hoffman Simon 3 artificial-intelligence
Permissionless innovation can be an enabler for technological breakthroughs and broad cultural adoption and adaptation. Formal regulation should be iteratively deployed rather than preemptively imposed.

The ability to have flexible smart contracts adapted by Machine Learning did provoke some thoughts for me about the potential use of blockchain in an agentic ecosystem.

2.75/5]]> 3.32 Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future
author: Reid Hoffman
name: Simon
average rating: 3.32
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/13
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: artificial-intelligence
review:
This book didn't live up to my expectations and felt drawn out; I ended up skimming over portions. The concept of Superagency is that AI improves human agency to do more and empower people. It has huge potential and upside but also comes with risks.

Permissionless innovation can be an enabler for technological breakthroughs and broad cultural adoption and adaptation. Formal regulation should be iteratively deployed rather than preemptively imposed.

The ability to have flexible smart contracts adapted by Machine Learning did provoke some thoughts for me about the potential use of blockchain in an agentic ecosystem.

2.75/5
]]> The God of the Woods 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 490 Liz Moore Simon 2 fiction, mystery, abandoned 4.15 2024 The God of the Woods
author: Liz Moore
name: Simon
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: fiction, mystery, abandoned
review:
I really enjoyed the first part but then I lost interest. It may have been that I was listening to it as an audiobook and if I had read it I would have been more drawn in. I even tried restarting at one point but ended up abandoning it 3.5 hours (24%) in.
]]> Here One Moment 208516656 If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate?

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.

Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.

How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.�

Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.

A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.

If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?

Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.]]> 512 Liane Moriarty 0593798600 Simon 3 mystery, thriller, fiction
The story starts with an elderly lady giving predictions on a flight as to when and how each passenger will die. If you knew when and how you or a person you care about were predicted to die (by a random person on a plane), what would you do differently?

The story is told from the perspective of various people both during and after the flight.

3.25/5]]> 3.98 2024 Here One Moment
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Simon
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: mystery, thriller, fiction
review:
I felt this story really dragged on and I almost have up about a quarter through. I eventually got sufficiently engaged with the storyline.

The story starts with an elderly lady giving predictions on a flight as to when and how each passenger will die. If you knew when and how you or a person you care about were predicted to die (by a random person on a plane), what would you do differently?

The story is told from the perspective of various people both during and after the flight.

3.25/5
]]> The Crash 216223604 The nightmare she’s running from is nothing compared to where she’s headed.

Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn’t realize she’s heading straight into a blizzard.

She never arrives at her destination.

Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she’s made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears.

But something isn’t right. Tegan believed she was waiting out the storm, but as time ticks by, she comes to realize she is in grave danger. This safe haven isn’t what she thought it was, and staying here may have been her most deadly mistake yet.

And now she must do whatever it takes to save herself—and her unborn child.

A gut-wrenching story of motherhood, survival, and twisted expectations, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden delivers a snowbound thriller that will chill you to the bone.
]]> 384 Freida McFadden 1464232989 Simon 4 thriller, mystery 3.58 2025 The Crash
author: Freida McFadden
name: Simon
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: thriller, mystery
review:
An engaging thriller from the start with lots of suspense and mystery. After Tegan has a car crash the suspense increases.
]]> The Lion Women of Tehran 199798217 A heartfelt novel of friendship, betrayal, and redemption set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran.

In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation.

Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming “lion women.�

But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls� high school in Iran, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie’s privileged world alters the course of both of their lives.

Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.]]> 327 Marjan Kamali 1668036584 Simon 4 historical-fiction, fiction 4.47 2024 The Lion Women of Tehran
author: Marjan Kamali
name: Simon
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: historical-fiction, fiction
review:
A well written coming of age novel that starts in Iran in the 1950s following the lives of two best friends from different classes. Key topics covered include friendship, political activism, women's rights and cultural differences between Iran and America. Written from the perspective of multiple characters.
]]> Quantum Radio 64415236
But what he's found is far more dangerous than he ever imagined.

Dr. Tyson Klein is a quantum physicist who has dedicated his entire life to his research. At CERN, he analyses data generated by the Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest and most powerful particle accelerator. Now, Ty believes he's found a pattern in its output. It looks like an organised data stream, being broadcast over what he calls a quantum radio.

Could it be a signal from another universe? A message sent from the future? Or something else entirely?

As Ty peels back the layers of his discovery, he learns that what he's found isn't what he thought it was. The encoded message is far more profound. It may alter our understanding of human existence and the universe.

But Ty is not the only one looking for it. Someone has been following his research for a long time. And they'll do anything to prevent him from unravelling what is being broadcast by the quantum radio...

Because the first one to discover the truth may well control the future.]]> 562 A.G. Riddle Simon 4 sci-fi, adventure, thriller
A scifi thriller written from the perspective of multiple characters, exploring human potential and that a change can significantly alter the future.

Some of the dialogue between characters was cringeworthy, the story did drag on a bit and at times it felt like a young adult book. ]]> 4.10 2023 Quantum Radio
author: A.G. Riddle
name: Simon
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: sci-fi, adventure, thriller
review:
Engaging from the start, Ty has come across an organised data stream from data generated from the Large Hadron Collider. Is it a message from another universe, the future or something else?

A scifi thriller written from the perspective of multiple characters, exploring human potential and that a change can significantly alter the future.

Some of the dialogue between characters was cringeworthy, the story did drag on a bit and at times it felt like a young adult book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma]]> 90590134
We are approaching a critical threshold in the history of our species. Everything is about to change.Ìý
Ìý
Soon you will live surrounded by AIs. They will organise your life, operate your business, and run core government services. You will live in a world of DNA printers and quantum computers, engineered pathogens and autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy.Ìý
Ìý
None of us are prepared.
Ìý
As co-founder of the pioneering AI company DeepMind, part of Google, Mustafa Suleyman has been at the centre of this revolution. The coming decade, he argues, will be defined by this wave of powerful, fast-proliferating new technologies.Ìý
Ìý
In The Coming Wave , Suleyman shows how these forces will create immense prosperity but also threaten the nation-state, the foundation of global order. As our fragile governments sleepwalk into disaster, we face an existential unprecedented harms on one side, the threat of overbearing surveillance on the other.Ìý
Ìý
Can we forge a narrow path between catastrophe and dystopia?]]> 332 Mustafa Suleyman 0593593952 Simon 3
Some key points:
- Technology comes in waves and will reshape the world.
- AI's rate of improvement is well beyond exponential.
- It is important that the right people be in charge, to ensure that technology is a force for good rather than evil. Containment can help.
- The use of AI in Biology has helped radically advance the field.
- AI enabled cyber-attacks could enable AI to learn new attack vectors.
- Deep fakes and disinformation can spread fast.
- Features of the coming wave; asymmetry, hyper-evolution, omni-use, autonomy.
- Regulation is not enough, but a start.
- Containment will need to respond to the nature of a technology and channel it in directions that are easier to control.
- Containment needs a number of interlocking measures
1. Technical Safety - concrete technical measures to alleviate possible harms and maintain control (e.g. Isolation and Killswitches).
2. Audits - a means of ensuring the transparency and accountability of technology (inc. red teams).
3. Choke Points - levers to slow development and buy time for regulators and defensive technologies.
4. Makers - ensuring responsible developers build appropriate controls into technology from the start.
5. Businesses - align the incentives of the organisations behind technology with its containment.
6. Government - supporting governments, allowing them to build technology, regulate technology and implement mitigation measures.
7. Alliances - creating a system of international cooperation to harmonise laws and programmes.
8. Culture - a culture of sharing learning and failures to quickly disseminate means of addressing them.
9. Movements - all of this needs public input at every level including to put pressure on each component and make it accountable.
10. Coherence - ensuring that each element works in harmony with the others, that containment is a virtuous circle of mutually reinforcing measures and not a gap-filled cacophony of competing programmes.

3.25/5]]> 3.78 2023 The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma
author: Mustafa Suleyman
name: Simon
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: artificial-intelligence, business
review:
A long book about the opportunities and threats of AI and the impacts on society, including challenges and a plan for containment (be it from accidental or intentional harm), which is ambitious and may not be possible.

Some key points:
- Technology comes in waves and will reshape the world.
- AI's rate of improvement is well beyond exponential.
- It is important that the right people be in charge, to ensure that technology is a force for good rather than evil. Containment can help.
- The use of AI in Biology has helped radically advance the field.
- AI enabled cyber-attacks could enable AI to learn new attack vectors.
- Deep fakes and disinformation can spread fast.
- Features of the coming wave; asymmetry, hyper-evolution, omni-use, autonomy.
- Regulation is not enough, but a start.
- Containment will need to respond to the nature of a technology and channel it in directions that are easier to control.
- Containment needs a number of interlocking measures
1. Technical Safety - concrete technical measures to alleviate possible harms and maintain control (e.g. Isolation and Killswitches).
2. Audits - a means of ensuring the transparency and accountability of technology (inc. red teams).
3. Choke Points - levers to slow development and buy time for regulators and defensive technologies.
4. Makers - ensuring responsible developers build appropriate controls into technology from the start.
5. Businesses - align the incentives of the organisations behind technology with its containment.
6. Government - supporting governments, allowing them to build technology, regulate technology and implement mitigation measures.
7. Alliances - creating a system of international cooperation to harmonise laws and programmes.
8. Culture - a culture of sharing learning and failures to quickly disseminate means of addressing them.
9. Movements - all of this needs public input at every level including to put pressure on each component and make it accountable.
10. Coherence - ensuring that each element works in harmony with the others, that containment is a virtuous circle of mutually reinforcing measures and not a gap-filled cacophony of competing programmes.

3.25/5
]]> <![CDATA[10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less]]> 63338662
Dan Sullivan, the world's leading coach for highly successful entrepreneurs, wants you to know that achieving 10X growth is exponentially easier than striving for 2X growth. Most find this idea confusing at first because simply imagining 10X growth causes them to think they need to do 10X more work to achieve it. However, being a 10X entrepreneur is nothing like what most people think.

10X is not the outcome; it's a counterintuitive process you can apply every time you want exponential growth in your life and business. To make 10X possible, you must focus on expanding what Dan defines as your four most important freedoms—time, money, relationship, and purpose. As your time becomes 10X more valuable, you increasingly multiply the money you earn both in terms of amount and profitable satisfaction. As money becomes a tool you can increasingly access with greater ease, you will engage with a growing number of other freedom-motivated individuals. As both your professional and personal life fills up with 10X more unique and collaborative relationships, you will realize that your most powerful purposes in all areas become 10X more lasting and positive for everyone involved. You will be impressed by what your life has become, and the meaning and impact you're having.

10X is fundamentally about quality vs quantity, and the quality of your freedoms determines the results you achieve.]]> 288 Dan Sullivan 1401969968 Simon 4
The target audience for the book is entrepreneurs but there is also good wisdom for others.

Some key points:
- 10x has less pathways than 2x. The goal determines the process. 10x separates the noise from the growth.
- Make goals so big you don't think they are possible. Understand your goals to understand the top 20% to focus on. You need to shed the other 80% which may involve offloading tasks to others.
- You become what you focus on.
- To achieve the goal requires 4C's: Capability, Confidence, Commitment, Courage. When you start towards the goal you need to elevate each of these.
- Measure backwards from where you started; this helps boost confidence. Focus on your gains.
- Focus on 3 important things per day.
- Write daily: 3 wins or progress.

In the audiobook, at the end of each chapter there is a discussion between the authors that was like listening to a podcast. It worked really well.

The book could have been more succinct.

3.75/5]]> 4.21 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less
author: Dan Sullivan
name: Simon
average rating: 4.21
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: business, leadership, self-improvement
review:
The core concept of this book is that to achieve 10x growth requires transformational thinking and it is in fact easier to achieve than a more incremental approach that is more linear.

The target audience for the book is entrepreneurs but there is also good wisdom for others.

Some key points:
- 10x has less pathways than 2x. The goal determines the process. 10x separates the noise from the growth.
- Make goals so big you don't think they are possible. Understand your goals to understand the top 20% to focus on. You need to shed the other 80% which may involve offloading tasks to others.
- You become what you focus on.
- To achieve the goal requires 4C's: Capability, Confidence, Commitment, Courage. When you start towards the goal you need to elevate each of these.
- Measure backwards from where you started; this helps boost confidence. Focus on your gains.
- Focus on 3 important things per day.
- Write daily: 3 wins or progress.

In the audiobook, at the end of each chapter there is a discussion between the authors that was like listening to a podcast. It worked really well.

The book could have been more succinct.

3.75/5
]]> The Axeman's Carnival 62996820
Tama is just a helpless chick when he is rescued by Marnie, and this is where his story might have ended. ‘If it keeps me awake,� says Marnie’s husband Rob, a farmer, ‘I’ll have to wring its neck.� But with Tama come new possibilities for the couple’s future. Tama can speak, and his fame is growing. Outside, in the pines, his father warns him of the wickedness wrought by humans. Indoors, Marnie confides in him about her violent marriage. The more Tama sees, the more the animal and the human worlds � and all of the precarity, darkness and hope within them � bleed into one another. Like a stock truck filled with live cargo, the story moves inexorably towards its dramatic conclusion: the annual Axeman’s Carnival.

Part trickster, part surrogate child, part witness, Tama the magpie is the star of this story. Though what he says aloud to humans is often nonsensical (and hilarious with it), the tale he tells us weaves a disturbingly human sense. The Axeman’s Carnival is Catherine Chidgey at her finest � comic, profound, poetic and true.]]> 350 Catherine Chidgey 1776920058 Simon 4 fiction, fantasy
The book portrays the challenges of farming life and abusive relationships. It read well but I found it a bit slow going at times.]]> 4.32 2022 The Axeman's Carnival
author: Catherine Chidgey
name: Simon
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: fiction, fantasy
review:
A book told from the perspective of Tama, a talking mischievous social-media influencing magpie living with a family on a farm in rural Central Otago in New Zealand.

The book portrays the challenges of farming life and abusive relationships. It read well but I found it a bit slow going at times.
]]> The Boyfriend 208503280 She's looking for the perfect man. He's looking for the perfect victim.

Sydney Shaw, like every single woman in New York, has terrible luck with dating. She’s seen it men who lie in their dating profile, men who stick her with the dinner bill, and worst of all, men who can't shut up about their mothers. But finally, she hits the jackpot.

Her new boyfriend is utterly perfect. He's charming, handsome, and works as a doctor at a local hospital. Sydney is swept off her feet.

Then the brutal murder of a young woman―the latest in a string of deaths across the coast―confounds police. The primary suspect? A mystery man who dates his victims before he kills them.

Sydney should feel safe. After all, she is dating the guy of her dreams. But she can’t shake her own suspicions that the perfect man may not be as perfect as he seems. Because someone is watching her every move, and if she doesn’t get to the truth, she’ll be the killer’s next victim...

A dark story about obsession and the things we’ll do for love, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden proves that crimes of passion are often the bloodiest…]]> 368 Freida McFadden 1728296226 Simon 4 thriller, mystery, fiction
I really liked the writing style and moreso it was good as an audiobook. The story was told from different people's perspective with some different storylines at different time horizons.

There is lots of intrigue and more information shared throughout that potentially could be misleading but it's hard to know.

4.25/5]]> 3.95 2024 The Boyfriend
author: Freida McFadden
name: Simon
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: thriller, mystery, fiction
review:
Engaging from the start with lots of mystery starting from Sydney having an awful first date.

I really liked the writing style and moreso it was good as an audiobook. The story was told from different people's perspective with some different storylines at different time horizons.

There is lots of intrigue and more information shared throughout that potentially could be misleading but it's hard to know.

4.25/5
]]> Murder Mindfully 124948140 Calm your mind. Be here, now. Take a breath. And kill.

