Changes

|author=Ariel Saramandi|title=Portrait of an Island on Fire|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=In this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks to intradermally dissect the sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, tunneling deep into the wounds left by colonialism and slavery to expose how these legacies still shape modern life. Saramandi describes the country at one stage as ''rotting'', a blunt yet apt metaphor for the systemic decay brought about by the malignant forces of racism, patriarchy, environmental degradation and governmental dysfunction. Each essay in this collection serves as a kind of diagnostic, charting the various diseases afflicting the island state.|isbn=17837843501804271616}}{{Frontpage|author=Gregor Hens and Jen Calleja (translator)|title=This Golden FleeceThe City and the World|rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=In ''The City and the World'', Gregor Hens reveals how cities are as much imagined spaces as they are physical ones. With a deep affection for the urban landscapes that have shaped his life, Hens reflects on places like Cologne, Berlin, and Goch on the Lower Rhine with a blend of personal memory and thoughtful observation. His writing, at times abstract, captures not just architectural features but the emotional and mental geographies tied to each location, for example, his perspectives as a child as opposed to as an adult. From Belgium and Germany to Berkeley and Columbus, Hens traces a map of experiences, turning cities into reflections of identity and belonging.|isbn=1804271691}}{{Frontpage|author=Paul B Preciado|title=Dysphoria Mundi|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=''It is never too late to embrace the revolutionary optimism of childhood''  Through this hybrid text, consisting of arias, letters, essays and autofiction, Preciado expresses his own hybrid self, and brings forth a new sensorium as an offering to the new generation, a new feeling mechanism in which detachment is not considered a sign of political apathy. Rather, it is the proportional, valid response to ''the epistemological and political crack we are living through, and the tension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that characterize our present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''. The whole text is framed against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic as that which has catalysed this revolution, when dysphoria began to emerge on a global scale, or as ''pangea covidica''. Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a sign of weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to ''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''. |isbn=1804271454}}{{Frontpage|author=Jacqueline Feldman|title=Precarious Lease|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=The title of this novel refers to a French legal term (''bail précaire'') associated with squatters in France, affording them temporary suspension from eviction charges and processes, but few scant property rights. Among mentions of other squats dotted around Paris like Le Carrosse and La Miroiterie, Feldman takes particular interest in one squat of massive proportions which adopted an almost mythical status for its inhabitants, admirers and detractors alike: Le Bloc. Something like a haven for artists and marginal members of society (as one character, Le Général, repeats throughout, ''I live on the margins of the margins of the margins''), Le Bloc was subject to the continual threat of eviction and the pressures from above which oppressed its inhabitants' lives. We follow Le Bloc from its opening in 2012 until its eventual dissolution, framed as a tragedy in this book. |isbn=1804271403}}{{Frontpage|author=Claire Dederer|title=Monsters: A Journey Through BritainWhat Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?|rating=3|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Dederer sets out to unveil what she calls a ''biography of the audience'' in a deconstructed, thoroughly nitpicked, exploration of the old aphorism of separating the art from the artist in the context of contemporary ''cancel culture''. Dederer's Knitted Historywork is original and expressive. The reader gets the impression that the thoughts simply sprang and leapt from her brilliant mind and onto the page. In particular, the prologue packs a punch: she simultaneously condemns and exalts the director Roman Polanski, an artist she personally admires for his art, and yet despises for his actions. This model of ''monstrous men'' as she calls them, is consistent for the first few chapters, interrogating the likes of Woody Allen, Michael Jackson and Pablo Picasso. Her critical voice is acutely present throughout, never slipping into anonymity and maintaining her own subjectivity, as she holds it so dearly, and a personal, rather than collective voice.|isbn=1399715070}}{{Frontpage|author=Virginie Despentes|title=King Kong Theory|rating=4|genre=Autobiography |summary=''King Kong Theory'' is a hard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, which can be seen as a call to arms for women in a phallocentric society broken at its core. Originally written in French, the book is a collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the complex prism of her varied life: from rape to sex work and pornography. Though these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the book can feel somewhat disjointed, a reflection of their original form as independent essays.|isbn=191309734X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1009473085|title=The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Esther RutterAnthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)

