Book – Page 7 – Made by Mikal

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

Post author:mikal
Post published:January 31, 2019
Post category:Book

We've owned this book for a while, but ironically Catherine lost it for a bit. It seems very topical at the moment because of the Marie Kondo craze, but its been floating around our house for probably a year. The book is written by an 80+ year old and explains the Swedish tradition of sorting your stuff out before you keel over, which seems like a totally reasonable thing to do when the other option is leaving your grieving kids to work out what on earth to do. The book isn't as applicable to people not at the end of the lives -- it for example recommends starting with large things like furniture and younger people are unlikely to have heaps of unneeded furniture. That said, there is definitely advice in here that is applicable to other life stages. The book is composed of a series of generally short chapters. They read a bit like small letters, notes, or blog posts. This makes the book feel very approachable and its a quite fast read. I enjoyed the book and I think I got some interesting things out of it.

Best Foot Forward

Post author:mikal
Post published:January 27, 2019
Post category:Book

Catherine and I have been huge fans of Adam Hills for ages, so it wasn't a surprise to me that I'd like a book by him. As an aside, we've never seen him live -- we had tickets for his show in Canberra in 2013, but some of us ended up in labor in hospital instead, so we had to give those tickets away. One day we'll manage to see him live though, he just needs to get back to touring Australia more! Anyways, I enjoyed this book which as mentioned above wasn't a surprise. What was a surprise is that he said something interesting which I have been pondering for the last few days... Basically, its nice to get on stage and say things, either entertaining the audience or in my case perhaps educating them a little (I give technical conference talks). However, that's not the most important thing. You need to work out why you're on that stage before you go out there. What is the overall thing you're trying to convey? Once you know that, everything else falls into place. I think this is especially true for keynote speeches, which need to appeal to a more general audience than…

The Consuming Fire

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 26, 2018
Post category:Book

Another fast run read from Mr Scalzi, this book is the sequel to The Collapsing Empire. I think this book is actually better than the first, which I guess is fair given the first had to set the universe up. I particularly like the twist about two thirds of the way through this one, and I think the universe has a lot of potential to be really interesting in future books. Mr Scalzi remains on my I-buy-everything-he-does list. I wish he'd write another book in the Old Man's War universe.

Chaos Monkeys

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 10, 2018
Post category:Book

A very well written tale of a Wall Street quant who left during the GFC to adventure in startup land and ended up at Facebook attempting to solve their monetization problems for an indifferent employer. Martinez must have been stomping around Mountain View because his description of the environment and what its like to work inside a Silicon Valley company ring very true to me. A good read.

Artemis

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 1, 2018
Post category:Book

Its been ages since I've read a book in a couple of days, let alone stayed up late when I really shouldn't in order to finish a book. Artemis is the book which broke me out of that rut -- this is a fun, clever, light read. Its quite different when compared to The Martian, but I think that's good. Weir has attempted to do something new instead of just playing on his previous successes. An excellent book, and Mr Weir is solidly landing on my buy-everything-he-writes list.

Turmoil

Post author:mikal
Post published:November 29, 2018
Post category:Book

A very readable set of essays from Robyn Williams, the broadcaster of the Australian Science Show, not the comedian. Covering the state of modern science, journalism, the ABC, and whether modern democracy is doomed in an approachable and very readable form. I enjoyed this book greatly. A good Sunday morning and vacation read if you're into approachable non-fiction.

Scared Weird Frozen Guy

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 22, 2018
Post category:Book

The true life story of a kid from Bribie Island (I've been there!) running a marathon in Antartica, via being a touring musical comedian, doing things like this: This book is an interesting and light read, and came kindly recommended by Michael Carden, who pretty much insisted I take the book off him at a cafe. I don't regret reading it and would recommend it to people looking for a light autobiography for a rainy (and perhaps cold) evening or two. Oh, and the Scared Weird Little Guys of course are responsible for this gem... This book is highly recommended and now I really want to go for a run.

Head On

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 12, 2018
Post category:Book

A sequel to Lock In, this book is a quick and fun read of a murder mystery. It has Scalzi's distinctive style which has generally meshed quite well for me, so it's not surprise that I enjoyed this book.

Caliban’s War

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 22, 2018
Post category:Book

This is the second book in the Leviathan Wakes series by James SA Corey. Just as good as the first, this is a story about how much a father loves his daughter, moral choices, and politics -- just as much as it is the continuation of the story arc around the alien visitor. I haven't seen this far in the Netflix series, but I sure hope they get this right, because its a very good story so far.

Hugo nominees for 2018

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 15, 2018
Post category:Book

Lifehacker kindly pointed out that the Hugo nominees are out for 2018. They are: The Collapsing Empire, by John Scalzi. I've read this one and liked it. New York 2140, by Kim Stanley Robinson. I've had a difficult time with Kim's work in the past, but perhaps I'll one day read this. Provenance, by Ann Leckie. I liked Ancillary Justice, but failed to fully read the sequel, so I guess we'll wait and see on this one. Raven Stratagem, by Yoon Ha Lee. I know nothing! Six Wakes, by Mur Lafferty. Again, I know nothing about this book or this author. So a few there to consider in the future.