2018 Book Reading: List of Completed Readings: Disuniting of America by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Why There Is No God by Armin Navabi The Confidence Game by Maria Konnikova Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel The Dhammapada translated by Eknath Easwaran Bhagavad Gita translated by Eknath Easwaran The Ishvara Gita translated by Andrew Nicholson The … Continue reading My Readings for these past couple of years
Book Reviews
Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel
I began reading this book out of curiosity on what insights Dr. Esther Perel, a psychotherapist whose work and counseling focuses on sexual relationships, could offer in the subject matter of married sex lives. I had found her speaking events to be quite educational and useful for understanding people's sexual inhibitions and preferences. Seeing her … Continue reading Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel
Review of Unifying Hinduism by Andrew Nicholson: Errors in Reasoning
Although I'd like to praise this work, as I largely liked Nicholson's analyses and enjoyed reading some of them, I'm compelled by my own academic standards to give Unifying Hinduism a negative review. First, let me just say that for the average reader that this book will possibly satisfy interest in examining interesting parts about … Continue reading Review of Unifying Hinduism by Andrew Nicholson: Errors in Reasoning
The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Self-refuting and unsubstantiated Please note: I'm not giving a negative review on the basis of the thesis of the argument. I'm giving a negative review because of how bafflingly self-refuting the author's arguments were. Reading this book, I held no real opinions on the matter. I was, to the best of my knowledge, impartial to … Continue reading The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance This book, by Psychologist Angela Duckworth, was very illuminating. I had heard of this book before thanks to having read Carol Dweck and Heidi Grant Halvorson's books, but I wish I had read this one before them because I feel that it provides the foundational basis for those … Continue reading Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Discover Your Genius by Gerald Sindell
This 11-step guidebook is a complete disappointment. I had foolishly considered the notion that perhaps a book that didn't use statistical evidence or clinical psychological trials might hold some kernel of wisdom. After all, philosophers and Eastern religious texts offer interesting insights that I find worth consideration. To off-set the chance of disappointment, I had … Continue reading Discover Your Genius by Gerald Sindell
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
10/10 This book is definitely worthy of its praise. Harvard Psychologist Daniel Gilbert provides some of the most incredible insights on how we misjudge our own behavior in the future and even go as far as to misinterpret the past. There's more depth in so many of these psychology books that I read that one … Continue reading Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
Review of Winner-Take-All Politics by Hacker and Pierson
Link to Amazon website for the book: Winner-Take-All Politics Review of Winner-Take-All Politics by Hacker and Pierson Must Read: for those who care about economic inequality and feel disillusioned or depressed by the inaction in Washington. This is one of the most eye-opening books about modern political policy, political history of how the Super-rich took … Continue reading Review of Winner-Take-All Politics by Hacker and Pierson
Lying by Sam Harris
This book is, by far, one of the silliest that I've ever read. Sam Harris makes bold claims about how lying is always morally wrong and goes so far as to argue that a college lesson by a professor influenced him into realizing that lying is always wrong. Harris actually claims that even in the … Continue reading Lying by Sam Harris
Persuasive Writing: The 80/20 Solution
I cannot fathom why anyone would spend their own money to market this book for $2.99. Seriously? The author has no understanding of marketing and competition. You can finish this book in five minutes of reading and all this author does is make utterly worthless suggestions on how to frame each paragraph to connect them. … Continue reading Persuasive Writing: The 80/20 Solution
I Hero: The Beginning by Jason Zandri
The main character is a Gary Stu. After a fairly interesting prologue, the story devolves into ridiculously obvious cliches, the author portrays a "Middle Eastern" side character with some weird mix of Israeli and Pakistani name origins. Assuming the author was trying to portray a typical person from the Middle East then he failed to … Continue reading I Hero: The Beginning by Jason Zandri
Dating and interviewing: How improving one skill improves others by Aadi Reddy
This book suffers from a myriad of run-on sentences, awkward wording that often times makes little sense within the context of the sentence, and it reads like an unedited diatribe of whatever was on the author’s mind. The title seems misleading; the author offers a scant few hypothetical examples that rely on the author’s obvious … Continue reading Dating and interviewing: How improving one skill improves others by Aadi Reddy
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
By far, one of the greatest books I’ve had the pleasure of reading. Daniel Kahneman goes into such details for biases in availability, to substitution of hard questions to how we feel about such difficult questions, and how we try to find causes where there are none. There is a plethora of riveting, academic, and … Continue reading Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Schopenhauer’s book “The Wisdom of Life”
Schopenhauer’s book “The Wisdom of Life” is pretentious garbage. Nietzsche’s assessment of Schopenhauer, which seemed altogether extreme, turned out to be correct. Schopenhauer was a nihilist of the most lamentable sort – you read that right: Schopenhauer was a nihilist that was more lamentable than traditional nihilism. The framework of Schopenhauer’s “The Wisdom of Life” … Continue reading Schopenhauer’s book “The Wisdom of Life”
An Atheist Manifesto by Joseph Lewis: An angry and ludicrous tangent
Let me dispense with the quick ad hominem that I'm sure will follow this review. I didn't give such a negative review because of the argument that this book favors; I'm giving it a bad rating because I sincerely find no compelling reason to view the contents of this book as anything more than an … Continue reading An Atheist Manifesto by Joseph Lewis: An angry and ludicrous tangent
My ebook
Sorry about my neglect in updating for a some time now. I am excited to announce that I have been working on and completed my first ebook. Kindle Unlimited readers can read it free and you can check out the free sample before purchase, if you're interested: It is my response to New Atheism and … Continue reading My ebook