Second paragraph of third chapter:

As he heard Stuart’s voice on the other end of the phone he felt his shoulders relax slightly. Although he wasn’t sure what he would work on with his coach today, he knew that for the three months he’d been working with Stuart, they always made progress and he felt better after the calls. Ben started to recount the day’s events, starting with arriving at work to see that the trainee accountant, Jane, who was doing her placement with him currently, had failed once again to follow his instructions. When Jane got into the office he had practically yelled at her, saying that if she didn’t learn to follow simple instructions she’d never make it at this firm. Although he did apologize later, she was still being slow with everything she had to do.

I like to read self-help books occasionally, and this was an interestingly different read, based on the proposition that a lot of our mental behaviour can be analysed in terms of the parts of the brain stimulated (or not) by various activities and the neurochemistry involved. There is a part of me that dislikes the thought that my perceptions and feelings are anything more (or less) than completely rational reactions to my accurate and perfect understanding of reality. But I found that liked Brann’s approach to taking a closer look at what is going on within the brain, and finding better ways to process the things the outside world flings at us. Understanding a process is usually the first step to influencing its outcome. So I got a bit more out of it than I had hoped. You can get it here.

This was the non-fiction book that had lingered longest unread on my shelves. Next up is The Kosovo Indictment, by Michael O’Reilly.

Second paragraph of third chapter:

I wondered what this slob’s line was. Or, rather, what Hubbard’s line was going to be. It was less than half a century since the Moon had really been opened up, and already we had not only bureaucrats by the score but hired thugs muscling a way in for the Hubbards of the world – the Hubbards who had gutted the world and now wanted … what?

This is the novelisation of a film which I watched a couple of years ago because it was set in 2021. Here’s the film’s trailer:

The novelisation is by John Burke, author of over a hundred books (mostly novelisations and tie-ins), of which the best known is his treatment of the Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night. I was very pleasantly surprised. Where the film stuttered a bit in terns of style and tone, Burke has gone for a relentless noir vibe in the novelisation, which also enables him to smoothe over some of the awkward bits in the story. I thought it came across much better on the page than on screen. You can get it here.