The Sunday Post #397

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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

The Sunday Post

Public Service Announcement

I'm signing up for the 2026 Discussion Challenge hosted by Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight. I should have signed up last month, but better late than never. If you want to challenge yourself to write more discussion posts, you should sign up too.

On The Blog Recently

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In My Reading Life

I read two excellent books last week:

I read Building A Second Brain: A Proven Method To Organize Your Digital Life And Unlock Your Creative Potential by Tiago Forte. This book is part of my quest to find a self-help book that actually helps.

Honestly, I think this one is helpful. I found it very interesting.

Modern humans learn tons of new information every single day. We put pressure on ourselves to remember the information, form an opinion about it, organize it, solve problems, etc. It can be overwhelming. There's just too much information!

This book outlines a digital notetaking system that helps the reader reduce information overload. Basically, you use a notetaking app to build yourself a second brain. The author teaches the reader how to choose which bits of information are important and how to organize your notes so they're easy to find when you need them. I like the book because it's straightforward and actionable. Building a second brain feels like something I can accomplish. I can also see how it would help me be more organized.

Like many self-help books, this one is longer than necessary. I was tempted to skim at times. However, I'm excited to try the author's ideas and see if they reduce my chronic overwhelm. I'll report back with results.

Then I read The Faithful Executioner: Life And Death, Honor And Shame In The Turbulent Sixteenth Century by Joel F. Harrington. It's a nonfiction history book. The premise caught my attention immediately. In 1500s Nuremberg, a man named Frantz Schmidt began keeping records of his job. Frantz spent 45 years as a public executioner. The Nuremberg government paid him to extract confessions and publicly execute criminals. Frantz also had a side hustle: He ran a very successful medical practice. He killed people and he healed them! Frantz was a Christian and a father who wanted to give his children the best life possible. How did he reconcile all the conflicting parts of himself?

This biography is a dense and detailed reconstruction of Frantz's life. It took me weeks to read, but it was worth it. I learned a lot about 1500s Europe and the complicated values of the people who lived there.

Here's a fun fact: If an executioner botched a public execution, the crowd would turn against the executioner. Riots would break out. Several executioners were murdered by angry mobs after messing up an execution. It seems like the spectators were okay with watching a person be killed, but they had zero tolerance for watching a person suffer before death.

My only complaint about the book is (possibly?) the author's research. Frantz's notes about his job aren't super detailed. I'm skeptical that the author had enough evidence to draw conclusions from the notes. The author does a lot of reaching and speculating.

If you're interested in European history, you need to read this book. Frantz's life is both mysterious and endlessly fascinating.

In The Rest Of My Life

Five things that happened recently:

1. It's Baby Brooklyn's seventh birthday tomorrow. She needs the world to know.
2. The last two books I read were excellent. I reviewed them in the section above this one. (I know y'all skip sections of these posts.) If you like nonfiction, I recommend the above books.
3. I'm trying to understand AI and decide if/when it's ethical to use. I feel like everything is adding an AI component, so I'm going to be forced to use it against my will. I want to understand the impact of what I'm doing. Anyway, I let NotebookLM read this blog and give me feedback. I thought the results were hilarious. I don't know if I should post the results on my blog or leave the AIs alone and not encourage them. 
4. I went back to kickboxing lessons. I had to take a month off because of health reasons, but I'm back and still terrible at kickboxing. My coach says, "You're special, but you try hard."
5. I finally found out what's wrong with my brain! In March/April of last year, I started experiencing unpleasant brain problems. Eleven months of doctor appointments later, I learned it's a problem I was born with. It can't be fixed. It's getting harder to manage because I'm old, stressed out, and have the same diet as Buddy the Elf. I'm going to make lifestyle changes and see what happens.

Did You Hear? My Coach Says I'm Special

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Take care of yourselves and be kind to each other. See you around the blogosphere!