Your Best Year Ever - Michael Hyatt

 I guess this would be a good book for a neurotypical new adult? I'm not even sure.  Maybe for people searching for some sort of justification to get rolling? The major take-home idea of the book is do 1 little thing to get started.  You will feel you've accomplished something and that will give you the dopamine dump and moral boost to take step 2, probably one that's a little harder.  Frankly, I have no idea what this guy is talking about because when you accomplish the first simple task, like organizing or putting your name at the top of the paper, you still have to keep going and I think he's full of it regarding any positive feelings from finishing the easy part first.  The same difficult task you weren't excited about is still before you and it seems like you have a great excuse to say, "Alright, I got one thing done. That's enough for today." to just keep putting off the stuff you actually needed to do.  I think he's full of it and don't recommend this book at all.

Chariots Of The Gods - Erich Von Daniken

 So I knew going in that this would be ridiculous, but I was still unprepared for the white supremacy/colonizer racism.  I did not expect that.  And it was so casually thrown in too.  I must chalk it up to "back in my day" phrasing but it was just so short-sighted and ill placed that it made the author look even dumber than he already did.  Allow me to explain; I'll have to start at the beginning of this silly book.

The premise is that ancient man could in no way have built, mapped, calculated, guessed, or understood so much of the knowledge to come out prior to .... the enlightenment period? Or maybe the renaissance period? Basically, anything before white people came onto the intellectual scene.  And the only other possible explaination for this is that humans were routinely visited by an advanced alien civilization that gave them maps, math, technology, insight, new philisophical ideas, etc.  Pretty much any impressive feat ancient people accomplished could show evidence of this interaction.  

My approach to deciding what is true often reverts to "what is the most likely answer" barring some strong evidence.  It pretty much kills most conspiracy theories.  So in the case of this book, sure it's possible these advancements and ideas could come from aliens, but is that the most likely answer? No.  This book relies on poor understanding of technology and civilizations at this time coupled with the assumption that ancient people were not very smart.  They would have used every trick they knew at the time and just because there isn't a continuous line of this knowledge doesn't mean people didn't once have it.  Europeans lost the knowledge of iron production and ripped it out of the colusseum in Rome.  In a pre-historic peoples, this loss of knowledge seems even more likely to occur.  So which scenario is more likely? Aliens helped/built stone henge because ancient people were to stupid to figure out where the sun would rise/set and couldn't work together enough to haul giant stones that far.  Or they did just that. Sure there's the argument that there weren't many good, straight trees around for rolling the stones on and those pullies would have been massive and difficult to work, and it all would have been very dangerous, but is aliens the more likely anwer?

Another example is the carved heads on pacific islands.  The author argues that these have features this genetically narrow group of people wouldn't have seen like narrow noses and thin lips.  But what the author is really arguing is that these people spending hours, days, months? carving stones wouldn't want to change it up.  There is no way they didn't make the faces thinner, thicker, fatter, skinnier, big-eyed, squiny eyed, heavy browed, or all the other variations to the human face just to make each unique.  It doesn't mean they had some mysterious contact with other people.  Any group is going to have natural variation and even if the carvings have greater variation than seen in the local population, just go look at some anime to see people don't really draw/create their art in exact copies of the world around them.  The author really shows his colonizer attitude in thinking that these people couldn't have "come up" with variations in features.  Again, which is more likely: people taking artistic license or aliens?

He brings up the Nazca lines as obvious evidence that ancient peoples were drawing art/trying to guide/wanting to please aliens coming from the sky.  However, the author seems to totally forget that many of the oldest religions were based on sun/moon worship.  The "god in the sky" concept is incredibly old and huge endeavors for a god above is not unheard of either.  So which is more likely: people continuing the "god is above" concept as created by man, or visiting aliens?

Honestly, the bible has the most convincing evidence with the balls-tripping description of "angels" that really do sound like badly translated descriptions of space ships.  I'll give him that.  But time has taught me to be incrediblly skeptical of taking any of the old testament and most of the new at face value.  I can name multiple mistranslations right off the top of my head.  The most interesting point of this argument is how the same stories crop up across the globe.  But again, is the more likely answer that these stories pre-date people leaving Africa and carrying the stories with them, or aliens?

