Difference between revisions of "Newest Politics and Society Reviews"

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[[Category:Politics and Society|*]]
 
[[Category:Politics and Society|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]]
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[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove  -->
==Politics and society==
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Alastair Humphreys
{{newreview
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|title=Local
|author=Siri Hustvedt
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|rating=5
|title=Living, Thinking, Looking
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|genre=Travel
|rating=4
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|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 itAs 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 mapNature loss, pollution, land use and access, agriculture, the food system, rewilding…''  One of the joys of the book for me was that the biggest thing he learned about all of these things was that there are no easy answers, no single 'right or wrong', that every upside is likely to have a downside for somebody and that there are some hard choices ahead.
|genre=Lifestyle
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|isbn=1785633678
|summary='Living, Thinking, Looking' is a collection of essays by Siri Hustvedt which, she claims, are linked by an abiding curiosity about what it means to be human.  In these essays she examines who we are and how we got that way.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444732633</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|author=Alex Brummer
 
|title=Britain for Sale
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Business and Finance
 
|summary=Buy British, we're constantly told, and many people do - the French, the Germans, Qataris, Chinese...  If you want to buy British you'd be hard pressed to use a British electricity company, the people shifting North Sea oil to you might be foreign, the trains near you may be foreign-operated, and so much of what's in the shops you buy from would of coursed be sourced from abroad, and shipped through foreign-owned portsWhether or not the country is going to hell in a handcart, it's moving in piecemeal stages to exterior business interests, and the British citizen gets the worst of the deal.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847940757</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|author=Umberto Eco and Jean-Claude Carriere
 
|title=This is Not the End of the Book;
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|summary=In many ways, the cover of my edition of this book is perfectly appropriate.  Huge, bold serif script, with nothing but the typeface; a declamatory instance of the art in the most common of fonts, and that perfect semi-colon at the end of the book's name - proving that that itself is not the be-all and end-all.  Buy this book, as you can, in electronic form, and you might see this cover for ten seconds at most, but it is so much part and parcel of what's within.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099552450</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Edel Rodriguez
|author=Ian Bremmer
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|title=Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey
|title=Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Politics and Society
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|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=We're all used to terms like 'G7' which then became the 'G8' - the group of countries which met periodically to thrash out global problems - frequently with America being expected to take the lead where military muscle or finance was concernedWe even nod knowingly at the mention of the G20 - formed with the good intention that a larger group would be able to tackle such issues as climate changeWe know where good intentions generally lead but there wasn't even sufficient agreement amongst the nations to all head off in the same direction.  So when a point was reached where America was no longer financially able or politically willing to play global policeman what was left?
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|summary=We're in childhood, and we're in Cuba.  The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the country, has proven himself a Communist, and not done nearly enough to create a level playing field for all.  Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time awayOur narrator's family weren't in the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned uponThe mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some of the heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670921041</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1474616720
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Sarah Wilson
|author=Richard Parry
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|title=This One Wild and Precious Life: the path back to connection in a fractured world
|title=People Who Eat Darkness: Love, Grief and a Journey into Japan's Shadows
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=Just over a decade ago, 21-year-old Lucie Blackman went to Japan in search of adventure, excitement, and a way to pay off her debts. A couple of months later, her disappearance set in motion a high profile investigation which would see her face plastered over the news for some time in this country. As so often happens with the media, though, there was a huge amount of interest in her plight, and her family's desperate search for her, and then, with the mystery looking less and less likely to be solved, the papers found something else to report on. Just over half a year later, there was a tragic end to the tale as her dismembered body was discovered.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099502550</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Stieg Larsson
 
|title=The Expo Files: Articles by the Crusading Journalist
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=[[:Category:Stieg Larsson and Reg Keeland (translator)|Stieg Larsson]] would not have known Anders Breivik, but if they'd coincided you can be damned sure he knew all there was to know about him.  Larsson and his journalist colleagues were working to condemn the far-right activities throughout Europe, and open the truth about the right-wing Swedish parties to his audience, and here is constant proof he knew an awful lot about his awful subject.  In just the first two, powerful, short essays here he brings terrorism in the UK, Italy and Oklahoma to his home audience, and discusses Swedish extremism in its light; showing the liberal laws in Sweden that allowed the extremists to be seen as too much on the straight and narrow, too mainstream, and even able to enter parliament.  The idea of 'it couldn't happen here' gets blown out the water, and as we've seen that is relevant to us everywhere.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857051342</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Toby Manhire (editor)
 
|title=The Arab Spring: Rebellion, revolution, and a new world order
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Politics and Society
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|genre= Lifestyle
|summary=A Tunisian man, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire on 17th December 2010, in what appeared at the time to be a desperate gesture showing a complete lack of hope after his humiliation by a municipal official. What followed was one of the most remarkable events of recent years, as a wave of revolutions occured in what became known as the Arab Spring. As you'd expect from a top nwespaper, the Guardian had reporters, bloggers and columnists covering it all, and Toby Manhire provides a compilation of the paper's output here.
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|summary= My favourite Mary Oliver line is the one in which she asks ''What is it you plan to do with your one wild and 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 precious life the way I want to.  Sarah Wilson is equally lucky.  In her book that takes Oliver's words as her title (though I can'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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0852652542</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1785633848
 
