Malinche: Una Novela

Malinche: Una Novela by Laura Esquivel

Since this was in Spanish, I found I had to listen to at 1.5 speed instead of my usual 3x. The book is ostensibly historical realism. It focuses on Malinche, a native Mexican who served as a guide and spouse of conquistador Hernan Cortes. She was part of a neighboring group that had no love for the Aztec leaders. However, in this story, she feels she is brought along for the ride. She is concerned that Cortes has took things too far as he has conquered Mexico for the Spaniards. This is primarily a vehicle for a tapestry of magical realism. There is plenty of great imagery, but not a lot of historically accurate details.

Learn Faster, Perform Better: A Musician's Guide to the Neuroscience of Practicing

Learn Faster, Perform Better: A Musician's Guide to the Neuroscience of Practicing by Molly Gebrian

This book applies neuroscience to music. Some of the research experiments cited started with sports, but are applicable to music. Practicing mentally can just be as valuable as practicing physically. Imagining your hands in the proper position can develop your brain just as well as actually practicing. 

Practicing the right way is also important. It is good to practice starting at various points in the piece. It is also important to practice the "hard parts" correctly multiple times. Generally, you should practice doing the right thing multiple times in a row. Playing the right thing 10 times in a row gets it stored properly. Just going through a bunch of easy parts doesn't house. Practicing properly can be more important than practicing a lot.

Nonviolent Communication: Create Your Life, Your Relationships, and Your World in Harmony with Your Values

Nonviolent Communication: Create Your Life, Your Relationships, and Your World in Harmony with Your Values by Marshall Rosenberg PhD

How do you communicate without resorting to attacks and various forms of violence? Some parts are straightforward. Instead of making demands, allow for gifts. Don't obligate people to do things they don't want to do. Instead, allow them to give gifts. It is also important to try to understand what somebody is really asking for. People will often express their desires in what they want other people to do. However, the real need is something below that. Why do they want people to act in a certain way? What are the needs they are trying to fulfill? Understanding these underlying needs will help to solve the problems in a nonviolent way. Getting to this place in the communication is the challenge, but also where the reward lies.

Chinese Characters across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese

Chinese Characters across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese by Zev Handel

For the most part, Chinese characters represent individual things such as objects or actions. In theory this would enable them to be understood across multiple languages. In some sense they can. Japan users Kanji to represent ideas that would be understood by those that know Chinese. Korea and Vietnam had also used Chinese characters for some communication. Ancient Chinese was primarily a literary language that would be used to communicate ideas and not necessarily one spoken by normal people. The pictographs were intelligible, shared ideas. However, they were just part of the language. Everyday speech also has some indication of sounds and grammatical structure. Ancient Chinese was similar to Latin in that it could communicate ideas across languages, but could not display the vernacular spoken language. Modern Chinese has adopted from ancient Chinese to write modern Mandarin. Japanese has incorporated Hirigana (and Katakana) with the characters for Japanese. Vietnamese and Korean have pivoted away from the characters altogether, adopting their own alphabet or a Latin letters for writing. The book has been adapted from an academic work for a general audience and still has some of its academic feel while covering the topic generally.

Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative

Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative by Glenn Loury

This book has a lot to unpack. It includes "Black Conservative" in the subtitle. However, he is far from the typical conservative. His most cited economic paper advocates redistributing money from the rich to the poor. (The societal benefits of the poor having a few extra dollars were found to be much greater than the losses experienced by the wealthy.) However, he also published papers against affirmative action. (A lower standard for certain groups would allow them to get through the door with less skill which would end up setting them back as they are not prepared to achieve.) At times he was embraced by the right. At times he was loved by the left. He didn't blindly adopt the beliefs of either side. Instead, he focussed on what he believed in. His beliefs were also not necessarily reflected in his actions.