|genre=HistoryPolitics and Society|summary=Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the book for you. If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It 's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and the situation in 2024.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alastair Humphreys|title=Local|rating=5|genre=Travel |summary= Alastair Humphreys has walked and cycled all over the world. And then written about it. For this book he walked and cycled very close to home and then wrote about it. As he says in his introduction, the book is an attempt ''to share what I have learnt about some big issues from a year exploring a small map. Nature loss, pollution, land use and access, agriculture, the food system, rewilding…'' One of the joys of the book for me was December and Esther Rutter that the biggest thing he learned about all of these things was stuck in her office jobthat there are no easy answers, no single 'right or wrong', writing that every upside is likely to people shehave a downside for somebody and that there are some hard choices ahead.|isbn=1785633678}}{{Frontpage|author=Edel Rodriguez|title=Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey|rating=4|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=We'd never met re in childhood, and preparing spreadsheetswe're in Cuba. The job frustrated her revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the country, has proven himself a Communist, and even her knitting did not soothe her minddone nearly enough to create a level playing field for all. Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time away. January was going Our narrator's family weren't in the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to be a time for making changes the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and she decided that she would travel the length father being watched and breadth watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some of the British Isles with occasional forays abroadheat, but in this sultry island country, discovering it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…|isbn=1474616720}}{{Frontpage|author=Sarah Wilson|title=This One Wild and telling Precious Life: the path back to connection in a fractured world|rating=3.5|genre= Lifestyle|summary= My favourite Mary Oliver line is the story of woolone in which she asks ''s history What is it you plan to do with your one wild and how it had made precious life?'' I get to love that line so much because my answer is ''This! Precisely this.'' I'm lucky enough to be living my one wild and changed precious life the landscapeway I want to. SheSarah Wilson is equally lucky. In her book that takes Oliver's words as her title (though I can'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk - t see that she acknowledges the source) she pushes us to think about whether we really ''are'' living the life we want – the best life that we could be living. Her answer is an unequivocal ''no, we are not''. Don't care what you're doing, she thinks you (we, I) could be doing more…And she' s effing furious about the fact that we are not.|isbn=1785633848}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1785633457|title=Charging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson|rating=5|genre=Travel|summary=Clive Wilkinson has a free range child on history of travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of exploring the farmedges of England in an electric car was not totally outrageous. In fact, it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and his wife, Joan, shouldn't it?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153050|title=Britain' - s Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=Seeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is coming to seem more and learned to spinmore like an adrenaline sport, knit and weave I was nudged towards ''Britain's Best Political Cartoons of 2022''. Sharp eyes will have noted that we're not yet through the year: the cartoons run from her mother 4 September 2021 to 31 August 2022. Who can imagine what there will be to come in the 2023 edition?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0B7289HKQ|title=Conversations Across America: A Father and her motherSon, Alzheimer's friend, and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Soul of America|author=Kari Loya|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Kari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, by the way) wanted to spend some time with his father and the period between two jobs seemed like a good time to do it. This The decision was made to ride the Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, Virginia to Astoria, Oregon - all 4250 miles of it - in her blood2015. They had 73 days to do it - slightly less than the recommended time - but there were factors which pointed this up as more of a challenge that it would be for most people who considered taking it on. Merv Loya was 75 years old and he was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer's.

