Book

Another great cookbook from Anna Jones – I’ve made two recipes from this and they’ve both worked really well. It’s a perfect book for those wanting to eat more plants. 

Qin writes with raw power in this affecting story of self-discovery. I only wish it didn’t feel quite as disjointed in the underlying narrative. I hope to be able to read more from Qin!

Gay writes with beauty and such humanity. The thesis of this book, even ignoring its excellent execution, is such a valuable and important idea: we all of us should practice the art of being receptive to joy and delight. 

A book with a sense of humour that somehow makes Family Guy seem witty and profound. I’ve never experienced a book as painfully unfunny as this—it was truly mystifying and appalling. Almost as disappointing was the substantive content which was repetitive, shallow and largely uninteresting. The authors set up the universe as something with anthropomorphic intent, which might be a fine premise if they ever took the time to actually explain, no the universe doesn’t actually want to kill you. I hated this and read in a state of disbelief tinged with horror. 

A well-intentioned and lovingly designed book, albeit one that felt puddle deep. I support the author’s message and cause very much but found this book middling.

A stunning, haunting portrait of a country that seems lost and set on self-destruction. The harshness, oppression, and corruption experienced by its people is heartbreaking. Kostyuchenko’s writing is incredible, necessary and deeply affecting. 

A surreal nightmare of a book which is fitting giving modern work is its subject. The calm, measured prose does a wonderful job of creating a bizarre, confusing feel, aided by (at first disturbing then I eventually figured out what was happening) abrupt and unmarked transitions between different character PoVs.  

A fantastic book; one that tackles a topic that has been on my mind for the past few years—I even wrote an essay on the topic. Numbers have invaded our life and our thinking to such a degree that they distort debate, discussion and decisions. Being conscious of the power of numbers is the first step to a healthier relationship with digits small and large. Special acknowledgements to the fun little personal anecdote from the authors – set apart from the text itself – as well as the end of chapter summaries. 

If you’ve never read a book in this genre, or had no therapy, this book might be a good start. For me though, this book was just reheated insights I’ve read quite a lot of already. There’s not much new or compelling about this one. If this genre interests you, start with Dr Guha’s book instead.

An important essay – both so far as form goes (the afterward in my edition comments on the rather Japanese structure, itself a demonstration of the themes Tanizaki-san writes about) and content. I’ll never quite look at the interplay of light and darkness and shadow in the same ways every again. 

The ability to set a novel from the viewpoint of a non-human has always fascinated me; it can be quite hard to do well, but I think Hoke manages to pull off a convincing sense of otherness. We can both relate to and be curious about our mountain cat narrator.n And I think the book largely avoids falling into an overly anthropomorphic view point. A brilliant and contained story. 

Very dense economically, which is necessary, of course, to understand the current housing crisis and to begin to be able to think about ways out of the mess we are in. I felt myself getting a bit lost in the soup from time to time, and would have appreciated a high-level summary of the five equilibria.

I was excited to read Murray’s proposed solution as well as being offput to reflect on the power of what he calls “the housing cheer squad” – i.e. the vested interests that are protecting the status quo. As always, I cannot help but think the problem is too big and too politically messy for a solution as brave and necessary as Murray advocates. 

A book of such profound and genuine wisdom; the life of a monk (and the periods both before and after) are written with such grace, kindness and humour. Beautiful and moving. 

A dark (and darkly fun) novel about loss and the ways in which we cope. I was impressed with the clarity and strength of Sámano Córdova’s prose and character work and am very keen to read more of their work. 

Dense – the central argument is a powerful one, but the presentation is not favourable to engaging with the ideas. I applaud his conclusion that people with autism deserve better support and opportunities to participate in the workforce—I just think it unlikely that this book would convince anyone who wasn’t already receptive to his message. 

A curious and delightful book; although the delight is not uniformly distributed. The initial chapter or so did not grab me, but I came to enjoy Yi Tenen’s nuanced take on AI.  

A real mixed bag: I thought the sections on design thinking were, as you might expect, the stronger part of the book. The book falls down, though, in having a real USA-centric attitude to work and I think some views of the authors are just outdated. For instance, they seemed unconcerned or even enthusiastic about the growing dominance of the gig economy. There was also little to no evidence base for many of their recommendations (and indeed, underlying view). And to round off my criticism, the case studies they used to illustrate their points (especially from their own lives) felt a little trite.

