Synopsis: One time choir boy, Rhodes Scholar and Dukakis operative pens a first person account of the experience of being a senior staffer for the Clinton campaign and subsequently presidency. Honest, insightful and controversial.
My Take: The best book ever written by a political insider. Odds are, that if you ask someone who has spent [...]
Synopsis: A Chinese family flees war and conflict in Vietnam and Cambodia for the Western suburbs of Melbourne. A young girl grows up Asian in Australia.
My Take: I had a typically ‘old Australia’ childhood in country Queensland. Cricket, football, fishing, “Australia All Over” with Macca on a Sunday morning. It was great fun, but it [...]
Tags:Alice Pung
Synopsis: The economics correspondent for the Financial Times writes a pop economics textbook illustrating economic principles in accessible and engaging examples.
My Take: Should be required reading for all high-school students. Clearly articulated, widely accessible and practically illustrated explanations of the fundamentals of economics.
Highlight: A great chapter highlighting the benefits of sweatshops as a transitional industry [...]
Tags:Tim Harford
Synopsis: A collection of the words that Robert Kennedy used to move others, and the words of others that moved Robert Kennedy.
My Take: Compiled by RFK’s ninth child (!), “Make Gentle The Life of This World” is a delicious combination of extracts from Robert Kennedy’s own speeches and a selection of passages from a daybook [...]
Synopsis: Two stats geeks methodically unpick common statistical misrepresentations while giving readers a tool kit to allow them to test statistical claims that they come across themselves.
My Take: “The Tiger That Isn’t” really should be compulsory reading for anyone involved in public policy – advisers, politicians, activists and in particular, journalists. In their capacity as [...]
Synopsis: Technological advances that dramatically reduce the costs of collecting and storing data combined with vast increases in computer processing power has made data driven decision making both more powerful and more feasible.
My Take: Ian Ayres is a great advocate. Perhaps the reason for this is that he divides his time and expertise between the [...]
Tags:Ian Ayres
Synopsis: A collection of newspaper columns on Chinese/Western society written by the a columnist on Chinese life for The Guardian.
My Take: I grabbed this wanting an accessible layman’s guide to the quirks of Chinese society.
Unfortunately this collection is very uneven, ranging from shallow and patronising observations about the west to insightful explanations of the [...]
Tags:Xinran
Synopsis: Politics is about voters, not politicians. It’s not what politicians say, it’s what voters hear.
My Take: Frank Luntz has an impressive CV. An Oxford University PHD, Luntz rose to prominence as the chief pollster for Ross Perot’s outsider presidential bid in 1992. After providing polling for Rudy Giuliani’s successful NYC mayoral campaign, Luntz then [...]
Tags:Frank Luntz
Synopsis: Tony Blair’s Director of Communications and general master of the dark arts tells (almost) all about The Blair Years.
My Take: Ordinarily I steer clear of political biographies (diaries in particular!) but beore I moved to the UK I thought I needed a bit of a crash course in the who’s who of the Party [...]
Tags:Alastair Campbell
Synopsis: In/famous Clinton pollster, Burson-Marsteller CEO and Bowser look alike claims that small-scale, niche trends, identifiable through statistical analysis, are the key drivers for societal change. A long bow, stretched WAY too far for its own good.
My Take: Love him or hate him (and let’s face it, most people hate him these days), Mark Penn [...]
Tags:Mark Penn