#bookreviews — Public Fediverse posts

Book Review: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

Author: Terry Pratchett
Title: Guards! Guards!
Publication Info: Gollancz, 1989
Summary/Review:

In the first installment of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch series of Discworld novels, the tall human raised by dwarfs Carrot joins as a new recruit.  Carrot is very literal and by the book, but his arrival brings a new sense of idealism to the corrupted Night Watch lead by Sam Vimes.  At this time a secret monastic order is plotting to overthrow the Patrician who governs Ankh-Morpork by summoning a dragon and then have their puppet slay the dragon and become king.  Things go awry when the dragon burns down wide swathes of the city and declares itself king instead.  In this hilarious and clever story, the Night Watch – and their tiny dragon mascot Erroll – have to summon the heroism to save the city.

Rating: ****

Discworld Reviews Master List

Other books by Terry Pratchett I’ve read:

• The Carpet People
• Good Omens

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜’𝗺 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: "𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗮𝘅 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱" 𝗯𝘆 𝗢𝗹𝗴𝗮 𝗥𝗮𝘃𝗻 -

A spontaneous choice, feminist history and hybrid fiction and something more, still. Everyone who has read it has been "captured" by her writing. Let's see . . .

#books #bookreviews #bookworm #readreadread #tbr #tbrpile #tbrlist #quotes #reading #olgaravn #fiction #feminism #hybridgenre #experimentalfiction #witchcraft #history

Sense, Think, Act: A Brilliant Framework for Teaching Kids Robotics

How do you introduce a field as massive and complex as robotics to a 10-year-old without overwhelming them?

In her book So You Want To Be A Robot Builder, author Linda Soules pulls off a masterclass in STEM communication by anchoring the entire text to a single, elegant framework: A robot senses, thinks, and acts.

By grounding young minds in this simple loop, the complex worlds of coding, sensors, and mechanical engineering instantly feel reachable. But what makes this book truly valuable for educators and mentors is its honesty. Instead of over-promising easy results, Soules highlights the reality of the engineering process—including the trial, error, and patience required to debug a system.

Key highlights of the book include:

• Real-World Applications: Explores how robotics is transforming surgery, space exploration, and rescue missions.
• Built-in Learning Tools: Features an excellent glossary, a further-reading list, and practical tips on keeping a “robot log.”
• Pioneer Profiles: Introduces kids to real people shaping the industry today.

For teachers, homeschoolers, or mentors looking to inspire the next generation of creators with a respectful, high-quality text, Soules’s guide is an essential resource.

👉 Get the complete review: For a deeper look into the book’s contents, check out our full review on BookBelow.

Tales From The Territory: A Cosy ARC Book Review

https://collectingandreading.co.uk/2026/05/28/tales-from-the-territory-a-cosy-arc-book-review/

Cold Cases and Warm Hearts: Exploring “All the Missing Pieces” by Catherine Cowles

https://lettyreads.com/2026/05/28/cold-cases-and-warm-hearts-exploring-all-the-missing-pieces-by-catherine-cowles/

Cold Cases and Warm Hearts: Exploring “All the Missing Pieces” by Catherine Cowles

https://lettyreads.com/2026/05/28/cold-cases-and-warm-hearts-exploring-all-the-missing-pieces-by-catherine-cowles/

Cold Cases and Warm Hearts: Exploring “All the Missing Pieces” by Catherine Cowles

https://lettyreads.com/2026/05/28/cold-cases-and-warm-hearts-exploring-all-the-missing-pieces-by-catherine-cowles/

Elspeth’s Journey: Enemies to Allies in One Dark Window

https://lettyreads.com/2026/05/27/elspeths-journey-enemies-to-allies-in-one-dark-window/

No gadgets. No secret labs. Just courage. Spies of No Country shows how Israel’s first spies fought to protect a young nation.
#Mossad #SpyBooks #BookRecommendation #books #bookreviews
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/spies-of-no-country-book-review/

No gadgets. No secret labs. Just courage. Spies of No Country shows how Israel’s first spies fought to protect a young nation.
#Mossad #SpyBooks #BookRecommendation #books #bookreviews
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/spies-of-no-country-book-review/

