ASK Musings

No matter where you go, there you are.

Monthly Archive: October 2019

Tuesday

29

October 2019

0

COMMENTS

How to Resist by Matthew Bolton

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Four Stars

Best for:
Anyone looking for some practical advice to help make meaningful policy change.

In a nutshell:
One of the Living Wage Campaigners and the Executive director of Citizens UK offers tips on building targeted social movements based on the success – and failure – he has experienced as a community organizer.

Worth quoting:
“Be intentional about what kind of change it’s worth our while putting your time into: what’s achievable, and how you could influence those decisions.”

Why I chose it:
A work colleague had some extra copies from what she’d ordered for an event.

Review:
I love a good, practical book. Especially when it’s a book that can help bring about change.

Author Matthew Bolton knows about making change. He’s helped organize successful campaigns to get companies — and Parliament — to adopt the Living Wage so people can actually survive by working just one job (imagine that!). He recognizes that there are many things we as citizens may want to change, but he is also pragmatic. A big protest is a great show of force, but to make change you have to be intentional and pick very specific actions that you want your elected officials or company leaders to make. It’s not enough to protest about, say, global warming (though that kind of disruption obviously has its place); to be effective it helps to have specific policy proposals as well as a collection of individuals who we can call upon to lend their support.

This is an easy read, with case studies illustrating how the suggestions play out in practice. It includes step-by-step processes, and tips for making sure you take care of yourself along the way. It’s a small book and only 150 pages, so its accessible. I look forward to putting what I’ve learned into action.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Keep it

Saturday

26

October 2019

0

COMMENTS

An Opinionated guide to London Architecture by Sujata Burman, Rosa Bertoli and Taran Wilkhu

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Four Stars

Best for:
People visiting (or living in) London who want to see a variety of examples of good / interesting architecture around the city.

In a nutshell:
Wallpaper* (note, I hate that the magazine title has an asterisk, as it make me want to add a line at the bottom of this review resolving the asterisk) journalists and architecture photographer provide just over 50 examples of London architecture. Mostly buildings.

Worth quoting:
“Why do we change our minds about what’s considered good?

Why I chose it:
I finally made it to the viewing platform of the Tate Modern last week, and they were selling this book up there at a little kiosk. Didn’t actually realize it was a guide book. But it looked cool.

Review:
Reviewing niche guidebooks is a challenge, because they usually don’t have loads of text. This book has just enough for me text-wise, though I could have used more on the photo end. Up front the authors provide a one- or two-sentence description of different architecture styles, along with a couple of pages about architecture in London in general, and how what people find attractive or good can change. They then offer three pages of walking tours,followed by descriptions of the 54 structures included in those tours.

Each structure has just one or two paragraphs describing it, along with the standard guide book information (address, opening hours, if it’s free to get in,etc.). Each structure also has at least one photograph; a few have more. And I know this is primarily a guide book and not a photo book, but since I bought it thinking it was the later, I was a little disappointed. But the photos are great quality.

Most structures can be visited for a fee (or free!), but some are only accessible during London Open House, which sadly just passed last month. I’ve added next year’s dates to my calendar so I don’t miss it.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Keep it

Saturday

12

October 2019

0

COMMENTS

An Edited Life by Anna Newton

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Three Stars

Best for:
People looking for another guide to organizing their lives.

In a nutshell:
Author Newton offers detailed suggestions for organizing one’s life.

Worth quoting:
Not quotes per se, but there are definition a bunch of suggestions that I’ve underlined and will be incorporating into my life.

Why I chose it:
I’m a sucker for a organizational book, especially one that’s visually attractive.

Review:
I do love me a good home and life organizing book. As I’ve probably said before, at this point its usually good not for wholesale overhauls of how I run my work and home life, but I always get some interesting tips. I’ve been reading enough of these books to have my own opinions about suggestions that may or may not work (and at this point I pretty much always skip money/budget sections — YNAB or GTFO). Usually there are also whole sections about organizing related to children or pets, but the author has neither, is open about that, and so doesn’t venture into that area.

I enjoyed Newton’s conversational style – the overall tone was less user manual and more blog, and I mean that in the best way possible. Organizational books can lean too far into dry tips, or conversely feel overly familiar or even emotional. Newton strikes a good balance there. I don’t think there was anything life-changing (no immediate Marie Kondo-ing my house), but lots of little things that might help improve the daily business of living.

I have to end with the first thing I said when I picked up this book and started flipping through it. It has fairly tiny type, is a tall book, and runs over 250 pages. “An edited life? Maybe start with an edited book.” It’s a dad joke but it applies. It’s pretty to look at, but I did at times have a hard time actually reading the book, because there is color text, and that color is pale blue. That is not easy on the eyes; by the end there were whole sections that I just couldn’t read without straining, so I just skimmed.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Keep it

Wednesday

2

October 2019

0

COMMENTS

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Written by , Posted in Reviews

4 Stars

Best for:
Those who have read (or watched) The Handmaid’s Tale.

In a nutshell:
We know that Gilead eventually fell. But how?

Worth quoting:
“The truth can cause a lot of trouble for those who are not supposed to know it.”
“Another girl’s disgrace could rub off on you if you got too close to it.”
“They said calm things like ‘You need to be strong.’ They were trying to make things better. But it can put a lot of pressure on a person to be told they need to be strong.”

Why I chose it:
I read The Handmaid’s Tale a few years ago, and have watched two seasons of the show (I live in the UK and can’t figure out how to watch season three).

Review:
This book is told from the perspective of three people: Aunt Lydia; a daughter of a Commander (Agnes); and a teenager living in Canada (Daisy). Each have different experiences of Gilead – Aunt Lydia helped create the way women experience it, Agnes is being raised to become a child bride to a Commander and is fully steeped in the Gilead belief system, and Daisy has parents who are helping fight Gilead from afar.

Aunt Lydia’s section includes the story of how she became involved in Gilead, and I found her sections the most interest to ponder from an ethics perspective. What would each of us do in those situations? Some will fight to survive so they eventually fix things, some will fight to survive so they can acquire some power in the new word; others will see no possible option except to fight until their own death.

I also found Agnes’s sections fascinating. We don’t get the perspectives of the children in the first book (that I can recall), so I appreciated learning a bit about how it all worked in practice. Daisy’s story was the least interesting to me, but her chapter were still compelling.

The writing in this is excellent as expected (the Schlafly Cafe made me lol), and while I think this is a satisfying book and even a necessary one, it didn’t quite match my hopes. But my hopes were quite high.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Donate it.