Books I read in 2022, Part 1

A philosophy of software design by John Osterhout

I was in a (semi) mentoring position at the start of the year, and I was looking for something that I could hand a junior level software developer about the craft of well written code.  All the books I had read on the subject were 20 years old at this point, and while the basic points were still true, there had to be something new in the last couple of decades, right?

This is a really solid intro to software design philosophy and how to approach putting a medium to large system together.

Managing Humans by Michael Lopp aka Rands

Great stories, well told.  I’m not sure it was helpful with the problems I was facing at the time, other than confirming that yeah, sometimes you do just have to walk away from the dumpster fire.

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

There’s something really great about watching a really talented writer lean back and say “we’re just gonna have fun with this one, okay?”  Entertaining, fast moving, a blast from end to end.  And then, while you’re not looking, Scalzi does one of the slickest writing moves I’ve ever seen and makes it look effortless.

Moon Knight Epic Collection 2: Shadows of the moon by Doug Moench et all

Marvel’s epic collections are fun—20-ish issues collected in one softcover, slowly realeasing the entire 20th century back catalog.  This is a chunk of Moon Knight’s first solo book from the early 80s.  The issues of this I read as a kid seemed very adult and grown up; now they’re very obviously early 80s marvel trying too hard to seem that way to a 10 year old.  It was fun to read for the nostalgia, but  hard to hand to someone who didn’t read them at the time and explain why you liked Moon Knight as a kid.

Moon Knight by Lumire/Smallwood/Bellaire

This is the stuff!  The central gimmick here is an idea so good I can’t believe it took 40 years for someone to do it.  Moon Knight has four distinct personalities (or more, depending on how you count.) For this, they change the art style based on which personality is in charge, and the results are spectacular.  In addition, each persona has their own stories which run in what seems to be parallel, not immediately connecting.  Great use of the concept, moving Moon Knight far past “super hero with more than one secret identity.”