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Incredibly useful book that covers a variety of communication methods. My favorite sections were on content marketing, business correspondence, email marketing, and visual presentations.

We all keep notes in some form, and this is the most effective framework for a personal note database that I've seen. It covers from beginner to expert. Forte's method is flexible and effective for capturing, organizing, distilling, and sharing your notes in a variety of ways.

A nice summary of skills and qualities for more focus. I had notes on modes of attention, self-control, empathy, attention skills, and mindfulness.

Another nice collection of applicable qualities and skills from HBR. I had notes on receiving good and bad criticism, tracking your personal data, emotional agility, identifying your passions, self-awareness (two types, four archetypes), and emotional intelligence.

I enjoyed this focused look into diversity, covering the benefits, requirements, varieties, etc. It did feel a little long, because the message "diversity is typically beneficial" gets a little repetitive in each lecture, but it's good content with nice insights aside from the central theme. Perspective, robustness, specialization, creativity, crowds, predictions, and heuristics are some of the topics covered through the lens of diversity.

Accessible and succinct overview. I loved the brief land and climate summary in the beginning, it explains so much and I'd now like to hear land and climate summaries about more countries to understand them in the way they were described here. Most of my notes were from the 1900s onwards, covering the IRA, the War of Independence, the economy and emigration, and the Troubles.

A nice mix of random events in the second half of the 1900s. The author chooses cultural topics he feels were important in defining the country, in an effort to understand the how the current cultural mindset (his thesis) developed. It really is an impressive piece of work and historical writing, but it also lacked Irish humor and really any levity at all. It was quite a bleak and critical look at the country, which is fine, but 600 pages of bleakness wore on me a bit.

This had a surprisingly good amount of solid advice and actionable directives. It's a good resource for general productivity, efficiency, action, goal-setting, and probably any closely related topics.

This was a fun, short listen for someone who finds horror stories interesting but doesn't care for the movies. It didn't dive as deep as I expected it to, staying more on the surface of different types of antagonists. I really liked a short bit that discussed how popular antagonists have changed over time with the cultural shifts.

A short read to be more conscious about building a personal brand, or even just how you present yourself. Most of the advice might seem obvious, but it's a nice checklist of things to consider.

A little all over the place with stories and examples, but a nice look at some parts of the history of travel. Lots of recounts of customs and border crossing in popular films.

Another zen book where most of the lessons are lost on me. I enjoyed the short read but didn't really sync with it or finish with any notes, which I don't think is the fault of the book at all. I just struggle with zen books for now. Maybe this is another one to revisit once I improve.

Surely I'm missing something here, but this short fable felt super contrived and barebones. The characters didn't feel alive, it felt like they were carrying out straightforward actions to drive home a message that feels cliché even for 1988. I think the notion of pursuing something you want relentlessly is a little outdated, as is Fatima's role as "woman who pines for the main character to return".

Beautiful book. Whyte gave so many of these basic words a deeply human connection, in ways that will change how I perceive them going forward. Whyte is able to articulate our most hidden emotions connected to these words, and provide comfort that we're not alone in dealing with them. The passages are deep, but not difficult to understand. The words are listed alphabetically, no doubt for easy reference when we likely return to them for support.

What an incredible and deserving biography. I'll be thinking about this for a while. Meagher (pronounced 'Mahr') had an unbelievable life, one that affected Irish, Australian, and American history. He's a resilient man of many talents, with a fascinating timeline of achievements. Following along with Meagher's life is a great mid-1800s history lesson across 3 countries as well.

The book is heavier on the historical aspects (like the Irish Famine and American Civil War), and less focused on Meagher's personal side (emotions, personality, public speeches, etc). That was a bit of a shame for someone I have so much newfound interest and respect for, but it was still an amazing read.