category: Book Reviews

Book Review: Explaining AuDHD by Kurram Sadiq As I mentioned in an earlier post (/posts/am-i-on-the-spectrum/) there are some hints that I may have some degree of autism. This is centered mostly around social skills and a preference to avoid meeting people. At the same time I have been diagnosed with ADHD though I supposedly have developed appropriate compensatory mechanisms (though I’m not so sure!) Anyway, When I saw this book that discusses the co-incidence of autism with ADHD I was intrigued. I had not seen any other discussion of this combination before. That said, once I started looking, I discovered several books on the topic. ...

I ran across a video of comedian Fern Brady a few days ago. I thought her jokes and presentation were pretty good and went searching for more. One of the videos I ran across was her being interviewed by Richard Herring, on his Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast. In the course of that interview I learned both that Fern is autistic and that she had written a book. This intrigued me so I had to track it down. ...

Tiny Experiments In recent years I’ve grown increasingly convinced that hyper-focus on being productive and goal oriented is a prescription for a great deal of stress, anxiety, and dissatisfaction in life. So, when I ran across this book with the subtitle of “How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World” I had to stop to read it. And I’m glad I did. The book aims to teach you 10 things (outlined on its webpage. What I took away from the book was to approach interests and ideas with a scientific perspective. That is, try something for a set amount of time or a set number of attempts (for example, “I will write 30 articles in 30 working days” ) rather than more nebulous goals (e.g. “I will write more”) or goals with no clear end date. Then, take a look at what you accomplished – or didn’t. That helps you to see more clearly whether you really are interested in pursuing that activity in the longer term. ...

Naked by Brian Hoffman Overview In the acknowledgements, author and scholar Brian Hoffman notes that the idea for this book grew out of his own early experiences in a clothing optional home/community. He noted that as he grew older he became increasingly aware that what was normal in his own life was not nearly so normal for most others, at least in the US. It was, he suggests, that dichotomy between his experiences and the broader social order that led him to explore the history and influences on nudist life. As he notes in the acknowledgement, he tried to avoid coming across as a dyed-in-the-wool nudist who was seeking to justify his lifestyle but rather wanted to present a fact-based perspective on a lifestyle that is different from mainstream society. ...

Confusing Fiction with Fact I swear some people can’t keep track of reality. While browsing Amazon for something to read in the vein of philosophy I ran across a book entitled The da Vinci Fraud: Why the Truth is Stranger than Fiction by Robert M. Price. The book purports to debunk the “many misleading claims found in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code” according to one reviewer. That statement and several others made by various reviewers suggest that somehow Brown was intending to provide accurate historical information regarding the Christian Church. Funny, having read The Da Vinci Code I don’t recall Brown ever claiming that the book was historically accurate. For someone to take the time to write a book to refute claims that were never made seems, well, stupid. Apparently, Mr. Price (or I should say Doctor Price, given his PhD) has difficulty comprehending that fiction is by definition not fact. Fiction writers often base their works on some variation of an idea or concept and follow the “what if” process. That is, “what if” there really is an Opus Dei 1 with sinister underpinnings? “What if” Jesus and Mary Magdalene really did have a child together? and so on. Fiction writers take some fact and embroider it with the lace needed to paint an enticing picture that tells an entertaining story. Few set out to present history (or any other topic) factually. ...

A Curious Mind I am, and have always been, a curious person so when I saw this book at the book store I had no choice but to select it. Curiosity is a driving force that pushes us to learn more, understand more, and to find or create new things. Curiosity is also the foundation for creativity, which is the premise for Brian Grazer’s book, “A Curious Mind”. If the name sound familiar, but you can’t quite nail down his name, Brian is the producer of many hit movies, including Splash, Apollo 13, Friday Night Lights, and A Beautiful Life among many others. Brian credits his curiosity for both getting him into the movie industry and with his success within that industry. He points to how his curiosity, and what he calls “curiosity conversations”, has expanded his understanding of people and phenomena, allowed him to explore new ideas in unique ways, for developing a deeper understanding of others, and for providing him the foundation for identifying good ideas. ...

I had never heard of Naval Ravikant until the book popped up in the search results for personal finance books on Amazon. Or wealth, I don’t really remember what that search term was! In reality, this book is not about personal finance. Instead, it is a collection of thoughts by Naval Ravikant, a venture capitalist, founder or co-founder of several successful websites including the consumer reviews website Epinions.com, Angelist.com, producthunt.com and others. He has been an early investor in over 200 companies, including Uber, Poshmark, wish.com, Twitter, and Stack Overflow. ...

George S. Clason’s The Richest Man in Babylon This book is not really a single book but a collection of short pamphlets that Mr. Clason, a businessman in the early 1900’s, wrote on the topic of financial success. Using parables set in ancient Babylonia, the pamphlets provide, generally, seven keys for becoming wealthy. Although I quickly acknowledge that repetition of concepts aids in internalizing those ideas, I don’t usually care for books that include a lot of repetitive materialBecause the book is a collection of pamphlets, the same seven concepts, with the occasional additional idea thrown in, are repeated multiple times throughout the book using different characters and settings to convey the seven principles. Knowing that the book is a compilation makes the repetition a bit more palatable. ...