Difference between revisions of "Newest Politics and Society Reviews"

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search
 
(120 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
 
[[Category:Politics and Society|*]]
 
[[Category:Politics and Society|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove  -->
+
[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove  -->
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Chris McIvor
+
|author=Virginie Despentes
|title=The World is Elsewhere
+
|title=King Kong Theory
|rating=5
+
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
+
|genre=Autobiography  
|summary=As a Country Director, Chris McIvor has worked for a number of years at Save the Children. 'The World is Elsewhere' covers his time there and, his journeys across a number of countries. It is a beautiful mix of autobiography and travel. It also captures his philosophical thoughts on international aid. He reflects on both the good and the bad with a very easy, conversational writing style that makes the book truly captivating. I read from cover to cover in a single sitting, unusual for a reviewer. Such was the draw as he laid himself bare.
+
|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124346</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=191309734X
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Anna Bikont
 
|title= The Crime and the Silence
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= History
 
|summary= Where was your father? Where was your brother, your mother, your uncle? These are the questions Anna Bikont struggles to ask during her investigation into a shocking act of violence committed against the Jewish community in Jedwabne during the summer of 1941. The Crime and the Silence weaves together journals, interviews and pictures to share the story of a community torn apart by hatred and intolerance. It is also a moving testament to the dedication of Bikont, who documents her struggle to find the truth with grace and dignity in the face of silence, rationalisation, and even anger, from members of the Polish community who would rather not stir up the crimes of the past.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099592525</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Kate Harrad
+
|isbn=1009473085
|title=Purple Prose: Bisexuality in Britain
+
|title=The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024
 +
|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Before reading Kate Harrad's thought provoking insight into bisexuality in Britain I have to confess to being as guilty of the misconceptions surrounding the subject as everyone else. It is only when you read this collection of essays and anecdotes, you realise the prejudice they face on a daily basis. The very nature of bisexuality is widely misunderstood by the heterosexual and gay communities alike. As a result bisexuals find themselves marginalised, or, in the worst-case scenario, completely ostracised. Far from having, ''the best of both worlds'', they are considered to be sitting on the fence, unable to come to terms with their true sexuality. ''Purple Prose'' tackles these myths and ill-informed ideas head on, and in the process shows a community that does have many issues, just not the ones that are being laid at their door.
+
|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0996460160</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Wade Graham
 
|title=Dream Cities: Seven Urban Ideas That Shape the World
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre= History
 
|summary=Between 1950 and 2014 the world's urban population increased from 746 million to 3.9 billion. The urbanising trend is set to continue with the United Nations predicting that by the middle of the century 66% of us will be city dwellers, a massive six billion people. How have city planners and architects tried to cope with the recent surge? How can they avoid repeating mistakes from the past? Both of those questions are considered in Dream Cities – Seven Urban Ideas That Shape The World, Wade Graham's excellent field guide to the modern world.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445659735</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=T J Coles
+
|author=Alastair Humphreys
|title=Britain's Secret Wars
+
|title=Local
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
+
|genre=Travel
|summary= Britain's Secret Wars is a chilling and disturbing book to read. With all four corners of the globe hell-bent on conflict, oppression and injustice, our sanitised media portrays Britain, as a nation, responding to harrowing global events. What is chilling, in T J Coles book, is that the political establishment, through the military and intelligence community appear to be complicit in instigating many of them. What is disturbing is that the majority of information he has used to form his analysis and conclusion is freely available and in the public domain.  
+
|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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905570783</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1785633678
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Angela Lightburn
+
|author=Edel Rodriguez
|title=An Annoyance of Neighbours: Life is Never Dull When You Have Neighbours!
+
|title=Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=4
|genre=Politics and Society
+
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=You can choose your friendsYou can't choose your relatives, but you can - usually - put some physical distance between you and them, but you can't choose your neighbours and once you're ''there'' it can be very expensive or even impossible to break the linkNow, I can't give you any advice on this thorny subject as it's more than thirty years since I've been in a position to have anything to complain about, but Angela Lightburn knows all there is to knowShe's spent years collating all the different problems which people have with their neighbours and ways of improving the situation which don't involve a lengthy prison sentence.
+
|summary=We're in childhood, and we're in CubaThe 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 allWell, 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 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>1785892029</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1474616720
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Ian Goldin and Chris Kutarna
+
|author=Sarah Wilson
|title= Age of Discovery: Navigating the Risks and Rewards of Our New Renaissance
+
|title=This One Wild and Precious Life: the path back to connection in a fractured world
|rating= 3.5
+
|rating=3.5
|genre= Politics and Society
+
|genre= Lifestyle
|summary=Here we are, world, in the midst of a new Renaissance. What will it be, to flounder or to flourish?
+
|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.
 