He dropped out of school only to come back later. (Hence one possible positive meaning of "late admissions".) He received a PhD from MIT and later served as a tenured professor at multiple Ivy League schools. He advocated for black families to stick together, yet he he was not involved in his first son's life. He was in long term marriages, yet was also a serial philanderer. He is comfortable having erudite academic discussions as he is going to the ghetto and pursuing crack and prostitutes. (The "late admissions" could be all the confessing he does in this book about his bad behaviors and the people he has hurt.) He had been arrested on drug charges and spent time in rehab. He was nowhere near perfect and did not expect other people to be perfect. However, he does want to see people putting forth the effort to improve themselves. The book is an interesting story of the challenges in a life you cannot pigeonhole together with an interesting evolution of economic thought. 

Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist

Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist by Jason Mendelson and Brad Feld

This book explores the details of venture capital financing. It goes through the process of completing a term sheet, getting financing, and then experiencing the exit. The authors point out areas that they see as important and others that don't really matter. The stress is on what entrepreneurs will need. However, plenty of background on VCs and their challenges are faced. The negotiations should end up with partners rather than adversaries because the VCs and entrepreneurs will be in it for the long haul. To tie it all up, the book includes discussion on negotiation. The book did get a bit technical, but that felt necesary for some of the topic.

Earth Revisited

Earth Revisited by Byron Alden Brooks

A man from the 19th century wakes up in 1992. He is in a different body with a different woman (Helen) that reminds him of his early love, Theresa. Helen tries to nurse him back to health, thinking he is delirious. The world he lives in is a spiritualist socialist Utopia. There is no war. People live by Christian virtues, but there are no churches. There are interesting new technologies like a "tone telegraph". The book got more modern technologies wrong than it got right. It also spent a long time exploring the spirituality of the Utopian world. 

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, photos by Russell Munson

This is a very short book of a seagull who tries to fly very fast. He is rejected by other seagulls and hurts himself in some crashes. We wants to give up. After going to heaven, he helps teach another seagull to fly fast. Eventually the other can pass it down. This is a slightly trippy way of saying "follow your dreams regardless of what other people say."

Collision of Worlds: A Deep History of the Fall of Aztec Mexico and the Forging of New Spain

Collision of Worlds: A Deep History of the Fall of Aztec Mexico and the Forging of New Spain by David M. Carballo

This academic book explores the histories of Spain and Mexico before and immediately after Cortes conquered the Aztecs. The language is dense, though the primary sources are meager. Both areas had rich cultures that were well developed before they met. The Aztecs had recently come to dominate and tenuously held a domination over other peoples in the area. The Spaniards were able to exploit these rivalries with alliances. The warfare culture was also different. The Aztecs fighters were focussed primarily on their own achievements and preferred prisoners, while the Spaniards would kill. Culturally, the Spaniards were fine killing unbelievers, but were repulsed by the Aztec human sacrifices. Mexicans had sports and ball games as well as language and worship that were interesting to Spaniards while at the same time seen as somewhat heretical. The Spaniards worked on the conversion with the conquering, with Christianity and churches placed over former Mexican pyramids and worship sites. It is also interesting that the Spaniards focussed on areas familiar to them. The Yucatan was a bit too hard for them to manage. Diseases also worked in the Spaniards favor as the Mexicans had little animal culture and the exposure to disease. Could things have turned out differently?

The Price of Victory: A Naval History of Britain: 1815 - 1945

The Price of Victory: A Naval History of Britain: 1815 - 1945 by N. A. M. Rodger

This is a long, well annotated history of British Navy up until World War II. It is best targeted to the military buff. As a casual reader, I was lost with the intricate details.

