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[[Category:New Reviews|Lifestyle]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1454955546|title=Sugarless|author=Tom RyanNicole M Avena|rating=5|genre=Lifestyle|titlesummary=Following Atticus: How ''This isn't a little dog led one man on diet book. The last thing anyone needs is another diet book.'' There was a journey of rediscovery time, not that long ago, when it was thought that sugary food was better for you than food with high-fat content. Fat was the demon food which was going to elevate your cholesterol and cause heart disease. Sugar was a carbohydrate, so good. There's a problem, though. Sugar is addictive and can hijack your brain in much the same way as drugs like heroin and cocaine. Does that sound over the top of the world ? Well, it isn't.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1635866847|title=The Lavender Companion|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci|rating=4.5|genre=PetsLifestyle|summary=Tom Ryan is a middle-aged, stressed journalist, running his own newspaperIt's strange, the things that make you ''Undertoadimmediately'' in Newburyport in Americafeel that this is the book for you. His life is full of political intrigues and mayoral electionsBefore I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', boardroom deals I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and subterfuge and his life is full there's a picture of a slice of challengeschocolate cake on the homepage. He doesnI don't need a dogeat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. He doesn(There't even particularly want s a dogrecipe in the book, but when which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of it. Notes in the margins are sanctioned. You get to fold down the corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a miniature schnauzer enters his life one day, everything changesproblem. I ''loved'' this book already.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141048972</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0760381267
|title=Verdura: Living a Garden Life
|author=Perla Sofia Curbelo-Santiago
|rating=3.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=''The most important part of a garden is the one who enjoys it''.
I've 'gardened' in a vague, indefinite sort of way for more than half a century. I know (most of) the basics but life has changed and I needed 'projects' rather than a general commitment to gardening. ''Verdura'' with its promise of projects for both indoors and outdoors of varying complexity seemed like the answer. So, how did it stack up?}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jolyon Fenwick and Marcus HusselbySarah Wilson|title=It Could Have Been YoursThis One Wild and Precious Life: The enlightened person's guide the path back to the year's most desirable thingsconnection in a fractured world|rating=43.5|genre=TriviaLifestyle|summary=In a world of diamond-encrusted skulls, gold-leafed iPhones My favourite Mary Oliver line is the one in which she asks ''What is it you plan to do with your one wild and luxury yachts ten a penny, of blingy shit (or should that be shitty blingprecious life?) it's a relief ' I get to know people are still spending money on unique one-offs love that are more worthwhileline so much because my answer is ''This! Precisely this. '' The records for costliest photo, artwork, musical instrument I'm lucky enough to be living my one wild and manuscript have all been broken in precious life the twenty four months leading up way I want to this . Sarah Wilson is equally lucky. In her bookthat takes Oliver's releasewords 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. Our collators have scoured the press for those and otherHer answer is an unequivocal ''no, similarly noteworthy auctions, and found what other people paid for we are not''. Don't care what you didn't know re doing, she thinks you would have wanted given (we, I) could be doing more…And she's effing furious about the moneyfact that we are not.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846684900</amazonuk>1785633848
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1394159544
|title=Recycling for Dummies
|author=Sarah Winkler
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=''Recycling one ton of plastic can save up to 16.3 barrels of oil.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anthony T DeBenedet and Lawrence Cohen0760378134|title=The Art of RoughhousingFirst-Time Gardener: Good Old Fashioned Horseplay and Why Every Kid Needs It Container Food Gardening|author=Pamela Farley|rating=45
|genre=Home and Family
|summary=Rather than running around outdoors, going If you've ever thought how good it would be to be able to pop out into the garden and pick some fruit and vegetables for bike rides and building densa meal – but realised that you wouldn't know where to start, lots of children nowadays end up spending hours watching TV or playing computer gamesthis is the book you need. Play times in school are often very regimented and in some schools certain games like It'British Bulldogs comprehensive: you' and ll cover everything from why you should grow your own food, what you'Leapfrogre going to grow, what you' ll grow it in (both containers and even soil), where you'Tagll put these containers, how you' have even been bannedll water and fertilise them and you finish the main part of the book with a handy section on troubleshooting. Children are discouraged from physical play, for fear that they will hurt themselves and There's also through the fear that those responsible for them will find themselves facing a lawsuit if someone does get hurtgood glossary. This book aims to support the thinking that very physical play So, is it any good for children; that unless they face risks in their lives and learn to assess those risks, or experience a few bumps and bruises and learn to get up and carry on, then they will lack vital life skills for their future adult lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594744874</amazonuk>?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue Brayne1398508632|title=Sex, Meaning and the MenopauseThe Wilderness Cure|author=Mo Wilde