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|isbn=1785633457
|author=Daniel Everett
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|title=Charging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car
|title=Language: The Cultural Tool
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|author=Clive Wilkinson
|rating=4.5
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|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
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|genre=Travel
|summary=Daniel Everett previously worked as a missionary in far flung corners of the world– a fact that isn’t surprising given the number of references to faith that crop up over the pages. This new book, however, is about two much more appealing (to me) subjects: language and travel. If [[:Category:Bill Bryson|Bill Bryson]] is a travel writer with an interest in linguistics, then Daniel Everett is a linguist with an interest in travel. It’s not quite the ‘read it by a pool’ sort of book that Bryson might release but is somewhere between a formalised every day read and a text book with a big dollop of informality stirred in. The travel stories – jaunts to Brazil, Mexico and beyond – are great, and while you might think they’re taking things a bit off track (albeit in a rather pleasant way) sooner or later the linguistic point will become clear.
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|summary=Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of exploring the edges 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?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682673</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1529153050
|author=Kira Cochrane (editor)
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|title=Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2022
|title=Women of the Revolution: Forty Years of Feminism
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|author=Tim Benson
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Politics and Society
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|genre=Humour
|summary=Some revolutions happen faster than others, and the revolution in society's thinking about women is certainly one of the more gradual ones. Kira Cochrane, Women's Editor at the ''Guardian'' from 2006 – 2010, has collected together the best articles and essays from that paper's women's section since 1971. The result, ''Women of the Revolution: Forty Years of Feminism'', is a lively account of the more recent women's liberation movement in the UK and of the issues facing women in a modern, late twentieth/early twenty-first century society.
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|summary=Seeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is coming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, 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 4 September 2021 to 31 August 2022.  Who can imagine what there will be to come in the 2023 edition?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0852652275</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=B0B7289HKQ
|author=Frankie Owens
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|title=Conversations Across America: A Father and Son, Alzheimer's, and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Soul of America
|title=The Little Book of Prison
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|author=Kari Loya
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Politics and Society
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|genre=Travel
|summary=It’s probably pretty safe to assume that the sort of prisons shown on TV, and their portrayals of life inside, bear as much resemblance to real jails as the doctors in Grey’s Anatomy or House do to their NHS counterparts. That’s why Frankie has written this book: to provide a guide to what life inside is really like and how best to survive it with your sanity, and body, intact.
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|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.  The decision was made to ride the Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, Virginia to Astoria, Oregon - all 4250 miles of it - in 2015.  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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904380832</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1739593901
|author=Peter Stone (editor)
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|title=22 Ideas About The Future
|title=Lotteries in Public Life
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|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
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|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Peter Stone's reader is an examination not so much of examples of lotteries in public life, but of the theoretical and conceptual issues which the use of 'sortation' in decision taking raises. There are essays here about the use of the lottery in politics, in allocating scarce resources (such as school places or human organs) and even on the problems of defining the lottery and the methods for assuring fairness. Because lotteries are used in many societies to resolve issues and perhaps because of recent discussion of the use of the lottery to allocate school places, this is a hot issue which raises fundamental questions about democracy and choice.
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|summary=''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845402081</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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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 bookThere'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-buildingIt's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidentalSo, what did I think of a book of twenty-two science fiction short stories?  Well, I loved it.  
|author=Donovan Hohn
 
