The Books I Read in 2018

Do you like space, technology, or politics? If so, read on, because those categories feature heavily among the books I read over the past year.

It’s been a personal goal of mine to read more, and in particular I’ve been interested in books that I felt would 1) keep me better informed on current topics, 2) deepen skills that I use everyday at work, and 3) inspire creative thinking.

I listened to many of these books in audio format (thanks to Audible). I commute to work on the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan, and the ride can take 20–40 minutes. I’ve found this time to be a great opportunity to listen without distraction.

Now, please enjoy these poorly-written reviews I wrote mostly on a redeye flight!

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump Whitehouse

By: Michael Wolff

I kicked off the year with a nice, soothing read about politics and how everything’s falling apart. I found most of this to be very believable, especially after reading some of the sensational stuff in the Bob Woodward book. It’s clearly biased, politically speaking, but presented in a very entertaining way.

Verdict: Worrisome, but hard to put down.

Children of Time

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Children of Time is set in a universe where humanity spread across the galaxy as Earth’s ability to support life failed. The story is about an experiment gone wrong on a distant, terraformed planet which results in highly-evolved spiders becoming the dominant species instead of primates. Meanwhile, a remnant of spacefaring humans, searching for a home, happens upon this seemingly welcoming candidate.

There were a lot of really interesting elements in this book. I enjoyed observing how communication, social and gender norms, and technology developed for such a different type of life form. You watch as spider society evolves and advances while the remaining humans are becoming more desperate and bestial. I’m very excited to see where the story goes next, and it looks like there will be a follow-up in 2019.

Verdict: Really fascinating premise, enjoyed it a lot!

The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

By: Eric Riess

I’ve been an advocate of agile software development for over six years, and the lean business model has often come up as a related set of principles. I hadn’t ever taken the time to delve deeply into what they were or the thinking behind it, so I decided to read up.

The thesis is straightforward: Build for the customer. Conduct research to validate assumptions first. Build the MVP and iterate rather than spending lots of time on a final product that could be completely wrong.

It was helpful to see these principles applied generally to business, since I had mainly focused on the more prescriptive frameworks that apply them to engineering.

Verdict: Common sense business advice.

Unf*ck Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life

By: Gary John Bishop

This is a self-help book. It’s motivational and “real”. What I got out of it was, basically, don’t give a fuck. But then, do give a fuck about some important things. But don’t overthink it.

Verdict: If you need some motivation… sure.

The Dark Path: Conspiracy Theories of Illuminati and Occult Symbolism in Pop Culture, the New Age Alien Agenda & Satanic Transhumanism

By: Isaac Weishaupt

I was looking for some good books about the occult and Satanism, but this didn’t really fit the bill because it didn’t have enough depth. “Did you know that rock music is associated with the occult?” Wow, amazing observation.

Verdict: Meh.

Aleister Crowley’s Liber Al vel Legis: The Book of the Law

By: Aleister Crowley

My motivation for reading this was similar to the last one. Since I spent a lot of my life on the Jesus track, I thought it would be interesting to get some other perspectives. Listening to this in audio format is probably not a great choice. It contains tons of symbolism.

This book is the central sacred text of Thelema, which Aleister Crowley claims was given to him by a disembodied voice named Aiwass in 1904 while he was in Cairo. I think I might revisit this one later with some analysis to better understand what’s going on.

Verdict: 3/5 goat sacrifices.

Kabbalah, Science, and the Meaning of Life: Because Your Life Has Meaning

By: Rabbi Michael Laitman

This, too, was a selection driven by my exploration of various religious philosophies. I was looking for an introduction to the ideas of Kabbalah and its origins, but this book was about the relationship between spirituality and science. It might be another case of “bad in audiobook format,” but I couldn’t really follow. Still looking for another introduction to Kabbalah, so please send me suggestions if you’ve got any!

Verdict: Wasn’t for me.

Cracking the Code to a Successful Interview: 15 Insider Secrets from a Top-Level Recruiter

By: Evan Pellett

I changed jobs this year, and read this a couple of months before I started seriously interviewing. There are some good, common sense, tips in the book about presenting yourself, focusing on achievements, etc. However, it feels geared towards sales roles more that my field, software engineering.

