Category Archives: Non-Fiction

Review: Jack Delosa – Unwritten (S)

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Unwritten
Jack Delosa

“Unwritten presents a startling, revisionist approach to our understanding of entrepreneurship and living a life that aligns with your purpose. Through personal reflection and stories of unconventional wisdom, adversity and success, Jack examines what it means to be great, how we can achieve our life’s best work, shape the world around us for good and leave a legacy far more valuable than wealth alone.”

I read this book as an audio book. Some parts I thoroughly enjoyed, and other parts I completely tuned out of. Although I normally enjoy hearing real life stories, some of them were not that great or I have heard them many times before – for example: Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King Jr “I have a dream speech” and Richard Branson. Some stories, particularly the case study examples, were good though and had me listening for more.

I don’t think the author told their own life story very well and he often either came across as bragging or the story wasn’t really relevant. Most stories in general didn’t really link to any points that the author was making or the point just got lost along the way.

The author’s points were basically follow your vision, do what you want to do and disregard the status quo. I liked the OPRs (other people’s rules), but the message seemed to get lost and it was just thrown in again every now and then in between a lot of stories.

It’s just another inspiration or motivation book and nothing special. It is  a good reminder to follow your vision and mission. 3 stars.

Review: Wendy Mitchell – What I Wish People Knew About Dementia

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What I Wish People Knew About Dementia
Wendy Mitchell

“When Wendy Mitchell was diagnosed with young-onset dementia at the age of fifty-eight, her brain was overwhelmed with images of the last stages of the disease – those familiar tropes, shortcuts and clichés that we are fed by the media, or even our own health professionals. Wise, practical and life affirming, What I Wish People Knew About Dementia combines anecdotes, research and Wendy Mitchell’s own brilliant wit and wisdom to tell readers exactly what she wishes they knew about dementia.”

I’d recommend this book to basically everyone, regardless of whether they have a family history of dementia or whether they’ve barely heard of the condition. It’s compassionate and sensible, and filled with ways to help people understand dementia rather than just judging someone by it.

I need to get my hands on Wendy’s first book. You certainly don’t need to have read that one to understand this one, but Wendy’s accessible writing and friendly (and matter-the-fact) tone makes me want to read more of her work. I hope that she continues to write while she is still able. I’m also now following her blog.

My wife and I joke that I have to get dementia first – because I’m the person that hates telling stories more than once. Also, I’d love to be able to read all my books again for the first time. However, the way that Wendy illuminates the REAL advantages and disadvantages of living with dementia lets me think differently. Most people no doubt have a stereotyped image of what a ‘person with dementia’ looks like or acts like, but the reality is that it can be very different for every person – and that progression of the disease is variable too.

I wish I had had this book 10 years ago when my grandmother developed dementia. I found myself often confused and scared because I didn’t know what to expect. Although we laughed about the fact she put a wheat heat bag into the microwave for 90 minutes instead of 90 seconds, it was actually kind of terrifying to know that the house easily could have burnt down.

This was an excellent non-fiction book that I had to read in stages to get the most out of it. It will get pride of place in my new non-fiction bookshelf, and it’ll be a book I recommend to anyone and everyone who shows a passing interest in

Bloomsbury | 1 February 2022 | AU$26.99 | paperback

Review: JingJing Xue – Shanghai Acrobat

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Shanghai Acrobat
JingJing Xue

“Jingjing Xue was born in China in 1947, during a period of civil war. Jingjing, left in an orphanage in Shanghai, was destined to a life of hardship before officials singled him out and enlisted him to train with the Shanghai Acrobatics School. Shanghai Acrobat tells the moving story of Jingjing’s rise from poverty to become an admired performer in China and beyond. Through the turbulent period of the Cultural Revolution, he realised the value of freedom. This is a story of hope and perseverance, of overcoming adversity and of finding a place to belong.”

I listened to this as a talking book after I was disappointed by the last two fiction audiobooks I tried. Unfortunately this one let me feeling a bit cheated. I expect and enjoy memiors that are filled with human nature and the feelings of their writer. This memior fails for me because it is filled with too much dry history and is quite repeditive. Someone who enjoys history will probably get more out of this book than me.

I learnt from this book that in Shanghai it is the custom to give children the same first name twice, so JingJing was originally named Jing. That’s something I’ll now be able to talk to my students about – so it’s not a dead loss!