+
|isbn=1785633848
The central aim of this discourse is to highlight our current position, and the fact that there is a choice to be made. The authors date 1990 as the dawn of a new, and our present, Renaissance. As with the last, this time warrants in a whole host of risks, but it also offers the opportunity to reap the benefits of the changes occurring across the globe.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147293637X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Xinran, Esther Tyldesley and David Dobson
+
|isbn=1785633457
|title= Buy Me The Sky
+
|title=Charging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car
|rating= 3.5
+
|author=Clive Wilkinson
|genre= Politics and Society
+
|rating=5
|summary=''These single-sprout children are more precious than gold'', says a Chinese woman to the author. Buy Me The Sky asks what it's like to grow up as ''gold'' through Xinran's conversations with ten adults from the first generation of China's only children. In the highly informative introduction, she tells the story of a 22 year old male student who, in 2010, ran over a female migrant worker in his car, and then was so fearful of the consequences that he brutally murdered her. He was tried and executed in a hugely divisive case with some seeing him as an evil perpetrator and others, a victim.
+
|genre=Travel
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846044731</amazonuk>
+
|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?
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Tom Bower
+
|isbn=1529153050
|title=Broken Vows: Tony Blair The Tragedy of Power
+
|title=Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2022
 +
|author=Tim Benson
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
+
|genre=Humour
|summary=In May 1997 we went to vote gleefully, sure that there was going to be a change from the tired, sleaze-ridden Conservative government we'd been sufferingThe Blairs' entry into Downing Street the following day - through crowds of well-wishers - was like a breath of fresh air and (perhaps fortunately) it would be years before I discovered that the 'well wishers' had been bussed in for the eventLooking back now it seems that our hopes for what the 'New Labour' government could achieve were unreasonably high and there's a special place in hell reserved for those who disappoint us in this way.  I've often wondered quite how history will see Blair: Afghanistan and Iraq as well as his failure to deal with Gordon Brown would always sour his premiership for me, but to what extent could his achievements such as the Good Friday Agreement, the minimum wage and higher welfare payments be balanced against his failures?
+
|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 2022Who can imagine what there will be to come in the 2023 edition?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571314201</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Peter Popham
+
|isbn=B0B7289HKQ
|title=The Lady and the Generals: Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's Struggle for Freedom
+
|title=Conversations Across America: A Father and Son, Alzheimer's, and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Soul of America
|rating=4.5
+
|author=Kari Loya
|genre=Biography
+
|rating=4
|summary=On 13 November 2010, Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest after spending 15 of the previous 21 years as a prisoner of Burma's military junta. Political reforms soon followed, culminating with Suu (as she prefers to be known) being elected to parliament. The West rejoiced; leaders, business men, and tourists poured in; and Suu entered the pantheon of modern-day political heroes. Burma was a burgeoning democracy, and Suu was a saint. In reality, as Peter Popham argues in 'The Lady and the Generals', the situation was far more complex.
+
|genre=Travel
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846043719</amazonuk>
+
|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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Jason Burke
+
|isbn=1739593901
|title=The New Threat From Islamic Militancy
+
|title=22 Ideas About The Future
|rating=4
+
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|genre=Politics and Society
+
|rating=5
|summary=Barely a day passes without Islamic militancy making headlines somewhere in the world, and yet it can be a hard subject to grasp. The sudden rise of Islamic State and their campaign of shocking violence both in the Middle East and further afield has left many confused and fearful, and has provoked a sometimes extreme political response. In "The New Threat From Islamic Militancy", Jason Burke, a journalist with two decades of experience reporting on the Islamic world, attempts to correct the many misconceptions about Islamic extremism to give a true understanding of the threat we now face.
+
|genre=Science Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784701475</amazonuk>
+
|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.''
 +
 