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Things change as you get olderIt 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. As men – and The end of November, particularly women – approach their late forties and early fifties they expect that there will be physical changesin Central Scotland was perhaps not the best time to start, some more permanent than othersin a world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, but they're frequently taken by surprise by the mental changes which occurBrexit and a pandemic. Women expect that Wilde had a few advantages: the menopause will bring the end area around her was a known habitat with a variety of menstruation (some looking at this more gratefully than othersterrains. 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.}}{{Frontpage|author=Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator) but fail |title=I May Be Wrong|rating=5|genre= Autobiography|summary= When the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'm inclined to appreciate that they are moving into a different stage think it doesn't really matter how the rest of their lifethe world responds to your book. Looked at positively this can be I know, having read the most fulfilling period of woman's lifecycle – book in question, that Lindeblad would disagree with that thought. He knows (and at core so do I doubt ) that there's a husband who would object it matters very much how the rest of the world responds to that!this book, because it tells the truth as it is, in the early 21st century.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0826423019</amazonuk>1526644827
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Diane Ackerman1732898731|title=One Hundred Names For LoveThe Boy Who Loved Boxes: A Stroke, a Marriage, and the Language of HealingChildren's Book for Adults|author=Michael Albanese
|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Diane Ackerman's husband, Paul West, There was a Boy who loved boxes. He had been in hospital a box for three weeks everything and he was meticulous about storage: his parents probably couldn't believe their luck! It began with a kidney infection art supplies, stuffed toys and was just rejoicing in the fact that he was to go home like: all the next day. As Diane watched , Paul suffered a massive strokethings which most children have in abundance. The effects were catastrophic, but worst of all, Boy's delight was in the man who had been a brilliant wordsmith was robbed sense of order in his power of speech and lost his extensive vocabularyroom: it made him feel happy. It's eight years since this happened As he grew up and the intervening years have been became a constant battle to improve Paul's speech and restore some joy to Man, his life. There have been ups – became more complicated and many downs – but despite a brain scan indicating that Paul might well be a vegetable he has since his stroke written booksdealt with this by getting bigger and better boxes. His vocabulary will never be back to what it was, but it remains impressive Look carefully at the pictures and, strangely enough, many you'll see that one of the words which he finds easiest to use are those which he encountered them has a number of years agopadlock...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>039307241X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Eleanor Birne1846276772|title=When Will I Sleep Through the Night? An A - Z The End of BabyhoodBias: How We Change Our Minds|author=Jessica Nordell
|rating=4.5
|genre=Home Politics and FamilySociety|summary=When it comes to parentingAnyone who is not an able, I have discovered white man understands bias in that they may no longer even recognise the extent to which they suffer from it: it's simply a lot part of people lieeveryday life. White men will always come first. They lie about sleepThe able will come before the disabled. Jobs, about tantrumspromotions, about feeding and nappies and higher salaries are the effects preserve of a screaming newborn on your marriagethe white man. There Even when those who wouldn't pass the medical become a part of an organisation it's rare that their views are books galoreheard, and Mummy blogs, and tweeters all happily proclaiming how marvellous it all is, first of all being pregnant, then giving birth, and then raising the babythat their concerns are acknowledged. It's all glowing skin personally appalling and sunshine smiles and meeting friends degrading for coffee. I quickly stopped reading anything baby-related when I was pregnant because I was sick as a dog for 5 months, I had an awful labour and that first year with my little girl was almost impossibly difficult and totally consumed with the horror individuals on the receiving end of a non-sleeping baby. Now, four and a half years on from giving birth and (mostly) sleeping all night long I felt able to open up this latest baby book, mainly because the title roused such familiar feelings in mebias but it's not just the individuals who are negatively impacted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684862</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Erling Kagge
|title=Walking: One Step At A Time
|rating=5
|genre= Lifestyle
|summary= Those who have read my reviews before will know that how much I loved a book is evidenced by the number of pages with corners turned, so let me start this one with an apology to the Norfolk Library Service: sorry! I forgot it was your book not mine. In my defence, I will say that as a reader of this type of book there is something connective about noting where prior readers were inspired (provided it is subtle – I'll allow creased corners, but not scribbles – for the latter we must buy our own copy – which I am about to do as soon as I have finished telling you why).