While I admire JingJing’s devotion to ‘endure’, it didn’t seem like he could or would be evicted from the troop. This created an aura of holier-than-thou around him that didn’t seem to be cracked by the fact that many people he knew didn’t make it out of China. I didn’t get any sense of his humanity, and his relationships came off as quite sterile.

I don’t think this should be compared to Mao’s Last Dancer. While both books might cover the period of the Cultural Revolution of early Communist China, this book is more about history and Last Dancer is about the process of becoming the best. I wouldn’t recommend this book.

Review: Peter Sheahan – Flip (S)

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Flip
How to Turn Everything You Know on Its Head and Succeed Beyond Your Wildest Imaginings
Peter Sheahan

“Emphasizing flexible, counterintuitive decision making, Flip calls for a new way of doing business in an economy where conventional wisdom won’t get you anywhere.”

Let me set you straight from the beginning. I read this as an audiobook and it was pretty average. There is nothing new on offer in this book. I had to force myself to keep listening – I didn’t even really want to finish it because then I would have to review it.

I believe the whole point of the book was that in business you need: fast, good, or cheap – pick 3. The idea was that it’s not good enough to have only 2 of these in your business, you need all 3 and then even a 4th which sets you apart from your competition. Besides that, the rest of the points are examples of businesses that have done things differently.

Unfortunately it doesn’t actually give you any insight to take away with you. It had a few good stories that you listen and tune into, but others I found myself no longer paying attention to them. The stories didn’t seem to link back to any points, sometimes the main point, but usually didn’t link it to anything. The difference between the start, middle and end of the book is absolutely nothing. It’s all just one big blob on the same thing. Throughout, it gives a lot of stats and I mean A LOT, but they are not meaningful. They are not put in a way that makes that statistic seem astonishing. I particularly found myself tuning out at these times.

It might have been better for the time that it was released but now the book is getting outdated as it was released in 2008 – over 10 years ago now! I know the author makes a point that the overall theme of the book is still true and relevant. But when the author goes into so much detail explaining MySpace, it’s hard to make this connection.

The author also jumps around a lot with the stories, they really just seem randomly thrown in. He mentions Toyota at least 6 times, so you would think I would come away knowing a bit about Toyota. But instead the message is lost and it’s hard to make sense of it. The Toyota examples could have been all together in a Toyota case study style not scattered throughout.

I wouldn’t recommend this book. 2 stars
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Review: Michael McQueen – The New Rules of Engagement (S)

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The New Rules of Engagement
A Guide to Understanding & Connecting With Generation Y
Michael McQueen

“WHO ARE GENERATION Y ? To some they are the tech-savvy, well educated and ambitious youngsters poised to take on and change the world. Others, however, describe a disloyal, disrespectful and demanding generation who have never learned to wait or really work hard for anything… Get set for an entertaining, revealing and insightful look inside the minds of today’s young people.”

This book was pretty good! The first half of the book goes through what a generation is and each of the generation types. Normally this is the boring part of business books where it just explains the definitions and how it currently is. I actually found this section the best part! Perhaps it was because I am a Gen Y, and so I learnt about the other generations. Or perhaps simply because it was funny and put the different generations in perspective – with different examples that we can relate to with others. The book definitely needs this first section.

The second half of the book is the “new rules”. This is the section where you are going to learn why Gen Y does what they currently do. What this means and how to communicate with Gen Y on “their terms”. I enjoyed this section of the book still, but not as much as the first. Again, as a Gen Y myself, I completely agree with everything that the author said. I also found that a lot of things I had previously put down to my personality is actually not unique to me, and is something that most Gen Y people do. I don’t think I learnt much from the second half as I knew most of it. However it’s definitely worth the read if you are not a Gen Y and are interested in understanding them.

I’m giving it a solid 4 stars, and highly recommend it for those engaging (haha) gen Y-ers across a wide range of context, not just business.

