Tag Archives: Book Review

How To Stand Out By Dr Rob Yeung Book Review

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howtostandoutbookreviewMany self help books are dense and uninspiring. How To Stand Out has a lot going for it and is far from dense and uninspiring, it is easy to read and absorb, with pull quotes and actual quotes helping you along. Psychologist Dr Rob Yeung knows what he is talking about and covers everything from the science of standing out and tips to be more memorable. The book is full of great advice and will leave you with the ability to stand out and become someone who is not only noticed, but remembered. Good book.

How to Stand Out is written by psychologist Dr Rob Yeung and draws on extensive research and scientific studies to explore the body language and speaking techniques that help people stand out and get noticed. Whether readers want to impress a date, socialise more easily or get noticed at work, this book will help them develop skills for personal and professional success.

How to Stand Out: Proven Tactics for Getting Noticed is available here.

 

About the author

Dr Rob Yeung is an organisational psychologist at consultancy Talentspace, where he runs leadership development programmes for executives, as well as training workshops on topics such as presentation skills, confidence, teamwork and personal productivity. He has a Ph.D. in psychology from King’s College London, is a chartered psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He is the author of over 20 books and a familiar face to television, having appeared as an expert psychologist of programmes ranging from ITN, CNN, BBC News and Big Brother. He is a regular guest on BBC Radio 2 and has been quoted in publications ranging from the Financial Times, The Sunday Times, GQ, Men’s Health and Red.

Published by Capstone.

 

 New book by leading psychologist uncovers the science of standing out

 

What is it that makes some people stand out? That star quality that gets them promoted again and again, or asked out on date after date? What helps them get noticed at work, at a party, in life?

 

Drawing on extensive business school, university and employer research, psychologist and television expert Dr Rob Yeung explores the body language, winning words and confidence-building techniques that have been proven to help people become more successful.

 

The book provides practical advice illustrated by scientific studies and interviews with executives, entrepreneurs, TV producers and people from all walks of life who share their stories, their worries and tips for making the most of themselves.

 

How to Stand Out tackles:

 

  • The ‘confidence con’ – how people are often successful despite being afflicted by anxiety and doubt, with examples from sales professionals to singer-songwriter Adele.
  • Superstar speakers – the verbal tricks used by CEOs to prime ministers and how one badly worded email cemented the downfall of one of the most successful companies of the 21st century.
  • Persuasion through body language – the latest research on how non-verbal communication influences people’s decision-making, even who they think should run the country.
  • Creating an ‘i-deal’ job – why enjoying work is a must have for performance in work and life and a proven programme for boosting not only your enjoyment but performance.

 

Both rigorously researched (with full notes referring to original academic research) and entertaining, this book will help anyone who wants to make more impact personally or professionally by teaching them to be more engaging, entertaining and persuasive.

 

Follow Rob: @RobYeung

 

 

 

Bright Stars by Sophie Duffy Book Review

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I have read all of Sophie Duffy’s books and it is fair to say that I am a fan. Duffy is an exceptionally talented writer and Bright Stars is another jewel in her crown. The story of a group of university friends and the night that tore them apart, Bright Sparks is a well written novel on the bonds of friendship and love. How one little mistake in life can have devastating effects for decades after. Duffy captures the different periods, switching between the past and the present brilliantly. Bright Stars is another great novel from Duffy. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. Hugely enjoyable.

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Cameron Spark’s life is falling apart. He is separated from his wife, and awaiting a disciplinary following an incident in the underground vaults of Edinburgh where he works as a Ghost Tour guide. On the day he moves back home to live with his widowed dad, he receives a letter from Canada. It is from Christie.

Twenty-five years earlier, Cameron attends Lancaster University and despite his crippling shyness, makes three unlikely friends: Christie, the rich Canadian, Tommo, the wannabe rock star and Bex, the Feminist activist who has his heart. In a whirlwind of alcohol, music and late night fox raids, Cameron feels as though he’s finally living.

Until a horrific accident shatters their friendship and alters their futures forever.

Christie’s letter offers them a reunion after all these years. But has enough time passed to recover from the lies, the guilt and the mistakes made on that tragic night? Or is this one ghost too many for Cameron?

Bright Stars is available here.

 

 

September Book Picks

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Geetu Bharwaney Emotional Resilience.

An intelligent and accessible book. This brilliant book helps you develop your emotional resilience. It has practical steps which are easy to follow and understand, leaving you with the tools to perform at your best. It is all broken down well and is an original, unique book that allows you to prepare yourself against challenging situations. This great book gives you the toolkit to be your best at work.

Pressure, stress and annoying problems are all part of life, especially at work.

