Tag: non-fiction

Book: Ruchi Gupta with Kristin Loberg “Food Without Fear”

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There are a lot of people in the world with allergies, and research suggests that the number is only growing. Some even call allergies one of the defining illnesses of our generation. Back in my childhood, we would bring treats for the whole class on birthdays, but nowadays, before sending anything to school for a child’s birthday, you need to check a list of dozens of allergens. It’s often easier to just bring nothing at all to be safe.

I’ve had food intolerances since childhood. For example, cabbage always gave me an unpleasant sensation, which was commonly referred to as heartburn (though now I know that real heartburn feels quite different). Mayonnaise also made me feel unwell, so I never ate this supposedly great human invention. Then and now, I always substitute sour cream for mayonnaise in salads. Yes, I’m that person who eats Russian salad with sour cream. And yes, adding an apple to it can be quite nice.

However, by the time I turned 25, my reactions became significantly worse. A few times, my whole body broke out in an itchy red rash. And on a couple of occasions, I even experienced Quincke’s edema—when everything swells up inside, making it difficult to breathe. Let me tell you, it’s not a great experience. Especially when you’re gasping for air, and the emergency operator on the phone is still trying to determine if you really have swelling and if you’re actually wheezing into the phone because you can barely breathe.

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Book: Boris Akunin “My Calendar”

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At one time, I really enjoyed Boris Akunin’s collections of short essays on various fascinating facts—“The Life of Remarkable People and Animals“ and “The Un-Chekhovian Intelligentsia.” Both were “compiled” from different short posts the author had originally published on his LiveJournal. In a similar fashion, he occasionally shared notes about specific days of the year—highlighting interesting events that had happened on that particular date.

Of course, almost any day you pick from the calendar has seen at least something noteworthy happen somewhere in the world throughout human history. So, in the end, it would be possible to gather an entire calendar of such notes. And that’s exactly what Boris Akunin did when he released his book “My Calendar.”

However, he set a rule for himself: for almost every day, he tries to choose just one event—the one he finds most interesting—and tells its story, whenever possible, backing it up with photos or illustrations. He then wraps up almost every “day” with an optimistic message. He does this so that the book can be used like a tear-off calendar—you wake up, read about the day in the morning, get some encouraging words, and ideally, the day should go well for you.

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Book: Ihar Sluchak “10 Centuries of Statehood and Discrimination of the Belarusian Language”

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Ihar Sluchak is a Belarusian lawyer and an active advocate for the Belarusian language. For many years, he has dedicated himself to preventing the language from disappearing and being undeservedly discriminated against in favor of Russian in the Republic of Belarus. Despite the seemingly hopeless nature of such a mission in the current circumstances, Ihar has managed to defend the rights of his native language. For this, he is strongly disliked by many Belarusian officials and propagandists, it’s worth noting.

Holding a Master of Laws, Ihar Sluchak devoted his dissertation precisely to the history of the Belarusian language. Later, he reworked it slightly and published it as this book: “10 стагоддзяў дзяржаўнасцi i дыскрымiнацыi беларускай мовы” (in English, “10 Centuries of Statehood and Discrimination Against the Belarusian Language”).

The uniqueness of the Belarusian language lies in the fact that it is formally the first state language of the Republic of Belarus. For a time after the collapse of the USSR, it was the only state language; later, Russian was added. However, the actual situation with the language is dire. It has been systematically suppressed for many centuries, and the Soviet era (along with most of the post-Soviet years) is not an exception but rather a direct example of this trend. The majority of the country’s population speaks a form of “trasianka”—a mixture of Belarusian and Russian, often with elements of Ukrainian and Polish, depending on the region’s proximity to a particular border. In Minsk, you are far more likely to hear Russian, while in other cities, even the Russian spoken often includes Belarusian words or carries the accent and nuances of Belarusian pronunciation.

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Book: Raphaël Lucas “The History of The Witcher”

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The Witcher is one of the few Eastern European franchises to achieve worldwide fame and recognition. In his book, Raphaël Lucas set out to tell the story of how this franchise came to be.

