Friday, January 1, 2016

Books I Read in 2015


1. Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks and Big Pharma Flacks by Ben Goldacre: A passionate, succinct attack on medical pseudo science and fraud

2. The Arabian Nights Adapted by Neil Philip: (bed-time reading to son) A very abridged version aimed at children. These stories can be improved! One day...

3. Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath by Ted Koppel : magazine article stretched to ~300 pages. Would have been a hard-hitting, eye-opening article though

4. A Series of Unfortunate Events - The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket : why the popularity?

5. In The Country: Stories by Mia Alvar : Fascinating collections of shorts that helps one get a glimpse of the world as seen from a Filipino emigrant perspective. The author has a gift for great observation and simple but elegant prose.

6. Living Trusts for Everyone by Ronald F. Sharp : very practical

7. The Very Best of Feynman Lectures : Audio CDs; without looking at the blackboard, can't understand large parts of the lectures

8. The Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder : (bed-time reading to son) - Well deserved classic; takes on to the frontier.

9. The House on the Cliff by Franklin W. Dixon (read in parallel with son to help with his 3rd grade book report work)

10. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy : (Listened to audiobook primarily) : fantastic novel - would have rated 10/10 if not for the disappointing late conversion of Levin to faith on rather flimsy grounds

11. The Inside Tract: your good gut guide to great digestive health by Gerard E. Mullin, Kathie Madonna Swift : Provided the catalyst in diagnosing gluten sensitivity

12. The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising kids who are grounded, generous and smart about money 

13. How To Raise a Wild Child by Scott D. Sampson

14. The Test : Why our schools are obsessed with standardized testing..by Anna Kamenetz

15. Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan, one of the most awesome people that ever lived. 

16. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome: picked it up on Project Gutenberg because I remembered the author's name form a middle school text I read. Turned out to be a pretty good read; typical brit humor.