It’s Your Kid, Not a Gerbil: Creating a Happier & Less-Stressed Home by Kevin Leman My rating: 3 of 5 stars If you need parenting advice, get it from someone who has been there, done that. Repeatedly. Like Dr. Kevin Leman, who has five kids. However, parents who subscribe to the notion of kiasuism, helicopter… Read More »
Lying by Sam Harris My rating: 3 of 5 stars A complex book (or should I say, essay, to be honest) on the philosophy of practical ethics, based on an undergraduate college course that the author took at Stanford. Ironically, it takes a book about lying to lay out the merits of telling the truth… Read More »
Badass: Making Users Awesome by Kathy Sierra My rating: 2 of 5 stars A book designed for visual learners. Ironically, the slow and often repetitive build-up of topics on how to help users become badass resulted in the very cognitive leaks that the author devoted significant pages to advocate against. So at the end of… Read More »
The Napkin The Melon The Monkey: How to Be Happy and Successful by Simply Changing Your Mind by Barbara Burke My rating: 3 of 5 stars A short and easy read (130 pages with key points repeated in many places). Conceptually sound, but a bit short on practicality. Those looking for a detailed “how-to” guide… Read More »
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do and How to Change by Charles Duhigg My rating: 4 of 5 stars If you like Malcolm Gladwell’s investigative journalistic style, you will take to this book like a duck to water. The notes at the back, based on my rough estimate, span almost one-quarter… Read More »
There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather: A Scandinavian Mom’s Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids by Linda Åkeson McGurk My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book touches on an important aspect of early childhood development that many parents and educators in the digital age tend to neglect. Written in a part-memoir,… Read More »