Non-Fiction Reading List 11.27.23
This week, I finished four books from some amazing authors. The list starts with a book about the science of learning as well as a book on the history of social media. Then, we have a book about the female body and a self-help book that I used to love. Enjoy!
Each of the links to the books are affiliate links, so if you use my link to purchase any of these books, some comes back to support what I do (and it also helps fund my reading habit).
Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn by Sanjay Sarma
This was a great book for anyone interested in the topic of learning and how we learn. Sanjay Sarma is the head of Open Learning at MIT, which is the department that allows anyone to check out courses from MIT. The book does a fantastic job discussing the misconceptions about learning, the bad practices educators get into when it comes to teaching people, and it also discusses how the underprivileged are left behind.
The book got a little slow for me at some points, so this one took me a while to read. Overall, I learned a ton from it, and as someone who continues to try and learn new things, I definitely got some helpful tips.
Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet by Taylor Lorenz
This new book from Taylor Lorenz was one of the more surprising new books of the year. In addition to being a content creator, I’ve also read a ton of books about social media and the history of it. Going into this book, I wasn’t expecting much, but Taylor Lorenz absolutely killed it with this book. For anyone who follows Taylor, she has quite a few opinions, so I wasn’t sure how objective she’d be with this book and whether or not she’d just tell me a lot of things I already know. On both fronts, she blew me away.
This is the definitive book about the history of social media, online culture, and social media influencers. I typically don’t read reviews, but I glanced at one for this book when I got it, and it said that it just had a bunch of information they already knew. I know a lot about this topic, and there was so much information and so many stories in this book that I had no clue about.
This book takes you on a journey from early bloggers to today's YouTubers, Twitch streamers, and TikTok stars. You’ll learn about the business behind creators, management companies, and where social media companies thrived or failed.
I only have on criticism of this book, and it was the chapter on creator burnout and mental health. It just seemed like there was a lot missing from this chapter. I understand that can be difficult, and I’m sure she had to trim a lot from all of the chapters. This one just seemed to be not much different than other chapters. She mentions Elle Mills who famously blew up on YouTube and got burnt out, but there were many other stories to tell. There was also an opportunity to discuss where social media companies tried to help with mental health or failed miserably.
Overall, this is the best book on the history of social media and influencers that I’ve read, and I’m really glad I gave it a chance.
Is This Normal?: Judgement-Free Straight Talk About Your Body by Dr. Jolene Brighten
I’m going to start this review with a confession. I saw this book, thought it was about body positivity, and grabbed a copy. To my surprise, this book is all about the female body, but it was really good, so I kept on reading. If you’re a woman (or just want to learn about the female body) this is a fantastic book. I don’t think there’s a topic that Dr. Jolene Brighten doesn’t cover in this extensive book.
The book covers an insane amount of topics involving female body parts and what’s “normal” or when it’s time to see a doctor. A lot of this book is about sex as well. The last part of the book is her 28-day plan, which gives tips for diet, exercise, supplements, and mental health.
One thing I do want to mention is that this book’s target audience is heterosexual women who were born female. I just wanted to mention that because some other books I’ve read on sex and bodies are a bit more inclusive, and even if they don’t include trans women, they discuss more topics for people within the LGBTQ community. I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing, but it’s good information to know up front.
This was an excellent book, and I know far more about the female body than I ever thought I would.
Super Rich: A Guide to Having It All by Russell Simmons
Sadly, I think I’m done with reading this book when I’m feeling down. This was my third or fourth time reading this book. The first time I read this book, I was struggling with depression, and it was one of the best books I read at the time. Since then, it’s been a go-to book when the depression hits. That’s why I read it this time, and it was just very “meh”.
Being written in 2011, so much of this book just hasn’t aged well. I’ve done my best to separate the art from the artist with the allegations against Simmons, but there are so many other bad people he praises in this book and turns to them as examples. He references Sean “Puffy” Combs multiple times, and he’s currently being sued for a slew of sexual assault and domestic violence charges. Simmons also praises Donald Trump in this book as well as disgraced Hollywood director Brett Ratner.
It’s just really hard to take in the advice from this book when you’re regularly taken out of it when it mentions someone awful. There’s definitely some good advice in this book, but there are plenty of others that don’t have a cast of characters who are just the absolute worst.
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