No gadgets. No secret labs. Just courage. Spies of No Country shows how Israel’s first spies fought to protect a young nation.
#Mossad #SpyBooks #BookRecommendation #books #bookreviews
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/spies-of-no-country-book-review/

No gadgets. No secret labs. Just courage. Spies of No Country shows how Israel’s first spies fought to protect a young nation.
#Mossad #SpyBooks #BookRecommendation #books #bookreviews
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/spies-of-no-country-book-review/

No gadgets. No secret labs. Just courage. Spies of No Country shows how Israel’s first spies fought to protect a young nation.
#Mossad #SpyBooks #BookRecommendation #books #bookreviews
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/spies-of-no-country-book-review/

Recent readings and other activities

I have been on a reading journey of late. It helps make me feel alive in times like these, when our rights are being stripped, our economy is in the toilet and everyone is afraid to quit their shitty jobs, and our nation has become an international embarrassment.

What better way to deal with the world than escapism!

A few short observations:

Z, A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, by Therese Anne Fowler

I was intrigued by the novel at first because of the initial setting in Montgomery, Alabama, where I spent nearly 20 years. I grew up in Alabama and somehow managed not to go to the White House of the Confederacy, a family home of the Sayres. Only through this book did I learn that Zelda’s kinfolk were integral in crafting the environment of racial oppression that became Jim Crow Alabama, and the Zelda in this book was a Confederacy apologist. By the time I got to Montgomery in 2000, Zelda and her daughter were long dead, and though the F. Scott and Zelda home is available for viewing near the Cloverdale area of town, I never bothered.

I shouldn’t have bothered with this book as well. Once you get past the initial setup and get into the drunken debauchery, the lives of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald become an exercise in destructive tediousness. You do get a feel for how controlling Scott Fitzgerald was through this work of historical fiction. But the tediousness did me in, and the first-person narrator of this book never felt like an authentic voice. Perhaps I will try to wade through this manuscript again at some point. For now, I have other tomes competing for my attention.

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

In a better world, I think this would be a pretty decent Young Adult novel. I was surprised to see it available on Libby at the public library, though I doubt I will see a physical copy of it at the library.

Upright Women Wanted, a Hugo and Locus Award finalist, brings LGBTQ characters front and center. The librarians survive at the fringes of society, and these particular librarians serve an important role in the foreground by distributing approved materials to far-flung outposts in a new Wild West. As becomes clear-ish toward the end of the novel, they serve a covert purpose as well in the fight for freedom against a fascist society.

It was an action-packed novel, though not really a page-turner like some I read this month.

The novel would have been served by better world-building. By the last page, readers are still left with a lot of questions about the political situation, how all this came to pass, etc.

Die Me a River by Denise Swanson

I took on a cozy mystery for a change, and though this particular book was a page turner, the fictive world here felt like it was propped up by fantasy. The school psychologist who helps out the police happens to be married to the chief of police. The police chief husband has a rich dad who helps them out big time by buying them a giant RV when their house is destroyed in a tornado. And the police chief is a sexy, sexy man, the writer keeps reminding us, and the protagonist continues to be smitten by him despite having a baby to take of. He’s not an old guy, a tub of lard or an alcoholic like is often the case in reality.

Well, there are worse ways to spend an afternoon than reading this book, though it on the whole has very little to do with reality. Not altogether a bad thing!

Blightsighted by Karin Slaughter

This was another page-turner I finished in a day. It’s the first novel by the author of the Will Trent series, the TV show of which films locally, so it’s something I’ve seen a few episodes of.

Every chapter ended in a cliff-hanger, propelling you through the book. I wound up staying up much too late finishing it.

But boy, it started out rough: a bloody, gruesome murder in the very first chapter. The extreme details of our protagonist finding the body and trying to save her were almost enough to get me to stop reading. But I kept on.

And it kept on being rough, gritty, truly nightmarish, depraved crimes. Of course, there’s the required red herrings, and our protagonist figures out, almost too late, who the killer/rapist is.

