Books and Me

by Jamil Zaki (2019) This is a clarion call for maximisation of the very best of human qualities, and given the increasing alienation, unhappiness and general antipathy that ail us, along with the global problems we face, this call doesn't come a moment too soon. It is an essential read - important for everyone - parents, policy makers and leaders of all sorts. Rating 10/10. 

by Katie Hurley (2019) With news that 9/10 teens are worried about their mental health, and that a third state that they feel helpless, sad and or fearful frequently and this problem far outstripping any help that is offered by others, these sorts of work books would seem to have a big and important function. This one does the job efficiently enough. There isn't anything you won't already have read before in other places, but it puts all the strategies in one neat place succinctly and clearly, and even if you don't have any mood disorder, often seems to offer very sensible strategies for life. Whether a teen would actually engage with it in the first place, let alone actually benefit from it, is another matter altogether. Rating 6/10

By Jason Fox (2018) This  is a gripping, convincing read for which the actual writer, Matt Allen, should take a lot of  credit, not least because until I got to the acknowledgements right at the end, I had managed to persuade myself that Jason's voice was largely authentically his.   OK, so you could see that the book was beautifully structured and that this sort of level of writing skill isn't something people normally acquire when they've spent their entire adult life busting through doors and shooting the threats that lie behind it, so I guess I should have just got on and accepted this fact - but in some regards, it still sounded like the Jason you hear on  Who Dares Wins,  so I just wanted to believe.  But really, duh, in retrospect what was I thinking! One regular feature of PTSD, to which Jason bravely admits, is that it closes down Broca's area - the part of the brain that is responsible for speech.  It is quite possibl...

by Thibaut Meurisse (2019) This is yet another of those books that takes a lot of its material from primary sources and reworks them into a succinct package so that it is pretty straightforward to extract and retain the take home messages whilst not worrying about the history of the explanations or the intricacies of the arguments, and really, for that we should be grateful - it's a quick and punchy read with a bundle of good ideas on the issue of motivation, even if it didn't solve the problem of how to magic motivation out of thin air, recommending instead that one act on whatever minute morsel of motivation one already has.  The only other quibble: the author consistently addresses the reader directly as "you" and as I personally don't have any issues with a lack of motivation just now at least, I kept feeling the urge to shout "Hey look, not a problem mate!".  However,  if the reader is stuck in a rut, this probably wouldn't be a probl...

by Robert I. Sutton (2017) This i s, just as Daniel Pink says on the cover, a contemporary classic. If everyone were to read it, take it to heart and act on it, our planet would be an infinitely better place.  Sutton explains not only how to identify an "asshole", (sorry, there is no other satisfactory word -believe me, I've dug around in thesauri and the darkest reaches of the minds of friends and relatives, and have not yet come up with a satisfactory replacement), he also provides numerous ideas about how to deal with them, some of which strike me as inspired, (the Benjamin Franklin effect being one of these), but for the icing on the cake, he also requires that the reader look in the mirror in order to make sure they are not the asshole in the room! So it works for everyone, the asshole as well as the victim.  And of course, most of us have our moments.  It takes a masterful saint not to lapse at some point, though we might as well aim high, I guess. A must rea...

by Martin Meadows (2015) There is nothing startlingly new here.  If you've read around a bit in the self-help category, you will recognise most of the ideas in here, but it is nonetheless helpful to have them all bunched neatly and succinctly into one place and almost all of what he says makes very good sense.  A useful precis. Rating 6/10

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...

Daniel Goleman (2014) The subject of this book - focus - really is the launch pad for emotional intelligence and a successfully Stoic way of being.   Get this right and you have the foundations for building that essential freedom between stimulus and response , which means that you can choose how you react.  Other forms of focus are described too, but of course, once that initial self focus, along with self insight are triggered, one can much more easily actively choose to focus in these ways too.  Methods for increasing ones powers of focus are described.  With even only a little practice, if coupled with an understanding of what to aim for,  one can radically improve emotional and attentional outcomes. These skills should be taught to all children everywhere.  Lessons in attentional control, self awareness and relaxation are taught in classes in Singapore and look what happens to their PISA scores !   I will have to go back to Lucy Cr...