21) How Democracy Ends by David Runciman I got given this book for my birthday (or possibly Xmas) by my wife's aunt, and she cheerily said as I opened it, "I look forward to finding out what the answer is". Well, I'm not sure there is one answer but I have at least read the… Continue reading Year 4 / Book 21: How Democracy Ends
Category: non-fiction
Year 4 / Book 15: Dopesick
15) Dopesick by Beth Macy Somewhat gradually over the course of maybe the last year or so, the opioid epidemic in the US has come across my radar - I don't know why it's taken that long for it to come to my attention, perhaps ignorance or a lack of in-depth reading; I do remember… Continue reading Year 4 / Book 15: Dopesick
Year 4 / Book 13: Hello World
13) Hello World by Hannah Fry As the pace of technological change seems to become ever more speedy, it's easy to just shrug and gloss over the terminology and accept what is said at face value - or at least it is for me. So self-driving cars are a couple of years away, facial recognition… Continue reading Year 4 / Book 13: Hello World
Year 4 / Book 11: Educated
11) Educated by Tara Westover This memoir was a feature in best-of lists and non-fiction bestsellers last year, and it's been a pleasure to come to it, even if behind many others ('others' includes Barack Obama & Bill Gates, whose recommendations carry a decent amount of weight). The summary version is that Tara Westover grows… Continue reading Year 4 / Book 11: Educated
Year 4 / Book 6: Poverty Safari
6) Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey The subtitle to this book is 'understanding the anger of Britain's underclass', which gives you some sense of what its pages contain. It is a journey (a safari, perhaps) through lives in poor communities, and particularly McGarvey's own in Glasgow - in that sense it is part-memoir, part-polemic and… Continue reading Year 4 / Book 6: Poverty Safari
Year 4 / Book 1: October
1) October by China Miéville First book of year 4 of this blog, and we were in St Petersburg for the New Year, so it felt appropriate to read a book about the Russian Revolution. In this case, a rewriting of the momentous events of the year of 1917 by Miéville, a writer best known… Continue reading Year 4 / Book 1: October
Year 3 / Book 45: Priestdaddy
45) Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood This is a difficult book to categorise or introduce; I guess it's best described as a memoir, but it's also at points poetic, often a true picture of parts of America, and has much to say beyond the depiction of a family living in the shadow of a mercurial father… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 45: Priestdaddy
Year 3 / Book 44: The Hard Thing About Hard Things
44) The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz This book came to me recommended by the facilitator of the Action Learning Set I'm in for new CEOs (if I can still be counted as new 9 months in). It's written by Ben Horowitz who I hadn't heard of, but is clearly pretty well… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 44: The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Year 3 / Book 42: This Is Going To Hurt
42) This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay This memoir / diary of a junior doctor working in the NHS has been at the top of the bestseller lists for months, so I am late to this - or at least several months behind many thousands of readers. Based (I assume) on a diary… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 42: This Is Going To Hurt
Year 3 / Book 39: Hope in the Dark
39) Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit If you are not familiar with Rebecca Solnit's work, then I heartily recommend starting to do so - I've read Men Explain Things To Me (the essay/book that gave rise to 'mansplaining') and A Field Guide to Getting Lost is waiting on the bookshelf. This collection of… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 39: Hope in the Dark