Erligg Kagge is a Norwegian explorer who has walked to the South Pole, the North Pole and the summit of Everest. He knows a thing or two about walking. However, this isn't a travelogue about any of those epic journeys, it is instead a thoughtful exploration of what it means to walk. It is a plenitude of unnumbered essays about walking. There is no 'contents' page and I haven't counted. In small format paperback, each essay is only a few pages long. Perhaps then, better thought of as a meditation rather than an essay.|isbn=0241357705}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hugh BowringRichard Brook|title=Green Living Understanding Human Nature: A User's Guideto Life
|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=The 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 'Green Living Guidehit home' is a Magbook - so in the format is like way that of a magazine - and although it initially seems does now. I believe it came to me not just because I was likely to give it a little expensive for something favourable review [ ''full disclosure The Bookbag's u.s.p. is that looks just people chose their own books rather than getting them randomly, so there is a predisposition towards expecting to like a magazine you quickly find, on openingthe book, even if it doesn't always turn out that way'' ] – but also because it contains an enormous amount of interesting and useful information. Even already determined eco-warriors should find something of interest in this wide-ranging guideis a book I needed to read, right now.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907232060</amazonuk>1800461682
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Arianne Cohen0753558378|title=The Sex Diaries ProjectEffortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters|author=Greg McKeown|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=It's often said 'there's nowt so queer as folk'. Surely this should be qualified as 'there's nowt so queer as folks' sex lives'. Arianne Cohen has made a major online database The marginal return of testimony from people about their thoughts regarding sex - having itworking harder was, not having itin fact, having it with whom theynegative.'re with, having it with those whom they're not with. And in every sense, the results can be exceedingly queer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091939356</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jane Shilling1523092734|title=The Stranger in the Mirror: A Memoir of Middle AgeWomen's Guide to Claiming Space|author=Eliza Van Cort
|rating=5
|genre=AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Middle''She brings a hug-kick-aged women disappear. They are not see on television, their lives do not appear thunderclap that every woman needs in newspapers, the legions of novels that are written each year rarely feature themher life. At least, that is what the author Jane Shilling believes as she wakes up aged 47 to find the narrative of her contemporaries Again and their lives which she has been reading about again and living in parallel with since leaving university has vanishedagain. She looks in the mirror and sees a face she does not recognise. Even with a punishing regime of early bed'' (Alma Derricks, no alcohol and litres of waterformer CMO, it refuses to regain its youthful bloom. So she decides to take a magnifying glass to this particular moment in time, this journey between youth and old age.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701181001</amazonuk>}}Cirque du Soleil RSD)
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Roy Vickery1529109116|title=Garlands, Conkers and Mother-DieCall Me Red: British and Irish Plant-Lore|rating=5|genre=History|summary=For many centuries, plants have not only had practical uses as food, remedies, textiles and dyes, but have also symbolic and folkloric meaning in many different cultures. The term A Shepherd''plant-lore'' has been coined to describe the profusion of the customs and beliefs associated with plants, and this book gathers together many of the plant-lore traditions of Britain and Ireland.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441101950</amazonuk>}} {{newreviews Journey|author=Cindy M Meston and David Buss|title=Why Women Have Sex: Understanding Sexual Motivation from Adventure to Revenge (and Everything in Between)Hannah Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=''I'm all in favour want the image of a British farmer to simply be that of Edward Gorey becoming a bigger name, especially here person who is proudly employed in feeding the UK, where his output is certainly less lauded than in his native USAnation. ItI don's evident from the bright, glossy pages here t think that he was an extraordinary talent. Polymath and know-all in real life, in his ink drawings he can show the complexity of someone like Dore, while using his draughtsmanship is too much to pen macabre whimsy, like an old-fashioned love-child of Mervyn Peake and Edward Learask.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0764948040</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Dawson1786495902|title=The Self-Sufficiency BibleNatural Health Service: Window Boxes to Smallholdings - Hundreds of Ways to Become Self-SufficientHow Nature Can Mend Your Mind|author=Isabel Hardman|rating=45
