Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money — the carrot-and stick approach. In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, says a review published on goodreads.com.
He examines the three elements of true motivation — autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
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What We Are Reading: Drive by Daniel H. Pink
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What We Are Reading: Drive by Daniel H. Pink
What We Are Reading Today: The Fetters of Rhyme
- “The Fetters of Rhyme” traces this dynamic history of rhyme from the 1590s through the 1670s
Author: Rebecca M. Rush
In his 1668 preface to Paradise Lost, John Milton rejected the use of rhyme, portraying himself as a revolutionary freeing English verse from “the troublesome and modern bondage of Riming.”
Milton, however, was not initiating a new line of thought — English poets had been debating about rhyme and its connections to liberty, freedom, and constraint since Queen Elizabeth’s reign.
“The Fetters of Rhyme” traces this dynamic history of rhyme from the 1590s through the 1670s. Rebecca Rush uncovers the associations early modern readers attached to rhyming forms.
What We Are Reading Today: Desert Edens
- Lehmann examines some of the most ambitious climate-engineering projects to emerge in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
Author: Philipp Lehmann
From the 1870s to the mid-20th century, European explorers, climatologists, colonial officials, and planners were avidly interested in large-scale projects that might actively alter the climate. Uncovering this history, “Desert Edens” looks at how arid environments and an increasing anxiety about climate in the colonial world shaped this upsurge in ideas about climate engineering.
From notions about the transformation of deserts into forests to Nazi plans to influence the climates of war-torn areas, Philipp Lehmann puts the early climate change debate in its environmental, intellectual, and political context, and considers the ways this legacy reverberates in the present climate crisis.
Lehmann examines some of the most ambitious climate-engineering projects to emerge in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Confronted with the Sahara in the 1870s, the French developed concepts for a flooding project that would lead to the creation of a man-made Sahara Sea.
What We Are Reading Today: ‘Becoming Earth’
- Surprisingly, as Jabr discusses the disadvantages of human activity leading to environmental crises, he also highlights the importance of humans in improving ecosystems
Author: Ferris Jabr
Published in 2024 and written by Ferris Jabr, “Becoming Earth” talks about how the planet we know and live in started and came to life.
One of the significant thoughts Jabr argues through his book is the idea that billions of years ago, life transformed from a collection of orbiting rocks into what we now know as our cosmic oasis. This process released oxygen into the atmosphere, formed seas and oceans, and shaped rocks into fertile soil.
Through the book, the author also discusses various environmental systems and how they operate. He talks about the roles of microbes in shaping continents, the Amazon rainforest’s self-sustaining rain cycle and the impact of human activities on planetary systems, all connected to other natural events.
Surprisingly, as Jabr discusses the disadvantages of human activity leading to environmental crises, he also highlights the importance of humans in improving ecosystems. Despite the negative impacts people have had on the environment, humanity has expended a great deal of energy to understand and mitigate environmental problems, he argues.
However, the book has received some criticism, with reviewers arguing that Jabr may have conflated his personal perspective on Earth with scientific research and evidence in the process of using metaphors to explain science.
Other reviewers said that a few sections of “Becoming Earth” may need improvement and more in-depth scientific evidence to support the conclusions Jabr makes.
What We Are Reading Today: Red Bandit by Mike Guardia
Mike Guardia's "Red Bandit" pulls you into the cockpit of this legendary jet, delivering a visceral, no-holds-barred chronicle of its battlefield legacy, stripping away the myths to reveal the true capabilities — and limits — of Russia’s iconic warbird.
Based on declassified reports, first-hand pilot accounts, and meticulous combat analysis, Red Bandit is more than just a parochial history — it’s a high-stakes, sky-scorching narrative of power, politics, and heart-pounding dogfights.
Book Review: ‘A Shining’ by Jon Fosse
Jon Fosse, the 2023 Nobel laureate, delivers a masterclass in existential minimalism with “A Shining,” a novella that glimmers with metaphysical unease.
Translated from Norwegian by Damion Searls, this brief but resonant work lingers like a half-remembered dream, inviting readers to grapple with its haunting ambiguity.
An unnamed man drives into a remote forest, seeking isolation. When his car stalls, he abandons it, lured deeper into the trees by an enigmatic light. What begins as a quest for solitude spirals into a disorienting confrontation with the unknown.
Strange encounters — a flickering figure, disembodied voices, a persistent glow — blur the boundaries of reality. Is the “shining” a divine sign, a mental rupture, or something beyond comprehension? Fosse offers no easy answers.
Fosse’s sparse, rhythmic prose mirrors the protagonist’s fractured psyche. Sentences loop and stutter, mimicking the repetitive chatter of a mind unraveling (“I walked, I walked, I walked”).
Yet, within this austerity lies startling beauty: Descriptions of moss, shadows and cold air ground the surreal in the realm of the sensory.
The novella probes humanity’s existential contradictions, particularly the tension between our desire for solitude and our terror of abandonment.
It lays bare the futility of seeking meaning in a universe indifferent to human struggles, while questioning how much we can trust our perceptions.
Are the protagonist’s encounters real, or projections of a mind teetering on the brink of collapse? Fosse leaves readers suspended in that uncertainty.
Fosse refuses to cater to conventional narrative appetites. There are no villains or heroic arcs, only a man wrestling with the void within.
Fans of Franz Kafka’s existential labyrinths or Samuel Beckett’s bleak humor will find kinship here.
“A Shining” is not for readers craving action or closure. It is a quiet storm of a book, best absorbed in one sitting under dim light.
Perfect for lovers of philosophical fiction, poetry devotees, and anyone who has ever stared into darkness and wondered what stared back.
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