Tag: Books

My Sister’s Grave by Robert Dugoni, Book Review

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Tracy Crosswhite is the older sister in a family of sharp shooters. One day, the younger sister Sarah disappears after a shooting competition. A man is arrested and convicted of her murder, but there is no body. Tracy suspects that the wrong man has been framed. Twenty years later, the body is discovered.

For much of the book, this is a legal thriller in which Tracy tries to prove that the convicted murderer was framed, while somehow also looking for the real killer. Robert Dugoni drops clues about what actually happened along the way. I figured out a few details, but not the central mystery.

I enjoyed the book for the most part and ordered the next three. Maybe I over-reacted, I maybe next one would’ve been a better choice. It gets 4*/5 on my shelves.

Why four stars instead of five? I don’t know. I don’t like it when characters start doing horror-movie stupid things. Turning what was a pretty solid legal/crime thriller into something resembling a horror didn’t work for me. I also want to see Tracy using her sharp shooter skills. Hopefully, book two will deliver on that. It should be home tomorrow.

Therapy by Sebastian Fitzek, Book Review

~ Veselin ~ 5 Comments

Viktor Larenz is a psychiatrist, whose twelve-year-old daughter, Josy, got sick and either disappeared or died in a very obscure scene.

One thing is very clear from the start, Viktor Lanetz sees things nobody else sees. The main mystery of the book is what is hallucination and what is real. My guess, after 20-30 pages read, was that 100% of all non-Viktor characters are hallucinations. This is what the author implies. However, this book has 4.1 on Goodreads, and I’m sure that 90% of the readers made the same guess and wouldn’t have rated it 4.1 if it was that simple.

On top of that, the tagline, what happened with Josy, turns out to also be quite mysterious, and it will be solved.

This is not a realistic book. It’s dark noir, made-up, annoying, with plot twists designed to play with your mind. It has the vibe of Sucker Punch, if you remember that movie, and The Poison Artist by Jonathan Moore. However, it’s not quite up to that bar, just leaning that way from a close distance.

I rated it 3/5 on Goodreads because for the most of the book, it felt too obvious. The stuff that wasn’t obvious felt too made up. However, the Goodreads audience disagrees and rated this over 4, which is pretty high. In general, my interpretation for Goodreads ratings is as follows:

  • <3.9 – I’ll be disappointed
  • 3.9-4.2 – readable, usually good books
  • 4.3+ – rating unclear, skewed by fans

This book is well within the readable range and it is not bad but I didn’t like it. I will, however, try another book by the same author, this time with adjusted expectations. Hopefully, I’ll like the next one more.

July in Books

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

I had a good month, completed some great books that are easy to recommend.

Best books

  1. The Devils by Joe Abercrombie. I forgot to share a review here, shame on me. But the book is a clear 5*, and a slightly lighter (not in weight though) than the regular Abercrombie story. Some tropes here and there, features lots of random fantasy species. 760 pages and very memorable, well-built characters. You have a priest and a vampire joining forces, not the most common occurrence in literature.
  2. Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff – 1008 pages and a solid 5*/5. The sun stopped shining and the main deterrent to vampires spreading was gone. Also no review, pretty embarrassing, but at least I mentioned it. A must read.
  3. The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman – I think that one was around 4.5*/5 but pretty good 4.5, one that would love to read once a second part shows up in the bookstores. The blacktongue thief is thief from a race that has black tongues. Epic fantasy with some drama.
  4. Head Cases by John McMahon – a satisfying thriller about nerds solving crimes. It got 4.5* on Goodreads by me but looking back, I think it’s closer to 4. Despite being a good story, the other three above were much better.
  5. Everything Is Predictable: How Bayes’ Remarkable Theorem Explains the World – pop-sci book about probabilities. I gave it 4*/5 but from the distance of time, I think it’s not up to the 4* bar.

Worst books

  1. Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell – Lisa Jewell is a gem, comparable to Freida McFadden. However, just like Freida McFadden, some of her books are pretty awful. Not that the book is poorly written, it’s just not a pleasant thing to read. I gave it 4/5, appreciating the good storytelling, translation and such. I hated this book so much that I’d rather not buy anything else by Lisa Jewell any time soon. Boo.

Trustworthy Online Controlled Experiments: … you got my attention

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Just yesterday, I shared about a popular science book about Bayes. Today I started a new one, called Trustworthy Online Controlled Experiments: A Practical Guide to A/B Testing. I picked it because I want to learn more about the industry standard way of doing controlled experiments, an area where I have some experience. This particular book started well.

Even the first chapters show that the authors do have experience I can relate to and can, hopefully, learn from.

This quote, for example, is included in their preface:

Any figure that looks interesting or different is usually wrong

— Twyman’s Law

It matches my experience with overly positive results or ambitious claims in analysis. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve fallen into the trap of believing something wins big time while there was really just a mistake, or a bias of some kind, twisting the results. But I had no clue someone postulated a law on it and got a Wikipedia page about it. I can now cite it and gain mana points 😀

So, I have a good feeling about this book and I hope to be able to complete it much faster than the last one. It just starts well.

Unfortunately, my copy arrived with significant damage. It was improperly packaged and delivered poorly. However, it is a book I read with a pen, underlining what I think is important, and leaving notes inside, so it will not get any better anyway.

Everything Is Predictable: How Bayes’ Remarkable Theorem Explains the World, Book Review

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I’m interested in improving my understanding of experimentation. As a person, educated in frequentist statistics, I wanted to learn more about the Bayesian approach, so I got myself a bunch of related books with an increasing level of difficulty to read (more and more formulas).

This is the first one of the batch, which is popular science. It’s tells the story of Bayes and his approach to decision making based on updating probabilities. The amount of useful content inside is roughly comparable to 2-3 popular science Youtube videos of the type I like watching.

The book shared some useful stories and examples, the backstory, and some context about the theorem and its use. However, once I got some of that, it started repeating, nearing unreadability towards the end.

Do I regret reading it? No, I think it cracked some doors open for me and it will help me understand the matter better once I get into the textbooks. So, while I wouldn’t give it a 5*, I think it’s a solid 4*/5 and worth the time and money, as long as you dedicate time for it and read it in 2-3 days, not in 1+ months, which is what I did.