What we're reading at the end of 2019

As 2019 draws to an end, we thought we'd share with you what we're reading now.

Of course, I've already read all of the great books we published this year so it's not any of those, and we'll deliberately steer away from the manuscripts we're currently considering at Fair Play Publishing from potential authors (more on our 2020 list later). But it's about other reading, outside of Fair Play Publishing's orbit and, in fact, outside of football!

Bear in mind, it's not necessarily a list of the 'best books' but what we're reading now (or have read already over the festive season break).

'A Warning' : Anonymous

We can't get enough of books about the Trump administration. It's kind of silly, because it's not as if it doesn't play out in the daily news or, indeed, from Trump's own Twitter account. But we're looking forward to this one - even if we don't know the identity of the author - which is a book written by a senior Trump administration official. 'Anonymous' admits he thought/hoped Trump could transform into a dignified Presidential figure, but that clearly hasn't happened. The 'warning' from the book's title is just what the world will see - Trump even more unleashed - if the American people re-elect him for a second term next year.

'Becoming' : Michelle Obama (cover pic)

Another in the sphere of US politics but totally different. This is the autobiography of the former first lady of the US - an amazing person in her own right, from the south side of Chicago who went on to Princeton and Harvard Law School. Her book takes us on a journey through everyday African-American life and ambition and the delicate balance and tension between a world that speaks of gender equality and one where women still carry the burden of responsibility for family - even with an enlightened spouse such as Barack Obama. Becoming is the biggest selling book of 2019.

'Into the Heart of Tasmania' : Rebe Taylor

The only Australian book on the list, Rebe Taylor is a history professor at the University of Tasmania whose book explores the journey of Ernest Westlake, an anthropologist who arrived in Tasmania in 1908 and collected 13,000 Aboriginal stone tools - believing that they were from an extinct race. However, Westlake encountered Indigenous communities living in the state and this book tells his story of discovery and realisation and his determination to make an important record of Australian cultural history.

'Heads You Win' : Jeffrey Archer

I'm somewhat of a reluctant reader of Jeffrey Archer books but they're generally good for a quick read that engrosses for a few hours. This is no different. It's a 'sliding doors' type tale of a young Russian and his mother who escape the Soviet Union in the late 1960s and the paths their lives take. Unfortunately, I picked-up how it would end right at the beginning of the read and, as the story unfolded towards the outcome, I became impatient to finish it and get it over and done with!

'The Effortless Sleep Method' : Sasha Stephens

One for the new year! Insomnia is the curse of modern life and experienced by between an estimated 10-60% of adults (depending on whose study you read). Regardless of the figure, you hear about it a lot. The author promises she is "about to give you your life back" based on her own 15 years of sleeplessness and discovery of how to deal with it - without drugs or other unnatural interventions.