Information Sparkles with McCall's Infographics

Tommy McCall makes information come alive. He doesn't just present existing information - his graphics deliver new insights. He illustrates how you can take data and turn it into information, and then make it visually captivating and thought-provoking.  His immense creativity gets to the nub of what's important and figures out a way to convey that - succinctly and powerfully.

His recent brief TED talk shows some wonderful examples of his own and other infographics through history, including some perspective on Florence Nightingale's use of infographics to animate her argument about military deaths from poor care. Watch McCall here.

I wrote about Tommy in my blog  once before, when I first met him on a bus on the way to TED, and I've been following his wonderful work ever since. You will be fascinating delving into the trove of great graphics in his portfolio here. Bravo Tommy.

The October List

There are several fiction authors, including Jeffrey Deaver, that I turn to when I want an engaging plot but don't care about elegant prose, nuanced characters, or deep philosophical insight.  I don't usually write reviews of books by these authors - they're simply too light-weight.

I'm making an exception in reviewing The October List, because of its cunning construction. The story unfolds completely backwards. Not in a series of flashbacks, but completely backwards. Each chapter occurs before the previous one. There were many plot twists to keep me interested and guessing, and I couldn't help but be fascinated by the technique.

I won't tell you any more of the story, but it's a cute book to read.

More book reviews here.