★★☆ The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking / Edward B. Burger

OK, there is no magical solutions in here, but it's nice reading for self-development fans. It's often close to truism, but if you think a while about it you'll probably realize that there is actually something behind the simplicity of these ideas. I also appreciate that the book is quite concise - no need to be longer.

List of all books finished in 2018.

Odd Arne Westad: The Cold War. A world history.

Fairly large book (630 pages of text) about the Cold War; starts in the early chapters with the split of Socialist movements in the 1890s/early 1900s and during WW1, the establishment of the Soviet Union and WW2, then moves on the main subject, the Cold War as an international system from the late 1940s to 1991. Coverage is global, obviously Europe and East Asia are most dominant, but there are also chapters dealing specifically with Latin America, India and the Mideast. It's also not just a narrow political history focused on the superpowers, but touches on lots of other issues as well, social and economic developments in both East and West, decolonization, the rise of Islamism etc. On the whole it's quite skeptical of the US and its ideological conduct of the conflict (realist Richard Nixon actually comes off best in some ways), without losing sight of the crimes and failures of the Soviet Union. Recommended if you want to understand the background to today's world.

A Most Glorious Ride: The Diaries of Theodore Roosevelt, 1877-1886 / Edward P. Kohn (Editor), Theodore Roosevelt

Insight into Theodore Roosevelt's life in his own words. Each year introduced by Kohn with occasional footnotes. It ends at 1886 because though Roosevelt died in 1919, that is the last year he kept a diary, therefore this contains all the diaries he kept.

If you are interested in Theodore Roosevelt, you should read this.

★☆☆ Rodzic jako przywódca stada / Jesper Juul
★☆☆ Zamiast wychowania / Jesper Juul

Blah, blah, blah. First book was quite fine, I've found a few interesting thoughts there. But in general it's a book of man who is against nurture methods and offers not much instead of that. If you're a parent looking for practical advice - it's just wrong adress.

List of all books finished in 2018.

Time enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein
I bought a new brand copy since my older book's pages were falling out.
A man that lived for over 2 thousand years was ready to die, but is rejuvenated against his will. He agrees to help emigrate and lead a colony in a deal to stop his boredom and find new amusements. He finds a new family in the process. One sleepless night, he reminisces with stories and part of his past life with a supercomputer AI. There's a section where Lazarus talks about genetics; haploid something other. I don't understand that. I don't know if that is still relevant today. He gets clone? twin sisters and later experimental time travel back where he grew up. This book got a bit of incest.
Funniest moment in book: Lazarus Long tricks a desperate for money slaver into wearing a chastity belt Lazarus then locks.

Star Trek First Contact by J.M. Dillard
The Enterprise disobeys orders, warps in and engages the Borg at Earth. A Borg escape pod? leaves the collapsing Borg ship and time travels back in time, the Enterprise then pursuits.

I'm ashamed to say that Starship Troopers are the only book of the author I've read (and some short stories perhaps). And it wasn't great. Do you recommend anything?

Stranger in a Strange Land
Seem to remember rather enjoying Door into Summer back in the day too, but couldn't tell you why anymore.
Maybe a bit to be said about Glory Road, his attempt at fantasy.
The guy's obvious obsessions didn't age well though...

16 books and counting. Mostly from Kindle Unlimited, and I'm counting novels only, not novellas.

Insomnia, that time when the only thing I do is read... :P

Hmm I only have a few books I haven't read in years, so I can't recommend firmly. Stranger in a Strange Land was my 1st Robert Heinlein novel read and I found it odd and bit humorous?. I remember being impressed by Friday. You could try The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Yeah, Robert Heinlein isn't for everyone.

Desperation - Steven King

I enjoyed it even if it was a bit too heavy on the religious elements for my liking. I heard that there is a mirror novel set in a parallel dimension with the same characters 'The Regulators' which I might give a go someday. Not sure how Desperation compares to the rest of Steven King's work but I'd definitely like to try a few more of his novels.

Now it's onto the to 'World without End' by Ken Follet, his followup to Pillars of the Earth. I massively enjoyed the latter so I'm hoping this one is good as well.
After that's done I want to start with Brandon Sanderson's 'The Mistborn' trilogy.

East of Eden. It is one of those books that I just enjoyed all the way through.

Wonderful book. Steinbeck is my last year's discovery. You have beautiful classics.

Thank you, queued! "Stranger in a Strange Land" will go first. However I'm not sure if I didn't read that book or just don't remember. Now, with tracking on Goodreads, is much simpler.

★☆☆ Hunger / Knut Hamsun

Somehow interesting, but nothing fascinating.

★☆☆ SAS for Dummies / Stephen McDaniel, Chris Hemedinger

Terrible. The only "for Dummies" book I didn't like so far. Totally focused on GUI and getting all results with clicking. It tells almost nothing about 4GL, no syntax, nothing about how SAS proceeds data and code. It's just wothless from my perspective and I think it gives completely wrong approach to undestanding SAS.

List of all books finished in 2018.

The Cold Six Thousands - James Ellroy

Second part of the Underworld USA trilogy. Goes through the the era of JFK, M. Luther King and Robert Kennedy. Gripping, chilling, riveting. Once again, a book that kept me on my toes until the very end.

Now moving to the last volume of the trilogy.

So far in 2018: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2018/post9