Glad I Didn't Live on the Frontier (2023 Year in Review)
2023 Round 26...
All previous Book Reviews/ ratings can be found at jessesbooks.com.
Merry Christmas ya filthy animals! My gift to you all is the final book review of 2023. Jesse’s Bookshelf wrapped:
Total books: 32
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 8
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 12
⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 10
⭐️⭐️ - 2
⭐️ - 0
Pages read: 11,144
Genres
Fiction: 6 (top book: Where The Crawdads Sing)
Non-fiction: 26 (top book: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage)
Top genre: History (x12)
Longest book: The Prize (884 pages)
Shortest book: The Fire Next Time (128 pages)
New Additions (Bolded)
[⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️] The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party, Daniel James Brown – Earlier this year, I’d listened to a fairly in-depth podcast that covered the Donner Party and was primarily based on The Indifferent Stars Above. As a result, I wanted to go back to the source material but was aware of most of what was covered in the book and what happened to the emigrants stranded in the Sierra Nevadas in the winter of 1846-47. It’s a brutally sad and horrific story of human suffering and pretty astounding how well-documented the events were. I won’t lie, it’s hard to read parts of this book, so not for the faint of heart. Unlike The Boys in the Boat, Brown interjects some of his own thoughts about what might have happened or how people might have felt, on the rare occasions when there are no direct sources. I’m not a big fan of this, but it was few and far between.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, Alfred Lansing – This book was INCREDIBLE. I’m talking ‘makes you proud to be a member of the human race’ incredible... ‘Put everything else in your life into perspective’ incredible... ‘It’s amazing what humans can accomplish’ incredible... Endurance is the story of Ernest Shackleton’s 1915 failed voyage to cross Antarctica, getting stuck with his crew of 28 men in the ice pack of the Weddell Sea, and their attempted survival through months in the polar ice. It’s beautiful, it’s heroic, it’s masterfully chronicled. It is a journey that is almost the dictionary definition of ‘unbelievable’. I shed a tear.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, David Grann –Woah, this one was very fascinating–finished it in one day. Killers of the Flower Moon dives into one of the least publicized, grizzly serial murders in US history. In a four-year span, known as the Reign of Terror, the Osage tribe in Oklahoma experienced 24 documented, and countless more undocumented, murders. These crimes, thought to be for oil-rich land rights, were covered up in rampant corruption until what would later become the FBI was handed the case. The Osage murders were the first major homicide case for the new organization, and Killers of the Flower Moon is a great investigative retelling of the brutal murders that devastated a family and community, and the fight to uncover the plot behind them.
The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times, Michelle Obama – The post title says it all. I love Michelle. World’s #1 stan. Although that might be a hotly contended title. Her second book, The Light We Carry, changes direction from Becoming. This is much less of a memoir and more candid advice from America’s favorite mom on how to get through life. Because it’s not all sunshine and roses, and sometimes we need some time-tested tactics to help get by. I really resonated with much of what Michelle talks about; being an only, having imposter syndrome, dealing with a fearful mind, and code-switching in different settings (this is not a comprehensive list). She’s relatable, down-to-earth, and grounded, and her tips and frameworks are practical and can be used by anyone. I’d highly recommend this book and actually liked it so much that I bought it in hardcopy after I finished on my Kindle so that I can refer to it later in life.
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, Michelle McNamara – Completely unplanned, but this was the second book about a serial killer I've read this year, and it's ranking right behind the first. McNamara's title is so appropriate; her investigation into the East Area Rapist (EAR)/ Original Night Stalker (ONS) crimes that terrorized Sacramento and Orange County can only be described as obsessive. Her reporting is so vividly detailed that it frequently sent chills down my spine reading about these terrible crimes. In the end, McNamara passed away before the culprit was determined and caught, but her work undoubtedly contributed, if not directly. As an aside, while I may often consider some places I've lived in to be unsafe, I cannot fathom living in the 1970s/80s with spikes in violent crime and under the constant threat of strangers prowling and breaking into my home.
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power, Daniel Yergin – HOLY SHIT, this was a mf doozy. Almost 800 pages on the complete history of the oil industry from inception in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859 to the present day state where the OPEC nations, specifically in the Middle East, wield immense power and influence. Now, I know what you’re thinking, which is “that sounds drier than an Arabian desert” and you actually could not be more wrong. The history of oil is so intricately linked to the history of international politics; it has shaped wars, corporations, foreign policy, and nations. The Prize is LONG but that’s because of the incredibly detailed reporting that Yergin provides. If you’ve got the time and are a world history person, this is a good one.
Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens – I’m not going to lie; I wanted to not like this book. Every basic white girl raved about how good it was and I just wanted to hate it. And through about 30-40% I was pretty successful. By the end though… it’s just really f****** good. Owens’ description of the marsh in which Kya, the main character, lives is BEAUTIFUL. She makes you feel like you’re boating the waterways with her, feeling the emotions she feels. She draws you in and you feel the betrayals and isolation that Kya feels. This is a masterfully written book, and even though it’s not my genre, Where the Crawdads Sing lives up to the hype.