|title=Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=In January 1992 a container ship was on its way from China to the USA when it was caught in a storm and two containers broke loose from the deckThey held nearly thirty thousand bath toys - yellow ducks, green frogs, red beavers and blue turtles - which were freed when the containers broke up and have circumnavigated the globe for almost twenty yearsDonovan Hohn was a teacher and when one of his students wrote an essay describing what had happened to the toys it caught Hohn's imaginationThe rest is - as they say - history and a very good book.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908526009</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams
|author=Anita Anand, Julian Barnes, Bella Bathurst, Alan Bennett and others
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|title=The Book of Hope 
|title=The Library Book
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|rating=5
|rating=4.5
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|genre=Politics and Society
|genre=Lifestyle
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|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.  
|summary=I had better begin by saying that I had a vested interest in liking this book since I am a chartered librarian myself and so am wholeheartedly in support of saving our nation's public libraries.  But you don't need to be a librarian to enjoy this book. It is rich with anecdotes from some wonderful writers and makes a pleasant read whether you're keen to save libraries or not.
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|isbn=024147857X
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250057</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1788360737
|author=Helen Oakwater
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|title= Artivism: The Battle for Museums in the Era of Postmodernism
|title=Bubble Wrapped Children
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|author=Alexander Adams
|rating=3
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|rating=2
|genre=Politics and Society
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|genre= Politics and Society
|summary=''Bubble Wrapped Children'' takes a look at the state of adoption in the UK, and how aspects of it are being threatened by the use of social networks. The author, with over 20 years' experience in the adoption world, paints a broad picture of the issues facing adopters and adoptees. Peppering the text are some examples of unwanted Facebook contact from birth parents, which have had massive knock-on effects for the adopted children.
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|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-wing” donors and media elites hoping to create a more globalist and progressive regime. Or at least that’s what Alexander Adams believes.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780920970</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1398508632
|author=Francesca Beauman
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|title=The Wilderness Cure
|title=Shapely Ankle Preferr'd: A History of the Lonely Hearts Advertisement
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|author=Mo Wilde
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=History
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|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=You might think the Lonely Hearts ad a trivial matterYou might think it should appear in lower case and not be capitalised, but you'd be in disagreement with Ms Beauman, who gives a big L and a big H to it every time she writes of it in her survey of its historyWhat's more, she gets to write about a lot more than just the contents of the adverts in this brilliant book.
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|summary=It had been on the cards for a while but it was the week-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of eating only wild foodThe 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: the 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 - and fuelMost importantly, she had shelter: this was not a plan to ''live'' wild just to live off its produce.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009951334X</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1529149800
|author=Justin Yifu Lin
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|title=Things You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste
|title=Demystifying the Chinese Economy
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|author=Eduardo Garcia and Sara Boccaccini Meadows
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Business and Finance
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|genre=Home and Family
|summary=The success of the Chinese economy, and as Lin makes us aware, a success which contrasts strongly with what appeared major failure in the recent historical past, is something which needs explanation. No one can ignore it, and we are confronted with the effects of it from the ownership of Thames water to the faces of tourists in London and Stratford on a daily basis. And in the roots of its success are the potential seeds of future change, a change that now more than ever is crucial to the way the world economy works.
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|summary=We 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: what good was that doing.  ''I'm doing the best I can'', said the hummingbird. 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0521181747</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1638485216
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|title=Black, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement
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|author=Frederick Reynolds
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|rating=5
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|genre=Autobiography
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|summary=''Corruption is not department, gender or race specific.  It has everything to do with character. Period.''
  
{{newreview
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''One more body just wouldn't matter''.
|author=James Palmer
 
|title=The Death of Mao: The Tangshan Earthquake and the Birth of the New China
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=History
 
|summary=Welcome to China, where the populous are busy leaving a rural country full of prosperous mineral resources and coal mines, and shoddily-built hydro-electric dams in environmentally dubious locations, for the burgeoning, mechanised cities.  But this isn't the birth of 2012, it's the dawn of 1976.  Chairman Mao is dying, Premier Zhou Enlai has just died, and the cauldron of power is being stirred as never before.  Among the momentous events of the year however will be a huge earthquake directly centred on the city of Tangshan, which will kill something like two thirds of a million people.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571243991</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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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'll ever forget and the protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. There was a backlash against the police - and not just in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''all'' tarred by the Chauvin brush.
|author=Gene Sharp
 
