How to Win: The Argument, the Pitch, the Job, the Race by Dr Rob Yeung
Looking for a sure-fire way to intimidate the competition during a job interview? Just sit in the waiting room perusing the oh, so subtly titled How to Win, with the book tilted at the optimum angle to allow everyone to see the bold heading on the cover. Of course, if more than one candidate is reading the same book, difficulties may ensue... Full review...
The Mistress Contract by She and He
'Women feel a reluctance to talk about those things which should be mysterious.' Well, not all of them. This line – and I won't say who says it – is a quote from a large audio archive of the thoughts of a most unusual couple. College friends, they split apart then got back together, and ended up having an affair. Until she decided to formalise it in a momentary flash of, well, something, saying she would cede all to his every sexual and housework wishes if he would cater for her financially and with a place to live. Nowhere did that small contract say that they would open up themselves to public scrutiny with recordings of their conversations, over a restaurant table or in bed or a car having a tete-a-tete, but they soon did – and these small pages are the resulting book. Full review...
Dedicated to...: The Forgotten Friendships, Hidden Stories and Lost Loves found in Second-hand Books by W B Gooderham
I have found many strange and unusual things in second-hand bookshops. I have done one or two strange and unusual things in them as well, but that's a different story. Twice now I have managed to find a second-hand book, completely signed and dedicated by the author, yet discarded by the recipient, and have been able to present the author with the edition at hand and get it re-dedicated. (If I'm not mistaken, the discarders were a neighbouring babysitter, and a teacher of the author's children.) I'll admit that's rarefied, however, and on the whole the scribble you find in second-hand books is from the person who bought it, and gave it as a gift, not the person who wrote it. But even so, the dedication of the donor can be immensely fascinating and open to all kinds of interpretation, as these examples show perfectly clear. Full review...
A Piece of Danish Happiness by Sharmi Albrechtsen
Sharmi Albrechtsen was a true Hindu-American princess. Obsessed with shoes and handbags and designer labels, she saw status and wealth as the only route to happiness. But she wasn't happy enough, no matter how much designer gear she owned. And it wasn't until 1997, when she married her second husband, a Dane, and relocated to Denmark, that she began to wonder if it was something lacking in herself, rather than her possessions, that was at the root of her problems. Full review...
Couture Prairie And Flea Market Treasures by Rachel Ashwell
Shabby Chic has always appealed to me: it fits neatly with my views on recycling, upcycling and generally refusing to replace anything which still looks good and has life left in it. Rachel Ashwell takes this to a whole new level, but her most glorious moment must have been when - on her regular yearly visit to the flea markets of Round Top in Texas - she decided on a whim to buy The Outpost at Cedar Creek and she turned this into The Prairie, a group of buildings which would house her retail store and a B&B which exhibited some of her most treasured finds. As she said herself, her cowboy boots, jeans and love of poetry in country music had come home. Full review...
Very British Problems: Making Life Awkward for Ourselves, One Rainy Day at a Time by Rob Temple
Are you compelled to apologise multiple times a day – even when you are not at fault, or even to inanimate objects? Would you subject yourself to great inconvenience rather than confront someone who is sitting in your reserved seat on a train? Have you been known to commit desperate acts in the search for your next cup of tea? If so, you may be suffering from Very British Problems. Full review...
How to Keep Calm and Carry On by Daniel Freeman and Jason Freeman
Heart pounding, rapid breathing, dry mouth and sweaty palms are just some of the unpleasant symptoms associated with anxiety. Anxiety affects us all at one time or another in our lives and occurs in varying degrees of severity. For example, a little nervousness is par for the course when a performer steps on stage in front of a huge crowd, but on the other end of the spectrum, conditions such as OCD and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can leave sufferers paralysed with fear. Full review...
Hospice Voices: Lessons for Living at the End of Life by Eric Lindner
Hospice Voices tells the stories of the last days of some fascinating people while it follows author Eric Lindner through his journey as a hospice volunteer and a crisis in his own daughter's health. Full review...