These are just a very few well-known examples.  While in the process of reading this book, I could immediately think of more likley reasons for these "phenomena" than the answer the author offered.  It was like a bizarre fall into non-logic-land.  If anyone is interested in the psychology of conspiracy theories and why/how people get wrapped up in them, this is a good excercise in observing the failure of deduction, while being easily thought around with a second's worth of consideration. I have sitting on my counter right now Carl Sagan's Demon haunted world which I know has a small chapter on aliens and I'm super excited to read it to compare notes from this book.

The Origin of Names, Words and Everything in Between - Patrick Foote

 This book is absurdly somehow both fun and forgettable.  Lots of interesting history and linguistics.  Lots of "Oh now that makes so much more sense!" moments.  But 24 hours after finishing the book, I can't seem to recall any of it.  Perhaps that's lucky?  The author has a youtube channel apparently and I could always pop over there for some reminders.  Overall, I'd say it's a fun read, but won't really change your life.  

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success - Carol Dweck

 While a very insightful and important view on the psychology of success in human, let me save you some hassle and give you the key points of this book so you can spend your time reading something more nuanced. 

There are 2 ways of looking at the world which the author has termed fixed and growth.  People are largely pushed into one or the other based on their upbringing, but can change them naturally and without notice over time or by actively trying to restructure their thinking. The fixed mindset is based about the idea that either you are smart and "get it" or you are not.  

A fixed mindset person believes everything should be easy because it comes to them naturally, or they will never get whatever "it" is.  It is a "that's just how the world is" view.  They dislike change and do not feel they have control of many aspects in their lives.  It dictates that only you can accomplish what you want and inclines people to take responsibility for a whole project, even when others were involved.  

A growth mindset person believes everything takes hard work and nothing comes naturally.  They believe every one and thing has a potential for change, and view the world as a challenge to overcome. Teamwork is appreciated and not seen as a problem but an opportunity to get new insight and ideas. 

When laid out in this format, it seems obvious how the fixed mindset could hinder someone's goal accomplishment and growth, but in real life, it is deceptively difficult to pick out.  An example I see regularly in my daily life:  I have red hair and get complimented on its shade often.  The fixed mindset is that I have this hair color and I have somehow earned it.  All the complements due to me boost my personal worth.  So what happens when my hair goes grey? All the self-worth I've derived from it goes too.  Now typically my response to these complements is, "Oh thanks! But it just kinda happened."  Even before reading this book, I realized the need to complement people on something they have done, achieved or chosen.  I am lucky to have this hair experience show me the importance of focusing on what people have done in a natural way, instead of things that were luck/chance.  I make it a point to complement people on colors or fits of clothing that the chose, or hairstyles instead of hair type, smart moves in a game or witty comments.  All of these kind of complements address the growth mindset, things people can change and actively work on, instead of things we can't change.  This is exactly what the book encourages.  There is one additional aspect of these complements that I was subject to growing up and it actively pushed me into a fixed mindset as a child.  I have worked hard to get out of it and, thanks to this book, now consciously make an effort to not say the same to any children I'm around.  I was often told growing up, "Oh you're so smart!" But society's implication is people are born smart or not, so there's nothing to change that, and therefore complementing a child this way puts them into that fixed mindset and when they have an academic problem they can't overcome, they begin to doubt their own intelligence.  I now make an effort to to say things more along the lines of, "Oh wow! You got an A? You must have worked very hard to get that!" Which subconsciously tells the child that effort will get results (Not always true, but it frames working hard in a positive way instead of meaning if you don't get it instantly, you're not good enough and never will be).  Oh, and this is true for adults too, but typical in more subtle ways. 

Smart Couples Finish Rich - David Bach

 I was super unimpressed with this book. Other than pushing money market accounts and a scheme for figuring out what you actually want, it was all the same old drivel about curbing spending and maximizing investments that you always find in financial books.  Being as you've heard all that before, allow me to focus on the one unique aspect I found in this book (it probably isn't novel either, but I personally haven't come across this idea elsewhere yet).

What do you actually want to spend your money on?  Sit down and write your top 5 things you want your money to do for you, like "more financial security" or "travel". Alright, cool, but what does that even mean? What is "travel"? How would any amount of money make you more financially secure? Doing this with a spouse and asking these questions forces you to hammer out the details of what you actually want to do with your money and that makes you figure out how much you really need and when you can honestly expect it to happen.  Let's say that "financial security" for someone is nothing more than a $1,000 rainy day savings account.  Alright, we have a specific amount in a specific location for an important reason.  Now the person can go looking for the extra cash to put into that account and get that goal accomplished.  Without those details hammered out, your stuck in limbo with some abstract idea of what you want, but no concrete plans to accomplish it.  

Learning To Speak Alzheimer's - Joanne Koenig Coste

 Just listening to this book and the few-minutes-long antidotal stories made me frustrated.  I have learned that I am unlikely to be able to deal with caring for an Alzheimer's patient.  My whole life's view is based on logic, which is totally devoid in an Alzheimer's patient.  I have a grandparent on each side who had it and I will not be able to care for one of my parents if they develop this. 

I completely support the ideas for care and the themes in the book.  I completely believe the author has laid out the best way to care for someone suffering from this disease.  This method is the most compassionate and effective method, and I just could not ever do it. (I'll take this moment to point out that I could not ever care for children for the same reasons.) 

Much of the author's ideas make so much since once you understand how messed up an Alzheimer's patient's mind is.  Their brain no longer understand or recognizes what they are looking at so they think their reflection in the mirror is a stranger, or painting/coloring the floor/vanity/walls around important items like toilets or sinks a sharply contrasting color to make it more visible and obvious what it is so the Alzheimer's patient can see and recognize it.  When they ask for impossible things like going back to their childhood home or speaking to their dead mother, do not tell them that's impossible but rather ask them to describe their mother/home.  Basically, divert them into talking about whatever it is they want instead.  Make the old doorknob defunct and install a new, higher one so they can't open the doors and walk out.  Feed them finger foods like a child because they can't use utensils.  Making sure they change their underwear and drink water and reassure them there's no boogey man under the bed (or in my grandmother's case, outside in the car or barn).  It's basically like caring for a small child and everything I hate about that process. 

Day Trading: A Step by Step Guide to Creating Passive Income and Financial Freedom - John Josefh Mallardh

 Lots of smart advice like practice first before risking real money, if you are in a slump just get out for a bit to clear your head, and most importantly do not ever use money you can't afford to lose! The patterns didn't translate so well in an audiobook but I know of them and could look them up.  I assume they are all in the print version of this book.  But for me, the biggest take home is I don't have enough money to do this and won't ever if only looking at my personal income.  Apparently, no one will let you day trade without tens of thousands of dollars.  So now I see why stuff like Robinhood took off so hard, even after all the closures and sketchy business practices were publicized.  

The Jungle - Upton Sinclair

 Here we have another book that I somehow got through all of school without reading.  This one is a long-term classic and it is referenced often not only in media but in government related affairs too, so it was a pretty obvious one to put on my list.  I'm glad I finally got around to it.

This book was fascinating and anxiety-inducing and great, up until the last few chapters that devolved into some sort of communist manifesto.  As immigrants who don't understand the trap, you are filled with dread for all the MC's.  Everything goes wrong in all the predictable ways and the author has done a wonderful job of capturing the suffocating helplessness of their plight and those like them.  This is not a happy book, but I still think everyone should read it!  It is amazing how far we have come as a society!  

"I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."

Sinclair wrote this book to open the eyes of the established Americans to the unfair struggles of the poor and newer immigrants.  Apparently, no one gave a shit about poor children drowning in mud or women needlessly dying in childbirth or unemployment leading to death, but the horrors of the food impurities stuck because those people had to eat it.  They didn't care about the problems that didn't touch them.  While it wasn't his goal, I'm very happy that no longer have to worry about rats dead of poison being swept into the sausage machine. There was considerable good that came out of this incredibly long expose, even if it wasn't the outcome the author intended.  This book was the reason we created the governmental oversight in food and drugs so every American should read it. 

Changes - Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files, Bk. 12)

 My first knee-jerk reaction to this was, "Oh no, this is going downhill."  It was that internal groan of "why do children have to be a plot twist?"  As a general rule, any time surprise children show up, it's bs.  

Oh, how convenient!  You have offspring that, despite never having met, you feel suicidally protective over for no reason and completely without bonding.  But you never had to be bogged down with the actual work and sacrifice that leads to caring about a child's well-being.  (Let's be honest.  There are people who do raise their own children and still don't care about them.)

The whole plot is basically the child has to exist for the MC to give a crap and do something about it.  Then "for her own good" the child is shoved off in some unknown corner of the world where the MC still doesn't have to do any of the actual work to raise it and you know she will come back in 5-8 years as a teenager full of angst/rage/confusion about where her real parents are, bla bla bla.  

