Audiobook

Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding by Sam Anderson

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This book is personal.

Ok, maybe not that personal, but this book gives the best history/background of my hometown: Oklahoma City.

This book is both a history book and a sports book.

For the history: all the major events such as our founding, sleezy business owners developing, tornados, the NBA team, and the horrific events of the Murrah Bombing are all covered.

For the sports fans: This book covered why OKC even has a basketball team, how we stole the Sonics, why KD was an icon and how the team has progressed.

I will be blunt; I was not here for the basketball. I am not a sports-ball guy. But I try to be open minded and got a lot out of the Thunder’s sections. I have a lot more context of why the thunder is a big deal. I was also a bit flabbergasted that the biggest reason we have a team is because rich businesspeople wanted a team. (Please read the book for the full story, I am recommending the book after all).

I was here more for the history of my city. Some of the basics were covered in my high school history class but most of the content was fresh and gave me a new perspective on OKC. The author also shed a lot of light on the recent renascence that OKC is going through. But he does mention, and I see his point, that OKC is a boom town, and there is usually a bust.

He captures a lot of the thinking and just “way of life” us okies are in words I never could have imagined. For example, “OKC is the biggest small town in America” or that “You don’t need a GPS, you look the tallest building and use that to navigate”. But he does a great job of showing off our resilience, hard work, and friendly nature.

I don’t want to spoil the whole book, but there are chapters on our weather, and of the Flaming Lips. They are apart of who we are.

I did grow to enjoy my city a bit more with this book. And made me enjoy the fact that I still live here at least a little. (I WILL HAPPILY MOVE TOO IF A BIOTECH OR PRODUCT DESIGN OR FORENSIC JOB OPENS UP IN A “CIVLIZED” COUNTRY THOUGH, LET ME KNOW, HINT HINT)

Watership Down by Richard Adams

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This book is very polarizing.

I also really recommend that people avoid the Netflix animated series and the old standalone movie for this book, it is a wonderful book to go into mostly blind.

I also say the preface/intro by the author is required reading for the context a person needs to make the most of this book.

The easiest way to describe this book is “Lord of the Rings books but with rabbits”. To elaborate just a bit, this book is about rabbits and their point of view of the world. It is like LOTR as in the protagonists go through and epic journey and there is rich lore to their world and how they perceive the world at large.

Yes rich rabbit lore. With many myths and legends about their world.

Yes I recommend this book.

I’m serious

This book got me engrossed about a new world and stories while making me think critically. That sense of being engrossed is why I recommend this story.

If you are familiar with the series or movie, I still recommend at least the forward.

(note: I did not care that much about the series, good voice actors and that’s about the only thing that was beyond competent; I have only seen clips of the movie which may scare off readers, YES THOOSE CLIPS)

Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics

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This book is one of those books I went into completely blind. Like blind blind.

I knew of Dolly, I knew a few of the things she has made, but this book was an impulse buy, not because I was a “fan” of Dolly.

This was a great book to go into blind. This is very much a biography, but it reads more like a radio interview than a book, Dolly is very natural sounding and very authentic because of it.

I still would not say I love all her music but I apricate Dolly on a new level and understand her role in the zeitgeist a lot more

Very informative, entertaining, and straight from the source herself; the best you can ask for in a biography.

I do recommend if you are like me and more blind to her work, get the audio book. Whenever a song is discussed, the audiobook had snips of the songs which helped in context.

If you are an established fan, I have been recommended the “picture” book to get more visual context about her stories.

A World Undone by G. J. Meyer

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For lots of reasons, this book as been on my mind recently. I will cite both modern events and the new SABATON Album “The War to end all Wars”.

One of the problems with history is that there are so many facets and details that each can comprise a multitude of books and study. Many history books I read are more and more niche, examining aspects of science, individual people, etc.

This book tells everything. Granted not every single detail is elaborated on in very intricate detail such as in the YouTube series “The Great War”. But, if you read only one thing about the history of WWI, this is it.

The reasons why the war started are explained better than any textbook. The stories of the people, what they did, and why they matter over 100years later were made clear. This book even examines the smallest of details such as the relations of the Russian families, the poetry of the soldiers, and the news at the home fronts.