My Effin' Life

My Effin' Life by Geddy Lee

Before jumping into his rock and roll memoir, Geddy starts with a narrative of his parents' experience in the holocaust. They were Polish Jews who survived the experience (unlike many of their family members that were killed.) After their immigration to Canada, Geddy's experience in the Toronto suburbs begin. Geddy Lee is a mangling of the English version of his original Yiddish name. As a Jew he was on the outcast of youth culture. He took to the bass, while also smoking and eventually doing drugs. He was in the same class as Rick Moranis, but they were not super close. He did befriend future Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson (who also changed his name from the Serbian original.) After bouncing around a few bands, they formed Rush, only for Geddy to be kicked out and later rejoin. John Rustey, their original drummer left the band shortly after their first album. (He was having trouble and there seemed to be a mixture of him stressing and the other bandmates not liking his behavior.) They auditioned drummers and lined up Neil Peart, and the rest his history. They had plenty of the usual rock and roll things. There were plenty of drugs. (Though Geddy admits enough was enough and he ended up quitting drugs and smoking.) All the band members were married and stayed together, with the only second marriage being after Peart's first wife's death. The touring life while married was challenging, but they were able to get through it after counseling.  There were various challenges on the tour, including roadies that had various personal issues. They also had challenges with recording and the business side of things. Rush is a little different from the typical rock band, and this memoir is a bit different, though much is similar to others.

Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now

Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now by Jeff Yang, Phil Yu,and Philip Wang

"Asian American" is a huge category. Over half lives in Asia. Pacific Islanders are often included in the group, further expanding the diversity. A Somoan, Pakistani and Vietnamese are all grouped together in what becomes a catch-all group. Though they have little in common, they are often seen as part of this "other" and band together. After events such as 9/11 or coronavirus outbreak, Asians found themselves in an area of shared victimhood.

The book provides some background of Asian history and early pop culture, but the focus is on more modern times. Early pop culture was fairly bleak. There would often be white actors in yellow-face playing to Asian stereotypes. Even when there were Asian actors, they would rarely be the stars. Asian films and TV shows would lose much of the Asian-ness when coming to the US. Things have changed over the past decades. Crouch Tiger, Hidden Dragon was popular and earned awards despite being subtitled and having an Asian cast. Asian actors have been playing more leading roles. Kpop and Kdrama have become extremely popular. Yet despite this popularity, they still are paid a fraction what white actors would be paid.

Asian-Americans often grew up with the same popular media as their white friends. However, they also had some of their own culture and expected values. The group is diverse on many levels. There are more actors and musicians today with Asian backgrounds. The diversity remains. One recurring part of the book is podcasters that talk about "disgrasians". A group are criticising Asians that disgrace their community - which often means they are behaving in a way that they don't like. (It can be challenging to advocate for identity politics while still being open minded.) The book bounces around among advocacy, history and culture and is quite relatable, if not a little long.

There are also good explanations of the "pop history" of Asian Americans. Many of the "towns" still have old-time ethnic inhabitants. However, newer, well-to-do immigrants often decamp straight to the ethnic suburbs like Cupertino. Will Asian immigrants retain a cultural identity after a few generations? Or will they become subsumed in a new Euro-Asian melting pot? 

The Dating Dare: A Novel

The Dating Dare: A Novel by Jayci Lee

Two Korean-Americans meet at a wedding. They fall for each other immediately, but both are reluctant to enter a relationship. They play a "game" where they will go on four dates without falling for each other. He has to go to Paris for a great photography opportunity in a short time, so they know it will only be temporary. Alas, this is a romance, so of course they will end up together. They also discover that they each have similar backgrounds and have been burned in the past. It is lighthearted without getting too spicy, though language is far from clean. For a romance, it is much better than the romatasy slop out there.

72 Stories: From the Baseball Collection of Geddy Lee

72 Stories: From the Baseball Collection of Geddy Lee by Geddy Lee

Rush frontman Geddy Lee is a baseball fan and became hooked on memorabilia collection. In this book he tells 72 baseball stories related to his collection. He also includes a bit of his history and some history of collectors in general. He got the collectors bug and would often be involved in bidding in auctions while on tour with his band. He has bought a few items that are not as authentic as he liked. He also made a donation of many items to the Negro League museum. The stories bring alive many baseball players from the distant past as well as those of today. He does rely heavily on other sources for details, but has them spiced up with his personal experiences. Even though I am not into baseball, I found it to be a great book.

