Eric Maisel is a humble, brilliant writer on creativity, a guru (though he would argue against the very term) to the stumblers like me. Brainstorm: Harnessing the Power of Productive Obsessions breaks no new ground but instead takes Maisel’s notions of ‘making meaning’ and living through creativity to prod us towards obsession. Not the destructive [...]
Also posted in Creative Life |
A lifelong fascination with ants led me to read one excellent book last year (see my review of The Lives of Ants) but now I’ve chanced upon an even more remarkable book. Adventures among Ants: A Global Safari with a Cast of Trillions, by famed wildlife photographer and writer Mark W. Moffett, is just the [...]
Before Bill McKibben started 350.org, his grassroots organization (he makes quite explicit it’s for young people, implying us older folks have dropped the ball) campaigning to roll back global warming, he asked climatologist James Hansen what number he should choose. Having just read James Hansen’s compelling semi-memoir Storms of My Grandchildren (see my review), as [...]
Also posted in Coal's End |
The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism, by distinguished American historian Joyce Appleby, is a tour de force of broad historical writing. We all imagine we ‘know’ what capitalism is and how it must have arisen out of older ways of societal organization, but of course we know nothing. From the very start of her [...]
Michael Lewis is one of our most compelling, original chroniclers. He combines instinctive storytelling and fascination with the hidden interstices of the human world. All his books are gorgeous reads but it’s when he explores and explains conceptual material that he soars. And in The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, he has a sublime [...]
Years ago, when I read Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson’s Dogs Never Lie About Love and When Elephants Weep, I recall being impressed by his wide-ranging, compassionate mind. So it seemed natural, after Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals (see my review) profoundly affected me, to read Masson’s new book The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About [...]
Of course one should read books by one’s heroes, both as homage and for inspiration. James Hansen is that rare scientist, brilliantly geeky yet driven by conscience to enter the fields of politics and persuasion. In spite of his own preference to stay in the lab, he was one of the first scientists to leap [...]
Also posted in Coal's End |
Intelligible yet accurate beginners’ guides to complex subjects are rare: If you’re an Australian concerned about the complexities of choosing and cooking food in a world where much of food production is environmentally degrading or downright evil, The Conscious Cook: Sustainable Cooking and Living is the book for you. Author Giselle Wilkinson, a passionate advocate [...]
Very little light reading on the go at the moment: The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, a companion read to Jonathan Safran Foer’s masterpiece Eating Food I’ve been hanging out for Michael Lewis’s latest, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine Unlike many, I didn’t grow besotted with Yann Martel’s [...]
A couple of books sourced in strange ways and all the more enjoyable as a result: I can recommend the first three books in a quartet by a South African author, John van de Ruit, in the vein of the Adrian Mole diaries: Spud; Spud – The Madness Continues; and Spud – Learning to Fly. [...]
Also posted in Literary Fiction |