Books

A history book full of insight, wit, and genuine laughs. I’d recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in history or the English national psyche.

The first book of The Stormlight Archive took a lot longer to “hook” me than The Final Empire did for Mistborn, but hook me it did. Somewhere around half way through this lengthy first instalment was where things started to click, and I think I see why the series is regarded as some of Sanderson’s best work. I quite liked the interlude chapters between the main sections of the book, which tend to change setting completely and introduce new characters to build out the intricately detailed world.

There are, however, still far too many raised eyebrows for my liking 🤨

Moist Von Lipwig’s debut is a Discworld series highlight, and the Industrial Revolution subseries as a whole has been great so far. In Going Postal I particularly enjoyed the cameo from an X-Files-esque trio of hackers 👨‍💻

A man is not dead while his name is still spoken

An incredibly satisfying end to the Mistborn trilogy; there were several moments I had to put the book down and stare vacantly out the window while I processed the story’s latest turn 🤯

In The Hero of Ages Sanderson continues to build and expand upon the world and systems set up in the previous 2 books, before pulling everything together and fully resolving every thread. I’ve really enjoyed Mistborn, and I’ll delve in to another Sanderson series when my head stops spinning.

There’s always another secret.

Insightful anecdotes and valuable tips from three distinct stages of a career in technical leadership - manager, director, and executive.

One of those books that seems to get recommended all the time, The Thursday Murder Club was entertaining and kept me guessing.

A bit of a slower burn than The Final Empire, until it suddenly isn’t. If this series is ever made in to a TV show, I hope the characters “raise an eyebrow” every 20 seconds or so to remain true to the books 🙃

The second book of the Tiffany Aching Discworld subseries, which is fast becoming a contender for my favourite! Pratchett explores the power of stories, belief, and community, in another “young adult” novel that refuses to talk down to younger readers.

Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. And the people there see you differently too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.

I hadn’t read Brandon Sanderson before, and The Way of Kings looked a bit long for a new-to-me author at ~1,000 pages. Instead I chose The Final Empire, the first book in the Mistborn trilogy, which turned out to be nearly 800 pages so I really didn’t save much reading! Fortunately it was a great read. Sanderson’s world-building is excellent, and the magic system - Allomancy - was well thought out and made for some incredible action scenes. I’ll continue the trilogy after dipping back in to Discworld for a bit.

An excellent resource for new engineering managers, and probably those that have been doing the job for a while too. I picked up a few tips from this book that I use daily.