geohaff.com // wiki // books

Currently reading.

Currently reading.

Currently reading.

Currently reading.

Currently reading.

Currently reading.

Loved this book. It was quite uplifting, which I needed given all of the depressing books I had been reading.

I read this just a few years ago, but it was high time for a good anti-war novel, so I decided to read it again.

This was hard to put down. A depressing story for sure, but glimmers of hope throughout.

I read this as a part of a book group with friends on campus. I'm not sure I buy into all the ideas from Pope John Paul II here, but this did give me a better understanding on Catholic perspectives.

Didn't finish it. I wanted to love this book, but the writing style was too terse and logic too circular. I may come back to it in the future.

Fascinating book. Tragic story.

I didn't make it all the way through this one. There are some interesting nuggets here and there but too much psychoanalysis for me. I read most of it on a cruise ship which was both awkward and not tremendously enjoyable.

Probably the most gripping, albeit disturbing, first chapter of any book I've ever read. Overall, this was hard to put down. I love books about men suffering in the brutal cold.

I read about four chapters of this and discussed them with colleagues. It is a thought-provoking read, but I couldn't buy in to many of Caputo's assertions. Maybe I'd understand his position better if I had read his previous work or those he often references.

I read this whole book basically in one weekend over a camping trip with my oldest three kids. I have so many thoughts about this book that I can't possibly summarize them in a paragraph, so go read it and then you can discuss it with me!

Absolutely loved this book and couldn't put it down. After constantly being warned about the dangers of postmodernism growing up, I couldn't help but relish the brilliant writings of postmodern urban scholars in graduate school. Then, I encountered Kurt Vonnegut and deeply resonated with his writings, especially Slaughterhouse Five. I began to wonder why the church was so critical of postmodernism and where that tension came from, and this book helped sort that out for me.

I read about half of this book. It's definitely a captivating story, especially early on. The constant use of clever metaphors got tiring though, and the more I read through this, the more it felt less like a memoir and more like a novel. I know that it is technically advertised as a novel, but eventually the story started to feel disingenuous.

I absolutely love his writing style and storytelling capabilities. His books always have unexpected twists and turns, but they usually focus on a guy who (a) leaves the southern populated areas of Finland, (b) retreats to the woods, and (c) goes on grand adventures. I started this book in Eau Claire and finished it in Helsinki.

Kids should play outside. A lot. (Didn't finish this one)

Didn't finish this before I had to return it to the library, but there are some great nuggets in here. The two forces dominating the economic sphere under capitalism -- markets and profit -- have been replaced by platforms and rent. Notably, markets and profit existed while the world was locked in feudalism (and will continue to exist now that capitalism is dead), but they are now taking a back seat to other forces. I had been deeply disturbed by the new subscription-based economy, and this book confirmed many of those fears.

A great book about how Christian people should engage with the world around them. A few highlights:

• Christians should not seek to make the gospel credible to the world but the world credible to the gospel.
• History has shown that Marxists will kill Marxists, Christians will kill Christians, and fascists will kill fascists all in the name of the state.
• Harry S. Truman, a deeply committed baptist called the atomic bomb "the greatest thing in history."

Fascinating story with great insight into how the global economy works. The book was a little repetitive though, and the "new" confessions added several chapters that didn't add a ton to the book.

Awesome book, although incredibly content-rich ("dense" sounds too negative).

I read this book to the kids, but I had forgotten almost all of it. They loved it.

I read this to my kids as a part of their school curriculum. They loved it. I thought it ok.

I'm a sucker for a good adventure story, and this one did not disappoint. Maybe these give me motivation when I'm biking/running to work in extreme cold.

I finally made it all the way through one of Žižek's books. I love listening to him speak but had often felt his writing was impenetrable (e.g., Absolute Recoil and co.). There is some dense psychoanalysis in the middle, but for the most part this book is accessible. There are some great nuggets in here about how global capitalism presently functions. E.g., market manipulation by the United States and the EU preventing farmers and ranchers (respectively) in Mali from competing in the global economy, the emergence of "capitalism with Asian values," the fascinating story of the Soviet defector Victor Kravchenko who wrote the book I Chose Freedom. Though this book was written in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, it's remarkably relevant today.

Loved this book. Fischer echoed a lot of my own questions about Calvinism and presents a reasonable case for free-will theism. This is a short book that feels like it is just scratching the surface, and at times I was craving a bit more!