 +
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.  
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Benedict Rogers
+
|author=Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams
|title= Burma: A Nation at the Crossroads
+
|title=The Book of Hope 
|rating= 3.5
+
|rating=5
|genre= History
+
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary= Benedict Rogers is a human rights activist and journalist with an expert insight into Burma, gathered first-hand on journeys to regions off the beaten track. Burma is a country under the iron rule of a succession of military regimes, struggling with over half a century of suffering, much unknown to the wider international audience.
+
|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.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846044464</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=024147857X
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Roger Scruton
+
|isbn=1788360737
|title= Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left
+
|title= Artivism: The Battle for Museums in the Era of Postmodernism
|rating= 3.5
+
|author=Alexander Adams
 +
|rating=2
 
|genre= Politics and Society
 
|genre= Politics and Society
|summary=''Thinkers of the New Left'' first came out in 1985, under Thatcher's government. British left-wing intellectuals gave it savage reviews. The publisher was threatened with a boycott and the book was withdrawn from bookshops. Roger Scruton feels this caused his university career to decline. In the introduction, he says he is ''reluctant to return to the scene of such a disaster.'' However, this is a subject he is clearly passionate about, having worked with underground networks in communist Europe and seen the destructive reality behind the fashionable ''leftist ways of thinking.''
+
|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>1408187337</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Malala Yousafzai
+
|isbn=1398508632
|title= I Am Malala
+
|title=The Wilderness Cure
|rating= 5
+
|author=Mo Wilde
|genre= Autobiography
+
|rating=5
|summary= ''She's a phenomenon'' is my OH's response to any mention of MalalaI can't disagree on some level, but what this book proves is that on another she is just a girlOne voice among manyIt's just that she decided to speak louder than most.  We know about Malala because she got lucky.  She got lucky because when she got shot by the Taliban there were people nearby, doctors who got her to a hospital, and then luckier still because when her condition worsened, nearby there were western doctors with access to western facilities and she was flown to the UK for treatment.
+
|genre=Lifestyle
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780622163</amazonuk>
+
|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 pandemicWilde had a few advantages: the area around her was a known habitat with a variety of terrainsShe 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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Allan Metcalf
+
|isbn=1529149800
|title=From Skedaddle to Selfie: Words of the Generation
+
|title=Things You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste
|rating=3.5
+
|author=Eduardo Garcia and Sara Boccaccini Meadows
|genre=Trivia
+
|rating=4
|summary=I have to go a roundabout way to introducing this book, so bear with meIt stems partly from dictionaries and the etymology of the language we use, but more so if anything from a different couple of books, and their ideas of generations.  The authors of those posited the idea that all those archetypical generations – the Baby Boomers, the Millennials, and those before, in between and since – have their own cyclical pattern, and the history of humanity has been and will be formed by the interplay of just four different kinds, running (with only one exception) in regular orderI don't really hold much store by that, and I certainly didn't know we'd started one since the Millennials – who the heck decides such things, for one?  ''Somebody must have put out an order'', as someone here says of something elseBut in the same way as generations get defined by collective persons unknown, so do words – and those words are certainly a clue to what was important, predominant and of course spoken in each decade.
+
|genre=Home and Family
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>019992712X</amazonuk>
+
|summary=We begin with a telling storyAll 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 hummingbirdAnd 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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Danny Rogers
+
|isbn=1638485216
|title=Campaigns that Shook the World: The Evolution of Public Relations
+
|title=Black, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement
|rating= 5
+
|author=Frederick Reynolds
|genre= Business and Finance
+
|rating=5
|summary= I dithered about how to begin this review. On one hand I thought I should probably start by saying that I have a work related interest in marketing and communications. On the other hand, Danny Rogers has written a book which appealed to me on several levels. Campaigns are about psychology and storytelling – which of course leads us into branding but also feature critical issues around concept delivery. In short, I was looking forward to reading this for many reasons – and it didn’t disappoint.
+
|genre=Autobiography
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749475099</amazonuk>
+
|summary=''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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Jill Leovy
+
|author=Matthieu Aikins
|title=Ghettoside
+
|title=The Naked Don't Fear the Water
|rating=3.5
+
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=There are enough LA rappers around to attest that living as a black man in South Central is no easy task.  Dismiss these urban lyricists at your peril, as crude they may be, but ''Ghettoside'' will soon inform the disbeliever that life on the streets of LA is hard. With a 40 times higher chance of being murdered than a white person in America, what made the LA of the 80s through to the late 2000s such a dangerous place to live for young black men?
+
|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>1784700762</amazonuk>
+
|isbn= B09N9157T6
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Ben Coates
+
|isbn=1785633074
|title= Why the Dutch are Different: A Journey into the Hidden Heart of the Netherlands
+
|title=Staggering Hubris
|rating= 4
+
|author=Josh Berry
|genre= Travel
+
|rating=4.5
|summary= I know Holland in the way everyone does. Pancakes and windmills and Pot, oh my. But it's one of the few European countries I've never lived in for any period of time, and so I was intrigued to know more.
+
|genre=Humour
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>185788633X</amazonuk>
+
|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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Emma Marriott
+
|isbn=1846276772
|title= I Used to Know That: History
+
|title=The End of Bias: How We Change Our Minds
|rating= 4
+
|author=Jessica Nordell
|genre= Politics and Society
+
|rating=4.5
|summary= I've picked up a few things over the years, most notably from English language text books while TEFLing abroad (there's nothing like an exciting lesson on Guy Fawkes to have a classroom of Mexicans wondering why we so love to celebrate a terrorist attack that didn't happen). But I have gaps, of this I am sure, and I thought to get a basic understanding of, well, the basics that we all should know, a quick read of this book wouldn't hurt.
+
|genre=Politics and Society
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782434488</amazonuk>
+
|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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Emma Marriott
+
|isbn=1529148251
|title= I Should Know That - Great Britain
+
|title=Misfits: A Personal Manifesto
|rating= 4.5
+
|author=Michaela Coel
|genre= Politics and Society
+
|rating=5
|summary= I am a dreadful Brit. I'm better at the geography of Colombia than the UK (true story, I had to google where Essex was the other day). Despite 17 years of full time education in the UK, I probably wouldn't pass a simple citizenship test. Which is a little embarrassing, really. So when this book came up for review I thought I'd have it, both for interest and as a subtle way to brush up on my Britain.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782434313</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tony Wilkinson
 