Huh, what a coincidence! The previous tome’s protagonist is married to the police chief. As part of the backstory, it’s revealed our protagonist divorced the police chief after she caught him having an affair. But because she’s the town’s part-time coroner, full-time pediatrician, she still has to interact with him. Gritty, but also feels a bit unlikely and too convenient.

More to come!

I’ve joined a book club, so expect more book reviews in this space. And perhaps I can try harder to make them more comprehensive. In the flush of a page-turning spree, trying to find out what’s going to happen next, I kind of put note-taking on the backburner. I need to regulate my reading better.

Recent readings and other activities

I have been on a reading journey of late. It helps make me feel alive in times like these, when our rights are being stripped, our economy is in the toilet and everyone is afraid to quit their shitty jobs, and our nation has become an international embarrassment.

What better way to deal with the world than escapism!

A few short observations:

Z, A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, by Therese Anne Fowler

I was intrigued by the novel at first because of the initial setting in Montgomery, Alabama, where I spent nearly 20 years. I grew up in Alabama and somehow managed not to go to the White House of the Confederacy, a family home of the Sayres. Only through this book did I learn that Zelda’s kinfolk were integral in crafting the environment of racial oppression that became Jim Crow Alabama, and the Zelda in this book was a Confederacy apologist. By the time I got to Montgomery in 2000, Zelda and her daughter were long dead, and though the F. Scott and Zelda home is available for viewing near the Cloverdale area of town, I never bothered.

I shouldn’t have bothered with this book as well. Once you get past the initial setup and get into the drunken debauchery, the lives of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald become an exercise in destructive tediousness. You do get a feel for how controlling Scott Fitzgerald was through this work of historical fiction. But the tediousness did me in, and the first-person narrator of this book never felt like an authentic voice. Perhaps I will try to wade through this manuscript again at some point. For now, I have other tomes competing for my attention.

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

In a better world, I think this would be a pretty decent Young Adult novel. I was surprised to see it available on Libby at the public library, though I doubt I will see a physical copy of it at the library.

Upright Women Wanted, a Hugo and Locus Award finalist, brings LGBTQ characters front and center. The librarians survive at the fringes of society, and these particular librarians serve an important role in the foreground by distributing approved materials to far-flung outposts in a new Wild West. As becomes clear-ish toward the end of the novel, they serve a covert purpose as well in the fight for freedom against a fascist society.

It was an action-packed novel, though not really a page-turner like some I read this month.

The novel would have been served by better world-building. By the last page, readers are still left with a lot of questions about the political situation, how all this came to pass, etc.

Die Me a River by Denise Swanson

I took on a cozy mystery for a change, and though this particular book was a page turner, the fictive world here felt like it was propped up by fantasy. The school psychologist who helps out the police happens to be married to the chief of police. The police chief husband has a rich dad who helps them out big time by buying them a giant RV when their house is destroyed in a tornado. And the police chief is a sexy, sexy man, the writer keeps reminding us, and the protagonist continues to be smitten by him despite having a baby to take of. He’s not an old guy, a tub of lard or an alcoholic like is often the case in reality.

Well, there are worse ways to spend an afternoon than reading this book, though it on the whole has very little to do with reality. Not altogether a bad thing!

Blightsighted by Karin Slaughter

This was another page-turner I finished in a day. It’s the first novel by the author of the Will Trent series, the TV show of which films locally, so it’s something I’ve seen a few episodes of.

Every chapter ended in a cliff-hanger, propelling you through the book. I wound up staying up much too late finishing it.

But boy, it started out rough: a bloody, gruesome murder in the very first chapter. The extreme details of our protagonist finding the body and trying to save her were almost enough to get me to stop reading. But I kept on.

And it kept on being rough, gritty, truly nightmarish, depraved crimes. Of course, there’s the required red herrings, and our protagonist figures out, almost too late, who the killer/rapist is.

Huh, what a coincidence! The previous tome’s protagonist is married to the police chief. As part of the backstory, it’s revealed our protagonist divorced the police chief after she caught him having an affair. But because she’s the town’s part-time coroner, full-time pediatrician, she still has to interact with him. Gritty, but also feels a bit unlikely and too convenient.

