How to Build a Girl - Caitlin Moran

51%
21.07.19

Being the same age as the narrator, a '90s indie-kid and a long-time fan of Caitlin Moran, I'm basically the target audience for this (officially not but clearly very) semi-autobiographical novel. So imagine my disappointment to discover that it isn't actually very good. Goes to show that pithy journalism doesn't automatically translate into witty fiction, emotional connection and three-dimensional characters.

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.

The Establishment And How They Get Away With It - Owen Jones

73%
25.09.14

Very few non-fiction books are promoted to my To Be Read pile but I bought this on its day of publication because I admire the work of Owen Jones so much. True to form, he confirms what I already suspected, in this immaculately researched exposure of moral bankruptcy within the framework of the UK (and probably elsewhere). Whatever your political views, this is the sort of book that turns you into a ranting activist - it did me.

I hope the second edition gets a more thorough proofread, though - the typos are distracting.

The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson

62%
04.01.13

An entertaining hurtle through the nature of psychopathy, padded with insights into some aspects of "the madness industry". It's the sort of book that you read very fast, while boring whoever happens to be near with fascinating soundbites. It's also the sort of book that, on reflection, seems patchy, never getting to the heart of (or indeed anywhere near) the central hook: whether psychopaths actually run/ruin the world. The copy-editing was equally patchy, despite the long list of acknowledgements at the back.