If you want WWI explained, this is THE book. It is a long read but very complete. This is a very good litmus of being interested in WWI as well. If you like this book, this is a great jumping off point to dive into more; or if nothing covered in this book interests you, this is a great overview.

I do still recommend “All Quiet on the Western Front” for the experience of the men who fought and experienced the war. But that history, in my experience is both the big and small pictures.

Also, regarding this book, I am unfortunately internalizing the tragedy of the world, and of WWI.

“The war that would end all wars is over
But not everyone agrees
In the underground, something is growing in the dark
Because for some, the war never ended
War will never entirely die, it will evolve
It will change
And war will return, sooner than we think”

-SABATON – Versailles

Thrawn (2017)

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This is a recommendation with a huge caveat. How deep do you want the rabbit hole?

We all know Star Wars has a myriad of characters, settings, and timelines. This is a great book if you love the empire era. This book also paints the empire in a very different light then in any other media namely the “boring sides” of logistics, protocols, and bureaucracy; mixing in xenophobia, life under empire rule, and of course space battles. With that said, I still recommend any fan interested to know who Thrawn is, read this book. It is well worth your time. This book is smart and clever with gripping story (yes even with the bureaucracy). Also if you are an audiobook lover like I am, I highly recommend/warn the sound effects and pure production in the book.

Because of this book, I give the mentioned caveat.

I think to the surprise of no-one I am a Star Wars nerd. Because of this, I read 9 other books featuring Thrawn. ( Thrawn: Alliances, Thrawn: Treason, Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command, Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising, Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good, and Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil) I could recommend them. But I find myself when I talk about these books with peers I really can’t.

It is a struggle to convince someone to read one book let alone 9. I do absolutely enjoy what I have read, and think if people take the time to sit down and read them all it will be worth their time. But it is a commitment too far to say “read 9 books and tell me what you think”.

Basically this is THE book I recommend, and IF you want more there is plenty more, but if you only read one, this is it.

Reading List of 2021

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This is the big list of books I completed in 2021.

I would like to say there is a pattern, however I think that would be a lie.

The list is in (mostly) sequential order

note: just because it is on this list does not mean I recommend it or will not recommend it later, this is more the list of stuff I thought would be worth reading.

  1. The Reluctant Adventures of Fletcher Connolly on the Interstellar Railroad
  2. Eating the Dinosaur
  3. Song Machine
  4. Humble Pi
  5. Liquid Rules
  6. Better Than Before
  7. Libertarian Walks into a Bear
  8. All Creatures Great and Small
  9. Watership down
  10. Thrawn ascendancy: Greater Good
  11. White fang
  12. A Clockwork Orange
  13. Creativity INC
  14. Heavens river (Bobiverse)
  15. Mathematics of love
  16. The Ice Diary’s
  17. Shadows of the Empire (abridged)
  18. The Android’s Dream
  19. Sword of Destiny (Witcher)
  20. Invisible hook
  21. The Godfather
  22. Four Fish
  23. Orconomics
  24. Eaters of the Dead
  25. Cosmos
  26. Super Freakonomics
  27. Lies my Teacher Told Me
  28. Prisoners of Geography
  29. Nordic Theory of Everything
  30. Everybody has a Podcast Except You
  31. Thinking, Fast and Slow
  32. Curious
  33. Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil
  34. Existentially Challenged
  35. Consider the Fork

The Reluctant Adventures of Fletcher Connolly on the Interstellar Railroad

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Another recommendation where I am technically recommending the entire series.

This is a goofy book with a good plot. Very much a space opera, lots of planets and types of aliens. The characters, for lack of a better term, are down to earth. They all feel very rational and unique. Namely the main character, Fletcher, is very Irish. This book does lean on the reader liking British/Irish humor to get some of the nuanced jokes. The audio book also hammers this fact down. But I still recommend this. There is a lot of fun and adventure to be had.

The sci-fi world is great at poking fun at trends, creating aliens, and revising earth. The author knows when to lean into the campy humor and when to use a well-crafted plots and twists.

