My favorite books of the year (links to the respective review below):
Fourth Wing#
Rebecca Yarros
Rating: NA / 5
My girlfriend requested I read this book. I have no comments.
The Signal and the Noise#
Nate Silver
Rating: 3.75 / 5
Through a series of detailed vignettes, Nate Silver provides a nuanced view of interpreting the world and gaining a better understanding of truth by discerning signal from noise. He recommends a probabilistic paradigm founded in Bayesian statistics to learn by perpetually updating beliefs as new information is received.
Each chapter is a deep dive into a different field where forecasting and prediction are essential, providing different windows into the key aspects of this skill. While interesting, some of the chapters feel a bit long and diverge into tangents that seem irrelevant to forecasting/prediction. Still, with Silver’s experience, expertise, and knowledge, these passages were still valuable and informative, if off topic. Silver’s writing style is easy to read and his explanations follow.
Mornings on Horseback#
David McCullogh
Rating: 4.0 / 5
Mornings on Horseback is a biography of Theodore Roosevelt’s early life, finishing well before his presidency. It is tremendously thorough, and the author is forthright when information is uncertain or conflicting, presenting all reputable sides and then providing his opinion. It describes T.R.’s childhood and young adult years, but also a lot of background on his parents, their heritage, and his siblings, representing a full picture of the future president. The author also presents the story with details about the contemporary world, putting T.R.’s story in the proper light of those days. This is a dense book and a slow read for all save the most avid fans of T.R. Still, it is well written and information-rich, making it a good option for those interested in understanding this unique president and his lasting impact on America.
For Blood and Money#
Nathan Vardi
Rating: 4.0 / 5
For Blood and Money brings the reader on a very realistic journey through the convoluted research, trial, production, and marketing process for a modern day small molecule drug (I look forward to the sequel on gene and cell therapies). Working for a pharmaceutical company, I can attest to how complicated it is to get from discovery to the clinic – rarely is the route straight, more often swapping hands multiple times, falling into patent disputes, plans changing because of a company’ strategic “realignments,” etc. This is a quick read as the author doesn’t delve into the full backstory of every character and generously summarizes the research process. Personally, I am more interested in the history of the science portion of the tale, but this book focuses predominately on the Wall Street aspects (which makes sense given that is the author’s journalistic beat). I would mostly recommend For Blood and Money to anyone new to pharmaceuticals or interested in modern-day clinical trial process or drug marketing, but it’s an easy read, fast-paced, so if you’re interested, it’s probably worth a shot.
Bottle of Lies#
Katherine Eban
Rating: 3.75 / 5
Bottle of Lies unravels some of the most dangerous and pervasive fraud that plagues drug manufacturing. At the time of reading, I’ve been working at a US pharmaceuticals company for 1.5 years and can attest to the caution and precision that is required to maintain good research and manufacturing processes. Reading this book, I became acutely aware about how critical maintaining a culture that observes and values those processes is to the entire industry. There are some many opportunities for fraud and deceit, only exasperated by the limited oversight the U.S. agencies have in foreign countries. Eban does a great job of walking the reader through the complexity of this industry, both the biomedical field and the regulatory structure and systems. The narrative style she employs, revealing the story in a manner similar to how it unfolded in real time, highlights for the reader the complexity and scale of the issue – it starts with a trickle, but as there is more investigation, it’s really a massive flood.
Beyond Order#
Jordan Peterson
Rating: 4.25 / 5
This self-help book follows Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life; I recommend starting there as it lays the foundation for the rules Peterson provides here. In the first of the duology, Peterson provides guidance on how to get control of oneself and one’s life. In Beyond Order, Peterson describes how to interact and manage with chaos. He addresses where it might come from, its different forms, how society has built of rules and institutions to deal with it, and how it’s a normal part of life not to be underestimates. It’s a dense book written in Peterson’s signature style of allusion and allegory. I recommend reading this one chapter at a time, best pairing it with a novel to allow time for each lesson to sink in (I paired it with All the Light We Cannot See).