The Club: How the English Premier League Became the Wildest, Richest, Most Disruptive Force in Sports, Joshua Robinson & Jonathan Clegg – The Club is a detailed retelling/ journalistic masterpiece of how the EPL came to be the global entertainment juggernaut that it is today. It follows the business behind the league, starting before its inception in 1992, working through the succession from the Football League First Division, through the back and forth between United and Arsenal in the 90s & early 2000s, the internationalization of the sport, and the teams in the 2000s, and finally brings us to the modern era; a league uprooted by insane foreign wealth (hello City), supermanagers, and the brightest of lights. As a joint soccer and business fan, I LOVED this book–it taught me the intricacies of how the EPL differs so much from American leagues. A pure capitalist structure compared to the more socialist NFL or NBA.
The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin – A thoroughly well-done critique of race in America in the 1960s. Written as two letters 100 years after Emancipation, one focusing on Baldwin’s upbringing in Harlem & relationship with the Church and the other dealing with Baldwin’s relationship with the Nation of Islam & the politics of race. Sometimes I forget how close we are as a nation to full-blown segregation and outright racism; that’s a privilege I’m afforded, in part thanks to Baldwin. The Fire Next Time brings that reality very close to home. It’s only 111 pages, so if you want to understand the systemic, structural, and psychological barriers Black America faces, from its own POV, spend the ~two hours reading this.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐
Pachinko, Min Jin Lee – This was a very good book. It’s not really my type of book, but it was really freaking good. It’s the tale of a Korean immigrant family in Japan, told over four generations. The tl;dr: immigrants have it HARD. It sucks, and yet they persevere and do what they must to give a better life to their children. It’s a very sad book, and at times can even be characterized as dark. Pachinko pulls no punches in depicting the immigrant struggle. My biggest critique is that the pacing of the final third doesn’t match the first two-thirds, with strange skips and jumps that can seem a little disconnected. It would be a five-star if Lee landed the plane a little more smoothly.
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic, Sam Quinones – I’ll be honest, I was very uninformed about how the opioid epidemic came about as well as exactly how bad it was at its peak. Dreamland is an excellent exercise in investigative journalism into the history behind how so many people have become addicted to painkillers and heroin. This delved into how the medical industry dealt with pain management, Purdue’s massive marketing campaign for Oxycontin as a nonaddictive painkiller, and the spread of black tar heroin cells from Nayarit, a tiny region in Mexico. It was a perfect storm that devastated much of the county, with as much as 10% of major cities being addicted at certain points in time. I learned a lot, but it’s a relatively sad book, especially living in San Francisco where downtown is still ravaged by drug addiction to this day.
The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects, Andrew Chen – This was an interesting business book on the details of network effects; what they really are, how they have manifested in some of the top tech (and physical) products of the last few decades, and how to address each step of the customer lifecycle. As the name suggested, Cold Start Problem also talks about how to get network effects off the ground, as well as scaling, plateauing, and networked competition. I found it interesting, practical, and likely useful, although Chen could go into more detail in his examples.
Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone, Brené Brown – My first Brené Brown experience and I was not disappointed. Braving the Wilderness is all about how to find inner self-belonging and become comfortable with one's self; and how to love yourself so that you can love others and belong externally. I was skeptical that it would be like other shitty self-help books, but I actually found it to be meaningful and insightful. It’s also a short read, so anyone who needs a little self-discovery would easily benefit.
The Martian, Andy Weir – Finally got around to reading The Martian even though it’s been a running inside joke with my friends from undergrad for about 8 years now. For a book that is very scientific, it’s not dense at all (in contrast to say The Three-Body Problem) and very binge-able. I know that the book would be boring if everything went according to plan, but the constant near-catastrophic disasters never seemed to surprise me and the timing was always very predictable. Also, I found that at times the switching between different POVs (especially the 3rd-person Mars passages) felt off. Overall, an enjoyable sci-fi read that lets you nerd out about space. Side note: I don’t think I realized exactly how far Mars is, even though it’s the closest planet in the solar system. Even if interplanetary travel becomes a thing, I think I’m out on going to Mars.
The Diamond Eye, Kate Quinn – A pretty unbelievable historical fiction based on a true story of a Russian history student, turned one of WWII’s deadliest snipers (309 confirmed kills), turned American pop culture icon. Oh, and she happened to be a woman. One of 2022’s top fictions, The Diamond Eye is a fun read, weaving in gender norms, romance, marital dynamics, patriotism, and asking “what lengths would any normal citizen be willing to go to when their country and family are threatened”.
