Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending is a powerful and touching read. The book so honestly and elegantly elucidates the nature of memory and nostalgia that reading it, even at the tender age of 21, was a harrowing experience. In essence, The Sense of an Ending is an exploration of memory: how it is […]
Read more
Archive | book review RSS feed for this section
“Language Intelligence”, Joe Romm: Rhetoric
December 14, 2012 
4 Comments
Language Intelligence is the latest book by climate blogger Joe Romm. It is a guide to rhetoric, “the art of persuasion through the systematic use of the figures of speech.” To be more precise, it is a powerfully written and invaluable guide to rhetoric. Whether you cross swords on Q&A with Nick Minchin, speak to […]
Read more Chris Rose’s “How to Win Campaigns”: Motivational Values
November 20, 2012 0 Comments
Chris Rose’s How to Win Campaigns is an asset for campaigners, particularly its chapter on Motivational Values. The chapter explains how society is composed of three distinct values-based groupings of citizens, and how messages and actions can be tailored to fit the values of each group. I explore motivational values and their implications below. I’ve […]
Read more “Long Walk to Freedom” by Nelson Mandela: Leadership, Apartheid, and Climate Activism
November 18, 2012 0 Comments
Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom is a stirring book. Autobiography already has something rich and intimate about it; in Long Walk to Freedom that is combined with the nobility and inspiration of a successful struggle against injustice. In reading it, I reflected upon a few things: leadership, apartheid, and climate activism. Nelson Mandela is […]
Read more Just Between You And Me, this Book on Relationships isn’t Very Good
November 7, 2012 0 Comments
I found Just Between You and Me while browsing a bookstore, something I rarely do. This is perhaps unusual for somebody who reads alot, but I find browsing a fruitless exercise. I’d much rather base my reading decisions on friends’ recommendations or, ideally, recommendations implicit in other texts, such as when one book refers to […]
Read more Management & Organisations: “Maverick” by Ricardo Semler
October 31, 2012 4 Comments
I read Ricardo Semler’s Maverick because at some point in my life I became a management nerd. I still am. Organisation management, people, processes: they fascinate me. In a cultural context in which work is boring and meetings are a waste of time, I am charged by the challenge of figuring out how we can […]
Read more “The Great Gatsby”, F. Scott Fitzgerald
October 11, 2012 2 Comments
Ah, yes, The Great Gatsby. This book highlights yet another of the pitfalls of being a precocious child: I first read it when I lacked the worldliness to truly appreciate it. I’m fairly confident that bits of it appealed to me, but it was nothing like this time. Nothing at all. The book’s story is […]
Read more “Tess of the D’Urbevilles”, Thomas Hardy: Yeah Nah
October 8, 2012 0 Comments
I don’t think I’m up to the task of saying much about Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbevilles. It confounded me. Once I finished it, I realised that I had never “got it”. I hoped that someone I knew could explain it to me, could make sense of what happened, could help me to understand. […]
Read more “The 4-Hour Workweek”, Timothy Ferriss: Personal Effectiveness
September 24, 2012 6 Comments
The 4-Hour Workweek is a guide to reducing one’s workload to the point that it can be handled with 4 hours each week, so that the free time (and surplus cash) can be used to live one’s dream lifestyle – learning martial arts, travelling, that sort of thing. Is it engaging? Yes. Is it plausible? […]
Read more Book 24: “The Razor’s Edge”, W. Somerset Maugham
September 13, 2012 0 Comments
Some individuals can make a profound difference in our lives, and The Razor’s Edge is testament to this. The book is auto-biographical and biographical. It is written as a recount of the author’s own experience, but it is about another, Larry Darrell, whose life makes a profound difference to others. (In fact, this book was […]
Read more
