e-/audiobooks: Non-fiction by Charmaine Chan
Most stories, Andrew Crofts writes, can be told effectively in 30,000 to 50,000 words, although we’re accustomed to 80,000 to 150,000. His preference for the pithy is writ large in Confessions of a Ghostwriter, which comprises dozens of short pieces, some spanning just a few hundred words. Although part of a “Confessions” series, there’s little scandalous between the covers.
by Andrew Crofts
HarperCollins
(e-book)
Most stories, Andrew Crofts writes, can be told effectively in 30,000 to 50,000 words, although we’re accustomed to 80,000 to 150,000. His preference for the pithy is writ large in Confessions of a Ghostwriter, which comprises dozens of short pieces, some spanning just a few hundred words. Although part of a “Confessions” series, there’s little scandalous between the covers. More a compilation of musings and some good tales, it is Crofts’ explanation of his life as a ghostwriter for anyone who wants their story told. Once a travel writer, he has a weekly advert in The Bookseller that says simply: “Ghostwriter for Hire”. His job puts him in contact (sometimes) with interesting people and allows him to ask impertinent questions. But while writing in someone else’s voice absolves him of responsibility, it also denies him the opportunity to air his own views, or reap the praise lavished on the person whose name makes the cover, he says. Although we learn the identities of some of the people for whom he has ghosted, many remain anonymous.
by David Adam
(read by Daniel Philpott)
Whole Story Audiobooks
(audiobook)
Do you check the toilet bowl for rats before you sit down? Or wash your hands so often they bleed? Do strange thoughts flash through your head: how easy it would be to steal the cash, stab that person, drive over the cliff. Or worse. David Adam's book on obsessive compulsive disorder is compelling particularly for those who think they may have OCD and are distressed by intrusive thoughts - and many of us do, apparently, even if we don't admit those impulses. The Ethiopian schoolgirl at the start of the book knew she needed help for her obsession: a wall. To stop thinking about it, she had to eat it, which she did every day, until by 17 she had consumed half a tonne of mud bricks. Adam's own OCD centred on his HIV paranoia. Obsessions of contamination with dirt and disease, he writes, account for one-third of OCD cases. The Man Who Couldn't Stop, narrated by Daniel Philpott, examines new and old ideas about the disorder, treatments and how Adam overcame his irrational fear of contracting Aids.