Colin Marks's Blog, page 7

Review: Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha by Tara Brach

An interesting book with a broad range of meditations to follow in the various meditative styles. I did feel it was slightly over-written – many of the stories could have been trimmed – but a good book for those wishing to expand their knowledge of mindfulness and meditation techniques.

See review on Goodreads.

Review: Space Hopper by Helen Fisher

I loved the concept of Space Hopper, and on the whole, the execution was pretty good. Its a light read, a couple of easily predicted twists but the book felt less than the whole. Though well written, it was very bloated a couple of pages dedicated to Faye cleaning the house definitely wasnt a highlight and I found myself heavily skimming the final half. The confessional style, to be fair, may be better suited for the female audience this book is clearly targeted at, but I found it...

Review: The Push by Ashley Audrain

Ashley Audrain is definitely going to be a very successful writer if her debut novel, The Push, is anything to go by. The film rights have been snapped up even before the novel’s release. Not many authors get that confirmation of their ability so early in their career.

The Push is a tight, doom-laden telling of any parent’s worse nightmare, the death of a child – particularly when that death may have been caused by a psychotic sibling. Was the sibling involved? Or was it just a freak accident...

Review: Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything by B.J. Fogg

I do like the premise of this book – habits can be formed through the repetition of small routines. You don’t have to think big – think small. Completing a marathon starts with putting your running shoes on every day. The book dissects how to create lasting habits, by finding and nurturing behaviours that are easy to do. As he likes to say, Behaviours = Prompts + Ability + Motivation. There are lots of takeaways here, thought the second half could’ve done with a trim as far too much padding with...

Review: Night Falls, Still Missing by Helen Callaghan

My review for an earlier novel of Helen’s, “Dear Amy”, is very similar to my review for this book, “Night Falls, Still Missing”. The novel is generally well paced, a decent thriller with a decent cast, but I did find it was longer than it needed to be and the closing chapters were heavily skimmed. A decent book, but I felt it was more functional than exciting.

Book supplied by Netgalley for an honest review.

See review on Goodreads.

Review: The Lost Ones by Anita Frank

Imagine Sixth Sense, Downton Abbey and Agatha Christie moshed up, and you’ll have a good idea of what to expect with Anita Frank’s debut novel. It’s a good read, especially for a first book – solid characters, good build up and avoidance of the standard tropes and cliches – but the writing was a tad bloated and could’ve done with a trim, the story didn’t merit the page count.

Very enjoyable – a solid 4 stars.

Book supplied by Netgalley for an honest review.

See review on Goodreads.

Review: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Crime fiction, especially cosy mysteries, aren’t my thing, but I read this one because it was written by Richard Osman. Whatever he’s on, he comes across as a genuinely caring, intelligent and funny chap, and these attributes made it onto the pages too – the writing is flowing, witty and often contains charming turns of phrases. The diary entries are a good example of that.

The characters were all sensitively handled, few stereotypes, and the plot clever (sometimes a bit too much). Some scene...

Review: Hope in Hell: A decade to confront the climate emergency by Jonathon Porritt

Most environmental books make for a bleak read – they tend to focus on the failure of previous governments to engage, and due to the ignorant deniers and the political lobbying they prophesize doom and gloom and the end of civilisation. Hope in Hell isn’t immune to this, but it presents a far more balanced outlook, citing improvements in technology and options for climate engineering that could, alongside emission control, help reduce the effects of this climate crisis.

Sir Jonathon Porritt h...

Remote: Office Not Required by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson

Remote, by Jason Fried and DHH (the founders of 37signals/Basecamp), justifies the benefits of home working and offers some sensible procedures and techniques to ensure you and your team remain integrated and productive. The book is written as a series of short essays, all raising issues and skimming over solutions. There’s little depth – if you want that, listen to Matt Mullenweg’s (founder of WordPress) Distributed podcast – but as a quick introduction to the pros and cons of remote working, y...

Review: Metropolis: A History of Humankind’s Greatest Invention by Ben Wilson

Interestingly, after completing Metropolis, I picked up Remote by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, which talks-up home/remote working. Early on in that book, they predicted the working from home movement (greatly accelerated by Covid19) would result in the decline of cities – people would choose to live in cheaper, larger properties out of the city. Being a city person, I disagreed with this statement, and after reading Ben’s Metropolis, I realised why.

It’s easy to label cities as d...