High Sobriety: My Year Without Booze by Jill Stark
On the first of January 2011 Jill Stark woke up with the hangover from Hell. She was no stranger to them: at thirty five she'd been binge drinking for more than twenty years and was in the dubious position of being the health reporter who wrote herself off at weekends. And by 'wrote herself off' I mean being seriously drunk on a very regular basis, having consumed vast quantities of alcohol and having regularly put herself in danger of serious illness, unwanted pregnancy and assault. But on that first day in January Stark decided that she was going to do something about it and the initial decision was that she would spend three months on the wagon. Full review...
The Sex Diaries by Arianne Cohen
As far as ‘doing what it says on the tin’ goes, this book is a good one. It’s the diaries, plural, from people, plural, talking about their sex lives. But it’s not just the doing of the deed and the sowing of the seed, it’s also all the stuff that goes with being in a relationship or not being in one. The daydreams. The texts. The efforts made to secure a hook-up, if there’s not one waiting for you at home. Full review...
Out of Office: Work Where You Like and Achieve More by Chris Ward
'Imbibe coffee and become imbued with an entrepreneurial spirit' would be an apt summary of the gist of 'Out of Office' by Chris Ward. If you choose to read the book, be prepared to receive inspiration rather than practical instruction on how to build an empire, if anything. This is not to discredit the book; it is attractively designed, full of fundraising event photos and company founder portraits, motivational quotes and brief enthusiastic testimonies of the interviewees featured. But in terms of content, it doesn’t offer substantial advice on how to make that leap from the office cubicle – a context quite heavily vilified by Ward – to the existence of the creatively liberated mover and shaker. Full review...
The Norm Chronicles: Stories and numbers about danger by Michael Blastland and David Spiegelhalter
I'd like you to meet Norm. He's an absolutely average kind of guy, thirty one years old, 5'9”, a touch over thirteen stone and he works a thirty-nine hour week with the occasional treat of a bar of milk chocolate. Oh, and he's ambivalent about Marmite - couldn't care one way or the other - can take it or leave it. In The Norm Chronicles we hear the story of his life and the lives of his friends Prudence (the name tells you what you need to know) and Kelvin, who's a dare-devil, hard-living kind of guy. It's the story of the hazards they face - some real and some imagined - in every aspect of their lives. And along with these stories are the real facts about the reality of the risks they take. Full review...
Pigs in Clover: Or How I Accidentally Fell in Love with the Good Life by Simon Dawson
Simon Dawson really had no intention of leading a life of self-sufficiency - he accidentally fell into the beginnings of it at a New Year's Eve party which was a little too noisy for him to be completely certain what it was he was agreeing to. But even then there was no need for it to go too far. After all, this man's heart was in London and he was an estate agent - a member of the profession whose place at the top of the opprobrium ladder was only made wobbly after a serious PR campaign on behalf of journalists and politicians. But his wife was determined that she couldn't stand being a property solicitor any longer and so they sold their flat in London and rented a property on Exmoor and Simon began a weekly commute - weekends in Devon and most of the week in London. Full review...
Veg Street: Grow Your Own Community by Naomi Schillinger
As a child Naomi Schillinger helped her parents to grow fruit and vegetables in their South London garden and the urge to grow resurfaced when she had her own property. It wasn't just the growing which she remembered, but the sharing of the produce and sense of community which went with it. Soon after starting to grow food for herself she was a prime mover in getting whole streets involved in growing fruit and vegetables in their front gardens, making the most of recycled materials and free seeds and compost. When we're constantly urged to reduce food miles what could be better than growing your food (quite literally) on your own doorstep? Full review...
How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
Many parents, it seems, go through life in a constant state of feud. Not with each other, necessarily, but with their children. Their small, beloved bundles of joy turn into obstreperous toddlers, defiant pre-schoolers, angry schoolchildren or morose teens. Parents find themselves caught up in arguments, advice, failed attempts at consolation... and then may resort to punishment of some kind. Full review...