I found it useful to get in the right headspace, but much of the book was not really applicable.

Verdict: It’s fine.

Cracking the Tech Career: Insider Advice on Landing a Job at Google, Microsoft, Apple, or any Top Tech Company

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Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions

By: Gayle Laakman McDowell

McDowell’s books (and YouTube videos and website) are crucial if you’re studying to interview at Facebook, Google, or similar tech-oriented companies. I can’t say enough positive things about her.

Cracking the Tech Career gives an overview of interview preparation, covering things like how to build a winning resume and how to be a good interviewee.

Cracking the Coding Interview, as the title suggests, focuses on how to succeed in coding interviews. This is more of a study guide. It includes a general approach for problem solving on a whiteboard, overview of Big-O notation with examples, and solutions to some common problems.

I recommend these books all the time, and I think they’re the best around. Unless you’re a fresh graduate with a computer science degree (and even if you are), the latter will help you brush up on almost anything you’ll encounter as far as algorithm problems.

There are also variations on these geared toward product management, if that’s your bag!

Verdict: Both are a must for engineers.

The Dark Forest

By: Cixin Liu (Translated by Joel Martinsen)

I didn’t realize this was book 2 in the trilogy until I was deep into the book. That explains why it was hard for me to get into at first. As a fan of Fermi Paradox theories, I enjoyed it a lot. I recommend the Kurzgezagt YouTube videos on the topic if you’re not familiar. Excited to jump back in with The Three-Body Problem in 2019.

Verdict: Great read, but wish I’d started with the first book!

The Man in the High Castle

By: Philip K. Dick

Answers the question: What would the world be like if the Nazi’s had won World War II?

I was surprised to find out how many “hypothetical Axis victory” books, movies, and games there were out there, because I always assumed this was the original.

Verdict: Classic, but I prefer the way the story develops in the Amazon show.

A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership

By: James Comey

Most of the juicy bits were covered pretty well by news outlets. Can’t help but feel like it’s justifying a couple of bad calls.

Verdict: Consider Hillary’s What Happened.

Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West

By: Cormac McCarthy

Hailed as McCarthy’s masterpiece, this is the story of a kid in the Old West. The writing is beautiful and the details rich, but I had difficulty staying focused enough to follow the plot.

Verdict: Bailed.

Less

By: Andrew Sean Greer

Romantic comedy isn’t something I usually read, but I enjoyed this. Less was the book of the month for a book club at work. It also won the Pulitzer Prize. It’s a funny and sometimes sad story about an aging writer who tries to avoid attending his ex-boyfriend’s wedding by accepting a bunch of invitations to literary events around the world.

Verdict: Entertaining. Not scifi, but entertaining.

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition

By: Kerry Patterson

Right after I accepted the offer for my new job, I asked a couple of people at Facebook for book recommendations. The engineering director for my department recommended both this book and the next one on my list. Crucial Conversations is also the name of a course covering the same material that is facilitated by the company. During my on-boarding, I took a similar course called Fast Feedback.

This book outlines a framework for having hard conversations or being “persuasive without being abrasive.” These are skills that can make or break your effectiveness at work (probably also life?), so I would recommend studying them.

Verdict: Good stuff. Worth reading.

This Is Now Your Company: A Culture Carrier’s Manifesto

By: Mike Rognlien

Building and maintaining a healthy team culture is everything. It impacts recruiting, retention, inclusiveness, quality of life, and quality of output. As a manager, I feel that creating culture is an important part of my job, but it’s really the responsibility of every team member. This book talks about why that’s the case and contains some strategies for making it better.

Verdict: Develop an internal locus of control and read this.

The President Is Missing

By: Bill Clinton, James Patterson

I had a free weekend during on-boarding at Facebook in Menlo Park, so I decided to drive down to Santa Barbara to visit my brother and his wife. This book seemed to have a fun plot, and it was co-authored by Bill Clinton. The audiobook was mostly narrated by Dennis Quaid. Clearly, it must be a masterpiece to warrant such star power, so I listened to it while sitting in traffic on the way down.