Pimsleur Korean Level 1 Lessons 11-15

Pimsleur Korean Level 1 Lessons 11-15 by Pimsleur

In the third installment, there is a lot of time spent ordering bottles of wine or cans of beer. These lessons are not particularly useful and are difficult to stick. The numbers are     covered in various times, but just don't seem to stick either. Korean does have a couple numbering systems, making it even more confusing. This is a time where drilling or using audio and video together would be more useful.

A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age

A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Rob Goodman

Claude Shannon was smart and introduced the information age. He had worked much in industry and pioneered ideas useful for transmitting information across phone networks. He helped understand the redundancy of data and how information can be compressed, error corrected and used to communicate across distances. It was a very practical field with some rigourous underpinnings. He was also a "character" with interesting social skills. He married his first wife because they liked the same music. He had general "I understand the world better than traditionalists" outlook.  I had a read a few Shannon books before, and didn't realize I had actually read this one before. This one felt a bit slow.

A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power

A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power by Paul Fischer

Kim Jong-Il was the North Korean son and dictator in waiting in North Korea. He loved film and had many western movies clandestinely pirated and brought to him. Internally, residents were only allowed to view locally made films. These were heavy on propaganda and low on quality. He wanted to launch a strong local film industry that could produce films that would win awards at film festivals. He decided to do it in a typically bizarre way. He kidnapped a South Korean actress. Then later kidnapped a director that happened to be her ex husband. He first spent years indoctrinating them in the positives of North Korea. After he thought they were ready, he let them produce movies. These films won awards and received acclaim. The couple gradually rekindled their relationship and remarried. They longed to escape. However, they were constantly monitored by bodyguards. To protect their lives, they needed to portray loyalty to North Korea. After one leak that they were kidnapped, they held a press conference to say they were there willingly. After increasing movie success, they were allowed to travel further abroad. Finally, when they were in Vienna, they were able to avoid their minders in a taxi chase and make it to the US embassy. There they defected to the west, and eventually escaped to the US. They continued to make movies in the US, while Kim Jong-Il "erased" them from North Korean film history. It is a so strange it must be true tale told in a riveting fashion. 

Hoop Atlas: Mapping the Remarkable Transformation of the Modern NBA

Hoop Atlas: Mapping the Remarkable Transformation of the Modern NBA by Kirk Goldsberry

Who is the greatest basketball player? Rather than look at stats, we can look at how they have influenced the NBA. Michael Jordan received many individual awards. He also significantly altered the course of the NBA. Stephen Curry was on the vanguard of similar changes. Shooting and ball handling became more important. The three pointer grew in importance. Great players are excellent at what they do and are emulated by many others. This book looks at the evolution of the NBA by focussing on many of the key greats that have lead the change. The NBA went from being dominated by big centers to being dominated by outside shooters. Today things are coming back with big men with shooting and ball handling skills getting their day. The author doesn't proclaim any of the players the greatest, but does show how each of many greats are important by their stats and future influence.

Lost on the Amazon (Choose Your Own Adventure #9)

Lost on the Amazon (Choose Your Own Adventure #9) by R. A. Montgomery

This 1980s book has been updated to include mention of cell phones, but much of the story remains the same. You are a doctor going to the Amazon to help people and rescue some friends. You battle with the situation as well as run into real "Amazons". I like to read these to find all the endings. Now I remember how annoying it was. I have various bookmarks to try to go back. The various endings are also not in the same universe. The multiple endings are not different outcomes from the same base scenario, but instead rely on different premises. 