A wonderful essay by Kohler of the hows and why of the hellscape that is the housing market in Australia in 2024. Absent political bravery—of the sort totally absent from the world today—I cannot see any meaningful improvements, although I agree with many of the essay’s suggestions and conclusions. 

Quite a dense and chewy book, and one that is stronger when it sticks to the areas closest to Greene’s expertise (hard physics). It becomes quite vague and waffling in areas farthest from his (professional) expertise. The book often relies on assertions as to the likely answer to some of our thorniest questions (such as consciousness) which I think comes across as intellectually incurious and rather dogmatic. It is disappointing that he does not make an effort to engage with arguments that challenge his physicalist preferences.

I’ve never read anything quite like this remarkable book, a sui generis exploration of Herman Meville’s life through a fictional narrative of an academic. The writing is so warm and nuanced and emotive and incredibly moving. And it has inspired me to read Moby Dick, which would be hard to avoid given how warmly this novel deals with Moby Dick. Lovely stuff. 

A fascinating book that genuinely moved my thoughts on a topic: beforehand I would have described myself as quite bullish on space travel and settlement, but through this book’s broad exploration, I am now somewhat more cautious about the whole idea. In particular, I note with appreciation the Weinersmith’s conclusion that we oughtn’t consider space as a solution to the general socioeconomic and political instability that characterises the earth today. Rather, when (or if) we resolve this, then we should ought to pour ourselves into the stars. I did find the humour in this book a little too referential for my tastes in the way that a lot of (self professed) geeky or nerdy things are. There was probably an equal amount of eye rolls to chuckles. Still, even aside from the tone being not to my taste from time to time, I admire this book, its research and the passion that went into it.

A powerful book that focussed on something very universal; life’s purpose. I took a lot from his conclusion that we can only define our own purpose, no one else can define another’s purpose. His views on suffering as a key and essential part of our lives also lit something inside me. Deep and moving. I will say that it is quite unfortunate that he refers to homosexual relationships as “sexual perversion,” but we can understand that as a relic of the era in which the book was written. It is similarly disappointing that he uses ‘men’ to mean people.   

The first half of this book was repetitive and in search of a thesis. I found the second half better: clearer and with less repetition, but it wasn’t enough to salvage the book. I am still interested in the topic of how it came to be that patriarchal systems became dominant when there is nothing certain or inevitable about that fate.

I found this dense and the format—a conversation between the two authors—did not work for me. Not that I think it couldn’t have worked, it just didn’t work in this book. I am torn because some ideas in the exchange are deeply information and thought provoking, and I like the obvious respect and admiration between the authors. Yet I cannot possibly recommend this in its current form. 

This was funnier, and less ‘okay, boomer’ than another similar book I read about an Australian comedian-type. I think I made a mistake by not finding the audiobook version of this, as I’m sure Flanagan’s delivery would have added so much. That said, it is still a bit familiar, and very few of the jokes made me laugh out loud. 

A tremendous piece of original thinking and philosophy. Some ideas were necessarily dense, but Goff’s writing and thought is clear, witty and thought-provoking. I have not landed if I find Goff’s ultimate thesis convincing, but I will be thinking about them for a long time, I suspect. 

Kung’s views on food are fun and his recipes are smartly written. I’m yet to cook anything from the book yet, but I have about 30 or so recipes I’m very excited to make. 

Look, this WAS interesting. But it was very little about distraction and far more about monks: how they lived, worked, acted, and so on. But luckily, Kreiner writes with such wit and authority that even though I wasn’t getting what I expected, I had a fine enough time. 

A fun adventure – Paz’s world-building and concepts are remarkable and a lot fun. My main quibble is with the pacing – the plot moves at a glacial pace with far too many digressions and flashbacks that feel a lot like telling not showing. I think this might make a fun movie.

An excellent exploration of creativity and making art. I wish someone had taught me some of this as a kid, so I probably wouldn’t have internalized so many anti-creative sentiments. This is a book that would interest almost anyone, not just those consciously thinking about creating art. The book positions and treats creativity as an essential and necessary skill. Fascinating!