Review: Lucy Adlington – The Dressmakers of Auschwitz

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The Dressmakers of Auschwitz
The True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive
Lucy Adlington

“At the height of the Holocaust twenty-five young inmates of the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp – mainly Jewish women and girls – were selected to design, cut, and sew beautiful fashions for elite Nazi women in a dedicated salon. It was work that they hoped would spare them from the gas chambers… Weaving the dressmakers’ remarkable experiences within the context of Nazi policies for plunder and exploitation, historian Lucy Adlington exposes the greed, cruelty, and hypocrisy of the Third Reich and offers a fresh look at a little-known chapter of World War II and the Holocaust.”

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel approach to World War II history in a way that made it approachable and interesting to me. For anyone who has an interest in fashion this book is going to be a great read. The author clearly had favourites! The key two women presented in a favourable light were Hanyu, who she presents as fearless and spunky, and Marta, who is compassionate for her team.

I have to complain a little that I found the multiple narrative perspectives difficult to follow. I would have much preferred that each chapter approached what a single woman faced at a time, particularly near the end. I couldn’t work out who died, or who lost their entire family – but perhaps this was deliberate to highlight the sheer number of murders in this book.

There is a lot of background information before we get to the part where the women make dresses! Since I was expecting it to focus on the fashions and specific circumstances of the dressmakers, I spent the first half of the book waiting for ‘action’. This was shallow of me, as I did learn a lot of facts about the Holocaust from a woman’s perspective, which I think has been unstudied/undiscussed in this area of work.

The old adage is that truth is stranger to fiction – in this case non-fiction is horrific enough that it’s not necessary to read a fictional horror novel! I find myself still better fascinated with true history such as this book and the upcoming Always Remember Your Name, or The Keeper of Miracles, rather than fictional novels set in the time of World War II. That being said, I did read The Kitchen Front recently which of course had a rather simplistic happy ending.

Hachette | 31 August 2021 | AU$34.99 | paperback

Review: Sharon Keeble – My Rescue Pet Rescued Me

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My Rescue Pet Rescued Me
Sharon Ward Keeble

“A heart-warming collection of true stories exploring the bonds formed between people and pets in times of trouble. Meet the inspirational animals who went from being rescued to becoming rescuer in these incredible true stories.”

I seem to have a lot of complicated thoughts and feelings prompted by this book! It was a spot of lighthearted reading in my day that I knocked over in a couple of hours. It’s prime time to give this book as a gift for Christmas – anyone who loves animals is going to appreciate it as a thoughtful present. In my opinion, it’s not a reread, but it is worth a read.

I am 100% behind the idea that pets can be healing. I own two conures (a small, very smart parrot) and they get me up in the morning when sometimes I can’t face the day. They need me to make their breakfast, and let them out of their sleeping cages. Its not like a dog where you have to walk them, but it works for me! My worry whenever I read stories of animals ‘curing’ their owners’ PTSD or anxiety is that the animal might be seen as the sole cure needed, when in fact recovery from thses illnesses is difficult.

I’m really sorry, but one of these people adopted/fostered/rescued something like 284 pigs! It’s facts like these that surprise me when pigs are usually seen as food animals, despite being very smart. The same with people who rescued horses from being dog meat. There is a way of life and a balance in the ecosystem, but at the same time everyone needs to be fed. Cats for example are obligate carnivors – they will die if they don’t eat animal protein. Humans could definitely eat less meat though!

What counts as a “rescue pet”? One in particular was a duckling that was saved from becoming snake food. Also, are there not enough pets within Western first world countries (see here for an explanation of first, second and third world countries) that need rescue, that people have to go overseas and import a dog at great expense?

I was also frustrated that the majority of these (very) short stories are women and their pets. Other pet rescue / awesome pet books I have read such as Extraordinary Old Dogs or Miracle Mutts have a little more variety in the lives presented. That being said, again, this book is a great, generally non-confrontational read that is a great gift for an animal lover.

Hachette | 9th November 2021| AU$22.99 | paperback

Review: Carmine Gallo – Talk like TED (S)

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Talk Like TED
The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds
Carmine Gallo

“In his book, Carmine Gallo has broken down hundreds of TED talks and interviewed the most popular TED presenters, as well as the top researchers in the fields of psychology, communications, and neuroscience to reveal the nine secrets of all successful TED presentations. Gallo’s step-by-step method makes it possible for anyone to deliver a presentation that is engaging, persuasive, and memorable.”

This book was actually pretty good, but I still have mixed feelings about it. I thought it would be dry and boring, but it really wasn’t. I learnt quite a few new things. It’s not endorsed by TED conferences in any way, it’s fully the author’s opinions. In saying that, it’s obviously still based on real TED talks which he refers to and analyzes comprehensively.

The contents are broken up into 3 parts; Emotional, Novel and Memorable. Under each of these 3 areas there are 3 of the public speaking secrets that you are promised from the front of the book. I felt that these were pretty obvious, like being passionate about your topic. They weren’t exactly secrets or anything different from other public speaking books.

The good thing about this book though was it gave a range of examples for each. My only issue is within each chapter you seem to get “lost” and not know which secret it was you’re learning about. There seemed to be multiple sub ideas within the one secret/chapter. They were all good though, but at the end of the chapter I’d forgotten what the author’s main point of that chapter was.

Overall it was pretty good. 3.5 – 4 stars from me. I would recommend it to anyone who is public speaking in any shape or form.

Review: Barry Schwartz – The Paradox of Choice (S)

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The Paradox of Choice
Barry Schwartz

“In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains why too much of a good thing has proven detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz explains how a culture that thrives on the availability of constantly evolving options can also foster profound dissatisfaction and self-blame in individuals, which can lead to a paralysis in decision making and, in some cases, depression.”

I was looking for a book to read at the local library. I had heard that this author wasn’t bad except I was looking for a different book by him. All I could find was this one so I thought I’d give it a try. Unfortunately it’s not really the right book for me or in my area of interest.

I completely agree with the argument of the book, which is that less is more in making decisions.
But I didn’t need to read a whole book about it. I was sold on the argument and idea early on. But then the book keeps going on about it more and more, and simply dragging it out in a way that wasn’t necessary.

There is only a very small section of one chapter at the end with “what we can do”. That’s what I was waiting and wading through the rest of the book to read! Unfortunately it was more like a conclusion rather than an action plan. It was very repetitive and seemed like the author was just having a rant. It was also very heavily geared at Americans. Which is fine, except parts are just not relevant to me or people in other countries. For example, the private health system and even just the volume of choices at supermarkets, here it is nowhere near what’s in the book.

I would recommend it to anyone who is a complete “maximizer” as referred to in the book. But even still, you only need to read a bit of it to get the point. 2 stars.

Review: Luke Hines – Guilt-Free Snacks

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Guilt-Free Snacks
Luke Hines

“Snacks are where many of us fall down when it comes to healthy eating. We are often too busy, too tired or just too plain uninspired to have an array of healthy options at the ready. Luke Hines comes to the rescue with Guilt-free Snacks, a delicious collection of 60 sweet and savoury snacks and simple ideas for eating well… Snack on, friends!”

Yum! I have to say that the cover image just says ‘eat me’, right? It’s Luke’s version of a Mars bar which is healthy. I haven’t made it yet, but I think I will, with a couple of substitutions.

I followed one of the ‘base’ recipes and created a delicious date/cocoa/peanutbutter ball. However, Luke makes sure to mention that you should restrain yourself while snacking… um, not possible? The food comes into my house, and then I eat it all at once. It’s just safer for me to not have it at all.

I read my way through this book, as much as can be said for a recipe book. I even was going to attempt some recipes! Unfortunately, the recipes in here contain two major components that add to the sweetness and protein content of the snack – monk fruit syrup and unflavoured collagen powder. I’d never heard about monk fruit syrup before this book! It apparently contains no sugar, but I’m not 100% sure what it does contain.

Collagen powder is much more familiar to me, as a replacement to soya protein. I’ve done my time of adding soya protein / whey powder to milkshakes for a protein boost – until I remembered that an egg does a similar role and is considerably cheaper. However, another great tip that Luke shares is that these can be made far in advance and stored, and that’s something that’s just not possible for something with raw egg.

This is the perfect gift for someone healthy if you don’t know what to buy them. They’re gluten free and can be made vegan and nut free very easily. I’ve got a Kris Kringle this year – I’m going to pair this book with some monk fruit syrup and collagen powder for the perfect <$50 gift. Go on, get out there and buy a copy – read it yourself first (make sure it’s guilt-free) and then gift to a person who you know is vegan / otherwise dietarily difficult to cater to.

Pan Macmillan | 7 December 2021 | AU$26.99 | paperback