Category:Book reviews

From The Jolly Contrarian
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Recent roll

as of 14/6/2021

The Day of the Jackal — Frederick Forsyth
A World Beyond Physics: The Emergence and Evolution of Life — Stuart A. Kauffman
Politically Homeless — Matt Forde
Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Turned on the West — Catherine Belton
Obliquity — John Kay
Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories — Rob Brotherton
Hype: How Scammers, Grifters, Con Artists and Influencers Are Taking Over the Internet - and Why We're Following — Gabrielle Bluestone
Ball Lightning — Cixin Liu
Risk Savvy: How to Make Good Decisions — Gerd Gigerenzer
Frankenstein — Mary Shelley
The Power of Ignorance: How Creative Solutions Emerge When We Admit What We Don’t Know — Dave Trott
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets — Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space — Stephen Walker
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century — Barbara Tuchman


As of 10/2/2021

The Good Soldier Svejk — Jaroslav Hasek
A Man for All Markets — Edward O. Thorp
September 1, 1939 — Ian Sansom
Leonardo Da Vinci — Walter Isaacson
Strongmen — Ruth Ben-Ghiat
The Death and Life of Great American CitiesJane Jacobs
Countdown to Zero DayKim Zelltner
The Case Against Reality
Killing for CompanyBrian Masters
Prediction MachinesAjar Agrawal
Moneyland — Oliver Burrough
WhenDaniel Pink
Seeing Like A StateJames C. Scott
How Innovation Works — Matt Ridley
Twilight of Democracy — Anne Applebaum
Face ItDebbie Harry
Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries - Safi Bahcall

As of 18/11/20

Thinking in SystemsDonella H. Meadows
HappyDerren Brown
The Artful DickensJohn Mullan
Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race Gender and IdentityHelen Pluckrose and James Lindsay
Death’s EndCixin Liu
The Field Guide to Human Error InvestigationsSidney Dekker
Fahrenheit 451Ray Bradbury
Why We Get The Wrong PoliticiansIsabel Hardman
Left Out: The Inside Story of Labour under CorbynGabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire
Head Hard HeartDavid Goodhart
ComplexityM. Mitchell Waldrop
The Dark ForestCixin Liu

As of 1/9/2020

The Hidden Half: How the World Conceals its SecretsMichael Blastland
The Courage to be DislikedIchiro Kishimi
Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General ElectricTed Mann
BezonomicsBrian Dumaine
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates UsDaniel Pink
The Spider NetworkDavid Enrich
The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own OneWilliam Black
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the FuturePeter Thiel
The Three Body ProblemCixin Liu

As of 20/6/2020

The Clock Mirage: Our Myth of Measured TimeJoseph Mazur
Seeing Like a StateJames C. Scott
Love in the Time of CholeraGabriel Garcia Márquez
The Wisdom of CrowdsJames Surowiecki
DarkeRick Gekoski
MeltdownChris Clearfield and András Tilcsik
Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of DestructionDavid Enrich
The Light That Failed: A ReckoningIvan Krastev and Stephen Holmes
A Short Walk in the Hindu KushEric Newby
The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and FlavorMark Schatzker
The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for MeaningJeremy Lent
War for Eternity: The Return of Traditionalism and the Rise of the Populist RightBenjamin R. Teitelbaum
Uncanny Valley: A MemoirAnna Wiener
The Bystander Effect: Understanding the Psychology of Courage and InactionCatherine Sanderson
Understanding ComplexityScott E. Page
Einstein’s War: How Relativity Conquered Nationalism and Shook the WorldMatthew Stanley
The Mind Is FlatNick Chater

As of 1/4/2020

Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily LifeNassim Nicholas Taleb (re-read!)
Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk TechnologiesCharles Perrow
The Silo EffectGillian Tett
The Rules of ContagionAdam Kucharski
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly ImprobableNassim Nicholas Taleb (re-read!)
The Design of Everyday ThingsDon Norman
Never Split the DifferenceChris Voss
Why We East (Too Much)Andrew Jenkinson
How we Know What Isn’t SoThomas Gilovich
In the PlexSteven Levy
A World Without WorkDaniel Susskind
The Science of Story TellingWill Storr
All the Devils are HereBethany McLean
HankMark Ribowski
Tools and WeaponsBrad Smith
Last Train to MemphisPeter Guralnick
The End is Always NearDan Carlin
Because InternetGretchen McCulloch
The Germans and EuropePeter Millar
In Europe’s ShadowRobert D. Kaplan
Red NoticeBill Browder
The Surprising Science of MeetingsSteven C. Rogelberg
The Madness of CrowdsDouglas Murray
ChernobylSerhii Plokhy
The Art of Gathering:How We Meet and Why It MattersPriya Parker
Pre-suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and PersuadeRobert Cialdini
Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioural Science to Transform Your Working LifeCaroline Webb
Influence: The Psychology of PersuasionRobert Cialdini
Antifragile: Things that Gain from DisorderNassim Nicholas Taleb
Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily LifeNassim Nicholas Taleb
The Book of WhyJudea Pearl
Time TravelJames Gleick
Superforecasting: The Art and Science of PredictionPhillip Tetlock
Superpumped:The Battle for UberMike Isaac
Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse ThinkingMatthew Syed
Rebooting AI: Building Artificial Intelligence We Can TrustGary Marcus & Ernest Davis
Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't MatterScott Adams
The World of YesterdayStefan Zweig
The InformationJames Gleick
Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas that Don’t Make SenseRory Sutherland
Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialised WorldDavid Epstein
The GoalEliyahu Goldratt
Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural EconomicsRichard Thaler
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley StartupJohn Carreyrou

The Daniel Dennett collection

Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s “Incerto” collection

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder

Rip-snorting business books

Barbarians at the Gate - Bryan Burrough Liar’s Poker

Science, mathematics and the philosophy of science

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Thomas Kuhn
A Grand Design - Stephen Hawking
Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos - Roger Lewin
Consilience - E. O. Wilson
Models.Behaving.Badly: Why Confusing Illusion with Reality can be a Disaster, on Wall Street and in Life - Emanuel Derman
How to Teach Quantum Physics to your Dog - Chad Orzal
The Dappled World – A Study of the Boundaries of Science - Nancy Cartwright
Lake Views: This World and the Universe - Steven Weinberg
The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives - Leonard Mlodinow
The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science and What Comes Next - Lee Smolin

Good books about technology

Code: Version 2.0 - Lawrence Lessig
The Nature of Technology: What it is and How it Evolves - Brian Arthur

Bad books about technology

Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology CivilizationParag Khanna and Ayesha Khanna
The Singularity is Near - Ray Kurzweil

Business and process engineering

Blockbusters: Why Big Hits - and Big Risks - Are the Future of the Entertainment Business - Anita Elberse
Enterprise 2.0Andrew MacAfee
Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right - Atul Gawande
The Design of Business: Why Design is the Next Competitive Advantage - Roger Martin
Rework - Jason Fried

Writing and the law

How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One - Stanley Fish

Good books about philosophy and psychology

Man’s Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl
The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind - Julian Jaynes
Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig

Bad books about philosophy

Affluenza - Oliver James
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

Pages in category "Book reviews"

The following 90 pages are in this category, out of 90 total.

T