I know that many fans of both the games and Andrzej Sapkowski’s literary original were thrilled when this book was announced. It quickly became a coveted gift for any occasion. I’ve read the main saga (except for the later novel that stands somewhat apart) and played through all three games in the series adapted by CD Projekt RED. My feelings toward the books are lukewarm, which has earned me the disapproval of some of my more fervent fan friends. Among the games, I especially highlight the third one, where the developers clearly sold their souls to the devil (and I say this with firsthand knowledge of what it takes to create games).

That said, I’m always interested in reading about how such iconic products come to life, especially from industry peers, so it didn’t take long for me to pick up the book—luckily, it’s not very long.

While expecting a comprehensive overview of the franchise, I knew this wouldn’t just be about the games (even though the cover prominently features a poster from the third installment). However, the author started from an even earlier point.

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Book: Alexander ‘Balu’ Balunov “Korol i Shut: Between Kupchino and Rzhevka…”

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In my previous post, where I discussed the TV series The King and the Jester (Korol i Shut), I mentioned that the show largely adheres to the real history of the band. I was able to compare the fiction with real-life events thanks to the memoir of one of the band’s creators and long-time members—Alexander Balunov, known by the nickname “Balu.”

Balu has written several books, and I decided to read his very first one, published in 2016: Korol i Shut: Between Kupchino and Rzhevka…

The book is a collection of memories about the creation of each of the band’s albums, various episodes from their lives, the members of the golden lineup, and, of course, the two main leaders—Mikhail “Gorshok” Gorshenev and Andrey “Knyaz” Knyazev. Although Balu is the primary narrator, for many chapters he brought in other contributors, including Knyaz, violinist Maria Nefyodova, Alexey Gorshenev (Gorshok’s brother), and even their mother.

Balu made the book interactive from the start. The print version includes numerous links (in the form of QR codes) to audio fragments he references throughout the narrative. These links were intended to direct readers to Balu’s personal website—kroogi.com. However, the site is no longer functional, meaning these links now lead nowhere. But Balu also created an audiobook version, which he narrates for the most part, occasionally enlisting actors to help. This audiobook is completely free and available on the author’s YouTube channel. There, you can either listen to the entire book (though without the photographs included in the text version) or access the mentioned audio fragments directly: the audiobook on YouTube (with audio fragments matching the book chapters exactly).

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Book: Reed Hastings, Erin Meyer “No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention”

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It seems that every large (or simply well-known) company has its unique culture, which is also considered the only correct and successful one. We are all unique, after all. However, the concept of “correctness” and “success” is highly subjective. Yet many want to showcase that they achieved success solely because of their approaches (and that others, therefore, succeeded despite theirs).

First, there was the remarkable book Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull about the culture at Pixar. Then came the very loud, but completely unappealing to me, Principles by Ray Dalio. Finally, I reached No Rules Rules by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who co-wrote this book with Erin Meyer. I frequently recommend Meyer’s The Culture Map almost every time someone asks me about the best books.

This book, like many others, was highly praised by my colleagues, receiving the highest ratings. However, I always strive to form my own opinion rather than follow the masses. I read it. And it took me quite a while to gather my thoughts and finally write my review. This is because it is one of the most controversial books I have read in the past several years.

On the one hand, I will definitely recommend it. On the other hand, I had comments like “interesting, but there are nuances” for nearly every chapter. This is because, as usual, I tried to apply all the described approaches to myself as a manager and to the companies I have worked for. And here, as they say, things became far less straightforward.

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Book: Boris Akunin “The Destruction and Resurrection of the Empire”

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Originally, when planning his series on the history of the Russian state, Boris Akunin intended to stop at 1917, with the fall of the Romanov dynasty, as he believed that beyond this point, it was no longer the history of the Russian state but of an entirely different country.

