Category: Books

I have continued listening to the Dresden Files books from Audible narrated by James Marsters.

The series continues to be a great mixture of adventure, action, paranormal and mystery genres. I have enjoyed every book and look forward to listening to the next while dreading the day that I finish the last book.

Harry Dresden is maturing as the story progresses and the other characters in the series are growing with him. I find that a rare quality among series like this. Seeing Charity and Michael’s children grow and change draws me deeper into the story line and makes me want to continue reading until the very last word.

I highly recommend the series and rate it as an 8 out of 10.

Firebug is a debugging tool for the Firefox web browser and as I continue ramping up my JavaScript skills knowing how to quickly find and correct bugs is essential.

A lot of what is in this book can be learned by using Firebug to deconstruct other people’s web sites, I find it very educational to see how others are coding their web sites, and Firebug is great for that. It is so easy to use that I have been unaware of advanced features even after years of using it.

From this book I learned that it is possible to place a breakpoint on an HTML element that will stop the browser if anything about that element is changed and show you the JavaScript that made the change. I also learned a lot of useful features I did not know about the console, like using “console.debug” and “console.dir” to learn more about what is going on with an object.

The section on extensions was also helpful as it introduced me to “Firecookie” and “Firefinder” which I have not used before. Firefind appears to be really useful for finding elements that match a particular CSS selector on a web page.

It didn’t take me very long to read Firebug 1.5: Editing, Debugging, and Monitoring Web Pages as I was already familiar with Firebug, I skimmed over quite a bit of it. But the sections that covered features I did not know about were great and I feel like I learned a lot that will help me be a better developer.

I read Firebug 1.5: Editing, Debugging, and Monitoring Web Pages by Chandan Luthra and Deepak Mittal using Safari Books Online.

I rate this book an 8 out of 10 and recommend it to all web developers that use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build web sites. If you are a longtime user of Firebug you may get by with skimming it in a bookstore.

I read this book from Safari Books Online using various computers and an iPad, which worked great for me. I used Evernote to take notes and have them available in all the computers I used.

Of the programming languages I have used JavaScript is the one that I currently use the most. I chose to read this book hoping to learn techniques that will make me a better programmer, make my code execute faster in a web browser, speed-up page rendering and the snappiness of my interfaces, and to use the latest coding conventions.

High Performance JavaScript did not disappoint. The book covers the topics that I expected to see and a few that I didn’t. The techniques that I have been reading about on “expert” blogs are all there along with great insight as to why the techniques work.

Looking through my notes I learned a lot about data access, batching DOM changes, types of loops, if/else versus switch, regular expression optimization, lazy loading, using bitwise operators, and various tools available.

I give this book an 8 out of 10 and recommend it to any JavaScript developer that has moved beyond the basics and is looking to write fast clean code.

A few years ago I asked some science fiction authors at DragonCon what book they had read recently that they really enjoyed. I was surprised when more than one of them said “Storm Front” by Jim Butcher. I am sorry it has taken me so long to begin reading the Dresden Files series; I should have taken their advice and read Storm Front much sooner.

I am reviewing these books together as I listened to them as audio books from Audible one right after another; I am currently listening to book three.

The audio books are read by James Marsters who also played Spike on the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. James is such a great actor that I could not picture him being the reader even though I have met him at DragonCon a couple of times. He creates voices for the characters that really bring them to life for me.

The Dresden Files centers around a Wizard named Harry Dresden that lives in a world very much like ours but where magic, spirits, demons, werewolves, vampires, and such walk the street and cause all sorts of trouble. He offers his services to the public similar to a private investigator but also works as a consultant for the Chicago police. I think of them as modern paranormal detective fantasies.

From Jim Butcher’s web site:
Storm Front

Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he’s the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the “everyday” world is actually full of strange and magical things — and most of them don’t play well with humans. That’s where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a — well, whatever.

There’s just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry’s seeing dollar signs. But where there’s black magic, there’s a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry’s name. And that’s when things start to get… interesting.

Magic. It can get a guy killed.

Fool Moon

Business has been slow. Okay, business has been dead. And not even of the undead variety. You would think Chicago would have a little more action for the only professional wizard in the phone book. But lately, Harry Dresden hasn’t been able to dredge up any kind of work — magical or mundane.

But just when it looks like he can’t afford his next meal, a murder comes along that requires his particular brand of supernatural expertise.

A brutally mutilated corpse. Strange-looking paw prints. A full moon. Take three guesses — and the first two don’t count…

I rate these books a 9 out of 10 and recommend them for anyone who enjoys any of these genres: paranormal, detective, or fantasy.

I bought this book from audible.com. It is written by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, and Ron McMillan and narrated by Eric Conger.

I struggled to make it through the fist half of this book, I am not sure why, but somewhere around the halfway point it really started to speak to me. In my opinion this is not a great book, but it is a very good book.

It contains many insights into what influences our behaviors and decisions. I guess I really don’t have a lot to say about this book. I feel like I learned something from it and that it was worth my time listening to it, but it did not make a significant impression on me.

From the publisher:

Everyone wants to be an influencer. We all want to learn how to help ourselves and others change behavior. And yet, in spite of the fact that we routinely attempt to do everything from lose weight to improve quality at work, few of us have more than one or two ideas about how to exert influence. For the first time, Influencer brings together the breakthrough strategies of contemporary influence masters. By drawing from the skills of hundreds of successful influencers and combining them with five decades of the best social-science research, Influencer shares eight powerful principles for changing behaviors – principles almost anyone can apply to change almost anything.

Related Links:
http://www.delanceystreetfoundation.org/

I rate this book an 7 out of 10 for those interested in books that research influence and behavior.

Man I love these Doctor Who novels; they are like munching on great candies.