|title=Capitalism and Human Values
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Tony Wilkinson has a first class honours degree in philosophy and has worked in government service and investment management - the ideal background for a consideration of capitalism and the human values which propel it. It's not too long ago - certainly within my lifetime - that religion largely dictated the values held by individuals, but true religious belief now seems to be the exception rather than the ruleIn its place we have a society for whom consumerism is the driving force - and a widening gap between those who can afford to consume and those who cannot.  As Wilkinson says ''Getting and spending have come to define who we are.''
+
|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.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845407881</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 FestivalYou 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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Luke Gittos
+
|isbn=0008350388
|title=Why Rape Culture is a Dangerous Myth: From Steubenville to Ched Evans
+
|title=We Need to Talk About Money
|rating=3.5
+
|author=Otegha Uwagba
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=It is said that we live in a rape culture.  Tabloid headlines scream that the number of rapes is on the increase and that the police and the courts are failing to deal with the problemThere's a belief that the rate of conviction is consistently lowIt's also said that sexism and misogyny have created a society in which rape is a regular occurrence, frequently not reported to the police and that society at large doesn't really careLuke Gittos, a solicitor practicing criminal law, argues that these claims are based on myths and misunderstandings of the statistics and that far from ''improving'' the way that rape and sexual assaults are dealt with it's actually working against the interests of victims.
+
|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>1845408373</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
''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 nineIt 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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
 