I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the book. There's got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it. }}{{Frontpage|author=Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams |title=The Book of Hope |rating=5|genre=Politics and Society |summary= The done thing is to read a book all the way through before you sit down to review it. I’m making an exception here, because I don’t want to lose any of the experience of reading this amazing book, I want to capture it as it hits me. And it is hitting me. This beautiful book has me in tears. |isbn=024147857X}}{{Frontpage|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingisbn=1788360737|title= Artivism: The Battle for Museums in the Era of Postmodernism|author=Alexander Adams|rating=2|genre="15"Politics and Society<!|summary= Can art ever be apolitical? All art is political because art is not made in a vacuum. It is made by people. Antonio Gramsci stated that ‘’Every man… contributes to modifying the social environment in which he develops’’. Therefore, all art must be political, even implicitly. Alexander Adams in his new book ‘Artivism: The Battle for Museum in the Era of Postmodernism’ is adamant that art is freer when it is art for art’s sake. The recent trend of so-called artivism has caused artists to become more overtly political (read: left wing). Their seemingly grass roots movements have been astroturfed by large “left- Peter Wohlleben -->wing” donors and media elites hoping to create a more globalist and progressive regime. Or at least that’s what Alexander Adams believes.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398508632|title=The Wilderness Cure|author=Mo Wilde|rating=5|-genre=Lifestyle| stylesummary=''width: 10%; verticalIt had been on the cards for a while but it was the week-alignlong consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of eating only wild food. The end of November, particularly in Central Scotland was perhaps not the best time to start, in a world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, Brexit and a pandemic. Wilde had a few advantages: top; textthe area around her was a known habitat with a variety of terrains. She had electricity which allowed her to run a fridge, freezer and dehydrator. She had a car -alignand fuel. Most importantly, she had shelter: center;this was not a plan to ''live'' wild just to live off its produce.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529149800[[image|title=Things You Can Do:1846045576.jpgHow to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste|author=Eduardo Garcia and Sara Boccaccini Meadows|rating=4|genre=Home and Family|linksummary=httpWe begin with a telling story. All the birds and animals fled when the forest fire took hold and most of them stood and watched, unable to think of anything they could do. The tiny hummingbird flew to the river and began taking tiny amounts of water and flying back to drop them into the fire. The animals laughed://wwwwhat good was that doing.amazon ''I'm doing the best I can'', said the hummingbird.co And that, really, is the only way that we will solve the problem of climate change – by each of us doing what we can, however small that might be.uk/dp/1846045576/ref}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1638485216|title=Black, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds|rating=nosim?tag5|genre=Autobiography|summary=thebookbag-21]]''Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. It has everything to do with character. Period.''

| style=The murder of George Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man, on 25 May 2020 by Derek Chauvin, a forty-four-year-old police officer, in the US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around the world. We rarely see pictures of a murder taking place but Floyd's death was an exception. The image of Chauvin kneeling on George's neck is not one which I'verticalll ever forget and the protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. There was a backlash against the police -alignand not just in Minneapolis: top; text-align: left;whatever their colour or creed they were ''all''tarred by the Chauvin brush.}}{{Frontpage|author=Matthieu Aikins|title=The Naked Don't Fear the Water|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=[[Walks In It's easy to forget at times that The Wild Naked Don't Fear the Water isn't actually fiction, because it reads very much like a well-paced thriller at times. This is not by Peter Wohlleben any means a criticism, but rather a testament to how well Matthieu Aikins – a Canadian citizen who decided to accompany his friend as a refugee from Afghanistan through Europe – recounts a vast and Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp at times painful journey. There are tense moments and gripping accounts of border crossings which had me on edge the whole way through. But it's written with a haunting and almost lyrical quality that allows the reader to perfectly envisage the environments and people described.|isbn= B09N9157T6}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1785633074|title=Staggering Hubris|author=Josh Berry|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary=Members of Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by politicians, headed by the Prime minister - the ''primus inter pares'' (Translatorthat's for those of you who are Eton and Oxbridge educated)]]but the reality is that the ''prime'' movers are the special advisers - the SPADS - who are the driving force behind the government. We are in the privileged position of having access to the memoirs of Rafe Hubris, the man who was behind the skilful control of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of 2020. You might not know the name now but he will certainly be the man to watch.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1846276772|title=The End of Bias: How We Change Our Minds|author=Jessica Nordell|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Anyone who is not an able, white man understands bias in that they may no longer even recognise the extent to which they suffer from it: it's simply a part of everyday life. White men will always come first. The able will come before the disabled. Jobs, promotions, higher salaries are the preserve of the white man. Even when those who wouldn't pass the medical become a part of an organisation it's rare that their views are heard, that their concerns are acknowledged. It's personally appalling and degrading for the individuals on the receiving end of the bias but it's not just the individuals who are negatively impacted.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529148251|title=Misfits: A Personal Manifesto|author=Michaela Coel|rating=5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=''How am I able to be so transparent on paper about rape, malpractice and poverty, yet still compartmentalise? It's as though I were telling the truth whilst simultaneously running away from it.''

