Exploring Extreme Programming
Operating System Principles, by Per Brinch Hansen. 1973. This is a classic book on operating systems – better than many of its successors. What I love about this book is that it comes just after an era of experimentation, when Continue reading Review: Operating System Principles
You Need a Budget, by Jesse Mecham. 2017. “YNAB” is a system (with an app) for managing your money. It’s built around four rules: I can’t say I’ve adopted this system (nor can I say that about any single personal Continue reading Review: You Need a Budget
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, by Shoshana Zuboff, 2019. This book is the most significant book I’ve read in a while. It outlines the dark side of modern Continue reading Review: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
I Am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes This is a compelling thriller, what I used to call an airport read. (Admittedly 2020 is clearly trying hard to outdo fiction.) It has all the classic elements – a huge threat, characters we Continue reading Review – I Am Pilgrim
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson. 2020. The premise of this book is that America has a literal caste system, in the same sense as India or Nazi Germany have had. The system sorts people by attributes Continue reading Review – Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Japanese Inn. By Oliver Statler. This book tells the story of Minaguchi-ya, a (real) inn on the road between Kyoto and Tokyo, the old capital and the new. It ranges from 1569 to the 1950s. Each chapter tells about the Continue reading Review: Japanese Inn
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. By Richard Rothstein. One interpretation of segregation goes like this: Blacks in the 20th century were treated as second-class citizens, but segregation was not because of the Continue reading Review: The Color of Law
Le Ton beau de Marot, by Douglas Hofstadter. Hofstadter explores “What does it mean to translate?” with dozens of versions of the French poem “A une Damoyselle malady” by Marot. Some try to capture the meaning, others the poetry, others Continue reading Review – Le Ton beau de Marot, by Hofstadter
Washington: The Indispensable Man, by James Thomas Flexner. My wife is on a quest to read biographies of each president. I don’t feel the same urge, but I did read one: George Washington.This treatment by James Thomas Flexner is a Continue reading Review – Washington: The Indispensable Man
How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by Ryan North. ISBN 073522014X. You’re tooling through time and your machine goes kaput. Ryan North has your back: You don’t have to wait hundreds or thousands of Continue reading Review: How to Invent Everything