Books I enjoyed

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Poetry

Poets include (in random order):

Note to self: start scraping here!

Non-fiction

  • British Market Research Bureau: The First Sixty Years, 1933–1993, by John Downham
  • Counter-intelligence: what the secret world can teach us about problem solving and creativity, by Robert Hannigan
  • The Coaching Habit, by Michael Bungay Stanier – read this in one eve. Good summary of Karpman’s drama triangle. Good ideas for questions to guide coaching/management meetings, though could have added more caveats “obviously tweak this wording.” I imagine there are thousands of people who use the book as a script, rather like those who think you just use someone’s first name every sentence to build rapport with them.
  • Sex, Spies and Scandal, by Alex Grant – a bio of John Vassall
  • Spycatcher, by Peter Wright – this was a pleasant surprise; lots of nerdiness and really funny in places.
  • Hacker, Influencer, Faker, Spy, by Rob Dover – interesting, though my fav text by Dover is For Queen and Company: The Role of Intelligence in the UK’s Arms Trade.
  • Quantum computing: from Alice to Bob, by Alice Flarend & Bob Hilborn – not finished this one but was hugely accessible leg-up into the quantum computing literature.
  • Glitch Feminism, by Legacy Russell
  • Class Counts, by Erik Olin Wright
  • The State of Secrecy, by Richard Norton-Taylor
  • Ukraine Crisis: What It Means for the West, by Andrew Wilson
  • Thrive, by Richard Layard & David Clark – interesting, but worth following up the cherry-picked efficacy claims with a search for meta-analyses
  • Intimacies, by Leo Bersani & Adam Phillips
  • The Mathematics of Love, by Hannah Fry
  • The Myth of Individualism: How Social Forces Shape Our Lives, by Peter Callero
  • The Therapy Industry: the Irresistible Rise of the Talking Cure, and Why it Doesn’t Work, by Paul Moloney
  • The Last of the Hippies, by Penny Rimbaud
  • The art of social theory, by Richard Swedberg – rare collection of ideas on how to develop theory
  • Unspeakable Things, by Laurie Penny
  • Power, Interest and Psychology, by David Smail
  • Monogamy, by Adam Phillips
  • Rewriting the Rules: An integrative guide to love, sex and relationships, by Meg-John Barker
  • Doctoring the Mind: Why Psychiatric Treatments Fail, by Richard Bentall
  • Stasiland, by Anna Funder
  • What’s Left, by Nick Cohen
  • Bash the Rich, by Ian Bone
  • The People’s Manifesto, by Mark Thomas
  • Emotion Focused Cognitive Therapy, by Mick Power – excellent
  • GCHQ, by Richard J. Aldrich
  • Anarchy in Action, by Colin Ward
  • The Coming Insurrection, by The Invisible Committee – review in New Statesman
  • The No Asshole Rule, by Robert Sutton
  • Why Not Socialism?, by G. A. Cohen
  • The Catholic Orangemen of Togo and Other Conflicts I have Known, by Craig Murray
  • The Art of Being, by Erich Fromm
  • In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities, by Jean Baudrillard
  • Fragments: Cool Memories III 1990-1995, by Jean Baudrillard
  • Gut Feelings, by Gerd Gigerenzer
  • The Politics of Experience and The Bird of Paradise, by R. D. Laing – love this
  • Simulations, by Jean Baudrillard
  • Freedom Evolves, by Daniel Dennett – thought provoking, enjoyed
  • Why Do People Get Ill?, by Darian Leader & David Corfield
  • Self and Others, by R. D. Laing – Look out for the epistemic logic in the appendix
  • Knots, by R. D. Laing
  • Why do women write more letters than they post?, by Darian Leader
  • Why People Die by Suicide, by Thomas Joiner
  • The Robot’s Rebellion, by Keith Stanovich
  • Madness Explained, by Richard Bentall
  • The Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet, by Benjamin Hoff
  • Mathematical Reasoning with Diagrams, by Mateja Jamnik
  • Philosophy: The Classics, by Nigel Warburton
  • Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations, by Marie McGinn
  • Tractatus Logico-philosophicus, by Ludwig Wittgenstein – bits of; skip the boring bits, especially most stuff before proposition 7
  • Language, Truth and Logic, by A.J. Ayer
  • Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas R. Hofstadter
  • The Consolations of Philosophy, by Alain De Botton
  • Essays and Aphorisms, by Arthur Schopenhauer
  • Blue & Brown Books, by Ludwig Wittgenstein

(Auto)Biographies

  • Everything I know about love, by Dolly Alderton
  • Open Secret, by Stella Rimington – I read this after reading all of Rimington’s fiction and it brought a lovely sense of closure. Recommended, particularly for thoughts on managing complex organisations.
  • Stephen Ward Was Innocent, OK, by Geoffrey Robertson
  • Reverse Cowgirl, by McKenzie Wark – “not a memoir but an auto-ethnography of the opacity of the self”
  • The Spy and the Traitor, by Ben Macintrye – great story of Oleg Gordievsky
  • Killing Time, by Paul Feyerabend
  • My life in a column, by Tracey Emin – originally published in the Independent, see, e.g., this piece from 10 February 2006
  • Strangeland, by Tracey Emin
  • Bitter Experience Has Taught Me, by Nicholas Lezard
  • The Reason I Jump, by Naoki Higashida
  • Otto Gross: Freudian Psychoanalyst 1877-1920, by Martin Green
  • R. D. Laing: a life, by Adrian Laing
  • The Wing of Madness: the Life and Work of R.D. Laing, by Daniel Burston
  • Alfred Tarski: Life and Logic, by Anita Burdman Feferman & Solomon Feferman – Richard Montague, very interesting character, gets mentioned here
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius, by Ray Monk
  • Alan Turing: The Enigma, by Andrew Hodges – also check out Andrew Hodges’ web page on Turing