|title=From Dictatorship to Democracy
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=Gene Sharp is an American politologist and a veritable (and venerable) guru of non-violent struggle. The story behind the ''From Dictatorship to Democracy'' is a fascinating one. The book, or a booklet really as it consists of 160 small pages, was apparently created in response to a request from Burmese dissenters in the early 1990's. Sharp responded to this request by producing a generic text, a manual for the subversive that lies out the theory and practical advice for those engaged in a struggle to bring down a dictatorship.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846688396</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Matthieu Aikins
|author=Nicholas Shaxson
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|title=The Naked Don't Fear the Water
|title=Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World
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|rating=4.5
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Most people think about the subject of tax havens - if they need to think about them at all - as something which is unlikely ever to concern them and that they're for the super-rich and celebrities. What might surprise them is that more than half of world trade as well as most international lending is routed through them and that many common items in your everyday shopping will come to you via a tax haven. And we really should be thinking about them because tax havens are ensuring that wealth in unprecedented amounts is being transferred from the poor to the rich - greatly exceeding the aid which flows in the opposite direction.
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|summary=It's easy to forget at times that The 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 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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099541726</amazonuk>
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|isbn= B09N9157T6
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1785633074
|author=Louise Foxcroft
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|title=Staggering Hubris
|title=Calories and Corsets: A history of dieting over two thousand years
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|author=Josh Berry
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
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|genre=Humour
|summary=We’re in that post-Christmas period when all the socialising and indulging is over and all you’re left with is a pasty, bloated, over-fed but under-nourished complexion, a wardrobe full of clothes just a little too tight and a new year’s resolution to Get Healthy. So it’s the perfect time for a new diet book to hit the shelves. The title of this one might make you think it’s going to be full of useful tips, and the cover does little to dispel this idea, groaning as it is with the weight of plump jellies, lavish cupcakes and even a decadent lobster or two, but take a moment to note the subtitle, if you will: '''a history of dieting over 2000 years'''.
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|summary=Members of Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by politicians, headed by the Prime minister - the ''primus inter pares'' (that'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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684250</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|author=Dennis O'Donnell
 
|title=The Locked Ward
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=Dennis O’Donnell spent 7 years working in a Scottish hospital and this is the account of his time there. It takes a special type of person to work in Mental Health services, and though O'Donnell ultimately leaves the Locked Ward, he clearly is one of those people, made all the more remarkable by the fact that this wasn’t his life long vocation, having previously worked as a school teacher (some might say an equally challenging role).  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224093606</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|author=Denise Kiernan
 
|title=Signing Their Rights Away
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=History
 
|summary=
 
Many Americans believe that the Declaration of Independence is the cornerstone of the American democracy, the fountain-head of the American Way of Life and the American Dream. The 4th of July is the national holiday and often thought to be the single most important date in American history.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>159474520X</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|author=Richard Heinberg
 
|title=The End of Growth
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Business and Finance
 
|summary=With the newspapers full of economic doom and gloom the last thing you might want is to pick up a book that reiterates it and then some. But while this book may seem at first glance to be a bit of a downer, it also provides an insight into how things might just work out ok in the end. Yes, they’ll be some big changes – there have to be because the direction we’ve been heading in is just not sustainable – but if we’re willing to adapt, we will survive was the main message I picked up as I flicked through the pages.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905570333</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1846276772
|author=David Lammy
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|title=The End of Bias: How We Change Our Minds
|title=Out of the Ashes: Britain After the Riots
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|author=Jessica Nordell
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Just about everyone in the country was shocked as pictures of the 2011 riots (which began in Tottenham and spread to other major cities in the UK) unfolded on our television screensEveryone, that is, except David Lammy, MP for the areaHe might not have known when it would happen or what would trigger the riot, but a year before, he said that it would happenThis wasn't a lucky guess: Lammy was born in Tottenham and brought up on the Broadwater Farm Estate as one of five children raised by his single-parent mother and he knows what's happening on the ground.
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|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 disabledJobs, promotions, higher salaries are the preserve of the white manEven 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 acknowledgedIt'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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0852652674</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529148251
|author=Luke Harding
+
|title=Misfits: A Personal Manifesto
|title=Mafia State
+
|author=Michaela Coel
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=
+
|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.''
Luke Harding set himself a difficult task when he took up his post as the Guardian’s main man in Moscow. He had already put his name to a front page story which appeared in the Guardian in April 2007. This was an account of an interview with the arch-oligarch and Kremlin critic, Boris Berezovsky. Harding was not at the interview but added background to the article from Moscow. However, to be in any way associated with Berezovsky was sufficient to incur the wrath of the Russian Federal Security Service, the FSB – the successor to the KGB. The offending account was entitled, 'I am plotting a new Russian revolution - London exile Berezovsky says force necessary to bring down President Putin'.
+
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085265247X</amazonuk>
+
Before you start reading ''Misfits'' you need to be in a certain frame of mind. You'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
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008350388
|author=Ed Vulliamy
+
|title=We Need to Talk About Money
|title=Amexica: War Along the Borderline
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|author=Otegha Uwagba
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=More than 38,000 people have been killed in the last 3 years in what Ed Vulliamy argues is an unacknowledged war, on the long border (2,100 miles) between Mexico and the United States. The war is between drug trafficking gangs over control of the lucrative drugs trade from Mexico to the US. In this compelling and disturbing work of reportage Vulliamy travels through the borderlands meeting some of the people affected.  
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|summary=''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...''  ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546566</amazonuk>
+
 
