This title-provoking book tries to tell a very important lesson: not everything is worthy of your attention and worries. Most of the things that make us worried and down could be easily avoided if we maintain a strict rule of not giving a F.

It’s kinda a Buddhism in the modern blogger language. Like the book, Buddha says desire leads to suffering. So you must clear your mind of all desires, not giving a f*ck about stuff. Especially material stuff.

The first third of the book is pretty nice. Is a bit thought-provoking, giving you a sense of perspective on your life. I liked this part very much. I believe that it’s worth a reread from time to time. The second and third parts direct the same philosophy towards more practical aspects of life, like relationships, love, and work. There the advice becomes a bit too narrow and full of must-do and must not do kinda lists.

Overall, I liked the book. It’s that kind of self-helping book that shakes a bit the status quo and makes us reevaluate our lives.

The fourth installment of the Old Man’s War series focuses on the same events of the third book, The Last Colony. This time it uses the perspective of the little girl Zoe, the adopted daughter of John Perry and Jane Sagan.

She is quite brilliant and clever. As a teenager, she is experimenting with love, fear, and adventures for the first time.

And you might find many important events from the previous book.

From the same universe of books of Old Man’s War (8★★★★★★★★), John Scalzi tells a story of a human colony on another planet. It’s a new colony, so mostly tells the hard conditions and situations that they have to face.

They are far from home. And contact with the former homes is prohibited. Most do not know why. Just focus on creating the initial conditions for bigger and definitive immigration waves. Wild animals, inhospitable weather, and a lack of resources and technologies make everything a very dire situation.

You follow the story of John Perry, the same protagonist from the original novel. This story takes place many years after the events of the second book in the series, The Ghost Brigade. Perry and his wife Sagan are now trying to have a normal civilian life with their new daughter Zoe.

I first “met” Yuval Noah Harari in a TED talk last year. He was talking about Nationalism vs. Globalism: the new political divide. I like him and his ideas. Interesting and compelling. I didn’t know at the time he was a writer. By accident, I found his book.

I read it entirely in 2 days. Love it.

It is a comprehensive visual of mankind. Several sub-subjects are in my top interest subjects, like religion (from a scientific perspective), politics, economics, and scientific advances. It dedicates several initial chapters explaining what we know about the origin of our species. The point when we forked our hereditary tree from other primates and other man-like species, like Neanderthals (in fact, he argues that it is not exactly like this). It is a 50000+ years analysis of the importance of agriculture, language, and religion. The origin of states. It is mind-blowing.

Then he enters a revision of the known history, also, focusing on one layer at a time. He explains why the Homo Sapiens because the rulers of the planet Earth. Why we managed to be so successful? The book is very centered on religion and religion-like lines of thought, like capitalism (yes… very thought-provoking).

The book is mostly founded on science and data. But also on plausible extrapolations and reasoning. And his writing style is quite convincing.

It is not an accident it is a bestseller. It is not an accident it is a loved book by many.

Simple: READ IT.

John Scalzi’s debut sci-fi adventure is amazing.

It tells the story of old people from Earth that are recruited for an intergalactic military organization. There, their bodies are reconstructed to their younger form and enhanced.

From there, they have to fight against alien races to protect humanity. Humans on Earth do not have a clue about this galactic war BTW.

I must recommend the reading.

Note: I also read the sequel, The Ghost Brigade. And also love it. But much of the original wow was, of course, gone.