Category: Book Reviews

This is a book review of “How to fail your Viva: 12 steps to failing your PhD and 58 tips for passing” a new book by Dr Nathan Ryder, who is an expert on helping students get through the Viva. The viva is the oral examination at the end of the thesis process in the …continue reading.

So… I wrote an ebook. Or, more precisely, I compiled one out of blog posts and put it up on Amazon for $3.99 AUD – a price point carefully calibrated to match the cost of a cup of coffee in my home town, Melbourne. I thought I would write a quick post to give it a shameless plug let you all know it’s out there and what’s in it, so you can decide if you want to buy it or not.

The path to academic nirvana was not easy, in fact it was ridiculously hard. So when @sarahstow showed me the blurb for ‘Whackademia: an insider’s account of the troubled university” I immediately left the office to buy a copy, solely on the promise in the title. I’ve sold stuff in supermarkets and book stores, dabbled in the music industry, washed dishes in restaurants, driven courier trucks and cleaned houses in addition to working in architects’ offices. All of this experience has led me to conclude that yes – academia IS a whacky place to work…

This book has become my ultimate authority on everything thesis writing related. My copy is now well thumbed – but I have still not read every page…

“Demystifying Dissertation Writing”  sits on my shelf of ‘how to’ books. Stylus publishing donated a copy to Dr Charlotte Frost and Dr Sarah Quinell, of PhD2Published, kindly organised for a research student to receive a copy and review it for the Thesis Whisperer. This review was written by Linda Baines, a part-time researcher, who is …continue reading.

Want to toy with your librarian? Try wikipedia!

There’s so many, many books on the market that claim to help you with your PhD – which ones are worth buying? I have been thinking about it this topic for some time, but it’s still hard to decide. So here’s a provisional top 5, based on books I use again and again in my …continue reading.

Recently I grabbed a book from the RMIT library called “Detox your desk: declutter your life and mind” by Theo Theobald and Cary Cooper. Have a look at this picture and you’ll see why: This is my at home desk – not my at work desk (which is in such embarrassing condition I am not …continue reading.

Inger finds herself at home and highly medicated

PhD students have to do a lot of a lot of reading. One of our philosophies at the Whisperer is to ease that burden by doing some of the reading for you. With that in mind I present our first book review.