Speak, Memorably: The Art of Captivating an Audience

Speak, Memorably: The Art of Captivating an Audience by Bill McGowan

Most meetings today are boring. The presenter drones on, regurgitating details from the powerpoint. There is something important to disseminate, but it is not done in an interesting manner. How do we make it better? We need to pay attention to details in how we communicate. Keeping slides sparse with visual data maintains greater interest. The speed of discourse should be measured and focus on clean language. Eliminate filler words, jargon and redundant speech. Use humor and storytelling to grab attention. Focus on presenting the key message in a concise, straightforward format. The book provides additional details on how best to present, complete with stories of successes and failures (often coming from the political arena.)

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir by Elizabeth McCracken

The author spent her early adulthood writing while traveling between the US and Europe. She conceived later in life. The baby was stillborn at full term. She grapples with that in her experiences. It is a key part of her identity as she is working through it and trying again. Other issues (such as issues with immigration officials) can be extra stressful during hard times. Some responses by others can be helpful, while others can make things worse. The book is fairly short and probably best for people that relate towards similar situations. 

Don't Call It a Comeback: What Happened When I Stopped Chasing PRs, and Started Chasing Happiness

Don't Call It a Comeback: What Happened When I Stopped Chasing PRs, and Started Chasing Happiness by Keira D'Amato and Evelyn Spence

Keira D'Amato was a runner in high school and college. Then life went on. She had married a runner who was serving in the military. He was away a lot. She spent a lot of time with the kids, and disregarded her health and did not run for a decade. She then decided to get back into running. She pushed herself and was able to set Personal Records and even American records in running. She got a press as a mother that was running and doing well. She portrays herself as a lackadaisical runner who was running because she liked to and loved her independence while she just happened to achieve. Some races she did poorly, while others were great. She ran a "COVID race" with a few other runners to set a 10-mile best. She held the US Marathon record for 9 months. She eventually did sign with Nike and continued to compete. In her process she had a few health scares. In most cases she had a second opinion that helped provide a solution that let her run. (She lived with hip flexor issues. She discovered that her endocrine issues were related to the inhaler she was using.) The story is interesting, but it felt like it came to a conclusion three times before it actually ended.

Saving Can-Do: How to Revive the Spirit of America

Saving Can-Do: How to Revive the Spirit of America by Philip K. Howard

America is over-regulated with nobody able to make decisions. This may prevent some bad things from happening. But it also makes it much more difficult to accomplish good things. It also leads to different types of bad things. Society is obsessed with "liability avoidance". Instead of being free to solve problems, people focus on adhering to regulations as they exist. Government jobs have become collectively bargained sinecures. In education, the teachers' union bargains for the benefit of the union. Highly regulated teaching plans work fine for tem, even if it harms the overall quality of teaching. Building things requires going through huge amounts of red tape and reviews. These processes often are used as means of rent seaking and stalling. Thus projects take much longer and cost much more than similar projects elsewhere in the world. The solutions to this problem of this bloat seems simple, but will be a huge challenge to implement.

The Half-life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date

The Half-life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date by Samuel Arbesman

Most people stick with the things they learned when they were young. However, facts decay and become irrelevant after time. Each type of "fact" has a different half-life. Scientific facts change as we learn more. A doctor that only stuck with what they learned in medical school would likely be treating people in very outdated ways. (People were once treated with "bleeding". Cigarettes were once considered  healthy.) Continuing education is needed to stay current. It is impossible to know everything. Why waste brain space with outdated facts? It takes effort to keep our general knowledge up to date with current facts.

Take a Girl Like You (NYRB Classics)

Take a Girl Like You (NYRB Classics) by Kingsley Amis

In the 1960s, young adults behaved badly. The book centers on a man that is trying to put the moves on a girl. The girl likes him, but doesn't want to go all the way. There is also a girl that is pretending to be French that puts the moves on her. There is also a married couple behaving badly. Everyone is depraved in a different way. The book ends with the girl getting drunk and being raped by the guy that was trying to put the moves on her. They treat it as something normal and meet afterwards - though she says she does not want to be with him. It's hard not to feel sick after reading this dated book.

Parade: A Novel

Parade: A Novel by Rachel Cusk

There are artists. Female artists can be conflicted in their artistic and family responsibilities. Somebody committed suicide in an art gallery. Some parade was going on. There is not much to recommend in this book.