K-Drama School: A Pop Culture Inquiry into Why We Love Korean Television

K-Drama School: A Pop Culture Inquiry into Why We Love Korean Television by Grace Jung

When reading this book, I waffled from loving it to not liking it. Overall, I went for the positive. K-Drama is covered extensively, but is almost incidental to the book. korean Drama serves as a framing mechanism for the author to discuss her life and challenges, as well as the experiences of Koreans and Asians. Koreans has had a challenging history with large falls and rapid rises. Japan occupied Korea, kicked out the monarchs and attempted to wipe out Korean identity. Korea achieved freedom at the end of World War II, only to be divided into two. Many travesties occurred in the Korean War. The war was inconclusive (and technical is still ongoing.) South Korea has a large US military base (despite being an ally.) Televisions were introduced to Korea at this time. The dictatorship ruling the country created a television network to help spread propaganda. Television manufacturers created their own network to sell televisions. Korean Drama came out of this setting. The country suffered from many wounds and still had challenges ahead. Korean dramas were created rapidly and at low cost. There were limits on what could be shown (with the producers often hitten the edge of these limits.) Various tropes, such as amnesia were employed. Dramas also focussed on important parts of the Korean psyche. Society is heavily driven to succeed.  We can see both general as well as individual challenges in the dramas.

The author looks at various dramas and discusses how they relate to her experience (which includes various forms of abuse) as well as Korean life (including adoptions.) She has the power to look beyond the immediate problems. Abusers are people who often suffered from abuse earlier in their life. Ending the cycle is important. She suffered significant abuse from her parents. (In one case she received a huge beating from her mom after her mom misunderstood an elementary school teacher.) She suffered greatly and wanted to separate herself from her family. However, she was able to make peace with them. She is critical of woke people who bring people down for behavior they do not respect. This does not help. Instead we are better understanding and helping others to learn. She received many degrees but was turned off from the academic culture. She finally found an area that she enjoyed. 

William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love: Art, Poetry, and the Imagining of a New World

William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love: Art, Poetry, and the Imagining of a New World by Philip Hoare

What would happen if you tripped out and started relating William Blake to every artist that interests you? You would end up with this book. It is a not very coherent exploration of various artists, with a focus on the early 20th century. They relate to Blake with some direct and indirect experience. The book rambles on for much too long without saying very much.

Taking Religion Seriously

Taking Religion Seriously by Charles Murray

Modern "scientific" people often look down on religions. It is seen as something quaint from the past. The author seeks to treat religion seriously. People's individual religious journey can be different. For some, there is the deep internal faith. For others, an intellectual approach works. The benefits of the culture and community are also a key part of the religious package. In this book, the author includes a large bibliography of many books that he was found useful in the spiritual exploration. There are also interesting discussions of the history and timeline of the Bible. He is of the side that the gospels were written early by people that may have direct knowledge of the events, rather than a later view that some modernists suppose. It is an interesting approach to religion and how it provides value even in today's modern society.

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski PhD and Amelia Nagoski DMA

How do women burnout and get stressed? The author focus on women and their tendency to care for others at the expense of themselves. The "bikini-industrial complex" is discussed a negative influence that encourages women to achieve a certain body type that may be the most helpful. While shooting for the ideal body type is not necessarily helpful, getting exercise is helpful for reducing stress. The book presents much of the standard stress-reduction advice. The difference is the woman focus and concerns about the "patriarchy" being a negative influence on women.

The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You

The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You by Julie Zhuo

Julie Zhuo joined Facebook in its infancy as a UX designer. The company grew rapidly and she was thrust into a leadership role and then up to being a leader of leaders. Her experience at a rapidly growing company required heavy emphasis on recruiting and growing a company. These may not be as applicable at other companies that are not rapidly growing. However, many of the other management discussions are universally applicable. People look at managers different than other people. They must also practice what they preach. It is hard to get a team to buy into ideas that the leader does not follow. Leaders must continue to focus on what procides the most value, and work on making themselves obsolete.

Less: A Novel

Less: A Novel by Andrew Sean Greer

Arthur Less is a mediocre gay novelist. He has brushed against some greatness, but seems destined to be unremarkable. He was once "stole" a well-known poet from his wife. He also had a book that had somewhat positive feedback. All of that was in the past. Now he is taking any opportunity he can find with anyone available. This leads to various humorous encounters. Even at a gay convention, his writing is deemed "not gay enough." He cannot seem to win. Luckily, I did not find myself caring much about him.