More to come!

I’ve joined a book club, so expect more book reviews in this space. And perhaps I can try harder to make them more comprehensive. In the flush of a page-turning spree, trying to find out what’s going to happen next, I kind of put note-taking on the backburner. I need to regulate my reading better.

Recent readings and other activities

I have been on a reading journey of late. It helps make me feel alive in times like these, when our rights are being stripped, our economy is in the toilet and everyone is afraid to quit their shitty jobs, and our nation has become an international embarrassment.

What better way to deal with the world than escapism!

A few short observations:

Z, A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, by Therese Anne Fowler

I was intrigued by the novel at first because of the initial setting in Montgomery, Alabama, where I spent nearly 20 years. I grew up in Alabama and somehow managed not to go to the White House of the Confederacy, a family home of the Sayres. Only through this book did I learn that Zelda’s kinfolk were integral in crafting the environment of racial oppression that became Jim Crow Alabama, and the Zelda in this book was a Confederacy apologist. By the time I got to Montgomery in 2000, Zelda and her daughter were long dead, and though the F. Scott and Zelda home is available for viewing near the Cloverdale area of town, I never bothered.

I shouldn’t have bothered with this book as well. Once you get past the initial setup and get into the drunken debauchery, the lives of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald become an exercise in destructive tediousness. You do get a feel for how controlling Scott Fitzgerald was through this work of historical fiction. But the tediousness did me in, and the first-person narrator of this book never felt like an authentic voice. Perhaps I will try to wade through this manuscript again at some point. For now, I have other tomes competing for my attention.

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

In a better world, I think this would be a pretty decent Young Adult novel. I was surprised to see it available on Libby at the public library, though I doubt I will see a physical copy of it at the library.

Upright Women Wanted, a Hugo and Locus Award finalist, brings LGBTQ characters front and center. The librarians survive at the fringes of society, and these particular librarians serve an important role in the foreground by distributing approved materials to far-flung outposts in a new Wild West. As becomes clear-ish toward the end of the novel, they serve a covert purpose as well in the fight for freedom against a fascist society.

It was an action-packed novel, though not really a page-turner like some I read this month.

The novel would have been served by better world-building. By the last page, readers are still left with a lot of questions about the political situation, how all this came to pass, etc.

Die Me a River by Denise Swanson

I took on a cozy mystery for a change, and though this particular book was a page turner, the fictive world here felt like it was propped up by fantasy. The school psychologist who helps out the police happens to be married to the chief of police. The police chief husband has a rich dad who helps them out big time by buying them a giant RV when their house is destroyed in a tornado. And the police chief is a sexy, sexy man, the writer keeps reminding us, and the protagonist continues to be smitten by him despite having a baby to take of. He’s not an old guy, a tub of lard or an alcoholic like is often the case in reality.

Well, there are worse ways to spend an afternoon than reading this book, though it on the whole has very little to do with reality. Not altogether a bad thing!

Blightsighted by Karin Slaughter

This was another page-turner I finished in a day. It’s the first novel by the author of the Will Trent series, the TV show of which films locally, so it’s something I’ve seen a few episodes of.

Every chapter ended in a cliff-hanger, propelling you through the book. I wound up staying up much too late finishing it.

But boy, it started out rough: a bloody, gruesome murder in the very first chapter. The extreme details of our protagonist finding the body and trying to save her were almost enough to get me to stop reading. But I kept on.

And it kept on being rough, gritty, truly nightmarish, depraved crimes. Of course, there’s the required red herrings, and our protagonist figures out, almost too late, who the killer/rapist is.

Huh, what a coincidence! The previous tome’s protagonist is married to the police chief. As part of the backstory, it’s revealed our protagonist divorced the police chief after she caught him having an affair. But because she’s the town’s part-time coroner, full-time pediatrician, she still has to interact with him. Gritty, but also feels a bit unlikely and too convenient.

More to come!

