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All in Nonfiction
Rating: 5/5 | I listened to this audiobook in the week or so leading up to the 2018 midterms, and I actually had it in my ears as I voted. I finished it that evening, before the elections were decided. That was an excellent choice. (Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 3.5/5 | Calypso was delightful. I listened to the audiobook, actually, which I love to do with nonfiction because the author usually reads it. Listening to Sedaris read his books is especially fantastic, and this one was no different. To parrot what literally the entire rest of the world says, he is hilarious and very real. (Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 3.75/5 | This was a really interesting book with a great concept. Gluckman, who works in the tech industry herself and found herself really waking up to the gender issues within it, set out on a mission to interview some tech powerwomen. (Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 5/5 | Zachary Wood is an impressive person. He wrote his memoir like he lives his life: free of judgment, open to interpersonal connection, assertive but not aggressive, and with plenty of room for the reader to maintain his or her dignity and opinion. He seeks to understand, to connect, to challenge assumptions, and to broaden both his and his readers' understanding of the world. (Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 5/5 | Tell Me How It Ends is a short, concise, but hard-hitting work of literary nonfiction. It made me think about an issue that I haven't let myself think about to deeply, and it humanized it more than numbers and statistics ever could. This will only take you a few hours to read. Do it. (Click the post to read more.}
Rating: 4/5 | New Power was a fascinating look at one of the many ways the world is changing. It offers a study of "old power" vs "new power" and suggests ways they can be used strategically together to help effect positive change. The old vs. new dichotomy is straightforward and makes a complex situation easier to understand. They also picked great examples to help illustrate their points. (Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 3/5 | They Myth of the Nice Girl was a quick read with some actionable tips, and I'm glad I read it. Fran Hauser is articulate and comes across warmly, and she has done her homework when it comes to backing up her points. At the end of the day, this book is one of those that takes a lot of things you probably know intuitively and puts them together in a way that feels useful and helps you steer your own actions. (Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 4/5 | This book was a quick, actionable, engaging read that left me feeling inspired to set goals and then go achieve them. Doerr is a leader in his field, and he writes clearly and confidently. (Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 4/5 | I read Endure as part of The Next Big Idea Club with Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Daniel Pink, and Susan Cain. It was very, very interesting, and one of those books that I may not have otherwise picked up but am glad I did. Alex Hutchinson presents a thorough view of the different theories and research about human endurance (is it physical or mental?), weaving stories about real athletes into each chapter to keep you engaged and intrigued.(Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 5/5 | Hunger is a raw, real, scorching work. Roxane Gay is a masterful writer, and she invites readers into the depths of her soul with grace—angry, honest, welcoming grace. (Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 4.5/5 | Oh. my goodness. If you love words and language, you have to read this book (literally). Actually, I recommend that you listen to it as an audiobook, as I did. McWhorter is delightful and witty and very funny. Plus, a lot of his points depend on the pronunciation of words and inflection, so I think you'll get a lot more out of it that way. (Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 4/5 | The Checklist Manifesto was a delightful little book. It didn't necessarily teach me anything profound about checklists or how to make them, but it did take a bunch of things I already knew or understood and rearranged them in a way I hadn't considered before. The writing was great; it used good storytelling to feature many exciting examples, so I stayed attentive and intrigued. (Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 4/5 | This was a great book! Schaefer is compelling, entertaining, and moving. I've read a lot of nonfiction books, and they can often move slowly, even if they are saying important things. Not so with Text Me When You Get Home; I zipped through this one in just two days and truly enjoyed every second of it. (Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 5/5 | Reading Poor Your Soul was a beautiful, heartbreaking, moving experience. I found myself almost hypnotized by Mira Pitacin's masterful use of language and perspective. One evening, after I'd read a particularly emotional section of the book, I actually crawled into bed next to my husband and said, out loud, "I feel sad. Sad in the best way." (Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 3/5 | Where to begin? There were things I liked about this book, and there were things that sat awkwardly on my conscience. It was quick and ultra-digestible, and it made me feel inspired to action and hopeful about my professional future, but there were some truth bombs in there that speak to many of the things that are wrong with society today. (Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 4/5 | Ariel Levy's memoir is a punching account of her roller coaster of a life. I listened to her narrate the audiobook, which is far and away my favorite way to do memoirs, and she speaks as eloquently as she writes. She yanked my heart around and dropped truths that feel like guilty secrets to each of us, but that each of us understands all the same. (Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 5/5 | If you’re looking to be inspired, learn something, and maybe also kind of sob like a baby, please read this book (or listen to Joe read it himself as an audiobook, like I did). I loved Joe Biden before this book, but now that gut feeling has been affirmed. (Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 4/5 | What Happened is an honest, straightforward, passionate retelling of Hillary Rodham Clinton's experiences leading up to the 2016 election. She tells us why she always loved working in public service, how and why she decided to run for President, the way it felt to have Donald Trump "loom" over her onstage, and her frustration when the media focused on one thing—emails—rather than any of the policy-related things she said or believed. I am glad that I listened to the audiobook version, as she read it herself. (Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 5/5 | Wow. This is the book I didn't know I was waiting for. In this book, Ellen tells the story of how she was repeatedly promised the world and given the gutter at the behemoth venture capital firm where she worked. Then, she spent hundreds of thousands—if not a million—dollars of her own money to challenge the firm in court. She was eventually out-gunned by the firm's greater financial and legal resources, and she lost, but it was close. She had many, many opportunities to settle the case for a significant sum, but chose to surrender her money in order to be able to write this book and tell her story. (Click the post to read more.)
Rating: 5/5 | I am always looking for ways to learn new things, especially as it helps me get closer to accomplishing my professional goals. As a result, I've read a lot of books in this "self-help-for-business" genre. At this point, I sometimes feel like I've read all the advice before. This book pleasantly surprised me; all of it was engaging and entertaining as well as educational and thought-provoking. I learned something new and related the lessons back to my experiences with every turn of the page. (Click the post to read more.)