}}
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''0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of colour while only 7% study a book by a woman.''  ''The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021
  
{{newreview
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Otegha Uwagba came to the UK from Kenya when she was five years old.  Her sisters were seven and nineIt was her mother who came first, with her father joining them laterThe family was hard-working, principled and determined that their children would have the best education possible.  There was always a painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage of anything: it was simply carefully harvestedWhen Otegha was ten the family acquired a carFor Otegha, education meant a scholarship to a private school in London and then a place at New College, Oxford.
|author=Jennifer Hayashi Danns and Leveque Sandrine
 
|title=Stripped: The Bare Reality of Lap Dancing
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=Before I can start, I should qualify that I have never been, nor tried to be, a lapdancerNor have I ever gone to a lapdancing club, nor ever tried toI have no opinion on the matter, save that I can't imagine, in the world of free internet porn, paying some averagely attractive woman to wiggle her semi-nudity in the general direction of my face, and thinking it erotically arousingSo I come to this academically-designed volume on the matter with no prejudiceIf only that were the case with the creators.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905570325</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Stephen H Segal
+
|author=Richard Brook
|title=Geek Wisdom
+
|title=Understanding Human Nature: A User's Guide to Life
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
+
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=I am by no means a fully fledged geek, but on the Big Bang scale I'm probably more of a Leonard than a Penny. I was weaned on ''Star Trek '', chose ''Hitchhiker’s Guide... '' as my reading aloud piece for a Year 7 exam, and think it would be more than a little fun to take a trip to Comic Con.  At the same time, there are gaping holes in my knowledge. My first celeb crush might have been ''Blake’s 7’s'' Villa but I've never seen a ''Batman'' film, never read a comic book, never quite understood what all the ''Star Wars'' fuss was about. If Sci Fi is a religion, then this is the book that can fill me in one the stories, the parables, the rules, as it were, of geekdom. I had to have it.
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|summary= I am a firm believer that sometimes we choose books, and sometimes books choose us.  In my case, this is one of the latter. Not so very long ago, if I had come across this book I'd have skimmed it, found some of it interesting, but it would not have 'hit home' in the way that it does now.  I believe it came to me not just because I was likely to give it a favourable review [ ''full disclosure The Bookbag's u.s.p. is that people chose their own books rather than getting them randomly, so there is a predisposition towards expecting to like the book, even if it doesn't always turn out that way'' ] – but also because it is a book I needed to read, right now.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594745277</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1800461682
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1787332098
|author=Laurence Manley (editor)
+
|title=How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World
|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of London
+
|author=Henry Mance
|rating=3.5
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|rating=5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=The history of London is a long and storied one, and it's unsurprising that so many people have written about the capital. I've always loved the city, its history and novels and plays set within London, so was really keen to get my hands on this new volume in the Cambridge Companion series.
+
|summary=''When we do think about animals, we break them down into species and groups: cows, dogs, foxes, elephants and so on. And we assign them places in society: cows go on plates, dogs on sofas, foxes in rubbish bins, elephants in zoos, and millions of wild animals stay out there, ''somewhere,'' hopefully on the next David Attenborough series.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0521722314</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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I 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 - and I consider myself an animal loverIf 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: 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 choicesI suspected that making the decision would not be comfortable.
|author=Jolyon Fenwick and Marcus Husselby
 
|title=It Could Have Been Yours: The enlightened person's guide to the year's most desirable things
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|summary=In a world of diamond-encrusted skulls, gold-leafed iPhones and luxury yachts ten a penny, of blingy shit (or should that be shitty bling?) it's a relief to know people are still spending money on unique one-offs that are more worthwhile. The records for costliest photo, artwork, musical instrument and manuscript have all been broken in the twenty four months leading up to this book's releaseOur collators have scoured the press for those and other, similarly noteworthy auctions, and found what other people paid for what you didn't know you would have wanted given the money.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684900</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=John L Locke
 
|title=Duels and Duets: Why Men and Women Talk So Differently
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Popular Science
 
|summary=Locke's subtitle ''Why Men and Women Talk So Differently'' might lead you to think that this is just another self-help ''Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus'' tomeIt's not.  Rather than focussing upon what we all know from experience – that men and women do not communicate very well because of some fundamental difference in their respective approach to verbal expression – the New York City University Professor of Linguistics sets out to explain WHY that might be.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0521887135</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1523092734
|author=Frank Furedi
+
|title=A Women's Guide to Claiming Space
|title=On Tolerance: The Life Style Wars: A Defence of Moral Independence
+
|author=Eliza Van Cort
|rating=4
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=Furedi is a Professor of Sociology at a UK university so he'll know his subject matter inside out.  The short preface tells us that 'tolerance has been emptied of its moral and intellectual meaning.'  This publication's aim is to argue the case for tolerance in society.  How its meaning has changed over the centuries until today's rather fuzzy and watered-down meaning.  Professor Furedi was spurred on to writing this book because he firmly believes that tolerance has been lost somehow, to be almost invisible in some areas of public and private life.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441120106</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Chris Mullin
 
