cshamm1
Hennepin County Library
cshamm1's Completed Shelf
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DenialDenial, BookWhy Business Leaders Fail to Look Facts in the Face--and What to Do About It
by Tedlow, Richard S.Book - 2010Book, 2010
cshamm1's rating:
Added Feb 18, 2024
cshamm1's rating:
Added Sep 25, 2023
Comment:
I wanted to quit after 100 pages and wanted to buy a copy by the time I finished. At times the advice feels too familiar - if you don't already believe that exercise and nutrition are key to a healthy life, yet another book by a rockstar doctor isn't going to convince you, right? At other times, Dr. Attia's advice feels groundbreaking - your doctor knows your LDL, but does she also test your apoB? What about your VO2 max? You know that exercise is important, but did you also know that maintaining muscle mass is correlated with longevity? Are you also incorporating stability exercises into your workout routine? Finally, Dr. Attia details his personal struggles with mental and emotional health in a heartwrenching last chapter that is a critical read for high-performing people who need to know that these health issues can affect anybody. I'd recommend this book if you're interested in the science of the human body, and, if you're not, hopefully you can speed read through the passages where the author covers cell biology in too much detail so you can get to the good stuff.I wanted to quit after 100 pages and wanted to buy a copy by the time I finished. At times the advice feels too familiar - if you don't already believe that exercise and nutrition are key to a healthy life, yet another book by a rockstar doctor…
Added Sep 02, 2023
cshamm1's rating:
Added Aug 05, 2023
Comment:
I've read nearly everything by McCarthy and can safely say that 1) Stella Maris won't be his legacy and 2) it will disappoint readers who felt that they were left hanging when they finished The Passenger (its companion novel) and hoped that this novel would tie up loose ends. (Stella Maris takes places ten years before The Passenger and tells us nothing further about the fate of Bobby Western.) I would recommend nearly anything by McCarthy before this - read Blood Meridian, anything in the Border Trilogy, or his Pulitzer-winning The Road.I've read nearly everything by McCarthy and can safely say that 1) Stella Maris won't be his legacy and 2) it will disappoint readers who felt that they were left hanging when they finished The Passenger (its companion novel) and hoped that this…
Added Aug 05, 2023
Added Aug 05, 2023
Added Aug 05, 2023
cshamm1's rating:
Added May 14, 2023
Comment:
I liked nothing about this. Rather than storytelling, it reads like an uninterested person telling you about a story. The author's voice is formal and dry, like walking into a grandma's bedroom. The novel introduces a half-dozen or so major characters (and more minor ones) but clocks in at a succinct 148 pages - too short to meaningfully develop any of them. The last page finishes with a trite conclusion that politicians quote in speeches today.I liked nothing about this. Rather than storytelling, it reads like an uninterested person telling you about a story. The author's voice is formal and dry, like walking into a grandma's bedroom. The novel introduces a half-dozen or so major…
Talking to StrangersTalking to Strangers, BookWhat We Should Know About the People We Don't Know
by Gladwell, Malcolm, 1963-Book - 2019Book, 2019
cshamm1's rating:
Added May 07, 2023
Comment:
Reading Gladwell is like stepping into a car with a friend who won't tell you where you're going but promises your destination will be someplace great. The destination at end of Gladwell's strange and winding road is indeed someplace great. Talking to Strangers is an illuminating look at events that make you ask, "How could that happen?" To counter the criticisms of reviewers who thought Gladwell lacked clear conclusions, I'll summarize them: 1) We humans 'default to truth' by wrongfully assuming strangers are truthful until we're faced with a mountain of evidence that they aren't. 2) We suffer from an 'illusion of transparency' whereby we wrongfully believe that we can read strangers (i.e. to know when they are lying or what they're thinking). 3) We fail to understand the context in which the stranger operates (for example, the motives of the terrorist we're interrogating).Reading Gladwell is like stepping into a car with a friend who won't tell you where you're going but promises your destination will be someplace great. The destination at end of Gladwell's strange and winding road is indeed someplace great. Talking…
