The Fraud Squad - Kyla Zhao

 47%

23.03.23

This was trying to be Crazy Rich Asians, and to some extent Counterfeit, but was held back by the cliched and predictable plot, the  weirdly overwrought writing style and the poor editing. There seemed to be too much focus on florid descriptions of flower arrangements and none at all on character development or elements that would help with sense and flow. 

Counterfeit - Kirstin Chen

 

54%

23.08.22

I wouldn't recognise a designer handbag even if somebody hit me with one, but apparently they change hands for thousands of dollars. The story gained a certain nuance via the unreliable narrator(s), upending (some) stereotypes and considering what makes one thing 'fake' if it's exactly the same as something else, but in the end the story just wasn't particularly memorable. And what is it with these demon toddlers in recent books?

China Rich Girlfriend - Kevin Kwan

47%
11.02.20

The leftovers from the first book. Great cover, though.

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics - Richard H Thaler

56%
20.12.19

I know, right? Not my usual genre, and indeed I found large swathes pretty hardgoing. But other parts were really enlightening - not least because economics seems so male-dominated.

Crazy Rich Asians - Kevin Kwan

58%
09.10.19

Just as badly written and poorly edited and stupidly fun as you'd expect.

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

61%
13.06.17

Yes, this is the famous '10,000 hours' book, and it makes that case engagingly, if not particularly convincingly. Basically, [spoiler!] success is a mixture of hard work and luck. And this book is a mixture of repeatable anecdotes and forgettable links.

Freakonomics - Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner

59%
06.02.07




Yes, non-fiction! An engaging exploration of economics and sociology, covering some interesting concepts but also including some questionable logic. Slightly arrogant but diverting while on a plane.