Life lessons and life-affirming fiction, chosen by Clara Amfo, Rick Edwards, Sarah Keyworth and Ugo Monye

20 December 2022

If you're looking for a book to change the way you see the world, this week's Between the Covers has a title for you. Learn about the ‘scout mindset’, or go on a spiritual journey of religious discovery, or enjoy two life-affirming fictions: White Teeth, Zadie Smith's riotous debut novel; and a recent release depicting the creative journey of two friends who become games designers in the 1990s.

Each week we reveal the favourite books brought in by guests on Between the Covers. In the final episode of the current series, Clara Amfo, Ugo Monye, Rick Edwards and Sarah Keyworth share their recommendations.

Episode six - Favourite books from our guests

The cover says: One of the most talked-about debut novels of all time, White Teeth is a funny, generous, big-hearted novel, adored by critics and readers alike. Dealing with - among many other things - friendship, love, war, three cultures and three families over three generations, one brown mouse, and the tricky way the past has of coming back and biting you on the ankle, it is a life-affirming, riotous must-read book.

Clara says: “I love this book so much. It basically inspired me to want to start reading again. I was such a voracious reader as a kid. I was a massive bookworm. And then I got distracted by music, by emotionally unavailable men and all that good stuff.

My dad, God rest his soul, was a really avid reader. And he said, ‘oh, there is this new author. She’s called Zadie Smith. I think you'll really like her.’ So, he got us two copies and we read it together and started our father-daughter book club.

I love this book. Maybe it's because there's a character in it called Clara, so that’s my narcissism, but it's just fab. It's about three families in northwest London, all from different backgrounds, and it's about race, class, love and loss. And it's highly entertaining. Like every character in this book, you instantly fall in love.”

The cover says: When it comes to what we believe, humans see what they want to see. This is what Julia Galef calls a soldier mindset. But if we want to get things right more often, we should train ourselves to think more like a scout. Unlike the soldier, the scout has to go out, survey the territory and discover what’s actually true... Galef explores why our brains deceive us and what we can do to change the way we think

Rick says: “This sounds like a self-help book and it isn't really, although I suppose it slightly is. I became borderline obsessed with Julia Galef after I started listening to her podcast, Rationally Speaking. The rationalist community are sort of a funny bunch, actually, and a bit cult-y, mainly Americans. Their whole thing is that they want to try and understand the world as it is rather than as they want it to be. Julia Galef talked about her book in the podcast and I immediately pre-ordered it because I already sort of love her.

She uses this war metaphor that I think is really useful. She says most people have a kind of soldier mindset where you just defend your territory and fight for the things you believe in. You see things the way you want to see them rather than how they actually are, and that's kind of what soldiers do.

The scout mindset is the idea that when scouts go out and look at the territory, what they're trying to do is build you an accurate map. There’s no use coming back and saying, “well, this is there” when it isn't, just because the general said he thought it was. You've got to know the actual information. The idea is that you're trying to update your map and being open to updating your map of the world constantly.

It's about being open-minded, I think. And it's just one of these books where with every chapter, I’d be tapping my wife Emer and saying, ‘ooh, this is a good bit,’ which is a really annoying habit.”

The cover says: Sam and Sadie meet in a children's hospital in 1987 and develop a brief but special friendship. When the pair spot each other eight years later in a crowded train station, the spark is immediate. Together they get to work on creating virtual worlds, and their collaborations make them superstars. This is the story of the perfect worlds Sadie and Sam build, the imperfect world they live in, and of everything that comes after success: money, fame, duplicity and tragedy.

Sarah says: “It’s a new book that came out this year so I'm going to try to avoid any spoilers, but this is a story about two kids who meet in the games room of a children's hospital in the late 1980s. They're playing on a games console together and that's where they start to become friends.

The story is about their lives, how they meet again when they're at university and become game designers together. There's loads of references to retro-1990s games in it, so if you love gaming then it's great.

It's a platonic friendship story. Is that a spoiler? Probably. It's about this relationship between two people who are friends but also colleagues, and the stuff that they make together as creatives. I loved it.”

I love the characters. They're so flawed. You hate them at times, and you're frustrated with them at times, but you still want the best for them. And it's about being creative. Anybody who works in a creative industry or makes things for entertainment will find it so relatable, because it's about what you put out into the world, how you follow up on success, and how you get up after a failure and continue to be creative and make stuff. I really recommend it.”

The cover says: Before you were born, God knew what your life had in store for you. His hope for you is to discover the life he created just for you - both here on Earth, and forever in eternity. Let Rick Warren guide you as you learn to live out your true purpose. The Purpose Driven Life is more than a book; it's a road map for your spiritual journey. Combining thoughtful verses from scripture with timely stories and perspectives from Warren's own life, The Purpose Driven Life will help you discover the answer to one of life's most important questions: What on Earth am I here for?

Ugo says: “I'm obsessed by this book. I've read it loads of different times and brought it to lots of different people. I guess the global coverage is Christianity at the heart of it, but what it is about is people finding their purpose in life.

For me, I think what you need in life is purpose and you need love. They're the two things driven by this and this gives you a sense of introspection, where you really have to find and generate and discover what that is. What I also love about the book is that it is 40 chapters, all of about eight or nine pages. You can read one every single day. It is really digestible.

I brought it to friends of mine who are atheists and said, just get rid of Jesus if you like and replace it with something else. I don't want to put people off who don't have a belief in anything at all, or would believe in a certain thing, because it can speak to absolutely everyone. Essentially, you're having that level of introspection and figuring out what that purpose is. I found it deeply moving and life-changing at times.”