[[image:4starBefore you start reading ''Misfits'' you need to be in a certain frame of mind.jpgYou're not going to read a book of essays or a self-help book. You're going to read writing which was inspired by Michaela Coel's 2018 MacTaggart Lecture to professionals within the television industry at the Edinburgh TV Festival. You might be ''reading'' the book but you need to ''listen'' to the words as though you're in the lecture theatre. The disjointedness will fade away and you'll be carried on a cloud of exquisite writing.}}{{Frontpage|linkisbn=Category:{{{0008350388|title=We Need to Talk About Money|author=Otegha Uwagba|rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Animals and Wildlife=5|Animals and Wildlife]], [[:Category:genre=Politics and Society|Politics summary=''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and Society]]ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...'' ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba

''An instruction manual for the forest0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of colour while only 7% study a book by a woman.'' is how Wohlleben 's publisher described the idea for this book, and that's basically what it is – although right at the end the author says that it is not intended to be a reference book, but an appetiser. [[Walks In The Wild by Peter Wohlleben and Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp (Translator)|Full Review]]Bookseller'' 29 June 2021

<!-- Nayeri -->|-| style="width: 10%; verticalOtegha Uwagba came to the UK from Kenya when she was five years old. Her sisters were seven and nine. It was her mother who came first, with her father joining them later. The family was hard-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786893452working, principled and determined that their children would have the best education possible.jpg|link=http There was always a painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage of anything://wwwit was simply carefully harvested.amazon When Otegha was ten the family acquired a car.co For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to a private school in London and then a place at New College, Oxford.uk/dp/1786893452/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}

| style="verticalI was going to argue. I mean, cows are for cheese (I couldn't consider eating red meat...) and I much prefer my elephants in the wild but then I realised that I was quibbling for the sake of it. Essentially that quote sums up my attitude to animals -alignand I consider myself an animal lover. If I had to choose between the company of humans and the company of animals, I would probably choose the animals. I insisted that I read this book: top; text-align: left;"no one was trying to stop me but I was initially reluctant. I eat cheese, eggs, chicken and fish and I needed to either do so without guilt or change my choices. I suspected that making the decision would not be comfortable.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1523092734|title=A Women's Guide to Claiming Space|author=Eliza Van Cort|rating=[[The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri]]=5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=''She brings a hug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and again.'' (Alma Derricks, former CMO, Cirque du Soleil RSD)

[[image:4''To claim space is to live the life of choosing unapologetically and bravely.5star It is to live the life you've always wanted.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]], [[:Category:Biography|Biography]]''

Here in Sometimes the West, we see news reports about immigrants on a regular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. But all of those stories reviewing gods are written by journalists – almost always western, and almost always, no matter how deep the investigative journalism they carry out, outsiders to the world and the situations that refugees find themselves in. It's rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to do that, in this intelligent, powerful and moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the middle of a revolution in Iran, fleeing to America as a ten-year-old.[[The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri|Full Review]] <!-- de Bois -->|-| style="widthgenerous: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785903357.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785903357/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Confessions of at a Recovering MP by Nick de Bois]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]]  I should warn you in advance: this may not be the best time for me to review the memoir of a Tory MP. Not only am I a left-of-centre - to put it mildly - voter and so probably have next to no points of political agreement with Nick de Bois, but I, along with everyone else, am currently subject to the debacle of parliament, government and Brexit, a dog and pony show currently revealing when violence against women is much in hideous technicolour the absolute dearth of competent leadership among our political classes. And yesnews, opposition parties: I'm looking at you as well. You're just as useless. Sigh. Desperate cry into the void over. Sorry about that. At least Nick de Bois made me laugh! [[ Confessions of a Recovering MP by Nick de Bois |Full Review]]  <!-- Leah Hazard -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786331608.