|author=Anna Krien
+
{{Frontpage
|title=Night Games: A Journey to the Dark Side of Sport
+
|author=Richard Brook
 +
|title=Understanding Human Nature: A User's Guide to Life
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Sport
+
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Mere mortals relax by having a game of footy of a weekend and a couple of drinks, but what does a professional sportsman do to cut loose?  What do they do when they go out en masse? Investigative journalist Anna Krien looks at a rape trial of an Australian Rules footballer, just into his twenties and follows the case as it goes to court, interviewing some of those directly or indirectly involved and digressing into related areas. In deference to the fact that the woman had automatic anonymity she's chosen to give the man who was charged the name of 'Justin' in an attempt to level the playing field, so to speak.  You could Google the facts and come up with the correct name, but this isn't a book of gossip about particular people.  It's an investigation of a culture which has increasingly treated women as sexual commodities.
+
|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>0224100033</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1800461682
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Ian McMillan
+
|isbn=1787332098
|title=Neither Nowt Nor Summat: In search of the meaning of Yorkshire
+
|title=How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World
|rating=4
+
|author=Henry Mance
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Ian McMillan, poet, radio presenter, poet in residence at Barnsley Football Club and professional Yorkshireman, is worried.  It has crossed his mind that he might not be ''Yorkshire enough'', given that his father was not from God's Own County, but was a Scot by birthIn a series of discursions on the subject of Yorkshire he attempts to distil the essence of the county and to understand what being a Yorkshireman meansTo this end we accompany him through towns and cities, the Cudworth Probus Club, Ilkley Moor and elicit contributions from Mad Geoff the barber, a kazoo-playing train guard and four Saddleworth council workers in search of a mattressAmongst others. All of Yorkshire life is here.  Including Yorkshire puddings.
+
|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>0091959950</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
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 reluctantI 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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Xinran
+
|isbn=1523092734
|title= Buy Me The Sky
+
|title=A Women's Guide to Claiming Space
|rating= 5
+
|author=Eliza Van Cort
|genre= Politics and Society
+
|rating=5
|summary= I started reading Xinran thirteen years ago, and whilst I haven't read all of her books, every one that I have read has at some point had me in tears. This one was no different.
+
|genre=Politics and Society
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846044715</amazonuk>
+
|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)
 +
 
 +
''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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Ray Barron Woolford
+
|author=Polly Barton
|title=Food Bank Britain
+
|title=Fifty Sounds
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=One morning Ray Barron Woolford watched as a smartly-dressed young man foraged in waste bins for food, less than a mile from the riches of the City of London. Intrigued as to what was going on he went to ask. The man explained to him that he'd just got a job after two years of being unemployed, but it would be five weeks before he was paid.  He couldn't claim benefits as he was in work and had no savings, so the bins had to be his source of food and by the following week he would have to walk to work as he couldn't afford the fares.  That was the inspiration for the [http://www.wecarefoodbanks.co.uk/ We Care Food Bank].
+
|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>099308091X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1913097501
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Chloe Combi
+
|author=Stephen Fabes
|title=Generation Z: Their Voices, Their Lives
+
|title=Signs of Life
|rating=4
+
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
+
|genre=Travel
|summary=Generation Z, for anyone like me who didn’t know, is made up of those young people born between 1995 and 2001. It is one of the central contentions of Chloe Combi’s book 'Generation Z: Their voices, Their Lives' that these young people’s lives are unlike anyone else’s in British history. From the radical technological innovation which produced the internet and smart phones to multiculturalism, life for these children and teenagers is characterised by so much that was not experienced by their parents and grandparents. In 'Generation Z', then, Combi offers some glimpses into the worlds of young people today, in what she wishes to be 'a conversation starter between teenagers and adults'.  
+
|summary= 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091958776</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1788161211
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=1504321383
 +
|title=Single, Again, and Again, and Again
 +
|author=Louisa Pateman
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Autobiography
 +
|summary=''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''.
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
Move to [[Newest Popular Science Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 09:49, 29 September 2024

191309734X.jpg

Review of

King Kong Theory by Virginie Despentes

4star.jpg Autobiography

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. Full Review

1009473085.jpg

Review of

The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024 by Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)

5star.jpg Politics and Society

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, 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. Full Review

1785633678.jpg

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

1474616720.jpg

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

1785633848.jpg

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

1785633457.jpg

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

1529153050.jpg

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

B0B7289HKQ.jpg

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

1739593901.jpg

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

024147857X.jpg

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

1788360737.jpg

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

1398508632.jpg

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

1529149800.jpg

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

1638485216.jpg

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

B09N9157T6.jpg

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

1785633074.jpg

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

1846276772.jpg

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

1529148251.jpg

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

0008350388.jpg

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

1800461682.jpg

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

1787332098.jpg

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

1523092734.jpg

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

1913097501.jpg

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

1788161211.jpg

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

1504321383.jpg

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

Move to Newest Popular Science Reviews