All the Light We Cannot See#
Anthony Doerr
Rating: 4.25 / 5
I don’t read many novels, so my reviews and critiques are likely simple compared to the more avid fiction reader. That said, I breezed through this book; the style of writing, the plot, clever intricacies of the theme of light, made this book hard to put down. It’s a complicated mixture of heart-warming and inspiring moments, surrounded and almost consumed by darkness, despair, and hopelessness. Great novel with an interesting style and flair.
Slow Productivity#
Cal Newport
Rating: 4.5 / 5
Another classic Cal Newport productivity and self-help book. Paired with Deep Work, this system prescribed by Newport can be transformational. The three principles he lays out in the “Slow Productivity” system resonated with me and I have already been putting them into practice at work and in my hobbies to great success. The main pitch is that employing this system leads to a more natural, sustainable work style without a loss (instead, likely an increase) in production of high-quality results.
To finish, if you listen to Newport’s podcast, you probably don’t need to read this book. That said, if you are that avid of a listener, then you’ll also likely value having the book as a go-to reference. I recommend supporting his work by picking up a copy. It’s a quick read and good to have everything in one place.
The Rust Programming Language#
Steve Klabnik, Carol Nichols
Rating: 3.75 / 5
The manual on the Rust language. Good place to start if you are coming from higher-level programming languages (in my case, Python). There are some key principles around memory management and object ownership that are critical to understand to even write Rust code that compiles.
Bully for Brontosaurus#
Stephen Jay Gould
Rating: 4.25 / 5
Bully for Brontosaurus is a collection of some of Gould’s short essays on natural history organized into a few different topics. As expected, they were thoroughly researched, informative, and well written. Gould has a novelist’s style of writing, but an esteemed academic’s devotion to accuracy that makes his essays and books perfect for any biologists who enjoy reading. I also appreciate his intellectual fairness to people who have come before us and lived in a different time. He judges their reasoning, but doesn’t scrutinize their morality through the lens of modern times. Bully for Brontosaurus is both a great place to start reading Gould’s work and a continuation of one’s collection.
The Gene#
Siddhartha Mukherjee
Rating: 3 / 5
To start, my credentials: I’m a geneticist with a PhD in computational genetics, specifically cancer genetics, and I now work in gene therapy research for a pharmaceutical company. Also I have read and enjoyed The Emperor of All Maladies.
A priori I really wanted to enjoy this book. The first 300 pages or so were exactly as expected: detailing the story of the advancements in genetics, weaving a narrative between the key insights and revolutions. It had the same feel as in Emperor of All Maladies.
This was followed by about 100 or so pages on social issues with weak, cherry-picked, evidence to support vague claims. This included a lot of opinion and personal stories. There was this feel of half-baked philosophical musings – there were silly analogies and pseudo-sophisticated sentences (i.e. they sounded nice and with a semi-poetic structure), but they didn’t hold up to simple scrutiny. I read through a chapter of this and then began skimming and skipping where I could see the content was of limited value or interest.
Finally, the last 50 or so pages touched on gene editing, though the rich history of basic research and technology development was skipped with a limited discussion of the discovery and development of CRISPR. In general, this section felt lazily written, as if either the author was hitting the editor’s page limit or he didn’t want to have to wade through several decades of dense research (genetics and biological research in general moves much faster and with greater volume than it did in Darwin’s time).
In summary, the first 2/3 of the book are solid, the remainder is shaky and can be skipped. Throughout, there is a lot of fluff, a distracting number of poor analogies and quips, and odd repetitions of information and ideas (as if sections were moved around after all the editing and proofreading was complete). (Comparatively, Emperor of All Maladies was more thorough and better written and maintained its intensity throughout the entire book.)
Four Seasons in Rome#
Anthony Doerr
Rating: 4.0 / 5
This is Doerr’s memoir about a year he spent on Rome on a writing fellowship, further complicated by the addition of his two newborn twins. I read this as a start to my preparations for a trip to Rome I have planned for this fall. Doerr poetically relates the simultaneous romance and chaos of the city, the nerves and excitement of travel, the joy for adventure and the desire for routine. It’s a quick read and well written, though I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it as a standalone piece; it is best paired with a Reader expecting to visit Rome or wanting a more personal interface with Doerr (I matched on both accounts having just read All the Light We Cannot See).
