piabo's Reviews (301)

Interesting writing style and cool idea for a story. I loved how I got frustrated somehow because I wanted to know more. Definitely a nice (and quick!) read.

I watched the movie after I finished, and I think it made me like the book more. The movie is the same main plot but has other characters, side stories, and outcomes. The movie was still mysterious and I liked it. Honestly, I liked the movie more (although not book-true) but find both good in themselves too.

A nice, wholesome romance book. Did not really know that non-toxic books like this can exist (possibly because of queer love?). Love it!
It's also set in SF, and I have been meaning to read books from where my uni is based for a while.
Just a very comforting experience. Which of course does not mean that there were no challenges! They were and they were important and educational!

This is the first book of the author, and I think it is a good one, but still room to grow. I wish some decisions would have been discussed more. Sometimes it felt like there was a jump from one to the next "mission" of the main character, and I wished for more depth.   

Not my kind of book, but still very glad I read it. Having a hard time deciding on a rating.
Honestly, this book was nothing I expected. And it is definitely my fault too. I saw mushroom in the title and saw it categorized as a science book, so I wanted to read it.
But it is not really about science. It is much more about societies that developed around the Matsutake Mushroom. It is a book about mushroom picking, woodland "management", the idea of capital in different cultures and subcultures, and multiple forms of trades.
The Matsutake mushroom, and everything around it, is truly fascinating. I would have never read a book like this if not for them being mushrooms.

I am also not an expert in society critique, so I might be unfair.

But this book was so weird at the same time. It felt so forced, of making a certain point with evidence that didn't really fit. I don't know, it was weird.
Here are two reviews I liked:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1537099642
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1612489956

A really wonderful book, one of my new favorites!
I found myself not being able to put it down, besides having other things to do and not wanting to read it in one go. And I did so much research on the side on Sri Lanka and its history. This book basically became my identity for the past week I read it.

I highly recommend! It might take a few minutes to get into it, the writing style is unique but really captivating (have you ever read a book in "you" form?) and witty and good. My curiosity was definitely engaged the entire time.
I did like that I had to go back and forth in the pages for the first half to re-read passages, it made me feel like a detective myself. And I am very glad I got the physical copy for that reason, although I might try to listen to the audiobook later.

This book is not just written great, and the story is interesting, it also teaches a lot about the Sri Lankan civil war. So anyone who wants to learn and have fun, here you go.

So this book is good! It is very basic: we all know information in here: we all know that productivity and happiness at work will be higher if we take care of ourselves first. 
This book just brings it all together with a bit of background information. I think books like this are great, and I think generally everyone who reads this does not lose anything, but rather gains a new perspective on their work and possibly motivation to change.

In short: sleep, move, eat, take breaks, reflect, and have integrity.

What I don't love about this book is how sometimes correlation is mistaken with causation. For example, it will say that people who sleep more are better leaders. I think the casual connection is logical, we all think that more sleep is beneficial. But this is a purely observational result and was not tested in a casual effect (RCT study!) and it gets more problematic when it comes to statements on eating habits, movement, or mental health practices.
Of course, the author might have better casual evidence and just not used it in text. There are a lot of sources at the end of the book! But all of them are further books, rather than peer-reviewed studies. So it is hard to check.
I know I have high standards for this book. My classmate is praising it so much, that I thought it will be perfect. But hey, I am still giving it 4 stars! It is good.

Another thing I did not love, is the general assumption. But to be fair, the premise of the book is pretty clear, I should not have picked this book up, if I did not want to hear about productivity and high-achievers only.
I just wonder where are consideration of privilege? What about people who can not easily make changes to their own habits or the company because of external factors. E.g. a lack of money, lack of influence due to belonging to a marginalized community. Why would the author not talk about sexual, racial, ableist discrimination at the work place and how that affects productivity and mental health. Why do we assume that people have nothing else going on in their lives but work and maybe family?
Again, there was more potential to this book.

Kurz und knapp, aber viele gute Denkanstöße drin!
Ich mochte besonders, dass viele antirassistische Begriffe und Wissen vorausgesetzt sind und nicht jede einzelne Idee in Tiefe erläutert wurde. 