By developing your emotional resilience you can be bulletproof, prepare yourself against even the most challenging situations, and focus fully on achieving your goals, getting things done, moving ahead and being the best you can be.

With this comprehensive, practical and empowering guide, you will start feeling the benefits of emotional resilience straight away as you learn to:

·   quickly adapt to tricky and pressured situations and get the best from them;

·   be at your best all the time by successfully managing your emotions, thoughts and actions;

·   handle everyday demands, hassles and annoyances with positivity and confidence;

·   realise your full potential – whether on your own or with others.

Being clever, skilled or smart is not enough. To get an edge, stand out and really succeed you need emotional resilience.

Emotional Resilience: Know What it Takes to be Agile, Adaptable and Perform at Your Best is available here.

 

J.D. Robb Obsession In Death.

Another brilliant crime thriller from J.D Robb AKA Nora Roberts. Entertaining and indulgent. These books are hugely popular for a reason.

A crisp winter morning in New York. In a luxury apartment, the body of a woman lies stretched out on a huge bed. On the wall above, the killer has left a message in bold black ink: FOR LIEUTENANT EVE DALLAS, WITH GREAT ADMIRATION AND UNDERSTANDING.

Eve Dallas is used to unwanted attention. Famous for her high-profile cases and her marriage to billionaire businessman Roarke, she has learned to deal with intense public scrutiny and media gossip. But now Eve has become the object of a singular and deadly obsession. She has an ‘admirer’, who just can’t stop thinking about her. Who is convinced they have a special bond. Who is planning to kill for her – again and again…

With time against her, Eve is forced to play a delicate – and dangerous – psychological dance. Because the killer is desperate for something Eve can never provide – approval. And once that becomes clear, Eve knows her own life will be at risk – along with those she cares about the most.

Obsession in Death is available here.

 

Helen Oyeyemi Boy, Snow, Bird.

Now out in paperback. this imaginative and original novel is well worth a read. Read our review here.

The fifth novel from award-winning author Helen Oyeyemi, who was named in 2013 as one of Granta’s best of young British novelists. A retelling of the Snow White myth, Boy, Snow, Bird is a deeply moving novel about an unbreakable bond . . .

BOY Novak turns twenty and decides to try for a brand-new life. Flax Hill, Massachusetts, isn’t exactly a welcoming town, but it does have the virtue of being the last stop on the bus route she took from New York. Flax Hill is also the hometown of Arturo Whitman – craftsman, widower, and father of Snow.

SNOW is mild-mannered, radiant and deeply cherished – exactly the sort of little girl Boy never was, and Boy is utterly beguiled by her. If Snow displays a certain inscrutability at times, that’s simply a characteristic she shares with her father, harmless until Boy gives birth to Snow’s sister, Bird.

When BIRD is born Boy is forced to re-evaluate the image Arturo’s family have presented to her, and Boy, Snow and Bird are broken apart.

Sparkling with wit and vibrancy, Boy, Snow, Bird is a novel about three women and the strange connection between them. It confirms Helen Oyeyemi’s place as one of the most original and dynamic literary voices of her generation.

Boy, Snow, Bird is available here.

 

J.D Robb Devoted In Death

Another entertaining thriller. A must read and destined to become a film (we hope).

It’s a new year in New York city, and two star-crossed lovers have just discovered an insatiable appetite…for murder.

Lieutenant Eve Dallas has witnessed some grisly crimes in her career and she knows just how dark things can get on the streets. But when a much-loved musician is found dead, Eve soon realises that his murder is part of a horrifying killing spree, stretching right across the country.

Now the killers have reached New York, and they’ve found themselves another victim. Eve knows she only has a couple of days to save a young girl’s life, and to stop the killers before their sadistic games escalate. Eve’s husband Roarke is ready to put his brains and his considerable resources behind the search. But even as the couple works closely together, time is running out…

Devoted in Death is available here.

 

 

The Road To Rangoon By Lucy Cruickshanks By Jan Speedie

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Lucy Cruickshanks’ latest atmospheric novel is set in 1980 in the Mogok region of northern Burma (now called Myanmar). This region is where they mine the world’s most beautiful rubies. A bitter civil war rages between the controlling Tatmadaw and the rebel Shan State Army. The people are poor and the Tatmadaw regime is cruel, violent and corrupt. Lucy’s three main characters are thrown together by chance and must struggle together to survive.

Than Chit an ambitious military officer with the Tatmadaw longs for promotion and power. His schemes and manipulations to promote himself end in devastating personal loss.

Thuza Win is 11 years old when her parents are imprisoned for ruby smuggling. Deeply scarred by life and struggling to survive she must grab any chance she can for a better life.