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - OVER 2.5M COPIES SOLD

I didn't kill anyone until I was forty-two. That's actually a little on the late side for my current professional environment. Admittedly, I did kill almost half a dozen in the week that followed.

Bj�rn has been given an ultimatum: repair his work-life balance, or his wife Katharina will leave him - and take their daughter.

He reluctantly starts a mindfulness class and to his surprise, it's a revelation. He becomes calmer, more focused, and he's starting to understand what's really important in life. So when his client and brutal crime boss Dragan Sergowicz tries to interfere with his precious family time, Bj�rn remembers his new-found goal to find serenity - and kills him.

Now Bj�rn can deepen his practice and seek inner peace - violently.

'An absolutely hilarious crime novel on mindfulness, organised crime, meditation, and murder.' Brigitte
'A truly wonderful crime novel . . . and you can even use the mindfulness tips.' Deutschlandfunk Kultur Lesart

**Available to pre-order now!**]]> 327 Karsten Dusse 0571384056 Simon 4 fiction, crime, humour
4.25/5]]> 3.98 2019 Murder Mindfully
author: Karsten Dusse
name: Simon
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: fiction, crime, humour
review:
A humourous crime novel about mindfulness and murder. Engaging from the start with some good mindfulness advice included. Great as an audiobook.

4.25/5
]]> <![CDATA[A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1)]]> 40864002 ASIN B08H831J18 moved to the more recent edition

Centuries before, robots of Panga gained self-awareness, laid down their tools, wandered, en masse into the wilderness, never to be seen again. They faded into myth and urban legend.

Now the life of the tea monk who tells this story is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They will need to ask it a lot. Chambers' series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?]]> 151 Becky Chambers Simon 4
What is the purpose of life? This question is a key foundation to this book and I particularly liked one quote; "it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live.�. ]]> 4.25 2021 A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1)
author: Becky Chambers
name: Simon
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: sci-fi, fiction, fantasy, adventure, philosophy
review:
A fun and engaging read of the adventures of Dex as he transitioned to being a tea monk and came across a robot, Mosscap, on his adventures.

What is the purpose of life? This question is a key foundation to this book and I particularly liked one quote; "it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live.�.
]]> <![CDATA[Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur]]> 3198484
In Business Stripped Bare , Sir Richard Branson shares the inside track on his life in business and reveals the incredible truth about his most risky, brilliant and audacious deals. Discover why Virgin tried to take on one of the world's biggest superbrands, how Virgin Mobile USA holds the record as the fastest company in history to generate revenues of over one billion dollars (faster than Microsoft, Google and Amazon) and how Richard is the only person in the world to have built eight billion-dollar companies from scratch in eight different sectors.

Combining invaluable advice with the remarkable and candid inside stories of Virgin's greatest achievements, as well as some of its setbacks, Business Stripped Bare is a dynamic, inspirational and truly original guide to success in business and in life. Whether you are an executive, an entrepreneur or are just starting out, Richard strips business down to show how you can succeed and make a difference.


From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 342 Richard Branson 1905264429 Simon 4 business
The culture of Virgin is a key component of the why the Virgin companies have been successful. Whilst there is not a step by step guide for how to build a successful company, there are many useful insights and lessons learnt. Caring and Encouraging your people, Customer-focus, Innovation, Embracing leadership, Fun, Learning from mistakes and Social Responsibility are key attributes I now associate with the Virgin brand.]]> 3.77 2008 Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur
author: Richard Branson
name: Simon
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2009/12/13
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: business
review:
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book from Richard Branson. This is a good inspirational and motivating book that is very easy to read. I knew that there were a number of Virgin companies prior to reading this book, however I was not aware of how many different industries Virgin is involved with (music, mobile, space travel, planes, trains, finance, health clubs, ...).

The culture of Virgin is a key component of the why the Virgin companies have been successful. Whilst there is not a step by step guide for how to build a successful company, there are many useful insights and lessons learnt. Caring and Encouraging your people, Customer-focus, Innovation, Embracing leadership, Fun, Learning from mistakes and Social Responsibility are key attributes I now associate with the Virgin brand.
]]> <![CDATA[Girls' Night Out (J.P. Beaumont, #25.5)]]> 212175332 An e-original short story from New York Times bestselling author J. A. Jance, featuring a sneak peek of the next J. P. Beaumont novel, Den of Iniquity—Twinkle Winkleman finds herself in a dangerous, life-threatening situation, and love forces her to confront the near-impossible.

A skilled mechanic and certified spitfire, Twinkle Winkleman is as hard as nails; she has to be with a name like hers. Twinkle learned everything there is to know about cars from her time in her daddy’s garage in Anchorage, and when her father dies, she gains ownership of the shop and Maude, her dad’s prized 1973 International Harvester Travelall.

Life has not been kind to she grew up without her mother, her daddy’s gone, her ex-husband betrayed her, and her son Tad was killed after a trip to Seattle to handle some “unfinished business.â€� Right now, the only thingsÌýTwinkle truly cares for are her garage, Maude, and Cindy—her daughter-in-law and Tad’s widow.

One evening, Cindy and her friend, Leslie, have a girls� night out at the local karaoke bar. Even though neither Twinkle nor Cindy are fans of Leslie’s boyfriend, James, Twinkle is happy to see her daughter-in-law enjoying her freedom and a night on the town. That is until she wakes up in the middle of the night and discovers Cindy hasn’t come home. Even more concerning, she isn’t picking up her phone.

What follows is a mother-in-law’s desperate and bold attempt to find her daughter-in-law—even if it means leading the dangerous search on her own, with a little help from J. P. Beaumont. As an Alaskan Winter rears its head, Twinkle is up against the will she be able to save the person that means the most to her?]]> 73 J.A. Jance 0063371979 Simon 3 short-story, fiction, mystery
3.25/5]]> 4.27 Girls' Night Out (J.P. Beaumont, #25.5)
author: J.A. Jance
name: Simon
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: short-story, fiction, mystery
review:
A middle of the road novella about Twinkle's daughter-in-law Cindy not coming home one night and trying to find where she is.

3.25/5
]]> <![CDATA[The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable]]> 49172 184 Patrick Lencioni 0787954039 Simon 4 leadership
This is a short book based around four disciplines:

Discipline one: Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team
Discipline two: Create Organisational Clarity (Identity, values, mission, strategy, major goals, objectives, roles and responsibilities)
Discipline three: Over-communicate organisational clarity
Discipline four: Reinforce organisational clarity through human systems.]]> 4.09 2000 The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable
author: Patrick Lencioni
name: Simon
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: leadership
review:
Another insightful leadership fable with associated practical guidance from Patrick Lencioni.

This is a short book based around four disciplines:

Discipline one: Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team
Discipline two: Create Organisational Clarity (Identity, values, mission, strategy, major goals, objectives, roles and responsibilities)
Discipline three: Over-communicate organisational clarity
Discipline four: Reinforce organisational clarity through human systems.
]]> The Briar Club 181110045 A haunting and powerful story of female friendships and secrets in a Washington, D.C. boardinghouse during the McCarthy era.

Washington, D.C., 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital, where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship: poised English beauty Fliss whose facade of perfect wife and mother covers gaping inner wounds; police officer’s daughter Nora, who is entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball star Bea, whose career has ended along with the women’s baseball league of WWII; and poisonous, gung-ho Arlene, who has thrown herself into McCarthy’s Red Scare.

Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears apart the house, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: Who is the true enemy in their midst?]]> 432 Kate Quinn 0063244748 Simon 5
4.5/5]]> 4.26 2024 The Briar Club
author: Kate Quinn
name: Simon
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: historical-fiction, fiction, mystery
review:
Another excellent historical fiction from Kate Quinn and my audiobook listen for the summer holiday. This one was more akin to a murder mystery hearing the backstories of various people living in Briar House and even the house acted as a narrator. Quite long but I found it very engaging.

4.5/5
]]> China Room 55994371 "The follow-up to his Booker Prize-shortlisted The Runaways, Sunjeev Sahota's new novel follows characters across generations and continents (from Punjab to rural England) and is equally heart-wrenching." --Entertainment Weekly

"A gorgeous, gripping read." --Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire

"Cements [Sahota's] place in a vibrant literary canon alongside Salman Rushdie, Kamila Shamsie, Mohsin Hamid, Hari Kunzru and others." --BookPage

A transfixing novel about two unforgettable characters seeking to free themselves--one from the expectations of women in early 20th century Punjab, and the other from the weight of life in the contemporary Indian diaspora

Mehar, a young bride in rural 1929 Punjab, is trying to discover the identity of her new husband. Married to three brothers in a single ceremony, she and her now-sisters spend their days hard at work in the family's "china room," sequestered from contact with the men--except when their domineering mother-in-law, Mai, summons them to a darkened chamber at night. Curious and strong willed, Mehar tries to piece together what Mai doesn't want her to know. From beneath her veil, she studies the sounds of the men's voices, the calluses on their fingers as she serves them tea. Soon she glimpses something that seems to confirm which of the brothers is her husband, and a series of events is set in motion that will put more than one life at risk. As the early stirrings of the Indian independence movement rise around her, Mehar must weigh her own desires against the reality--and danger--of her situation.

Spiraling around Mehar's story is that of a young man who arrives at his uncle's house in Punjab in the summer of 1999, hoping to shake an addiction that has held him in its grip for more than two years. Growing up in small-town England as the son of an immigrant shopkeeper, his experiences of racism, violence, and estrangement from the culture of his birth led him to seek a dangerous form of escape. As he rides out his withdrawal at his family's ancestral home--an abandoned farmstead, its china room mysteriously locked and barred--he begins to knit himself back together, gathering strength for the journey home.

Partly inspired by award-winning author Sunjeev Sahota's family history, China Room is at once a deft exploration of how systems of power circumscribe individual lives and a deeply moving portrait of the unconquerable human capacity to resist them. At once sweeping and intimate, lush and propulsive, it is a stunning achievement from a contemporary master.]]> 256 Sunjeev Sahota 0593298144 Simon 4 historical-fiction, fiction
In 1999, the summer after turning 18, a boy is sent from England to his uncle's house in India to try to fight an addiction. The storylines are intertwined.

Nicely written. Contains sexual themes.]]> 3.69 2021 China Room
author: Sunjeev Sahota
name: Simon
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: historical-fiction, fiction
review:
In India in 1929 Mehar is married to one of 3 brothers but doesn't know which. Even after a decent time period she doesn't know whom although has her suspicions.

In 1999, the summer after turning 18, a boy is sent from England to his uncle's house in India to try to fight an addiction. The storylines are intertwined.

Nicely written. Contains sexual themes.
]]> Intermezzo 208931300 An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family—but especially love—from 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—successful, 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—his 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—a 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 Simon 4 fiction, romance
There are two brothers (a lawyer and a chess prodigy) going through grief and handling it in different ways. The story delves into their life challenges and various love interests. These love interests included a large age gap and having multiple relationships at the same time.

Thought provoking but with a strange writing style of no quotation marks. Includes sexual themes.

3.5/5]]> 3.86 2024 Intermezzo
author: Sally Rooney
name: Simon
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: fiction, romance
review:
Written from the perspective of different characters and their thoughts and approach to life this was a mostly interesting read but did drag on a bit.

There are two brothers (a lawyer and a chess prodigy) going through grief and handling it in different ways. The story delves into their life challenges and various love interests. These love interests included a large age gap and having multiple relationships at the same time.

Thought provoking but with a strange writing style of no quotation marks. Includes sexual themes.

3.5/5
]]> <![CDATA[A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1)]]> 50548197
A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) � until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets.

There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate� or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.

El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.]]> 320 Naomi Novik 0593128486 Simon 2 fantasy, abandoned 3.93 2020 A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1)
author: Naomi Novik
name: Simon
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: fantasy, abandoned
review:
2 hours into the audiobook and lacking in interest for me to the point I decided to abandon it. It felt like it hadn't really started yet.
]]> The Magnolia Palace 57099323 The Lions of Fifth Avenue, returns with a tantalizing novel about the secrets, betrayal, and murder within one of New York City’s most impressive Gilded Age mansions.

Eight months since losing her mother in the Spanish flu outbreak of 1919, twenty-one-year-old Lillian Carter’s life has completely fallen apart. For the past six years, under the moniker Angelica, Lillian was one of the most sought-after artists� models in New York City, with statues based on her figure gracing landmarks from the Plaza Hotel to the Brooklyn Bridge. But with her mother gone, a grieving Lillian is rudderless and desperate—the work has dried up and a looming scandal has left her entirely without a safe haven. So when she stumbles upon an employment opportunity at the Frick mansion—a building that, ironically, bears her own visage—Lillian jumps at the chance. But the longer she works as a private secretary to the imperious and demanding Helen Frick, the daughter and heiress of industrialist and art patron Henry Clay Frick, the more deeply her life gets intertwined with that of the family—pulling her into a tangled web of romantic trysts, stolen jewels, and family drama that runs so deep, the stakes just may be life or death.

Nearly fifty years later, mod English model Veronica Weber has her own chance to make her career—and with it, earn the money she needs to support her family back home—within the walls of the former Frick residence, now converted into one of New York City’s most impressive museums. But when she—along with a charming intern/budding art curator named Joshua—is dismissed from theÌýVogueÌýshoot taking place at the Frick Collection, she chances upon a series of hidden messages in the museum: messages that will lead her and Joshua on a hunt that could not only solve Veronica’s financial woes, but could finally reveal the truth behind a decades-old murder in the infamous Frick family.]]> 340 Fiona Davis 0593184017 Simon 4 3.82 2022 The Magnolia Palace
author: Fiona Davis
name: Simon
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: historical-fiction, fiction, mystery
review:
Lilly ending up working as a private secretary in a very rich household provided the backdrop for this enjoyable read. There are two related storylines almost 50 years apart which took a while to speed up.
]]> Becoming Madam Secretary 177192295 She took on titans, battled generals, and changed the world as we know it�

New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Dray returns with a captivating and dramatic new novel about an American heroine Frances Perkins.

Raised on tales of her revolutionary ancestors, Frances Perkins arrives in New York City at the turn of the century, armed with her trusty parasol and an unyielding determination to make a difference.

When she’s not working with children in the crowded tenements in Hell’s Kitchen, Frances throws herself into the social scene in Greenwich Village, befriending an eclectic group of politicians, artists, and activists, including the millionaire socialite Mary Harriman Rumsey, the flirtatious budding author Sinclair Lewis, and the brilliant but troubled reformer Paul Wilson, with whom she falls deeply in love.

But when Frances meets a young lawyer named Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a tea dance, sparks fly in all the wrong directions. She thinks he’s a rich, arrogant dilettante who gets by on a handsome face and a famous name. He thinks she’s a priggish bluestocking and insufferable do-gooder. Neither knows it yet, but over the next twenty years, they will form a historic partnership that will carry them both to the White House.

Frances is destined to rise in a political world dominated by men, facing down the Great Depression as FDR’s most trusted lieutenant—even as she struggles to balance the demands of a public career with marriage and motherhood. And when vicious political attacks mount and personal tragedies threaten to derail her ambitions, she must decide what she’s willing to do—and what she’s willing to sacrifice—to save a nation.]]> 528 Stephanie Dray 0593437055 Simon 4 historical-fiction, fiction
Written like a memoir this is well writen historical fiction based on real people and events.

I had never heard of Frances but now know she was very much a change agent with a fearless nature. Inspiring.

3.5/5]]> 4.36 2024 Becoming Madam Secretary
author: Stephanie Dray
name: Simon
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves: historical-fiction, fiction
review:
Frances Perkins career progression to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's most trusted lieutenant (and first woman in the USA to serve in a presidential cabinet) is nicely told although I did find it dragged on at times.

Written like a memoir this is well writen historical fiction based on real people and events.

I had never heard of Frances but now know she was very much a change agent with a fearless nature. Inspiring.

3.5/5
]]> The Family Experiment 197108968 From the acclaimed author of The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and brilliant speculative thriller about families: real and virtual.

Some families are virtually perfect�

The world's population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, the breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families, let alone raise them.

But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality TV show called The Substitute. It will follow ten couples as they raise a Virtual Child from birth to the age of eighteen but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child, or risk it all for the chance of a real baby�

Set in the same universe as John Marrs's bestselling novel The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and twisted thriller about the ultimate Tamagotchi—a virtual baby.]]> 384 John Marrs 1335000364 Simon 4 sci-fi, thriller
The metaverse and real world struggles (and quirky backgrounds) of the couples raising a Metachild were intriguing, thought provoking and came with some twists.

The short sharp chapters also took a bit to get used to and whilst it meant I could easily read a super small amount at one time it felt like it was continuing jumping around between couples.

3.75/5]]> 4.00 2024 The Family Experiment
author: John Marrs
name: Simon
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/07
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves: sci-fi, thriller
review:
The storyline of this dark speculative thriller based on concept of virtual children that experience large growth spurts in the metaverse and a reality tv show was scarily feasible.

The metaverse and real world struggles (and quirky backgrounds) of the couples raising a Metachild were intriguing, thought provoking and came with some twists.

The short sharp chapters also took a bit to get used to and whilst it meant I could easily read a super small amount at one time it felt like it was continuing jumping around between couples.

3.75/5
]]> <![CDATA[The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race]]> 54968118 The Double Helix on her bed. As she sped through the pages, she became enthralled by the intense drama behind the competition to discover the code of life. Even though her high school counselor told her girls didn’t become scientists, she decided she would.

Driven by a passion to understand how nature works and to turn discoveries into inventions, she would help to make what the book’s author, James Watson, told her was the most important biological advance since his co-discovery of the structure of DNA. She and her collaborators turned �a curiosity ​of nature into an invention that will transform the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions.

The development of CRISPR and the race to create vaccines for coronavirus will hasten our transition to the next great innovation revolution. The past half-century has been a digital age, based on the microchip, computer, and internet. Now we are entering a life-science revolution. Children who study digital coding will be joined by those who study genetic code.

Should we use our new evolution-hacking powers to make us less susceptible to viruses? What a wonderful boon that would be! And what about preventing depression? Hmmm…Should we allow parents, if they can afford it, to enhance the height or muscles or IQ of their kids?

After helping to discover CRISPR, Doudna became a leader in wrestling with these moral issues and, with her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020.]]> 536 Walter Isaacson 1982115858 Simon 3 history, science, biography
The ethics and disadvantages of genetic engineering vs the benefits is an interesting debate. All technology can be used for good and bad and there can be unintended consequences.

With the Covid-19 pandemic, the significance of CRISPR became vital to develop Covid tests and the Covid vaccine.

There was a heavy emphasis on the science, which was beyond me and for me this contributed to the book feel a bit long-winded. It was more akin to a biography of CRISPR technology than Jennifer.

3.25/5]]> 4.23 2021 The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
author: Walter Isaacson
name: Simon
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/24
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: history, science, biography
review:
Jennifer Doudna is not a person I had heard about. It was interesting to read about her pioneering work with CRISPR gene editing, seen as one of the most significant breakthroughs in the last decade. Also covered is some of the research that her work built upon.

The ethics and disadvantages of genetic engineering vs the benefits is an interesting debate. All technology can be used for good and bad and there can be unintended consequences.

With the Covid-19 pandemic, the significance of CRISPR became vital to develop Covid tests and the Covid vaccine.

There was a heavy emphasis on the science, which was beyond me and for me this contributed to the book feel a bit long-winded. It was more akin to a biography of CRISPR technology than Jennifer.

3.25/5
]]> The Colony Club 199531901
As “the best dressed actress on the Rialto� Elsie de Wolfe has an eye for décor, but her career is stagnating. So when White asks her to design the clubhouse interiors, she jumps at the chance and the opportunity to add a woman’s touch. He promises to send her an assistant, a young woman he’s hired as a draftsman.

Raised in the Lower East Side tenements, Nora Bromely is determined to become an architect in spite of hostility and sabotage from her male colleagues. She is disappointed and angry when White “foists� her off on this new women’s club project.

But when White is murdered and the ensuing Trial of the Century discloses the architect’s scandalous personal life, fearful backers begin to withdraw their support. It’s questionable whether the club will survive long enough to open.

Daisy, Elsie, and Nora have nothing in common but their determination to carry on. But to do so, they must overcome not only society’s mores but their own prejudices about women, wealth, and each other. Together they strive to transform Daisy’s dream of the Colony Club into a reality, a place that will nurture social justice and ensure the work of the women who earned the nickname “Mink Brigade� far into the future.]]> 384 Shelley Noble 0063252481 Simon 4 fiction, historical-fiction
In parallel was the rise of Nora as the first woman architect in an organisation.

Set against the backdrop of a man's world and expectations of what women and shouldn’t do, the societal challenges were well portrayed.]]> 4.00 2024 The Colony Club
author: Shelley Noble
name: Simon
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/13
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: fiction, historical-fiction
review:
Being declined a room at the Waldorf in 1902 because she was an unaccompanied female, set in motion a club for women.

In parallel was the rise of Nora as the first woman architect in an organisation.

Set against the backdrop of a man's world and expectations of what women and shouldn’t do, the societal challenges were well portrayed.
]]> The Phoenix Crown 64417401
San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with newly minted millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano whose career desperately needs rekindling, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace.

His patronage offers Gemma and Suling the chance of a lifetime, but their lives are thrown into turmoil when a devastating earthquake rips San Francisco apart and Thornton disappears, leaving behind a mystery reaching further than anyone could have imagined . . . until the Phoenix Crown reappears five years later at a sumptuous Paris costume ball, drawing Gemma and Suling together in one last desperate quest for justice.]]> 384 Kate Quinn 0063304732 Simon 4
The earthquake and resulting fire was horrific and the storytelling brought it to life.

It is very different from other Kate Quinn books I have read, due in part to this being a collaboration with Janie Chang. To me, the book felt like it lacked some depth and complexity compared to Kate's previous books I have read.

3.75/5]]> 3.76 2024 The Phoenix Crown
author: Kate Quinn
name: Simon
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves: historical-fiction, fiction, mystery, adventure
review:
Told initially from the perspective of two intertwined very different women at the time of the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake, I found this to be a reasonably engaging historical fiction.

The earthquake and resulting fire was horrific and the storytelling brought it to life.

It is very different from other Kate Quinn books I have read, due in part to this being a collaboration with Janie Chang. To me, the book felt like it lacked some depth and complexity compared to Kate's previous books I have read.

3.75/5
]]> The Covenant of Water 63429926 From the New York Times–bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial new epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala and following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret.

The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of Cutting for Stone. Published in 2009, Cutting for Stone became a literary phenomenon, selling over 1.5 million copies in the United States alone and remaining on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years.

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. The family is part of a Christian community that traces itself to the time of the apostles, but times are shifting, and the matriarch of this family, known as Big Ammachi—literally “Big Motherâ€â€”will witness unthinkable changes at home and at large over the span of her extraordinary life. All of Verghese’s great gifts are on display in this new there are astonishing scenes of medical ingenuity, fantastic moments of humor, a surprising and deeply moving story, and characters imbued with the essence of life.

A shimmering evocation of a lost India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. It is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.]]> 802 Abraham Verghese Simon 4 historical-fiction, fiction
Stepping forward several years another storyline emerges centred around a Scottish surgeon, Digby, that ends up in Madras. This story has a very different feel but is still good. Naturally the different storylines intertwine.

The story extends with different generations, changing attitudes and with some very sad moments.

I was aware of a caste system in India but got a better understanding of it through this story.

It was a huge book to read but I enjoyed the writing style and found it reasonably enjoyable. It could however have been shorter. I listened to the audiobook, superbly narrated by the author with different voices, whilst occasionally reading along with book.]]> 4.58 2023 The Covenant of Water
author: Abraham Verghese
name: Simon
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/14
date added: 2024/10/14
shelves: historical-fiction, fiction
review:
This huge historical novel starts with an arranged marriage in 1900 in Southern India of a girl at the age of 12 to a 40 year old with a family plague, "the Condition", associated with water. The story of her transition to this new life at Parambil and the associated hardships is beautifully written.

Stepping forward several years another storyline emerges centred around a Scottish surgeon, Digby, that ends up in Madras. This story has a very different feel but is still good. Naturally the different storylines intertwine.

The story extends with different generations, changing attitudes and with some very sad moments.

I was aware of a caste system in India but got a better understanding of it through this story.

It was a huge book to read but I enjoyed the writing style and found it reasonably enjoyable. It could however have been shorter. I listened to the audiobook, superbly narrated by the author with different voices, whilst occasionally reading along with book.
]]> The Magic of Thinking Big 759945 238 David J. Schwartz 0671646788 Simon 4
Some of my key takeaways:
- Vaccinate yourself from excusitis.
- To think confidently, act confidently.
- Be positive. When you believe, your mind finds ways to do. Where there is a will, there is a way.
- Conquer self-deprecation.
- Respect your appearance. Look your best and you will think and act your best.
- Think enthusiastly.
- You are judged by the company you keep.
- Put enthusiasm behind what you say.
- Everyone wants to feel important. Compliment people at every possible opportunity.
- Always give people more than they expect.
- Be a doer, not a don'ter.
- Salvage something from every setback.
- Combine persistence with experimentation. If the current approach isnt working, try a different way. Believe there is a way.
- Desire when harnessed is power. Failure to follow desire, to do what you want to do most, paves the way to medoocrity.
- Energy increases/multiplies when you set a desired goal and resolve to work toward that goal.
- Set goals to get things done. You accomplish only what you plan to accomplish.
- Winning any objective requires a step by step method. Build a 30 day plan.
- Trade minds with the people you want to influence. See things through their eyes.
- Think improvement and high standards in everything you do.

4.25/5]]> 4.26 1959 The Magic of Thinking Big
author: David J. Schwartz
name: Simon
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1959
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: leadership, self-improvement, business
review:
The power of positive thinking and believing in yourself is a key principle articulated in this book. Some of the examples are a bit dated but lots of good timeless advice from this book first published in 1959.

Some of my key takeaways:
- Vaccinate yourself from excusitis.
- To think confidently, act confidently.
- Be positive. When you believe, your mind finds ways to do. Where there is a will, there is a way.
- Conquer self-deprecation.
- Respect your appearance. Look your best and you will think and act your best.
- Think enthusiastly.
- You are judged by the company you keep.
- Put enthusiasm behind what you say.
- Everyone wants to feel important. Compliment people at every possible opportunity.
- Always give people more than they expect.
- Be a doer, not a don'ter.
- Salvage something from every setback.
- Combine persistence with experimentation. If the current approach isnt working, try a different way. Believe there is a way.
- Desire when harnessed is power. Failure to follow desire, to do what you want to do most, paves the way to medoocrity.
- Energy increases/multiplies when you set a desired goal and resolve to work toward that goal.
- Set goals to get things done. You accomplish only what you plan to accomplish.
- Winning any objective requires a step by step method. Build a 30 day plan.
- Trade minds with the people you want to influence. See things through their eyes.
- Think improvement and high standards in everything you do.

4.25/5
]]> <![CDATA[Changes (The Randall Lee Mysteries #1)]]> 17341620 225 Charles Colyott 1466003421 Simon 2 fiction, mystery, abandoned
Merged review:

It started well and but the amount of corniness was just too much for me and I ended up abandoning it.]]> 4.00 2012 Changes (The Randall Lee Mysteries #1)
author: Charles Colyott
name: Simon
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2014/05/06
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: fiction, mystery, abandoned
review:
It started well and but the amount of corniness was just too much for me and I ended up abandoning it.

Merged review:

It started well and but the amount of corniness was just too much for me and I ended up abandoning it.
]]> Wilderness Survival 18652679 306 Gregory J. Davenport 0811744051 Simon 4 hiking
Merged review:

This book provides lots of useful information on survival in the wild and consideration of items to take with you. There is quite a bit of repetition but this does lend itself to somebody not needing the book cover to cover, but looking up sections as required. I skipped over some sections that I didn't care about at the moment but all-in-all found it to be a useful guide.]]> 3.92 1998 Wilderness Survival
author: Gregory J. Davenport
name: Simon
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2013/08/28
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: hiking
review:
This book provides lots of useful information on survival in the wild and consideration of items to take with you. There is quite a bit of repetition but this does lend itself to somebody not needing the book cover to cover, but looking up sections as required. I skipped over some sections that I didn't care about at the moment but all-in-all found it to be a useful guide.

Merged review:

This book provides lots of useful information on survival in the wild and consideration of items to take with you. There is quite a bit of repetition but this does lend itself to somebody not needing the book cover to cover, but looking up sections as required. I skipped over some sections that I didn't care about at the moment but all-in-all found it to be a useful guide.
]]> Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2) 90202302 “The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.� —Xaden Riorson

Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders� capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.

Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.

But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.]]> 623 Rebecca Yarros 1649374178 Simon 3 fantasy, fiction
3.25/5]]> 4.33 2023 Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Simon
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/21
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves: fantasy, fiction
review:
As a follow on to Fourth Wing (which I really enjoyed) I was not as drawn in to this storyline and it felt like it dragged on. Contains sexual content.

3.25/5
]]> <![CDATA[The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)]]> 45047384
Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.

But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.]]> 394 T.J. Klune Simon 4 fantasy, fiction
4.25/5]]> 4.37 2020 The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)
author: T.J. Klune
name: Simon
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/06
date added: 2024/09/05
shelves: fantasy, fiction
review:
After being summoned to Extremely Upper Management at the Department of Magical Youth, Linus' adventure as a case worker is quite amusing as he reviews an orphanage of children with various quirks and powers. Embracing people for who they are and not holding prejudice underpins this story. As an audiobook it was well produced.

4.25/5
]]> Around the World in 80 Days 6607962 154 Jules Verne Simon 3 fiction 4.16 1872 Around the World in 80 Days
author: Jules Verne
name: Simon
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1872
rating: 3
read at: 2014/02/16
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves: fiction
review:
Yet another classic that I hadn't got around to reading. I had seen the movie many years ago so had a vague recollection of the story. I actually expected a bit more from the book. There were definitely times when I felt I just had to read more but then there were patches where I found myself skimming through a long-winded section just to get rid of it. Having said that, I'm glad I've read it, and enjoyed the characters of Fogg and Passepartout.
]]> The Lost Bookshop 65137920 The Keeper of Stories meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets.

‘The thing about books,� she said ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.�

On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found�

For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.

But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder� where nothing is as it seems.]]> 432 Evie Woods 0008609209 Simon 3
3.25/5]]> 4.03 2023 The Lost Bookshop
author: Evie Woods
name: Simon
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/31
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves: fantasy, fiction, historical-fiction, mystery
review:
Set over multiple timelines and from multiple perspectives within one this was a reasonable read with a bit of magical realism. Romance, domestic abuse and social injustice are covered. A bit slow at times.

3.25/5
]]> Antarctica Station 204297662
Dr. Laura Reynolds had it all.

A job she loved. The respect of her peers. Student debt she was slowly chipping away at.

And one day, she lost everything.

She saw the wrong thing—a colleague’s mistake. And to escape, he framed her.

To avoid prison, Laura reluctantly agrees to join a secretive research project in Antarctica, where she hopes to keep practicing medicine and someday get her life back. But soon after arriving, she realizes that things at this advanced facility aren’t what they seem. And perhaps something strange is happening in the world outside.


Welcome to Antarctica Station, A.G. Riddle’s first new sci-fi thriller in almost a year. It’s a deep dive into the science and history of Antarctica—with a twist few will see coming.

NOTE: This is a standalone novel.]]> 392 A.G. Riddle Simon 3 3.99 Antarctica Station
author: A.G. Riddle
name: Simon
average rating: 3.99
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/21
date added: 2024/08/20
shelves: fiction, sci-fi, adventure, mystery
review:
An intriguing mystery set around a secret research project in Antarctica and Laura working through the path she will take. I really enjoyed the first half of the book, but then my interest waned.
]]> <![CDATA[Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon]]> 53138083 Working Backwards is an insider's breakdown of Amazon's approach to culture, leadership, and best practices from two long-time, top-level Amazon executives.

Colin started at Amazon in 1998; Bill joined in 1999. In Working Backwards, these two long-serving Amazon executives reveal and codify the principles and practices that drive the success of one of the most extraordinary companies the world has ever known. With twenty-seven years of Amazon experience between them, much of it in the early aughts—a period of unmatched innovation that brought products and services including Kindle, Amazon Prime, Amazon Studios, and Amazon Web Services to life—Bryar and Carr offer unprecedented access to the Amazon way as it was refined, articulated, and proven to be repeatable, scalable, and adaptable.

With keen analysis and practical steps for applying it at your own company—no matter the size—the authors illuminate how Amazon’s fourteen leadership principles inform decision-making at all levels and reveal how the company’s culture has been defined by four characteristics: customer obsession, long-term thinking, eagerness to invent, and operational excellence. Bryar and Carr explain the set of ground-level practices that ensure these are translated into action and flow through all aspects of the business.

Working Backwards is a practical guidebook and a corporate narrative, filled with the authors� in-the-room recollections of what “Being Amazonian� is like and how it has affected their personal and professional lives. They demonstrate that success on Amazon’s scale is not achieved by the genius of any single leader, but rather through commitment to and execution of a set of well-defined, rigorously-executed principles and practices—shared here for the very first time.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press
]]> 304 Colin Bryar 1250267595 Simon 5
There are so many good points, some of which include:
- Amazon’s Leadership Principles are truly lived by the company, and customer obsession instead of competitor obsession is a huge one.
- Have a bias for Action. Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. Do calculated risk-taking.
- Setting and insisting on high standards.
- The ban on PowerPoint and the shift to 6 page max narratives (+ appendices as required which are not required reading).
- “Single-threaded leadership� in which a single person, unencumbered by competing responsibilities, owns a single major initiative and heads up a separable, largely autonomous team to deliver its goals.
- the PR / FAQ process as a key part of working backwards. The FAQ covers both external and internal questions. The PR/FAQ is a living document.
- Bar raiser approach to recruitment.
- Focus on and measure controllable input metrics (things you can control). Input metrics measure things that, done right, bring about the desired results in your output metrics.

4.5/5]]> 4.16 2021 Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon
author: Colin Bryar
name: Simon
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/06
date added: 2024/08/05
shelves: business, leadership, methodology
review:
This is an excellent book packed with content about Amazon's journey (physical books, digital books, kindle, prime, aws, and more), company ethos and processes.

There are so many good points, some of which include:
- Amazon’s Leadership Principles are truly lived by the company, and customer obsession instead of competitor obsession is a huge one.
- Have a bias for Action. Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. Do calculated risk-taking.
- Setting and insisting on high standards.
- The ban on PowerPoint and the shift to 6 page max narratives (+ appendices as required which are not required reading).
- “Single-threaded leadership� in which a single person, unencumbered by competing responsibilities, owns a single major initiative and heads up a separable, largely autonomous team to deliver its goals.
- the PR / FAQ process as a key part of working backwards. The FAQ covers both external and internal questions. The PR/FAQ is a living document.
- Bar raiser approach to recruitment.
- Focus on and measure controllable input metrics (things you can control). Input metrics measure things that, done right, bring about the desired results in your output metrics.

4.5/5
]]> Don't Believe It 36296238 The Girl of Sugar BeachÌýis the most watched documentary in television history—a riveting, true-life mystery that unfolds over twelve weeks and centers on a fascinating question: Did Grace Sebold murder her boyfriend, Julian, while on a Spring Break vacation, or is she a victim of circumstance and poor police work? Grace has spent the last ten years in a St. Lucian prison, and reaches out to filmmaker Sidney Ryan in a last, desperate attempt to prove her innocence.

As Sidney begins researching, she uncovers startling evidence overlooked during the original investigation. Before the series even finishes filming, public outcry leads officials to reopen the case.Ìý

Delving into Grace’s past, Sidney peels away layer after layer of deception. But as she edges closer to the real heart of the story, Sidney must decide if finding the truth is worth risking her newfound fame, her careerÌý…Ìýeven her life.]]> 342 Charlie Donlea 149671380X Simon 4 3.94 2018 Don't Believe It
author: Charlie Donlea
name: Simon
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/27
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves: mystery, thriller, crime, fiction
review:
Intriguing from the start, I enjoyed this mystery thriller about whether Grace murdered her boyfriend or whether she has spent 10 years in a St. Lucia prison for a crime she didn't commit. Well written.
]]> Cross Fire (Alex Cross, #17) 9672602 452 James Patterson 0099553732 Simon 3 fiction 3.95 2010 Cross Fire (Alex Cross, #17)
author: James Patterson
name: Simon
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2011/08/29
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves: fiction
review:
A very easy read comprising three threads. It lacked a wow factor for me but was still an okay read that had a bit of a dull ending and some of the threads lacked any real depth. Light entertainment.
]]> <![CDATA[Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)]]> 56791389 Alternate cover edition of ASIN B08BKGYQXW


The apocalypse will be televised!

A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.

In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth—from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds—collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.

The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.

Only a few dare venture inside. But once you're in, you can't get out. And what's worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it's game over. In this game, it's not about your strength or your dexterity. It's about your followers, your views. Your clout. It's about building an audience and killing those goblins with style.

You can't just survive here. You gotta survive big.

You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that "it" factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That's the only way to truly survive in this game—with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy.

They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it's anything but a game.]]> 446 Matt Dinniman Simon 4
3.75/5]]> 4.49 2020 Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)
author: Matt Dinniman
name: Simon
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/24
date added: 2024/07/24
shelves: fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, humour
review:
A very well produced fast-paced audiobook about Carl and Donut (his ex girlfriend's cat that can talk). Set in a televised game of survival, the book reminded me a little of a Ready Player One & the Hunger Games. I did wonder at times if it was a book for me and it did feel a bit monotonous at one point but I persevered since it was sufficiently enjoyable and I enjoyed the humour. It was also very impressive that the audiobook was apparently narrated by one person, Jeff Hays.

3.75/5
]]> James 197472363 Selected as one of the top 12 reads of 2024 by The Times and Sunday Times

'This is the work of an American master at the peak of his powers' � Financial Times

An enthralling and ferociously funny reimagining of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, told from the perspective of the enslaved Jim. Written by Booker Prize-shortlisted Percival Everett, his novel Erasure is now released as the critically acclaimed and Oscar-winning film American Fiction, and James is set to be the literary event of 2024.

The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson’s Island until he can formulate a plan.

Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father who recently returned to town. Thus begins a dangerous and transcendent journey by raft along the Mississippi River, towards the elusive promise of the free states and beyond. As James and Huck navigate the treacherous waters, each bend in the river holds the promise of both salvation and demise.

With rumours of a brewing war, James must face the burden he the family he is desperate to protect and the constant lie he must live. And together, the unlikely pair embark on the most dangerous, and life-changing, odyssey of them all . . .

From the shadows of Huck Finn’s mischievous spirit, Jim emerges to reclaim his voice, defying the conventions that have consigned him to the margins.

'James has the potential to become a classic . . . thrilling, bold and profound' � The Sunday Times

‘Funny and horrifying, brilliant and riveting . . . Who should read this book? Every single person in the country� � Ann Patchett, bestselling author of Tom Lake

‘Percival Everett is a giant of American letters, and James is a canon-shatteringly great book� � Hernan Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Trust

*James was an instant Sunday Times bestseller w/c 07/04/2024]]> 312 Percival Everett 1035031272 Simon 5 4.52 2024 James
author: Percival Everett
name: Simon
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/07
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: historical-fiction, fiction, adventure
review:
James is an excellent reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (a story I have not read for several decades) from the perspective of Jim, a slave. Written with a light humourous rhetoric, the portrayal of the treatment and sale of slaves is harrowing. I found it very engaging.
]]> Weyward 127280850
2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.

1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. As a girl, Altha’s mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom.

1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.]]> 392 Emilia Hart 1250842727 Simon 4
3.75/5]]> 4.02 2023 Weyward
author: Emilia Hart
name: Simon
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/28
date added: 2024/06/27
shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, fantasy, horror
review:
Written over different time horizons (1619 Altha, 1942 Violet, 2019 Kate) with a touch of magical realism this was a reasonable intertwined witch mystery, underpinned by male dominance and abuse.

3.75/5
]]> Baby X 173476065 When any biological matter can be used to create life, stolen celebrity DNA sells to the highest bidder—or the craziest stalker—in this propulsive thriller.

With a vivid imagining of the future, _Gattaca _meets Black Mirror in Kira Peikoff’s Baby X.

In the near-future United States, where advanced technology can create eggs or sperm from any person’s cells, celebrities face the alarming potential of meeting biological children they never conceived. Famous singer Trace Thorne is tired of being targeted by the Vault, a black market site devoted to stealing DNA. Sick of paying ransom money for his own cell matter, he hires bio-security guard Ember Ryan to ensure his biological safety.

Ember will do anything she can to protect her clients. She knows all the Vault’s tricks—discarded tissues, used straws, lipstick tubes—and has prevented countless DNA thefts. Working for Thorne, her focus becomes split when she begins to fall for him, but she knows she hasn’t let anything slip—love or not, his DNA is safe. But then she and Thorne are confronted by a pregnant woman, Quinn, who claims that Thorne is the father of her baby, and all bets are off.

Brilliantly plotted and terrifyingly prescient, Baby X is an unpredictable and relentless speculative thriller perfect for fans of Blake Crouch and John Marrs.]]> 326 Kira Peikoff 1639106332 Simon 4 crime, sci-fi, technothriller 3.82 2024 Baby X
author: Kira Peikoff
name: Simon
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/24
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: crime, sci-fi, technothriller
review:
An engaging futuristic dna-based scifi thriller where biological matter can be used to create a life and stolen dna can be sold to the highest bidder. A terrifying but very feasible prospect of the future. Well written from the perspective of different characters, albeit I suspected a number of the twists that occurred. 4.25/5
]]> <![CDATA[The Software Architect Elevator: Redefining the Architect's Role in the Digital Enterprise]]> 49828197
In this guide, author Gregor Hohpe shares real-world advice and hard-learned lessons from actual IT transformations. His anecdotes help architects, senior developers, and other IT professionals prepare for a more complex but rewarding role in the enterprise.

This book is ideal for:

� Software architects and senior developers looking to shape the company’s technology direction or assist in an organizational transformation
� Enterprise architects and senior technologists searching for practical advice on how to navigate technical and organizational topics
� CTOs and senior technical architects who are devising an IT strategy that impacts the way the organization works
� IT managers who want to learn what’s worked and what hasn’t in large-scale transformation]]> 364 Gregor Hohpe 1492077542 Simon 4 enterprise-architecture 4.39 2020 The Software Architect Elevator: Redefining the Architect's Role in the Digital Enterprise
author: Gregor Hohpe
name: Simon
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/11
date added: 2024/06/11
shelves: enterprise-architecture
review:
Having been an architect (primarily enterprise) for many years, it is good to see how others apply the practice. This book had a huge amount of excellent guidance and I learnt many things and was reminded about a number of others. I confess that I did skim through a lot of this book but still took away some different approaches to adopt.
]]> The Women 127305853
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances "Frankie" McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm's way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.]]> 471 Kristin Hannah 1250178630 Simon 5 historical-fiction, fiction
Well written, descriptive, and engaging about a stressful, exhausting job in a war zone with some horrific scenarios and lasting psychological impacts.

Frankie's sacrifice to be a nurse in a warzone is inspirational and her challenging return home heartbreaking. The lasting impact of military service (and that it goes beyond the people in armed combat) is well portrayed.

Superb as an audiobook. The story could however have omitted a portion of the plot that I don't feel really added to the story.

4.5/5]]> 4.58 2024 The Women
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Simon
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/10
date added: 2024/06/09
shelves: historical-fiction, fiction
review:
With a backdrop of the Vietnam war, "Women can also be heroes" underpinned this story about Frankie, a recently trained nurse.

Well written, descriptive, and engaging about a stressful, exhausting job in a war zone with some horrific scenarios and lasting psychological impacts.

Frankie's sacrifice to be a nurse in a warzone is inspirational and her challenging return home heartbreaking. The lasting impact of military service (and that it goes beyond the people in armed combat) is well portrayed.

Superb as an audiobook. The story could however have omitted a portion of the plot that I don't feel really added to the story.

4.5/5
]]> Bright Young Women 101124639
The survivors, including key witness Pamela Schumacher, will be forever changed by this night. They have all become victims. But they tell their perspectives here, they remain masters of their stories. And they hunt the perpetrator on their own - against resistance from the justice system and the police; against public opinion, which idolizes the serial killer.]]> 384 Jessica Knoll 1501153226 Simon 3 3.99 2023 Bright Young Women
author: Jessica Knoll
name: Simon
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/29
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: historical-fiction, crime, mystery
review:
The story (based on a true story) started well but I then got to a point where I found it just seemed to drag on and I almost abandoned it; the pace felt too slow to me. It did get better. 3.25/5
]]> <![CDATA[How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships]]> 35210 "You'll not only break the ice, you'll melt it away with your new skills." -- Larry King

"The lost art of verbal communication may be revitalized by Leil Lowndes." -- Harvey McKay, author of "How to Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive"

What is that magic quality makes some people instantly loved and respected? Everyone wants to be their friend (or, if single, their lover!) In business, they rise swiftly to the top of the corporate ladder. What is their "Midas touch?"

What it boils down to is a more skillful way of dealing with people.

The author has spent her career teaching people how to communicate for success. In her book How to Talk to Anyone (Contemporary Books, October 2003) Lowndes offers 92 easy and effective sure-fire success techniques-- she takes the reader from first meeting all the way up to sophisticated techniques used by the big winners in life. In this information-packed book you'll find:


9 ways to make a dynamite first impression 14 ways to master small talk, "big talk," and body language 14 ways to walk and talk like a VIP or celebrity 6 ways to sound like an insider in any crowd 7 ways to establish deep subliminal rapport with anyone 9 ways to feed someone's ego (and know when NOT to!) 11 ways to make your phone a powerful communications tool 15 ways to work a party like a politician works a room 7 ways to talk with tigers and not get eaten alive
In her trademark entertaining and straight-shooting style, Leil gives the techniques catchy names so you'll remember them when you really need them, including: "Rubberneck the Room," "Be a Copyclass," "Come Hither Hands," "Bare Their Hot Button," "The Great Scorecard in the Sky," and "Play the Tombstone Game," for big success in your social life, romance, and business.

How to Talk to Anyone, which is an update of her popular book, Talking the Winner's Way (see the 5-star reviews of the latter) is based on solid research about techniques that work!

By the way, don't confuse How to Talk to Anyone with one of Leil's previous books, How to Talk to Anybody About Anything. This one is completely different!]]> 345 Leil Lowndes 007141858X Simon 4 self-improvement
3.5/5
]]> 3.68 1998 How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships
author: Leil Lowndes
name: Simon
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/27
date added: 2024/05/26
shelves: self-improvement
review:
This book had many great tips, non-verbal and verbal side, with anecdotes throughout. I tend to treat this as a number of tips to consider, some of which for me at least felt like not being true to me and too sleazy or fake. The book was quite verbose, mainly due to all the anecdotes; key portions are summarised at the end of each chapter, so for a more speedy read you can focus on these and read the rest of the section for more context if required.

3.5/5

]]> <![CDATA[Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)]]> 61431922 Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders...

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile� humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die]]> 517 Rebecca Yarros 1649374046 Simon 5 fiction, fantasy, romance
It has similarities to The Hunger Games & Divergent with also the same level of energy that I found engaging from the start.

There are some portions that contain graphic sexual content.

I listened to this as an audiobook and it was particularly well produced.

4.5/5]]> 4.56 2023 Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Simon
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/05
date added: 2024/05/05
shelves: fiction, fantasy, romance
review:
I'm not usually somebody to read books about dragons or romance but this book was highly regarded, so I decided to give it a go and enjoyed it.

It has similarities to The Hunger Games & Divergent with also the same level of energy that I found engaging from the start.

There are some portions that contain graphic sexual content.

I listened to this as an audiobook and it was particularly well produced.

4.5/5
]]> None of This Is True 62334530
A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.

But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.

Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?]]> 390 Lisa Jewell 1982179007 Simon 4
Josie and her family have some quirks and dark secrets, but what can you believe?]]> 4.08 2023 None of This Is True
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Simon
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/04
date added: 2024/05/03
shelves: thriller, fiction, crime, mystery
review:
Engaging from the start, this dark psychological thriller unfolded with a number of twists along the way.

Josie and her family have some quirks and dark secrets, but what can you believe?
]]> Cloud Cuckoo Land 56783258 When everything is lost, it’s our stories that survive.

How do we weather the end of things? Cloud Cuckoo Land brings together an unforgettable cast of dreamers and outsiders from past, present and future to offer a vision of survival against all odds.

Constantinople, 1453:
An orphaned seamstress and a cursed boy with a love for animals risk everything on opposite sides of a city wall to protect the people they love.

Idaho, 2020:
An impoverished, idealistic kid seeks revenge on a world that’s crumbling around him. Can he go through with it when a gentle old man stands between him and his plans?

Unknown, Sometime in the Future:
With her tiny community in peril, Konstance is the last hope for the human race. To find a way forward, she must look to the oldest stories of all for guidance.

Bound together by a single ancient text, these tales interweave to form a tapestry of solace and resilience and a celebration of storytelling itself. Like its predecessor All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr’s new novel is a tale of hope and of profound human connection.]]> 626 Anthony Doerr 1982168439 Simon 4 4.24 2021 Cloud Cuckoo Land
author: Anthony Doerr
name: Simon
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/17
date added: 2024/04/17
shelves: historical-fiction, sci-fi, fiction
review:
With key characters in different timelines (15th century, current times, far future), I found some of the timelines great and others a bit dull at first but then warmed to them. I found this to be one of those books that took me a while to read and initially quite slow. The speed did however ramp up. Topics covered included single parenting challenges, mental illness, the longevity of books, war, climate change, pandemics and more.
]]> <![CDATA[Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters]]> 11721966 320 Richard P. Rumelt 0307886255 Simon 3 leadership, business - "A Strategy should be a cohesive response to an important challenge."
- It should be a coherent set of analysis, concepts, policies, arguments and actions that respond to a high stakes challenge.
- The kernel of a strategy has 3 elements: diagnosis, guiding policy and coherent action.
- The guiding policy specifies the approach to dealing with the obstables called out in the diagnosis. It is like a signpost marking the direction forward but not defining the details of the trip.
- Coherent actions are feasible coordinated policies, resource commitments and actions designed to carry out the guiding policy.
- Good strategy is not just what you are trying to do, it is also why and how you are doing it.
- Chain linked strategies can offer a strategic competitive advantage that makes it harder for other organisations to emulate.
- Extending a competitive advantage requires looking away from products, buyers and competitors and looking instead at the special skills and resources that underly a competitive advantage. In other words, build on your strengths.

3.25/5]]> 4.10 2011 Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters
author: Richard P. Rumelt
name: Simon
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/07
date added: 2024/04/06
shelves: leadership, business
review:
Some great insights to a good strategy, including:
- "A Strategy should be a cohesive response to an important challenge."
- It should be a coherent set of analysis, concepts, policies, arguments and actions that respond to a high stakes challenge.
- The kernel of a strategy has 3 elements: diagnosis, guiding policy and coherent action.
- The guiding policy specifies the approach to dealing with the obstables called out in the diagnosis. It is like a signpost marking the direction forward but not defining the details of the trip.
- Coherent actions are feasible coordinated policies, resource commitments and actions designed to carry out the guiding policy.
- Good strategy is not just what you are trying to do, it is also why and how you are doing it.
- Chain linked strategies can offer a strategic competitive advantage that makes it harder for other organisations to emulate.
- Extending a competitive advantage requires looking away from products, buyers and competitors and looking instead at the special skills and resources that underly a competitive advantage. In other words, build on your strengths.

3.25/5
]]> <![CDATA[The Lionheart Curse (Damian Lucas #1)]]> 59913504 390 Jack Gatland Simon 3 fiction, adventure 4.28 The Lionheart Curse (Damian Lucas #1)
author: Jack Gatland
name: Simon
average rating: 4.28
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/15
date added: 2024/03/15
shelves: fiction, adventure
review:
Similar to the Da Vinci Code with a variety of puzzles to be solved, a deadline driving quick resolution and a conman.
]]> Demon Copperhead 60317128 Demon Copperhead is set in the mountains of southern Appalachia. It's 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.]]> 550 Barbara Kingsolver Simon 4 4.58 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Simon
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/14
date added: 2024/03/14
shelves: adventure, fiction, historical-fiction
review:
Written from a first person perspective, I loved how the writing style really brought the character of Demon to life. It took a little for me to get into the book and I found it a slow read at first but then it turned into a book I found hard to put down. Demon is the only child of an alcoholic, living in poverty and this book is about his tough upbringing which involved foster homes, drugs, adduction, love, death and the demon within one's mind.
]]> <![CDATA[Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI]]> 193388249
Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And this was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered.

As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.]]> 338 David Grann 0593470834 Simon 3 history, crime
3.25/5]]> 4.12 2017 Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
author: David Grann
name: Simon
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/10
date added: 2024/03/09
shelves: history, crime
review:
I was not aware of the Osage Indians. This nonfiction book chronicles a dark part of American history and the distructive impact of settlers, greed and racism.

3.25/5
]]> The Great Alone 34912895 Unpredictable. Unforgiving. Untamed.
For a family in crisis, the ultimate test of survival.

Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: he will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.

Thirteen-year-old Leni, a girl coming of age in a tumultuous time, caught in the riptide of her parents� passionate, stormy relationship, dares to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for her family. She is desperate for a place to belong. Her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if it means following him into the unknown.

At first, Alaska seems to be the answer to their prayers. In a wild, remote corner of the state, they find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the Allbrights� lack of preparation and dwindling resources.

But as winter approaches and darkness descends on Alaska, Ernt’s fragile mental state deteriorates and the family begins to fracture. Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within. In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in eighteen hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: they are on their own. In the wild, there is no one to save them but themselves.

In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska―a place of incomparable beauty and danger. The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, the fight for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature.]]> 435 Kristin Hannah Simon 5 historical-fiction
4.5/5]]> 4.44 2018 The Great Alone
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Simon
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/03
date added: 2024/03/02
shelves: historical-fiction
review:
An eloquently written story about a family struggling to make ends meet moving to a remote part of Alaska, the harsh and dark winter, fear, survival, love, loss, aggression, hope, justice and the psychological impacts of life.

4.5/5
]]> Chivalry 6578055
Selected Shorts is an award-winning series of classic and contemporary short fiction read by acclaimed actors. The readings are recorded live at Peter Norton Symphony Space in New York City. The Selected Shorts radio series is a co-production of Symphony Space and WNYC, New York Public Radio, and is heard on public radio stations nationwide."]]> 1 Neil Gaiman Simon 4 fiction, short-story 4.12 2022 Chivalry
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Simon
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2020/07/02
date added: 2024/03/02
shelves: fiction, short-story
review:
An enjoyable short story beautifully written and read.
]]> Elon Musk 122765395 From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter.

When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.

His father’s impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive.

At the beginning of 2022—after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth—Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. “I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,� he said.

It was a wistful comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world’s ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground.

For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?]]> 688 Walter Isaacson 1982181281 Simon 5
This is the first book I have read from Walter Isaacson and I was very impressed with this biography. He is a superb storyteller and having followed Elon around for two years his insights are great.

With a physical and emotional upbringing, Elon had a very high pain threshold. His heritage led him to be callous, to thrive on deadlines and crises, be drama addicted and to have a very high risk tolerance.

Having a maniacal sense of urgency, setting what look to be unrealistic goals, an approach of questioning every requirement (and being clear who they came from), planning for and embracing failure, simplification, and a very high bar of employee expectations (and firing when not met) are also key attributes of how Elon operates.

A great history lesson about Elon's numerous ventures particularly Tesla, Space
X and Twitter.

4.5/5]]> 4.28 2023 Elon Musk
author: Walter Isaacson
name: Simon
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/15
date added: 2024/02/14
shelves: biography, leadership, history, business
review:
Whilst I don't agree with a number of Elon's approaches, there is no doubt he has had a significant impact on the world.

This is the first book I have read from Walter Isaacson and I was very impressed with this biography. He is a superb storyteller and having followed Elon around for two years his insights are great.

With a physical and emotional upbringing, Elon had a very high pain threshold. His heritage led him to be callous, to thrive on deadlines and crises, be drama addicted and to have a very high risk tolerance.

Having a maniacal sense of urgency, setting what look to be unrealistic goals, an approach of questioning every requirement (and being clear who they came from), planning for and embracing failure, simplification, and a very high bar of employee expectations (and firing when not met) are also key attributes of how Elon operates.

A great history lesson about Elon's numerous ventures particularly Tesla, Space
X and Twitter.

4.5/5
]]> Virals (Virals, #1) 7800188
As the friends discover their heightened senses and animal-quick reflexes, they must combine their scientific curiosity with their newfound physical gifts to solve a cold-case murder that has suddenly become very hot--if they can stay alive long enough to catch the killer's scent.

Fortunately, they are now more than friends--they're a pack. They are Virals.]]> 454 Kathy Reichs 1595143424 Simon 3 3.95 2010 Virals (Virals, #1)
author: Kathy Reichs
name: Simon
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2020/11/19
date added: 2024/02/07
shelves: fiction, adventure, mystery, sci-fi
review:
A light and enjoyable young adult mystery story.
]]> The Library at Mount Char 26892110
After all, she was a normal American herself, once.

That was a long time ago, of course—before the time she calls “adoption day,� when she and a dozen other children found themselves being raised by a man they learned to call Father.

Father could do strange things. He could call light from darkness. Sometimes he raised the dead. And when he was disobeyed, the consequences were terrible.

In the years since Father took her in, Carolyn hasn't gotten out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father's ancient Pelapi customs. They've studied the books in his library and learned some of the secrets behind his equally ancient power.

Sometimes, they've wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God.

Now, Father is missing. And if God truly is dead, the only thing that matters is who will inherit his library—and with it, power over all of creation.

As Carolyn gathers the tools she needs for the battle to come, fierce competitors for this prize align against her.

But Carolyn can win. She's sure of it. What she doesn't realize is that her victory may come at an unacceptable price—because in becoming a God, she's forgotten a great deal about being human.]]> 390 Scott Hawkins 0553418629 Simon 4 4.06 2015 The Library at Mount Char
author: Scott Hawkins
name: Simon
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/03
date added: 2024/02/02
shelves: fantasy, fiction, sci-fi, horror
review:
This bizarre fantasy was dark and humouress at times. Superb world building based largely around Carolyn, a librarian (not the typical type but a master of the language catalog), her fellow librarians (masters of their own different catalogs including killing/war, animals, and medicine / healing), Steve (an ex burglar) and some lions. Quite brutal. 3.5/5
]]> <![CDATA[The Five Dysfunctions of a Team]]> 21343 The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Patrick Lencioni once again offers a leadership fable that is as enthralling and instructive as his first two best-selling books, The Five Temptations of a CEO and The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive. This time, he turns his keen intellect and storytelling power to the fascinating, complex world of teams.

Kathryn Petersen, Decision Tech's CEO, faces the ultimate leadership crisis: Uniting a team in such disarray that it threatens to bring down the entire company. Will she succeed? Will she be fired? Will the company fail? Lencioni's utterly gripping tale serves as a timeless reminder that leadership requires as much courage as it does insight.

Throughout the story, Lencioni reveals the five dysfunctions which go to the very heart of why teams even the best ones-often struggle. He outlines a powerful model and actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a cohesive, effective team. Just as with his other books, Lencioni has written a compelling fable with a powerful yet deceptively simple message for all those who strive to be exceptional team leaders.]]> 228 Patrick Lencioni 0787960756 Simon 5 leadership
The 5 reasons a team is dysfunctional are articulated as a pyramid.
1. Absence of trust. i.e. team members should be safe to be vulnerable with others. This is the key foundation.
2. Fear of conflict. i.e. teams need to be able to safely express their views and debate with their colleagues.
3. Lack of commitment. i.e. a failure to buy into decisions can be detrimental to achieving the team's goals. Debate but commit.
4. Avoidance of accountability. i.e. hold your peers accountable to agreed goals, deadlines and standards (inc. behavioural).
5. Inattention to results. i.e. align to clear objectives. When teams lack focus they stagnate and focus on themselves.

Teamwork deteriorates if even a single dysfunction is allowed to flourish.

Good guidance is provided.

4.5/5]]> 4.09 2002 The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
author: Patrick Lencioni
name: Simon
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/26
date added: 2024/01/25
shelves: leadership
review:
The majority of this book is a fictional story of a dysfunctional organisation and was a great way to set the scene and explain the 5 dysfunctions of a team.

The 5 reasons a team is dysfunctional are articulated as a pyramid.
1. Absence of trust. i.e. team members should be safe to be vulnerable with others. This is the key foundation.
2. Fear of conflict. i.e. teams need to be able to safely express their views and debate with their colleagues.
3. Lack of commitment. i.e. a failure to buy into decisions can be detrimental to achieving the team's goals. Debate but commit.
4. Avoidance of accountability. i.e. hold your peers accountable to agreed goals, deadlines and standards (inc. behavioural).
5. Inattention to results. i.e. align to clear objectives. When teams lack focus they stagnate and focus on themselves.

Teamwork deteriorates if even a single dysfunction is allowed to flourish.

Good guidance is provided.

4.5/5
]]> Of Mice and Men 890 “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.�

They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. But George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own.

While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck's work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing Of Mice and Men, creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and a shared dream that makes an individual's existence meaningful.

A unique perspective on life's hardships, this story has achieved the status of timeless classic due to its remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.]]> 107 John Steinbeck 0142000671 Simon 3 fiction, historical-fiction 3.88 1937 Of Mice and Men
author: John Steinbeck
name: Simon
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1937
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/20
date added: 2024/01/19
shelves: fiction, historical-fiction
review:
A descriptive dark emotional novella about two farmhands, George and simple-minded Lennie, their friendship, challenges of life and cruelty we can encounter.
]]> <![CDATA[The Art of Winning: Ten Lessons in Leadership, Purpose and Potential]]> 137242014 **Instant Sunday Times bestseller**

Ten timeless truths on leadership, purpose and potential - from the unique culture of the All Blacks, and the mind of a living legend.

