Books I read in 2016

Last year was my lowest year in ten years for amount of books read.  To be honest, I was working through textbooks and FreeCodeCamp learning to code, which took away from my reading time.  Still, there were a lot of interesting books on this year’s list!

January

1.) 4th Generation Warfare Handbook – William S. Lind and Gregory A. Thiele

2.) The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom – Candida Moss

 

February

3.) Robopocalypse: A Novel (Robopocalypse #1) – Daniel H. Wilson

4.) Future Visions: Original Science Fiction Inspired by Microsoft – by Elizabeth Bear and Greg Bear et al.

5.) Algebra: Sets, Symbols, and the Language of Thought (The History of Mathematics) Revised Edition – John Tabak, Ph.D.

 

March

6.) Hannibal and Me: What History’s Greatest Military Strategist Can Teach Us About Success and Failure – Andreas Kluth

7.) White Needle: 5 (Shadow Squadron #5) – Carl Bowen

8.) Phantom Sun: 6 (Shadow Squadron #6) – Carl Bowen

9.) Uncertainty in Games (Playful Thinking series) – Greg Costikyan

10.) The Magician’s Nephew (Narnia Chronicles) – C. S. Lewis

11.) Gorilla Mindset – Mike Cernovich

12.) Foundation’s Fear (Second Foundation Trilogy #1) – Gregory Benford

 

April

13.) Law: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions #180) – Raymond Wacks

14.) Sociology: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions #12) – Steve Bruce

 

May

15.) The Circle – Dave Eggers

16.) Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War – P. W. Singer and August Cole

 

June

16.) Will I Ever Be Free of You?: How to Navigate a High-Conflict Divorce from a Narcissist and Heal Your Family – Karyl McBride, Ph.D.

17.) The Cartel Hit (Mack Bolan the Executioner #438) – Mike Linaker, Don Pendleton (Series Creator)

18.) Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World – Cal Newport

19.) The Tournament – Matthew Reilly

20.) Reinventing Your Life: The Breakthrough Program to End Negative Behavior and Feel Great Again – Jeffrey E. Young and Janet S. Klosko

21.) Scarecrow Returns – Matthew Reilly

22.) Progression – Sebastian Marshall

 

July

23.) Abyss Deep (Star Corpsman #2) – by Ian Douglas

24.) Express in Action: Node Applications with Express and Its Companion Tools – Evan Hahn

25.) Your Many Faces: The First Step to Being Loved – Virginia Satir

26.) Bitcoin for the Befuddled – Conrad Barski and Chris Wilmer

27.) Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money – Nathaniel Popper

 

August

28.) Star Wars: The Rise of the Empire – John Jackson Miller et al.

29.) Re-read GIS for Dummies – Michael N. DeMers

30.) The Blood of Gods (Emperor #5) –  Conn Iggulden

 

September

31.) Battlefront: Twilight Company (Star Wars canon) –  Alexander Freed

 

October

32.) Head First Mobile Web – Lyza Danger Gardner and Jason Grigsby

33.) The Water Knife – Paolo Bacigalupi

 

November

34.) Public Health 101: Healthy People – Healthy Populations – Richard Riegelman, Brenda Kirkwood

35.) Soil: Digging into Earth’s Vital Resource (Exploring Science: Earth Science) – Darlene R. Stille

36.) Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism – Stephen Graham

37.) Planet of Slums – Mike Davis

38.) Proxima – Stephen Baxter

 

December

39.) There Will Be War Volume X – Jerry Pournelle, Editor

40.) JavaScript: The Good Parts – Douglas Crockford

41.) Smashing Node.js: JavaScript Everywhere 2nd Edition – Guillermo Rauch

42.) Foundation and Chaos (Second Foundation Trilogy #2) – Greg Bear

It’s Epidemiological!

Friday I went down to the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health for an Open House.  This division of Pitt has several departments:  Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, Biostatistics, Environmental and Occupational Health, Epidemiology, Health Policy and Management, Human Genetics, and Infectious Diseases and Microbiology.  I went down to take a look at the Epidemiology Department. I’ve noted before that I have an interest in data science, and that I want to start exercising my Christian faith by helping others.  I also maintain an interest in international affairs and Human Security; by combining this with a Certificate in Global Health it looks like I can tie all of these together.

The day started out with a session on the latter certificate, where Pitt offers two tracks – one local and the other part of the Peace Corps.  Then we went to the main session for all of the schools, where we learned about the various departments and student organizations, as well as career services, financial aid, and the application process.  The school is expensive but it seems like there are many possibilities for financing, although as a middle-aged male, I’m not sure how many I am eligible for.  After the main session there was a “marketplace” where you could talk with representatives from the various departments.  I was interested to see that a number of professors perform dual roles – not just teaching, but as part of the administration.  There is apparently a ratio of one professor for every 4.5 students.  The students are involved in real and active research on actual contemporary – and often cutting edge – problems.

As noted, I am male and as I’ve pointed out before, my background is in engineering.  The ratio here (among the prospective applicants) appeared to be 80% women.  That is quite a change for me.  I was pleased to note that even the Biostatistics department representatives were mostly female; I was not happy to find out that they knew nothing of Daniela Witten at the University of Washington, whose book I have been reading through.

All in all, it was an informative day and gave me much to think about in pondering my future.  I have made no decisions; however, if I do choose to do Epidemiology I think that Pitt will be an excellent choice!