This book/series is a fun romp, funny, adventurous, and thought provoking in only a way sci-fi/ space operas can pull off. Also, the individual books are really short, and the collection feels like one book when put together, so I technically count this as 1 book in my head.

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

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Off the bat: I say this is one of “those boring books” that I think everyone should read.

I say “boring” as the author is a PHD (and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics), and I will admit it can be a bit tedious to read at times (also note: if you read the audiobook like me, several figures he mentions are not “in” the audiobook you will need to reference them).

However, this book is high on my recommendation list. Everybody thinks. This book specifically looks at the “fast thinking” compared to “slow thinking”. IE you can have a reaction to “do you like X?” almost instantly but 13×37=? Will take you more time. The author excels at keeping this book accessible to anyone. The topics at times feel like a psychology 101 class, or econ 101. However, he excelled at being in your brain and knowing how you will think.  This also showed many biases people will not be aware of but make total sense.

Oddly one of the most self-reflecting books that does not really fit the self-improvement genre.

Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman: Conservation Heroes of the American Heartland

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This is a book I recommend to anyone having an interest in Conservation, America’s Natural Resources and or any thoughts about climate change.

Conservation books can be preachy and “doom and gloom”. This book does not sugar coat the state of conservation in America, but it excels at showing the people who have a vested interest across many industries have and their role in conservation.

Tales of Ranchers using beef cattle to manage ancient grasslands, Farmers using better tilling techniques to preserve the soil, fishermen having to focus on better techniques to keep species of fish and shrimp sustainable, or else they go bankrupt.

This is one of the few books to give me hope that things can change for the better for wildlife conservation. This highlights the vested interest that many businesses have in protecting natural resources. Granted it has been several years since this was written, so I do not know how well this book stands the test of time.

There is a documentary about this book, but I have yet to see it.

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage

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Some books blur genres for me.

This book is the first in a long time that I thought was a piece of fiction, only to be slapped in the face and find out it was a true story.

 Because of this, the subtitle is the most apt subtitle I have come across. This book captures adventure, survival horror, and the imagination all in one book. This is a story about traveling to the Antarctic in the last days in the age of exploration.

I don’t want to spoil too much more, I recommend going into this blind, I already feel like I have spoiled the book saying it is a true story.

Tl;dr: one of the few books to make me go “wow” and “that was real?”

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: No Prisoners

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To the surprise of absolutely no-one, I am a Star Wars Fan. There is a LOT and I mean a LOT of Star Wars Media to consume, much of it good to a degree. At some point I will add more SW books, I promise.

With Disney now owning SW, books were ripped out of canon, and into legends. This is one of those books. And yes, it is based on the animated series “The Clone Wars”. But please give it a chance. First, its not an episode from TCW, and you do not need much context from TCW to enjoy this book. Second, this really gives a good look into Anikin in the prequels, that I wish was present. Same with the jedi philosophy, and clone’s outlook on the war.

I recommend this book to anyone familiar to the SW prequels, but namely I think this book is the best slice of TCW without diving head first into the whole series or other books.

Orconomics: A Satire

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Note: I recommend going into this as blind as possible, keep reading at your own risk

When I experience fantasy in different mediums, I seem to find there is a lot of “generic” tropes that make me look over many works of fantasy. Classics like LotR still hold up great, subversions such as the Witcher Saga keeps me invested with the personalities and subtle ways the world works.

This book is somehow both serious and well developed and satirical at the same time.

This book does feel at times that it is some ones vanilla Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and the characters, for me all seemed to fall in line with my expectations.

The story does develop and the final act really ties together the entire book. But honestly the biggest reason I recommend this is that odd part of the name “onomics”. This is an economics book disguised as a fantasy novel. I would say this book has more to do with “The Big Short” (the story behind the 2008 financial crisis) than it does with LotR and I love it for that.

If the idea of economics is off putting: 1) Sorry, I like economic books 2)This is a great fantasy book regardless, you do not need to be an economist to enjoy

We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

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Technically I am recommending the entire bobiverse (We are Legion, For We are Many, All These World, Heavens Rive and hopefully 2 more soonish).