I hate children as plot devices so much.

1776 - David McCullough

 Every American needs to read this book.  It is an amazing trip through the American revolution in only the year 1776.  The war for freedom went on a long time, but several of the battles in this year were important in getting the message to Britain that the Americans were serious.  Up until the end of this year, the king and parliament thought it was just a small uprising, even after Bunker hill.  

But the reason I so highly recommend this book is the details.  You have heard of these battles in your boring high school history class, but the details are what bring the story to life and a HS class just doesn't have time for that.  Knox dragging 60 cannons from the Canadian border to Boston, Greene running out of a snowstorm on Christmas taking the Hessians by surprise, Washington pushing his men so deftly that the British estimated he must have 14,000-20,000 men in the American army when they really had only 8,000.  All of those fantastic and amazing stories get lost in the speed with which the material is covered in an American history class, so revisit that time.  You will come away with a much great appreciation of everyone involved in that whole time period.

Stock Market Investing for Beginners - John Josefh Mallardh

 A great overview but I was definitely left feeling like I needed a lot more details on each topic before jumping into it myself.  I guess that makes this book a good place to start when you're considering investing options.  

Click, Click, ChaChing!: Learn the best and easiest way to build a passive income in 2020- Raphael Leonardo

 Despite the horrid title, this book was a reasonably interesting and diverse in its topics.  I think the author's varied approach was honest and the potential negatives were addressed even if the plus side was over emphasized.  The author focused more on methods that seemed more likely to be successful like online stores and advertising as opposed to barely mentioning blogging or selling photo, which makes sense if the purpose is to create revenue.  I'd say this is a good book if you just want to think of what's out there for you to try, but there are no secret details that will really help get your head above the rest.  

A Curious History of Sex - Kate Lister

 This was a fantastically fun book and I would highly recommend it for most people.  Of course, there is no way that one book can cover all of the history of sex, or even all of a single category.  But the author takes you on a lively trip through time regarding some of the most scandalous aspects that humans have created.  A few random bits to give you an idea of what to find in this book:

The word whore has only recently been associated with prostitution and for most of its existence simply meant a woman who had sex with anyone not her husband, but was still considered one of the greatest insults.

The word cunt is the oldest word in English for female genitals.  It is believed to originate from the same root as the word cunning.

Women riding bicycles was considered the highest of offences during the Victorian era. You could see their ankles!  They didn't squeeze themselves ill in corsets while riding!  It gave them freedom where they couldn't be watched by society!  Horrors!

People seem to have forgotten that if you don't have access to abortion and birth control, women will still get rid of unwanted children, including leaving them to suffocate in the outhouse. 

Once upon a time, the worst thing you could say were things related to religion, like "God's teeth", then it switched to things related to sex, like "fuck", and today the worst cuss words are shifting to things related to racism.  That's about 1000 years of bad word evolution right there.  Very interesting because the shift was so fast that there are people alive today who remember how horrible it was to say "fuck" not that long ago while they heard things like the N-word pretty regularly.  Those have now completely switched.

This book is littered with euphemisms for all manner of sex related acts and parts including the year they were first documented in print.  I loved learning the dates of when such terms came into common useage.  

Turn Coat - Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files, Bk. 11)

 I think this might be my favorite of the Dresden series so far.  Nothing terribly convoluted and no cheap hero-randomly-gets-saved-from-insurmountable-odds-by-luck bs.  We have a defined bad guy who's hiding in the shadows, so you know what's going on but not who.  There was one obvious "twist" but otherwise a fantastically well played book, peak chaotic good action.  

The Girl from Everywhere - Heidi Heilig

 A "you should read this because you read X" recommendation.  This book was ok, not a terribly captivating story, but well written with a few interesting concepts.  I always love a good time travel conundrum.  This one had circular logic, which is always fun.  You have to go back in time to leave the map for the person to get out so that they can find you and give you the map to give back to them kinda thing.  The MC didn't deviate because the finder ended up being her grandmother and wasn't about to mess with possibly not being, but I really want someone to not give away the map and see what happens.  That's the kind of chaotic evil I want to see in a time travel book.