cshamm1's rating:
Added Mar 18, 2023
Comment:
Does this sound like "rage" to you? "'Could surveillance have been more poorly managed?', Egorov raged." No, it sounds like bad writing. Any readers looking for something literary will be disappointed, as other reviews called out. What Matthews lacks in top-notch writing, though, he makes up for with insider knowledge of spy tactics learned from 33 years on the job as a CIA officer and station chief. I considered returning the book unfinished but decided to stick it out; the novel finished stronger than it started. I'm not mad about it but also not dying to start the trilogy's second book.Does this sound like "rage" to you? "'Could surveillance have been more poorly managed?', Egorov raged." No, it sounds like bad writing. Any readers looking for something literary will be disappointed, as other reviews called out. What Matthews…
cshamm1's rating:
Added Jan 07, 2023
Comment:
Part coming of age story, part Wild West story, part historical fiction. I enjoyed Gwyn's ability to put the reader in the shoes of three different characters who lives intertwine in Texas in the mid 1800s. Any comparisons to Cormac McCarthy are exaggerated, though - McCarthy writes literary novels, while Gwyn's is largely a (highly entertaining) adventure tale.Part coming of age story, part Wild West story, part historical fiction. I enjoyed Gwyn's ability to put the reader in the shoes of three different characters who lives intertwine in Texas in the mid 1800s. Any comparisons to Cormac McCarthy are…
The Voltage EffectThe Voltage Effect, BookHow to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale
by List, John A., 1968-Book - 2022Book, 2022
Added Dec 31, 2022
Added Nov 08, 2022
cshamm1's rating:
Added Jun 02, 2022
Comment:
I enjoyed the novel overall but wasn't enraptured and came away feeling that 500 pages was a large investment of my time. Unlike some reviewers, I didn't mind the narrative device. Powers artfully bounces back and forth between nine or more characters who are often living in different parts of the country. It's been written that he ties their stories together, but some of these characters never meet one another and add little to the story. I would have happily eliminated Dorothy and Ray to save 100 pages.I enjoyed the novel overall but wasn't enraptured and came away feeling that 500 pages was a large investment of my time. Unlike some reviewers, I didn't mind the narrative device. Powers artfully bounces back and forth between nine or more…
Start With WhyStart With Why, BookHow Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
by Sinek, SimonBook - 2011Book, 2011
cshamm1's rating:
Added Mar 25, 2022
Comment:
Sinek operates as a guru. He backs nothing in his book with hard evidence (data, academic research) but trusts that you'll believe he has the secret sauce if he speaks confidently enough.
cshamm1's rating:
Added Jan 01, 2022
Comment:
I imagine Tartt would laugh out loud reading negative reviews from readers who apparently thought they were picking up a Care Bears book or The Bible. Swearing? Oh no! Drug use? Oh no! A teenage boy raised without supervision who to turns into a delinquent instead of an angel? How could he?!
Not every book offers a tightly wrapped package with a pretty bow and a happy ending. What The Goldfinch does offer is a creatively imagined story about a boy who fits together pieces of his broken puzzle to form an adult life in the best way that he knows how. What impressed me the most was how the author, a woman in her 40s, painted a lifelike picture of the friendship between two teenage boys (Theo and Boris).
