Scott’s Book Review: What Worlds Will You Explore?

Software / Engineering / Data / AI

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  A Giant Leap: How AI is Transforming Healthcare & What That Means for Our FutureJune 29, 2026
  There is no doubt that generative AI is a disruptive technology that will continue to have impacts in the coming years if not decades. Representing one-fifth of the American economy, healthcare is one area where AI has perhaps the most promise to do good. Since much of healthcare runs on textual material, generative AI’s ability to process material and respond appropriately brings a huge “wow” factor. UCSF clinician and informaticist Robert Wachter brings those ideas…
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  Software Measurement & Estimation: A Practical ApproachJune 8, 2026
  Metrics around software can be a difficult to attain. Some (Agile) suggest making up estimates and then making metrics based off of those estimates. Others (function points) build entire abstract schemes based on difficult-to-attain calculations. Either way, predicting and measuring progress are complex tasks, but they are necessary to communicate to management and to provide appropriate managerial oversight. In this book, the authors seek to provide practical methods to assure that projects are on track…

The World of People Skills

Individuals

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  The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us & Divides UsFebruary 22, 2026
  Sometimes, it seems all we do on the Internet and social media is argue about whose activities are most superior and most important. We all want to “matter,” but we can develop elaborate defensive arguments about who gets there the best. Many times, our own need to matter gets in the way of recognizing what matters to other people. And yet needing to matter at something is one of the deepest human longings. We need…
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  Rebuilding Trust in the Workplace: Seven Steps to Renew Confidence, Commitment & EnergyFebruary 15, 2026
  Trust and betrayal are inevitable parts of life, and likewise, they are parts of careers in the workplace. What happens when you encounter betrayal and trust issues at work? Some might leave, but that option doesn’t always seem feasible. Instead, you have to work on rebuilding trust in your workplace, and that’s easier said than done. This book, written by two leading experts on the psychology of workplace trust, can lead you in the process…

Society

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  Religion & the Health of the Public: Shifting the ParadigmJune 7, 2026
  Religion and science are often portrayed as antagonistic fields. Most religious leaders do not pursue a science-heavy education, and most prominent scientists see too many ways that religion inhibits scientific exploration and healthcare. Public health and religion, however, have similar goals; they both seek to promote healthy living among their devotees. Why the fighting then? Generally, there exists walls of mutual ignorance and even stigma about the other side. The authors seek to address this…
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  The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi & the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women’s Lives ForeverMarch 2, 2026
  By the end of the Victorian age, men had dominated medical practice for centuries, but women were beginning to make inroads into the profession. A few, Mary Putnam Jacobi being the first, made inroads in European training centers and returned to the US to integrate women into American medicine. In this book, Lydia Reeder narrates their struggle and eventual victory that depathologized being a woman. By pursuing their personal questions, these women physician-scientists brought obstetrics…

Fiction / Stories / Poetry

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  Harlem Shuffle: A Novel by Colson WhiteheadMay 23, 2026
  To Harlem residents, Ray Carney seems to be an upstanding furniture owner and salesman. He aspires to sell reasonably priced items to furnish people’s houses and apartments and live a middle-class life by providing for his family. However, he descends from a family involved in crime, and he’s never fully escaped those roots. To those crooks who know his dark side, he represents an opportunity. His cousins and connections allow him to live a double…
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  Peg, Unhinged: A NovelApril 12, 2026
  As Peg approaches middle age, her life is becoming chaotic. Her subpar husband has decided to leave and seek divorce. Her kids, in late high school and college, are approaching more independence and want little to do with her. A new colleague in her real-estate firm begins stealing her work. All these dynamics compound to bring out the worst in Peg. A drinking habit increases, and she makes the mistake of driving to the store…
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  The Wedding People: A NovelJanuary 25, 2026
  Phoebe Stone, an English professor from St. Louis, wants to kill herself at a lovely oceanfront hotel in Rhode Island. However, upon arrival, she encounters a hotel full of people ready for a six-day vacation wedding. Like most suicidal people, Phoebe tells someone about her agony – the bride-to-be. They end up engaging in honest conversation, and the bride-to-be begs Phoebe not to ruin her wedding week. Phoebe ends up not killing herself and gets…

