The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt

👍👍👍👍👍 

This book offers a compelling and well-argued exploration of how smartphones and related technologies are harming children’s mental health. 

Haidt begins by examining human evolution in close communities, explaining how early socialisation develops in infancy and why it is essential for well-being. He then traces how these foundations have been disrupted in the 21st century. Haidt frames the modern crisis as a combination of overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world. While digital technologies have existed for decades, he argues that the widespread adoption of smartphones around 2010 marked a tipping point, after which mental health problems among young people rose dramatically. Central to the book is Haidt’s concept of “phone-based childhood”, describing how children—especially teenagers—now live almost constantly online, with minimal exposure to nature, independence, or real-world experiences. 

He identifies four core harms caused by smartphones: 

• Social deprivation 

• Sleep deprivation 

• Fragmented attention 

• Addiction 

Although the effects differ between boys and girls, both are severely impacted. Girls tend to be more affected by social media due to its emotional and relational dynamics, while boys are more vulnerable to video games and pornography, which can lead to increasing withdrawal from real-world engagement. 

My favourite section of the book is the chapter on spirituality. Haidt explores how spiritual practices and shared meaning have historically helped build trust and social cohesion within societies. In contrast, he argues that smartphones and social media promote values and behaviors that undermine these foundations, negatively affecting both children and adults. 

The book concludes with a series of practical recommendations for governments, technology companies, schools, and parents aimed at reducing—or even reversing—the harms of phone-based childhood. Recommend.

Venus by Ben Bova

This was a really fun read. It’s a solid science fiction adventure packed with engaging science about space travel, the harsh realities of Venus, and what it takes to survive in extreme heat along with some interesting medical insights that follow two of the main characters. Bova’s writing is smooth and accessible. Nothing overly philosophical or literary, but deeply entertaining. 

The main characters are well done: interesting, with compelling backstories and believable motivations. Some of the secondary, background characters feel more like stereotypes and lack depth, but that didn’t bother me that much. 

Overall, the story kept me hooked and eager to find out what happened next. I’m definitely interested in reading more of Ben Bova’s work, especially his Grand Tour series. Recommend.

There are rivers in the sky by Elif Shafak

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

A beautifully written novel that follows three protagonists across different places and timelines. Their stories are linked by recurring themes of water and ancient Mesopotamia. 

The first story (2014) centres on a young girl in Turkey who travels to Iraq to be baptised in an ancient town—one associated both with the discovery of an early civilisation by a renowned Englishman and with more recent atrocities. 

The second (2018) follows a woman living in London with roots in the Near East. A scholar of water, she is also navigating the emotional upheaval of a marriage breakdown. 

The third narrative (1850s–1870s) traces the life of a boy, and later a man, whose passion for cuneiform script and the Epic of Gilgamesh defines him. This storyline is loosely inspired by George Smith, the scholar who deciphered the Gilgamesh tablets at the British Museum in the 1870s. 

For me, it was this final story that truly kept me turning the pages. The other two stories were okay, but marriage breakdowns and fantasy children stories are not my thing. I briefly read about George Smith in The Ark before Noah by Irving Finkel a few months ago. Although the book focuses on the flood texts, not Gilgamesh, it is good to understand all the work required to decipher the scripts and how the stories evolved over time.

Scene of the Crime by Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark and Sean Phillips.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

Outstanding crime-noir comic. I enjoyed this story just as much, if not more, than The Fade Out. The protagonist, the crime, the villains, the setting, every detail oozes noir. It was an immersive, tightly gripping read. I definitely need to read more Brubaker. Recommend!

Weavers, Scribes and Kings. A new History of the Ancient Near East by Amanda H. Podany

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨️ 

 The best way to finish my reading year. Using archaeological sources, mainly texts from cuneiform clay tablets, this book relates stories of people in Ancient Mesopotamia. Starting in 3500 BCE Mesopotamia, from the Sumerian civilisation and Akkadian dominion to the raise and fall of many Mesopotamian city states, from old and Neo Assyria, to old and Neo Babylonian empires. Each chapter deals with a place and a time frame, highlighting the main historical events, kings and gods. Chapters also include one or more stories of common people: traders, barbers, priestesses, scribes, Ashipus (physician-exorcists) whose lives we know about thanks to tablets found with their names and references to legal or business activities or sometimes incantations. The author reconstructs their lives vividly, transforming those clay tablets into real people who lived 3, 4, 5 thousand years ago. 

I loved this book because of all the history that I learned. Kings like Sargon, Ur-namma, and Hammurabi, as well as Sargon II, Sennasherib and Nebuchadnezzar. Priestesses like Enheduana and Adad-Guppi. Wars, conquers, defeats, and deportations. But on top of this knowledge, the stories told about common people gave me a new perspective, a deeper understanding of how people lived and felt in ancient Mesopotamia. Those people are more real to me now. In a way, their lives were no different than ours. 

Something else I found very helpful was the extras. In addition to the usual Index, Bibliography and Notes, I liked the Cast of Main Characters - with names, professions, dates and chapters of all people mentioned in the stories and historical accounts (there are so many, and the ancient names are so different from ours) and the Timeline with important people and events, from 3500 BCE to 330 BCE. 

Recommend.

Time is the simplest thing by Clifford D. Simak

A good read but not as good as the other two novels in this omnibus. My favourite is Way Station and then a close second A Choice of Gods. Time is the simplest thing follows an interesting premise about evolved human telepaths and with other powers but failed to grab my full attention. I liked the idea of the protagonist merging his mind with one of an alien being. But little of that is explored or developed. Unexplained are also the origins of Fishhook, an obscure organisation of paranormal humans, and their use of alien technology.

Maigret and the Saturday Caller by Georges Simenon

Simenon delivers. The writing is good and the prose is fluid. The story and the crime are original. I liked the way the Detective Chief Inspector Maigret looks for clues and analyses the situation. He is patient and observant. It seems effortless. As an extra we are given some glimses into his life at home with his wife.