Mohamed Amjahid taucht in neun Kapiteln in verschiedene Themen ein, in denen weiße Menschen weiterhin Schaden durch ihre Ignoranz und ihr Unwissen anrichten.
Für mich waren vor allem Themen über sexuelle Fantasien, Erinnerungskultur, und Filterblasen herausfordernd. Sei es, weil ich mir vorher noch keine Gedanken darüber gemacht habe, oder rassistisches Verhalten von mir selbst festgestellt habe.
Ich möchte mich weiterhin mit diesen Themen auseinandersetzen und hoffe meine weißen Freund*innen tun dasselbe.
Es ist kein dickes Buch! Das Hörbuch ist unter 6 Stunden lang, das kann man schnell mal hören.
Und am Ende bekommt man dann auch noch eine super praktische Checkliste, wie man ein besserer Mensch sein kann.

BIPOC die sich Zeit nehmen und diese wichtigen Bücher schreiben und anderswo ignorante Menschen (wie mich) aufklären haben weiterhin meinen größten Respekt und Anerkennung. Danke, ehy!

Took me a while to get into it but then enjoyed the adventures of the Hobbit and the dwarfs. Lots of creativity in the plot and entertaining turn of events for sure!
After some time I thought I got the writing style, but I kept getting surprised by what the author focuses on and what not. It's cool.

Will now either watch the movies or go on and read the Lord of the Rings first. Let's see. Definitely not a big fan yet but that might change.

*desperately looking for a new fantasy series to get obsessed with*

I am just completely blown away by how wonderful and important the world we can not see is.
I have learned about bacteria and other microbes before, e.g. in "Biography of resistance", but that book focused a lot on the negative aspects.

Ed Yong wrote this book so well! The microbiome in and around us is so important and adds depth to so much of our understanding of the world.
I believe that there is a lot we still have to learn, and I am sure some great cures and solutions will be based on the biodiversity of microbiomes.

Also very good scientific writing! Concepts were explained well and the scientific process was described with all its flaws and shortcomings. Top work! (so nice after the disappointment of "Your Brain on Birth Control", that I read before)
I think I have a new focus of my capstone topic :)

Great storytelling and very important topic.
I did not know much about the wars in Europe in the 90s. This gives a great understanding of how it must have felt being a child in Croatia during that time.
The tragedy of war is well displayed, including loss and killing. But also the everyday moments, and the trauma following it. I am so grateful to have read it!

At times, I wished it would be more story than just the war, but I only later realized how powerful everything written was. How my desire for happiness and extravagance is a luxury war does not provide. I loved it. And want to read more of Sara Nović now.

I have been looking for a book like this for some time. A boom that talks about the menstrual cycle and the hormonal impact on body and brain.

As a biochem and neuroscience student, I do know a little bit about the complexities of these topics already, so I was hoping for a book that can deal with uncertainty and nuanced findings.

This book had a lot of potential and a few great passages. I especially enjoyed when the author was able to explain the research process and why menstruating people are so severely understudied.

But the big issue I had with the book was the discriminating and non-inclusvie language. While the author made a disclaimer in the first part of the book, about not including trans or queer women and men, this was by no means sufficient.
There was also strong TERF motives at points.

It could have been so simple to make this book more inclusive. A few word changes, a few passages removed andba few others added. Tbh, I would love to rewrite this book.
The more I read, the more Inhad the feeling that the author was deliberately excluding certain groups of people. Not cool.


Another problem of mine was the intransparency about the scientific process at times. Other experts on the field have been commenting on the book, mentioning that the author is speculating a lot. And I can not do, but feel like the speculating parts all had an agenda. If you speculate in this direction, why don't you also include the other?
This behaviour unfortunately made me question the entire book.


But still. I think a good book, if read with caution. The best Inhave found so far on this topic.

Maybe a little like "Why We Sleep" were some results were also extrapolated. But the overall idea was important. It's just hard here to get the overall idea without being incorrect. I feel like a basic scientific training is necessary to make up the bad part from the good parts 😢