You might think success at the highest level insulates you from self-doubt.
But nothing could be further from the truth.

In this book, I take you inside a journey that has forced me to look inwardly in a way I've never had to before. It's been challenging, frustrating, rewarding and left me full of gratitude.

Whether you're a leader on a steep learning curve, a person navigating change in their life or just someone of any age trying to get that little bit better every day, I hope that my experience can spur you on to greater heights.

For the first time, sporting legend Dan Carter distils his two decades at the frontiers of high-performance into his 'perfect ten' lessons.

You won't find conventional wisdom here, but hard-learned truths,

- Why great leaders are made, not born, and why they must constantly evolve
- How to forge a winning team culture
- Why embracing your past can be every bit as important as looking towards your future
- Why empowering others leads to the best decisions
- Why confidence and self-belief are nothing without humility and a beginner's mindset

Honest, surprising and inspiring, The Art of Winning converts a legendary career into timeless lessons for readers in any walk of life. Step inside the unique culture of the All Blacks - and inside the mind of a legend.]]> 289 Dan Carter Simon 5 leadership, autobiography
It is a very digestible leadership book with a number of good points, albeit many of which I had previously heard but was good to hear again, articulated from a different perspective than a pure leadership book.

Some of my key takeaways:
- Set a clear personal and collective purpose that is long term, then goals for each year, quarter, week, day as appropriate.
- Focus on the short term and then be consistent and disciplined in getting there. Dont focus on too far ahead.
- No individual is bigger than the team.
� Recruit for culture. Everyone needs to be aligned for an organisation to have full potential.
� Rapidly onboard. Culture needs to be at the heart of any onboarding.
- Sweep the sheds. No task is beneath you.
- Call each other out for discipline.
- When stressed or overwhelmed map the next 24 hours. Focus on the now.
- Consistently is the key to high performance.
- Red head / Blue head - understand when you and your team are in the red (angry) and how you/they can rapidly get to blue (calm). Fight, Flight or Freeze are typical responses.
- Have "what if" sessions to plan for the unexpected.
- Debate, commit, walk forward together.
- Be humble enough to embrace a beginners mindset.
- We all need people around us to keep us grounded.
- Make gratitude a habit. Write down 3 things you are grateful for each day. It is ok to repeat yourself. This can help you keep a positive mindset.
- Celebrate your success, including with people that are part of the collective purpose (inc. support people). This helps rekindle your motivation and ongoing commitment from all.

4.5/5]]> 4.09 The Art of Winning: Ten Lessons in Leadership, Purpose and Potential
author: Dan Carter
name: Simon
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/17
date added: 2024/01/16
shelves: leadership, autobiography
review:
The All Blacks and Dan Carter have both been enormously successful with rugby so as a New Zealander when I saw this book, even though I dont watch a huge amount of rugby, I was interested to read.

It is a very digestible leadership book with a number of good points, albeit many of which I had previously heard but was good to hear again, articulated from a different perspective than a pure leadership book.

Some of my key takeaways:
- Set a clear personal and collective purpose that is long term, then goals for each year, quarter, week, day as appropriate.
- Focus on the short term and then be consistent and disciplined in getting there. Dont focus on too far ahead.
- No individual is bigger than the team.
� Recruit for culture. Everyone needs to be aligned for an organisation to have full potential.
� Rapidly onboard. Culture needs to be at the heart of any onboarding.
- Sweep the sheds. No task is beneath you.
- Call each other out for discipline.
- When stressed or overwhelmed map the next 24 hours. Focus on the now.
- Consistently is the key to high performance.
- Red head / Blue head - understand when you and your team are in the red (angry) and how you/they can rapidly get to blue (calm). Fight, Flight or Freeze are typical responses.
- Have "what if" sessions to plan for the unexpected.
- Debate, commit, walk forward together.
- Be humble enough to embrace a beginners mindset.
- We all need people around us to keep us grounded.
- Make gratitude a habit. Write down 3 things you are grateful for each day. It is ok to repeat yourself. This can help you keep a positive mindset.
- Celebrate your success, including with people that are part of the collective purpose (inc. support people). This helps rekindle your motivation and ongoing commitment from all.

4.5/5
]]> Fahrenheit 451 160014
The classic novel of a post-literate future, Fahrenheit 451 stands alongside Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World as a prophetic account of Western civilization's enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity.

Bradbury's powerful and poetic prose combines with uncanny insight into the potential of technology to create a classic of twentieth-century literature which over fifty years from first publication, still has the power to dazzle and shock.]]> 172 Ray Bradbury Simon 5 fiction 3.88 1953 Fahrenheit 451
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Simon
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1953
rating: 5
read at: 2012/02/17
date added: 2024/01/14
shelves: fiction
review:
Beautifully written, Fahrenheit 451 is set in an era where firemen create fires to burn forbidden books; books are after all evil. Guy Montag questions everything he has known, challenges the status quo and the result is an excellent story that portrays the affect that censorship and brainwashing can have on society.
]]> <![CDATA[Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West]]> 394535 Blood Meridian is an epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, brilliantly subverting the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the Wild West. Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into a nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.]]> 351 Cormac McCarthy Simon 3 4.18 1985 Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Simon
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/08
date added: 2024/01/07
shelves: western, historical-fiction, fiction
review:
Western is not a genre I typically read, but this book was regularly recommended on various lists, so I decided to give it a go. I found this to be a well written violent read based on historical events where Indians were murdered and their scalps sold. It wasn't I book I really got into and given the subject matter likely not surprising.
]]> The Coral Bones 61897863 This is what it looks like when coral dies.

Present day. Marine biologist Hana Ishikawa is racing against time to save the coral of the Great Barrier Reef, but struggles to fight for a future in a world where so much has already been lost.

1839. Seventeen-year-old Judith Holliman escapes the monotony of Sydney Town when her naval captain father lets her accompany him on a voyage, unaware of the wonders and dangers she will soon encounter.

The sun-scorched 22nd century. Telma Velasco is hunting for a miracle: a leafy seadragon, long believed extinct, has been sighted. But as Telma investigates, she finds hope in unexpected places.

Three women: divided by time, connected by the ocean. Past, present and future collide in E. J. Swift’s The Coral Bones, a powerful elegy to a disappearing world � and a vision of a more hopeful future.]]> 403 E.J. Swift 1912658224 Simon 4 3.5/5]]> 4.11 2022 The Coral Bones
author: E.J. Swift
name: Simon
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/05
date added: 2024/01/04
shelves: adventure, fiction, sci-fi, historical-fiction
review:
Set in three vastly different time horizons (Hana in present day, Judith in 1839, and Telma in the 22nd century) this adventure novel set around the ocean and great barrier reef has well developed intelligent characters and follows their lives. A key focus is the impact we are having on the environment and climate change in particular, and it portrays hope in what the future holds to clean up the mess created. Quite a slow read in the middle, but then it picked up.
3.5/5
]]> <![CDATA[Over My Dead Body (William Warwick, #4)]]> 56754288

THE CLOCK IS TICKING IN THIS ROLLERCOASTER RIDE OF A THRILLER�


In London, the Metropolitan Police set up a new Unsolved Murders Unit—a cold case squad—to catch the criminals nobody else can.

In Geneva, millionaire art collector Miles Faulkner—convicted of forgery and theft—was pronounced dead two months ago. So why is his unscrupulous lawyer still representing a dead client?

On a luxury liner en route to New York, the battle for power at the heart of a wealthy dynasty is about to turn to murder.

And at the heart of all three investigations are Detective Chief Inspector William Warwick, rising star of the department, and ex-undercover agent Ross Hogan, brought in from the cold.]]> 375 Jeffrey Archer 0008476373 Simon 3 fiction, mystery, crime 3.79 2021 Over My Dead Body (William Warwick, #4)
author: Jeffrey Archer
name: Simon
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/26
date added: 2023/12/25
shelves: fiction, mystery, crime
review:
A reasonable crime mystery with lots of intrigue told from a variety of viewpoints.
]]> <![CDATA[Speed Reading: Learn to Read a 200+ Page Book in 1 Hour (Mental Performance)]]> 42428073 The #1 Speed Reading Book on Amazon for 4 Straight Years


This has become the go to book for students, teachers, educators, professionals, and home-school parents & children to quickly improve their reading speed.

It present simple tips to not only accelerate your reading, but also understanding and memory.

Unlike other books that only teach how to skim & scan, this one taps into your brain and eyes' amazing ability to naturally read more words in a shorter time.

In truth, this isn't your average speed reading book.

Contrary to some reviews, the book offers a mix of new and time-tested techniques, supported by research, and with detailed instructions and explanations.

With a few simple shifts, you can double to triple your reading speed in minutes. No skimming, no scanning, but reading every word with higher speed.

You’ll Learn to:

- Double to triple your reading speed in a matter of minutes.

- Understand and process more information, in a shorter time.

- Remember more of that information to ace tests, exams, papers, or presentations.

- Enhance vocabulary to blaze through difficult and complicated text.

- Stop your mind from wandering to stay focused on every word.

- Strengthen your eyes and sight to continue reading for years to come.

Best of all, the tips are simple and easy, requiring only a few shifts in habits.

How will the ability to learn more skills, ace more exams, and be more informed, while having more time for your friends, spouse, kids, and the things you love enhance your life?

Don't wait any longer, kick start your reading today!

]]> 131 Kam Knight 0988332868 Simon 5 self-improvement 4.21 2018 Speed Reading: Learn to Read a 200+ Page Book in 1 Hour (Mental Performance)
author: Kam Knight
name: Simon
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/09
date added: 2023/12/08
shelves: self-improvement
review:
A very practical book about improving reading speed and comprehension. Key topics covered includes Preview, Space Reading, Chunking, Subvocalisation, Fixation, Regression, Peripheral vision, Topic sentences, Vocabulary and Visualisation.
]]> <![CDATA[The Devotion of Suspect X (Detective Galileo, #1)]]> 8686068
When Detective Kusanagi of the Tokyo Police tries to piece together the events of that day, he finds himself confronted by the most puzzling, mysterious circumstances he has ever investigated. Nothing quite makes sense, and it will take a genius to understand the genius behind this particular crime...]]> 298 Keigo Higashino 0312375069 Simon 4 crime, fiction, mystery 4.16 2005 The Devotion of Suspect X (Detective Galileo, #1)
author: Keigo Higashino
name: Simon
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/07
date added: 2023/12/06
shelves: crime, fiction, mystery
review:
A well written, intense and intriguing Japanese murder mystery that starts off with the murder, who did it, when and where and then follows the following police investigation and the viewpoint from the perpetrators.
]]> <![CDATA[The Staff Engineer's Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors Navigating Growth and Change]]> 61058107
This in-depth book shows you how to understand your role, manage your time, master strategic thinking, and set the standard for technical work. You'll read about how to be a leader without direct authority, how to plan ahead to make the right technical decisions, and how to make everyone around you better, while still growing as an expert in your domain.

By exploring the three pillars of a staff engineer's job, Tanya Reilly, a veteran of the staff engineer track, shows you how to:

-- Take a broad, strategic view when thinking about your work
-- Dive into practical tactics for making projects succeed
-- Determine what "good engineering" means in your organization]]> 335 Tanya Reilly 1098118731 Simon 3 software-development 4.37 2022 The Staff Engineer's Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors Navigating Growth and Change
author: Tanya Reilly
name: Simon
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/12/01
shelves: software-development
review:
Lots of good information to assist an individual contributor to grow and follow a staff engineer path, albeit quite verbose at times.
]]> No One Saw a Thing 61432218 Two children get on the train. Only one gets off...

No one saw it happen.
You stand on a crowded tube platform in London. Your two little girls jump on the train ahead of you. As you try to join them, the doors slide shut and the train moves away, leaving you behind.

Everyone is lying.
By the time you get to the next stop, you've convinced yourself that everything will be fine. But you soon start to panic, because there aren't two children waiting for you on the platform. There's only one.

Someone is to blame.
Has your other daughter got lost? Been taken by a passing stranger? Or perhaps the culprit is closer to home than you think? No one is telling the truth, and the longer the search continues, the harder she will be to find...]]> 384 Andrea Mara 178763650X Simon 4 mystery, fiction, thriller
3.5/5]]> 3.87 2023 No One Saw a Thing
author: Andrea Mara
name: Simon
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/26
date added: 2023/11/25
shelves: mystery, fiction, thriller
review:
A well written mystery thriller with lots of intrigue based around two children being separated from their mother when they jumped on a train before their mother, one emerging at another station but not the other.

3.5/5
]]> <![CDATA[The Hawthorne Legacy (The Inheritance Games, #2)]]> 50531218 Intrigue, riches, and romance abound in this thrilling sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Inheritance Games perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson.

The Inheritance Games ended with a bombshell, and now heiress Avery Grambs has to pick up the pieces and find the man who might hold the answers to all of her questions - including why Tobias Hawthorne left his entire fortune to Avery, a virtual stranger, rather than to his own daughters or grandsons.

Thanks to a DNA test, Avery knows that she's not a Hawthorne by blood, but clues pile up hinting at a deeper connection to the family than she had ever imagined. As the mystery grows and the plot thickens, Grayson and Jameson, the enigmatic and magnetic Hawthorne grandsons, continue to pull Avery in different directions. And there are threats lurking around every corner, as adversaries emerge who will stop at nothing to see Avery out of the picture - by any means necessary.

With nonstop action, aspirational jet-setting, family intrigue, swoonworthy romance, and billions of dollars hanging in the balance, The Hawthorne Legacy will thrill Jennifer Lynn Barnes fans and new readers alike.]]> 380 Jennifer Lynn Barnes 0241480744 Simon 4 mystery, fiction, adventure 4.19 2021 The Hawthorne Legacy (The Inheritance Games, #2)
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: Simon
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/16
date added: 2023/11/15
shelves: mystery, fiction, adventure
review:
I had enjoyed The Inheritance Games and similarly found this to be an intriguing follow-on young adult mystery adventure.
]]> <![CDATA[Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything]]> 6346975 The blockbuster phenomenon that charts an amazing journey of the mind while revolutionizing our concept of memory

An instant bestseller that is poised to become a classic, Moonwalking with Einstein recounts Joshua Foer's yearlong quest to improve his memory under the tutelage of top "mental athletes." He draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of remembering, and venerable tricks of the mentalist's trade to transform our understanding of human memory. From the United States Memory Championship to deep within the author's own mind, this is an electrifying work of journalism that reminds us that, in every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories.]]> 307 Joshua Foer 159420229X Simon 4
We remember things in context. The more associative hooks something has the more embedded it gets into the network of things you already know and the more likely it is to be remembered. The brain is better at remembering if there are visual cues / images. Chunking can also assist (e.g. 0291852719 vs 029 185 2719).

Use spacial memory to remember things (i.e. memory palaces). An example:
1. Think of your family home, an area you are intimately familiar with.
2. Place the objects you want to remember at locations along a route in the home (start at driveway then front step etc).
2a Remember each object multi-sensory (location, sounds, smells). Deeply process image. Try and make it amusing (this makes it more vivid).
3. Retrace steps.
4. If you retrace steps again later in the day, in a week or will even further ingrain this into memory.

Remembering numbers can be done with the Major system created by Johann Winckelmann through replacing numbers with phonetic sounds that can then be constructed as a word freely interdispersed with vowels (i.e. 0 as S, 1 as T or D, 2 N, 3 M, 4 R, 5 L, 6 Sh or Ch, 7 K or G, 8 F or V, 9 P or B), therefore 32 could be man, 86 a fish, 7879 a coffee cup which you can then place in your memory palace.

A mindmap can be considered a type of memory place that helps you organise ideas into common areas.

I personally would have preferred a book that jumped straight into techniques to adopt as opposed to a book talking about the great memory of numerous people, memory championships and our physiology. Chapters 5 and 8 are where I found the most practical content.