This book merges real and fantasy in an odd way, vaguely like Harry Potter where the fantasy is just so absurd and random.  I wasn't too big of a fan there because it was jarring, but at least the author made a good excuse for it.  (The map doesn't have to be a real place to travel to it.)  I did, however, really enjoy the trip to Hawaii before the original local government was destroyed.  I don't know much about history of that region, so it did pique my interest in reading some history on the Hawaiian islands.  

Enna Burning - Shannon Hall (The books of Bayern, Bk. 2)

 A great sequel!  This author does a fantastic job of the YA novel not being too cliché.  The characters are cute but mostly realistic.  The story moves at a good pace and, most importantly, isn't focused on a teenage girl/boy finding the teenage girl/boy to marry crap.  I would highly recommend these books for anyone who likes a nice fantasy novel that's not too weird, gory, or explicit, a good middle ground between fun and realistic.  

Dropshipping Shopify E-Commerce 2020: Learn the secrets to generate a passive income - Steve Gates

 Exactly as the title says! A recently written book on how to break into the dropshipping game and use current models of websites, social media and sales sites to maximize your online store's selling capabilities.  In a few years, the rules and big players may change, but for now, this is a great how-to book on beginning an online dropshipping store.  

The Orphan's Tale - Pam Jenoff

 This was another one of those "recommended for you" books from the library's list.  Overall, it was "meh".  The story was reasonable but not special.  Style of writing fine.  Characters pretty within the normal lines.  Honestly, the only piece of this book that really stood out as special to me was the way the author rationalized the acceptance of the Nazis' atrocities by regular, non-jewish people.  The author explicitly goes over some characters' excuses, which I thought were extremely well thought out.  

"I'm just a poor average Joe.  What can I do?"

"My father is trying to help as many people as he can, so he's had to sacrifice a few Jewish families to keep everyone else safe."

"It's not really that bad.  Those people in camps aren't dying, they're just being kept safe and organized by the government."

"I am already doing all I can hiding two Jews in my business.  There is nothing else I can do."

"My identity is being a German and Germans hate Jews.  So that must be who I am."

Heartfire - Orson Scott Card (The Tales of Alvin Maker, Bk. 5)

 I think I like these books, and all of Cards books for that matter, because the characters are SO logical.  I mean, they have outbursts and anger, but I love how so many of his characters are smart and emotionally intelligent enough to make sound choices regarding other characters.  Most of this book was:  "Well, that person will surely do X, so we better get game plan Y organized".  

I was delighted he addressed the witch trials aspect previously only vaguely referenced in the other books.  I could not think of a better scenario to demonstrate the range of opinions about witch trials.  He has every view covered through the collection of characters.  Though in the end, you know Alvin can do whatever he wants, so it doesn't have that gut wrenching terror that they could burn at any time and the reader is free to focus on the absurdity of it and enjoy the legal wrangling to get out of the trial.  You know the MC gets away in the end with ease, but it is a delightful journey to that point. 

I was less interested in the explanation of the different types of magic, particularly those used by slaves in this book.  I hated how the newly off-boarding slaves gave up their essence and I hated that the return of it didn't coincide with a great (but organized and meaningful) uprising.   However, I'm sure it will come up again.

When I finish all the OSC books, I think I might go back and re-read them all over again when I'm in the mood for a comfort book.

The Bears of Blue River - Charles Major

 For those of you unaware, this is a children's book written many years ago romanticizing America when it was untamed.  Coming from a different era and a completely opposite background as not only the writer but the intended audience, this book came off as beautiful but tragic.  

The MC is a boy in his early teens on the cusp of manhood living in middle Indiana back when it was sparse log cabins and even fewer dirt (mud most of the time) roads.  As a biologist, the portrayal of the untamed wilds of Indiana sing a stunning song of nature.  The angle of the book, as was appropriate for that time, was one of domination over that nature, of bringing her, through the many bears killed, to her knees.  

While I love this side of Indiana, it is now lost, and reading about what I'll never see almost made me sad.  You do want the MC to be successful, but I didn't want him to be at the same time, sort of like watching a lion chase a gazelle.  You want both to win somehow.  

How to Make Tea: The Science Behind the Leaf - Brian Keating & Kim Long

 This is a fantastic review paper for all things tea, covering all the basics. It was super useful, however not terribly exciting to read.  Nonetheless, I would recommend it as an excellent primer for anyone who would like to get into tea, but doesn't have any background and doesn't know what to buy or where to start entering the world of tea.  I know a reasonable amount about tea, and I still learned a few new useful things like water that just reached boiling point is not the same as water that has been boiling for a while.  I have observed the difference but didn't know what the pattern was.  I was amused to learn that when the leaves unfurl in the hot water it is called "the agony of the leaves".  Very dramatic!  Oh, and smelling the tea is absolutely part of the experience and even has some likely health properties as well, so hold that hot tea under your nose and breathe it in.  You'll feel better and it's not all in your head!

Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook - Anthony Bourdain

 The first 2/3 of this book about great food and where to find it, bad food and where to find it, and the general ridiculousness one can find in such a general, world-wide topic were great.  I enjoyed the food porn about pho and the rants of how to separate rich people from their money with dry chicken.  It is beautifully written in all the wrong ways.  The last 1/3 of the book was speaking about various famous chef and food-related people, many of which I did not know, and therefore did not care about in any way.  That part of the book was not entertaining for me because I just didn't care.  So read up until you reach the people part, then ditch it, unless you know those people.  

Small Favor - Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files, Bk. 10)

 I haven't read a Dresden book for quite a while.  The last one was good, but I'd still had a bad taste in my mouth from one several years back.  This book, however, cleared that up.  This book was lots of fun and engaging without the waffling inconsistencies of other books.  It was a read solid book and I don't plan to wait as long to read the next one.  

Aroused: The History of Hormones and How They Control Just about Everything Book - Randi Hutter Epstein

 Everyone should read this book. It's a pretty wild ride from our first observations that nerves don't do all the communicating in the body through folly and happy accidents to controversies of modern hormonal medicines.  It is intense, but fascinating from beginning to end.  This book not only has the factual, and frankly amazing, timeline of the human understanding of hormones but keeps intact the sexism, racism and hubris rife in the medical community.  

This book is a journey that begins with doctors and surgeons unanimously declaring they had solved all anatomy problems by discovering the nerves and the rest was only minor details, thorough rooster castration and reinstallation of testes elsewhere in the body to the brown dog affair (spoiler alert: they used to dissect dogs alive to show how the nerves work because, despite knowing the nerves transmitted pain, somehow never dawned on people that these dogs were in excruciating pain being fileted alive).  Then the book travels through a few of the major players and their lives like Dr. Harvey Cushing and his brain collection to Dr. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow and her unwillingness to quit due to pregnancy leading to her jokes about having a 8.5 pound 5-month-old fetus. Starting with the horror of brain spongiform disease acquired from pituitary gland injections to make short children taller to political arguments about using hormone blockers at the onset of puberty for trans children.  This book brings to life a seemingly boring topic in a way I've rarely seen before and I highly recommend it for anyone with a curious mind.  

Bitcoin for Beginners & Dummies: Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Book - Giovanni Rigters

 This book was not as detailed as the first I read in terms of history, but it did have a list of some of the most popular cryptocurrencies and exchanges detailing their pros and cons.  This book was important for that part.  It gave a run-down of the various coins, what they were tied to and how they came about so you could judge if it sounded like a quality investment or not.  It detailed the exchanges and how safe they are as well as what you can trade on them.  It also discussed the various ways to store your crypto and how to get or recieve them.  This was a good book for a basic overview of actually using them, instead of largely theory like the first book I mentioned.  

Gender Trouble - Judith Butler

 This book was difficult to slog through because it's basically reading a sociology dissertation.  There were, however, several important and insightful arguments in it, but I would have preferred a cliff notes version.  I'll save you some trouble (gender or not, ha!) and detail what I thought the most important take-home bits were below.

This entire book boils down to the idea that femininity is defined as the opposite of masculinity, therefore anything that negates or works outside of the non-masculine rule breaks the narrative and people's brains implode.  This sounds both too simplistic and at first appears difficult to place or understand due to lack of examples, but I'll offer a few from the book that, to me, really cemented the concept.  

- Lesbians! What use does a lesbian have for a man? Nothing as far as personal life enrichment is concerned. (Sure, one would hope that no one ignore nearly half the population based on their sex, but men have been doing this for centuries, so it's not like it's unheard of.)  So what are the two tropes about lesbians recycled ad nauseam?  1) The two hot femme lesbians who are just showing off for (male) attention.  2) The angry butch lesbo who is there to take down the patriarchy, violently if needed.  In both these stereotypes the woman is only relevant in her stance to either pleasure or harm men.  There is no sexy lesbian for the bi girls trop.  No butch leading hetro women in a feminist movement.  There is never any reference to the quiet relationship between two women outside of how it impacts men.  Occasionally, you'll hear about some bible-thumper housewife up in arms that her little girl's teacher is a lesbian and she may teach the child to be a lesbian! Then the child will never grow up to marry a man and make babies and follow the #lifescript! I believe we have all heard this story at least once.  But how many times have you heard of that bible-thumping housewife freaking out that her little girls teacher is 55 and still not married? I haven't.  Because at 55 the teacher is no longer a sex object and doesn't matter to men, however she could still get married to a male and that makes her just the right combination.