I’ve joined a book club, so expect more book reviews in this space. And perhaps I can try harder to make them more comprehensive. In the flush of a page-turning spree, trying to find out what’s going to happen next, I kind of put note-taking on the backburner. I need to regulate my reading better.

Recent readings and other activities

I have been on a reading journey of late. It helps make me feel alive in times like these, when our rights are being stripped, our economy is in the toilet and everyone is afraid to quit their shitty jobs, and our nation has become an international embarrassment.

What better way to deal with the world than escapism!

A few short observations:

Z, A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, by Therese Anne Fowler

I was intrigued by the novel at first because of the initial setting in Montgomery, Alabama, where I spent nearly 20 years. I grew up in Alabama and somehow managed not to go to the White House of the Confederacy, a family home of the Sayres. Only through this book did I learn that Zelda’s kinfolk were integral in crafting the environment of racial oppression that became Jim Crow Alabama, and the Zelda in this book was a Confederacy apologist. By the time I got to Montgomery in 2000, Zelda and her daughter were long dead, and though the F. Scott and Zelda home is available for viewing near the Cloverdale area of town, I never bothered.

I shouldn’t have bothered with this book as well. Once you get past the initial setup and get into the drunken debauchery, the lives of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald become an exercise in destructive tediousness. You do get a feel for how controlling Scott Fitzgerald was through this work of historical fiction. But the tediousness did me in, and the first-person narrator of this book never felt like an authentic voice. Perhaps I will try to wade through this manuscript again at some point. For now, I have other tomes competing for my attention.

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

In a better world, I think this would be a pretty decent Young Adult novel. I was surprised to see it available on Libby at the public library, though I doubt I will see a physical copy of it at the library.

Upright Women Wanted, a Hugo and Locus Award finalist, brings LGBTQ characters front and center. The librarians survive at the fringes of society, and these particular librarians serve an important role in the foreground by distributing approved materials to far-flung outposts in a new Wild West. As becomes clear-ish toward the end of the novel, they serve a covert purpose as well in the fight for freedom against a fascist society.

It was an action-packed novel, though not really a page-turner like some I read this month.

The novel would have been served by better world-building. By the last page, readers are still left with a lot of questions about the political situation, how all this came to pass, etc.

Die Me a River by Denise Swanson

I took on a cozy mystery for a change, and though this particular book was a page turner, the fictive world here felt like it was propped up by fantasy. The school psychologist who helps out the police happens to be married to the chief of police. The police chief husband has a rich dad who helps them out big time by buying them a giant RV when their house is destroyed in a tornado. And the police chief is a sexy, sexy man, the writer keeps reminding us, and the protagonist continues to be smitten by him despite having a baby to take of. He’s not an old guy, a tub of lard or an alcoholic like is often the case in reality.

Well, there are worse ways to spend an afternoon than reading this book, though it on the whole has very little to do with reality. Not altogether a bad thing!

Blightsighted by Karin Slaughter

This was another page-turner I finished in a day. It’s the first novel by the author of the Will Trent series, the TV show of which films locally, so it’s something I’ve seen a few episodes of.

Every chapter ended in a cliff-hanger, propelling you through the book. I wound up staying up much too late finishing it.

But boy, it started out rough: a bloody, gruesome murder in the very first chapter. The extreme details of our protagonist finding the body and trying to save her were almost enough to get me to stop reading. But I kept on.

And it kept on being rough, gritty, truly nightmarish, depraved crimes. Of course, there’s the required red herrings, and our protagonist figures out, almost too late, who the killer/rapist is.

Huh, what a coincidence! The previous tome’s protagonist is married to the police chief. As part of the backstory, it’s revealed our protagonist divorced the police chief after she caught him having an affair. But because she’s the town’s part-time coroner, full-time pediatrician, she still has to interact with him. Gritty, but also feels a bit unlikely and too convenient.

More to come!

I’ve joined a book club, so expect more book reviews in this space. And perhaps I can try harder to make them more comprehensive. In the flush of a page-turning spree, trying to find out what’s going to happen next, I kind of put note-taking on the backburner. I need to regulate my reading better.

