en-US Thu, 01 May 2025 13:10:43 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7534722282 Thu, 01 May 2025 13:10:43 -0700 /review/show/7534722282 Brad gave 4 stars to Wave (ebook) by Sonali Deraniyagala
This is a memoir from a woman who lost her entire family in a devastating tsunami in Sri Lanka. The beginning that covers the flood and the fear and the damage is riveting. I didn't know what to expect, but most of the book covers the months and years afterwards as she deals with the fallout from such a traumatic event. Very good memoir, this one was worth reading. ]]> Review7534698258 Thu, 01 May 2025 13:00:36 -0700 /review/show/7534698258 Brad gave 5 stars to O Sacred Head, Now Wounded: A Liturgy for Daily Worship from Pascha to Pentecost (Liturgies for Daily Worship) by Jonathan Gibson
The third book I have read in Gibson's liturgy series, this one is his Easter devotional from Palm Sunday to Pentecost. Cannot recommend this book and his others highly enough, I have found them to be excellent meditations on God's work and I will return to this one and his others again and again. The best devotional series I have come across by a long shot, give this one or one of his others a try if you are looking for anything like this. ]]> Review7534685495 Thu, 01 May 2025 12:57:21 -0700 /review/show/7534685495 Brad gave 4 stars to The Devil Behind the Badge: The Horrifying Twelve Days of the Border Patrol Serial Killer (Hardcover) by Rick Jervis
True crime is one of the most interesting genres to read because it often intersects so many different subjects. This book covers a ton, and will give you a lot to think about. It tells the story of a border patrol agent who steps over the line and can't stop himself from continuing to kill.

Just in this book, you will wrestle with ideas about immigration, police protecting their own, the dangers of drug use, alcoholism, why so many women turn to prostitition, transgender issues, and much more. The author does a really good job of highlighting most if not all of the victims, so you learn as much about their lives as you do about the killer's - a nice change from many books like this. If you like true crime, you will like this book. Very well written, recommended. ]]> Review7534676331 Thu, 01 May 2025 12:52:17 -0700 /review/show/7534676331 Brad gave 5 stars to How to Beat Your Dad at Chess (Chess for Kids) by Murray Chandler
Yes, this is a kid's book. Years ago I read that if you want to learn about a subject that's new to you, start with books that are meant for kids. I've found that advice especially helpful with chess. I have dozens of chess books, but most of them are way over my head for the level I am at. This book, originally bought it for my kids, was fantastic. Each chapter is just two pages and the exercises and techniques are really well done. It will stretch you and help you to learn if you are new to chess or even if you are an intermediate player, but you also aren't forced to read and keep all of the chess notations in your head. If you want to learn chess or get good enough to beat your kids again, I would start with this book. Highly Recommended. ]]> Review7534666292 Thu, 01 May 2025 12:48:38 -0700 /review/show/7534666292 Brad gave 5 stars to Phil Gordon's Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Texas Hold'em (Hardcover) by Phil Gordon
If you read one book on poker, read this one. It is by far the best that I have come across and will improve your game instantly. There are many reasons why reading a book may be a good investment, but this one will literally pay for itself with one poker night with friends. I win more than my fair share using techniques from this book alone.

He teaches positioning, bet sizing, how to calculate pot odds, implied odds, easy ways to estimate the amount you should bet based on the number of outs you have, and much more. His conservative-aggressive style suits me perfectly. Poker is a fun game to learn and study, because so many of the principle bleed into real life and business as well.

Highly Recommended. ]]> Review7534548719 Thu, 01 May 2025 12:44:46 -0700 /review/show/7534548719 Brad gave 5 stars to The War of Art (Paperback) by Steven Pressfield
This is at least my second time through this one and its still fantastic. If you have always wanted to write a book (or paint, or compose, or film) and you haven't been able to get it done, read this book. It is a fantastic book from getting you from 0 to 1, and you can take it from there. This was actually the first Pressfield book I ever read, but since then I have read a lot of his fiction as well as his non-fiction. His novel Gates of Fire is one of my favorite books ever, and this is not far behind.

Some of my favorite quotes:

There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.

Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.

The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.