However, some time after completing the series, he unexpectedly announced the release of the 10th volume covering the Lenin-Stalin era. Moreover, this volume became the first that was not published in Russia, as when the book was almost ready for print, Boris Akunin was declared a terrorist in Russia, closing off access to publishing in his homeland. So the book was printed abroad.

While the revolution and the last tsar always felt distant to me, despite having lived during the Soviet Union, the events of the Soviet state itself were always closer. I studied this history in school and believed that I lived in the best country in the world. Therefore, I was very eager to see how Boris Akunin would recount this period.

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Book: Igor Mozheiko “West Wind — Fair Weather”

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We often reproach Americans for supposedly knowing nothing about World War II, for thinking they “won it,” when without the Soviet Union Hitler wouldn’t have been defeated. Of course, that’s all true. But it’s just as true that we ourselves know very little about their side of the war.

What can most of us name off the top of our heads? The Normandy landings (which have been chewed over from every angle in movies and in dozens of games)… and then the meeting on the Elbe. Oh right — we might have heard something about Pearl Harbor, and that they fought the Japanese a little bit over there, and that the evil Americans dropped two nuclear bombs, and that was that.

As executive producers, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg decided to tell more of the war through American eyes. First, in 2001, they released Band of Brothers about combat in Europe. And nine years later, in 2010, they followed with The Pacific about a part of the war we barely know at all — because the Soviet Union didn’t take part in it, and so it simply wasn’t something people talked about. (And I very much recommend both series if you haven’t seen them.)

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Book: “White-Red-White. Flag. Nation. Identity”

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The publication in 2024 of a book about the white-red-white flag — or, as it is often called, the BChB (from the Belarusian bel-chyrvona-bely) — is rather symbolic. Once again, numerous myths and layers of dirt are being thrown at it, just as has happened periodically throughout its existence.

As an introduction, it’s worth noting that the white-red-white flag was the official flag of the Republic of Belarus from 1991 to 1995, as was the coat of arms “Pahonia,” rendered in the same colors (since, according to the approved designs, the red of the flag was meant to match the red of the coat of arms). Moreover, to this day these symbols are not formally banned in Belarus. However, in present-day Belarus one can receive a very real prison sentence for displaying them — and even for something as accidental as a white-and-red color combination, whether it’s socks or an LG TV box left on a balcony.

The book “Bel-Chyrvona-Bely” (published in Belarusian) is arguably the first full-fledged scholarly study of the origins of both the flag and the coat of arms, as well as of the color combination itself, released in the form of a substantial volume. I wouldn’t call it popular science — it is genuinely a thoroughly researched work by an entire collective of authors (who, unfortunately or perhaps fortunately for themselves, remain unnamed in the book). It is rich with illustrations, and all conclusions are supported by an extensive array of references, as one would expect from serious academic research.

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Book: Nikolai Lyutomsky “I Was Lucky”

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My parents are both civil engineers by education, so from childhood I knew quite a bit about how construction works from the inside. My dad often took my brother and me to construction sites, and my mom, in my early years, worked as a design engineer. That’s when it stuck with me that there are architects, and there are designers. I can’t say for sure how exactly this was explained to me back then, but what settled in my mind was roughly this: architects are artists — they’re about making things beautiful — and designers are the ones who figure out how to make that “beautiful” actually happen with the resources available. Nikolai Lyutomsky’s book “I Was Lucky” is precisely a look at this industry through the eyes of an architect who was fortunate enough to work on many interesting projects. And I really wanted to hear from the other side of the fence, so to speak.

Nikolai Lyutomsky began his career as a state-employed architect in the USSR, and later founded his own architectural bureau, “Elis,” where at first he worked independently, and in recent years with strong support from his wife and son, developing landmark projects of very different kinds — from residential complexes to schools and theaters.

We rarely read books by people we don’t know. And I didn’t come across the book “I Was Lucky” by chance — I learned about it from the author’s page literally on the day it was released, because I was lucky (there’s a little pun on the title) to get to know Nikolai Vadimovich personally (even if not in person, but through correspondence). And I want to tell that story in this review, because it seems very important to me for understanding the author’s personality.

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