Brunelleschi’s Dome#
Ross King
Rating: 4.25 / 5
This well-researched tome ventured into the obscure realm of a solitary architect and his singular masterpiece. What initially seemed a modest pursuit unfolded into a revelation of profound importance. Enter Filippo Brunelleschi, the capomaestro of Renaissance innovation. The towering dome crowning Santa Maria del Fior (or the Florence Cathedral), a feat that defied convention and redefined the very essence of architecture. Brunelleschi wasn’t merely a builder; he was a maverick, pioneering novel techniques and tools to shape his vision into reality. Through his daring ingenuity, he elevated the craft from mere labor to an esteemed art form. In this concise yet compelling narrative, Brunelleschi’s legacy shines brightly, beckoning readers to contemplate the enduring impact of his genius. For those intrigued by the interplay of history and innovation, this book promises an enriching journey into the heart of artistic evolution.
SPQR#
Mary Beard
Rating: 4.0 / 5
This book was one of the most frequently recommended when I searched for reading about Rome before my trip in October, so it seemed like a good starting point. Beard provides a deep-dive into ancient Rome, particularly focussed on the period of the emperors. It is well written, with an academic style, feeling almost like a lecture series. The author begins by warning that there are few certainties regarding our knowledge of the history of Rome. The writing that does remain are often recordings of events decades after they occurred or were penned by parties with particular biases and reasons to fabricate one way or the other. With this in mind, as the book continues, Beard provides descriptions of the artifacts that remain paired with her interpretation of the pieces influenced by her broader understanding of the time and place. Through this, she pieces together a more cohesive story of the time period than would be possible if only studied in fragments or from the direct writings. Coming from just about zero knowledge of this era, the beginning was tough to get through with so many new names and concepts. With dedication though, the names became more familiar and I felt I came away with a strong foundation with which to continue my education on the region.
Out of Range#
C.J. Box
Rating: 3.5 / 5
I picked this up at a Walmart in Port Angeles, Washington so I would have something to read for the rest of my trip in Olympic National Park. While admittedly not a flattering detail, it’s not meant as a knock against the novel, it’s just not a book to which I would normally have gravitated. I had recently heard about the Joe Pickett series when the author was on The Meateater Podcast so, given the limited selection at the store, I figured I’d give it a shot. It was a quick and easy read. The series is centered around a game warden, Joe Pickett, who is a tenacious, tough, righteous enforcer of the law in the wild, wild back country of Wyoming. These novels are suspenseful thrillers with action and mystery, flavored with personal struggles (familial, social, etc.) that give Pickett additional dimensions that span across books. While reading, I didn’t have the whole story foretold, but some of the primary mysteries were predictable. Overall, I don’t regret reading it (I was curious after the listening to the podcast anyways), but I’m not running out to get the next one in the series (mainly because I prefer nonfiction).
Coming Into the Country#
John McPhee
Rating: 3.75 / 5
As my first foray into John McPhee’s extensive catalogue, this was a tough one. His phrasing and sentence structure was, as expected, expertly curated, conveying information not just with his word choice, but also the pacing and organization of sentences and paragraphs. Coming Into the Country was over 400 pages of the controversy of how to manage Alaska as the final American frontier. He sourced opinions from federal land management, natives, and white, further subdivided into Alaskan born-and-raised and new arrivals. The portrayal of all opinions was even-handed and couched in the context from which they arose and the lives of the people from which they came. Overall, it was a well written piece, but I would recommend it primarily to those interested in the topic a priori.
The Wide Wide Sea#
Hampton Sides
Rating: 4.5 / 5
I had been looking forward to the release of this book ever since Sides went on The Meateater Podcast to discuss it. With my last name also Cook, I grew up with a particular interest in Captain Cook, encouraged by my grandfather’s infrequent mentions of our shared ancestry. So I picked this book up from a local bookstore in Kalamazoo, MI the week of its launch, happily paying a bit extra for the hardcover and author’s signature.
