Just over 300 pages, including several Top-n lists, notes and an index, Hadley Freeman's Life Moves Pretty Fast is a breeze to read. Written in the chatty style of friends nattering over a coffee or a beer in a British pub -- although Freeman was born in New York, she seems to have grown up … Continue reading Life Moves Pretty Fast
Tag: Book Review
Delivering Happiness
Link: This review also appears on Amazon-UK here. Most non-fiction books I have read recently appear, absent the author's need to write a full-length book, fit to be or have remained a long-form essay. Not this one, although Tony Hsieh's hard-to-classify book, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose, too could have benefited … Continue reading Delivering Happiness
The Art Of Choosing
Link: This review appears on Amazon-UK here. And on Amazon-US here. With a researcher's and practitioner's interest in decision-making, I did not have to ponder over the choice to buy this book. Nor did I struggle with reading its 268 pages (not including acknowledgment and references) in just over 4 hours. Professor Sheena Iyengar has … Continue reading The Art Of Choosing
Do More Faster
Link: This review now appears on Amazon-UK here where, if you like, you can vote for it. Thanks. The "entrepreneur" is, to many, a mysterious beast surrounded by myths and legends. This book, edited by Techstars founders David Cohen and Brad Feld, seeks to share some of the secret juice that makes for a successful … Continue reading Do More Faster
The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain
Link: You can vote for this review on Amazon-UK here. Thanks. What is middle age? As human life expectancy changes, so does this marker. I did wonder about those in today's world who are born with a life expectancy in the 30s or 40s. Surely their teenage years can't be called their "middle age". Luckily … Continue reading The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain
Mother Pious Lady
Mother Pious Lady: Making Sense of Everyday India* is an amusing yet thought-provoking, insightful yet confounding, and relentlessly introspective, with hints of self-flagellation, book. The title is a nod to the specialised language used in the very specialised Indian area of matrimonial ads that appear in the Sunday papers. Over the years, these ads have enabled … Continue reading Mother Pious Lady
Obliquity
Link: My Amazon Review is here, should you wish to vote on its usefulness. On the cover of Obliquity, John Kay's new book (hardback edition), Tim Harford pronounces it "persuasive". Yet Harford’s subsequent column in the FT on March the 18th, 2010, titled "Political Ideas Need Proper Testing" suggested that he is far from persuaded by … Continue reading Obliquity
The Checklist Manifesto
Link: You can vote on my Amazon Review here. Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right comes close on the heels of Umberto Eco's The Infinity of Lists. Both books are about lists and both emphasise the ability of lists to bring about order and control. Both books attracted me because I … Continue reading The Checklist Manifesto
The Tiger That Isn’t, or why you needn’t be afraid of numbers
Link: You can vote on the Amazon review of this book here. "I think numbers are the best way to represent the world's uncertainties", "I see numbers, I question them and I can interpret them for the less numerate", "I see numbers and I freeze". These three possible options are based on a rough categorisation … Continue reading The Tiger That Isn’t, or why you needn’t be afraid of numbers
Um…: Slips, Tumbles, and Verbal Blunders, And What They Mean
Link: The Amazon Review is here. Um..., as I shall refer to the book, is an unusual book on many counts. I read books in several non-fiction genres. But books, that marry genres, such as food memoirs of MFK Fisher or Mark Abley's language-cum-travel memoirs, find favour with me. I read Um... on an oblique recommendation from a … Continue reading Um…: Slips, Tumbles, and Verbal Blunders, And What They Mean
