It is really boosting my understanding of the French language, and giving me more confidence to speak it.

It's a simple story that's easy to follow, especially having read the book in English and seen the film a couple times. And really, how lost can you get? If you can't follow a paragraph or to, chances are he'll still be stuck on Mars for a while and you won't have missed much.

It's written in an informal, conversational style, using language that real people might use. I find myself reading a phrase that translates back to a saying I've used in English. Ah, looks like they use that in French too. I'll add it to the repertoire.

I can pick it up after a while off and quickly get back in to it without explanation. Hmm... this looks like the part where the guy is stuck on mars...

And as a bonus, it's kinda hard work to read in a foreign language, so if I pick it up in bed it's guaranteed to put me to sleep inside of half an hour.

Highly recommended.

Engineering a Safer World, https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/engineering-safer-world

Software Specification Methods, https://www.amazon.com/Software-Specification-Methods-Henri-... (also available through Safari Books Online, at least at my office)

Read most of the third one this week, a useful comparison of the various approaches. My objective is to understand how to better produce formal (or more formal) specifications. Either for whole systems or just for significant or critical portions of them.

Throws out a new perspective on what motivates people.

Pirate Diary - The Journal of Jake Carpenter by Richard Platt, illustrated by Chris Riddel. (I think this is good. The illustration is very good (and it won a Greenaway medal for the illustration).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pirate-Diary-Journal-Jake-Carpenter...

A Flat Stanley collection. (I don't think it's much good. My son enjoys it though.)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flat-Stanley-Collection-Jeff-Brown/...

And I'm about to start re-reading everything by Fred Vargas.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fred-Vargas/e/B001I9OXT6/ref=sr_ntt...

It is a wonderfully written memoir that perfectly details the grad school experience and also includes some helpful notes from the author. I'll be graduating next year (bachelor's in CS), and my dad asked me if I wanted to enter grad school. The book sure did add some fuel to the fire.

Here are the books I've read and want to read: https://booknshelf.com/@tigran/shelves

Here's my (unfinished) reviews of the books I've read so far this year: https://github.com/bcbrown/bookreviews/tree/master/2017. At the end of the year I'll flesh them out a little more.

Domain Modeling Made Functional by Scott Wlaschin

Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software by Eric Evans

Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby: An Agile Primer by Sandi Metz

Fiction:

Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes by Ella Cheever Thayer - I saw this mentioned in a HN comment[0].

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

[0] https://smackernews.com/item/14530693 HN

Edited to fix formatting and add a missing book.

Just started this book last night. The story begins as the Founder of Clif Bar walks away from selling his company and a $40M personal pay-out. Big idea so far, your business is an ultimate form of self-expression. > https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29691.Raising_the_Bar

Harold Coyle, Team Yankee - WW3 in Europe in the 1980s from the perspective of a tank company commander. Poorly written, in my opinion, but the accurate (or so I hope) descriptions of the military tactics and equipment almost make up for it.

James Gleick, The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood - excellent book about the history of information.

https://www.amazon.com/Fear-Index-Robert-Harris/dp/030794811...

It's a history of where all this - startup culture, silicon valley, computers, internet, hackers - came from. Should be essential reading for anyone working in IT.

Reading The Evermen Saga by James Maxwell.

No self help or technical books for me, just pure fantasy.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in an "outside the box" perspective on mental health and society at large.

It goes into detail about the Mount Everest disaster in the 90s.

Difficult topic but great writing so far. Especially if you like books by Atul Gawande

Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

Growing Object Oriented Software, Guided By Tests

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three

Wanted to read the first one before the movie came out, now I am hooked...

Seveneves, Neal Stephenson

Astrophysics for people in a hurry, Neil De Grasse Tyson

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Money_Than_God