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=The recent financial crises have taken people by surprise and instead of trying Isabel Hardman suffered a trauma which she chooses not to ride the problem out share. She says that a friend who does know, burst into tears and then get back to our old, profligate ways wehealth-care professionals've looked at how we can live more sustainably and less expensively. Thrift is the new black and many people are taking pride jaws have sagged in not spending moneydisbelief. I might take issue Hardman dealt with whether or not Simon Dawsonthis at the time by 's book should be called a keeping going''bible'' which suggests a completeness which is doesn't seem : the next day she went to work to exhibitcover the budget, next there was the EU referendum, but the political party leadership contests and then it's an excellent starting point for those wanting was party conference season. One night she had to be sedated and returned home to become more selfbegin long-sufficientterm sick leave. It also has That was what brought me to this book: 2020 was the year when the recipe for a chocolate sponge which takes just five minutes to make – and that takes a lot of beatingbins went out more often than I did.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906787689</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Evany ThomasLauren Martin|title=The Secret Language of Sleep: A Couple's Guide to the Thirty-nine Positions|rating=3|genre=Home and Family|summary=This volume takes the premise that the positions in which couples sleep together are an insight into their private mind. Therefore, with the help of the line drawings of 39 (apparently all of THE 39) positions, one might see where one is going wrong. It’s a chicken and egg situation where you might learn you’re with the wrong bed partner, and change either them or your nocturnal habits, or in order to change yourself alter things having reflected on the contents here – with the help as they suggest Book of a ceiling-mounted camcorder.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1932416471</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Norah Vincent|title=Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony BinMoods|rating=3.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=I was in a great mood when I first learnt of this book, and because sarcasm doesn't always translate well into writing, imagine the word 'Voluntary Madness'great' is journalist Norah Vincent's account of her visits to three mental health facilities in America. The first is being delivered with an urbaneye roll and a sigh, public hospital that houses mainly homeless, psychotic patients, many through clenched teeth. I had spent the best part of whom are addicted to drugs. In this hospitala rainy, windy weekend afternoon out on the doctors are overworked and jaded and medication is always water at our local sailing club in the answerrescue rib, on standby in case anyone who was racing needed support. SoonIt's a volunteer duty we all do during the year, the author finds that her latent depression (which led her and normally I'm happy to do the book in the first place) is returning. The process of being institutionalised breaks her sense of self-worth down astonishingly fast. Indeed, she suggests but that it is day the lack of autonomy in institutional lifeweather was miserable and I was miserable, even for those patients who voluntarily commit themselves, that makes and it so hard for them all came to rebuild independent lives a head that evening when they finally leave I noticed on the institutionwebsite that we had been thanked for our time as "Dave and wife". Wow. I had never needed this book more.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099513439</amazonuk>1538733625
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Hannah Edelstein 0008420386|title=Himglish and FemaleseFailosophy: Why Women Don't Get Why Men Don't Get ThemA handbook for when things go wrong|author=Elizabeth Day
|rating=4
