Style: Non-fiction
The Lost Art of Reading
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This is a book examining the cultural significance of reading. We’ll pull out a few highlights. David Ulin talks about the purveyors of fake news working hard to normalize that which should never be normalized. We see it both in the content the anti-Semitic content that Elon Musk shares on his social media site, and…
Nurtureshock
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The title of this book refers to the author’s idea that sometimes parents don’t “just know” how to raise a child and thus they are lost trying to figure it out. The goal of the book is to show us what science says about how children should be raised. One thing recommended here that we’ve…
Starlight Tour
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I feel struck by the tragedy of the death of Neil Stonechild and the callousness that the Saskatoon Police had in dealing with the death of a first nations person. Really how they dealt with all the first nations people spoken with in the book. The police often talk about a single bad officer, but…
On Work
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This is a collection of essays from the author all about the culture of work. Thompson covers our move from religious accomplishment as a defining factor of our lives in previous generations, to how we’ve supplanted that need for accomplishment with workism, the worship of work. The biggest benefit to reading this short book was…
How to Do Nothing
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Jenny Odell spends the first half of this book looking at how to disengage from the attention economy and the second half trying to give us the tools to engage with something worthwhile in our live. I particularly like the idea she presents that social media promotes connectivity, mere likes and shares, while what we…
How to Make Notes and Write
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The goal of Dan’s book is to teach you to take good notes and turn them into good writing in the academic/school world. Dan says that if you have an assignment you should always be able to find something interesting in it and turn that interesting bit into something you can write well about. I’d…
Conspirituality
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Conspirituality examines how the Yoga and wellness world moved from doing things that are good for your body, into conspiracy theory through the COVID19 pandemic. This book covers insights from the 3 authors that were very involved in the health and wellness world, until they started to see the bad turn it was taking into…
The Good Enough Job
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The main premise of this book is that workism is particularly American and a fairly modern phenomenon. Workism is the belief that work is the source of meaning in your life, and the author explores how work has come to replace religion, and any other type of volunteering, to become the main focus for everyone.…
Manufacturing Happy Citizens
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This book explores how the wellness industry has built itself by telling us that we’re not complete without whatever trick they have to offer. One of my favourite insights comes near the end where the author states that happiness doesn’t fit into our lives now, we have to shape our lives around the ideas that…
Jaws – The Story of a Hidden Epidemic
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Jaws explores the idea that our jaw is becoming undersized and it’s a hidden thing that no one but the author sees. The “establishment” won’t recognize the problem, but keeps treating the symptom only. The first hint that this book might not be as good as the author thinks is that it’s co-author is Paul…