|title=A Walk-on Part: Diaries 1994 - 1999
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=We tend to remember where we were and how we heard about the deaths of people like John F Kennedy, Elvis Presley and Princess Diana, but I'd add another person to the list: John Smith.  I remember sitting in my office and a colleague coming in to tell me.  She added 'I suppose we'll have that dreary Gordon Brown as leader now'.  We'd many angst-ridden miles to go before that came about but Smith's death is the opening entry in this, the third volume (but first chronologically) of Chris Mullin's Diaries.  This book covers the first period of 'New Labour', from Smith's death until Mullin's assumption into government in July 1999.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685230</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tina Rosenberg
 
|title=Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Teenagers in South Carolina have become involved in the anti-smoking movement, passing out information encouraging their peers to educate themselves about the ways big tobacco companies try to get them hooked. There are youngsters in South Africa who’ve refused to have sex without a condom because of the danger of HIV and AIDS. Minority students in Texas have challenged data going back years by succeeding at calculus where traditionally students of their race have struggled. Why? Because other people have done the same thing, and they want to fit in.
+
|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)
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848313004</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
''To claim space is to live the life of choosing unapologetically and bravelyIt is to live the life you've always wanted.''
|author=Lydia Ola Taiwo
 
|title=A Broken Childhood: A True Story of Abuse
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Mojisola – known to everyone as Ola – was born to a Nigerian couple in London in 1964 and spent the first five years of her life in a foster home in BrightonHere she was loved, looked after and lived her life in a genuinely good family. This wasn't an unusual arrangement as it allowed the biological parents to earn money without worrying about childcare – and Ola was happy. It was all the more cruel when her biological father arrived to take her 'home' for the weekend – a weekend which would stretch into seven years of abuse and neglect.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846245907</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
Sometimes the reviewing gods are generous: at a time when violence against women is much in the news, ''A Women's Guide to Claiming Space'' by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. Now - to be clear - this book is not a 'how to disable your attacker with two simple jabs' manual: it's something far more effective, but discussion at the moment seems to be about how women can be ''protected''.  I've always thought that women need to rise above this, to be people who don't need protection, people who claim their own space. If all women did this, those few men who are violent to women would realise that we are not just an easy target to be used to prove that they are big men.
|author=Max Pemberton
 
|title=The Doctor Will See You Now
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=The NHS is one of those things that everyone seems to have an opinion about, and this of course includes those of us who work for said organisation (the world's 3rd largest employer, don'tcha know). Max Pemberton is one of those people: a doctor, though despite what you might assume from the title, not a GP but a hospital medic. This is his third book on the subject of life (and death) within the walls of a hospital, plus the odd excursion to rather misnamed Care Homes, and it's not a bad read.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340919949</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Polly Barton
|author=Shirin Ebadi
+
|title=Fifty Sounds
|title=The Golden Cage: Three Brothers, Three Choices, One Destiny
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Dr Ebadi is currently living in exile, fearing for her safety, should she return to Iran in the foreseeable future.  Her Prologue describes a violent and bloody reaction to what was a peaceful situation involving wives, mothers and sisters.  Boulders and large stones were thrown at elderly, defenseless women without a moment's hesitation. A taste of things to come?
+
|summary= Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a while and if the world hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but I am not hopeful. And like Barton, I don't know the answer to the question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of the question in the first essay, which is on the sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, among other things, the sound of ''every party where you have to introduce yourself''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0979845645</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1913097501
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Stephen Fabes
|author=Nigel Hamilton
+
|title=Signs of Life
|title=American Caesars: Lives of the US Presidents, from Franklin D Roosevelt to George W Bush
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=History
+
|genre=Travel
|summary=The Premise is simple: take twelve men (and unfortunately they are all men, but that's not the author's fault) who have achieved high office and look at each of themFirstly, take a look at the road to the high office, then how they performed once they reached their goal and finally a look at their private lifeSuetonius did it first when he wrote ''The Twelve Caesars'' and now Nigel Hamilton has taken the same journey with ''American Caesars'', a remarkably in-depth look at twelve consecutive American presidents from the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, starting with Franklin D Roosevelt and finishing with George W Bush.
+
|summary= I was brought up on maps and first-person narratives of tales of far away places. I was birth-righted wanderlust and curiosityUnfortunately, I didn't inherit what Dr. Stephen Fabes clearly had which was the guts to simply go out and do itI also didn't inherit the kind of steady nerve, ability to talk to strangers and basic practicality that would have meant that I would have survived if I had been gifted with the requisite 'bottle'.  In order words I'm not the sort of person who will get on a bike outside a London hospital and not come home for six years.  Fabes did precisely that.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520419</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1788161211
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1504321383
|author=Bob Marshall-Andrews
+
|title=Single, Again, and Again, and Again
|title=Off Message: The Complete Antidote to Political Humbug
+
|author=Louisa Pateman
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Bob Marshall-Andrews entered Parliament in 1997, rather too late to be a career politician (he was already an established QC) and with a profound distrust of authorityHe had no aspirations towards office, which was perhaps as well for all concerned as he would become best known for being a dissident.  I occasionally enquired as to which party held his allegiance and eventually concluded that he went with his conscience.  The last three Labour administrations have spawned more political memoirs than any other – and I did wonder if this would be just one more to add to the pile.
+
|summary=''You can't be happy and fulfilled on your ownYou are not complete until you find a man''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684412</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
This was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to believe.  It wasn't unkind: it was simply the adults in her life advising her as to what they thought would be best for her.  It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the girl (she's usually fairly young) is rescued by the handsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever after.  Few girls are lucky enough to be brought up ''without'' the expectation that they will marry and have children.  It was a belief and it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''a belief is a choice''.
|author=Karen Blixen
 