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Men arenWhat do Malcolm Gladwell, Alain de Botton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Lemn Sissay, Nigel Slater, Emeli Sandé, Meera Syal, Dame Kelly Holmes and Andrew Scott have in common? They't Martian ve all failed and women don- more importantly - they've been willing to appear on Elizabeth Day't hail from Venuss podcast to discuss their failures and how life worked out for them afterwards. We You're all Earthlings apparently; which seems like progress ll find the results of a sort. Even so we still have trouble understanding each other because we speak different languages – Himglish and Femalese. Luckily Jean Hannah Edelstein is fluent these discussions in both and has written this light hearted volume to define the problem and translate.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848091729</amazonuk>''Failosophy''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jaki Scarcello1504321383|title=Fifty Single, Again, and Fabulous: The Best Years of a Woman's Life|rating=3.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=When you open a package and find a bright pink book which proudly proclaims 'Fifty and Fabulous: the best years of a woman's life' you can be forgiven for wondering if this is going to be another of those books which recommends strenuous exercise regimesAgain, strict diets and just a little nip and tuck under the chin. Personally, my heart sank because, er, well, I'm no longer fifty. Were my fabulous years behind me?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906787603</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewAgain|author=Keith Hern|title=Bangers and MashLouisa Pateman
|rating=4.5
|genre=Home and FamilyAutobiography|summary=Keith Hern found a small lump in his neck ''You can't be happy and when the results of the tests came through he tried to put the appointment off as he had something more pressing to do, but the doctor was insistent. He knew then that he had cancerfulfilled on your own. The lump in his neck was, in fact, You are not complete until you find a secondary tumour with the primary being in the back of his tongue. But for the secondary tumour the discovery of the primary might have been too late for successful treatment. Keith takes us through the discovery of his cancer, his reactions to the diagnosis, his treatment and the titular meal of bangers and mash – the first solid food which he had attempted for some timeman''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312772</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Beard1538731738|title=It's A Don's Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful Life|author= Sarah Ban Breathnach
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Professor Mary BeardSomeone once said: it's not self-indulgence, feisty Cambridge classics donit's therapy! I think they were talking about shopping, keeps an eye open for architectural detail wherever she goesbut it probably can be applied to most things. Even on holiday In my case, she notices the changing urban landscape and records interesting parallels with ancient cities in her sparky blog. She is engaged in it applies to writing a detailed history of Pompeii and suddenly realises, whilst perambulating the backstreets of the Mexican city of Oaxacan, that this is exactly what Pompeii must have been like. She observes the low rise shops, dirt tracks across dusty streets and the close juxtaposition of rich and poor. Impressive portals of grand residential properties tower above humble workshops, and this prompts her into imaginative reconstruction. In her blog, from which this intriguing book is culled, she tells us about just how Oaxacan encourages her things because I want to ponder again the curious cart ruts of Pompeii. She even finds walls splashed with political slogans that are just like Roman ''dipinti''. Indeed, here in Mexico, the local library displays an edifying message in Spanish which originates in Cicerorather than because I can sell it or because I's speech in his Pro Archia, ''Science and letters are the nourishment of youth and the diversion of old ageve got something to sell.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682517</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel VreemanSharon Blackie|title=Don't Swallow Your GumIf Women Rose Rooted
|rating=5
|genre= Biography
|summary= I normally say that you can tell how much a book means to me by how many pages have corners turned down. Perhaps an even greater measure of impact is setting out to buy my own copy before I've finished reading the one I've borrowed. I want to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring' 'life-changing' – although it is definitely the first two and only time will tell about the third – but clichés exist for a reason and I'm not sure I can succinctly put it any better.
