Half Dad, Half Misfit

Case study of a narcissist; a reporter meets Joe on a dating app and then experiences a whirlwhind of exhileration and disappointment. When Stephanie finally realises what is going on, she uses her journalist skills to investigate and using Joe as the case study investigates the world of narcissists. The most striking part for me was the pattern of relationships with a narcissist and the phases it moves through - and yet, there isn't a school for narcissists, they just naturally all find the same pattern. The sad thing is that these people who have the skills to manipulate people end up having such boring underlying lives - they never seem to be able to convert that influence into any kind of traction. 5/5 

  An interesting book about how we think we know if we can trust others, including stories about spies, con artists, terrorists and police. I'm still confused what I was supposed to learn from the section about Brock Turner and alcohol affecting memory and decision making. After listening to this, all I know is that I don't know who to trust any more. 4/5

An audiobook about the American air force and it's aerial bombing strategies in World War 2, and competing philosophies of how to use airpower to win the war. After recently listening to the Shakespeare audiobook a few weeks ago, I found it interesting that for this history, they have actual voice recordings of some of the actual people talking about what they did, compared to the Elizabethan period, where they have hardly any records of anyone existing at all. A few annoying noises that distract from the book - music played over the narrator talking.  Interesting book. 4/5

 A nice, short, yet informative and interesting, biography of William Shakespeare. It is short, because it sticks to what little is known, rather than deviating into speculation, but even then covers some of the speculation too, while dismissing most of it. The added extra bit at the end, a short interview with the author, actually adds to the work rather than detracting from it. The authors voice is also particularly good for this audiobook. I don't normally like biographies, but this one gets a 5/5 from me. I only listened to it, because someone I care about is teaching Shakespeare at the moment.

I can't help myself. I'm trying to read my way to completion of the Wheel of Time series before I watch the TV show, and have conflicted feelings about it.  They say you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but fucking look at it, that's what you're getting. The plot continues to revolve around a group of friends who never share information with each other, so they end up working at cross-purposes, yet still somehow achieving the weaving of the wheel towards the Armageddon or T'ara'm';agegdencdgenoddon or whatever bullshit mispelling they use in the books.  Nynaeve continues to be annoying character, whose main character trait is pulling her hair, and who every so often looks like she is going to have an epiphany and stop being such a bitch to everyone, but then always stops short. I'm guessing at some point she'll stop being a bitch when Lan eventually gets it on with her, and then her block with the Lady Force will suddenly go away because...

 An interesting audiobook, which describes human interaction from the viewpoint of someone with ADHD and Autism. I'd probably have benefited from this book a lot more in my 20s and 30s than I did now. The metaphors for explaining humans using ideas such as "resonance" and "proteins" helped me to look at relationships in a new way and I'll be reflecting on these for a long time yet. 5/5, for outstanding similes and metaphors for the bewildering types of people who surround me.

Felt like a collection of blog articles, which I think it probably was. Entertaining. 3/5

The final installment, book 9 of what became "The Expanse" Pretty perfect ending to a set of books. The gang gets back together one last time to fight an existential threat to humanity, the same threat that's been looming all along.  I loved the ending - enough finality to get closure, enough vagueness to still wonder how everyone did afterwards. The eiplogue giving a hint of how a few of them got on, and giving hope for the future. I have no hesitation in recommending you read the entire set of books. The pay off was worth it, and an amazingly detailed universe to discover. 5/5 Now I just need to avoid the TV series for the rest of my life to avoid spoiling my fond memories of the crew of the Roci.

This book was written pre-COVID, with a small reference to the early stages of COVID in the Introduction. It discusses how vaccination works, the history of vaccination and anti-vaccination movements, including things that have gone wrong with vaccination over the years, before discussing the difficulties of persuading the vaccine-reluctant to change their minds.  It doesn't have a silver bullet for turning anti-vaxxers to see the benefit of vaccines - it's a hard mix of sharing positive vaccine stories, supporting them and hoping that they seek out sources that explain things better than the wrong resources that are easy to find on the Internet. It does explain that the "backfire effect" and isolation are ways to drive them further into the arms of anti-vaxxers.

 Selected purely by what was available on my local libraries' audiobook app (Libby is great!) Starts off as a manifesto for how to improve the "personal trainer" industry, I liked the high level summary of health, and a few good reminders, but I'd worked a lot of this stuff out for myself over the last few years. A good quick introduction to health and healthy mindset though. 4/5

A book about becoming a blended family... covering the stereotypical wicked stepmother myths and the realities of blended families, as well as studies of other cultures outside of "The West" and parallels in the animal kingdom. Was interesting to hear multiple experiences of the problems with moving on when your Ex hasn't, and how your children may react.

 Picked this audiobook more on availability than wanting to read it - was just infill while I waited for "Stepmonster" by Wednesday Martin to be available on my local libraries audiobook app. "Where Are The Customer's Yachts?" was a short, funny old book about Wall Street in the early 1900s to 1950s. It's interesting to read as even during the Sharesies era, 70 years later, a lot of it still seemed relevant. 3/5

This was a good audiobook - focusses on various situations in life where you should accept your feelings, but not act on them, and instead focus on what you can do. Very practical. A few useful chapters were personally relevant to me concerning divorce and assholes. 4/5