Books and Me

by Patrick King (2018) The wonderful thing about reading widely is that you end up reading books you otherwise wouldn't on the basis that it is only one book among many and nothing much hangs on it being a bad 'un, but then, joy of joys, finding that it is a total gem!  This worked for The Little Book of Stoicism , and it has worked for this one too.  Thankfully for both books, the messages are compatible - essentially - control what you can control, don't make your self assessment dependent upon factors that are outside of your control, be good enough for yourself and don't attempt to manipulate others for your own purposes.  Both books bulge with rational, life-improving, relatively easily actionable advice. Both leave you with clear messages that you won't forget in a hurry.  Highly recommended. Rating 9/10

By Tabatha Chansard (2019) There is nothing new here, but the book is nonetheless an efficient, well-written summary of evidenced-based approaches for tackling teen anxiety, along with exercises designed to encourage the reader to implement the theory.  I'm sure these approaches work, but the teen has to believe it possible and to engage with the suggestions fully.  This might be difficult.  You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. Rating 6/10

by Yanis Varoufakis (2017) I see from the reviews on Amazon that I am very much in the minority in finding this book a bit of a chore.  Perhaps I'm not sufficiently interested in economics, but I also think it might have had something to do with thinking that if this were my father talking to me like this at the dinner table, however delicious the food, I would have run upstairs, slammed the door shut as loudly as I could, and stayed there until he'd learned to quit mansplaining.  There were a few ideas that were neat enough, but broadly it was such a partial view of the state of affairs that the book can never be said to have been entirely honest.  We all know capitalism is far from perfect so it would seem fair that Yanis should spend most of the book detailing the history of the emergence of its faults, but he does this all the while apparently hinting at some vastly better, if never described, system which is presumably, given a few deferential reference...

by Ant Middleton (2019) This is far less of a description of military tactics or history and far more a refreshingly different take on the self-help genre.  Channelling your demons and putting them to good aggressive use is not the sort of thing you come across in your average self-improvement read, but actually, if you try hard, the two approaches often aren't completely inconsistent. "First Man In" simply broadens the scope of available solutions and behaviours. Take timing, for example:  when you've read a whole bundle of books on how to avoid procrastinating, it is interesting to come across the concept of "intelligent waiting". "First Man In" is pacily written, an easy read, and is, or at least you hope it is, an insight into the minds of elite soldiers.  Not that you ever feel certain of the veracity of this insight, mind you!  Nothing is ever quite what it seems in this world and the skirting over the tours in Afghanistan makes...

by Daniel Pink (2018) For someone utterly terrified by the concept of selling, I was, by the end of the book , brought into the idea that, one way or another, we are all selling pretty much all the time, so I had better bite the bullet and get better at it.   Given that my previous knowledge is next to zero, I was completely sold on 100% of the suggestions which came neatly chunked and presented with persuasive anecdotes in a way that clearly suggests that Pink has imbibed his own messages.  Reviews elsewhere suggest that the research (which is amply referenced) may either be stretched for the purposes of the argument or may not be rigorous in the first place, but frankly I didn't care.  Any suggestions are welcome and all seem broadly sensible.  The sheer volume of ideas, even though they are clearly sorted in a well constructed system, does mean that unless one has a pretty good memory, one will have to revisit the book to mug up on the finer de...

by Lionel Shriver (2017) I have a low tolerance for boredom when it comes to fiction.  I need to read something that is either startlingly new or seeringly right within the first couple of sentences or the book is consigned to the darker recesses of my kindle library.  Shriver doesn't disappoint .  She had me within the first couple of sentences.  It's all skewer and no fluff.  She, for example, leaves the reader to flesh out extraneous things like the setting - which will most likely be the last tennis court you ever used, and gets on with the business of dissecting male/female and female/female interactions with an eviscerating accuracy.  The story borders on extremely painful not least because it is so believable, but thankfully, being a novella, one can get through it without becoming terminally depressed. As a final point - albeit a trivial one, I can't help envying Lionel her androgenous name.  Aside from the observant writing, I am sure it pr...