The focus of the book are the teachings of Alfred Adler, a contemporary of Freud’s who lived and taught together with him in Vienna. But Freud and Adler fell out, and while Freud became the superstar of psychology, Adler has been much less discussed, at least in popular culture. While Freud uses the idea of past trauma to unlock the secrets of the mind, Adler … Continue reading The Courage to Be Disliked – book review
I picked up this copy of John Guy’s “Mary Queen of Scots” at Sainsbury’s for 4 pounds, with a film tie-in cover, and I do not regret it. The book was published originally as “My Heart is My Own” and won the Whitbread Biography Award in 2004. I had read David Starkey’s biography of the young Elizabeth when I was in my early teens, but … Continue reading John Guy’s “Mary Queen of Scots” – book review
If you’re a hardcore Alice in Wonderland fan… Continue reading Gillian Beer’s “Alice in Space” – book review
If you’re looking for some basic tips on how to improve your health, this book is a good place to start. Continue reading Dr Rangan Chatterjee’s “The Four Pillar Plan” – book review
Herodotus The Histories is a brick of a book. It’s 750 pages of history and ethnography with a loose Greek- Persian theme to it. It’s definitely not always a page-turner. But I am so glad I read it, because there are moments in it that absolutely illuminated my understanding of ancient Greece. The reason I reached for Herodotus is Ryszard Kapuściński’s Travels with Herodotus. I took … Continue reading Herodotus “The Histories” – book review
Seth Godin has written many books on marketing, and recently I’ve decided to read at least one of them. This is Marketing is his most recent title. It’s very readable, and I devoured it in one afternoon. It’s not really intended as an introduction to the subject, despite its encouraging title. However, for those who have had some experience of marketing, this is a very … Continue reading Seth Godin “This is Marketing” – book review
Professor Edward Bullmore is Head of the Department of Psychiatry and the Director of the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge and a part-time consultant for GlaxoSmithKline. His book is a summary of the most recent research linking depression to physical inflammation. Here’s a link to an article summarizing his theory. I found this book absolutely … Continue reading Edward Bullmore’s “The Inflamed Mind” – book review
Before you tune out, I should probably clarify that these attitudes have absolutely NOTHING to do with religion. Well, at least theoretically… The Social Media Influencer The Influencer believes that existence is absolutely impossible without being shared. Hence the constant presence of the mobile phone in their right hand. Social Media Influence is a demanding religious belief requiring photo and video sacrifices every few … Continue reading The Social Media Influencer, The Minimalist and the Sustainability Lover: or three religions of the West
“Poor little monkey!” (…) the words were an epitaph for the tomb of Maisie’s childhood. She was abandoned to her fate. What was clear to any spectator was that the only link binding her to either parent was this lamentable fact of her being a ready vessel of bitterness, a deep little porcelain cup in which biting acids could be mixed. They had wanted her … Continue reading Henry James’s “What Maisie Knew” – book review
Yara Rodrigues Fowler’s The Stubborn Archivist is not strictly speaking a novel. It has much more in common with a piece of poetic prose – and in fact, the first few pages seem almost to be toying with the idea of straightforward poetry – with bold headings and lots of white space surrounding many line breaks. But it manages to engage one’s attention much as … Continue reading Yara Rodrigues Fowler “The Stubborn Archivist” – book review