History / Historical Fiction

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  Medicine & Health Care in Early ChristianityJune 29, 2026
  Historian Gary Ferngren seeks to usurp overly simplistic historical interpretations of Christian attitudes towards healthcare. Many, like the famous church historian Adolf von Harnack, say that the first few centuries of the church were dominated by a healing faith that did not trust physicians. Others posit the early church as having a very antagonistic view to the medicine of the day because they viewed it as pagan. Through copious citations to the primary literature, he…
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  The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a NationJune 24, 2026
  Most histories by politicians are automatically suspect. They tend to portray a political agenda instead of a search for historical truth. Jim Clyburn’s history of the first eight black congressmen from South Carolina is different. Why? As the ninth black congressman (nearly a century later), he has unique access to a rich cultural history surrounding these men, much of which has been erased in wider white SC society. His political agenda is simple: To unearth…

Biography / Memoir

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  The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a NationJune 24, 2026
  Most histories by politicians are automatically suspect. They tend to portray a political agenda instead of a search for historical truth. Jim Clyburn’s history of the first eight black congressmen from South Carolina is different. Why? As the ninth black congressman (nearly a century later), he has unique access to a rich cultural history surrounding these men, much of which has been erased in wider white SC society. His political agenda is simple: To unearth…
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  Source Code: My Beginnings by Bill GatesMay 16, 2026
  Among computer programmers, Bill Gates is still a controversial figure for his business practices. Many coders love writing code and despise how business folk interfere with our products. Of course, some of that view neglects how business folk pay our bills, too. Bill Gates, more than anyone else, deserves credit for turning writing code into a profession with a paycheck. This memoir unlocks his personality which guided the founding of Microsoft. Well-known to us programmers…
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  Finding My Way: A Memoir by Malala YousafzaiMarch 20, 2026
  Malala, as she is simply called, is widely known as the girl who stood up to the Taliban for girls’ education. She paid for it by being shot in the face, but amazingly survived. She spent the rest of her youth in Manchester in Britain, protected by a security detail against would-be assassins. She started an international fund called the Malala Fund to aid girls’ education in needy countries. This book does not tell that…

Spirituality / Philosophy / Religion

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  Medicine & Health Care in Early ChristianityJune 29, 2026
  Historian Gary Ferngren seeks to usurp overly simplistic historical interpretations of Christian attitudes towards healthcare. Many, like the famous church historian Adolf von Harnack, say that the first few centuries of the church were dominated by a healing faith that did not trust physicians. Others posit the early church as having a very antagonistic view to the medicine of the day because they viewed it as pagan. Through copious citations to the primary literature, he…
• 
  Religion & the Health of the Public: Shifting the ParadigmJune 7, 2026
  Religion and science are often portrayed as antagonistic fields. Most religious leaders do not pursue a science-heavy education, and most prominent scientists see too many ways that religion inhibits scientific exploration and healthcare. Public health and religion, however, have similar goals; they both seek to promote healthy living among their devotees. Why the fighting then? Generally, there exists walls of mutual ignorance and even stigma about the other side. The authors seek to address this…
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  The Orthodox Way: Classics Series by Kallistos WareApril 19, 2026
  As a Protestant Christian, I share much theology in common with Eastern Orthodoxy; however, Protestantism’s emphasis lies more with justification than with Trinitarianism and Christology. Eastern Orthodox theology and spirituality tend to ground themselves in the nature of God. In this book, Kallistos Ware shows how the Orthodox maintained the emphasis of the early church’s creeds all the way to the present day. This book is simultaneously faithful to the Eastern Orthodox tradition and open…