|title=Out Of Africa
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=It's more than a quarter of a century since I first saw the film ''Out of Africa'' and it's one of the few that have stayed with me over the intervening years.  It wasn't just the story, but the personality of Karen Blixen and the wonderful landscape of the Ngong Hills, south of Nairobi, in Kenya's Rift Valley.  I remember looking for this book at the time, but being unable to find it, so the opportunity to read it now was too good to miss.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241951437</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move to [[Newest Popular Science Reviews]]
|author=Stephen Sedley
 
|title=Ashes and Sparks: Essays On Law and Justice
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=Some books are hard to read, and even harder to review.  This is particularly true of what are essentially academic or "professional" books and you come to them as a lay reader.  This then is my starting position on Ashes and Sparks.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0521170907</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Revision as of 12:00, 26 December 2023

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Review of

Local by Alastair Humphreys

5star.jpg Travel

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 that the biggest thing he learned about all of these things was that there are no easy answers, no single 'right or wrong', that every upside is likely to have a downside for somebody and that there are some hard choices ahead. Full Review

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Review of

Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey by Edel Rodriguez

4star.jpg Graphic Novels

We're in childhood, and we're in Cuba. The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the country, has proven himself a Communist, and not done nearly enough to create a level playing field for all. Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time away. Our narrator's family weren't in the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and 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 heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen… Full Review

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Review of

This One Wild and Precious Life: the path back to connection in a fractured world by Sarah Wilson

3.5star.jpg Lifestyle

My favourite Mary Oliver line is the one in which she asks What is it you plan to do with your one wild and 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 precious life the way I want to. Sarah Wilson is equally lucky. In her book that takes Oliver's words as her title (though I can'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. Full Review

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Review of

Charging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car by Clive Wilkinson

5star.jpg Travel

Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of exploring the edges 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? Full Review

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Review of

Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2022 by Tim Benson

4star.jpg Humour

Seeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is coming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, 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 4 September 2021 to 31 August 2022. Who can imagine what there will be to come in the 2023 edition? Full Review

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Review of

Conversations Across America: A Father and Son, Alzheimer's, and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Soul of America by Kari Loya

4star.jpg Travel

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. The decision was made to ride the Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, Virginia to Astoria, Oregon - all 4250 miles of it - in 2015. 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. Full Review

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Review of

22 Ideas About The Future by Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)

5star.jpg Science Fiction

Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.

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. Full Review

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Review of

The Book of Hope by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams

5star.jpg Politics and Society

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. Full Review

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Review of

Artivism: The Battle for Museums in the Era of Postmodernism by Alexander Adams

2star.jpg Politics and Society

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-wing” donors and media elites hoping to create a more globalist and progressive regime. Or at least that’s what Alexander Adams believes. Full Review

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Review of

The Wilderness Cure by Mo Wilde

5star.jpg Lifestyle

It had been on the cards for a while but it was the week-long 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: the 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 - and fuel. Most importantly, she had shelter: this was not a plan to live wild just to live off its produce. Full Review

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Review of

Things You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste by Eduardo Garcia and Sara Boccaccini Meadows

4star.jpg Home and Family

We 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: what good was that doing. I'm doing the best I can, said the hummingbird. 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. Full Review

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Review of

Black, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement by Frederick Reynolds

5star.jpg Autobiography

Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. It has everything to do with character. Period.

