“The Diary of a Young Girl” By Anne Frank Review

Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl is an inspiring and tragic account of an ordinary life lived in extraordinary circumstances that has enthralled readers for generations. In Amsterdam, in the summer of 1942, the Nazis forced teenager Anne Frank and her family into hiding. For over two years, they, another family and a German dentist lived in a ‘secret annexe’, fearing discovery.

This one is really worth reading because it opens your eyes on things you probably didn’t think about or consider. Of course this one is hard to read at times because of what Anne Frank had written about the life in her hidden place and how it really is to be hidden for over then 2 years which is a fucking long time.

It’s important to say that this book might not be for everyone, because of the harsh reality of it and the tragic life which Anne Frank and her family had. 

For everyone who is interested in World War 2 just like me this book is a must read because it gives you a perspective from a jews girl who was very optimistic and hoped for the best even when she knew that the reality might be very different then what she hopes it would be some day.

This book is very different from most books about World War 2 because it comes from a perspective of a little jew girl who was in hiding with her family for over 2 years to escape the Holocaust. 

This book is really hard to review because it’s not a typical book in which you can point out things you like and not like. This book is essentially a diary written by a girl during war time and you sort of cant say “oh, this is wrong” because people who didn’t go through Holocaust dont know what it really was like to suffer in these fucking places. 

But of course this diary / book was written by a 13 / 14 year old girl which means that there are a lots of cringe moments in it. So be warned about that.

This book at times also feels like a hardcore history lesson which not everyone will like, but I guess that there are people who are like me and prefer to rather have a hardcore history lesson than a censured history lesson.

There were also times were this book felt like a major gossip written by a teen girl who is shitty about her parents because they didn’t allow her to do things which she wanted to do. 

I give this book 3 / 5

“Hjertet mot steinen” By Adrian Pracon Review

On July 22, 2011, AUFs and Norwegian Pole Adrian Pracon will face Anders Behring Breivik on Utøya. Pracon prays for his life, but realizes deep down that he is going to die. For a few long seconds, he waits for the shot that will end his life. But the mass murderer lowers his weapon, turns around and walks away.

At the time of writing this book is only available in Polish and Norwegian so keep that in mind. 

This book is a nonfiction book about the July 22, 2011 Norway attacks written from the survivors perspective.

This book was much better than “One of Us” by Åsne Seierstad which was reviewed on the blog somewhen in 2020. (LINK HERE.) But it wasn’t so good to get 5 stars. Because there were various errors which didn’t go so well with me at least. 

The writing style was pretty decent but there were parts where the writing could have been better than it was. 

The whole book is pretty closed-off, and the author sort of tells you how you should feel about things you read in this book. Which shouldn’t happen in books especially when it comes to nonfiction books because everyone will more or less react and feel differently about the same things. And by doing this the author will make it super hard for many readers to like or even relate to what they are reading. 

There were many times in this book where it felt like you are just reading someone’s letter to his / hers therapist and not like you are reading a nonfiction book. It might have been the authors way of dealing with the trauma after the attack but still it didn’t feel like something which should have published for many people read. 

Half of the book was about days and events which the author have done in days leading to July 22, 2011 and pretty much of the topic which this book was about. The whole topic of what it was like to be on the island when the shooting happened tok maximum 10 pages. And then the book went to the criticising and bitching about the predator and the court trails which happened. 

If you want to read something which really will make you think and still is about the July 22, 2011 Norway attacks then you should much rather choose “One of Us” by Åsne Seierstad than this one because 60% of this book is about the authors life before the shooting massacre on that island, 5% is about the shooting and 35% is about the court trails. 

The author could have used more time on it and plan it out much more. It would have been so much better if the author would have written bigger book than what it is (only 170 fish pages) and focus much more on what happened on the island and the court trails than about his life pre July 22, 2011.

I give this book 3 / 5

“Insane Mode: How Elon Musk’s Tesla Sparked an Electric Revolution to End the Age of Oil” by Hamish McKenzie Review

The award-winning Tesla Model 3, a premium mass-market electric car that went on sale in 2018, has reconfigured the popular perception of Tesla and continues to transform the public’s relationship with motor vehicles–much like Ford’s Model T did nearly a century ago. At the same time, company CEO Elon Musk courts controversy and spars with critics through his Twitter account, just as Tesla’s ever-increasing debt teeters on junk bond status.

I personally was pretty sceptic about this book when I first was starting to read it. But I need to admit that i really enjoyed it and I learned a bunch of things from this book. Even though I’m a huge Tesla geek it still had learned me a few things about Tesla and why people and the big car companies like BMW, Audi etc might be very skeptical about fully electrical cars. 

If you are someone who wants to learn about Tesla or electrical cars and the long and hard history to electrical cars take this book and really spend time with it.

Its important to say that this book might not be a page-turner for some people but give it a shot and go into it with an open mind and without thinking that electrical cars are completely bull shit. 

The writing style and the whole format of this book was amazing and incredible well executed. I really wish that more books like this one could have been written like this one.

This books starts with talking about Tesla and Elon Musk. And in general all the ups and downs which both Tesla and Elon Musk had from beginning. And the second part of this book are more about other fully electrical cars companies which Tesla and Elon Musk have inspired or influenced at some point. 

This book needs to get points for going into depth about the fact that an electric car is faster, lighter and cleaner than internal combustion engines.

However don’t get it wrong is not a Tesla or Elon Musk Biography book. Its the story of the electric car, and since Tesla together with Elon Musk and other people involved in the company where the first to actually make it through as survive as a fully electrical company a huge piece of this book is about them.