3.5/5]]> 3.86 2011 Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
author: Joshua Foer
name: Simon
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/08
date added: 2023/11/07
shelves: inspirational, self-improvement, memory
review:
A fascinating read about improving your memory and memory championships. The brain is pretty incredible.

We remember things in context. The more associative hooks something has the more embedded it gets into the network of things you already know and the more likely it is to be remembered. The brain is better at remembering if there are visual cues / images. Chunking can also assist (e.g. 0291852719 vs 029 185 2719).

Use spacial memory to remember things (i.e. memory palaces). An example:
1. Think of your family home, an area you are intimately familiar with.
2. Place the objects you want to remember at locations along a route in the home (start at driveway then front step etc).
2a Remember each object multi-sensory (location, sounds, smells). Deeply process image. Try and make it amusing (this makes it more vivid).
3. Retrace steps.
4. If you retrace steps again later in the day, in a week or will even further ingrain this into memory.

Remembering numbers can be done with the Major system created by Johann Winckelmann through replacing numbers with phonetic sounds that can then be constructed as a word freely interdispersed with vowels (i.e. 0 as S, 1 as T or D, 2 N, 3 M, 4 R, 5 L, 6 Sh or Ch, 7 K or G, 8 F or V, 9 P or B), therefore 32 could be man, 86 a fish, 7879 a coffee cup which you can then place in your memory palace.

A mindmap can be considered a type of memory place that helps you organise ideas into common areas.

I personally would have preferred a book that jumped straight into techniques to adopt as opposed to a book talking about the great memory of numerous people, memory championships and our physiology. Chapters 5 and 8 are where I found the most practical content.

3.5/5
]]> <![CDATA[Traitors Gate (William Warwick, #6)]]> 62792018 Impenetrable. Well protected. Secure. Home to the most valuable jewels on earth. But once a year, when the Queen attends the State Opening of Parliament, the Metropolitan Police must execute the most secret operation in their armory as they transport the Crown Jewels across London. SCOTLAND YARD�
For decades, the elite squad at Scotland Yard have been in charge of the operation. And for decades, it’s run like clockwork. THE HEIST�
But this year, everything is about to change. Because a master criminal has set his sights on pulling off the most outrageous theft in history―and with a man on the inside, the odds are in his favor. Unless the team can stop him before it’s too lateâ€� â€Only someone like Jeffrey Archer . . . could have written a compelling story like this.â€� ―David Baldacci “Archer is a master entertainer.â€� â€� Time “One of the top ten storytellers in the world.â€� â€� Los Angeles Times “A storyteller in the class of Alexandre Dumas.â€� â€� The Washington Post]]> 367 Jeffrey Archer 0008607389 Simon 4 3.93 2023 Traitors Gate (William Warwick, #6)
author: Jeffrey Archer
name: Simon
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/01
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: fiction, crime, thriller, adventure, mystery
review:
An enjoyable suspense crime thriller with dirty tactics thrown in.
]]> <![CDATA[Developing the Leader Within You 2.0]]> 39704795 256 John C. Maxwell Simon 4
The five levels of leadership I found particularly valuable:
1. Position - keyword: rights - people follow you be use they have to.
2. Permission - keyword: relationship - people follow you because they want to.
3. Production - keyword: results - people follow you because of what you have done for the organisation.
4. People development - keyword: reproduction - people follow you because of what you have done for them.
5. Pinnacle level - keyword: respect - people follow you because of who you are and what you represent. This level goes beyond your org and most people don't get to this level.

Some other good pearls of wisdom:
- A good attitude and proactive approach has a large influence to encourages others.
- The best solution to guard against becoming a complainer is to cultivate gratitude.
- Exceed expectations.
- Challenge every assumption. Ask hard questions.
- Adopt a servant leadership approach. Measure your success by how much value you add to others.
- Be clear about your vision; this can help guide you and others. A picture can be useful to better communicate this and a bright future.
- Consistency establishes your reputation. Improvement is possible only through consistent practice. Consistency provides security to others and reinforces your vision and values.

Some portions did drag on a bit but overall I found it to be a worthwhile read. ]]> 4.26 2018 Developing the Leader Within You 2.0
author: John C. Maxwell
name: Simon
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/26
date added: 2023/10/25
shelves: business, leadership, self-improvement
review:
Packed with lots of good information, "Leadership is the ability to obtain followers" was a key takeaway for me.

The five levels of leadership I found particularly valuable:
1. Position - keyword: rights - people follow you be use they have to.
2. Permission - keyword: relationship - people follow you because they want to.
3. Production - keyword: results - people follow you because of what you have done for the organisation.
4. People development - keyword: reproduction - people follow you because of what you have done for them.
5. Pinnacle level - keyword: respect - people follow you because of who you are and what you represent. This level goes beyond your org and most people don't get to this level.

Some other good pearls of wisdom:
- A good attitude and proactive approach has a large influence to encourages others.
- The best solution to guard against becoming a complainer is to cultivate gratitude.
- Exceed expectations.
- Challenge every assumption. Ask hard questions.
- Adopt a servant leadership approach. Measure your success by how much value you add to others.
- Be clear about your vision; this can help guide you and others. A picture can be useful to better communicate this and a bright future.
- Consistency establishes your reputation. Improvement is possible only through consistent practice. Consistency provides security to others and reinforces your vision and values.

Some portions did drag on a bit but overall I found it to be a worthwhile read.
]]> Beacon 23 (Beacon 23, #1-5) 26771521 247 Hugh Howey 1516865871 Simon 4 sci-fi 3.78 2015 Beacon 23 (Beacon 23, #1-5)
author: Hugh Howey
name: Simon
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/15
date added: 2023/10/14
shelves: sci-fi
review:
This reads in a similar manner to Project Hail Mary, with a different storyline but a decent amount of humour, about a sole person living in a beacon in outer space and their various encounters. As an audiobook this one was particularly well read.
]]> <![CDATA[The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business]]> 9512985
Josh Kaufman founded PersonalMBA.com as an alternative to the business school boondoggle. His blog has introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to the best business books and most powerful business concepts of all time. Now, he shares the essentials of entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, negotiation, operations, productivity, systems design, and much more, in one comprehensive volume. The Personal MBA distills the most valuable business lessons into simple, memorable mental models that can be applied to real-world challenges.

The Personal MBA explains concepts such
* The Iron Law of the Why every business is limited by the size and quality of the market it attempts to serve-and how to find large, hungry markets.
* The 12 Forms of Products and services are only two of the twelve ways you can create value for your customers.
* The Pricing Uncertainty All prices are malleable. Raising your prices is the best way to dramatically increase profitability-if you know how to support the price you're asking.
* 4 Methods to Increase There are only four ways a business can bring in more money. Do you know what they are?

True leaders aren't made by business schools-they make themselves, seeking out the knowledge, skills, and experience they need to succeed. Read this book and you will learn the principles it takes most business professionals a lifetime of trial and error to master.]]> 416 Josh Kaufman 1591843529 Simon 3 business, self-improvement 4.10 2010 The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business
author: Josh Kaufman
name: Simon
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/05
date added: 2023/10/05
shelves: business, self-improvement
review:
There is lots of good information in the book that is very digestible (and I took lots of notes), but I found I did skim large portions.
]]> Dark Mode 63222344 Once you’re online, there’s nowhere to hide

Is it paranoia � or is someone watching?

For years, Reagan Carsen has kept her life offline. No socials. No internet presence. No photos. Safe.

Until the day she stumbles on a shocking murder in a Sydney laneway. The victim looks just like her.

Coincidence?

As more murders shake the city and she’s increasingly drawn out from hiding, Reagan is forced to confront her greatest fear.

She’s been found.

A riveting psychological thriller drawn from true events, Dark Mode delves into the terrifying reality of the dark web, and the price we pay for surrendering our privacy one click at a time.]]> 400 Ashley Kalagian Blunt 1761151266 Simon 4 3.91 2023 Dark Mode
author: Ashley Kalagian Blunt
name: Simon
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/05
date added: 2023/10/04
shelves: crime, fiction, mystery, thriller
review:
Very engaging with lots of mystery. The Internet can be useful, traumatic and used for good and evil.
]]> The Will 58363092 352 Rebecca Reid 0552177393 Simon 4 fiction, mystery 3.91 2022 The Will
author: Rebecca Reid
name: Simon
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/19
date added: 2023/09/18
shelves: fiction, mystery
review:
An enjoyable and entertaining mystery about whom would get the family home from the will. Some good twists. 3.5/5
]]> The Dressmaker’s Secret 59947624 Paris, 1941: As Coco Chanel’s assistant, Adèle lives side by side with German officers in the splendor of The Ritz hotel. But Adèle has a secret. She is working for the resistance, right under the German’s noses.

As occupied Paris becomes more and more dangerous, Adèle will have to decide if she can risk everything to save innocent lives and protect the man she loves�

Present day: Chloé’s grandmother has never spoken about the war and avoids questions about the legendary designer she once worked for. Now Chloé has come to Paris, to uncover the truth about Adèle’s life. But is she prepared for what she will find? And for the power of her grandmother’s secrets to change her family forever…]]> 384 Lorna Cook 0008544638 Simon 4 historical-fiction, fiction 4.08 2022 The Dressmaker’s Secret
author: Lorna Cook
name: Simon
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/31
date added: 2023/08/30
shelves: historical-fiction, fiction
review:
An engaging historical fiction with the key character being Coco Chanel's assistant with one time horizon set in WW2 Paris and another in Paris many years later in 2018. A bit slow at times but I found the storytelling set the scene well for what it was like in Nazi occupied Paris in the WW2 era.
]]> <![CDATA[Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric]]> 50086786 How could General Electric—perhaps America’s most iconic corporation—suffer such a swift and sudden fall from grace?

This is the definitive history of General Electric’s epic decline, as told by the two Wall Street Journal reporters who covered its fall.

Since its founding in 1892, GE has been more than just a corporation. For generations, it was job security, a solidly safe investment, and an elite business education for top managers.

GE electrified America, powering everything from lightbulbs to turbines, and became fully integrated into the American societal mindset as few companies ever had. And after two decades of leadership under legendary CEO Jack Welch, GE entered the twenty-first century as America’s most valuable corporation. Yet, fewer than two decades later, the GE of old was gone.

​Lights Out examines how Welch’s handpicked successor, Jeff Immelt, tried to fix flaws in Welch’s profit machine, while stumbling headlong into mistakes of his own. In the end, GE’s traditional win-at-all-costs driven culture seemed to lose its direction, which ultimately caused the company’s decline on both a personal and organizational scale. ​Lights Out details how one of America’s all-time great companies has been reduced to a cautionary tale for our times.]]> 368 Thomas Gryta 0358250412 Simon 3 3.84 2020 Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric
author: Thomas Gryta
name: Simon
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/23
date added: 2023/08/24
shelves: biography, business, abandoned
review:
Initially I found this to be an interesting read about the fall of General Electric albeit was a bit repetitive. "success theater" and some creative accounting practices were key themes. I abandoned this about half way through since the more I read the less I felt the book to be enjoyable and I kept decreasing what I was thinking I would rate it as. The rating is therefore based on where I got to.
]]> <![CDATA[Everything Is Beautiful and Everything Hurts]]> 123071476
' Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts plunges the reader into the gruelling world of the long distance runner - every pleasure, every pain. Shapiro deftly weaves the coming-of-age story of Mickey Bloom into a gripping account of adult Bloom running the Auckland Marathon. This is compelling storytelling that exposes the sacrifices - physical and emotional - demanded of our sporting elite. Chilling, yet ultimately heartwarming, it celebrates success without flinching from staring down its brutal costs. A sophisticated debut that will capture the racing hearts of its readers. ' - Sue Orr, Loop Tracks

'Josie Shapiro's accomplished debut novel has the compulsive forward motion of a world-class race. You don't have to be a runner to get the high, just read this book!' - Kirsten McDougall, She's a Killer

Mickey five foot tall, dyslexic, and bullied at school. Mickey knows she's nothing special. Until one day, she discovers running.

Mickey's new-found talent makes her realise she's everything she thought she wasn't - powerful, strong and special. But her success comes at a cost, and the relentless training and pressure to win leaves Mickey broken, her dream in tatters.

Years later, when Mickey is working in a dead-end job with a drop-kick boyfriend, her mother becomes seriously ill. After nursing her, Mickey realises the only way she can overcome her grief - and find herself - is to run again.

A chance encounter with a stranger sees Mickey re-ignite her dreams. The two women form an unbreakable bond, as Mickey is shown what it means to run in the right direction.

An unforgettable debut novel about change, family and grit, and what it takes to achieve your dreams.]]> 288 Josie Shapiro 1761186760 Simon 4 fiction 4.18 Everything Is Beautiful and Everything Hurts
author: Josie Shapiro
name: Simon
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/14
date added: 2023/08/14
shelves: fiction
review:
With a large amount of the storyline set in my hometown it was nice to read a book mentioning landmarks and streets I am very familiar with. I am not a runner but I found I still enjoyed this book focused around running. The book delves into the pressure of sports, family, grit and determination. 4.25/5
]]> Going Zero 123853318
TWO HOURS TO VANISH
Ten people have been carefully selected to Beta test a ground-breaking piece of spyware. Pioneered by tech-wunderkind Cy Baxter, FUSION can track anyone wherever they are on earth. But does it work?

ONE CHANCE TO ESCAPE
Each participant is given two hours to 'Go Zero' � to go off-grid and disappear - and then thirty days to elude the highly sophisticated Capture Teams sent to find them. Any Zero that beats FUSION will receive $3million in cash. If Cy's system prevails, he wins a $90 billion-dollar contract with the CIA to develop FUSION and revolutionize surveillance forever.

ZERO ALTERNATIVES
For contestant Kaitlyn Day, the stakes are far higher than money, and her reasons for entering the test more personal than Cy could have ever imagined. Kaitlyn needs to win to get what she wants, and Cy will stop at nothing to realize his ambitions. They have no choice but to finish the game and when the timer hits zero, there will only be one winner…]]> 304 Anthony McCarten 1761266462 Simon 5 3.93 2023 Going Zero
author: Anthony McCarten
name: Simon
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/02
date added: 2023/08/01
shelves: technothriller, adventure, mystery
review:
A fast moving action-packed technothriller based around testing a system built to track people down. Ten people have been selected to be beta testers and try and evade being caught for 30 days. With a large award at stake for the developer of the system and the participants the race is on. 4.5/5
]]> The Mother 61653300
A woman attends a funeral, standing in the shadows and watching in agony as her sons grieve. But she is unable to comfort them - or reveal her secret.

A decade earlier, Heather gets her children ready for bed and awaits the return of her husband Liam, little realising that this is the last night they will spend together as a family. Because tomorrow she will be accused of Liam's murder.

Ten years ago Heather lost everything. Now she will stop at nothing to clear her name - and to get her children back . . .]]> 457 T.M. Logan Simon 4 crime, fiction, thriller 4.24 2023 The Mother
author: T.M. Logan
name: Simon
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/07/21
shelves: crime, fiction, thriller
review:
A mystery thriller about a woman convicted of killing her husband that is now out of prison on parole and trying to clear her name and get her children back. I found this to be an engaging read. 3.5/5
]]> <![CDATA[The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers―Straight Talk on the Challenges of Entrepreneurship]]> 18176747
In The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, draws on his own story of founding, running, selling, buying, managing, and investing in technology companies to offer essential advice and practical wisdom for navigating the toughest problems business schools don't cover. His blog has garnered a devoted following of millions of readers who have come to rely on him to help them run their businesses. A lifelong rap fan, Horowitz amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his favorite songs and tells it straight about everything from firing friends to poaching competitors, from cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality to knowing the right time to cash in.

