All previous Book Reviews/ ratings can be found at jessesbooks.com.
I come to you post a beautiful hate-watch of a Super Bowl. My GOAT (Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr.) would never put up a stinker like that on the biggest stage, thank you very much :)
New Additions (Bolded)
[⭐️⭐️⭐️] The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation, Jon Gertner – As a former engineer and long-time nerd, The Idea Factory should have been right up my alley. It’s been on my To-Read list for five years, so I was pumped when it finally became available on Libby. However, I have a confession dear reader: this book literally put me to sleep. It was dense and dry and would have been even worse if it wasn’t for how incredible Bell Labs’s legacy is. I 100% did not recognize how much of modern society was built on the foundations of this elite telecom research department; their inventions include the transistor (aka the basis for computers), the maser & laser (which is a prerequisite for the next one), fiber optic cables (aka how you get fast internet), satellite comms (ever heard of those), information theory (aka how to send information over the internet), the list goes on. Incredible that all of these came from one institution, and I wonder if it’s even possible to have another similar lab again. Companies rarely put so much emphasis on basic research anymore; they aren’t incentivized to. But unfortunately The Idea Factory is heavy on the technical and scientific, and it can ready like a physics textbook sometimes. While fascinating, it’s probably best suited for the engineers and scientists, and not the casuals.
2025 Rankings
Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, Alex Hutchinson [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️]
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation, Jon Gertner [⭐️⭐️⭐️]
Blowout, Rachel Maddow [⭐️⭐️⭐️]
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King [⭐️⭐️⭐️]
Complete Reviews
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐
n/a
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐
Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, Alex Hutchinson – Endure is all about the science (both physiological and psychological) of endurance performance and how humans can push our physical and mental limits. Contrary to what all my friends think, I’m not actually an endurance person myself, but I find the underlying science fascinating. The first section of the book focuses on the physical (VO2 Max, fueling/ hydration, lactic threshold, running economy, etc.), the second section the mental (how different parts of the brain contribute to or hold back performance), and the final section on how to push our limits (it turns out there’s no magic solution, but going into the pain cave over and over sure helps). There’s a ton of cited research and so at points Endure is quite dense, but athletes will find this interesting.
⭐️⭐️⭐
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation, Jon Gertner – As a former engineer and long-time nerd, The Idea Factory should have been right up my alley. It’s been on my To-Read list for five years, so I was pumped when it finally became available on Libby. However, I have a confession dear reader: this book literally put me to sleep. It was dense and dry and would have been even worse if it wasn’t for how incredible Bell Labs’s legacy is. I 100% did not recognize how much of modern society was built on the foundations of this elite telecom research department; their inventions include the transistor (aka the basis for computers), the maser & laser (which is a prerequisite for the next one), fiber optic cables (aka how you get fast internet), satellite comms (ever heard of those), information theory (aka how to send information over the internet), the list goes on. Incredible that all of these came from one institution, and I wonder if it’s even possible to have another similar lab again. Companies rarely put so much emphasis on basic research anymore; they aren’t incentivized to. But unfortunately The Idea Factory is heavy on the technical and scientific, and it can ready like a physics textbook sometimes. While fascinating, it’s probably best suited for the engineers and scientists, and not the casuals.
Blowout, Rachel Maddow – If I had a nickel for every time I read a book about the history of the oil and gas industry in the last two years, I'd have two nickels-- which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. Jokes aside, I’m conflicted on Blowout. A lot of the backstory I already knew from The Prize, which in my opinion is a far superior (and longer) book. Blowout is more modern, with a big focus on Russia and Putin as oil superpowers in the early 2010s and how this had led to Russian aggression in Eastern Europe and interference in American Democracy. My problems are mainly: 1) it’s flat-out boring at points 2) there are a lot of subplots happening at once that I’m not sure are tied together very strongly by the end 3) Maddow inserts here snide, snarky comments everywhere. I can arrive at the conclusion that big oil is bad on my own thank you very much (see what I did there?). Decent but probably wouldn’t recommend it.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King – King’s memoir is half backstory that explains what primed him to become a writer, his path to getting there, and why he is qualified to give advice and half actual fiction writing advice. It was obviously masterfully written and contained great advice but it didn’t do it for me, perhaps because I’m not the artistic type. That being said, if I ever do decide to properly write (it will most likely be nonfiction, let’s be real) I will 100% go back and reference the second half of On Writing.
⭐️⭐
n/a
⭐
n/a
If you’re enjoying these book reviews, please consider sharing with a friend and subscribing, if you haven’t already.
We move,
Jesse