https://dersavage.github.io/main/non-fiction/ Recent content in Non-fictions on Jan Savage Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CC BY-NC 4.0</a> Wed, 11 Mar 2026 15:38:16 +0800 https://dersavage.github.io/main/non-fiction/verbal_judo/ Wed, 11 Mar 2026 15:38:16 +0800 https://dersavage.github.io/main/non-fiction/verbal_judo/ What a bore. Of course, I couldn&rsquo;t finish it. I gave it several tries, and each try reminded me what a mediocre book it is. The writing is bland and stale, and she doesn&rsquo;t have nay original ideas. At the very least, she also can&rsquo;t synthesize what she has already read, into her own discussion. It seems as if the author took her experience of her own quarrels in her personal life, and made it appear as if that was the norm. https://dersavage.github.io/main/non-fiction/lets_have_healthy_children/ Fri, 06 Jun 2025 16:55:35 +0800 https://dersavage.github.io/main/non-fiction/lets_have_healthy_children/ Rating: 7/10 Reason for 7: potentially life-saving advice for newborns and mothers. Reason for -3: some advice is outdated or incorrect. Exercise caution. Although Quackwatch has an entry on Adelle Davis, I have nothing but the greatest respect for this excellent human, who, despite her occasional shortcomings in her knowledge, wrote extremely useful books. This particular book had a lot of good advice with respect to pregnancy, potential issues arising from poor nutrition for both the mother and the newborn, and the advice offered is still solid, several decades later. https://dersavage.github.io/main/non-fiction/the_ruby_book/ Sun, 10 Sep 2023 17:45:19 +0800 https://dersavage.github.io/main/non-fiction/the_ruby_book/ Rating: 7/10 There are not many good technical books, but Matsumoto&rsquo;s &ldquo;The Ruby Programming Language&rdquo;, co-authored with Flanagan, stands out as one of best examples of technical writing. Here&rsquo;s why: The writing is succinct without being abstrusely terse. It&rsquo;s clear without being simplistic. The sentences are fluff-free and the meanings are conveyed clearly, like a good Ruby program. Consider this excerpt for example from page 75: Every object has a well-defined class in Ruby, and that class never changes during the lifetime of the object. https://dersavage.github.io/main/non-fiction/ayn-rand/ Sun, 15 Jan 2023 22:48:07 +0800 https://dersavage.github.io/main/non-fiction/ayn-rand/ Rating: 0/10 Today, the victim of my incisive criticism is Ayn Rand. Now, a discerning thinker might object: but how can you criticize someone you haven&rsquo;t read? Our answer is: do we need to befriend someone whose manners in the first few minutes of our acquaintance repulsed us? Time is gold, so a few paragraphs illustrating her thoughts would provide enough ammunition for a full-scale rubbishing. Here is a golden one.