In general, The Wide Wide Sea is well written and an easy book to just keep reading: the story is naturally interesting and it is presented in a very compelling fashion. While it focuses on Cook’s last voyage, it gives plenty of background to place the journey in the appropriate context of the state of the world and Cook’s life. Sides was fair in his portrayal of Cook and his interactions with the peoples he contacted on his travels – he didn’t whitewash anything, but also did not demonize Cook or the West more broadly like so many authors insist on doing nowadays. In addition, the inclusion of these peoples’ histories regarding their contact with Cook was very interesting, too. This is a great book with any interest in Cook or early global exploration.
Draft No. 4#
John McPhee
Rating: 4.5 / 5
McPhee is such a great writer, it would be foolish to not read this book. I imagine I’ll re-read Draft No. 4 multiple times, creating layers of notes. This book is half instruction manual for the writing process, half memoir – everything very interesting and insightful. It is a short, quick read, but dense and highly valuable.
The Antidote#
Berry Werth
Rating: 3.25 / 5
Werth’s first book on Vertex, The Billion Dollar Molecule, follows Boger through the founding and early stages of Vertex. It describes this virile, urgent start-up trying to revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry. The Antidote picked up where the The Billion Dollar Molecule left off, as Vertex transitioned into a more stable company with a more robust and diverse research pipeline. The book covers the infamous period of “Vertex 2.0” where they are out-innovated in Hepatitis C, eventually ceding the market to other competitors. This lesson inspired the current “Vertex 3.0” strategy to be “first-in-class” and “best-in-class.”
To begin my review, this book is probably longer than necessary. In particular, substantial stretches felt like a documentation of Wall Street’s temperature and opinions on Vertex. While potentially valuable, the real interest in Vertex is its research pipeline and process of innovation. I would have preferred this book to focus more on the scientific side of Vertex than the financial and corporate aspects.
Other reviews question who this book is for. My answer would be Vertex employees, especially those in corporate, research, or clinical divisions. Otherwise, this book has a pretty narrow audience, further narrowing as it gets older and less relevant to modern pharma.
Number#
Tobias Dantzig
Rating: 4 / 5
I don’t believe I am the target audience for this book, and I feel a touch of discomfort with reviewing it (God-forbid rating it) at all. I understood the first two thirds well enough, but the latter third was generally beyond me. Still, it was an interesting mix of mathematics and philosophy, toned down for a well-educated, but not necessarily mathematician audience. Every page presented a new thought-provoking insight, with the conversational tone of the writing leading the reader through the thought process. I would recommend this to anyone interested in and possessing a foundational knowledge of a STEM field with the advice of being patient and taking it slow.
Lights Out#
Thomas Gryta & Ted Mann
Rating: 3.75 / 5
The book is fast-paced and well-written, showcasing thorough research and detailed descriptions of the characters. It fairly presents the various sides of each story and event. Overall, I think the book delivered on what it promised, serving as a poignant reminder of how easily the great can fall.
The House of Medici#
Christopher Hibbert
Rating: 4.0 / 5
The House of Medici offers a captivating exploration of one of history’s most influential families at the pinnacle of their power in Florence. The author masterfully portrays the complex personalities, triumphs, and setbacks of key Medici figures, providing readers with a nuanced understanding of their enduring and multifaceted legacy. This book not only delves deep into the family’s rule over Florence but also serves as an excellent primer for anyone planning to visit the city, offering rich historical context that will enhance any trip to this cultural icon.
The Control of Nature#
John McPhee
Rating: 4.5 / 5
John McPhee’s The Control of Nature is a masterful exploration of humanity’s relentless struggle against the formidable forces of nature. This compelling work presents three vividly detailed vignettes, each chronicling a different battle between human ingenuity and geological might. McPhee’s journalistic skill is evident with his ability to weave together a rich tapestry of perspectives, balancing the voices of everyday citizens living against these forces of nature alongside the insights of various experts dedicated to understanding and mitigating these geological threats. This diverse range of viewpoints that McPhee was able to find is rather impressive, providing readers with a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of each situation. The writing is, of course, in the classic John McPhee style: compelling and complex, but never feeling long-winded or unnecessarily verbose. Each paragraph introduces a new facet of the story or a fresh perspective, giving as much or as little space as needed to faithfully present the idea. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys non-fiction essays or wants to understand any of the three topics they cover.
