New publications written by Goodenough College Alumni
Goodenough Alumni have been hugely productive in the last year, judging by the number of titles published in recent months. A huge thank you to those authors who have given live book talks this year. We look forward to more coming up in 2021 – look out for information and dates for your diary.
The Success Trap: why good people stay in jobs they don’t like and how to break free by Amina Aitsi-Selmi (Kogan Page, 2021)
Dr Amina Aitsi-Selmi MBBChir MA(cantab) MRCP MPH MFPH PhD FRSA was a College Member from 2008-13. She is currently Director of Next Generation Coaching and Consulting Ltd and Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Epidemiology and Public Health Department at University College London.
The Success Trap builds on Dr Aitsi-Selmi’s years of experience as a physician, in healthcare policy, and coaching and consulting with hundreds of individuals and organisations. Combining her personal expertise with scientific research – including Google’s Project Aristotle and the Global Happiness Council’s Workplace Wellbeing report – it provides insights and useful takeaways for anyone who dreams of escaping a job they hate or a toxic workplace situation.
The principles outlined in the book aim to help people to navigate career choices, to discover their passions, overcome self-doubt and live a happier and more fulfilled life.
Jean Baptiste Discart (1855-1940): Orientalist paintings and Dutch portraits, by Theo PG Kralt (Van Gruting Publishers, 2020)
Theo Kralt studied Politics of the World Economy at LSE in 1985-86 as a Foreign and Commonwealth Office Scholar and Award while living at London House. Besides working for the Dutch government and civil society organisations, he has published on Wielbergen House and the Brantsen family, the churches of Utrecht’s inner city and the Domkerk restoration.
An English edition of Theo’s book on the Austrian French painter Jean Baptiste Discart, who was considered part of the Austrian Orientalist school, was published in late September, helping to bring the work of this largely forgotten artist to a wider audience.
Gardeners vs. Designers: Understanding the Great Fault Line in Canadian Politics, by Brian Lee Crowley (Sutherland House, 2020)
Brian Lee Crowley is the Managing Director of the Ottawa-based think tank the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and a well known political commentator in his native Canada. Brian lived at the College while studying for a doctorate in political economy at the LSE.
In Gardeners vs. Designers Brian argues that we can divide political culture into two categories: designers (progressives) and gardeners (conservatives). He suggests that creeping progressivism and its irresistible itch to “fix” things by designing something “better”, and imposing it from above, endangers what has made Canada great.
Throughout the book he develops the argument that we need fewer designers making top-down pronouncements, and more gardeners who are willing to work from the bottom up, cultivating instead of engineering.
The Truth of Yoga: a Comprehensive Guide to Yoga’s History, Texts, Philosophy, and Practices, by Daniel Simpson ( Macmillan USA, 2021)
Daniel Simpson lived at the College in 2016 while completing a Master’s degree at SOAS in Traditions of Yoga and Meditation. His studies and frequent trips to India inspired him to start teaching courses in yoga history and philosophy, which grew in to the book. Now based in the Cotswolds, Daniel works at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, where he tutors online courses and occasional workshops and is involved in yoga teacher training.
The Truth of Yoga is out on 5 January 2021. Aimed at the lay reader, it provides a succinct, approachable guide to the origins, development, key texts, concepts, and practices of yoga.
Daniel will be delivering a talk on the same topic in the New Year, look out on the website for details.
Responsible Recovery: My Opinions on Overcoming Addiction after Getting into Recovery Myself and Many Years of Running a Sober Home by Paul Noddings and Stefan J. Reich (Responsible Recovery, 2020)
Paul Noddings lived at London House for two years in the early nineties while studying for his professional certification as a Chartered Management Accountant and working as a Financial Analyst. His accountancy career was a springboard to a range of entrepreneurial endeavours including an accountancy practice, stock market trading and a landlord investment, Gault House, which he now runs as a sober living home for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.
Responsible Recovery is based on Paul’s experience of recovering from addiction and his “boots-on-the-ground” experience of running a “half-way” home in California.
Paul credits a near death encounter with a shark, while out surfing, with prompting him to address his own addiction to alcohol and drugs. The book provides a step by step guide on how to recover from addiction, avoid relapse and set up a strong foundation for sustained success. It also includes case studies from people who have recovered from addition, providing reassurance that “no matter how far down the scale” anyone has fallen, recovery is possible and is available to everyone willing to put in the necessary effort to achieve it.
More information on Paul’s current activities is available on his website www.ResponsibleRecovery.net and the book is available on Amazon.
Always Losing Something: a novel of hope, heartbreak and soaring optimism by Max Green
Marcus Gerbich writes: “In the 1990s I thoroughly enjoyed my three years at London house while doing a PhD at Cass business School. I just want to let you know, that my novel ‘Always losing something’ is out on Amazon and London House is mentioned in chapter four as well as the rugby team making a cameo appearance.”
The novel tracks the life of Max Green, an ex-football star turned corporate businessman, who seems to have everything until he is diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neurone disease or Lou Gehrig’s disease. But Max is lucky. The year is 2030 and when two of his powerful friends, the British Prime Minister of Great Britain and a self-made billionaire, also contract the disease suddenly everyone is interested in finding a cure.
Max Green is the pseudonym for Marcus Gerbich, who has lived with ALS since 2016.
The novel is available in a Kindle edition available from Amazon.
Six of the Best: selected short stories, 2018-2020, by Jonathan Land Evans
The Typishly Tales, by Jonathan Land Evans
More Tales & Trifles, by Jonathan Land Evans
Lordly Wadson, by Jonathan Land Evans
Jonathan Land Evans has recently published two inexpensive paperback mini-collections of short stories via Amazon KDP: Six of the Best: selected short stories, 2018-2020 and The Typishly Tales (six further short stories); the latter comprising stories that originally appeared on the Typishly on-line literary magazine website. Both titles are available on Amazon.
Jonathan’s most recent full-length hardback story collection, More Tales & Trifles, was also released earlier in 2020, as was Lordly Wadson (a lighthearted series of novelettes and other entertainments set in Bermuda in the late 1930s and featuring a private detective who moonlights as a calypso singer). The latter was warmly reviewed by The US. Review of Books.