‘Levels of Life’ by Julian Barnes is (I think) the only book I have reviewed on this blog which I have tagged as both fiction and non-fiction. Part essay, part fiction and part memoir, the book certainly defies simple categorisation despite being less than 120 pages long. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Non fiction
Whoops! by John Lanchester
For the last five years or so, the news has been full of complicated financial jargon which supposedly explains how the bankers managed to piss all our money away. But what does it all actually mean? Luckily, ‘Whoops! Why everyone owes everyone and no one can pay’ by John Lanchester helpfully explains the causes and consequences of the global financial crisis and is probably the only book you will ever need on the subject. Continue reading
How to Be Alone by Jonathan Franzen
‘How to Be Alone’ by Jonathan Franzen is an interesting collection of fourteen essays loosely based around the theme of solitude and privacy. I enjoyed his most recent novel ‘Freedom’ but I definitely struggled with ‘The Corrections’ which I thought would have been much improved with a bit of decent editing. However, I found Franzen’s non-fiction work to be much more readable in terms of content and also more manageable in terms of length with this collection clocking in at around 300 pages.
Continue reading
Filed under Books
Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby
Despite the title, the cover art and the general subject matter, ‘Fever Pitch’ by Nick Hornby isn’t really about football itself. It is more about the consumption of football, the obsession of a fan – in this case, an Arsenal supporter – cleverly interwoven with a more general autobiography of Hornby’s life. Consequently, ‘Fever Pitch’ can be read and enjoyed by people like myself who are not necessarily football or sports fans and might lead you a little bit closer to what people actually see in football and why they choose to devote a huge part of their lives to following it.
Filed under Books
On Writing by Stephen King
‘On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft’ by Stephen King is part-autobiography, part advice manual for aspiring authors. The first part of ‘On Writing’ is a personal and often very witty memoir as King recalls his journey towards becoming a published author. The second part explores what King calls the ‘writer’s toolbox’, including tips on vocabulary, grammar, elements of style and editing. The final part is where King describes the car accident in 1999 which nearly killed him halfway through writing this very book and the long recovery process afterwards. There is also a very interesting reading list at the end (along with a second one if you read the 10th anniversary edition as I did). It sounds like a slightly haphazard structure but it works because the subject of writing is always at the heart of it. Continue reading
Filed under Books
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
Some of you may remember that one of the few books I never finished was ‘Everything is Illuminated’ by Jonathan Safran Foer. I gave up after about 60 pages when I realised that I could neither appreciate nor even understand what on earth was going on. Happily, ‘Eating Animals’, a non-fiction work by the same author about, well, eating animals, is infinitely more readable despite its rather gruesome content. Continue reading
Filed under Books
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
‘Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything’ by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner explores some of the everyday mysteries of life through the prism of economics, understood in the broadest sense as the study of incentives. Economics as a subject generally doesn’t inspire much enthusiasm but here is where you might be surprised. Continue reading
Filed under Books
Quiet by Susan Cain
Having read many positive reviews from other bloggers, I have been intrigued by ‘Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking’ by Susan Cain for a long time. In a world which largely values extroversion and outgoing, gregarious personalities, it is refreshing to find a book which completely rejects all this. Introverts of the world will rejoice. Continue reading
Filed under Books
Catch Me If You Can by Frank W. Abagnale
Frank W. Abagnale Jr was one of the most notorious con-men, forgers and imposters in American history. Posing as a Pan Am airline pilot, a doctor, a lawyer and a teaching assistant at Columbia University in the 1960s, he managed to defraud millions of dollars from banks, mostly by cashing fake cheques. This semi-autobiography outlines exactly how he did it and how he managed to evade capture for so long. Continue reading
Filed under Books
The Best of 2012 Survey
BEST IN BOOKS 2012
1. Best Book You Read In 2012? (You can break it down by genre if you want) Do I have to choose? Well, one of my favourites was Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami which I read not long before I started my blog. I’ve read a lot of good books this year though.
2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t? I was a little bit disappointed by The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. I liked it but I didn’t love it.