No Country for Old Men#
Cormac McCarthy
Rating: NA / 5
This is my first Cormac McCarthy novel. I knew he was a beloved American author, but didn’t know that his books are highly symbolic and cerebral. I underestimated the intensity with which I would need to study the text, and so I completely missed the point. I finished the novel with a feeling of knowing I failed to understand something far deeper. Maybe someday I’ll reread this American classic, but for now I feel it is inappropriate to leave a rating.
The Drug Discovery and Development Cycle#
Kabir Hussain
Rating: 4 / 5
This can be read in a day (I took it on a backpacking trip because it was nice and light and finished it over the weekend). Though short, this book contains exactly what the title promises. I work at a pharmaceutical company and can verify that the description of the drug development cycle provided by this book aligns with what we are taught and execute internally. I would recommend this book to anyone just starting in drug development as a good primer on the topic and simple reference, but you will need additional sources to dive deeper into any section of interest.
Right Kind of Wrong#
Amy C. Edmondson
Rating: 0 / 5
I cannot tell if it is ironic or apt that a book about failure was so bad. I could rant, but I won’t because it’s pointless, instead I will summarize by saying that this book is not worth reading. If you are are at all wavering on your decision, I would suggest passing. (I read it because the author gave a lecture to our company and the book was recommended for managers, so I saw this as a form of research on what my superiors were reading.)
The book is 90% examples, 10% useful advice, and of that advice, most of it is either entirely obvious (almost tautological at times). Further, many of the examples follow the Malcolm Gladwell framing of “here is an example and now I’ll extrapolate to a wide-ranging, general lesson” (to be fair, a lot of the claims are backed by research, but this is usually the most obvious stuff). The non-obvious advice provided in the book generally falls into one of two categories: 1) learned by playing sports or pursuing a hobby, 2) a “rediscovery” or teachings from major religions and philosophies (an aside, it’s a bad sign for our academic institutions that the author and the quoted learned experts don’t seem to realize that). To top it off, all of the politically-associated examples were left-leaning, including the one on confirmation bias, and there is a section near the end where the author panders to each of the dominant non-white-heterosexual-male groups that are popular to placate in out current culture (they each get their own paragraph like the author was going down a checklist). This book is really only needed for young adults who grew up with helicopter, over-protective parents and weren’t allowed to learn this information about failure and rejection like humans have for eons, through experience, still the most effective method.
The Bookseller of Florence#
Ross King
Rating: 4.5 / 5
This book is an absolute delight, far from being too focused or niche. I read it to prepare for my autumn trip to Florence, Italy, and gained a rich understanding of key figures, movements, and events in 15th-century Italy. King masterfully weaves multiple narratives into a single, flowing story: the tale of the world’s most influential manuscript seller on the eve of Gutenberg’s innovations in print; the social, familial, and territorial conflicts in Florence and the Italy peninsula; and the birth of the Renaissance and Western Civilization. Through the unique lens of Vespasiano, King illuminates Florence and the Renaissance, highlighting this under-appreciated figure who played a crucial role in maintaining and distributing the manuscripts that spread revolutionary ideas.
Venice: A New History#
Thomas F. Madden
Rating: 4.25 / 5
This was my first introduction to Venice and I found it very reliable and useful. The book begins at the founding of the city in the lagoon and finishes with a summary of the state of Venice in the modern era. While touring Venice, I was able to place the artifacts, art, buildings, and stories into their rough historical context. Overall, I highly recommend this as a first book on the history of this fascinating city.
The City of Falling Angels#
John Berendt
Rating: 4.0 / 5
I enjoyed this book far more than I expected. The reviews I read were fairly mediocre, but I’m very glad I read it before my trip to this city. It provides a novel insight into Venetians – how they perceive themselves and their city and how they behave socially. Paired with a book on the history of Venice, The City of Falling Angels fills in some of the unwritten history or aura of Venice. I’m not sure how interesting this novel is to those without any prior interest in Venice, but if you will be visiting soon, then this is a very enjoyable read.