Tartt fell short only when some of her supporting characters border on stereotypes: Suburbanites (Theo's father and father's girlfriend Xandra) are vapid opioid addicts. New Yorkers on the Upper East Side (The Barbours) are rich but secretly insane and unhappy. Middle class New Yorkers are the people who redeem the city for Tartt: Hobie is like your grandpa - wise, kind, and forgiving (yet cosmopolitan too). The bombers who attack The Met are, with vague explanation, right-wing terrorists (not the Islamic terrorists who attack New York in our real world). Tartt obviously crafted these story lines to please people who review books for Vanity Fair and The New York Times.I imagine Tartt would laugh out loud reading negative reviews from readers who apparently thought they were picking up a Care Bears book or The Bible. Swearing? Oh no! Drug use? Oh no! A teenage boy raised without supervision who to turns into a…
The Things They CarriedThe Things They Carried, BookA Work of Fiction
by O'Brien, Tim, 1946-Book - 1990Book, 1990
Added Oct 22, 2021
Added Oct 22, 2021
cshamm1's rating:
Added Oct 22, 2021
Comment:
I love Cormac McCarthy, but evidence that Suttree is not his best work is right on the back cover: It's filled with praise for the author but not for this book. I enjoyed the book more once I got past 100 pages and realized it wouldn't have a plot, at least not in the traditional sense of point A (conflict) to point B (conflict resolved). Instead, the novel reads like a winding collection of short stories that follow Suttree and his creatively imagined band of misfits. (Maybe McCarthy's narrative choice makes sense, since the book follows a collection of wild characters who wander through their lives without direction or purpose.) The novel also suffers from too many supporting characters; McCarthy seems to have imagined them well in his mind but failed to share enough details with the reader to help you keep track of who's who. The exception is Gene Harrogate, whose entire life is a series of laugh-out-loud mishaps. If you're looking to open your first McCarthy book, I recommend several options better than Suttree: All the Pretty Horses, Cities of the Plain, Blood Meridian, or The Road.I love Cormac McCarthy, but evidence that Suttree is not his best work is right on the back cover: It's filled with praise for the author but not for this book. I enjoyed the book more once I got past 100 pages and realized it wouldn't have a plot,…
cshamm1's rating:
Added Aug 15, 2021
Comment:
In 2005, TIME magazine named Rabbit, Run one of its 100 best English-language novels since 1923. It's one of my least favorite on that list, and it hasn't aged well. Updike touches on subjects like premarital sex, adultery, and atheism that might have shocked readers in the 1950s when he was writing the book, but they won't shock most readers in 2021. The novel's centerpiece (boredom with family life in suburbia) is cliché today. Updike also devotes pages and pages to drivel that borders on stream of consciousness. With no chapters and few page breaks, reading it often felt like a chore. One of my favorite scenes didn't even involve the protagonist; it was a laugh-out-loud exchange between an old-school pastor and Rabbit's new-school reverend.In 2005, TIME magazine named Rabbit, Run one of its 100 best English-language novels since 1923. It's one of my least favorite on that list, and it hasn't aged well. Updike touches on subjects like premarital sex, adultery, and atheism that might…
cshamm1's rating:
Added Jul 25, 2021
Comment:
The first thing that struck me about A Promised Land was how funny it was. Obama tells great stories, like the "colorful" response Rahm Emmanuel gave when asked to serve as chief of staff, and a funny tale about drinking and playing cards after a bad day on the campaign trail. He also tells interesting anecdotes, like the story of the South Carolina woman behind the famous "Fired Up? Ready to go!" campaign cheer. Obama devotes most of the book, however, to the meat and potatoes of challenges he faced during his first term. He recounts his administration's successes, including getting Congress to pass a stimulus package, TARP, Obamacare, and a climate agreement. The book is heavier overall on politics than personal stories. If you love politics, and I do, you'll find it interesting. If you don't love politics, getting through 700 pages in less than three weeks will be tough.The first thing that struck me about A Promised Land was how funny it was. Obama tells great stories, like the "colorful" response Rahm Emmanuel gave when asked to serve as chief of staff, and a funny tale about drinking and playing cards after a…
Happy MoneyHappy Money, BookThe Science of Smarter Spending
by Dunn, Elizabeth, 1977-Book - 2013Book, 2013
Added Nov 23, 2020
To Have and Have NotTo Have and Have Not, Book
by Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961Book - 1999?Book, 1999?
Added Nov 22, 2020
The ReturnThe Return, BookFathers, Sons, and the Land in Between
by Matar, Hisham, 1970-Book - 2016Book, 2016
Added Oct 23, 2020
For Whom the Bell TollsFor Whom the Bell Tolls, Book
by Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961Book - 1996Book, 1996
cshamm1's rating:
Added Jul 24, 2020
Comment: