This is a recording of our AI book club discussion of <a href='https://www.amazon.com/Hands-Large-Language-Models-Understanding/dp/1098150961'>Hands-On Large Language Models: Language Understanding and Generation</a> by Jay Alammar and Maarten Grootendorst, held Oct 19, 2025. The book differs from other books in the series in that it's a more technical exploration of how LLMs work, without any ethics discussions. It's less narrative and more engineering-oriented. Our discussion focuses on understanding of conceptual details and whether, to use an analogy, understanding the plane's engine helps pilots fly the airplane better.