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786331608/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Hard Pushed: A MidwifeWomen's Story by Leah Hazard]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]], [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] Over the past few years we've had a rash (sorry - no pun intended) of books by medical practitioners. Doctors have been at the forefront, but ''Hard PushedGuide to Claiming Space'' is the first book I've seen by a midwifeEliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. It's an unusual profession in that it's one of the few callings within the medical system where most of the patients are healthy and the only one where one person comes into the system and (for the most part) more than one goes out. It's an amazing thing Now - to be able to do clear - to escort new life into the world - and an enormous responsibility. Leah Hazard came to it after this book is not a career in television and ''Hard Pushed'how to disable your attacker with two simple jabs' is the story of her career as a midwife - and the title tells more than one story. [[Hard Pushedmanual: A Midwifeit's Story by Leah Hazard|Full Review]] <!-- Reeves -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1788312201.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788312201/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Women of Westminster: The MPs Who Changed Politics by Rachel Reeves]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] ''Women in Westminster have changed something far more effective, but discussion at the culture of politics and the perception of what moment seems to be about how women can dobe '' protected''Women of Westminster: The MPs Who Changed Politics. I'' chronicles the battles the 491 women who have been elected over the course of the past century have fought and highlights their victories. It is remarkable ve always thought that the history of female Members of Parliament began in 1918, the same year in which women were first given the right need to vote but a decade before all women were given suffrage on equal terms with men. Although Constance de Markievicz was the first female elected to Parliamentrise above this, it was only in 1919 that Nancy Astor became the first women to take her seat in the House of Commons and pave the way for women of the future. It was not long after in 1924 that the first female MPbe people who don't need protection, Margaret Bondfield, was appointed into a cabinet position and since then women MPs have endeavoured to fight gender inequality and campaign for female rightspeople who claim their own space. Within 100 years there has been a gradual revolution of change in politics and to date Britain has been led by two female Prime Ministers. However, such great landmarks have overshadowed the other female MPs whose early achievements, which have paved the way for subsequent If all women politiciansdid this, those few men who are consistently overlooked. In ''Women of Westminster: The MPs Who Changed Politics'' Rachel Reeves brings the forgotten stories into the spotlight violent to document the history of British female political history from 1919 to 2019. [[Women of Westminster: The MPs Who Changed Politics by Rachel Reeves|Full Review]] <!-- Ece Temelkuran -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0008294011.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008294011/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship by Ece Temelkuran]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]], [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]], [[:Category:History|History]] A little while ago a friend asked me if I thought women would realise that we were living through what in years are not just an easy target to come would be discussed by A level history students when faced with the question ''Discuss the factors which led used to...'' I agreed prove that she was right and wasn't certain whether it was a good or bad thing that we didn't know what all 'this' was leading to. I think now that I do know. We they are in danger of losing democracy and whilst it's a flawed system I can't think of a better one, particularly as the 'benevolent dictator' is as rare as hen's teethbig men. [[How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship by Ece Temelkuran|Full Review]]}}<!-- Yuval Noah Harari -->{{Frontpage|-| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Polly Barton[[image:1787330672.jpg|linktitle=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1787330672/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Fifty Sounds| stylerating="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg5|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] Yuval Noah HarariIf gave us ''Sapiens''summary= Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, which told with the history of mankind and then question ''Homo DeusWhy Japan?'' which looked at mankind's future. Now we have ''21 Lessons Japan has been on my radar for a while and if the 21st Centuryworld hadn'' which looks at the challenges we currently face and it's enlightening, thought-provoking and occasionally just a little bit frightening. It's unlikely that mankind will face what - eighty years ago t gone into melt- down I would have been thought of as a traditional war, with armies, navies and air forces fighting it out hand to hand. It's much more likely that the threats we'll face will be relatively new. Harari looks at them in some depth. [[21 Lessons for the 21st Century visited by Yuval Noah Harari|Full Review]] <!-- Bremner -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Bremner_Usnow.