FUN, INSIGHTFUL COMEDY of manners set in an implausible fever dream environment: a fan cruise for a reunited 1980s boy band. Captures the impact of aging, nostalgia, parasocial hypercapitalism, and our longing for even manufactured authenticity. A MINUS

https://bookshop.org/p/books/american-fantasy-a-novel-emma-straub/63286cea6b6b1faf?ean=9798217046850&next=t

@bookstodon

#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #bookstodon #fiction #novel #novels #humor #satire #popularculture #popmusic

FUN, INSIGHTFUL COMEDY of manners set in an implausible fever dream environment: a fan cruise for a reunited 1980s boy band. Captures the impact of aging, nostalgia, parasocial hypercapitalism, and our longing for even manufactured authenticity. A MINUS

https://bookshop.org/p/books/american-fantasy-a-novel-emma-straub/63286cea6b6b1faf?ean=9798217046850&next=t

@bookstodon

#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #bookstodon #fiction #novel #novels #humor #satire #popularculture #popmusic

FUN, INSIGHTFUL COMEDY of manners set in an implausible fever dream environment: a fan cruise for a reunited 1980s boy band. Captures the impact of aging, nostalgia, parasocial hypercapitalism, and our longing for even manufactured authenticity. A MINUS

https://bookshop.org/p/books/american-fantasy-a-novel-emma-straub/63286cea6b6b1faf?ean=9798217046850&next=t

@bookstodon

#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #bookstodon #fiction #novel #novels #humor #satire #popularculture #popmusic

FUN, INSIGHTFUL COMEDY of manners set in an implausible fever dream environment: a fan cruise for a reunited 1980s boy band. Captures the impact of aging, nostalgia, parasocial hypercapitalism, and our longing for even manufactured authenticity. A MINUS

https://bookshop.org/p/books/american-fantasy-a-novel-emma-straub/63286cea6b6b1faf?ean=9798217046850&next=t

@bookstodon

#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #bookstodon #fiction #novel #novels #humor #satire #popularculture #popmusic

FUN, INSIGHTFUL COMEDY of manners set in an implausible fever dream environment: a fan cruise for a reunited 1980s boy band. Captures the impact of aging, nostalgia, parasocial hypercapitalism, and our longing for even manufactured authenticity. A MINUS

https://bookshop.org/p/books/american-fantasy-a-novel-emma-straub/63286cea6b6b1faf?ean=9798217046850&next=t

@bookstodon

#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #bookstodon #fiction #novel #novels #humor #satire #popularculture #popmusic

A MANY-FACETED TRINIDADIAN EPIC focused on generations of one Indo-Trinidadian family combines vivid description, characterization, and historical detail with breathtaking moments of magical realism. B PLUS

https://bookshop.org/p/books/ever-since-we-small-celeste-mohammed/b792c3a5e84b91a5?ean=9781632461766&next=t

@bookstodon

#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #bookstodon #fiction #novel #novels #novelsinstories #historicalfiction #magicalrealism #magicrealism #trinidad #indotrinidadian #trinidadTobago #SmallPressSunday

A MANY-FACETED TRINIDADIAN EPIC focused on generations of one Indo-Trinidadian family combines vivid description, characterization, and historical detail with breathtaking moments of magical realism. B PLUS

https://bookshop.org/p/books/ever-since-we-small-celeste-mohammed/b792c3a5e84b91a5?ean=9781632461766&next=t

@bookstodon

#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #bookstodon #fiction #novel #novels #novelsinstories #historicalfiction #magicalrealism #magicrealism #trinidad #indotrinidadian #trinidadTobago #SmallPressSunday

A MANY-FACETED TRINIDADIAN EPIC focused on generations of one Indo-Trinidadian family combines vivid description, characterization, and historical detail with breathtaking moments of magical realism. B PLUS

https://bookshop.org/p/books/ever-since-we-small-celeste-mohammed/b792c3a5e84b91a5?ean=9781632461766&next=t

@bookstodon

#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #bookstodon #fiction #novel #novels #novelsinstories #historicalfiction #magicalrealism #magicrealism #trinidad #indotrinidadian #trinidadTobago #SmallPressSunday

