u/Additional-Bit-2494

I lost access to my old Goodreads account, so I guess I’m starting fresh.
I mostly read nonfiction and my entire want-to-read list is basically gone.
Give me your single best nonfiction book recommendation. If you can’t pick just one, give me your top 3.
I’m open to pretty much anything — history, science, psychology, biographies, memoirs, economics, medicine, politics, whatever.
Basically trying to refill my Goodreads account with books that people actually loved.
What should I add?

High-income California earner (~$600–650k/year) saving for a $400–500k house down payment with about a 3-year timeline.
Currently keeping the fund 70% SGOV / 30% VTEC. Priorities are capital preservation, liquidity, and maximizing after-tax yield.
Would you keep this allocation, increase the CA muni exposure, or use something else entirely given the short timeline and tax bracket?
Curious what others would use for a 3-year house fund.

Gearing up for another move and figure I’d throw my referral code out QY3M2LLM ! Happy moving beautiful people

I’m considering applying for the United Club Card and am curious whether there’s any meaningful advantage to applying in a Chase branch versus online.
I’m pretty busy, so online would obviously be easier. I believe I’m around 4/24, and I’ve also opened a handful of business cards over the past year. I already have several Chase personal and business cards, including a United Explorer.
My total Chase credit lines are roughly $64k personal + $24k business, or about 15% of my stated income.
For people with an established Chase relationship and a few recent business-card approvals, would you just apply online? Or is there any reason a branch application would improve the odds, help with credit-line allocation, or make underwriting easier?
Trying to figure out whether a branch visit is actually worthwhile or whether I’m overthinking it.

Hi everyone,

My girlfriend and I (mid-30s) will be in Crete November 8–14 with a rental car. We enjoy great food, boutique hotels, art/ceramics shopping, scenic drives, cafés, and light hiking. We prefer authentic places over nightlife or big resorts.
I’ve read that quite a bit starts closing by mid-November, so I’m wondering what makes the most sense.

We’re considering:
Chania + Rethymno
Chania + a smaller village (Vamos, Argyroupoli, etc.)
Chania + Kapsaliana Village Hotel
Chania + Paleochora
Would you recommend staying in one place or splitting our time?

If you had 5–6 nights in Crete in mid-November, where would you stay? We’d love somewhere with a good atmosphere, walkable restaurants and cafés, local shops/art, and enough open that it doesn’t feel deserted.
Thanks!

Hi everyone,
I’m arriving into Warsaw on an international LOT flight at 12:45 PM and am considering booking a separate LOT ticket to Athens departing at 3:20 PM, giving me 2 hours 35 minutes between flights.
I’d likely have a checked bag, so I’d need to:
Clear immigration
Collect my luggage
Re-check it
Go back through security
For those familiar with Warsaw Airport, is 2h35 enough time for this on separate tickets, or would you recommend spending the night in Warsaw and flying to Athens the next morning instead?
I’d love to hear from people who know the airport well. Thanks!

Looking for some opinions from those who’ve flown these routings.
My girlfriend and I are flying business class home from Europe (Paris → LAX) after a celebratory trip, and I’m deciding between these return options:

Option 1 – AA via ORD
CDG 1:30 PM → ORD → LAX 9:36 PM
17h 6m total travel time
3h 15m layover in ORD
About $1,400 less total for the two of us.

Option 2– London overnight
Eurostar from Paris to London the day before
Overnight in London
BA283: LHR 10:05 AM → LAX 1:30 PM
(11h 25m) the following morning.
About $1,000 more than option 1

If this were your trip, which option would you choose? Would you pay the premium for Heathrow, or stick with the ORD routing? I have a high earning career and want to prioritize comfort on my way back.

One caveat: I’m constrained to using a combination of AA and Qantas miles, so these are the best award options I’ve found using those currencies
is for November so I’m wondering if another redemption will come along, however I really haven’t seen much appear for preceding months.

Taking my Applied in September and starting to think about how best to prepare. Are most people still using UBP, or are there other resources people would recommend?

I'm also considering one of the online prep that includes mock orals. Has anyone used one of those and found it worthwhile?

I do have some testing anxiety and wouldn’t consider myself the strongest public speaker, although I did fine throughout residency and fellowship. Curious if anyone in a similar situation found certain resources, mock oral programs, or study approaches particularly helpful.

Would appreciate hearing what worked (or didn't work) for those who passed recently. Thanks!

Trying to book 2 business class seats on an AA-operated itinerary from CDG–PHL–LAX. this is an AA operated flight

I have both AA and Qantas points and was planning to book one seat with each program. Initially, AA was showing the itinerary for 71k miles per person, and Qantas was showing Classic Reward availability for the same flight (with the "seats are nearly gone" warning).

Before booking anything, I checked pricing on AA for 2 passengers and it was still pricing at 71k per person (142k total), which made me think there was sufficient award inventory.

I then booked one seat through Qantas.

Here's where I'm confused:

• After booking through Qantas, when I try to price the remaining seat through AA, I'm seeing 250k miles.
• However, if I do a fresh search for 2 passengers on AA, it still shows the same 71k-per-person pricing (142k total).
• The flight is still largely empty.

If the Qantas booking consumed the last saver award seat, why would AA still be showing 2 seats available at 71k each when I run a new search?

Has anyone run into this before? I went ahead and cancelled my Qantas seat and hoping to take another stab at this based off comments.

Thanks!

Update: Per Redditor advice, I did a 24 hour hold on AA as a test. The qantas seat still exists at the same rate. I should have booked AA first- had no idea there would be a price flux on AA side. Now need to wait for Qantas to reinstate my points

Trying to book 2 business class seats on an AA-operated itinerary from CDG–PHL–LAX. this is an AA operated flight

I have both AA and Qantas points and was planning to book one seat with each program. Initially, AA was showing the itinerary for 71k miles per person, and Qantas was showing Classic Reward availability for the same flight (with the "seats are nearly gone" warning).

Before booking anything, I checked pricing on AA for 2 passengers and it was still pricing at 71k per person (142k total), which made me think there was sufficient award inventory.

I then booked one seat through Qantas.

Here's where I'm confused:

• After booking through Qantas, when I try to price the remaining seat through AA, I'm seeing 250k miles.
• However, if I do a fresh search for 2 passengers on AA, it still shows the same 71k-per-person pricing (142k total).
• The flight is still largely empty.

If the Qantas booking consumed the last saver award seat, why would AA still be showing 2 seats available at 71k each when I run a new search?

Has anyone run into this before? I went ahead and cancelled my Qantas seat and hoping to take another stab at this based off comments.

Thanks!

Update: Per Redditor advice, I did a 24 hour hold on AA as a test. The qantas seat still exists at the same rate. I should have booked AA first- had no idea there would be a price flux on AA side. Now need to wait for Qantas to reinstate my points

Trying to figure out how aggressive to be with a house fund.

Context:
- California physician
- ~$600k income
- Saving ~$4k/month toward a future home purchase
- Likely 3–4 year timeline, but flexible if markets are down
- Already investing aggressively elsewhere

Originally had the whole fund in VUSXX, but now wondering if that’s overly conservative given my income/savings rate.

Considering something like:
- 40–50% VUSXX
- 20% VTEC
- 30–40% VTSAX

Curious how others would approach a medium-term house fund when the purchase timeline isn’t completely rigid.

Trying to figure out how aggressive to be with a house fund.

Context:
- California physician
- ~$600k income
- Saving ~$4k/month toward a future home purchase
- Likely 3–4 year timeline, but flexible if markets are down
- Already investing aggressively elsewhere

Originally had the whole fund in VUSXX, but now wondering if that’s overly conservative given my income/savings rate.

Considering something like:
- 40–50% VUSXX
- 20% VTEC
- 30–40% VTSAX

Curious how others would approach a medium-term house fund when the purchase timeline isn’t completely rigid.

Thank you