The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party, Daniel James Brown – Earlier this year, I’d listened to a fairly in-depth podcast that covered the Donner Party and was primarily based on The Indifferent Stars Above. As a result, I wanted to go back to the source material but was aware of most of what was covered in the book and what happened to the emigrants stranded in the Sierra Nevadas in the winter of 1846-47. It’s a brutally sad and horrific story of human suffering and pretty astounding how well-documented the events were. I won’t lie, it’s hard to read parts of this book, so not for the faint of heart. Unlike The Boys in the Boat, Brown interjects some of his own thoughts about what might have happened or how people might have felt, on the rare occasions when there are no direct sources. I’m not a big fan of this, but it was few and far between.
Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir – Weir’s second book after The Martian is another great, creative sci-fi novel. The premise is that Earth is experiencing an extinction-level crisis as the sun is slowly, but increasingly, cooling and threatening all future life on Earth as a result. Humanity must band together to launch a desperate interstellar mission to stave off the incoming apocalypse. This book can be DENSE with scientific jargon at times, and my eyes definitely glazed over occasionally, but all together it was a relatively fun and easy read. I liked The Martian marginally better, but this was another good one and a reminder to myself that reading fiction is fun and I should do more of it.
What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Randell Munroe – The creator of XKCD takes a series of ridiculous questions asked on the internet and answers them in a thorough, over-the-top, and witty yet scientific manner. Examples include: “What would happen if the moon went away?”, or “What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light?”. While the answers are entertaining and exciting, they are mainly just fun facts and you likely won’t need to use them ever (unless the sun spontaneously goes out and you need to recall all the potential benefits before you freeze to death in the cold abyss of space). Enjoyable, easy read.
Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, Jeff Bezos with Walter Isaacson – Invent and Wander is a compilation of all of Jeff Bezos’ annual Amazon Shareholder Letters as well as select speeches he’s given over the years. Without a year gap between the letters it can seem a little redundant at times as many of the threads are the same year over year, but this actually illustrated how consistent Amazon is with their approach and strategy. I wouldn’t say it’s the most interesting content, but rather a masterclass in concise writing to convey information to stakeholders. An insight into Bezos’ inner thinking reveals over time how Amazon has grown, adapted, and flourished by relentlessly focusing on its customers (and they actually mean it, unlike most companies). I’d recommend this one for anyone who wants to learn from the best re: business strategy.
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World, Tracy Kidder – The biography of Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health (PIH) and global public health icon. Admittedly, I knew nothing about Farmer before reading Mountains Beyond Mountains, and he’s an incredibly impressive man. He dedicated his life to serving the global poor, showing that treating illness in impoverished countries such as Haiti is the right thing to do and can be cost-effective. Through nearly sheer force of nature and willpower, he’s advanced how treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis should be handled, especially amongst the global poor. My biggest critique is that Kidder often sprinkles in his own opinions and judgments of Farmer and PIH, and frankly, I don’t much care for it. It’s just not my preferred style to have the author’s feelings included in the biography. As a result, the tone strikes me the wrong way at times.
The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11, Garrett Graff – This book was a reporting masterpiece, consisting entirely of first-hand accounts of hundreds of people’s experiences on September 11. From workers in the towers to first responders, government officials, family members of passengers on the four planes, or just “normal” Americans around the country, you feel how the 9/11 attacks rocked the nation from the people who lived it. The style of the book was not for me though: it was a compilation of paragraph-long quote snippets that were grouped together by theme, whether that was time of day, location, or cohorts of people. There was no narrative and it felt very jumpy; I didn’t like that choice, but understand that Graff wanted to let people’s own words tell the story.
⭐️⭐️⭐
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Edward Tufte – I didn’t find the first half of the book to be very engaging; it was mainly only pre-computer charts that are good or bad representations of graphs, but not much advice on how to improve graphics. The second half filled that gap but could have been condensed to about 15 pages and provided ways to improve on relatively simple data displays such as bar graphs, scatterplots, and histograms. With the advances in data visualization in the last decade+, the book feels a little dated. There are still some very good tips on how to minimize clutter and still maintain the same amount of data in graphics.
Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds, David Goggins – David Goggins, self-proclaimed “hardest motherfucker on the planet”. His autobiography is conflicting. On one hand, Goggins has an incredible story of resilience, perseverance, and overcoming adversity. He’s an ex-Navy SEAL and ultra-endurance athlete. He’s done over 4000 pull-ups in 24 hours. He’s clearly tapped into some extremely rare mental fortitude uncommon in this world. Who else can run 100 miles with no training on three days’ notice? Absolutely mental. On the other hand, I don’t think that type of maniacal obsession is healthy for most people (he’d argue that’s my failure and weakness talking) and the book certainly has quite a bit of toxic masculinity. That being said, I came away feeling inspired, motivated, and ready to take on a challenge. If you are looking for some inspiration to overcome something, this will certainly provide it. “WHO’S GOING TO CARRY THE BOATS? AND THE LOGS”
The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down, Colin Woodard – Republic of Pirates was a very interesting history of the Golden Age of Pirates, the years of 1715-1725 during which there were likely over 2000 pirates roaming the high seas from the Caribbean up the coast of the American colonies. Given my mom is from the Bahamas, the pirate capital during the Golden Age, this one was very cool on a personal level as well. Only three stars because much of the book, especially the pre-Golden Age backstory was conjecture, which. However, learning the real histories of Charles Vane, Blackbeard, Calico Jack, etc. was fun and interesting, and made me want to rewatch Curse of the Black Pearl.