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0525533184/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Us vs Them: The Failure of Globalism by Ian Bremmer]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] It wasn't supposed to be like I may get there later thisyear, was it? Every day seems to bring yet more news of doom and gloombut I am not hopeful. The spectre of terrorism hangs over most of the worldAnd like Barton, fuelling refugee crises and worries about national security. People keep saying that robots are coming to take all our jobs. Anti-establishment political parties are making huge gains in countries all around the world. And inequality is as much of a problem as it ever was – if not more so. [[Us vs Them: The Failure of Globalism by Ian Bremmer|Full Review]] <!-- Wolff -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Wolff Trump.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1408711400?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1408711400]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] As I began listening to don''Fire and Fury: Inside t know the Trump White House'' we were treated answer to the unedifying spectacle of the President of the United States taking to Twitter to establish that he was question ''a stable genius'', as opposed, we must conclude to being an unstable... Well, let's not go there. It's a little too frightening: this is the most powerful man in the world. So what made me listen to this bookwhy Japan? Well, Donald Trump didn't want me to read it: US presidents don't often go down that road and rarely to a good destination (I'm thinking of Richard Nixon here) and that made me really want to know what was between the covers. But how did the book stack up? [[Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Anderson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Anderson_Fantasyland.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785038656?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785038656]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Fantasyland by Kurt Andersen]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]], [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] Fantasyland covers the history of America from 1517 to 2017 She explains her feelings in awesome detail. Covering five centuries respect of tempestuous history, Andersen paints the conjuring of America question in vivid relief. Discussing everything from pilgrims to politicians, the exhilarating gold rush to alternative factsfirst essay, seminal episodes are explored in forensic detail with razor sharp wit. [[Fantasyland by Kurt Andersen|Full Review]] <!-- Connolly -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Connolly_working.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1911585363?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1911585363]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Know Your Place: Essays on the Working Class by the Working Class by Nathan Connolly]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] Simple summary: ''Know Your Place'' which is an anthology of essays on the working class by the working class. There are twenty-three disparate pieces talking about everything you can imagine: day trips to the seaside, access to the arts, food poverty, pub culture, glass ceilings, housing estates, vulgarity-as-class-marker, and much more.  And a full disclosure: sound ''Know Your Placegiro'' was brought to fruition by crowdfunding and I was a contributor. I read the proposed spec and just ''knew'' I would love the book– which she describes as being, should it reach its fundraising targetamong other things, and thatthe sound of 's why I stumped up some cash. I think class is both an under- and mis-discussed topic with working class people defined externally and talked about rather than listened to or allowed to define themselves. And I really did love the book just as I thought I would. So you know - there's a possible reviewer bias here that every party where you should know about. I like have to think I would have criticised introduce yourself''Know Your Place'' had it fallen short of my hopes for it but just in case, I'm letting you know. [[Know Your Place: Essays on the Working Class by the Working Class by Nathan Connolly|Full Review]] <!-- Smith -->|-| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Smith_Dont.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/147212345X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=147212345X]]1913097501}}{{Frontpage| styleauthor="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|Stephen Fabes===[[Don't Let My Past Be Your Future: A Call to Arms by Harry Leslie Smith]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|linktitle=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]], [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]]  Don't Let My Past Be Your Future: A Call to Arms is part autobiography and part rallying call for society to tackle the systemic, endemic and debilitating inequality faced by the people Signs of the United Kingdom, particularly in the North. Through reflecting on his own experiences during his childhood, Harry Leslie Smith has painted a frank and uncompromising picture of the grim, appallingly miserable childhood he had to endure due to the poverty faced by his family contrasted with the, shamefully still, grim and miserable lives many people endure today in a country ravaged by cuts, austerity and political turmoil. [[Don't Let My Past Be Your Future: A Call to Arms by Harry Leslie Smith|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Bristow -->Life|-| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|5[[image:Bristow China.jpg|left|linkgenre=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1910985902?