Michael Atwood, son of the British Ambassador in Rangoon is a naive 21 year old. Following a bomb attack in which his friend is seriously hurt Michael decides to avenge this terrible deed by helping the rebels. Unfortunately, Michael finds that he has been tricked; he is in danger and his only hope of survival lies with Than Chit and Thuza.

But as three strangers, in this savage country, they must learn who they can trust.

Lucy Cruickshanks has travelled the world, drawn to countries with a troubled history. Her first novel was set in Vietnam and was short listed for the Authors’ Club First Novel Award and the Guardian Not the Booker Prize.

Lucy was born and raised in Cornwall. She studied Politics and Philosophy at Warwick University and Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. She now lives on the south coast of England with her husband and two small children.  She enjoy writing and caring for her young family.

I enjoyed Cruickshanks’ handling of her material, and her research is thorough and fascinating. She weaves it all together into a satisfying novel. Even the title is evocative: ‘Rangoon’ has such resonance …

Published by Heron Books on 17th September 2015 in hardback £18.99

 

 

Month 8 of My Reading Challenge By Frances Colville

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 This month I deliberately set out to base my book choices on recommendations from other people.  This decision in part came about because my first book  The Book of Lost and Found by Lucy Foley (Harper Collins 2015) was lent to me some time ago by a friend who has been wondering why I hadn’t yet got round to reading it.  So now I have.  And a good story it is too, telling of the relationship between two people over the course of the 20th century from the viewpoint of a younger family member.  It’s well-written and well-constructed.  I enjoyed it.  But it isn’t memorable in any way and I suspect I’ll have forgotten all about it in a month or two.

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I met Harry Bucknall, the author of my next book, Life of a Tramp, Life of a Pilgrim (Bloomsbury 2014), at a recent creative writing workshop. He mentioned his book and I was intrigued enough to pick up a copy the next time I was in a bookshop. He writes about a pilgrimage he took from London to Rome on foot, following the old Via  Francigena.  This is a fascinating mix of travel book, history and memoir and I recommend it to anyone who likes any of those genres.  I also found a personal link to the book – the author mentions Eric Newby, who escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp in Italy during WW2 and went on to write about his experiences.  My father was in the same camp as Eric Newby and frequently talked of him and his successful escape.  As I’ve said before, I like to look for connections in and between books and this one was very satisfying!

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Next up was The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (Faber & Faber paperback 2010).  I read The Poisonwood Bible (about Belgian colonialism amongst other things) by the same author many years ago when I was living in Belgium and it has stuck in my mind ever since.  So I was very pleased when her latest book was suggested by a member of one of my book groups.  It’s a long book, and has been 10 years in the writing.  It took a bit of getting into, but the language is memorable from the start and I was soon completely hooked by the story as well. This novel works on many different levels. It’s full of information about life in Mexico and the US in the 20th century, about Trotsky, his exile from the USSR and murder in Mexico by Stalin’s men, about the art world of the early 20th century, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in particular and about McCarthyism in the US. A fascinating mix of fact and fiction. Above all a book about people, their inner lives and their relationships.  But I think what will stick in my mind most of all is the power and beauty of the descriptive passages. This is a book which has so much to admire, it might require reading several times. When though?  That’s the problem.

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My youngest son has been recommending Moby Dick by Herman Melville for a long time (years probably) telling me that my life is much the poorer for never having read it.  However, having tracked down his copy and had a flick through I decided to opt instead for another of his recommendations, the much shorter The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (Vintage 2011) .  It proved to be a great choice, reminding me of On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan and Stoner by  John Williams, both of which I enjoyed very much.  Much of it resonated with me, having grown up in the 60s and 70s, and the idea of writing a novel out of relatively little appealed to me greatly.  What I didn’t get – ironically given the title – was any sense of the ending. I’m not sure it fitted the rest of the book.  And Moby Dick?  On my list for the future, but probably not this year.

thesenseofanending

 

 

 

Armada by Ernest Cline Book Review

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Armada arrived on my desk and as a total non-gamer I approached it with diffidence. Halfway through the first page, however, I settled down with the main character, Zack Lightman, as he daydreamed through another boring maths class at high school hoping something would happen to take him away from all this. And who hasn’t felt this?

Ernest Cline writes with a fine sense of empathy, and a deliciously casual sense of humour and it is this that works extremely well: I reminded myself that I was a man of science, even if I did usually get a C in it.

So there was Zack, glancing through the window, and lo and behold, along came a flying saucer – every geek’s dream. It is a flying saucer that happens to be straight out of the video game he plays every night. It is a popular online flight simulator called Armada, in which gamers protect the earth from alien invaders.

