“Fear sharpens the senses. Anxiety paralyses them” – Kurt Goldstein. Is anxiety a medical illness or a cognitive mis-wiring, a philosophical or a spiritual problem or a cultural condition explored by poets? Scott Stossel explores how anxiety is a function of all of these. It can be measured physiologically, it can be measured as aContinue reading “My Age of Anxiety”
Tag Archives: non fiction books
Into Thin Air
In 1996, Jon Krakauer, a mountaineer and journalist, was commissioned by Outside magazine to join and write about a commercial expedition to climb Mount Everest. The journey ended in disaster. Krakauer weaves a history of Mount Everest and different expeditions, famous climbers of the past and his present as well as the culture of climbingContinue reading “Into Thin Air”
We Had A Little Real Estate Problem
A stand-up comedy special from ten or fifteen years ago featuring an all-indigenous lineup used to have reruns on Canadian television. The author opens with this, relating that at least three different Native comedians told him that it inspired them to take up stand-up comedy. As he notes, this is what a balanced media representationContinue reading “We Had A Little Real Estate Problem”
The Order of Time
In this small book filled with giant ideas, Carlo Rovelli gently teases apart everything we take for granted about the concept of time. That it travels in a linear direction from the past to the future, that it exists independent of us, that we are subjected to it and at its mercy. One would notContinue reading “The Order of Time”
How to Build a Car
As a new fan of Formula 1, I had never heard of Adrian Newey. Karun Chandok, one of the F1 commentators, mentioned this book on air and it seemed like an interesting way to gain a better understanding of the the sport and its cars. It turns out Newey is instrumental in designing the changingContinue reading “How to Build a Car”
Four Thousand Weeks
“We treat everything we’re doing- life itself, in other words – as valuable only insofar as it lays the groundwork for something else.” What a revelatory, life-affirming book! It examines our relationship with time, how we perceive it, use it and try to outrun the knowledge that it is so limited for us – anContinue reading “Four Thousand Weeks”
The Code Breaker
Never has a science conference sounded so fun and dramatic! This is an accessible and fast-paced biography of Jennifer Doudna, the 2020 Nobel laureate in chemistry, and the army of scientists who uncovered the many steps to make gene editing possible. At its heart, The Code Breaker celebrates how life-changing scientific discoveries come from allContinue reading “The Code Breaker”
Ayesha Anna Ninan 