His advice is grounded in anecdotes from his own hard-earned rise—from cofounding the early cloud service provider Loudcloud to building the phenomenally successful Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm, both with fellow tech superstar Marc Andreessen (inventor of Mosaic, the Internet's first popular Web browser). This is no polished victory lap; he analyzes issues with no easy answers through his trials, including demoting (or firing) a loyal friend;
whether you should incorporate titles and promotions, and how to handle them;
if it's OK to hire people from your friend's company; how to manage your own psychology, while the whole company is relying on you; what to do when smart people are bad employees; why Andreessen Horowitz prefers founder CEOs, and how to become one; whether you should sell your company, and how to do it.

Filled with Horowitz's trademark humor and straight talk, and drawing from his personal and often humbling experiences, The Hard Thing About Hard Things is invaluable for veteran entrepreneurs as well as those aspiring to their own new ventures.]]> 304 Ben Horowitz 0062273205 Simon 4
Having to make so many decisions that could result in the life or death of a company would not have been easy. Some of my takeaways:
- Everyone makes mistakes so don’t be too hard on yourself
- Ask "What would you do if we went bankrupt?" for a source of good ideas and potential pivots
- Be open with the team about challenges (they may have great ideas)
- Make tough decisions and then act decisively
- Be visible and engaging
- "Take care of the people, the products and the profits in that order"
- Hire for strength, not for lack of weaknesses.
- Good product managers act as the CEO of their products.
- Managing by numbers is like painting by numbers. Can drive a short term focus.
- Anything you measure creates a side effect of behaviours.
- Hire people with the right type of ambition. Ambition for the company vs the team vs themselves.
- 1:1s should be considered the employee's meeting, not the manager's meeting.
- "Think of the organisational design as the communications architecture for your company. If you want people to communicate the best way to accomplish that is to make them report to the same manager"
- "The organisational design is also the architecture for how the company communicates with the outside world"
- Everything is hard when you don't know what you are doing.
- "People judge you for what you do not how you feel" ]]> 4.20 2014 The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers―Straight Talk on the Challenges of Entrepreneurship
author: Ben Horowitz
name: Simon
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/17
date added: 2023/07/16
shelves: business, leadership, autobiography
review:
Packed with war stories about his experience being involved and building startups (largely as the CEO) there are many good insights.

Having to make so many decisions that could result in the life or death of a company would not have been easy. Some of my takeaways:
- Everyone makes mistakes so don’t be too hard on yourself
- Ask "What would you do if we went bankrupt?" for a source of good ideas and potential pivots
- Be open with the team about challenges (they may have great ideas)
- Make tough decisions and then act decisively
- Be visible and engaging
- "Take care of the people, the products and the profits in that order"
- Hire for strength, not for lack of weaknesses.
- Good product managers act as the CEO of their products.
- Managing by numbers is like painting by numbers. Can drive a short term focus.
- Anything you measure creates a side effect of behaviours.
- Hire people with the right type of ambition. Ambition for the company vs the team vs themselves.
- 1:1s should be considered the employee's meeting, not the manager's meeting.
- "Think of the organisational design as the communications architecture for your company. If you want people to communicate the best way to accomplish that is to make them report to the same manager"
- "The organisational design is also the architecture for how the company communicates with the outside world"
- Everything is hard when you don't know what you are doing.
- "People judge you for what you do not how you feel"
]]> <![CDATA[Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch]]> 12067
People have been predicting the end of the world almost from its very beginning, so it’s only natural to be sceptical when a new date is set for Judgement Day. This time though, the armies of Good and Evil really do appear to be massing. The four Bikers of the Apocalypse are hitting the road. But both the angels and demons � well, one fast-living demon and a somewhat fussy angel � would quite like the Rapture not to happen.

And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist…]]> 491 Terry Pratchett Simon 4 fantasy, sci-fi 3.5/5]]> 4.27 1990 Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Simon
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/06
date added: 2023/07/05
shelves: fantasy, sci-fi
review:
Listening to the BBC radio 4 dramatisation was an amusing light listen.
3.5/5
]]> <![CDATA[Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy World]]> 17616158 The New York Times bestselling author and social media expert returns with hard-won advice on how to connect with customers and beat the competition by mastering social media marketing

When managers and marketers outline their social media strategies, they often plan for the "right hook"-their next highly anticipated sale or campaign that's going to put the competition out for the count. Even companies committed to jabbing-patiently engaging with customers to build the relationships so crucial to successful social media campaigns-still yearn to land the powerful, bruising swing that will knock out their opponent or their customer's resistance in one tooth-spritzing, killer blow. Right hooks, after all, convert traffic to sales. They easily show results and ROI. Except when they don't.

In the same passionate, street-wise style readers have come to expect, Gary Vaynerchuk is on a mission to improve marketers' right hooks by changing the way they fight to make their customers happy, and ultimately to compete. Thanks to the massive change and proliferation in social media platforms in the last four years, the winning combination of jabs and right hooks is different now. Communication is still key, but context matters more than ever. It's not just about developing high-quality content, but developing high-quality content perfectly adapted to specific social media platforms and mobile devices-content tailor-made for Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Tumblr. A mash-up of the best elements of Crush It! and The Thank You Economy with a 2013 spin, here is a blueprint to social media marketing strategies that really works.]]> 229 Gary Vaynerchuk Simon 4 business, marketing
There is a huge focus on the use of social media for marketing and tailoring your story in a manner appropriate for your audience on that platform. Even though this book was published a decade ago in 2013 and new platforms have emerged and others dwindled the core messaging holds. There are sections devoted to how to best market on each platform (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram & Tumblr in particular).]]> 4.09 2013 Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy World
author: Gary Vaynerchuk
name: Simon
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/25
date added: 2023/06/25
shelves: business, marketing
review:
I first came across Gary Vee when he was doing Wine Library TV and enjoyed his loud quick-witted irreverent style which definitely follows through in this book. His style is not for everyone and if I hadn't watched him on YouTube years ago I don't know how I would have found this book to read.

There is a huge focus on the use of social media for marketing and tailoring your story in a manner appropriate for your audience on that platform. Even though this book was published a decade ago in 2013 and new platforms have emerged and others dwindled the core messaging holds. There are sections devoted to how to best market on each platform (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram & Tumblr in particular).
]]> Yellowface 62966998
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 326 R.F. Kuang 0008532796 Simon 4 fiction 3.70 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Simon
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/25
date added: 2023/06/24
shelves: fiction
review:
An engaging dark story that expertly unravelled albeit did feel a bit dragged out at times. Book writing & launching, authenticity and plagiarism are key themes.
]]> Upgrade 60280135 “You are the next step in human evolution.�

What if you were capable of more?

Your concentration was better, you could multitask quicker, read faster, memorize more, sleep deeper.

For Logan Ramsay, it’s happening. He’s beginning to see the world around him, even those he loves the most, in whole new ways.

He knows that it’s not natural, that his genes have been hacked. He has been targeted for an upgrade.

Logan’s family legacy is one he has been trying to escape for decades and it has left him vulnerable to attack. But with a terrifying plan in place to replicate his upgrade throughout the world’s population, he may be the only person capable of stopping what has already been set in motion.

To win this war against humanity Logan will now have to become something other than himself . . .

Intricately plotted and epic in scope, Upgrade asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity � and our boundless potential. Are you ready for the impossible?]]> 341 Blake Crouch Simon 4 sci-fi, thriller 3.98 2022 Upgrade
author: Blake Crouch
name: Simon
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/06/16
shelves: sci-fi, thriller
review:
Engaging from the start this in an action-packed modified DNA based scifi thriller. Thought provoking about the potential impacts of modifying DNA. 4.25/5
]]> README.txt 50372964 An intimate, revealing memoir from one of the most important activists of our time.

While working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq for the United States Army in 2010, Chelsea Manning disclosed more than seven hundred thousand classified military and diplomatic records that she had smuggled out of the country on the memory card of her digital camera. In 2011 she was charged with twenty-two counts related to the unauthorized possession and distribution of classified military records, and in 2013 she was sentenced to thirty-five years in military prison.

The day after her conviction, Manning declared her gender identity as a woman and began to transition, seeking hormones through the federal court system. In 2017, President Barack Obama commuted her sentence and she was released from prison.

In README .txt, Manning recounts how her pleas for increased institutional transparency and government accountability took place alongside a fight to defend her rights as a trans woman. Manning details the challenges of her childhood and adolescence as a naive, computer-savvy kid, what drew her to the military, and the fierce pride she has about the work she does. This powerful, observant memoir will stand as one of the definitive testaments of our digital, information-driven age.]]> 272 Chelsea Manning 0374719810 Simon 4 autobiography 4.29 2022 README.txt
author: Chelsea Manning
name: Simon
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/08
date added: 2023/06/09
shelves: autobiography
review:
I listened to the audiobook and found it be an engaging listen about the life of Chelsea Manning read by Chelsea herself. Military Intelligence, Gender diversity, hacking, the thought process of releasing classified documents to the public, horrendous conditions while imprisoned and making a difference are key themes.
]]> <![CDATA[The Company I Keep: My Life in Beauty]]> 51475367 The former CEO of The Estée Lauder Companies, Leonard A. Lauder, shares the business and life lessons he learned while turning the mom-and-pop company his mother founded into a multi-billion-dollar empire.

In 1958, the Estée Lauder company sold only a few products under one brand in just a handful of prestigious department stores across the United States and had annual revenues of about $800,000. Today, the company is one of the world's leading manufacturers and marketers of prestige skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair care products, with annual sales more than $14 billion. It has more than 25 brands, and its products are sold in over 150 countries and territories. That’s due to Leonard A. Lauder, Estée Lauder's oldest son, who envisioned and effected this expansion during a remarkable 60-year tenure, including leading the company as CEO and Chairman.

In this engrossing memoir, the leader now known as Estée Lauder’s “Chief Teaching Officer,� reflects on growing up with the company, from the struggles of the Great Depression and the heady decades of the post-World War II boom through the cutthroat rivalry with Revlon and L’Oréal and today’s global challenges. Lauder shares inside stories about the company and pays loving tribute to his mother, the eponymous founder, and offers keen insights on achieving success, learning from mistakes, and growing an international company in an age of economic turbulence, uncertainty, and fierce competition.]]> 432 Leonard Lauder 0062990942 Simon 4
Based on word of mouth advertising, demonstrating the product, providing free samples, targeting a rich clientele (inc. leveraging the client list of high end stores for marketing), Esther personally training sales people about the products and being a strong sales person was a key part of establishing the foundation of the company's success.

Leonard then further evolved the company with great leadership skills, brand positioning, creating new brands and more.

It was also fascinating to read about the cut throat nature that Revlon operated, and the launch of Clinique to target a different market segment and not reposition the Estée Lauder brand.

The transformative philanthropic work of Leonard and Evelyn was also inspirational to read.
4.25/5]]> 4.16 The Company I Keep: My Life in Beauty
author: Leonard Lauder
name: Simon
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/27
date added: 2023/05/27
shelves: business, leadership, autobiography
review:
A fascinating read told in an engaging manner about the history of the Estée Lauder brand and lessons learnt in growing a company.

Based on word of mouth advertising, demonstrating the product, providing free samples, targeting a rich clientele (inc. leveraging the client list of high end stores for marketing), Esther personally training sales people about the products and being a strong sales person was a key part of establishing the foundation of the company's success.

Leonard then further evolved the company with great leadership skills, brand positioning, creating new brands and more.

It was also fascinating to read about the cut throat nature that Revlon operated, and the launch of Clinique to target a different market segment and not reposition the Estée Lauder brand.

The transformative philanthropic work of Leonard and Evelyn was also inspirational to read.
4.25/5
]]> Remarkably Bright Creatures 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]> 368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 Simon 5 fiction, mystery 4.35 2022 Remarkably Bright Creatures
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Simon
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/24
date added: 2023/05/23
shelves: fiction, mystery
review:
Beautifully written with a deep mystery intertwined, this was a joy to read. A story written from the perspective of an octopus in an aquarium, an elderly cleaner and a person in need of a job and money. 4.5/5
]]> The Codebreakers 52547414
A compelling story about tenacity and friendship, inspired by the real codebreaking women of Australia's top-secret Central Bureau in WWII. For readers who love Judy Nunn and Kate Quinn.

1943, The war continues to devastate and the battle for the Pacific threatens Australian shores. For Ellie O'Sullivan, helping the war effort means utilising her engineering skills for Qantas as they evacuate civilians and deliver supplies to armed forces overseas. Her exceptional logic and integrity attract the attention of Central Bureau - an intelligence organisation working with England's Bletchley Park codebreakers. But joining Central Bureau means signing a lifetime secrecy contract. Breaking it is treason.

With her country's freedom at risk, Ellie works with a group of elite women who enter a world of volatile secrets; deciphering enemy communications to change the course of the war. Working under immense pressure, they form a close bond - yet there could be a traitor in their midst. Can the women uncover the culprit before it's too late?

As Ellie struggles with the magnitude of the promise she's made to her country, a wedge grows between her and those she holds dear. When the man she loves asks questions she's forbidden to answer, how will she prevent the double life she's leading from unravelling?

PRAISE FOR THE

'An intriguing story of courage, friendship and resilience.' - Belinda Alexandra

'An absorbing, well researched novel told with heart, warmth, and respect for the legacy of all who defended our country, The Codebreakers is a wonderful story I'd recommend.' Book'd Out

'Sinclair has produced a remarkable story that readers will find gripping and compelling.' Canberra Weekly magazine]]> 444 Alli Sinclair 1489296948 Simon 4 historical-fiction 3.99 2021 The Codebreakers
author: Alli Sinclair
name: Simon
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/10
date added: 2023/05/10
shelves: historical-fiction
review:
An engaging read based on a true story. Having read a story about the women at Bletchley Park I had wondered if I would find this underwhelming but it was a sufficiently different story from the Australian side and adjusting to life after the war.
]]> Back to the Garden 59900687 A fifty-year-old cold case involving California royalty comes back to life--with potentially fatal consequences--in this gripping standalone novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series.

A magnificent house, vast formal gardens, a golden family that shaped California, and a colorful past filled with now-famous artists: the Gardener Estate was a twentieth-century Eden.

And now, just as the Estate is preparing to move into a new future, restoration work on some of its art digs up a grim relic of the home's past: a human skull, hidden away for decades.

Inspector Raquel Laing has her work cut out for her. Fifty years ago, the Estate's young heir, Rob Gardener, turned his palatial home into a counterculture commune of peace, love, and equality. But that was also a time when serial killers preyed on innocents--monsters like The Highwayman, whose case has just surged back into the public eye.

Could the skull belong to one of his victims?

To Raquel--a woman who knows all about colorful pasts--the bones clearly seem linked to The Highwayman. But as she dives into the Estate's archives to look for signs of his presence, what she unearths begins to take on a dark reality all of its own.

Everything she finds keeps bringing her back to Rob Gardener himself. While he might be a gray-haired recluse now, back then he was a troubled young Vietnam vet whose girlfriend vanished after a midsummer festival at the Estate.

But a lot of people seem to have disappeared from the Gardener Estate that summer when the commune mysteriously fell apart: a young woman, her child, and Rob's brother, Fort.

The pressure is on, and Raquel needs to solve this case--before The Highwayman slips away, or another Gardener vanishes.]]> 322 Laurie R. King 0593496566 Simon 1 abandoned, fiction 3.73 2022 Back to the Garden
author: Laurie R. King
name: Simon
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2023/04/26
date added: 2023/04/25
shelves: abandoned, fiction
review:
Written in multiple timelines this mystery had some intrigue although the snails pace it seemed to be progressing just couldn't draw me in so I ended up abandoning it about a quarter through.
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