One more body just wouldn't matter.

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'll ever forget and the protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. There was a backlash against the police - and not just in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were all tarred by the Chauvin brush. Full Review

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Review of

The Naked Don't Fear the Water by Matthieu Aikins

4.5star.jpg Politics and Society

It's easy to forget at times that The 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 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 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. Full Review

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Review of

Staggering Hubris by Josh Berry

4.5star.jpg Humour

Members of Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by politicians, headed by the Prime minister - the primus inter pares (that'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. Full Review

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Review of

The End of Bias: How We Change Our Minds by Jessica Nordell

4.5star.jpg Politics and Society

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. Full Review

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Review of

Misfits: A Personal Manifesto by Michaela Coel

5star.jpg Politics and Society

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.

Before you start reading Misfits you need to be in a certain frame of mind. You'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. Full Review

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Review of

We Need to Talk About Money by Otegha Uwagba

5star.jpg Politics and Society

To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts... We Need to Talk About Money by Otegha Uwagba

0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of colour while only 7% study a book by a woman. The Bookseller 29 June 2021

Otegha 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-working, principled and determined that their children would have the best education possible. There was always a painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage of anything: it was simply carefully harvested. When Otegha was ten the family acquired a car. For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to a private school in London and then a place at New College, Oxford. Full Review

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Review of

Understanding Human Nature: A User's Guide to Life by Richard Brook

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

I am a firm believer that sometimes we choose books, and sometimes books choose us. In my case, this is one of the latter. Not so very long ago, if I had come across this book I'd have skimmed it, found some of it interesting, but it would not have 'hit home' in the way that it does now. I believe it came to me not just because I was likely to give it a favourable review [ full disclosure The Bookbag's u.s.p. is that people chose their own books rather than getting them randomly, so there is a predisposition towards expecting to like the book, even if it doesn't always turn out that way ] – but also because it is a book I needed to read, right now. Full Review

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Review of

How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World by Henry Mance

5star.jpg Politics and Society

When we do think about animals, we break them down into species and groups: cows, dogs, foxes, elephants and so on. And we assign them places in society: cows go on plates, dogs on sofas, foxes in rubbish bins, elephants in zoos, and millions of wild animals stay out there, somewhere, hopefully on the next David Attenborough series.

I 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 - and 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: 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. Full Review

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Review of

A Women's Guide to Claiming Space by Eliza Van Cort

5star.jpg Politics and Society

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)

To claim space is to live the life of choosing unapologetically and bravely. It is to live the life you've always wanted.

Sometimes the reviewing gods are generous: at a time when violence against women is much in the news, A Women's Guide to Claiming Space by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. Now - to be clear - this book is not a 'how to disable your attacker with two simple jabs' manual: it's something far more effective, but discussion at the moment seems to be about how women can be protected. I've always thought that women need to rise above this, to be people who don't need protection, people who claim their own space. If all women did this, those few men who are violent to women would realise that we are not just an easy target to be used to prove that they are big men. Full Review

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Review of

Fifty Sounds by Polly Barton

4.5star.jpg Politics and Society

Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question Why Japan? Japan has been on my radar for a while and if the world hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but I am not hopeful. And like Barton, I don't know the answer to the question why Japan? She explains her feelings in respect of the question in the first essay, which is on the sound giro' – which she describes as being, among other things, the sound of every party where you have to introduce yourself. Full Review

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Review of

Signs of Life by Stephen Fabes

5star.jpg Travel

I was brought up on maps and first-person narratives of tales of far away places. I was birth-righted wanderlust and curiosity. Unfortunately, I didn't inherit what Dr. Stephen Fabes clearly had which was the guts to simply go out and do it. I also didn't inherit the kind of steady nerve, ability to talk to strangers and basic practicality that would have meant that I would have survived if I had been gifted with the requisite 'bottle'. In order words I'm not the sort of person who will get on a bike outside a London hospital and not come home for six years. Fabes did precisely that. Full Review

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Review of

Single, Again, and Again, and Again by Louisa Pateman

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

You can't be happy and fulfilled on your own. You are not complete until you find a man.

This was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to believe. It wasn't unkind: it was simply the adults in her life advising her as to what they thought would be best for her. It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the girl (she's usually fairly young) is rescued by the handsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever after. Few girls are lucky enough to be brought up without the expectation that they will marry and have children. It was a belief and it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that a belief is a choice. Full Review

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