Tokyo Express: A Novel

Tokyo Express: A Novel by Seicho Matsumoto, translated by Jesse Kirkwood

An official and a woman appeared dead in an apparent love suicide. There were witnesses that saw them boarding a train and they later showed up dead.  It seemed fairly straightforward. However, the man was involved in a scandal. Could there be something else involved? The detective looked at the clues and everything seemed to stack up. However, things seemed to be just a little too good. There was also little evidence of the man and the woman in a relationship before they were seen at the train station. The detective was persistent and continue to investigate. The coincidences were just too much. Eventually he discovered that it was an elaborately set up murder organized in part by a dying woman who was obsessed with train scheduled. (They did happen to get the couple seen from a platform away in a rare time when there would be no train in between.) The perpetrator (a high ranking official and his wife) almost got away with it. Once they saw they would be caught they took their lives. It was a well done whodunit. 

Far and Away: A Prize Every Time

Far and Away: A Prize Every Time by Neil Peart

This is similar to Neil Peart's other "travel books". He is primarily travelling around on his motorcycle with a friend between concert tour stops. Most of the experience is in US and Canada. He primarily takes small roads when possible. Sometimes he runs into roads blocked by snow (even in June!) He had other experiences with heavy thunderstorms and other extreme weather.

He did also travel in South America between tour stops. This added the risk of border crossings and less developed environments. He intentionally stayed out of the more urban areas to ride around in rural areas. This had its own challenges. The GPS was not super accurate and the areas were not well labelled. They ended up way over-shooting a bridge that would get them into Uruguay. Luckily they found a remote ferry that eventually helped to get them around.

He takes time to comment on society and conditions. He likes compact mountain towns and prefers small mom-and-pop stores. (Logan Utah seemed to be a good one.) There is various commentary on the history that he observed. He also sought to take on many national parks. (Yellowstone was one of the last ones he covered.) In all these voyages, he still managed to make it to his concerts in time.

Pimsleur Korean Level 1

Pimsleur Korean Level 1 by Pimsleur

Amazon doesn't have a link to the current full level one, so I linked to an old CD. This has 30 30 minute lessons. You are supposed to do one per day. You can check it out for 21 days at the library. This leads to a small math problem. The content seems ok, but I find it better to check out the individual 5 lessons chunks so that they can actually be finished.

Transport for Humans: Are We Nearly There Yet?

Transport for Humans: Are We Nearly There Yet? by Pete Dyson and Rory Sutherland

Transportation planning often focuses on speeding up time. This is great for freight, but fails humans. Psychology can inform planners of the best way to improve systems for humans. The conditions of the transport and status may make a greater impact than the actual speed. Counteritivite improvements may be difficult in practice, even though they would theoretically help. (A variable speed limit that is lower than the maximum would help everyone to get there faster at a consistent speed. However, drivers have difficulty seeing how driving slower can make them faster.)

Planners often focus on the part of the system they control, without looking at a whole system. A train operator may shave 5 minutes off the travel time. However, a user would need to add time to travel to the train station and to arrive there early for security and check in. Reducing those times would reduce travel time without added expense.

The comfort of the transportation can also make a big difference. The Concord was fast. The 747 and descendents are much slower, but they have lay-flat beds in first class. The wealthy ended up opting for comfort over speed. Trains with clean windows or seat-back trays provide a more comfortable experience and make travel time feel shorter.

Numbers can also be misleading. A small speed improvement on a slower road will provide greater benefit than a similar improvement on a fast road. People don't care about "average" travel time. They want to know if their trip will arrive on time. Deviations and unexpected changes are of significant concern. Providing accurate up-date status on train arrivals greatly improves travel experience.

Will transit planners actually shift their focus to making transportation for people? Will they actually focus on making a good walking and biking experience for entire routes? It has yet to be seen.

Korean Hangul for Beginners

Korean Hangul for Beginners by Soohee Kim, Haewon Cho and Emily Curtis

Hangul is a logical writing system that combines an intuitive alphabet in a syllabic writing system. The letters are written in a way that relates to the way they are pronounced. They are then combined in blocks with consonants and vowels that make up a syllable. The sounds are almost always the same, though there are some special cases especially at the ends of the words. This workbook provides a good way of learning. It explains the symbols and provides details on how symbols are built upon previous symbols. There is plenty of practice with both writing and hearing the characters. It does require some effort to learn the characters, but just reading the book can provide some background.

Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder

Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder by Asako Yuzuki

A fat woman criminal has captivated interest in Japan. She has been jailed for the deaths of rich men she dated. She has affairs with them and then they later die in a way that could seem to be suicide. She is jailed. A woman who works for a magazine wants to get her story. She meets with her regularly in the prison. At first she has trouble getting to her. However, she realizes that the criminal loves food. She works to follow the criminal's food suggestions and recipes - even enrolling in the same cooking school. She gains weight and learns to appreciate the criminal. She also gets closer to her and gets some stories out of her and her family. After the story is published, the criminal talks smack about the magazine girl and how she tried to be like her by copying her cooking and seemed to be attracted to her. This set magazine girl in a downward spiral and almost caused her death in traffic. She realizes that the criminal has strong narcissistic traits that has led to other's deaths. She manages to break out of it and calls her friends. The book has a number of other sub-plots with characters and their lives. It does show the power that somebody can have by suggestion. It fits in with the "Japanese obsession with food" sub-genre.

Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum

Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum by Michael J. Fox and Nelle Fortenberry

Michael J. Fox was a starving artist looking for any opportunity to act. He landed on the sitcom Family Ties. He jumped at the chance to start in the movie Teen Wolf. Then Back to the Future happened. The movie was not working with the current lead and they wanted him to come in and star. He worked on the movie during the night and the show during the day. They could tell the movie would be success from the early screenings and it was. It was one of the few "time travel" movies that really worked. This memoir focuses on the movie, but also provides some of Fox's early background (though it ends after the film is released.) It is timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the film. (Interestingly, that is 10 more years than the difference in the two time periods of the film.) The book is short and to the point, with the audiobook including some bits of dialog from the film.

Fearless

Fearless by Lauren Roberts

This conclusion to the Powerless series is filled with tons of twists and turns - way too many of them. The girl is going to be married to the "wrong" boy. It would have been nice to see her end up with the "true love" instead, but you knew it would not happen. A single twist could have done it. Instead there were dozens. She kills thet rue love, only to later find out it was somebody in disguise. She finds out that she is actually an abandoned royal daughter.  A friend is not actually a friend. There was a plot to spread the plague around and the King was both noble and crazy. In the end, the king dies, she discovers that she is the royal rather than the guy she loves and they get to live happily ever after and have kids. Remove three quarters of the sub-plots and this could be a good book.

Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity

Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity by Paul Kingsnorth

Western culture has gone against itself. The elites have decided that the western culture is "bad" due to imperialist roots and sought to focus on individuals beliefs. Other cultures are still respected to some extent even if they go against individuality. However, they are also gradually being subsumed. Alas, we cannot dictate what will come and fill the void. What has been coming about is an unbridled individuality and capitalistic machine. Both the right and left work within this machine. Science and rational thought are the new "religion" of the machine. People are in a supreme position to remake the world however they see fit. However, what is instead being remade is humanity itself. People are attached to screens for much of their lives. New technology becomes ubiquitous, making it difficult to function outside of it. We have transportation that can move us faster - but the places we go are now all very similar. Religion and human-scale social ties are fading as mass algorithm-based communication has dominated. AI prevents many potential unknowns. The ancient Luddites were dispariaged for fighting against technology, but maybe they were on to something. Are all the benefits of modern technology worth it? Are we too busy debating the margins of the machine to notice what has subsumed humanity? The book is well reasoned, balance look from somebody that has taken part in various movements and tries to look at all sides of issues. 

Gravity's Rainbow

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

I started this after reading a quote from here about burned out light bulbs. It is a long book. After spending a few hours, I was not impressed and getting sick of the vulgarity, so I put it down. That's about it. (From November 18, 2016)

I am not a fan George Guidall narrations. His voice screams out "boring" and there are too many "empty spaces" as he reads. It doesn't help that the book is long and rambling. The Pulitzer Advisory Board was offended by its content, some of which was described as "'unreadable', 'turgid', 'overwritten', and in parts 'obscene'. That feels accurate.

While it is not being vulgar and scattalogical, there is a bit of World War II science fiction going on. There is some super device that some people want. Nazis and various other people come into play. Perhaps that would be an interesting novella, rather than an afterthought in 37 hours of blather.

Off With Their Heads

Off With Their Heads by Zoe Hana Mikuta

The characters from Wonderland inhabit a fantasy world in a prequel to Alice and Wonderland. The idea has potential, but the execution is needlessly vulgar and complicated. 

Pimsleur Korean Level 1 Lessons 1-5

Pimsleur Korean Level 1 Lessons 1-5 by Pimsleur

This Korean course was a nice length that can be completed in a library checkout. There are other Pimsleur courses that have 30 lessons. This is a problem if you are supposed to do one a day and can only check out for 21 days. It attempts to use a conversational style of learning. However, there is too much English. It becomes "duolingo phrases" with most of the effort being matching English phrases to Korean phrases. They recommend going to the next level once you can respond appropriately to 80% of the prompts. After repeating lessons a few times, I finally just decided to skip ahead. There is no magic here. Luckily it does build on phrase work in future lessons so things are gradually drilled in. 