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1910985902]] Travel| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[China in Drag: Travels with a Cross-dresser by Michael Bristow]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] [[:Category:Politics I was brought up on maps and Society|Politics and Society]], [[:Category:Travel|Travel]] Having worked for nine years in Bejing as a journalist for the BBC, author Michael Bristow decided to write about Chinese history. Having been learning the local language for several years, Bristow asked his language teacher for guidance first- the language teacher, born in the early fifties, offered Bristow a compelling picture of life in Communist China - but added to that, Bristow was greatly surprised to find that his language teacher also enjoyed spending his spare time in ladies clothing. It soon becomes clear that the tale told here is immensely personal - yet also paints a fascinating portrait person narratives of one tales of the world's most intriguing nationsfar away places. [[China in Drag: Travels with a Cross-dresser by Michael Bristow|Full Review]] <!-- Landreth I was birth-->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Landreth_Swell.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1472938941?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1472938941]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Swell by Jenny Landreth]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics righted wanderlust and Society|Politics and Society]], [[:Category:Sport|Sport]], [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] I love Jenny's own description of her book as a waterbiography and I love her encouragement that we should each write our owncuriosity. This is more than just (Unfortunately, I say didn''just''!) a recollection of the author's own encounters with water; it's also a history of women's fight for the right to swim. That sounds absurd until you start reading about it, then it becomes serioust inherit what Dr. Not too serious though – because Jenny Landreth is Stephen Fabes clearly a lover of had which was the absurd. Not a lover of book blurbs myself, I do always seek guts to give a shout-simply go out to those who get and do it dead right: in this case . Ialso didn'm definitely with Alexandra Heminsley's ''giggles-on-t inherit the-commute funny''. [[Swell by Jenny Landreth|Full Review]] <!-- Maconie -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:MACONIE_lONG.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785030531/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Long Road From Jarrow by Stuart Maconie]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Travel|Travel]]kind of steady nerve, [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] I cancelled my ''Country Walking'' magazine subscription about a year ago and the only thing I miss is Stuart Maconie's column. His down-ability to-earth approach and sharp wit belie an equally sharp intellect and a soul more sensitive than he might be willing talk to admit. Let's be honest, though, I picked this one up because of someone else's review, in which I spotted names like Ferryhill strangers and Newton Aycliffe. Places I grew up in. Like Maconie basic practicality that would have meant that I would have no connection (that survived if I know of) to had been gifted with the Jarrow Crusade but when he talks about it being ''a whole matrix of events reducible to one word like Aberfan, Hillsborough, or Orgreaverequisite 'bottle' then somehow it does become part of my history too. Tangentially, at least. [[Long Road From Jarrow by Stuart Maconie|Full Review]] <!-- Grindrod -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Grindrod Outskirts.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473625025/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Outskirts by John Grindrod]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Animals and Wildlife|Animals and Wildlife]], [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] In order words I''Outskirts'' is an interesting take on a phenomenon of m not the modern age: the introduction sort of the green belt of countryside surrounding inner city housing estates. John Grindrod grew up person who will get on the edge of one such estate in the 1960's and '70's, as he puts it, ''I grew up on the last road in a bike outside a London.'' Grindrod explores the introduction of the green belt, hospital and the various fights and developments it has gone through over the subsequent decades, as environmental and political arguments have affected planning decisionsnot come home for six years. Within this topic, he has somehow managed to wind around his personal memories of childhood, producing a memoir with a lot of heartFabes did precisely that. [[Outskirts by John Grindrod|Full Review]] <!-- Elkin -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Elkin_Flaneuse.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0099593378?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0099593378]]  | styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|1788161211===[[Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London by Lauren Elkin]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]], [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] Lauren Elkin is down on suburbs: they're places where you can't or shouldn't be seen walking; places where, in fiction, women who transgress boundaries are punished (thinking of everything from ''Madame Bovary'' to ''Revolutionary Road''). When she imagines to herself what the female version of that well-known historical figure, the carefree ''flâneur'', might be, she thinks about women who freely wandered the world's great cities without having the more insalubrious connotation of the word 'streetwalker' applied to them. [[Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London by Lauren Elkin|Full Review]]<br>