Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World
Matt Parker
Math is a powerful tool that’s foundational to modern society. However, as this book demonstrates, when math is misunderstood or misused it can lead to failures that are sometimes comical but often tragic. Matt has put together a great collection of failure stories and the math behind them.
Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff… and It’s All Small Stuff
Richard Carlson, Ph.D.
A collection of bite sized life lessons along with short stories showing how they have helped people. This is an easy read but not one to rush through. Each chapter is only a page or two and works well as a daily motivational thought. Books like this tend to repeat the same lessons, however it is still beneficial to read them to keep these lessons in the front of my mind.
Born Standing Up
Steve Martin
Hilarious auto-biography telling how Steve went from amateur magician to hit standup comedian and then on to movie star. He packs in a lot of funny anecdotes and gives insights to what drove him along each step of his career.
The Happiest Man On Earth
Eddie Jaku
An incredible personal record of how Eddie went from being a normal boy living in Germany to a low class citizen who had to use a fake identity to attend engineering school and eventually a prisoner at Auschwitz all because of prejudice against his religion. It’s notable that his education and skills kept him from being killed by Nazi’s on several occasions. Although difficult to talk about, he decided to open up and share his experience to honor those who died and also those who survived the Holocaust.