Discussion Links for The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

Atul Gawande speaking about the power of Checklists




The official site, with lots of links to reviews
Inc this from The Freakonomics Blog
"If there is one topic that I have no natural affinity for, it is checklists. I don’t use checklists. I’m not interested in checklists.
Yet, against all odds, I read Atul Gawande’s new book about checklists, The Checklist Manifesto in one sitting yesterday, which is an amazing tribute to the book that Gawande has crafted. Not only is the book loaded with fascinating stories, but it honestly changed the way I think about the world. It is the best book I’ve read in ages.
The book’s main point is simple: no matter how expert you may be, well-designed check lists can improve outcomes (even for Gawande’s own surgical team). The best-known use of checklists is by airplane pilots. Among the many interesting stories in the book is how this dedication to checklists arose among pilots.
Even more interesting are the stories about Walmart’s response to Hurricane Katrina, and the real reason why David Lee Roth used to demand that there be a bowl of M&M’s with all the brown ones removed in his dressing room backstage.

A review in the New York Times
"Despite its evangelical tone, “The Checklist Manifesto” is an essential primer on complexity in medicine. Doctors resist checklists because we want to believe our profession is as much an art as a science. When Gawande surveyed members of the staff at eight hospitals about a checklist developed by his research team that nearly halved the number of surgical deaths, 20 percent said they thought it wasn’t easy to use and did not improve safety. But when asked whether they would want the checklist used if they were having an operation, 93 percent said yes."

& in the Wall Street Journal
"Dr. Gawande wants to make a bigger point: that formal checklists, if not exactly holding the secret to human success, will make a major difference in many other aspects of life, such as business and law: "Checklists seem able to defend everyone, even the experienced, against failure in many more tasks than we realized. They provide a kind of cognitive net. They catch mental flaws.""

Discussion Links for Gretel in the Dark by Eliza Granville

Coming Soon...

Discussion Links for The Martian by Andy Weir

Coming Soon...

Links for the next meeting - Quiet by Susan Cain

Wikipedia

Susan Cain's original TED Talk from 2012, the year Quiet was published



Susan Cain's later talk, about the consultancy she has set up on the back of the ideas in the book



(This is her company - The Quiet Revolution)

A 4* review from Amazon
"What I liked about 'Quiet' was:
- it's not a psychology text book and is more deeply personal, sharing people's experiences
- for those who are unfamiliar with what introversion is and the reality of the 'inner world' experience, it serves as a great introduction, whether you are an introvert or work with or live with one or more
- there's plenty of good research quoted to back up the author's reflections, ideas and recommendations
- it's written in an engaging and approachable style with no hyperbole or self-aggrandisement, unlike some self-help literature
- although she could rage against the glorification of the extrovert ideal, she doesn't"

Jon Ronson's review in The Guardian
""What I liked about 'Quiet' was:
- it's not a psychology text book and is more deeply personal, sharing people's experiences
- for those who are unfamiliar with what introversion is and the reality of the 'inner world' experience, it serves as a great introduction, whether you are an introvert or work with or live with one or more
- there's plenty of good research quoted to back up the author's reflections, ideas and recommendations
- it's written in an engaging and approachable style with no hyperbole or self-aggrandisement, unlike some self-help literature
- although she could rage against the glorification of the extrovert ideal, she doesn't"

"I wish she'd spent a bit more time adventuring and a bit less time analysing and philosophising and citing vast armies of psychologists. I love feeling her pain when she journeys out of her comfort zone to "life coaching" conventions. But those adventures vanish as the book wears on, and it starts to drag a little, especially during the many chapters about how brain scans seem to demonstrate neurological differences between extroverts and introverts. I don't know why popular psychology books feel so compelled these days to cite endless fMRI studies. As any neurologist will tell you, we still have very little idea about why certain bits of our brains light up under various circumstances."

& Also - later in the Jon Ronson review
"I do the test. I answer "true" to exactly half the questions. Even though I'm in many ways a textbook introvert (my crushing need for "restorative niches" such as toilet cubicles is eerie) I'm actually an ambivert. I do the test on my wife. She answers true to exactly half the questions too. We're both ambiverts. Then I do the test on my son. I don't get to the end because to every question – "I prefer one-on-one conversations to group activities. I enjoy solitude …" – he replies: "Sometimes. It depends." So he's also an ambivert.
In the Ronson household we're 100% ambivert. We ambiverts don't get another mention in the book. Even for a writer like Cain, who is mostly admirably unafraid of grey areas, we ambiverts are too grey. Her thesis – built on the assumption that almost everyone in the world can be squeezed into one of two boxes – may topple if it turns out that loads of us are essentially ambiverts. I suspect there are a lot of ambiverts out there."