My First Book of Korean Words: An ABC Rhyming Book of Korean Language and Culture

My First Book of Korean Words: An ABC Rhyming Book of Korean Language and Culture by Henry J. Amen Iv and Kyubyong Park, illustrated by Aya Padrón

This is an "ABC" book of Korean words. The only catch is that the romanization of Korean does not include all the letters. Thus some of the words are English with a Korean translation, such as "F is for flying - nalda". Other words use less popular romanization "G is for gimchi", though most of us would think of it as kimchi. They do have downloads of the words. However, the bulk download did not work properly and the individual words were each in a single file. It did work, but it could be a bit painful. The book was not bad, but kids did not seem too interested.

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad

The author partied a lot as a young adult and jumped around from boyfriend to boyfriend. She decided to get dedicated to work by taking a job in France. She also entered into a longer term relationship. Then she discovered she had cancer. Treatment was a long process. Her boyfriend and her parents provided a huge amount of selfless service. She did not appreciate it enough. She found herself distancing herself from them. She had started writing about her battle with cancer as she was going through the process. It took a while to realize the impacts it had on loved ones. She was not the only one to have life interrupted. There were also the challenges of dealing with life after cancer. With so much focus on beating it, it is easy to lose track of the post-cancer life. She goes on a cross country road trip to try to find herself post-cancer. Discussions with many people help her learn more about herself and relationships with others. Do we spend enough time looking at the social and other non-medical impacts of fighting disease. What is the point of licking a disease if it destroys lives?

Korean Folktales for Language Learners: Traditional Stories in English and Korean

Korean Folktales for Language Learners: Traditional Stories in English and Korean by Sukyeon Cho, Yeon-Jeong Kim and Andrew Killick

This is a language learning book disguised as a storybook. The Korean folktales are presented in both English and Korean. The book contains additional instruction on the basics of Korean characters and language. There are also definitions of many of the Korean words used. This would be a great text for intermediate Korean language study. Even without knowledge of Korean, the book works as a series of English stories. The folktales are short and include a paragraph of discussion. There are some that have parallels in the west (such as Cinderella). Many of them emphasize traits important to Koreans, such as humility and family loyalty. It would be a great book to revisit after learning more Korean.

The Languages of Pao

The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance

This is the 2004 "Vance Integral Edition" of the book. It had reviewed various versions to produce an "authoritative" version of the book that as reviewed by Vance. It was not easy to find, and ended up coming from on library loan from New Hampshire. 

Pao is a peaceful planet with billions of inhabitants. The language stresses a strong sense of community and togetherness. People are content having their basic needs fulfilled. However, this also leaves them susceptible to outside interference. The leader is killed and a pretender takes over. He is required to pay regular tribute to a warrior planet. The man with a real claim to the throne is taken under the wing of another leader. This leader trains him in the language and culture of the planet. It is part of a long scheme to get power. As part of this scheme a number of other people are sent off Pao to study linguistics in order to become future leaders. Different regions of Pao are also set up for certain groups (such as a warrior class) with their own languages. The true inheritor of the throne returns and is able to assume power. He helps the planet to grow and kick out their oppressors. However, he discovers that the planet is losing its identity. The grops have their own languages and thought processes. He hatches a plan to unify the country under a common language to maintain the identity. 

The book has some interesting takes on languages and their influence on culture. The neighboring planet has a "selfish" society that has great power over others. The planet is almost entirely men. They import women as concubines. The healthy sons remain while the daughters return with their mothers after the concubine period is over. This allows the group to rapidly reproduce, but does make them highly dependent on having a continual stream of foreigners. Could a society like this really function for a length of time? However, even more concerning is the unity of the original Pao language. Could a simple agricultural planet really maintain a single language across 15 billion people? Would the society stay similar across this planet?

Reckless

Reckless by Lauren Roberts

The book starts out with the two lovers hating each other because each has killed the other's father. It ends with them reconciling, but with his brother proposing marriage to her. In there the middle, there is non-stop Hollywood-style adventure. He chases her and after various escapes finally catches her. Then she is rescued and he is caught. Then they are both caught. They run through escapes and "play lovers" a few time before realizing they do love each other. They find out more about their past and the societal plans. Finally they reach his brother who is now the ruler. There are plenty of twists and turns that are just plausible enough to work, with the relationship gradually growing in a believable fashion. The world building remains a little confusing, but is not super important.

Powerless

Powerless by Lauren Roberts

in a post-apocalyptic world, some people have "special powers". These people with the powers have taken power and relegated the "ordinaries" to a lower class. There are even people that go out and try to kill off any ordinary people. The society has a hunger-games style competition where people with special powers compete and kill each other, with some voted on by the general public. Into this situation, a boy meets a girl. The girl is an ordinary who fakes a predictive power (she is just very observant and can guess things about people when seeing them.) The boy is the son of the king. He works as the "enforcer", killing off ordinaries, though he has a soft spot for kids. They fall for each other, yet they also compete with each other. At the end, we learn that each has killed the other's father. There is not much original in this book, but the story telling is a bit better than similar books.