Colin Marks's Blog, page 5

Review: This One Sky Day by Leone Ross

Magical realism pulled me in my late 20s. Being a huge fan of Neil Gaiman’s writing, it wasn’t a big leap to those South American writers who developed the genre – Márquez, Borges, Rulfo, etc. The One Sky Day by Leone Ross is a welcome returned to a style that I’ve missed!

The book is based in Popisho, a fictional island with a very Caribbean feel. All it’s inhabitants are born with a cors, a special gift that can heal, or give strength, or in the case of Xavier, one of the island’s revered m...

Review: The End of Bias by Jessica Nordell

Bias is a interesting subject. While some people try to remove bias from their lives, which is the main topic of Jessica Nordell’s End of Bias, others are embracing it. Fox News, social media, etc, polarise society by reinforcing bias and prejudice. So while it’s great that many of the case studies in the book are taking positive action, it seems society as a whole unfortunately is moving in the opposite direction.

I disagreed with some sections, such as the use of IAT tests to predict prejud...

The End of Bias by Jessica Nordell

Bias is a interesting subject. While some people try to remove bias from their lives, which is the main topic of Jessica Nordell’s End of Bias, others are embracing it. Fox News, social media, etc, polarise society by reinforcing bias and prejudice. So while it’s great that many of the case studies in the book are taking positive action, it seems society as a whole unfortunately is moving in the opposite direction.

I disagreed with some sections, such as the use of IAT tests to predict prejud...

Review: Chief of Staff: Notes from Downing Street

Gavin Barwell, the author and narrator, was a Conservative MP and housing minister who after losing his seat in Theresa May’s snap election, was brought deeper into the government by being appointed her Chief of Staff. My political views aren’t entirely aligned with his – I’ve never voted Conservative and am very unlikely ever to do so (I’m more of a liberal – centre-left on society and centre-right on the economy), but we are both unionists and Remainers.

Though not a Tory voter, I’ve always...

Review: Somersett: Benjamin Franklin and the Masterminding of American Independence by Phillip Goodrich

This is a beast of an audiobook – 14 hours of dense facts, made easier to digest with some well acted dramatisation. The book follows the schemes of Benjamin Franklin, how he manipulated the North and the South, the British, the French, and the Dutch, all because of his dislike of the Penn family and his desire to give the colonies independence and a slave-free society.

The book is very focused on the political, how the schemes were planned and enacted, the military aspects of the war were mo...

Review: The High House by Jessie Greengras

The High House is another climate change fictionalisation – better than most, but still with its flaws.

Better because the writing is gorgeous. Sparsely written bite-sized sections, the prose exudes urgency and desperation. That stylisation worked well, the characters racing towards the impending doom, but it worked only up to a point. With writing that sparse, it’s good for the drama, but it limits character development, and becomes a song with a single beat. This would have been more powerf...

Review: Tomorrow by Chris Beckett

What an excellent novel! Tomorrow follows the life of an unnamed protagonist, through his student days debating left-wing politics, to his isolation in the wilderness to write ‘the book’, to his kidnapping by left-wing guerrillas and his escape, and finally his demise. ‘Following’ isn’t entirely true, as the narrative jumps throughout to different times of his life.

A theme throughout is why we do what we do. You may want to help others, but is talking about it helping, or is even doing somet...

Review: Walk With Me In Sound by Marc J. Francis

Thich Nhat Hanh is the father of Buddhism in the West, and I was expecting this audio book to detail his life and his teachings. Unfortunately, it didn’t hit the mark for me.

The first section, which I was hoping would explore Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings, mostly focused on the author’s journey into Buddhism, rather than Buddhism and mindfulness itself.

The soundscape, a ‘relaxing’ mindfulness journey consisted of a few bells, a bit of chanting, Benedict Cumberbatch narrating a few quotes a...

Review: Outraged: Why Everyone is Shouting and No One is Talking by Ashley ‘Dotty’ Charles

These days (a phrase that suggests an oldie harping back to a non-existent golden era!) it seems outrage is being commercialised. Clickbait use targeted headlines to raise the emotions – emotional topics are more likely to be shared, and get more eyes on those all important ads. But this has always been the case – Fleet Street had the rule, “If it bleeds, it leads” long before the internet – outrage sold newspapers too.

Dotty makes good points that if people get outraged over everything, even...

Review: Drive by Daniel H. Pink

Daniel Pink’s Drive is an easy read – for one, the writing is nicely done, but secondly, it’s very sleight on content, which is then repeated, and then summarised. The first two-thirds describe his Motivation 3.0 theory – which is basically you need flow, which is generated by autonomy, mastery and purpose. Then the final third, with much repetition, gives examples on how to do it for parenting, team leading, weight loss, etc.

It’s interesting stuff, worth a read, but you’d get the same infor...