Malcolm Gladwell Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Gladwell's ideas never fail to fascinate me - I still think about things he brought up in The Tipping Point, and his New Yorker essays are great - and this book was no exception. It wasn't entirely cohesive, and at times read like a series of essays that were only tangentially related, but the information and his writing style made up for that. The book talks about the idea that decisions, good decisions, are made without thinking, and that people can be read in seconds. This leads to the idea that overthinking and too much information can lead to bad decisions. He has some interesting examples, including food testers and a man who can tell how long a relationship will last based on a very short conversation between the partners. Really neat stuff.
Tanya Huff Smoke and Shadows
For some reason I was sure this was short stories, so I wasn't really all that excited about it, but then I realized it was Tony and Henry (from the Blood series) in Vancouver! Yay! Tony is my favourite character in that series. This book took place in a tv production studio, involved weird things happening with shadows, had cute boys who blush and stammer, and was great. I hope she writes more featuring Tony.
John Irving A Prayer for Owen Meany
I re-read this for the Chicklit book club, so if you want to know more, go there!
Terry Pratchett Sourcery
Fun! The wizards are not my favourite of Pratchett's Discworld creations, but the books never let me down.
Also I re-read Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me because I love it, even though that means I obviously don't listen to my own instructions about not reading any more romance novels.
Gladwell's ideas never fail to fascinate me - I still think about things he brought up in The Tipping Point, and his New Yorker essays are great - and this book was no exception. It wasn't entirely cohesive, and at times read like a series of essays that were only tangentially related, but the information and his writing style made up for that. The book talks about the idea that decisions, good decisions, are made without thinking, and that people can be read in seconds. This leads to the idea that overthinking and too much information can lead to bad decisions. He has some interesting examples, including food testers and a man who can tell how long a relationship will last based on a very short conversation between the partners. Really neat stuff.
Tanya Huff Smoke and Shadows
For some reason I was sure this was short stories, so I wasn't really all that excited about it, but then I realized it was Tony and Henry (from the Blood series) in Vancouver! Yay! Tony is my favourite character in that series. This book took place in a tv production studio, involved weird things happening with shadows, had cute boys who blush and stammer, and was great. I hope she writes more featuring Tony.
John Irving A Prayer for Owen Meany
I re-read this for the Chicklit book club, so if you want to know more, go there!
Terry Pratchett Sourcery
Fun! The wizards are not my favourite of Pratchett's Discworld creations, but the books never let me down.
Also I re-read Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me because I love it, even though that means I obviously don't listen to my own instructions about not reading any more romance novels.