Compiling five years of weekly essays, "Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About the World" (2020) is one of Vaclav Smil's many books. The author is prolific and influential (apparently Bill Gates has read all of his nearly 40 books, and Gates promoted this book in particular). He is also the academic many dream to be - apparently attending only one faculty meeting over decades of being a professor - his "reclusive" approach was tolerated by the University of Manitoba so long as he kept publishing popular books and taught classes. That is more on the author as usual because this book is disappointing, with a wide ranging / sometimes random set of topics handled with OpEd level of detail. The value of this collection, of already published short articles, is unclear (but Vaclav sells far more books than I do...). If you are new to Vaclac Smil, I'd probably start elsewhere.  

From his doctoral work, Yahia Baiza wrote "Education in Afghanistan: Development, Influences and Legacies since 1901" (2013), published by Routledge. The book covers more than a century (1901-2012), structured around the political eras of the period. As much as this book is about education, it is equally about the context of each time period. This partly to help us as readers have context and probably also partly due to the scarcity of available research specific to education during the period of study. In that sense, a parts readers are left wanting more about the actual education systems. This is a niche book of which there are few comparable options, so for anyone interested in this specific area of study this is worth picking up. A few quotes:

"There has often been a misconception about the nature of modern as well as madrasa education in Afghanistan. Since the latter is understood to be an exclusively or predominantly religious-oriented form of education, it has been often described as 'Islamic school' or 'religious school', although madrasas do also teach non-religious subjects. By contrast, as modern education has been adopted from the European model of education and many of its subjects are different from the traditional madrasa education, modern education has too often been mistakenly described as 'secular' education. As shall be discussed in this book, the modern education system not only includes both religious and non-religious subjects, but religious subjects for a very long time occupied an important position. In addition, the so-called 'secular' education had to rely on teachers from the madrasa system, who would teach language, literature, religion, Arabic language and grammar, mathematical sciences, etc. Furthermore, the modern education system has been borrowing terms and concepts from the traditional madrasa system. For instance, terms such as maktab (an elementary level of education), talib (seeker) or talibul Ilm (the seeker of knowledge) for student, mudaris (teacher), talim (education) and tarbiyah (upbringing for education) etc are rooted in the so-called 'Islamic' education system. Equally, the madrasa, maktab, and makatib-e asri for a long time were used interchangeably, and meant 'modern school'." (p. 44-45)

"The curriculum, which was an important characteristic of the 'modernness' of the schools, was a combination of aspects of religious education and aspects of western education. In civil schools, the curriculum for primary level education consisted of religious education (reading and reciting the Quran), Persian, mathematics, geography, and calligraphy. The lower secondary level curriculum included religious education, history, geography, painting, health care, Persian, Afghani or Pashto, and foreign languages, specifically English, Urdu, or Turkish. The curriculum at the upper secondary level consisted of subjects such as religious education (recitation of the Quran, Tradition (hadiths), Arabic language and grammar, Persian, history, geography, algebra, geometry, analytical geometry, natural sciences, alchemy, and English." (p. 51-52)

"Education became a key catalyst as well as victim on both sides of the war. The PDPA, under the Soviet Union's advisers, integrated socialist ideology in school textbooks, and teacher education programmes. Similarly, the resistance parties, under the United States' and other Western educational experts, used schools in refugee camps and in the areas outside the state's control in Afghanistan as recruitment and propaganda centres for the Islamist parties. They developed their textbooks for disseminating anti-Soviet and anti-PDPA messages of violence, aggression, killing, and use of firearms, etc. As a result, this period experienced two key parallel education streams: the state's education system under the control of the PDPA, and the refugees' education, under the control of resistance parties." (p. 131)

"When the University of Nebraska programme staff developed these textbooks, international organizations chose to ignore the images of Islamic militancy in them for the first five years of the programme (Davis 2002: 93). Later on, when the United Nations and various NGOs lobbied against such teaching and learning materials, some images and messages that promoted violence and killing were removed from the text- books, but the religious content remained unchanged (Pourzand 2004: 24–25). However, it is also worth noting that none of the NGOs or the UN agencies criticized these textbooks as long as the Soviet Union's army was present in Afghanistan." (p. 155) 

This book sat on my shelf for some years, and I've since forgotten why or how it landed there. Nonetheless, "Radical Transformational Leadership: Strategic Action for Change Agents" (2017) by Monica Sharma is a blend of self-help and development studies. The book is not published by an academic press (North Atlantic Books) and the author is a practitioner (not an academic). I believe the author seeks to inspire and motivate, with relatively basic "fallacies" and "new learnings" frequently appearing throughout. At many points the book is aspiration without delving into the challenges (although the examples do highlight some of the issues when moving from broad / generic "universals" to specific decisions). If you are seeking a motivational and aspirational book with some tips, this could be for you; if you are looking for an academic or critical engagement with leadership and transformation, potentially not. Some notes:

"It is essential to support the principled risk-takers whose actions move us toward equitable and sustainable change. Principled risk-takers are there in every establishment, every society. They challenge what is not working not because they have a personal agenda or complaint but because they are grounded firmly in the space of oneness, of universal values that apply to everyone, everywhere. They are ethical and cannot close their compassionate hearts to what is unfair or undignified. Unfortunately, others all too often label them as disgruntled, rebellious reactionaries, or simply dismiss them as emotional. Courageous, politically conscious individuals with bold ideas that support the common good are often branded as idealists and are told that the system will stall their ideas. But they continue. And they need support so that they are not rendered ineffective." (p. 128)

"We have choices. We can continue to find "fixes" to our problems, never addressing the factors that give rise to these problems. We can continue to implement partial responses to complex issues - brutal violence, climate change, crisis in the financial system, inequalities, unemployment, unmet basic needs, to name a few - knowing that such responses rarely make significant impact or generate the change we wish to see. Or, we can choose to design and implement conscious full spectrum responses to solve our dire problems while radically transforming systems and cultural norms, sourcing our inner capacities, thereby moving the whole, addressing not just the immediate problems but that which gives rise to them. These are the conditions of sustainable change. As we create opportunities for people to manifest their full potential, at the same time we must respond to basic needs for all." (p. 305-305) 

Mega projects never seem to get done on time, or on budget. Planners often repeat similar errors due to a lack of data on comparable projects. Fortunately someone has spent a career building a database to provide evidence for understanding them projects and allowing for comparative time and cost comparisons. Summarizing findings, sharing experiences and providing a wide range of case studies, Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner's 2023 book "How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between" is an interesting read. At first glance, and particularly for those who are involved in project management, the "findings" and suggestions verge on common sense. However, given the frequency that these "common sense" approaches do not occur, the book certainly has a place. Lessons include: Investing time in planning (think slow, act fast), having a plan / theory of change / many other names from a range of domains that have a similar meaning, working with people who have experience, the importance of teams, the value of modularity and learning, avoiding first times / customs / biggest / tallest / fastest that require doing things newly for the first time, creating costing and timelines based on similar actual projects rather than theoretical scenarios ... I think the value of this book is not the list of tips and tricks, but the in-depth case studies as well as the evidence drawn out from the large database created by the author(s). The authors (first author one assumes) has also a wide range of firsthand experience from around the world and in different sectors (building schools in Nepal to transportation projects) which provide insight into the application of the "common sense" ideas. This is an enjoyable, easy read. The content is accessible for non-academics and is not buried in technical management jargon. If you are interested in project management, this is worth a read (or a listen, there is an audiobook version).