Autumn in Venice#
Andrea di Robilant
Rating: 4.25 / 5
This was one of my souvenirs from Venice, specifically the popular Aqua Alta Bookstore. Autumn in Venice details the adventures of Ernest Hemingway from his first visit in Venice through the writing and publication of Across the River and Into the Trees and The Old Man and the Sea, focusing primarily on his relationships with his wife and his mistress and their influence on his writing. As a fan of Hemingway’s and currently touring Venice, this book was a no-brainer and I greatly enjoyed it. The book covers an interesting moment in Hemingway’s career: following on his first three great novels, Across the River was rather uninteresting, but he then had a resounding comeback with The Old Man. Mix that with the drama surrounding his obvious affair with a young Venetian that he portrayed in Across the River, this book was a true page-turner. While perhaps best suited for a niche audience, if you check the ‘Hemingway’ and ‘Venice’ boxes, this is a great book.
Across the River and Into the Trees#
Ernest Hemingway
Rating: 3.25 / 5
I am by no means a writing aficionado and it feels odd to critique a work by a classic author, but this is definitely not Hemingway’s finest work (though he claimed otherwise). It is not a very exciting book and I found it difficult to stay engaged. Neither of the main characters were terribly interesting, in particular the love interest, Renata, was unremarkable. This novel just did not have the flair of Hemingway’s other classics.
Flight Paths#
Rebecca Heisman
Rating: 2.5 / 5
I really wanted to enjoy this book, but it was underwhelming. To begin, the writing itself is mediocre and it seems like the author did most of her journalism through Twitter. The number of references to tweets and other messages on Twitter was almost as if the author thought this information on sourcing would interest the reader. For me, it had the opposite effect, instead coming off as lazy and amateurish (likely because I despise and have become disillusioned by the “news” articles with the headline “Twitter users say…”). Then there was the unnecessary distractions the author included, in particular on COVID and other random political-adjacent comments. I understand the attraction of including mentions of COVID (e.g. someone wearing a mask, meeting over video call) because it was such a big event, but I don’t think it ages well – even just a few years on, I find it distracting and uninteresting (I understand an author’s desire to make references, but editors should really know better). Then there were miscellaneous political statements, such as explaining why the author would use “community scientist” instead of “citizen scientist” (to then quote a source that used the horrible, no-good, very-bad latter phrase just a few paragraphs later – comes off as a bit condescending). I think the only people who actually care about the distinction spend too much time on Twitter, which brings me back to my initial critique.
But all of that would be dismissible were the scientific content of the book more engaging. I was really hoping for more detail of the technologies and techniques mentioned in the book on the study of bird migration. Instead, there was more description on the people, settings of particular outings, etc. making the book feel shallow. I think the author was going for a style akin to John McPhee, but didn’t get the balance of adventure and information right.
I want to finish by clarifying (for the above statements are harsh) that I did not hate the book and harbor no ill-will towards the author. I think this was a great concept for a book and she has the subject-matter expertise to write it, I am just providing my honest opinions.
The Power of Habit#
Charles Duhigg
Rating: 3.75 / 5
Overall, the main findings and recommendations from the book seem to be solid. I have plans to implement certain strategies to alter some of my unwanted habits and add new desirable ones. That said, there is a lot of fluff in the book, namely in the background of some of the examples and characters in those examples. The writing is good, so some were fun and captivating to read, others less so. Not really a problem, I just skipped over some paragraphs, but worth noting that the book could have been trimmed heavily without loss of impact.
The reason my rating is a 3.75 instead of a solid 4 (though on Goodreads I have rounded up to a 4) is that some of the conclusions felt like a bit of a stretch to claim they were driven by habits. For instance, there were claims that a government investigator of a fire at King’s Cross train station went above and beyond with his announcements to have a greater change on the station’s management. Alternatively, this is just another politician doing his best to make him and his job seem more important.
My rough estimate of interest in the book’s claims and utility: the first section was solid, the main points of the second were generally good with a lot of fluff, I skimmed the last section.
Currently reading:
- The Heartbreak of Wounded Knee by David Treuer
- Eight Little Piggies by Stephen J. Gould