- The dreaded childfree!  Why do women who chose to be childfree get so much more pushback, from literally everyone, than men who chose the same route in life?  The internet is absolutely choking with stories of males walking in and getting a vasectomy nearly immediately (a few exceptions do exist) but females have years long battles spanning multiple doctors and even multiple unwanted/unplanned pregnancies before maybe, finally, getting the snip themselves.  The excuse given by these "doctors" to the women invariably falls into the "but what if you change your mind" category, often wandering into "what if a man forces you to change your mind" territory.  Parents, friends, co-workers, a random guy on the street, even the rare spouse, all cannot comprehend that a female wouldn't want to go through the most grueling and dangerous natural procedure of humanity, child birth.  Excluding the spouse and possibly the parents of only children, someone choosing not to have a child has 0 influence on any of these people's lives.  Yet they have to comment, must persuade this woman that she is wrong.  Men can get some of this from their mothers/MILs, but not from friends or co-workers and certainly not strangers on the street.  Why is everyone so vested in the woman having children then?  Because the one thing males cannot do is give birth.  Pushing out a child is the only thing a female can do that a male cannot.  Making that process the most important thing a woman can do.  So when she chooses not to, what standard has society left to hold her to?  Simply put: if she's not reproducing (or raising someone's children), she is not dichotomizing herself as everything that isn't male/masculine. Leaving her as ... what? in the eyes of society and social constructs. If she isn't the opposite of a male, what is she?

This is an insightful book, but it could be pared down to a long magazine article and still get as much out of it. 

The Nazi Occult War: Hitler's Compact with the Forces of Evil Book - Michael Fitzgerald

 I was rather disappointed about this book.  I expected a more detailed and sordid tale than the bland overview this book offers.  When you speak of a psycho like Hitler and his heavy dabbling in the occult, I was expecting some diary entries about his crazy rants from those close to him or even fanciful rumors, albeit with a large disclaimer about lack of verifiable authenticity attached.  It was super boring.  How does one make Hitler boring? This book was mostly "X went here looking for Atlantis but Y author thought it was over here and sent X there when his first expedition failed to locate it."  No details about why they thought it was there or who they contacted.  No journal entries or stories from relatives.  Just boring.  

However, there was one great aspect of this book.  The author details the finer points of how Hitler got involved in all that crap and how it obviously shaped his views and plans.  Who he met and the ideas he absorbed from these people were paramount to the stances he too.  He took ideas of hidden evil and horoscopes and the German superiority complex from these people he met prior to his political career.  I had always wondered how this messed up little man had cultivated such grand ideas about himself and the German peoples, this was it.  All the secret societies and left overs from the occult obsession of the late 1800's solidified into a political platform in Nazi Germany, which ironically, lead to their destruction too.  So overall, read the first third of this book and forget about the rest.. 

Crippled by Cryptocurrency - Atherton Cooper

 This was a clickbait-y title with the content of the book being a combination of ghost stories about crypto and sound financial security advice about any get-rich-quick scheme not specific to crypto.  The author goes on talking points about how if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Only invest what you can afford to loose.  Always double check where you are sending your money.  Research thoroughly before investing in anything.  He mentions Ponzi schemes multiple times, which have obviously been around for far longer than crypto.  The only difference now is that the form of payment used has changed.

While all of this advice is legitimate, the author grabbed the crypto part of this as a way to sell more books, just hopping on the band wagon, and nothing to do with crypto specific problems, but general internet safety.

Heidi - Johanna Spyri

 My grandmother gave me an illustrated abridged version of the book as a child and I never read it.  This Christmas my mother gave that book to my niece.  I realized I never actually read Heidi, so I thought I should finally get around to it.  It's a sweet story with excellent morals and a great young children's book, wholesome and straight-forward.  I would definitely read this to a young child.