Links for the next meeting - Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid

Hannah says:

Inevitably, some bad reviews for what is seen as a lazy, pointless project!  But, we were talking about a teenage narrative written by an adult, and how successful this was during the last meeting. This, together with a modern interpretation of what was originally a satire at the time, makes Mcdermid's attempt an interesting critical read...!

I though it was quite fun, not a piece of writing to take seriously, yet still depicting the difficulties of a naive teenager trying to find her feet, albeit in a very different era!  And the Gothic element is fun too...is this true Gothic, can the genre flex and alter without becoming unrecognisable?...a neo-Gothic, if you like...!
John Mullan, Jane Austin expert, in The New Statesman

Robert McCrum in The Guardian

Barry Forshaw, Gothic expert, in The Independent

A mostly positive review on a Jane Austin blog

A very positive blog review

Links for the Next Meeting - How The Light Gets In by MJ Hyland

An article in the Financial Times about the 'Cat Bin Woman' written by MJ Hyland - it's interesting that The FT used Hyland to write about someone's life spinning out of control

Some (obvously positive) reviews on MJ Hyland's own site
"A female Holden, just as cynical and sensitive, but with less self-conscious verbiage"

& a negative review on Amazon
"I could not engage with this character at all and found the book uninteresting. It might appeal to a similarly disaffected adolescent, but it seems a rather dull account of teenage angst. Isn't life so unfair!"

Links for the next meeting - The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Wikipedia
"[Contains] a number of elements that were to become classic attributes of the twentieth-century detective story:
English country house robbery
An "inside job"
red herrings
A celebrated, skilled, professional investigator
Bungling local constabulary
Detective enquiries
Large number of false suspects
The "least likely suspect"
A rudimentary "locked room" mystery
A reconstruction of the crime
A final twist in the plot"

Spark's Notes has a useful plot synopsis

A four star review from Amazon
"All the loose ends are tied up neatly. The good people do well and the bad people get their comeuppence - very Victorian. It is a sweet read to savour. Set aside time to devote to it and it rewards."

& a two star review
"The plot - a beautiful precious stone, shrouded in mystery and believed to be cursed, goes missing at the house of Lady Verinder shortly after it is given to her daughter Rachel as an 18th birthday present - sounds intriguing and certainly sets things up for what should have been a brilliant detective story. But that's where it falls flat. Instead, pages are given over to the minutiae of people's everyday lives, and character assinations that seem to go on forever. The supposedly great Sergeant Cuff (a fictional character, but one of great literary merit) gets pretty much everything wrong and ends up looking like nothing more than an amateur detective. Instead it is left to Franklin Blake, the protagonist of the story, to discover what really happened and in so doing, clear his name. But Blake is not interesting and doesn't draw you in; he is flat and two-dimensional and it's hard to care what happens to a character if you feel no sympathy or connection with them."

Links for the next meeting - The Rabbit Back Literative Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen

Here are the usual Amazon customer reviews

The Telegraph's review

And some more personal thoughts via GoodReads

Links for the Meeting - GB84 by David Peace

The Guardian's Review

A Wikipedia entry on author David Peace

Wikipedia on the Miner's Strike & the Battle of Orgreave

(Both entries are slightly contentious - there are also lots of videos on Orgreave and more on YouTube)

An obituary of David Hart, who the character Stephen Sweet was based on

A Wikipedia entry on Roger Windsor, the NUM Chief Executive who met Colonel Gadaffi

Links for the next meeting - The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale

The author's account in the Guardian of why she structured it as she did

Review by Iain Rankin (also from the Guardian)

New York Times review

Some capsule reviews (if you're short of time):

Discussion questions

Links for the next meeting - The Circle by Dave Eggars

Wikipedia - the plot and more

A Q&A with Dave Eggars

"I wanted the Circle technology to seem logical and likely in the not-distant future. More than a few times, though, I had to make adjustments when I thought I’d invented some scary new product or feature, only to find it already existed or was on its way."

A review on the tech site Xeconomy

"At the Circle, one disillusioned character comments, there’s “enough money to make any dumb idea real.” The fictional company’s silly side projects, like counting every grain of sand in the Sahara, come off as valid parodies in a decade when Google has sunk untold sums into moonshot ideas like space elevators, jetpacks, hoverboards, teleportation, wireless Internet access via balloons, power from high-altitude kites, and, of course, Google Glass."

