'My Friends' by Fredrik Backman and 'We'll Prescribe You a Cat' by Syou Ishida

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat, Syou Ishida (4.0)

I can understand why this book has been translated into many languages – it is delightful. Some of us know that a cat can cure many ills, but now everyone can ‘read’ it in action. Depressed? Overworked? Watch the bond between human and cat work it’s magic. Ishida-san has not veered from true cat behavior in her examples which makes the stories all the more believable.

 

My Friends, Fredrik Backman (5.0)

I’ve enjoyed reading a few of Mr. Backman’s books, but this is my favorite. In it he has perfectly captured the voices of ‘lost’ teens – the angst, ennui and frustration of the time between childhood and adulthood, made tougher for the teens in this book as they all come from troubled homes. The touching story starts with a painting whose backstory is told in flashbacks to understand the artist, his friends and their choices. There is laughter, tears and surprises– all a great book needs. I don’t want to say more as the journey through this book is part of the pleasure. Enjoy.

 Open Socrates, Agnes Callard (3.5)

Not an easy book to read, but the author makes some interesting points about what Socrates and the Socratic method really represent. She uses the dialogues written by various peers and students to describe his motivations and where many people have possibly gotten things wrong. The main point I took away was that the method was not asking questions in order to get the student to the correct answer on their own. It’s to learn and grow together through dialogue and questioning – the key being together. He believed that thinking happens out loud with conversation. And that you need to have the right kind of conversations to learn. I also liked the idea that we often think of questions as solving a problem, but answering a question is a quest not removing a barrier.