What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Randall Monroe –What If? 2 was an extension of the first one; more whacky consulting-style hypotheticals answered with over-the-top scientific accuracy. I’d rate this one slightly lower than the first, because, as is often the case, the sequel didn’t quite hit the same as the original.
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, Peter Thiel – This book is basically the Holy Grail of startup land, so naturally, I was curious to see what all the hype was about; what was so special about Zero to One that was different from what I learned about in my entrepreneurship classes at Stanford Business School. And the answer was: not much. Half of the book is useful information for people wanting to succeed at a startup, whether it is sales advice (go to market), founding teams, or how to think about an idea’s merit. The other half is Thiel’s personal philosophies and beliefs and I couldn’t care less for those. He weirdly argues some points of the Unabomber’s manifesto, apparently doesn’t believe that luck plays a real role in people’s success, and loves to cherry-pick examples exclusively from his PayPal mafia friends. Finally, not much of the book actually deals with the 0-1 stages of startups, but that’s more of a nitpick. I didn’t learn much, to be honest, but I also heavily indexed on startups at the GSB.
The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph, Ryan Holiday – Fast read about persevering through hard times/ experiences. It suffers from generic self-improvement vagueness, but I think the mentality of “I can change my mindset to accomplish more than I think I can” or flipping negativity into something positive can be applied to a lot of people, especially in my generation. We all go through shit, why not learn something from it. That being said, this is the perfect example of `could have been a blog post`. Read this instead.
Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys, Joe Coulombe – The biography of Trader Joe’s (not so much Trader Joe himself, it doesn’t focus on his personal life that much) provided fascinating insights into why TJs is the way it is today. Loopholes with importing wine to skirt Fair Trade alcohol policies. Lessons learned from wine led to going after other discontinuous foods. The list goes on. I’m a little surprised that Joe was able to get this one past his/ TJs lawyers as it’s extremely unfiltered (calling the milk policies of the 1970s fascist anyone?). It was a good book and an easy read but oftentimes presupposed a detailed knowledge of the specifics of retail and grocery that made it harder to follow.
The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War, Malcolm Gladwell – Classic Malcolm Gladwell. He oversimplifies extremely complex and nuanced situations to fit one side of a narrative (conveniently his own) and completely ignores anything to the contrary. The Bomber Mafia actually tells an interesting story; of precision bombing in WWII and how that was eventually replaced by large-scale area bombing, including the firebombing of the majority of Japan. It does make you think critically about the morality of even the “good guys” in war, but at the end of the day, Gladwell writes with such a smug, arrogant, I’m-right-you’re-wrong tone, that I can never really get into his work.
Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell, Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, & Alan Eagle – Trillion Dollar Coach is the story of Bill Campbell; a former college football coach turned (unknown) Silicon Valley legend, who coached many top executives in tech, including big names such as Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, and Larry Page. The book distills what the Google leadership team learned from Campbell into short lessons on how to be an effective coach and leader, but I kept wanting more concrete advice and fewer anecdotes. In the end, I suppose it’s more of an art than a science.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin – Another 2022 fan favorite, I just couldn’t really get into T&T&T. I recognize that it’s very well written, and the story is certainly novel/ creative, but I’m personally not a guy who is into romance novels disguised as the story of two video game designers. The book does explore the different meanings of friendship, love, loss, and grief; just not my cup of tea.
⭐️⭐
The E-myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What To Do About It, Michael Gerber – This one bored me, and I finished it because I had to. An oversimplified and repetitive run-through of what I learned in business school. I guess the core message of small businesses needing to build systems and processes is a good one, but the execution wasn’t there for me.️
How to Watch Soccer, Ruud Gullit – I thought this book would dive into advanced tactics and strategies for the more-than-casual fan but was sadly disappointed. Instead, it’s an amalgamation of autobiography, personal brags, and lists of Gullit’s feelings on the sport. It also biases heavily toward talking about Dutch (he’s Dutch) clubs, Milan (he played there), and Barcelona (he clearly adores the Catalan). The title is misleading and should be closer to “How Ruud Gullit Views Soccer: My History with the Sport”.
⭐
n/a
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Cheers,
Jesse