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When we read a great fiction book — we experience a certain sense of joy, happiness or satisfaction. Beyond reading a great story it is often the striking connection we feel to the characters and the fact that the book resonates with us. All the elements of story telling have hit the right buttons deep within us and released a whole dose of serotonin that allows us to experience a feel-good moment. That feel-good moment comprises a sense of belonging and being part of a greater story, where we momentarily escape from the challenges and hardships of our own life. And the...

A delicious selection of book reads for the weekend, especially if you are going to make it a long one with the 4th of July holiday. Enjoy! 1. “All-American Murder: The Rise and Fall of Aaron Hernandez, the Superstar Whose Life Ended on Murderers’ Row” by James Patterson and Alex Abramovich is actually a piece of non-fiction about the young and exceptionally gifted NFL player who murdered his fiancee’s sister’s partner. After being convicted and on a life sentence in prison he committed suicide at the age of 27. Based on court testimony, legal documents and reporting from various key...

In general, well-known works of fiction compel us to celebrate the creativity of the writer. The books listed here however take creativity to a whole new level, particularly Henry Darger’s eccentric manuscript on the Vivian Girls beautifully analysed and explained in John M Macgregor’s Henry Darger: In the Realms of the Unreal (only a genius or otherwise truly bizarre mind can drum up the content he crafted over decades), Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore with its stupendous world of talking cats, spirits that make love or kill and oedipal fantasies, Margaret Atwood’s disturbing dystopia, Oryx and Crake and Catherine Dunn’s fascinatingly odd Geek Love. Nonetheless these highly imaginative and unique yet strange works...

The weekend’s here! Make it a bookish one with these great weekend reads: 1. James Patterson and Bill Clinton’s novel “The President is Missing” for the political junkies who enjoy a bit of drama and suspense. It’s beautifully written too. Grab a copy at: https://amzn.to/2KdZCtL 2. A highly informed look at the Theranos scandal by John Carreyrou: “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Start Up”. Get your copy at: https://amzn.to/2MP1Ykv 3. A remarkable look at heredity: “She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity” by Carl Zimmer. Grab a copy at: https://amzn.to/2MOEyeZ 4.“Reinventing Capitalism in the...

Reading has always been a great literary cure for loneliness. However when it stops acting as a cure and instead becomes a channel through which loneliness becomes a popular state of existence, that’s when alarm bells start ringing. This is nowhere more notable than in Japan where a third of all households live alone. More over 65-year-olds live alone than anywhere else in the world. 30% of men and women will never marry by the year 2030. With such alarming statistics, it is no surprise that a new genre in literature is emerging: one that celebrates and praises the solitary state....