Author: Colin Marks

What an excellent novel! Tomorrow follows the life of an unnamed protagonist, through his student days debating left-wing politics, to his isolation in the wilderness to write ‘the book’, to his kidnapping by left-wing guerrillas and his escape, and finally his demise. ‘Following’ isn’t entirely true, as the narrative jumps throughout to different times of…

Thich Nhat Hanh is the father of Buddhism in the West, and I was expecting this audio book to detail his life and his teachings. Unfortunately, it didn’t hit the mark for me. The first section, which I was hoping would explore Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings, mostly focused on the author’s journey into Buddhism, rather…

These days (a phrase that suggests an oldie harping back to a non-existent golden era!) it seems outrage is being commercialised. Clickbait use targeted headlines to raise the emotions – emotional topics are more likely to be shared, and get more eyes on those all important ads. But this has always been the case –…

Daniel Pink’s Drive is an easy read – for one, the writing is nicely done, but secondly, it’s very sleight on content, which is then repeated, and then summarised. The first two-thirds describe his Motivation 3.0 theory – which is basically you need flow, which is generated by autonomy, mastery and purpose. Then the final…

Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road has been sat on my ‘shelf’ for seven years! I started it once, got half way through, and then got distracted by something shiny. I found it again recently, and as I did enjoy it the first time, started again from the beginning and this time, I made it to…

Nick Bryant discusses how America went from having a solid democracy with cross-party collaboration to a dysfunctional nation ruled with the mindset of tribal adolescents. He follows American politics of the past 50 years, praising and admonishing each President on their actions and how they affected the trajectory of American politics. Many of the problems…

I’m a huge fan of Guy’s podcast of the same name, so bought the book as a way of supporting him and saying thanks! The podcast works as the questions in an interview lead on from each other, and you get an understanding of the thought processes. However in the book, Guy splits the conversations…

“How to Solve a Murder” is poorly titled -it’s just the life story of the two authors, with a few chapters on the forensic aspect. Too much time was spent talking about their lives, which thinned down the interesting forensic discussions. I listened to the audio version, and the woman’s voice was a bit too…

I’ve had Essentialism on my to-read shelf for almost two years, and after reading Effortless, I’ll definitely be pushing it towards the front of the queue. The premise of Effortless can be summed up in two sayings, “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast”, and, “Work smart, not hard”. Most of the lessons would be taught…

I read Kazou’s The Unconsoled over twenty years ago, and loved the dreaminess and confusion, a tale of a man unsure what his life held, and where he was and where he was going. Never Let Me Go has similar themes – how despite your dreams in life, you’re still moulded by your environment and…