Bowling Book Review

  I finally read this book. Part of the motivation is purely out of the ridiculousness of it but also since I like a lot of Robert Greene's books. He's really big on understanding people and why they operate the way they do. This book is kind of on the different side but also interesting. The funniest part is he calls the people getting seduced victims lol. I think if you are a very PC person you'd find it offensive but it is what it is. He essentially has all these rules of how to manipulate someone into seduction and pairs these rules with an example that happened in history. One of the rules used Napoleon as an example of how he was seduced by his then wife and for how strong he was as a ruler was very easily manipulated by her. So he reviews the tactics of what she did and why they worked.  Similar to his 48 laws of power book in order to adopt these rules or implement his practices you'd have to be fully committed and throw all of your pride/guilt/morals/compassion...

  Hard to read this book because of the subject matter. I don’t really know what to say. I would read the book by Kara Goucher on the blog first and then read this one because that is the correct chronological order.  Basically Alberto Salazar sexually abused Kara Goucher. He weight shamed Mary Cain and overtrained her and bullied her and because of this her career was miserable and cut short. Basically, the whole coaching staff of the Nike Oregon Project was toxic. Most of her teammates were toxic too.  My elderly friend at Fleet Feet used to race against Salazar and says he was a cheater. The Nike Oregon project team never failed a drug test. Kara Goucher basically says Galen Rupp and Mo Farah were cheating. Mary Cain never says anyone was cheating. She says she was bullied.  A good look at the inside of Nike running and the pro running circuit. But a very hard book to read as there are not many happy moments. Yes worth reading, but prepare to frown a lot.  Ma...

This book was a gift from my mom. I didnt read the hard copy though, because I couldn’t see the font. This is a memoir so it is technically nonfiction although everything seems a bit too perfect to be completely true. In the beginning, he mentions that some things are changed for storytelling purposes.  The overall story is good and really amazing. There are some good life lessons about never giving up and the brutal reality of life. Mad respect to the miners and the people of West Virginia who are depicted as very calm and very hard working.  The 1950s seem like a nice time for dating. Seems like women would actually give you a chance.  The book is written from a teenage male perspective. I could relate for sure, but I wonder what an adult female would think about this book. Perhaps she would not like it as much, idk.  Apparently Sonny gave JFK the idea to go to the moon? Lol or maybe JFK already was thinking about it. If I knew this was straight up nonfiction, I wo...

  Decent. I saw this on my tour of Barnes and Noble with Scott.  I actually enjoyed the autobiographical parts of this book much more than the writing tips section. I learned that if you want to be a good writer you have to read all the time and you have to write all the time. I mean like all the time. I mean like King says he takes a book with him wherever he goes. He also writes for like 3 hours every morning and says to write at least 1000 words a day. When he got writer’s block he would go on long walks. He also says to write your first draft super fast then lock it away for 6 weeks and then take it out and get a pen and paper and edit it. He also says that sometimes you just have to keep writing even if the words are not coming to you that easily. I guess I thought writers would like write a bit, then rest a bit, but it almost sounds like a consistent 9 to 5 job the way he describes it. Like either he is reading or writing or both or he is jammed and is taking a long walk...

  I found this book when Scott and I were touring Barnes and Noble during his visit to Pittsburgh. It is not that long. It is actually very recent. She is 29 now and published this when she was 27. It was weird to read this book because most of the time the information in the books I read have happened before I was alive. But she is younger than me so a lot of the things she references I remember or have heard about. Also she grew up about 1 hour from me and I worked like 6 miles from Bethesda so I know the area a little bit.  This book makes you ask yourself a very important question. If you wake up at 430 everyday and eat plain Greek yogurt and swim and then go to school and then after school you swim again and you get a good night sleep and you have a supportive family and you are rich and you have good coaching and you have lots of discipline and you never drink alcohol or party or smoke weed or make a dumb decision, can you become an Olympic gold medalist??? And so I thin...

  Kind of long. Thanks to google for recommending. Strong academic basis for the data in the book and it is basically easy to read. The way Matt collected the stories for this book is cool. He lived in a trailer park and then in the hood of Milwaukee and personally got to know everyone.  This book is nonfiction. It really shows the ins and outs of being an inner city landlord including attending court. On a macro level it discusses problems tenants face and proposes some policy solutions. He proposes more legal representation for tenants and more housing vouchers for tenants. These are good ideas but I am not sure who is going to pay for it. Matt’s idea is that if we stop evictions now there will be fewer costs later. I don’t disagree with this but I am not sure if evictions are the main or only problem that causes other problems and then more money. I think his book does a great job showing that evictions are a huge problem (and they are) but probably there are a variety of f...