The Taking of Chelsea 426 involves the Doctor as played by David Tennant without any companions facing the Sontarans and Rutans on a space station full of humans from Earth. Written by David Llewellyn who has also written 2 Torchwood novels and 2 Doctor Who novels including Night of the Humans featuring the new Doctor and Amy Pond.

This book is a fairly standard Doctor Who romp through a space station with a pair of old enemies and human stuck in the crossfire. It is very well written and the story moves along at a pace very similar to the TV episodes featuring David Tennant and the 10th Doctor.

I rate this book an 8 out of 10. If you love the 10th Doctor and enjoy fast paced sci-fi then I think you will really like this book.

Wendy Mogel is a clinical psychologist and Jewish educator who discovered that her treatment of children in her practice was not yielding the results or insight that she desired. After delving into her Jewish heritage and the teaching of Judaism she has found a much more effective and rewarding ways to help both children and their parents.

I was recommended this book during a Bootcamp for New Dads class a couple weeks before Eli was born, and I am so glad I have read it. I expect the knowledge and ideas contained within to be a huge help with parenting.

I am not Jewish and this book has a lot of Jewish references and content, but please do not let that stop you from reading it. There is so much wisdom offered by hundreds of years of experience that it would be a shame to discount due to religious views.

As a new father I am amazed at how hard it is to slow down when my baby cries instead of speeding up and making mistakes. The ideas in The Blessing of a skinned Knee have helped me immensely when it comes to being patient and understanding that my baby’s crying is not an emergency that I need to rush to fix but the only way the baby currently has to communicate.

I look forward to putting more of what I have learned from the book into practice as Eli gets older.

We borrowed this book from our local library.

I rate this book a 10 out of 10 and recommend it to all parents of children of any age.

In this adventure the Fifth Doctor as played by Peter Davidson travels with companions Nyssa and Tegan to London and Egypt to thwart the Osiran Nephthys.

I really enjoyed reading this book using eReader on my iPhone. It is available free from the BBC’s Doctor Who Classic web site along with 8 other books.

The story moves along at a good pace, not a fast as some Doctor Who novels, but this is book meant for more mature readers than the new series. I really enjoyed the way the Doctor plays with time in this book taking Atkins back and forth through time even having his past and future selves in London at the same time.

I also really like the Author’s notes where Justin Richards shares his thoughts on the book and the Artwork gallery with drawings from the story. Also under the aurthor’s notes are two flowcharts that show the Doctor’s timeline and the Main timeline of the story. Real inside baseball stuff that makes a fan like me happy.

I rate this book an 8 out of 10 for fans of the series. It is a great read especially when you take into account that it is free!

I find Andrew Carnegie was a fascinating man, born into poverty in Scotland during a time of economic upheaval to a hardworking mother and a father who was not. In his lifetime he made and gave away millions of dollars. I learned that he was a very hard worker who appeared to intuitively know what he needed to do to take himself to the next level of success.

I bought this book from Audible and found its 32 hour and 45 minute length to be way to long. I began the book with a high level of interest and really enjoyed the first third of the book, but the remainder of the book just seemed to drone on and on. The reading of letters written by Carnegie and the people in his life held no interest for me.

Andrew’s later life of marriage and fatherhood are not covered well by this book, but that is probably because there is not a lot of information available about that part of his life. The information that is available focuses on his philanthropic pursuits, business dealings and political machinations.

I have to admit that I fast forwarded through most of this book playing it at 2x speed and toward the end I scrubbed past chunks of it that were boring me to tears.

From the publisher:

The Scottish-born son of a failed weaver and a mother who supported the family by binding shoes, Andrew Carnegie was the embodiment of the American dream. In his rise from a job as a bobbin boy in a cotton factory to being the richest man in the world, he was single-minded, relentless, and a major player in some of the most violent and notorious labor strikes of the time. The prototype of today’s billionaire, he was a visionary in the way he earned his money and in the way he gave it away.

I rate this book a 4 out of 10 as a whole, but I would rate the first third of the book a 7 out of 10. If you are interested in Andrew Carnegie and have an available credit on Audible I think the first third of this book is worth listening to or reading and then scrubbing through the rest.

I enjoyed the side stories and insight into the way we make decisions and form opinions. I found this book interesting but it really didn’t excite me. I had a hard time writing this review because the book left me with no strong feelings about it.

There are some insights into human nature in this book, but nothing that really jumped out at me and changed the way way I think or challenged my perceptions.

From the publisher:

In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of “blink”: the election of Warren Harding; “New Coke”; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren’t those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of “thin-slicing”, filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it while painting our nursery.

I give the book a 5 out of 10, right in the middle.

This book is the personal memoir of Steve Wozniak, one of the founders of Apple Computers.

Woz fascinates me, he is an engineer at heart but he is also a teacher, a humanitarian, and a jokester. In this book he recounts his childhood experiences at science fairs, his teenage years with neighborhood friends plying practical jokes and making cool electronics, on to college, the creation of Apple, creating the US festival, becoming a 5th grade teacher, having children, and everything in between.

I got this book from Audible and Patrick Lawlor does a great job inserting passion and excitement into the text narrates the book. My limited knowledge of Woz is that he is a very excitable guy with huge passions for what he does, and that really comes across in the book.

From the publisher:
Wozniak’s life before and after Apple is a “home-brew” mix of brilliant discovery and adventure, as an engineer, a concert promoter, a fifth-grade teacher, a philanthropist, and an irrepressible prankster. From the invention of the first personal computer to the rise of Apple as an industry giant, iWoz presents a no-holds-barred, rollicking, firsthand account of the humanist inventor who ignited the computer revolution.

I rate this book a 7 out of 10 because I am a fan of Woz, but if you do not know who Woz is or have a deep interest in computers and electronics I am not sure you would enjoy this book.