But I get the point why some people (especially the die hard fans of combustion engines) might think that this book is nothing but a very long article. However give it a shot, and don’t trash this book just because you don’t like electrical cars. 

I’m actually here under a big impression because i wasn’t expecting how good this book would turn out to be in the end. You can really learn a lot of things in this book if you just give it a shot.

I give this book 5 / 5

“The Art Of War” by Sun Tzu Review

This book is military strategy book which is based on Chinese warfare and military thought. Since that time, all levels of military have used the teaching on Sun Tzu to warfare and civilization have adapted these teachings for use in politics, business and everyday life.

Its important to say that for some people this book may be out of their comfort zone because it is a military based book which basically tells us how we should lead a military army in the right way. However this book is good to show us how a good leader should behave. No matter if that person is leading an army, a business or just a group projects at work or school.

It is save to say that this book will more or less help you to master some strategist which are mentioned in this book. But for some people this book might be boring or the stuff which are told in this book will not help you out.

The whole book goes around the idea of “The wise warrior and leader avoids battles and wars”. 

Sometimes books about war tactics or war in general might be harsh, boring, confusing, destruction, death and all sad things that are results of a war. However this one is different, I would recommend this book to people who wants to get into the war genre field. Because this book is unique and gives you new ideas as well as linking it to the war tactics theme. 

This book as well gives us an amazing insights to the war tactics field as well as the insights to the ancient Chinese military.

The writing style is amazing, it really sets the vibe to this book which drowse you in even more into this book. After reading this book, I really wish that more war books could have been writing like this one or even similar to this one.

Of course this book is one of the classics which everyone needs to read in their life time. 

You will learn few things while reading this book. You will also become a somehow better leader after reading this book, or must of you.

I give this book 4 / 5

"Co Naprawdę Myśli Elon Musk" by Maciej Gablankowski Review

It’s important to keep in mind that at the time of writing this review this book is only available in polish.

I’m not sure if you can call this a book a book because everything you will find in it is comments and statements made by Elon musk. Which means that this so-called book can’t be reviewed as a “normal” book.

All these comments which you will find in this book are about Elon Musk’s future plans / ideas, Tesla, SpaceX and about Solarcity. So, everything you can read in this book can be found on the internet somewhere and probably much better explained.

I need to be honest here, if you aren’t interested in Tesla, SpaceX or what Elon Musk and you don’t know anything about them than maybe this book isn’t the best idea to read for the moment.

However, don’t get me wrong, this book is amazing to have. Because you have all important comments and statements said by Elon Musk in one place. And if you will need it someday you know where to look.

It’s a short book, with a lot of empty space so as you may think, it’s a very quick read. Which can be read in 2-3 hours if you try.

Before reading this book you need to know something about Tesla, Space x and Elon musk just to fully understand this book.

I give this book 2 / 5

"One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway" by Åsne Seierstad Review

100On July 22, 2011, Anders Behring Breivik detonated a bomb outside government buildings in central Oslo, killing eight people. He then proceeded to a youth camp on the island of Utøya, where he killed sixty-nine more, most of them teenage members of Norway’s governing Labour Party. In The Island, the journalist Åsne Seierstad tells the story of this terrible day and what led up to it. What made Breivik, a gifted child from an affluent neighborhood in Oslo, become a terrorist? 

This book is of course about 2011 Norway massacre. It was written by a journalist. And in the end it is an okay book.Of course it is a nonfiction book which gives us a step by step following on what happened in Oslo and at Utøya on July 22nd, 2011.

In the end 65% of this book is about the life and childhood story of Anders Breivik. So if you are fine with reading 65% about the killer, 10% of what happened on the island and 25% about what happened after he was arrested then feel free to read it.

If you have followed the case from the beginning like I did, you will know that this book involves the unwholesome journey. It is an unwholesome journey because it doesn’t involve the whole story of the intersection of paranoid politics, social awkwardness, and something else, something darker which allows one person to murder another. This book is over 500 pages long, so it should involve a little more in it then it did.

But after all we get a lots of details which you might not know about Anders Breivik or the whole case. However as you can expect there are a lot of jumps in the timeline. This book begins with Anders Breivik being on the island of Utøya and shooting, but then in the next chapter in goes all the way back to when his mother was still a child. And again the next chapter is about the pregnant and giving birth to Anders. But it sort of gives us the vibe, because it males you imagine first moment of life of someone who would 30 years later kill over 80 people. I personally didn’t got yet across a book which does something similar.

This book doesn’t fail to show that not every monster throughout the history began with killing or harming animals. Anders Breivik didn’t harm animals but he was in constant trouble while he was growing up.

This book fails on explaining some questions and things which are in this book. Just as how can Anders Breivik managed to get weapons shipped to a country which claims “is one of the safest countries”. Well apparently it isn’t a safe country if you can ship weapons into it without having police at your door.

However there is two big issues with this book.

The first issue is that if you don’t know how the Norwegian system works and all that, you will have a lot of problems with understanding this book. Because this book was in my opinion written for people who lives in Norway or people who knows very well the Norwegian system.

The the second big issue is that author is telling us what people who are about to die thinks. It’s a nonfiction book so you can’t write it as a fiction. I don’t think that she is Professor X from X-men who can read minds and all that.

There are times when this book repeats itself couple of times, and it kind of gets boring if you read the same thing like 5 times in a row.  But of course I need to give this book points. for diving deep into the life, actions, and mind of Anders Breivik.

I give this book 3 / 5