Fiction (including plays)

  • The Russia House, by John le Carré
  • Agent Running the Field, by John le Carré
  • My Only Boy, by Rosa Rankin-Gee – super strong start, dropping to a bore by about the half-way mark
  • Universality, by Natasha Brown
  • This is what happened, by Mick Herron – blimey, not a Slow Horses book
  • The Tin Men, by Michael Frayn
  • The Secret Pilgrim, by John le Carré – the gist: incompetence trumps conspiracy; we’ve dealt with communism, now what about capitalism?
  • Clown Town, by Mick Herron
  • The Compound, by Aisling Rawle – documents the slow, miserable decline of society through a Love Island-esq tale.
  • A Legacy of Spies, by John le Carré
  • The Trap, by Ava Glass
  • The Traitor, by Ava Glass
  • The Chase, by Ava Glass – it’s a chase (and yet I was surprised)
  • The Possession, by Annie Ernaux
  • Bad Actors, by Mick Herron
  • Slough House, by Mick Herron
  • Joe Country, by Mick Herron
  • The Drop, by Mick Herron – a novella
  • London Rules, by Mick Herron
  • Spook Street, by Mick Herron
  • Real Tigers, by Mick Herron
  • The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron – not a Slow Horses book. Or is it…?
  • The Hidden Hand, by Stella Rimington
  • The List, by Mick Herron – a novella
  • Dead Lions, by Mick Herron
  • Slow Horses, by Mick Herron
  • Invasion, by Frank Gardner
  • Dimension of Miracles, by Robert Sheckley
  • 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World, by Elif Shafak – what a beautiful and sad book, mostly set in Karaköy, Istanbul, not far from Galata Tower.
  • Red London, by Alma Katsu – enjoyed. Some similarities with Illegal Action by Stella Rimington.
  • Red Widow, by Alma Katsu – looking for something like the Liz Carlyle series and pretty much found it. Good fun, moderately trashy in places in a good way.
  • The Devil’s Bargain, by Stella Rimington – first in the Manon Tyler series; not bad at all, but missing Liz
  • The Moscow Sleepers, by Stella Rimington
  • Breaking Cover, by Stella Rimington
  • Close Call, by Stella Rimington
  • The Geneva Trap, by Stella Rimington
  • Rip Tide, by Stella Rimington
  • Present Danger, by Stella Rimington
  • Dead Line, by Stella Rimington
  • Illegal Action, by Stella Rimington
  • Secret Asset, by Stella Rimington
  • At Risk, by Stella Rimington – yes, I am enjoying the Liz Carlyle series
  • The Human Factor, by Graham Greene
  • Call for the Dead, by John le Carré
  • All the King’s Horses, by Michèle Bernstein
  • The Comfort of Strangers, by Ian McEwan
  • Our Kind of Traitor, by John le Carré
  • On Chesil Beach, by Ian McEwan – seat 9C may be found here; loved
  • The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion
  • The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, by John le Carré
  • Lightning Rods, by Helen DeWitt – Guardian review. DeWitt is a genius; loved
  • A Delicate Truth, by John le Carré
  • The Investigation, by Philippe Claudel
  • Sweet Tooth, by Ian McEwan
  • Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, by John le Carré
  • Death and the Penguin, by Andrey Kurkov – loved this
  • Dead Poets Society, by N.H. Kleinbaum
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
  • Apples, by Richard Milward
  • Exit Music, by Ian Rankin – lovely to read about familiar places – maybe even some characters – in Edinburgh
  • Wetlands, by Charlotte Roche – not all about body fluids
  • A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby
  • The Semantics of Murder, by Aifric Campbell
  • The Piano Teacher, by Elfriede Jelinek
  • 4.48 Psychosis, by Sarah Kane
  • Friction, by Joe Stretch – review in New Statesman; excellent book!
  • Switch Bitch, by Roald Dalh – excellent
  • Collected Plays: One, by Bertold Brecht – including Baal and In the Jungle of Cities
  • Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard
  • Tsotsi, by Athol Fugard
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
  • Elizabeth Costello, by J. M. Coetzee
  • Veronika Decides to Die, by Paulo Coelho
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
  • The Big Glass, by Gabriel Josipovici
  • Fury, by Salman Rushdie
  • Youth, by J. M. Coetzee
  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
  • The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, by Douglas Adams
  • Life the Universe and Everything, by Douglas Adams
  • So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, by Douglas Adams
  • Mostly Harmless, by Douglas Adams
  • The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint Exupéry
  • Silence in October, by Jens Christian Grøndahl
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde
  • The Happy Prince and Other Tales, by Oscar Wilde

Note to self: stop scraping here!