Reviews

By exploring the origins of MSF and sharing the experiences of its field staff, this book illustrates the principles and necessity of humanitarian aid. It serves as an excellent introduction to MSF, particularly because it focuses not only on medical staff but also on non-medical personnel such as water and sanitation specialists and logisticians. In particular, by addressing MSF’s philosophy of “not only treating but also bearing witness,” as well as failures and ethical dilemmas encountered...

When I was in elementary school, I was obsessed with this series.

Best line: "Don't be the girl who wants to leave a perfectly fun pregame because you don't want to date any of the guys there."<br/><br/>It started out hilarious and clever enough, but turned into sexist nonsense as soon as it got to the relationship chapters. For example: Why is it less acceptable to ask a guy friend for advice while in a relationship than to accept a drink and casually flirt with strangers? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯<br/><br/>

I loved the first installment but had trouble enjoying this one. Maybe I didn't spend enough time on it (I tend to hurry through books when life is busy) but for me it felt like an interlude rather than a whole second volume. Also, I honestly missed the gore and horror.

Loved the characters but the story was a little boring.

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It started of so great, but became increasingly cliché.

it reads like a dreary, rainy day.

definitely a little dates by now, but worth a read and it does have lovely takeaways.

I did not need to read teen soft porn. I didn't enjoy the rest, either.

"Violet and Justine were doing what girls do best: shopping."<br/>What the hell.

Annoyingly high percentage of Harry Potter references.<br/>"Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine" does this premise better.

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I liked this a lot. But I do think a "film geek" like Evie would absolutely know what a manic pixie dream girl or the Bechdel test is.

I wish every teen had to read this to receive a thin protective blanket against abusive relationships.

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This book lets you flip through the pages like a pop-up book to compare the past and present appearances of Rome’s ancient sites, such as the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. It’s fun to take this book with you when you visit the actual sites—it really helps bring them to life.

It's not just pasta and pizza! Each region of Italy has its own unique dishes, and I've gained a deeper appreciation for them. I want to travel around Italy's regions and try all kinds of different foods for myself.

Really fun thriller. The story is full of tropes that are done so well that it's super enjoyable to read. Start is a little slow, but around 30%, it became impossible to put it down. Ending felt slightly contrived, but matched the direction of the characters so I wasn't too mad at it. Also Neil Patrick Harris as Desi sounds really funny

I read this because it was highly recommended in Ryo Asai’s “Yutori” trilogy. To be honest, Ryo Asai’s stories were funnier. It was interesting from the perspective of getting a sense of the Showa era atmosphere. I was surprised by how inappropriate the episode where the parents read their daughter’s diary without permission was, but maybe that was a common occurrence back then. Also, it seems that Tomozō was actually disliked by his family in real life.

I found this book on the bookshelf at work and decided to give it a read out of curiosity, but since I hadn’t given much thought to software architecture myself, I ended up not fully understanding it. I was able to create an index of terms related to various architectures, so I plan to reread it once I’ve gained more experience.

This is a Japanese translation of ByteByteGo, a resource widely recommended for preparing for system design interviews. It goes beyond mere interview preparation to explain the fundamental components of system design, key considerations when defining requirements, and examples of typical design patterns—all of which are useful in real-world work as well. However, please be aware that the quality of the translation is very poor. If you’re comfortable with English, you’ll likely find it easier ...

*Are Large Language Models a New Form of Intelligence? The World Transformed by ChatGPT* (by Daisuke Okanohara, Iwanami Shoten, 2023) is a general-interest book that explores the mechanisms of large language models (LLMs), including ChatGPT, as well as their future potential and challenges. A notable feature of this book is that it was published in June 2023, just half a year after ChatGPT’s announcement. Since there were fewer books aimed at the general public at that time compared to now, a...

*Generative Deep Learning: Drawing Pictures, Creating Stories and Music, and Playing Games* (by David Foster, translated by Koichi Matsuda and Chie Konuma, O’Reilly Japan, 2020) is, to the best of my knowledge, the earliest technical book on generative AI. Published in 2020 (the original was published in 2019), it predates the emergence of terms like “Generative AI” and “Generative AI.” While it is structured around technologies that may seem nostalgic (?)—such as LSTMs and GANs—it still...