Some reasons why people should have privacy

"People hide many things from even their closest friends and family: the fact that they are gay, the fact that they are sick, the fact that they are pregnant, the fact that they are in love with someone else. Though your private life may be especially straightforward, that should not lead you to support policies that would intrude on the more complicated lives of others. There’s a reason we call it private life."

Want to see something really scary?  This is how Google tracks your movements (if you're logged in to a Google account on your smartphone)

Links for the next meeting - The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

Book group links - things to think about - for JK Rowling's first Cormoran Strike novel

Wikipedia - Lots on the plot, plus characters and more.  JK's fans are very committed!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo's_Calling

A review published in April before the JK was revealed as the author
http://mybookchest.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/review-cuckooscalling-galbraith.html
"The puzzle they had to solve developed in a great way. There are a lot of different characters involved in this suicide/murder mystery they need to solve and all have their own secrets to hide. There was a nice tension surrounding most of them making all of them suspects. Some of the quests Cormoran solved where not that clear for the puzzler though. Indications that he found something where not always clear making it hard in some situation to put the puzzle together. The end was a surprise which I liked a lot. "

& another one
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-2318313/CRIME.html
"Just once in a while a new private detective emerges who captures the public imagination in a flash; and here is one who might well do that - Cormoran Strike, a bear-like ex-soldier with a prosthetic lower leg and a gloomy outlook, who also happens to be the son of a Seventies rock star.
The last time I remember one quite as interesting was the wonderful Eddie Ginley, nightclub-comedian and wannabe private eye, in director Stephen Frears’ debut film Gumshoe. Strike has exactly that dark fascination, just as he has debts, a home life so hopeless that he has to sleep in his office, and an unlikely temporary assistant he cannot afford."

A 4 star review
http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RD3IXJ95E403S/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1408703998
"For the plot alone I would give three stars. It became rather difficult to follow towards the end, thanks in no small part to the increasing withdrawal of the narrative from Cormoran Strike's deducting mind - something that I suppose was intended to keep the reader in suspense, but still affected my degree of immersion in the story. The big reveal at the end felt, if not contrived, then predictable in its total unpredictability, and relied on the staple monologue from the protagonist to explain how exactly the event that the book revolves around happened.
It's the characters that make The Cuckoo's Calling. Strike himself is sympathetic, but Robin, his secretary temp, is the easiest to warm to. They both feel real, and as a result the world they inhabit feels real (apart from said slightly-contrived thriller elements). It helps that JK Rowling writes about London like a long-time resident. Special mention should go to the prose as well. The balance is just right - not too florid, and vivid enough to elevate it above the usual gently-paced crime story."

A 2 star review
http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R1F6UT82O378RC/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1408703998
"I was greatly anticipating reading this book and it was given to me as a Christmas present. How disappointing then to discover a long series of suspect interviews and unnecessary descriptive prose.
I can now see why the author's identity was made known because if any other writer had put this together it would never have seen the "light of day".
A major disappointment of a book. J. K. Rowling stick to childrens' fiction!!."



Should be a good discussion!

Links for the next meeting - I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Wikipedia is good on the themes and influence of the book, including 3 adaptations:

The Last Man on Earth

The Omega Man

I Am Legend

I Am Omega

A 30 minute discussion of the book on the excellent Science Fiction Book Review Podcast

A four star review on Amazon

"The Millenennium SF series is a bit of mixed bag of so called 'classic' and seminal sci-fi of the 20th century. 'I Am Legend' rightly deserves it's place in that list but not necessarily as a sci-fi novel. But it's a bit of a curate's egg. In fact it's not even a horror novel per se. There's a blend of sci-fi, post-apocalyptical musings ( more so in the movie based loosely on the book), some horror of course. But this novella is more a psychological examination of what it's like to be the last man alive. Matheson is an expert at leading us into the mind of a man without the companionship of his fellows. I won't spoil the plot as there are some brilliant and unexpected twists but the chapters concerned with Neville's discovery of a dog, company he has craved for for three years, is stunning and I defy anyone not to be moved to tears. I love the film, which is why I bought the book initially, but after reading it I'm afraid Heston et al missed out on a better adaptation. Near perfect."

 & a two star review

"I Am Legend isn't really all that an impressive horror story nor a good sci-fi. The story-line was okay, the descriptive writing fair but it lacked something which I can't really put my fingers on. I've read a lot of horror and sci-fis (they're the only things I read), but this book is somewhat bland. I've only put the book down last night and already I've forgotten all the stories in it. So I guess it wasn't that worthy of remembering. As for the rest of the short stories.....well, they were also so-so. Maybe it's me, maybe I didn't picture the hard enough as I followed it through, maybe I didn't really understand what Richard Matheson was trying to write about. I don't know. I'm not impressed and a little disappointed that I found this book weary against the others who've reviewed it and have given it 5 stars."