This is a killer Sci-fic concept, perfect for people who like to think about Sci-fi meeting reality.

“What would it be like to be a Von Neumann Probe?” (A Von Neumann probe is a self-replicating spaceship).

I don’t like giving too many spoilers (I recommend you read these books for yourself after all); but to give a bit more context, this follows Bob. Bob is a regular man who dies and his conscious digitized into a self-replicating drone. He escapes earth and makes clones, both as a spaceship and as his conscious, all following his adventures in the galaxy.

Plenty of wit and good ideas, it is hard to recommend only the first book, all of them are great

Lies My Teacher Told Me

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A must read if you have ever taken a US History class EVER.

This book is a history book about history books while correcting many of the factual errors stated in them or at least giving them new perspective.

Such as: Christopher Columbus did NOT think the world was flat AND he DID transport many slaves from the new world to Spain.

He also mentions things completely missing from a lot of textbooks. Namely Unions, a history of class warfare, and so much from Vietnam.

This book is close to 30 years old as of writing so some books have gotten with the times, however this should be mandatory reading in college if not high school.

This book, as I mentioned earlier, discusses on the history of history books and why modern history books suck and don’t encourage critical thinking.

The Year of Living Danishly/ The Nordic Theory of Everything

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I am counting both of these books as 1 because they are very similar in topic. The topic: how the Nordic counties operate. Specifically comparing them to the “civilized” western county of the US (year of Living Danishly compares the UK as well).

Both books present the Nordic counties and how they operate. They both elaborate on what makes these counties function for the average citizen. And present their ideas on why said counties are always at the top of the world happiness index, and why the US is not in the top 10. Things simple as: investing in its citizens, not having medical systems that make citizens regret going to the doctor, making people take time off to keep them productive, giving parental leave, and other concepts I can only have in my most extravagant dreams about the US and working/living here.

To give a bit more context: Year of Living Danishly is a happiness book as well, but I never had so much culture shock as I did when I first read it. It follows the Author moving to Denmark and her emotions and reactions having the culture shock as well, has a lovely ending as well.

The Nordic Theory of Everything is more facts, more details and less focus on the author. However, reading this book made me disappointed in the US more. It does a better job of comparing all the countries, not just Denmark or Finland

Read this and share it with anyone thinking about how happy their country makes them

Tribe

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To preface, this is a short book. Nonetheless I think this is a book everyone should read. Also, if you read this book and think it applies to only people in the military, you are missing the point of the book. This book as about what a “tribe” is and what happens to people when they are in a “tribe”.  This book gave me an outlook on belonging in groups I never realized before. I don’t want to say more, the book is really short and worth your time.

Better Than Before

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Habits are things everyone does, this book recognizes that and has you think about the habits you make and how to exploit them. The author does a great job of looking at the 4 main types of habit formers and examines how each works and how to get each one to work to achieve “happiness”. I am using this term a bit loosely as I think this is more of a book to get you to think about what you want to change about yourself, not directly relating to happiness. This is a book for a tool to work on yourself not the silver bullet for happiness.

 I do also think the extra long excerpt about going keto is a bit shoe-horned in. And as I got the audiobook version of this, I got a preview of her podcast. I don’t think either add much to the book. I will admit the keto section is a good example of using habits, but she dives way too far into it.

Great book to get you to think about your own actions and how to change them

How to be Miserable: 40 Strategies You Already Use

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Being sad on purpose

I think this book is a good go-to for anyone in today’s world if they don’t feel “quite as happy they should be”. The whole premise of the book is novel, in that it gets you the reader to look backwards at happiness, in a reverse psychology manner. Instead of trying to go straight to happiness, this book looks at how to do things to make yourself even sadder and more miserable than you currently are, in both a sarcastic manner and a “hint hint, wink wink, nudge nudge” way of asying DON’T DO THIS IF YOU WANT HAPPINESS. The author of the book is a PHD and has worked with many clients, and I think he presents his experience well.

Great food for thought, probably one I need to re-visit time to time.

If you are looking for a TLDR, I do recommend this video by CPG Grey: