Books
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Book: A Year in High Heels
→: Book: A Year in High HeelsI can’t say I enjoyed A Year In High Heels by Camilla Morton (Amazon), in part because I never quite figured out what it was supposed to do – inspire to live a more fashionable, glamorous, cultural life? It was too shallow and wide-ranging, saying not very much about a wide variety of things. The…
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Book: Chasing Daylight
→: Book: Chasing DaylightOne of the most moving books I have ever read, Chasing Daylight by Gene O’Kelly (Amazon) was written in the weeks leading up to his death, after he was given 3 months to live. It’s really thought-provoking, but an easy read – I read it one sitting during the flight from Munich to Birmingham. He was a…
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Book: Pink Brain Blue Brain
→: Book: Pink Brain Blue BrainPink Brain Blue Brain (Amazon) is a fascinating book, covering the research into the extent of gender differences at birth, and how socialisation, education, and play make them bigger. Differences are very, very minor in babies (studies showing otherwise are problematic, for example, not blind). Notably, boys tend to be more fussy (more emotionally needy, despite…
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Experiment: No Novel November
→: Experiment: No Novel NovemberThere was a period, thankfully a brief one, when I was spending $100 a week on Kindle Books. I know, shocking. I was reading them too, mostly novels. I’ve since started tracking my expenditure on books more – limiting myself to a $100 a month budget, which was helping me not purchase quite so many…
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Book: The Happiness Trap
→: Book: The Happiness TrapThe Happiness Trap (Amazon) is a book based on ACT – Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Essentially, the premise is that forcing yourself to “think positive” is actively unhelpful, and instead you should just find space for difficult emotions, and not take difficult thoughts seriously. Focus on taking a positive action instead. Tips that I’ve been…
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Book: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
→: Book: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)I bought Mindy Kaling’s “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?” (Amazon) because I absolutely adore The Mindy Project (Amazon) – a tv series about a smart, funny, curvy woman of colour that I think passes the Bechdel test every episode. The book didn’t disappoint – it was hilarious, and had me giggling quietly to myself in public…
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Book: The Power of a Positive No
→: Book: The Power of a Positive NoThe Power of a Positive No by William Ury (Amazon) is really an excellent book. Reasonably short read, and definitely worth reading. Recommend. Essentially it lays out a framework for saying “no” that is in fact “Yes! No. Yes?” The first yes is the reason why you are saying no – no to that assignment,…
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A BS Metric for “Diversity”
→: A BS Metric for “Diversity”Recently, I got to use the fact that I am a huge art nerd, to help a team I was on. It was awesome, because I actually felt appreciated – and there’s been something of a dearth of that lately, and because it was a showcase of the positive effects of diversity (something we had…
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Book: The Misogyny Factor
→: Book: The Misogyny FactorThe Misogyny Factor, by Ann Summers (Amazon) is AMAZING. Regardless of whether you live in Australia, if you are interested in the plight of women and the long and winding road we are taking to equality (no, we are not there yet), buy it and read it. It’s short – my Kindle estimated less than…