Page 30 - Blue Valley_Issue 3_2022

BOOK REVIEWS

THE POWER OF FUN:
Why fun is the key to a
happy and healthy life

hen did you last feel exhilarated and
light-hearted? When were you last
Wengaged, focused and completely
present? When is the last time you felt fully alive?
In other words, when did you last have fun?
In our always-on, tech-addicted lifestyles, we
frequently think of the pursuit of fun as an
indulgence. When we do find time to relax, we
often turn to activities that are not actually that
enjoyable, let alone fun: bingeing on television
and movies, doom-scrolling the news, or
feeding our FOMO on social media. But award-
winning science journalist, Catherine Price, has
learned the truth: far from being frivolous, fun
is the key to living a more meaningful, fulfilling
and happier life.
If you make fun a priority, you will be healthier
A SHOT TO and have more energy. You will be more
productive, less resentful and less stressed. You
SAVE THE WORLD: will find community and a sense of purpose. You
The Remarkable Race will stop languishing and start flourishing. And HOW TO GET OVER
best of all? You’ll enjoy the process.
and Ground-Breaking In The Power of Fun, Price argues that fun will lead BEING YOUNG:
Science Behind the to the happiness we so desperately seek, and A Rough Guide
includes a practical plan for how to incorporate
Covid-19 Vaccines more fun into our daily lives. Ground-breaking,
eye-opening and packed with useful advice, The to Midlife
Power of Fun won’t just change the way you think
his is the definitive account of the global about fun. It will bring you back to life.
effort to develop a vaccine for Covid-19, rom Charlotte Bauer, another award-
Tcharting the failure and success of every RECOMMENDED PRICE R350.00 winning journalist, this book is a warm,
major vaccine in use. Fwitty and wise quest for the meaning
of life after youth and how to navigate the
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, many of menopausal years.
the world’s biggest drug and vaccine makers
were slow to react or couldn’t muster an A deliciously funny and sage guide to midlife,
effective response. It was up to a small group of it is an unscientific, flaws-and-all account of
unlikely and untested scientists and executives one woman’s adventures and misadventures
to save civilization: a French businessman through the dark comedy of the wilderness
dismissed by many as a fabulist, a Turkish years.
immigrant with little virus experience, a quirky
American Midwesterner obsessed with insect Through her own experiences as a fifty-
cells, a Boston scientist employing questionable something woman, and those of her three
techniques, and a British scientist despised by sisters, her indomitable mum and her rebellious
his peers. They scrambled to turn their life’s work auntie, Bauer tackles the big questions every
into life-saving vaccines in a matter of months, woman seeks answers to at this time of life,
each gunning to make the big breakthrough chiefly: How the hell am I going to get over no
– each one wanting to beat the others for the longer being young in a world obsessed with
glory that a vaccine guaranteed. youth?
Meticulously reported and endlessly gripping, Written with warmth, wisdom and irreverence,
this is a dazzling, blow-by-blow chronicle of the this guide to midlife is perfect for readers of
most consequential scientific breakthrough of Nora Ephron, Caitlin Moran and India Knight.
our time. It’s a story of courage, genius, heroism
and optimism. It’s also a tale of heated rivalries, RECOMMENDED PRICE R370.00
unbridled ambitions, crippling insecurities and
unexpected drama.
RECOMMENDED PRICE R350.00

28 • Issue 3 2022 • BLUE VALLEY NEWS