The President in the book is some sort of Jack Ryan hero character. There’s a cybersecurity threat that could take down all of civilization, and he’s the only one that has the common sense solutions to defuse this cyber bomb. Okay. Also, there’s a section where he goes incognito in public to elude detection. I can’t help but imagine Bill Clinton sneaking through a shopping mall wearing glasses and a fake mustache.

Verdict: Not enough suspension of disbelief available to enjoy.

The First 90 Days, Updated and Expanded: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter

By: Michael Watkins

I read this hoping it would help me to get organized while ramping up at the new gig. I liked the framework for getting up to speed and building rapport with your team. The book outlines milestones along the first 90 days of the process, with the premise that if you haven’t ramped up in 90 days, you’re not going to be well-positioned to be successful.

That said, I didn’t actually apply much from the book. I would imagine that for those who didn’t have as much structure coming in, it might be more valuable.

Verdict: Good ideas, wasn’t immediately useful.

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race

By: Reni Eddo-Lodge

This book talks about racism, the fallacy of meritocracy, the whitewashing of feminism, and, despite its title, the importance of actually engaging in a meaningful dialog about all of it. It also gives a history of racism in Britain, which I knew nothing about.

Verdict: Read it!

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

By: Yuval Noah Harari

This book is educational, thought-provoking, and surprising. Everyone I know who has read it, loves it. It covers how humans came to be humans and how that informs where we’re heading as a species.

I also read the follow-up, Homo Deus, which you’ll see below. Both are awesome. If you liked either of these, then consider Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity is Near.

Verdict: Favorite book of the year, must read.

The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World

By: Wade Davis

This book, like Sapiens, talks about the development of humans, but through the lens of indigenous cultures from around the world. It’s a good reminder that ancient wisdom still has value, and that we’re not as smart and advanced as we sometimes like to think.

Verdict: Liked it, but not as much as Sapiens.

Fear: Trump in the White House

By: Bob Woodward

This is a book by a very credible journalist.

Verdict: We’re all in so much trouble.

The Fifth Season: The Broken Earth, Book 1

By: N. K. Jemisin

This book is a beautiful mixture of sci-fi and fantasy. I’ll probably continue reading the series in 2019.

The story is set on Earth, but it’s unclear if it’s in the distant future or past. There is a magic called Orogeny that enables some to control seismic elements. There are subtle hints about what brought the world to its current state that I enjoyed.

Verdict: Great story, interesting world.

The End of Faith

By: Sam Harris

As a formerly religious person, I find it to be a fascinating subject. This book seeks to demonstrate why religion is harmful and dangerous. It spends a lot of time on Islam in particular.

I don’t endorse the intolerant ideas presented in the book. I would like it if all people, religious or not, stop hurting and killing each other. However, there are some good points about how we’ve insulated religion from critique.

Verdict: Thought-provoking but in some cases too extreme.

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

By: Yuval Noah Harari

This is a follow-up to Sapiens, and it holds up to its predecessor very well. A couple of sections stand out to me. I particularly enjoyed the discussion of how humans were able to become the dominant life forms on Earth, not due to their ability to organize as a collective (bees and ants do better there), but because they can share a belief in concepts that don’t actually exist. For instance, a company can own property, have value, and build trust in people, but the company is just an idea. The same goes for money, kingdoms, and religion. These beliefs are more effective than social groups, because such groups can only reach a certain size before they fall apart. Scalability is key to success, as usual.

I also enjoyed the sections on the mind, self-awareness, and free will. Is our mind truly just the data that we store in our brains, or is there a missing element we don’t understand that makes us who we are? If we can break down the algorithm that defines our decision-making and personality to the point that super computers are able to perfectly predict our responses, do we really have the capacity for free will? Are we any more complex than other animals? Can we transfer our consciousness entirely into a digital paradise and live forever? The book doesn’t answer the question, unfortunately.

Verdict: Pretend you control your destiny and choose to read it.

What I’m Reading Now

Neuromancer, by William Gibson. The classic cyberpunk novel. Pretty dated, though.

Soviet Women: Walking the Tightrope, by Francine du Plessix Gray. Non-fiction about the lives of women living in the Soviet Union. Very dense. Going to take some time.

The Gnostic Gospels, by Elaine Pagels. Talks about why the Bible contains some gospel accounts and not others. So far, really great! About halfway through.