By Ken Hickson
20 June 2021
This is a series of short “reviews” covering a number of books which have been on my mind – received, read, loaned or given away – over the last couple of months. In no particular order:
1. Midnight Library by Matt Haig (Canongate Books, 2021), This has been at the top of the bestseller lists in many places, including Singapore, of late. When I ordered this from Book Depository some months ago – and due to a postal address error, it took a long time to arrive – I knew nothing about it but loved the title. A tale very well told. Supernatural yes, but with some very human issues uncovered. If anyone comes across a library like this – or a librarian like Mrs Elm – let me know. You’ll have no regrets! It made me want to read more books by Matt Haig.
2. “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, and cleverly translated by Geffrey Trousselot (Picador 2019), was another case of “title attraction”. Very pleased I was drawn to it. Clever, funny at times, disturbing and uplifting. But very readable and left me wanting more. While all about a fascinating café in Tokyo where you can take your seat and go back in time – or Back to the Future, if you like – I also learnt about a real-life Japanese event called the Tanabata Festival, which seems to be all about worshipping bamboo and paper. There is fact in fiction! By the way, the most famous Tanabata festival is held in Sendai from 6 to 8 August.
3. “Novacene”, by James Lovelock (Penguin 2020) was lent to me by my friend Greg, who’s enamoured by the works of this famous 101 year old British visionary scientist-environmentalist-futurist, perhaps best known for his “Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth” (Oxford, 1979). I’m half way through the book and can see where he’s going. He speculates that the Novacene – the Age replacing the Anthropocene – could be the beginning of a process that will see intelligence suffusing the entire cosmos. Life on Earth (Gaia) is changing but Nature will take its course. Artificial intelligence (AI) might become a dominant force, but will smart and sustainable humans remain supreme? Let’s see.
4. “A Promised Land” by Barrack Obama (Crown 2020). I ordered this book well in advance from Books Actually and it’s been a slow and purposeful read. Not leisurely, as it’s not designed to be a quick read. It’s heavy in weight – 772 pages, plus hard cover – so I’ve been using it as part of my upper body physio-prescribed exercises! Not heavy-going reader-wise, but President Obama does go into great detail on campaigning and running the Oval Office. He’s good with words and good with names. Nothing is missed. And this is just the first volume. There’s more to come and it’s well worth reading and waiting for the next instalment.
5. “Negative Space” by Ranjani Rao (Xpress 2019), is a book of short stories by a writer who I was first drawn to through her thought-provoking pieces in the Straits Times. She admits in the preface that this book marks a departure from her preference for writing personal essays. So, I sense there’s a lot of real-life people, places and experiences intertwined with her short story telling. Which is great, as with any book – fiction or non-fiction – you want to come to know the writer better through her work, whether it shows in print or displayed through her actions/experiences. It’s a delightful collection of 11 short stories set in the places she’s familiar with – India, the US and Singapore. I’ll keep telling our readers more about Ranjani’s insightful writing, for sure.
6. “DHL: From Startup to Global Upstart” by Po Chung and Roger Bowie (Walter de Gruyter 2018). This is an important case study which should feature in business schools across the world. Of course, I know the company and many people involved in its progression to the top of the world’s express movement game. But it certainly had its ups and downs. More than its share of competition, some fair and some very much not fair. But beyond surviving as a brand and as a business, DHL has thrived, now part of the German Deutsche Post Group. Po Chung and Roger Bowie – both of whom I’ve worked with as a communications consultant in Singapore in the late 1980s/early 1990s – have made a throughly noble effort. A valuable business book. But I did feel there were some thing missing. I recall some of the stories/events that deserve a place in the ultimate record of DHL. For a start, it became an undisputed leader in Singapore as “a good corporate citizen”. DHL started the Businessman of the Year Awards with the Business Times – now more politically correctly called the Singapore Business Awards. DHL sponsored the visit to Singapore of the Mt Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hilary to support the Singapore Adventurers Club. DHL sponsored the first major Singapore Women’s Open Tennis Tournament. DHL brought the dynamic Gold Medal winning weightlifter Precious McKenzie to Singapore to demonstrate ‘safe lifting’. Missing in action? Yes. A missed opportunity to show something of the softer side of DHL. Which all helped add to its success story. But don’t get me wrong. The DHL story by Po Chung and Roger Bowie is well worth the read. A valuable lesson for any start-up in any sector. It takes more than money to get a business to the top. It takes hard work. Dedication. Determination. Getting people on board with passion and purpose, too. I always remember an annual conference in Singapore one year when the theme song was the rousing Queen number: “We are the champions”. They meant it then. They still mean it now.
7. “About This Girl” by Gemma Manning (Self-published 2020). It’s remiss of me not to have reviewed and/or promoted this book before now. I received a review copy from Gemma herself in February 2020. It must have been put aside while I struggled to get through a load of writing/editing jobs during the pandemic months. I’ve read it. I enjoyed it. It’s well worth a read for anyone in business or contemplating “going it alone”. As Gemma makes clear – it’s tough out there. And she has had to cope with more than her share of “challenges”. But she tells how she faced up to these and overcame them. Not easy. And she admits there we’re times when she was close to giving it all away and concentrating on her family. But as friend and business advisor Phil Forrest says: “This book describes the inspirational journey of an amazing young woman, one who is always upbeat and optimistic in spite of the knocks, always encouraging of others, always supportive of those who need help”. I couldn’t say it better myself. But there’s more to write, Gemma, and I look forward to hearing more of your success stories and client case studies. These, I’m sure, have contributed to your success and are what has helped you win more business. So, another book please.
8. “Horse” by Geraldine Brooks. We have to wait a few more months for it – until February 2022, I’m told – but in a recent “virtual” talk to the Friends of the Library (Port of Washington), she was reported in “The Island Now” as saying: “My remarks will primarily focus on ‘Year of Wonders’, which I wrote 20 years ago, never dreaming that we would be facing a pandemic in our lifetime. I will also share some thoughts about ‘Horse’, my new novel due to be published early next year.” Geraldine describes it as a “braided narrative”, set in three time periods: the racing world of the mid-19th century, the birth of Abstract Expressionism in New York City in the 1940s, and the present day at the Smithsonian Museums. Of course, you can order it in advance from any of your usual book sources, but I’m in touch with her publishers and I’m still hoping I’ll get a review copy in the post.
These book reviews were introduced and linked to the June issue of The Art of Travel, incorporated with ABC Carbon Express and Focus on Forests.