The Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
I recently re-read *The Little Chinese Seamstress* in a single sitting on a rainy Sunday in Shanghai, intending to skim a few chapters before lesson planning. Three hours later, the lessons were unpl...
Book Reviews
All posts about Book Reviews
Zero to One by Peter Thiel
I read *Zero to One* during a half-term break in Somerset, sitting in the same kitchen where I had once revised for exams I no longer remember. At the time I was trying to decide whether a teaching t...
Liberalism and Its Discontents by Francis Fukuyama
I recently read *Liberalism and Its Discontents* on a balcony in Shanghai, looking out at a city that has achieved remarkable prosperity without liberal democracy. It felt like the right place to rea...
The Philosopher in the Valley by Alex Karp
I came to this biography after a term spent arguing with our school's IT department about student data—what we collect, who can see it, and whether any of us actually understand the systems we have o...
The Discourse Summaries by S.N. Goenka
I recently re-read *The Discourse Summaries* in my flat in Shanghai, having first encountered Goenka's voice in a meditation hall in Yangon years ago. These aren't really a book you read for pleasure...
Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard
I first read *Empire of the Sun* shortly after moving to Shanghai, walking home one evening through the former International Settlement where the street lamps still curve in that particular 1920s way...
Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish
I recently read *Clear Thinking* during a half-term break in Somerset, away from the noise of Shanghai and the constant low-grade chaos of a school term. I'd intended to read fiction. Something about...
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
I recently re-read *Siddhartha* on a long train journey through southern China, heading to a ten-day Vipassana retreat I'd signed up for on something between a whim and a desperate need for silence. ...
The House That Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark
I recently read *The House That Jack Ma Built* on the Shanghai metro, surrounded by people paying for their morning coffee with Alipay. It felt surreal. Here was a book about the man who built the in...
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
I recently read *The Almanack of Naval Ravikant* on a flight from Singapore to Shanghai, after a colleague recommended it with the kind of enthusiasm that usually makes me suspicious. Too many people...
Breakneck by Dan Wang
I recently read *Breakneck* on a flight from Shanghai to London, and it was a strange experience to be suspended somewhere between the two worlds Dan Wang describes. On one side, the relentless energ...
River Town by Peter Hessler
I recently re-read *River Town* on a rainy Sunday in Somerset, years after I first encountered it as a student with no intention of ever moving to China. Back then I thought it was beautifully writte...
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
I recently re-read *Down and Out in Paris and London* during a rainy week in Somerset, visiting my parents. There's something disorientating about reading Orwell's descriptions of hunger and squalor ...