A MANY-FACETED TRINIDADIAN EPIC focused on generations of one Indo-Trinidadian family combines vivid description, characterization, and historical detail with breathtaking moments of magical realism. B PLUS

https://bookshop.org/p/books/ever-since-we-small-celeste-mohammed/b792c3a5e84b91a5?ean=9781632461766&next=t

@bookstodon

#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #bookstodon #fiction #novel #novels #novelsinstories #historicalfiction #magicalrealism #magicrealism #trinidad #indotrinidadian #trinidadTobago #SmallPressSunday

A MANY-FACETED TRINIDADIAN EPIC focused on generations of one Indo-Trinidadian family combines vivid description, characterization, and historical detail with breathtaking moments of magical realism. B PLUS

https://bookshop.org/p/books/ever-since-we-small-celeste-mohammed/b792c3a5e84b91a5?ean=9781632461766&next=t

@bookstodon

#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #bookstodon #fiction #novel #novels #novelsinstories #historicalfiction #magicalrealism #magicrealism #trinidad #indotrinidadian #trinidadTobago #SmallPressSunday

Wall Street Journal’s Summer Thriller Picks Actually Sound Good

https://thebookaholicblog.com/2026/05/25/wall-street-journals-summer-thriller-picks-actually-sound-good/

Wall Street Journal’s Summer Thriller Picks Actually Sound Good

https://thebookaholicblog.com/2026/05/25/wall-street-journals-summer-thriller-picks-actually-sound-good/

Wall Street Journal’s Summer Thriller Picks Actually Sound Good

https://thebookaholicblog.com/2026/05/25/wall-street-journals-summer-thriller-picks-actually-sound-good/

Wall Street Journal’s Summer Thriller Picks Actually Sound Good

https://thebookaholicblog.com/2026/05/25/wall-street-journals-summer-thriller-picks-actually-sound-good/

Wall Street Journal’s Summer Thriller Picks Actually Sound Good

https://thebookaholicblog.com/2026/05/25/wall-street-journals-summer-thriller-picks-actually-sound-good/

Book Review: Misbehaving by Richard Thaler

Most personal finance advice assumes you are a rational actor. Save more than you spend. Invest early. Avoid debt. The logic is airtight. So why is it so hard to follow?

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by Richard Thaler argues that the problem isn’t a lack of information. It’s that humans are not the rational, self-interested agents that classical economics assumes we are. We are emotional, distracted, and predictably irrational. Understanding that about yourself is, oddly enough, one of the most practical things you can do for your finances.

Book Summary

Published in 2015, Misbehaving is part memoir, part manifesto for a field that Thaler helped build from the ground up. The book traces the history of behavioral economics, a discipline that blends psychology and economics to explain why people make the financial decisions they actually make rather than the ones they theoretically should.

Thaler walks readers through decades of research, much of it conducted alongside collaborators like Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. He introduces concepts like mental accounting, the endowment effect, and present bias, and shows how each one leads ordinary people to make financial choices that undermine their own goals. The book is accessible, often funny, and grounded in real-world examples ranging from the NFL draft to retirement savings behavior.

Buy Misbehaving on Amazon

Who Is Richard Thaler?

Richard Thaler is a professor of behavioral science and economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is widely regarded as one of the founding figures of behavioral economics and won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2017 for his contributions to the field.

Thaler is also co-author, with Cass Sunstein, of Nudge, a book that applies behavioral economics to public policy and became influential in government circles around the world. His academic work spans loss aversion, intertemporal choice, and the psychology of decision-making under uncertainty. He is not a self-help guru or financial advisor. He is a researcher who spent decades trying to convince economists that real human behavior matters.

Key Lessons from the Book

Misbehaving is dense with insight, but a few lessons are particularly relevant to anyone trying to build better money habits.

The first is mental accounting. Thaler demonstrates that people treat money differently depending on where it came from or where it is mentally categorized. A tax refund feels like a windfall and gets spent freely, even though it’s the same money you earned throughout the year. Recognizing this tendency can help you make more deliberate decisions about how you allocate funds rather than letting psychological framing do it for you.

