30th April 2019
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on The Translator: a tribesman’s memoir of Darfur
by Daoud Hari. A chilling first-hand account of the Darfur genocide wreaked by the Sudanese government in 2003. But coincidence, Sudan’s President, Omar al-Bashir, was finally ousted as I was reading this book in 2019, news which did much to … Continue reading
29th April 2019
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on The Voices Within: the history and science of how we talk to ourselves
by Charles Fernyhough. A compelling and fascinating look at the inner workings of our minds and the many conversations that go on there: from such everyday experiences as the inner voice, silent reading, and the writer’s muse, through to voice-hearing … Continue reading
27th March 2019
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Stuffocation: living more with less
by James Wallman. Stuffocation begins with a look at the current “clutter crisis” as experienced by the western middle-classes. Research shows that this newly-wealthy section of society breeds a new kind of disease (albeit a first-world one): too much stuff. … Continue reading
16th March 2019
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on The Power of Negative Emotion
by Todd Kashdan. The Power of Negative Emotion starts by looking at which emotions we think of as negative (primarily anger, sadness, and anxiety), and how different societies view them in different ways. It explains why these emotions can be … Continue reading
5th March 2019
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Corvus: a life with birds
by Esther Woolfson. Esther Woolfson has a rook standing on her knee. Confusingly, it’s called Chicken. In Corvus we are introduced to Chicken, and her many, varied, housemates, who share what must be a noisy home in Aberdeen. Woolfson teaches us what … Continue reading
12th January 2019
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on The Secret Teacher: dispatches from the classroom
by The Secret Teacher. The Secret Teacher is just starting out in an English secondary school. He is optimistic, and idealistic, characteristics that would be damped by most jobs in time; but he is quickly put in his place by … Continue reading
10th January 2019
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Born Liars
by Ian Leslie. As an autistic, I have long been fascinated about why people lie. Of course, I have lied (yes, I love your hat), but as a skill, it’s only come to me later in life, and I find … Continue reading
31st December 2018
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on The Diary of a Bookseller
by Shaun Bythell. Shaun Bythell recounts – in the form of diary entries – his life as owner of The [secondhand] Bookshop in Wigtown, and I say “life” because and it’s so much more than a mere job). His observations of customers, … Continue reading
5th October 2018
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on This is Going to Hurt
by Adam Kay. Adam Kay is a junior doctor in the UK’s National Health Service. (“Junior” in this context means highly qualified, but overworked and underpaid.) Anyone who has followed the news in recent years will know that junior doctors … Continue reading
18th September 2018
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Nathaniel’s Nutmeg: How One Man’s Courage Changed the Course of History
by Giles Milton. Nathaniel’s Nutmeg is essentially a history of the East India Company’s early years – including the lengthy prelude to its inception – and its part in the spice race. The first half of the seventeenth century saw the … Continue reading