There’s no mystery to turning pro. It’s a decision brought about by an act of will. We make up our minds to view ourselves as pros and we do it. Simple as that.

Someone once asked the Spartan king Leonidas to identify the supreme warrior virtue from which all others flowed. He replied: “Contempt for death.� For us as artists, read “failure.� Contempt for failure is our cardinal virtue. By confining our attention territorially to our own thoughts and actions—in other words, to the work and its demands—we cut the earth from beneath the blue-painted, shield-banging, spear-brandishing foe.

Highly Recommended. ]]> Review7450864133 Mon, 31 Mar 2025 11:04:34 -0700 /review/show/7450864133 Brad gave 5 stars to The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness (Kindle Edition) by Eric Jorgenson
If a book is weighed by how valuable the advice is per word, this is one of the best bangs for your buck out there. Outstanding book of advice, quotes, and wisdom. Well worth the read, but here are some favorites:

Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. Money is how we transfer time and wealth. Status is your place in the social hierarchy.

Ignore people playing status games. They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games.

Play iterated games. All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.

Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.

The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner.

The genuine love for reading itself, when cultivated, is a superpower. We live in the age of Alexandria, when every book and every piece of knowledge ever written down is a fingertip away. The means of learning are abundant—it’s the desire to learn that is scarce.

Reading science, math, and philosophy one hour per day will likely put you at the upper echelon of human success within seven years.

Read what you love until you love to read.

Highly Recommended. ]]> Review7450724176 Mon, 31 Mar 2025 10:18:03 -0700 /review/show/7450724176 Brad gave 5 stars to Take Back Your Family: From the Tyrants of Burnout, Busyness, Individualism, and the Nuclear Ideal (Hardcover) by Jefferson Bethke
You will either love this book or hate it, I don't think there is much room in between. Bethke does what few popular non-fiction authors dare to do these days, he actually says something that you will have to agree or disagree with.

Here's just one example: "The nuclear family is the cancer, not the cure." In arguing for a return to the more traditional view of multi-generational families rather than the 1950s television version that many advocate for, Bethke goes against the popular narratives from both sides of the aisle.

I loved this book and will wholeheartedly recommend it, but also I will warn you that you should be ready to change some things if you read it. It will make you uncomfortable, maybe angry at some points, and you will be forced to either look closely at your own shortcomings or live with an uncomfortable tension. I actually listened to this one but am going back through it in print as well. Highly Recommendedl ]]> Review7450690422 Mon, 31 Mar 2025 10:02:35 -0700 /review/show/7450690422 Brad gave 5 stars to Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America (Hardcover) by Annie Jacobsen
If you have never heard of Operation Paperclip, you are in for a wild tale with this one. This tells the story of one of the largest covert operations in United States history and one that would still be largely hidden if it wasn't for Jacobsen and other journalists exposing it. This operation brought over more than 1,600 Nazi scientists, engineers, doctors, and technicians to America after World War II.

One of the most prominent was Werner Von Braun, a rocket scientist who was the most instrumental person in developing the Nazi V2 rockets during World War II. He was brought over secretly to the US and became one of the key figures at NASA for years, helping to develop the space program and military operations and ultimately helping the United States win the Cold War.

The book covers, sometimes in tedious detail, many of the key figures who came over and what their role was in Nazi Germany before coming to the United States, and what it was here. Jacobsen uncovered many of these stories researching this book, which is just ten years old - many of these stories are told here for the first time.

This book is well worth reading. It's history, but it also raises some thorny ethical questions that we often don't have to answer. Working with many of these men was a cost of winning the Cold War, and this book points out that whether it was worth it is even more challenging to answer once you know more about the story.

Highly Recommended. ]]> Review7450681574 Mon, 31 Mar 2025 09:48:34 -0700 /review/show/7450681574 Brad gave 3 stars to Areté: Activate Your Heroic Potential (Hardcover) by Brian Johnson
This is self-help and pop philosophy in really small bites. Some good stuff here, but it's a long book to wade through for the few really great gems that are there. If you are in the practice of reading books daily, this is an easy one to add to the list. With about 400 entries, it will take just over a year. Each entry ends with a call to 'activiate your heroic potential', which got old after awhile but maybe that's because it was a daily read for me and I didn't power through it. ]]>