Ed Kay

I ordered this for my Kindle assuming it was some kind of ‘self-help' organisational tool that would turn me into a productivity wizard. The fact I was totally wrong was in no way a disappointment. I found this a riveting read. Gawande writes with real vigour, mixing anecdote with cold hard statistical fact and marshalling what becomes an incredibly strong and urgent argument. It's astounding that something as simple as a checklist has the power to increase surgical (and no doubt standard procedural) outcomes with very little cost, and bewildering that such an evidence-driven industry such as medicine would be resistant to something which promises great improvements with very little cost. This should be required reading for all NHS managers.

I didn't get this book at all. Winner of awards, recommended profusely online and described as “subtle, funny and smart” by no less than Neil Gaiman... I found it tiresome, bland and rather vacuous. There are nice touches - Gwendolyn making the stained glass windows come to life, for one - but everything feels rather sketchy and unplanned. Things happen for no reason to partly drawn characters without any sense of narrative drive. It's wishy washy.

I should add I bought this for my nephew and thought I'd dip into some non-Rowling children's fiction before I gave it to him. Maybe I'm too old and it's something that grabs you when you're young, but to be honest I'm not sure I want to give it to him now, I'm not sure he'll thank me for it!