In his early days as leader of the opposition, David Cameron circulated a summer reading list for his shadow ministers. Any such document for this holiday season would surely recommend Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World. Barbara Ehrenreich's book is a key text in the emerging new publishing genre of manuals for negative thinking, which argue that recent decades have encouraged unrealistic expectations of wealth, health and contentment. Others include Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy and You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up: A Love Story, which purports to be one of the first truly honest accounts of the irritations and compromises of a long relationship.
Read Full Article »
