Non-fiction:

by Johann Hari

Stolen Focus

A New York Times’ bestseller, Hari’s book investigates why people are unable to focus for any length of time. When his godson, an Elvis devotee, was nine years old, he asked Hari to take him to Graceland one day. Ten years later, the godson is a dropout and is living his life through the internet.

Hari takes him to Graceland with the proviso that he puts his phone aside. It is an impossible task and the godson still can’t focus on anything other than his phone.

The author embarks on a quest to discover why society is unable to concentrate for longer than the length of a Tiktok clip. He travels internationally to interview experts in the field of attention and focus.

In Silicon Valley he learns that tech companies design platforms specifically to destroy long-term focus. In a time when multitasking is praised, we can learn to regain our ability to focus on one thing.

Richard Green in South African Film: Forging Creative New Directions

by Keyan Tomaselli and Richard Green.

For any lover of film in the country, this book is a fascinating read. Green is a legendary producer in the South African film industry and his work spans more than four decades. He’s worked as a producer, line producer and first assistant director with more directors than one can count, including international greats such as director Tom Hooper, as well as Neill Blomkamp on Red Dust and District 9.

However, this book also documents his work on the New Directions project initiated by M-net in 1994 to change the face of the previously all-white, all-male film industry. New Directions was a pivotal step in creating the filmmakers of the new democracy and Green spearheaded the process along with Bongiwe Selane and others. They travelled throughout Africa finding new filmmakers and are responsible for the success of many of South Africa’s best-loved directors and screenwriters of today.

My Year of Not Getting Sh*tfaced

Pamela Powers

by

Powers’s book is a light-hearted but meaningful addition to my top reads. She writes a memoir about her former tendency to drink until she is sh*tfaced at every social event.

Her excessive drinking began at high school and was celebrated as a rite of passage. It subsequently became part of her “normal” life. Powers’s intimate tell-all style is endearing as she exposes her most embarrassing moments.

Her decision to make a change in her drinking habits comes after a hectic Mother’s Day celebration. In the morning, Powers vaguely remembers picking a raging fight with a friend for no reason she could recall, and exhorting youngsters to drink while begging them for fags.

Mortified, Powers reassesses her relationship with alcohol. Her self-deprecating wit and brutal honestly makes this a compulsive read with laugh-out-loud moments. At its heart is a warning about how society normalises using alcohol as a social lubricant and getting sh*tfaced as socially acceptable.