I was honestly pretty disappointed by this one. I loved Brave New World and was looking for something similar, but this book was quite different.

This book hit me hard in a few different ways. I'm not sure if I agree with all of his assertions, but this book did cause me to see the Bible (and how we approach the Bible) in a very new way.

Fascinating book describing the possibility of life on other planets (and moons), particularly within oceans. Europa is probably the best place to look, followed by Enceladus and Titan. Hand does a great job making technical explanations simple to conceptualize and follow. Lots of mind benders in here.

Another book I read to the kids. I didn't like the part where the kids get in the car with a friendly stranger with no negative consequences.

A fascinating book about the worldview of people groups from biblical times. This book effectively demonstrates how understanding this worldview is crucial to understanding the text.

This is one I read to my kids. I remembered a lot of the story from my childhood, but I was struck by how well-written this book is reading it as an adult. My kids loved it too.

Before I travel to a country, I love absorbing myslef in the literature of authors from that place. I didn't finish this book, but I at least read the essential von Goethe and 5 or 6 other short stories.

I picked up this book in preparation for a trip to Germany in the summer. I was a little hesitant on reading a book about German culture written by a non-academic, but it was the only book about modern Germany that I could find at the library. I loved it though and had a hard time putting it down. I learned many things about Germany culture that I wasn't expecteing. Honestly the perspective of a non-academic was a bit refershing.

I didn't quite make it all the way through this one, but I plan to draw on it in the future when I teach our Geography Field Experience course or when I teach a cultural immersions course in the Netherlands!

I didn't finish this book, but the first four chapters are great. A must read for transportation planners.

This book shows how to build communities of relatively dense (10-12 units per acre) of (mostly) detached single family homes. It was written by an architect, so it was visually driven which was a nice change compared to what I usually read.

I read this to understand the conflict between Israel and Palestine better, but I'm honestly not sure this was the best book for that. Said is a fascinating scholar, and there are several great chapters in here. I also loved the foreword and afterword sections. All that said, the book did get a bit repetitive, but I that's to be expected given that these were short essays written about current events.

I'm really kicking myself for not reading this sooner. I learned a lot, and Speck paints a more nuanced and complex picture of walkability than I was expecting. Great read, especially for students interested in urban geography and planning.

This book took me quite a long time to get through, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. While I didn't have any worldview-altering takeaways from the book, there were many small nuggets pointed out by Carson that help me in better understanding the teachings of Jesus.

An otherwordly book. Admittedly, it was difficult to keep track of the many characters in this book, but their stories are incredible. This book looks at the atomic bomb attacks from the perspective of the survivors (mostly), with a focus on the double survivors, i.e., those who took the train from Hiroshima to Nagasaki after the first attack.

This book was not what I expected. There were some great nuggets in here, but I disagreed with far more than I was expecting, and some of the book's content was just incorect. This is humorous given that the author decries misinformation and warns of the dangers of experts in one field proclaiming expertise in a tangential one (which is exactly what the book is). For instance, he uses Frank Abignale Jr. as an example of workplace fraud, when in reality, much of Abignale's story has recently been called into question. Nichols also blames the rising cost of univeristy education on lazy rivers and expensive dorms, when this has been shown to be empirically wrong. Further, there are other instances where Nichols seemingly contradicts himself. Early in the book he suggests that far too many US high school students go to college, and that more should go into the trades (this is a proposition I'd be willing to entertain). But later in the book he bemoans the average citizen's education level and willingness to be informed. You cannot sell the cow and still drink the milk. All that said, he makes some good points about the loss of respect for educators and authority figures in general, and he really hammers home the Dunning-Krueger effect, which I appreciated.

What a gripping read. I started this on vacation in Dauphin Island, Alabama and could hardly put it down. There's a ton about American/Mormon history that I had no idea existed until reading this. Some of the characters become tough to keep track of toward the end and I really wish there was more about how the aftermath affected Allen Laferty, but these are minor critiques.

This book was far more technical than I was anticipating (written by a NASA climatologist), so much so that I put it down for a few months and read other things. After the third major smoke episode resulting from Canadian fires, I decided to pick this up again. I enjoyed it, though I think a more appropriate title would be 'What makes a planet habitable' or something similar as only the last couple chapters are dedicated to techniques for finding habitable planets.

