Tag: books

  • Book #4 of 2026

    Steve Martin’s Steve Martin Writes the Written Word

    Eminently readable, often ‘laugh out loud’-able, and I’m happy to get some poignancy. As it reads on the cover, this is a collection- a collection that includes the entirety of the novella Shopgirl and the novel The Pleasure of My Company which makes me wonder whether I should consider this three books and not just one. As a fellow high-functioning partial neurotic, The Pleasure of My Company was a particularly resonant read for even though the protagonist could behave questionably, their sincerity shined. The idiosyncrasy throughout this book lends cool insight into Steve Martin’s creativity and values.

    Thanks Uncle Doug!

  • Book #3 of 2026

    The third book I’ve started and finished in 2026 is Robin Sharma’s The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. A family member lent it to me, said it was pretty good. That’s about what I’d say, too. It’s a self-help book in the vein of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist and Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie. It’s a fictional tale of some conversations between the narrator and the titular monk who went off to become a monk after a near-death experience. I’d say it’s not quite as good as the other two books I’ve mentioned in this blurb, but it’s an easy and quick enough read of solid insight, tips, and tricks to becoming a more fulfilled liver of life. If you have a high-stress, dead-end career maybe this one is for you to help you reassess your priorities. Pretty good.

  • Book #2 for 2026

    This was an engaging, human read! A Christmas present, it was pretty cool to get the inside scoop on Elvis Duran’s journey in radio basically up to COVID (2019). While I’m not a huge radio fanatic like Elvis, I am a fan of radio and even got involved with and helped out a small radio station in Seattle many years ago, so this really was a treat. To be truthful, I wasn’t familiar with Elvis Duran or their show before this book, but then again to put that in perspective the most recent television show I’ve seen most of (I missed like two episodes) was LOST. So… I went into this simply wanting to enjoy the first-hand account of, in their words, “a gay man who hosts a radio show in New York City.”

    Again, a solid and genuinely entertaining read I can recommend.

  • First Book Read in 2026

    Just yesterday I began reading Kamala Harris’ account of their 107-day run for presidency in their book 107 Days. Before this morning’s briefing re: Venezuela, I got to the picture section of the book. The last picture in the collection is of Kamala Harris certifying the election on January 6, 2025, two weeks before Trump’s inauguration as 47th president. Finished the book a bit ago (review further down).

    I’ll be blunt and write that I never voted for Trump, the presidency is the wrong role for their ‘talents’. It didn’t take with the people as much as ‘outrage fatigue’ apparently did (I might’ve coined that in a previous blog- I definitely created the word ‘equicog’ for those potato-tomato words), but I thought the alliterative ‘Turbulent Trump’ was a solid and valid diminutive that was still a cut above what Trump trots out. I’ve been a registered independent for well over a decade.

    The book: a solid and quick read! The chapters trace each day like a retrospective diary, some are less than a page long. Fairly riveting, and I think a very worthy addition to the genre. I will say that it might be a bit too fresh off the presses having come out a few months ago – less than a year after the pivotal election – as the ‘blame’ landed a little funny. Maybe a little too much of it at all for my taste on the regular, but then again, a sudden, unprecedented 107-day sprint that doesn’t result in a win? Earns the right to complain a little bit. A fighting book, but with so much more class than running a 4-year campaign steeped in revenge and country-grabbing ego.

  • books i read in 2025 (new blog test post)

    I’m finishing up reading books #29 and #30 for the year, and I’ve got some recommendations to make!

    Fiction: Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens, 2018), Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1866), Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel García Márquez, 1985), The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood, 1985), and a re-read of The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho, 1988)

    Non-Fiction: Killed by a Traffic Engineer (Wes Marshall, 2024), No Future Without Forgiveness (Desmond Tutu, 1999), The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (Edmund Morris, 1979), Life After Cars (Sarah Goodyear, Doug Gordon, Aaron Naparstek, 2025), and 1929 (Andrew Ross Sorkin, 2025)