Latte or Cappuccino: 125 Decisions That Will Change Your Life by Hilly Janes
I must admit that my immediate reaction when I saw the title Latte or Cappuccino? was that a filter coffee would be very pleasant, particularly with a shortbread biscuit. But it's not a book about coffee but rather about choices we encounter which could make a real difference to our lives. You see one coffee has 150 calories and the other just 90 and over the weeks and months that decision can mean substantial weight gain - or loss. There are 125 of these relatively minor questions which can have real impact, particularly when you add them all up. Full review...
How to Think Like Sherlock: Improve Your Powers of Observation, Memory and Deduction by Daniel Smith
Whether you're a fan of the original Conan Doyle novels, have enjoyed the recent film and television representations of Sherlock Holmes or if, like me, the name always conjures up the image of Basil Rathbone you'll be impressed by the way that Holmes can reason and deduce. You've probably wished that you were capable of some of the mental acrobatics which he performs. Much of his prowess is down to being a fictional character (of course) but it is possible to improve your powers of observation, memory and deduction by exercising your brain. Daniel Smith has some suggestions to get us started. Full review...
Mindfulness for Black Dogs and Blue Days: Finding a Path Through Depression by Richard Gilpin
Richard Gilpin is a counsellor, cognitive behavioural psychotherapist and mindfulness instructor. He's also suffered from depression since his teens and is well aware of just how debilitating it can be. In 'Mindfulness and Black Dogs' ( a nod to Churchill who referred to his depression as his black dog) he shares his own experiences with the illness and offers insights as to how a sufferer can find a way through the weight which descends upon them. He looks particularly at how mindfulness can help. Full review...
The Train in the Night: A Story of Music and Loss by Nick Coleman
Picture the scenario. You have always been passionate about music, with a catholic taste which embraces classical, soul and heavy rock with a bit of everything in between, and your job is that of an arts and music journalist. In your mid-forties you wake up one morning to find your whole world changed overnight by Sudden Neursosensory Hearing Loss. It has a devastating effect on your balance when subjected to any kind of sound, whether it is an aeroplane overhead, the roar of the crowd at a football match, or the music which you once adored with every fibre of your being. Your head is filled with tinnitus, like a very poorly-tuned radio which lacks an off switch. Full review...
The Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle
When you want - or need - to master a new skill you'll be told to practice, but there's not always a lot of advice around on how to practice. Sometimes it's that hint about how to practice more effectively, how to approach the skill from a different direction which makes all the difference. Daniel Coyle has fifty two tips - most of which can be applied to just about everything from improving your golf swing to success in the business world. The tips are short - all fifty two are covered in about a hundred and twenty pages - easily read and simple to put into practice. Full review...
Real Life: One Woman's Guide to Love, Men and Other Everyday Disasters by Melissa Kite
We're used to thinking about career women who have it all: the high-flyer who goes home to her husband, children and immaculate house to plan their next holiday and their social life. We might not know these people - but everything seems to tell us that they're there. What, though, of the single woman, no longer in the first flush of youth (that's probably nineteen, these days) who struggles just to keep going? What of the woman who struggles to keep the boiler going and who is tempted to kidnap the television repairman and tie him to the bed because she's convinced that the television will stop working the moment he goes? Full review...
Living, Thinking, Looking by Siri Hustvedt
'Living, Thinking, Looking' is a collection of essays by Siri Hustvedt which, she claims, are linked by an abiding curiosity about what it means to be human. In these essays she examines who we are and how we got that way. Full review...
Stuff Every Dad Should Know by Brett Cohen
For an object lesson in how important the little things are, consider this book's title. This is not one of those collections of trivia or whimsies for fathers to appear cool to their children (ten great variations on tag; 6,000 good records with which to ween your daughter off Justin Bieber), it's not that kind of knowledge on offer. Here instead is practical information on rearing your own little thing, and in a quiet way this pocket diary-sized volume has the cojones to expect to stick around being useful for a generation, as it starts at budgeting for children in the first place, and goes from the actual birth to marrying them off. Full review...
