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Thank you Matt

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Glad you enjoyed it Todd, any recommendations to add?

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Hi mate, very timely list as we near Xmas - thanks.

I'm always reticent about recommending books since I don't read as many as I should. However, this has been a book that I keep referencing in conversations at work and socially:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Generations-Does-When-Youre-Shape/dp/178649972X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1670323162&sr=1-2

Bobby debunks the ill-researched clickbait headlines of inter-generational tension with grace and humour. Through extensive quant research he argues that there are more complex and more interesting answers based on three things: periods (events that affect everyone who experiences them regardless of age); lifestage (you get more conservative as you get older); and then finally cohorts (values shared by people based on when they grew up e.g. Hip Hop stopped being good some time in the late 90s).

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That's an interesting concept. Will add it to the list! Thanks for sharing.

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Thanks Matt!

Four Thousand Weeks and Orwell's Roses sound right up my boulevard, I will be checking those out.

I feel like I've picked up and started so many duff books this year, but the one that I really enjoyed and remember is Atomic Habits by James Clear. It too can seem slightly cringe and life-hacky, but I really enjoyed it.

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Had loads of people recommend Atomic Habits, definitely need to check that out

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Oh dude. I*live* to recommend books. I'm much more fiction-y tho.

Lots of (technically) sci fi this year: Emily St John Mandel's Sea of Tranquility (even better than Station Eleven and that's saying something); Chuck Wendig's Wanderers (lags in parts but overall super compelling and also scarily prescient); the winner for the year: How High We Go in the Dark, which broke me. I cried so hard in parts I might've hurt myself (that's a good thing, I swear).

Another thing: life is too short to read stuff you don't like. QUIT IT.

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Ha ha. Thanks Val. All going on the list!

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Dec 8, 2022Liked by Matthew Barr

Great advice. I used to push through things out of habit from high school and then as an English major, but some "classics" really aren't that great. I've given up on Lovecraft even if it means losing a few goth points.

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I think this is my New Year’s resolution!

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I listened to an interview with David Grann about the book a couple years ago. It was around the time I learned about the Tulsa race massacre (from the Watchmen TV show of all places), and it was another reminder of how parts of history are erased.

Know My Name by Chanel Miller is the book I've been recommending people all year. Chanel was the survivor in the Stanford sexual assault case, and she also had a brush against a big mass shooting. Her story reveals so much injustice in the U.S. legal system and how the world could use more compassion because you never know if the Emily Doe in a case is actually in your life.

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ok going on the list!

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Dec 8, 2022Liked by Matthew Barr

Watchmen is a totally legit place to learn stuff like that - I loved this article https://www.cracked.com/article_26864_how-watchmen-has-always-been-about-race.html

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Dec 8, 2022·edited Dec 8, 2022

Hi Matt.Love book your recommendations and micro precis. Your tastes are some way from mine and thus all the more stimulating.

I am heavily biased towards fiction and the 'fictionier' the better. My last read was Treacle Walker by Allan Garner. Apparently it has lots of layered deep meanings but that passed me by leaving a Childs tale to enjoy.

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Thanks so much Ben, glad you’re enjoying them. I’ve been thinking of starting a book recommendation thread by genre on here, wonder if it’d work

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Just read East West Street by Philippe Sands. Reads like a novel but it's not. Incredible research that's gone into it.

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Ah I loved that book. He's got a new one out as well. if you liked that try Colditz by Ben Macintyre

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