My wife started reading this book to our older kids here and there, and I took over about a third of the way through. It was a little difficult for them to follow at 6 and 4 years old.

This was ok. There are some hyper-theoies of causality in here that I didn't like along with persistent bashing of political correctness (I have no idea how they actually define it), but also some useful nuggets here and there.

This was a confusing book, but I loved the setting and characters. At times I was laughing hard out loud reading this. A literal LOL, if you will.

I loved this book. Most of it takes place in the Finnish wilderness; I feel that I learned a lot about Finland through reading this.

I didn't love this as much as other reviewers have, but the setting (on an Island in the Gulf of Finland) is unique.

Another book that I didn't finish. This is a compilation of short stories by some of Finland's most famous authors.

I decided to read portions of this in preparation for travelling to Finalnd. I only read a few poems but was intrigued by how completely different this book is from other things that I read.

I picked up this short book to read while I was waiting for DeLillo's more popular White Noise to arrive through interlibrary loan.

This book was quite a bit longer than what I usually would even attempt to read, but it was compelling. The story is set in 1970s Tokyo, and I knew so very little about Japan prior to reading this (aside from some basic demographic and economic characteristics). You really get a sense of a mysticism and interconnectedness in Japanese culture, despite it being a largely secular society. I was also shocked to observe how westernized Japan was, even in the 1970s (at least from the way it was depicted). I also learned a good deal about Manchuria and Japan's strained relationship with the Soviet Union.

A masterpiece. As Neil Postman suggests in his forward to Amusing Ourselves to Death, If we're living in a dystopian future, it's not Nineteen Eighty Four's; it's Huxley's.

I read this as a part of the Dean's book club. Overall it was great and easy to read. It has an unconvential take on leadership. According to the authors, leadership is not a position; it's an activity.

This book was hard to put down but remarkably depressing at the same time. Amazing (or not) how most Americans (including myself prior to reading this book) have no idea how invovled the US government has been in overthrowing the governments of Hawaii, the Phillipines, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guatamala, Honduras, Nicaraugua, Iran, Vietnam, and many others.

This was a little more technical than I was hoping, and as such I didn't finish it. The implications of this book, however, for natural resource management, the global economy, and other issues I teach about in my Human Geography class is really useful.

There were parts of this book I really liked, but on the whole, I really didn't grasp it well. Admittedly, I didn't finish it either. That said, I really love Wright's candid, down-to-earth writing style, and I want to read more of his books.

I read this to understand the alternatives to the current system of policing in the US. I was surprised to find nothing controversial in this book. The TLDR is that policing is extremely expensive, and its use toward societal goals is often misguided. There are often better and cheaper ways to achieve these goals.

A gripping story of survival

I loved the short chapter format of this book as someone with no knowledge of astrophysics

I used this book as a text for my Geography Field Seminar in class, and I loved the content, format, and style.

One of my all-time favorite fiction books. Themes of environmentalism, non-violence, free will, and absurdism.

Not my favorite Vonneget book but still worth reading.

This was not what I was expecting but I enjoyed it.

This book really shook me up. A depressing read for sure; his non-fiction book Homage to Catalonia is required reading before this one.

Most mind-bending read of all time.

A great description of New Orleans through fiction.

Surprisingly technical and resourceful read.

A depressing but incredibly important book.

I understand this better after watching the movie.

This book has had a major impact on my parenting. Kids need to be outside, get dirty, fall down, and brave the elements.

One of my favorite books of all time. A must read.

A bit heavier than I expected but some great history of the war on intellectualism in the church.

A fascinating read on an incredible scientific project.

A refreshingly different take on science fiction.

Meh. More about the inudstrial revolution than the scientific revolution, but in his defense this was written before the academic scientific revolution.

The weirdest book I've ever read.

Awesome book about the history of plate tectonics and the loudest event in recorded human history.

A classic.

A near life changing book for me. Confirmed many things about the nature of work that I was suspecting but learned through trial and error.

One of my all-time favorites. Perhaps the second most mind-bending read of my life.

One of the most important books about Christianity I've ever read. Gives me hope for the faith.

Not as juicy as I was hoping, but many good points in here nonetheless.

A must-read for new faculty members wanting to understand the incomprehensible administrative landscape of universities.

I was expecting an academic book rather than a popular book.

Meh.

A bit too theory heavy for me but a refreshing perspective nonetheless