Links for the Next Meeting - 4 Celebrity Autobiographies

The group meets on the last Wednesday of each month.  Since this isn't convenient in December, we have a double meeting in January, around several books in a theme.  This year the theme was Celebrity Autobiographies, and we read any or all of a list of four books. 

Do the books work as books?  If you knew nothing about the life of the person, did it still stand up?  These are the sorts of things to discuss:

In alphabetical order we have:

Russell Brand - My Booky Wook

Russell & his Dad



Five Stars
"I must say I was really moved by his story. Why? He has told his story beautifully, in a vivid language. In this autobiography Russell is having an ironic distance to really horrible events in his life. This ironic distance is what makes the book so good because it really shows how much it has affected him and that makes it extremely personal. I think his defence mechanism is his humour and using humour describing situations that are anything but humorous really gives you an insight into his bruised past. The pages are filled with humour, but the story is full of sorrow."

Three Stars
"Although Russell is always keen to apologise for his past indiscretions, one thing that irritated me slightly is his lack of insight into his actions (or at the very least his unwillingness to share any insight). He will casually mention (for instance) that he started smoking cannabis at the tender age of 16 and continued to do so every single day of his life thereafter until he was almost 30 - but why? Surely not just for simple enjoyment, or am I being naive? Similarly, his attitude towards women is really very odd - but why? He has apparently been diagnosed as bipolar (the posh new name for manic depressive) by more than one medical professional. Yet Russell simply skirts over all this with "and I came out of rehab and lived happily ever after"

Tina Fey - Bossypants

Early Improv Sketch



Five Stars
"It's written absolutely brilliantly, hilariously funny and easy to read, even for a dutch speaker like me. Tina Fey is an inspiration for a lot of people, aspiring screenwriters, actors, and moms-to-be. I really felt like reading a letter from a good friend, describing what a week he/she had, she will reveal things that seem pretty intimate and make you think about things in your own life.

Three Stars
"There were some definite highlights in the book but overall you'd have to be a rabid fan to like everything in the book. For the more casual fan like me, I'd say skip to the 30 Rock/Sarah Palin sections for an interesting read as the rest doesn't hold up to the same interest level."  

Anthony Kiedis - Scar Tissue

The band interviewed in 1988 - Flea, Hillel, Anthony and Jack



Five Stars
"Scar Tissue is a cracking read. How Mr. Kiedis is still alive is a miracle. The huge amount of drugs, the accidents (bad accidents), the women, the band, the highs and lows are all honestly recounted in this oustanding autobiography.
A.K. gives an insight into the mind and behaviour of an addict with refreshing honesty; there's no preaching here. He recounts his childhood and writes much about the Chili Peppers themselves, detailing their ups and downs (there's a lot of both), their creative processes and the meaning behind some of their songs."

Three Stars
"A book of two halves for me.The first half dragged a little bit but was improved by a much better second half.
Basically this is Sex n Drugs n rehab with some rock n'roll thrown in.Kiedis is very candid and never tries to make any excuses for his drug taking or his promiscuity.He just delivers it pretty straight although If you want major insights into what the Chilis are all about you will probably need to go elsewhere." 

Zlatan Ibrahimovic - I am Zlatan Ibrahamovic

Top 50 Goals



Five Stars
"As a massive fan of Zlatan i was worried this book might change my opinion of him. However in actual fact it made me even more of a fan. This controversial but truthful insight into his life provides surprise at every turn of a page. Even if your not a fan, this book will hook you in for a rolla coaster ride of admiration and controversy!"

Three Stars
"A football bio that certainly has a certain charm. Not sure how ghostwritten it is, but you do get a feel of the real guy. Occasionally rambling, the books most interesting aspects are about his failed relationships with Pep Guardiola and Rafeal Van De Vaart.
Sadly, whilst he does have an interesting rags to riches tale, it's hard to get too excited about repeated tales of arguments only heard from one side and nights in with his xbox.
It also ends rather abruptly, during his season with AC Milan, so you can't help feeling there's much more to this story."

Links for Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks

 (Rather late on this one, but in the spirit of helping other people who may be reading this book...)

Use of Weapons is part of Banks' The Culture series, a collection of largely unrelated books set in an alternative universe.

