For all the power of the book’s data and charts the reader may remain unconvinced that inequality explains everything bad, and greater equality explains everything good, about happiness levels in different countries. Reducing inequality, nonetheless, seems like a good idea.
In those moments, you will be thankful for Vásquez's faultless prose. Be thankful for his translator, Anne McLean, too. She's worked with Vásquez on all his official novels, and is so talented she might be psychic. In her English iteration, The Shape of the Ruins moves forward with gravitational pull. Move with it.
The Long ’68 isn’t long-sighted enough to notice this ironic outcome. Vinen takes shorter views, and prefers crunching numbers: history for him is a Sahara of arid statistics.
As Goodwin reminds us of their paths to positions of power and the challenges they faced as presidents, she identifies the traits of personality and character that made them great leaders. Published at a turbulent time, her book is a rich source of information and inspiration.
The book makes for fascinating reading. The history, dating back to ancient Greece and before, and stretching to current events, is meticulously researched. There are copious notes and bibliographical references.
For all their self-conscious reasonableness, and their promises that CBT can master negative emotion, Lukianoff and Haidt often seem slightly hurt.
The best reason not to throw this book out of the window is that, occasionally, Harari writes a paragraph that is genuinely mind-expanding.
Despite the occasional misstep, the book effectively conveys this perseverance and optimism of Native Americans in the face of past and present hardship.
My one frustration is that Brooks underemphasizes the fact that it’s mostly mothers worrying about this stuff. She tends to refer to “parents” and “mothers” interchangeably, as if dads shared these burdens equally.
This book makes a sound, and it should be a loud one. It is not for the faint-hearted, but they should read it anyway. We should all read it, if only to bear witness to an atrocity that happened on our watch, and that we cannot simply sweep away as concerning a faraway people of whose faith we know little.
A book on the American Muslim experience that’s brimming with information, although it also misses opportunities to tackle some difficult questions.
It took Chariandy a decade to write Brother, and it is a breathtaking achievement. It is a compulsive, brutal and flawless novel that is full of accomplished storytelling with not a word spare.
...I expect many readers will find Bridle’s perceptive and thought-provoking book terrifying rather than enjoyable – but then as I implied at the outset, I’m very much of the glass half- empty type.
I read this book with indecent speed and greed, but it deserves to be read at a pace closer to lived time. I particularly love Levy’s amused curiosity about strangers.
There is a brief but insightful cameo from the comedian David Baddiel, who explains that, for Jews and other minorities, a public school education is as much about assimilation as climbing the social ladder. Posh Boys is, for a book about public schools, decidedly comprehensive.
...some of the arguments, particularly in the sections on health care and student debt, are more exacting than others; a section on foreign policy is sensible but covers familiar ground. Overall, though, this is an intelligent call for practical reform.
Shadowy figures in dark cars stalk Marina, burglars trash Annabel’s apartment, and no one is safe. This brisk, tense page-turner will mesmerize fans of international mysteries.
A report from the front lines of inequality and corruption in India, one of the world’s rising economies...Solid reading for students of economic development and global economics.
Schumacher’s book is an exhaustive look not just at the 1968 election, but at the social changes that brought the country to that particular boiling point. It’s divided into four large sections, a structure that’s well suited for a topic with so many layers and personalities.
Though the book is not for readers unfamiliar with the historical terrain, Vinen provides a well-written, deeply considered work on a year that seems increasingly immediate in both its impact and implications.