Bookshop Picks: Liber, Sligo
This week's bookshop interview comes from Liber in Sligo! Liber is a family run books, music and gifts shop and strive to support local artists by stocking their work as well as selling general titles. Brian from Liber was kind enough to recommend some great smart thinking books for me, read his picks below.
Q. What are two recent smart thinking books that are your favourite and/or have been popular in your shop?
Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall is a fantastic read. Clear concise and insightful. Prisoners of Geography frames the political landscape against the Geographic landscape in a fresh and exciting way. Geopolitics made easy!
Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need To Know About Global Politics
Review from Book Depository:
All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Yes, to understand world events you need to understand people, ideas and movements...but if you don't know geography, you'll never have the full picture.; To understand Putin's actions, for example, it is essential to consider that, to be a world power, Russia must have a navy. And if its ports freeze for six months each year then it must have access to a warm water port - hence, the annexation of Crimea was the only option for Putin.
To understand the Middle East, it is crucial to know that geography is the reason why countries have logically been shaped as they are - and this is why invented countries (e.g. Syria, Iraq, Libya) will not survive as nation states.;
Spread over ten chapters (covering Russia; China; the USA; Latin America; the Middle East; Africa; India and Pakistan; Europe; Japan and Korea; and Greenland and the Arctic), using maps, essays and occasionally the personal experiences of the widely travelled author, Prisoners of Geography looks at the past, present and future to offer an essential guide to one of the major determining factors in world history.
Buy On:
Liber Book Depository €9.62 Waterstones £7.99 Amazon UK £6.99 Amazon US $11.74(All affiliate links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
The School of Life: An Emotional Education by Alain de Botton is a timely and important book about emotional intelligence and how to equip yourself to be emotionally resilient in the modern world. A Liber recommended read.
The School of Life: An Emotional Education
Review from Book Depository:
We spend years in school learning facts and figures but the one thing we're never taught is how to live a fulfilled life. That's why we need The School of Life - a real organisation founded ten years ago by writer and philosopher Alain de Botton. The School of Life has one simple aim: to equip people with the tools to survive and thrive in the modern world. And the most important of these tools is emotional intelligence.
The School of Life is nothing short of a crash course in emotional maturity. With all the trademark wit and elegance of Alain de Botton's other writings, and rooted in practical, achievable advice, it show us a path to the better lives we all want and deserve.
Buy On:
Liber Book Depository €14.78 Waterstones £16.99 Amazon UK £11.45 Amazon US $19.10(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Q. What are two classic or established smart thinking non-fiction books that you and/or your customers like?
The Miracle of Mindfulness is one of the original and best books on Mindfulness and Meditation by Buddhist monk and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh. Highly recommended.
The Miracle Of Mindfulness: The Classic Guide to Meditation by the World's Most Revered Master
Review from Book Depository:
In this beautifully written book, Buddhist monk and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh explains how to acquire the skills of mindfulness. Once we have these skills, we can slow our lives down and discover how to live in the moment - even simple acts like washing the dishes or drinking a cup of tea may be transformed into acts of meditation.
Thich Nhat Hanh's gentle anecdotes and practical exercises help us to arrive at greater self-understanding and peacefulness, whether we are beginners or advanced students. Irrespective of our particular religious beliefs, we can begin to reap the immense benefits that meditation has been scientifically proven to offer. We can all learn how to be mindful and experience the miracle of mindfulness for ourselves.
Buy On:
Liber Book Depository €9.25 Waterstones £8.99 Amazon UK £7.97 Amazon US $11.01(All affiliate links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt, is a highly entertaining romp through the modern world by a "Rogue Economist". Thought provoking and addictive. An evergreen Liber Bestseller.
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Review from Book Depository:
Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime?
These may not sound like typical questions for an econo-mist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life—from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing—and whose conclusions turn conventional wisdom on its head.
Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. They usually begin with a mountain of data and a simple question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics.
Buy On:
Liber Book Depository €9.26 Waterstones £7.99 Amazon UK £6.68 Amazon US $9.29(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Q. What is one wildcard smart thinking book that you like and/or you have in stock which may not be very well known?
The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a clever and well researched book highlighting the random events that underlie our lives. This book flew under the radar when it was released but much like the tipping point has become an accepted theory and part of our everyday language.
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Thought provoking and enjoyable read. Provides a framework for questioning your assumptions with respect to randomness and also to how you move and plan through life.
Review From Book Depository:
The phenomenal international bestseller that shows us how to stop trying to predict everything - and take advantage of uncertainty. What have the invention of the wheel, Pompeii, the Wall Street Crash, Harry Potter and the internet got in common? Why are all forecasters con-artists? Why should you never run for a train or read a newspaper?
This book is all about Black Swans: the random events that underlie our lives, from bestsellers to world disasters. Their impact is huge; they're impossible to predict; yet after they happen we always try to rationalize them.
Buy On:
Liber Book Depository €11.17 Waterstones £10.99 Amazon UK £8.33 Amazon US $11.69(All links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Many thanks to Brian in Liber in Sligo for choosing some excellent smart thinking books!
Check out Liber on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: Elliott & Thompson Limited (Prisoners of Geography), Ebury Publishing (The Miracle Of Mindfulness), Penguin Books Ltd (The School of Life, Freakonomics, The Black Swan)
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