There's a good guide to the series on Wikipedia here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series

The Science Fiction Book Review Podcast also has an episode dedicated to the series. 
http://www.sfbrp.com/archives/702

& a specific episode on 'Use of Weapons'
http://www.sfbrp.com/archives/30

Wikipedia on Use of Weapons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_Weapons

A 5 Star Review
"I've read enough of Iain Banks' other work to be able to say that Use of Weapons is almost certainly his masterpiece, which is really saying something compared to the high quality of his other novels. In this book everything just works. The characters are sublimely handled, with Banks immersing you in their lives to the point where you stop thinking of them as characters and instead accept them as people. The structure of the story is inventive without over-relishing its own cleverness."

& A 3 Star Review
"Ultimately, Banks uses this inventive structure to create a poignant and shocking climax to the book. However, to me this comes at the expense of an involving story. Essentially, I don't feel that the plot of the forward-time strand is consistently strong enough to generate interest in and sympathy with the protagonist - towards the end of the book, I was only really interested in the resolution of the backwards-in-time strand."

Links for the next meeting - The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson

The Hare Psychopathy Checklist on Wikipedia

Pictures & more about book 'Being or Nothingness' that started it all off

CEO Al Dunlap

CEOs & Psychopaths in Business Insider

David Shaylor

Rachel North's blog

There's a long interview with Jon Ronson about the book in the Little Atoms podcast - download it at iTunes here

Links for the next book - Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew by Bernard Hare

You can see Bernie, Frank, Trudi and - yes - Urban in this video made for The Culture Show at the time of publication.  Urban is 21 at the time of filming.


Bernie Hare and The Shed Crew from andy robbins on Vimeo.

You can see what Bernard Hare is doing now on his own site here

Wikipedia on the East End Park area

A news report on the Angela Pearce murder

For a bit of contrast, here is police blogger Nightjack on 'The Evil Poor'

A discussion of the book on the East Leeds Memories site - the writers tend to be older people who don't still live in Leeds

A very good 5 star review from Amazon: "This is an extraordinarily well written book and cleverly depicts how hard it is for those on the outside to get in"

& a very dismissive 2 star review: "Let's face it, your life is pretty screwed up. But none of this is your fault, at least not according to Bernard Hare; you see this is the fault of Society, which has failed you and your whole community"

Links for the next meeting - The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Below are some reviews and some discussion questions. They're quite wordy but might be a good start.

A review on Nabou.com

A review of it (as a children's book) on The Guardian

Some study questions on Spark Notes...

... & some on LitLovers

also - The Alchemist summarised and more on Wikipedia

It's been said that The Alchemist is essentially the same story as one of the tales in The Arabian Nights - The Ruined Man Who Became Rich Again Through A Dream 

Links for the next meeting - 4 Vintage Classics

Since none of the books are particularly literary, but all have been made into films, it's probably as useful as anything to post links to the trailers!

Flowers in the Attic - Virginia Andrews



(They decided to completely remove any references to incest for the film)

The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M Auel



(Daryl Hannah!)

The Day of the Jackal - Fredrick Forsyth



(& for laughs, here's the remake with Bruce Willis as The Jackal, and Richard Gere as an IRA assassin co-opted to help track him down.  I missed that bit in the book too)



The Boys From Brazil - Ira Levin



Plus - Full film here

Links for the next meeting - The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason

A five star review from Amazon -

"Highly imaginative, obsessive and truly magical novel by Daniel Mason. A combination of fiction, fantasy and travelogue, an ambitious but intriguing piece of work by Mason.
The plot seems to be travel fantasy - Edgar Drake, a piano tuner with perfection in Erards, travels in to darkest jungles of Burma and India.in 1886 to help the Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll. A sea voyage and boat journey in to the remotest possible place one would imagine to repair and tune a piano - a special piano, a peacemaker."

& a three star one - 

"This book has a lot going for it. The plotline is intriguing - an expert piano tuner, an authority on Erards, goes to darkest Burma to tune the piano of the eccentric but hugely effective Surgeon Major Carroll. The writer knows a lot about different aspects of his subject - sea travel in the late 19th. century, the topics which interest Carroll, Burmese history, the British presence in Burma, pianos and how to tune them .... all of that seems fine. It's fairly well written and moves forward in a competent way. But I seldom was really interested. Why? I think this is a book which works too hard. There is just too much validating detail, the stuff you need to make an exotic book like this come to life. It is too consciously written and it loses the naturalness and simplicity of a well-told tale. Once the tuner, Drake, got to Carroll's base I quite liked it, and I read the second half quickly, drawn on by the story, but I was never fully convinced and I did not find it compelling."

A history of the Shan State, from Wikipedia

Plus - a new documentary about Myanmar is coming out