The second is the endowment effect. Once you own something, you value it more than you would if you didn’t own it. This has real implications for investors who hold losing positions too long because selling feels like a loss rather than a correction.

The third is present bias. People consistently overvalue what they can have right now versus what they could have in the future. This is one of the core reasons that saving for retirement is so psychologically difficult even when the math makes it obviously worthwhile. Thaler’s research contributed directly to the design of automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans, which work precisely because they use inertia to overcome present bias rather than fighting it.

The broader lesson is structural: if you design your financial life to account for your psychological weaknesses rather than pretending they don’t exist, you are more likely to succeed. Automating savings, using a high-yield savings account for your emergency fund so you’re at least earning something while the money sits, and setting up automatic investments into an S&P 500 index fund are all practical applications of this thinking. The system does the work so your in-the-moment self can’t undermine your long-term self.

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Criticisms of the Book

Misbehaving is not without its weaknesses. The most common criticism is that the book is too long and self-congratulatory in places. Thaler spends considerable time recounting his own battles to get behavioral economics accepted within mainstream academia, and while that history is interesting, it can feel indulgent. Readers looking for a tighter read focused purely on actionable lessons may find the pacing uneven.

Some critics have also pointed out that behavioral economics, despite its insights, can be used paternalistically. Knowing that people are susceptible to nudges is a double-edged tool. Governments and corporations can use the same techniques Thaler champions to steer people toward outcomes that benefit institutions rather than individuals.

Finally, the book is stronger on diagnosis than prescription. Thaler is very good at explaining why people make bad decisions. He is less focused on giving readers a step-by-step framework for changing their behavior. Readers expecting a personal finance manual will need to do some of that work themselves.

Should You Buy This Book?

Yes, particularly if you have ever wondered why you know what you should do with your money but struggle to do it. Misbehaving gives you a vocabulary and a mental model for understanding the gap between intention and action. That understanding is genuinely useful.

It pairs well with other foundational books in the behavioral and personal finance space. If you have read Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, Misbehaving is a natural complement. If you haven’t read either, Kahneman’s book may actually be the better starting point, as it covers the psychological foundations in more depth. But Thaler’s book is more personal, more narrative, and more focused on economics specifically.

If you are looking for a book that changes how you think about your own financial decision-making, Misbehaving is worth your time and the cost of the book.

Final Thoughts

The central argument of Misbehaving is simple and important: people are not rational, and pretending otherwise leads to bad policy, bad financial products, and bad personal outcomes. Thaler spent his career making that case within a discipline that initially resisted it, and the Nobel Prize suggests he was right.

For anyone interested in money, budgeting, and learning how psychology shapes financial behavior, this book belongs on the shelf. It won’t give you a budget template or a specific investment strategy. What it gives you is something more durable: a clearer picture of the mind you’re working with every time you make a financial decision.

Buy Misbehaving on Amazon

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Every good sci-fi serial needs a protagonist you want to cheer for and a villain you love to hate. Maxwell Hoffman’s Ty “Turbo” Knight omnibus gives you exactly that, wrapped in a chaotic time-travel package.

When a corporate saboteur strands trainee Tyler Knight in the year 5000 AD, the story turns into a frantic survival mission. While Tyler charms readers as the ultimate earnest underdog trying to navigate a futuristic urban jungle, the real standout is the psychological chess match with the villain, Elara Quix.

Elara doesn’t just fight Tyler; she probes his memories like open files. And even when Tyler finally earns his passage back to his own time, Elara manages to stay behind—literally lingering inside his mind.

Backed by a chaotic supporting cast—including a hilarious character named Radu and a therapy-and-meditation standoff in book three—this omnibus reads like a binge-worthy TV show. It’s uneven and a bit rough around the edges, but the character chemistry and lingering plot threads give sci-fi fans plenty of reasons to dive in.

Want to see if this sci-fi serial is right for your bookshelf? Check out our comprehensive review:BookBelow’s Ty “Turbo” Knight Special Edition Review