Sample Saturday is when I wade through the eleventy billion samples I have downloaded on my Kindle. I’m slowly chipping away and deciding whether it’s buy or bye.
Fast Times and Excellent Adventures by James King
Why I have it: Deep-diving the eighties while doing my Bennington Project.
Summary: Take a trip back to the era of troubled teens and awesome soundtracks; of Reagan, rap and Ridgemont High; of MTV and VHS; of outsiders, lost boys and dead poets; of Bill and Ted, Brooke Shields and the Brat Pack. King goes behind the scenes of a genre where cult hits mingled with studio blockbusters, where Spielberg and Coppola rubbed shoulders with baby-faced first-timers, and where future superstars Sean, Demi and Tom all got their big break. Music, comedy and politics all play a part in the surprisingly complex history of the ’80s teen movie.
I’m thinking: Yes.
The Bettencourt Affair by Tom Sancton
Why I have it: Not sure.
Summary: Was the world’s wealthiest woman, Liliane Bettencourt – heir to an estimated thirty-six-billion-dollar L’Oreal fortune – the victim of a con man? Or were her own family the real villains? This riveting narrative tells the real-life, shocking story behind the cause célèbre that captivated both France and the world.
I’m thinking: Yes.
The Power of Regret by Daniel H. Pink
Why I have it: Had it on the list since 2022.
Summary: Everybody has regrets. They’re a universal and healthy part of being human. And understanding how regret works can help us make smarter decisions and bring greater meaning to our lives. Drawing on research in social psychology, neuroscience, and biology, Pink debunks the myth of the ‘no regrets’ philosophy of life and examines the four core regrets that each of us has.
I’m thinking: Yes.
The first one seems like an excuse to name-drop, but I’m not familiar with the author. The second one sounds really interesting. I don’t usually read books like the third one, but I think I’ve read something by Daniel Pink. Oh. Now that look at what else he’s written, that’s a big NO for me.
Have you read something else by Pink? I’m not usually interested in motivational/ life coaching/ self-help stuff but this one caught my eye and I think I probably came across it within the context of my end-of-life and grief reading.
No, it turns out not. But I’ve read plenty of books like this. I could be wrong, but most of them have their theories based on one or two incidents, from which they make broad claims. I used to have a director who forced his managers to attend a managers’ book club, and we had to read crap like this and “Who Moved My Cheese” and “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” or whatever it’s called. It was all garbage based on very little evidence.
Yes, it’s usually the same old stuff re-packaged with a different tagline! (If I have one more person tell me about ‘Let Them’ by Mel Robbins, I’ll scream!
PS. a managers book club sounds like a NIGHTMARE.
Oh, believe it, it was, but there were four of us. One of us had the courage to decline from the beginning, and after I systematically heaped scorn on one book after another, our Director stopped having the club.