Suddenly, the problem is real, or is it?

I discovered there is a dormant area of geekism at my core as I enjoyed Zack’s skills which are fully utilized. Not just his, but millions of gamers across the world who have to raise their game to save the earth from what’s about to befall.

I kept thinking: reluctant students, beware the dream, as I read on, following Zack and his new comrades as they scramble to prepare for the alien onslaught. Plenty of twists, turns, and tension but also the emotional conundrum of his father’s premature death, and his mother who has fun, but won’t commit to any bloke … No, I won’t go on. Read it.

I found it satisfactory on many levels, not the least that it is accessible to young adults, and old ducks like me – a rare accomplishment.  Armada is a journey towards emotional intelligence and understanding, a journey towards some questions answered, others posed – huge questions they are too.  Armada’s a good ‘un.

Armada by Ernest Cline

Published in hardback by Century £16.99

Also available in ebook

Ernest Cline is the author of the bestselling Ready Player One

 

 

 

Willoughbyland by Matthew Parker Book Review

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Willoughbyland by Matthew ParkerAnother absorbing exploration of lives lived in far off times from the Sunday Times bestselling  author of Goldeneye and The Sugar Barons.  This time, in Willoughbyland, Matthew Parker explores and reveals the untold story of England’s lost colony in Guina. It is  a seventeenth-century tale of empire, El Dorado and violent rebellion, of spies, trickery and forbidden love.

Parker opens with a Foreword in which he travels to dense relentless jungle, searching for traces of the English pioneers and refugees who fled the turmoil of the post English Civil War years. Were they chasing a dream? Of course. After all, the reality of post English Civil War was not a bundle of laughs with its grief and poverty, especially for the Cavaliers who were not Oliver Cromwell’s favourite dish of the week.

I was delighted to review this book, because it is a period that fascinates, and I have always pondered on the fate of the Cavaliers, hustled off into exile.

In this case, a group of Cavaliers set sail for the Amazon and Orinoco rivers following in Sir Walter Raleigh’s footsteps. They set up a new settlement named after its founded, Sir Francis Willoughby. Thus was Willoughbyland born.

Parker sucks up the atmosphere for us, we bathe in it. We breathe in the scent of oranges, and suffer in the humidity, we begin to understand how the dream of the explorers fades in the face of incoming planters and traders. Things grow more complicated as mercenaries and soldiers follow political dissidents and increasingly the dream turns sour. Terror and cruelty become the norm. Sugar is produced, slaves are introduced …

This is an intelligent and evocative examination of a period in history that Parker reveals as a microcosm of the history of empire, with its heady attractions and appalling dangers.

Prepare to BE there, feel the heat, absorb the facts, and understand the English past just a little bit more. Well done, Matthew Parker. I knew nothing of this, and now I do. Fascinating. Good jacket too.

Published in Hardback by Hutchinson. £16.99

Also available in eBook

 

 

 

One Man’s Everest by Kenton Cool by Frances Colville

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You don’t have to be an expert, or even a novice climber to enjoy Kenton Cool’s memoir, One Man’s Everest. I’m a wimp of the first order when it comes to heights, particularly if there is a sheer drop in the vicinity. So was this book for me? Yes – I couldn’t put it down.

Kenton Cool (what a fabulous name for a mountaineer) has devoted most of his adult life to climbing, whether completing challenges, or as a climbing guide.  He writes with humour and self deprecating understatement which belies the enormous achievements of his career, the summit (no pun intended) of which has not in his opinion yet been reached.

Cool keeps technical language to a minimum and while I’m sure his fellow mountaineers and climbers would find much to enjoy in the book, there is also plenty to interest the rest of us.  For this is the tale of one man’s determination to conquer not only the highest peaks in the world, but also his own physical handicaps and his self doubts about what his choice of lifestyle does to his wife and young family.  He talks about motivation and about the hardships he and fellow climbers endure.  He writes too of the toll the increasing popularity of ‘big peak’ mountaineering takes on the environment and the dangers casual commercialism brings to climbers and their support networks.  Poignantly he also talks about the terrible impact of the recent earthquake in Nepal and the devastation it has caused to a people he clearly holds in very high regard.

I’d have liked more information about how he recovered sufficiently from his ear ly accident – after which he was told that further climbing was completely out of the question – to be able to climb Everest on several occasions.  You can’t please everyone.

Perhaps appealing to a wide range of readers is one of the best tests of a successful memoir and One Man’s Everest achieves this. It is readable, inspiring, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

One Man’s Everest will be published as a Preface hardback on 27th August 2015.

http://www.prefacepublishing.co.uk