3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2012? The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. At least, I think it was surprising in a good way… I thought it would be too weird for my taste but I actually quite liked it. Continue reading
Filed under Books
Another Attempt at Spine Poetry
French Bookshops
French Books
Here’s one way of preventing Amazon’s hegemony over book sales: in France, book prices are fixed by law so they cost the same amount whether you buy them online, in a chain shop like Fnac or in a small independent bookshop. When I was living in Paris during my year abroad, the stingy student side of me was a bit miffed that it was impossible to get new books at a discount. On the other hand, it means that there are still a lot of independent bookshops which are managing to stay open (about 400 in Paris) and that can only be a good thing. Continue reading
Filed under Books
The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama by David Remnick
I hardly ever read two books or more at the same time but with ‘The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama’ by David Remnick I had to make an exception. It is a beast of a book and I would never have finished it if I hadn’t been reading some fiction alongside it over the last few weeks. As I mentioned in my post about political biographies, almost all books about political figures are extremely weighty tomes which are crammed with more detail than you will ever need to know. ‘The Bridge’ is no different but even though it definitely isn’t aimed at the casual reader, it is still a highly readable account of Barack Obama’s truly extraordinary life and path to the White House. Continue reading
Filed under Books
Thoughts About Political Biographies
My Political Bookshelf
The Politics section in most bookshops is often an odd one. I think there are two explanations for this. Firstly, it is because books about current affairs usually go out of date very quickly – politics changes pretty much everyday and a lot of books about ongoing events can end up in a bargain bin faster than you can say ‘Yes, we can’. Secondly, I think it is because politics tends to overlap with so many other subjects like history, sociology, economics and biographies. In your average Waterstone’s shop, the Politics section will typically consist of a slew of memoirs and biographies of New Labour era politicians, a couple of AS Level Government and Politics textbooks, some books which claim to explain the origins of the credit crunch/globalisation/some other trendy political buzzword in layman’s terms and maybe a few George W. Bush-bashing books. Overall, it isn’t particularly inspiring and doesn’t really reflect the diversity of the subject especially when there is so much quality political journalism out there. It also demonstrates how books have become sidelined, as far as politics is concerned, in favour of more modern media which can be updated instantly. A 140 character tweet is likely to reach and influence millions more people than an exhaustively researched tome about the state of the nation today. Overall, the cycle of the publishing industry is incompatible with the fickle 24 hour news cycle that we have today.
Filed under Books
At Home by Bill Bryson
The subtitle of ‘At Home’ by Bill Bryson is ‘A Short History of Private Life’ – in other words, a history of all aspects of domestic life including eating, cleaning and sleeping and so on. As well as exploring how the modern idea of the home has developed over history both in its architecture and our daily habits, each chapter covers a different room in the house – the kitchen, the dining room, the cellar (even the fusebox) and the stories behind how we live. ‘At Home’ covers an ambitious amount of history without ever being overwhelming or tedious and Bryson’s characteristically dry humour makes it a thoroughly entertaining read. Continue reading
Filed under Books
Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick
I don’t own an e-reader so I borrowed my sister’s Kindle this week. She lent it to me specifically so that I could read ‘Nothing to Envy’ by Barbara Demick which is based on accounts of life in North Korea. Unsurprisingly, it is an extremely harrowing read. Demick cleverly interweaves the stories of six North Korean defectors with descriptions of everyday life in North Korea including working in a hospital, life in a labour camp, reactions to the death of Kim Il-Sung, how people survived during the extreme food shortages in the mid-1990s and life after defecting from North Korea.
Demick’s absorbing account of a real life dystopia is both shocking and captivating. The opening of the book is particularly striking. At the beginning of the first chapter, the reader is confronted with a satellite image of North and South Korea taken at night-time (similar to the one below). North Korea is almost entirely in darkness because electricity is so scarce. But it didn’t always used to be like this. Continue reading
Filed under Books
Underground by Haruki Murakami
‘Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche’ is a non fiction work by Haruki Murakami about the terrorist attacks on the Tokyo subway in 1995 by members of the Aum cult. I am a big fan of Murakami’s fiction and admit that I only picked up the book from the library because it had his name on the cover. I also didn’t know too much about this particular incident before reading about it this week but ‘Underground’ seems to have been the best place to start as it is a balanced and insightful view of the dreadful events of 20th March 1995 whilst also exploring further questions about the Japanese mentality towards their everyday lives. Continue reading
Filed under Books
A Little Blog of Books 
You must be logged in to post a comment.