All in a Don's Day by Mary Beard
Mary Beard's latest collection, 'All in a Don's Day', of her assembled blog pieces from 2009 until the end of 2011, covers similar concerns to her previous selection, It's a Don's Life. Professor Beard is a fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge and became Classics Professor at there in 2004. She is also an expert in Roman laughter, an interest which she fully indulges in the pages of her TLS blog. In her latest collection she bemoans the parlous current state of both Education and the Academy, and makes witty observations on matters as various as television chefs, what and how to visit in Rome and the art and worth of completing references in an age when only positive things may be said about postgraduate job-seekers. Full review...
How to Be Selfish (and Other Uncomfortable Advice) by Olga Levancuka
It's strange how you come to read a particular book. A couple of days ago I was chatting to a dog-walking friend who retired about a year ago. He'd been surprised to find that the main problem in retirement was one which he hadn't anticipated: all his life he'd had to account for himself to somebody else and now he was struggling to discover what it was that he wanted to do. Then I found myself chatting to Olga Levancucka, author of How To Be Selfish - but she seemed like one of the most unselfish people I'd ever met. There was a book here waiting to be read! Full review...
When You're Falling, Dive by Mark Matousek
You never quite know what life is going to serve up next and even the happiest moments or saddest news can be turned around in a heartbeat. For the author Mark Matousek his down was learning he was HIV positive, while his up, a while later, was being informed that it wasn’t quite the death sentence originally imposed and that he had quite a bit of life left. In this book he looks at how you can find the good in the bad or, to quote the subtitle, the keys to 'Using your pain to transform your life'. The art of survival is an intriguing one. The same scale of trauma affects different people in different ways and this book seeks to draw on the wisdom of those who triumph in the face of adversity to share what they know and inspire the same behaviour in us. Full review...
The Hidden Geometry of Life by Karen French
The Hidden Geometry of Life aims to explore the esoteric and often mystical meanings contained in shapes and patterns [that] represent ideas and distil the essence of reality. This mystical angle was a little bit of a unpleasant surprise for this reader. I should have had a better look at Karen French's Amazon pages and previous work, but I was attracted by an exciting-sounding title, attractive cover and and references to author's art. Full review...
Feel Happy Now by Michael Neill
Feel Happy Now is a dummy’s guide to happiness written by an NLP expert who Paul McKenna has dubbed 'The finest success coach in the world'. What makes this book stand out, perhaps, is the way the complexity is done away with, and everything is broken down to an accessible level without being too patronizing. Its expert concepts presented in layman speak and the result is a highly readable and accessible book regardless of your belief in the subject. Full review...
Make Yourself Immune to Heart Attack by Simon Oxford
The older you get, the more likely it is that you will suffer from some form of heart disease or even die from it. Many deaths occur without warning in people who are apparently healthy - so it's not something that you can wait to be diagnosed and plan on doing something about at that stage. Whatever your age there's a real possibility that you can make a significant improvement in your health and improve the quality of your life. I came to read this book because family members of my generation were suffering severe heart problems and it was a wake-up call that was impossible to ignore. Full review...
The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha
In decades gone by, educated workers in many industries could view their careers as an elevator – rising through the ranks of a company before stepping aside and settling into a comfortable retirement. In today's vastly different job market, with much less loyalty from both employers and employees, your career is more likely to follow the model of some promotions mixed in with frequent sideways moves to other companies and perhaps even completely different industries. Time, then, for a new guide to how to handle your employment prospects. Full review...
The De-Stress Diet: The Revolutionary Lifestyle Plan for a Calmer, Slimmer You by Charlotte Watts and Anna Magee
Most people will recognise that excessive stress is not good for you. It's the cause of depression, high blood pressure, skin problems and insomnia - to name just a few problems from a very long list. There's also mounting evidence that chronic stress is responsible for excessive weight gain and not just because there's a tendency (er, yes, I can testify to this...) to turn to comfort eating. Too many stress hormones in the body encourage fat storage - particularly in that obvious and very-hard-to-shift area around the middle. The aim of the De-Stress Diet is to bring about a slimmer, calmer person with a better quality of life. Full review...