|isbn=1912836017
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1543987877
|title=Learn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life
|author=Dr Thomas Jordan
|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary='''BANG'Learn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life''is a book about love relationships rather than a book about love. That's The two greatest emotions are love and grief and love is the sound opposite of copious urban myths being shot down. grief: ''if you love'BANG', Dr Thomas Jordan tells us, ''you will inevitably grieve''. ThatYour love relationships begin the moment you's the sound of the old wives slamming the door, as their tales get revealed as baselessre born and end only when you die. '''CLICK'''Whilst we all come into the world hoping to give and receive love there are many people for whom love is not quite so simple. That's Some people suffer multiple disappointments - sometimes repeating the noise lots of illsame mistakes -informed websites make as they get closed downand this eventually becomes resignation. All noises come due to this brilliant bookFor people who are making the same mistakes repeatedly, self-preservation, in the form of resignation is a necessity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez Michael Harris|title=PerfumesSolitude: The A - Z GuideIn Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Wonderful, wonderful, wonderfulThis is not the book I was expecting it to be. The only thing that could be conceivably better than reading ''Perfumes'' would For some reason I expected it to be another self-help manual on how to find calm, how to read it while sampling step outside the scents mainstream, but it reviewsis not that at all. Instead of telling us how, but even without it is more about the olfactory component, ''Perfumeswhy''. Harries examines how we' is re eroding solitude, which used to be a delight: Turin (a lyrical scientist) natural part of our human life, and why that matters. Of course he talks about how some people have found solitude and what has come of that, and Sanchez (an analytically enthusiastic collector) not only treat perfume creation as high arteventually in the final chapter he talks about his own experience of having deliberately sought it out, but turn perfume criticism into an mostly he wanders down the alleys and by-ways that his thinking about this lost art form (or at least a sophisticated genre of writing) tooled him. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846681278</amazonuk>1847947662
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeremy Clarkson0753553236|title=Driven to Distraction|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=Jeremy Clarkson's middle name ought to be ''Marmite''. You really do either love him or hate him. I am in the first camp. I think he is brilliantly funny. He is. He makes me laugh. Out loud. And like many women who watch Top Gear, (well, those that don't watch it because they are strangely – ''bizarrely'' - attracted to James May – I am '''not''' - or because they want to mother Tiny Habits: The Hamster – I do '''not''') I find Jeremy Clarkson hilarious. And I don't think you have to like cars to see the appeal either! I mean, the columns within ''Driven To Distraction'' occasionally start ''off'' talking about cars, but not always and they quickly move on to the things that get his dander up before tailing neatly back to the cars again. Or not. And what is in between is pure gold dust.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718155548</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSmall Changes That Change Everything|author=Brian Johnson |title=Rockers and Rollers: An Automotive Autobiography B J Fogg|rating=3.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Brian Johnson will probably go down as one of the luckiest men in showbiz. He had a brief moment of glory in the early 70s as vocalist with Geordie, a Tyneside version of Slade, who had three Top 40 hits and then fell on hard times. After going back to the day job, a chance call invited him to go and audition for AC/DC, whose vocalist Bon Scott had suddenly died. Three decades later, not only have the group held on to their loyal fanbase, but one of their albums, according to an online source, is second only to Michael Jackson's ''Thriller'' in terms of global sales.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718155424</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=James May|title=Car Fever: Dispatches From Behind The Wheel|rating=4
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=NowGo on, way back when I was younger, and watched TV a lot, I am sure I remember Top Gear as being a consumer programmeadmit it - you're not quite perfect. How times changeYou still have those odd, quirky even loveable (to you) habits which seem to annoy other people. These days I am sure they destroy more cars than they reviewOther people, of course, and the three main people from the show are approaching superstar status, sorely afflicted with their amenable personalitiessome dreadful flaws which they could so easily correct, awkward wardrobe choices and trenchant laddish charmsif only they would make just a little bit of effort. They've sprung their media entities from out of the studio, into other TV programmes, and the world of journalismOr put another way, I get cross with chatty columns in the broadsheets allowing them free rein myself because I forget to witter to their heart's desire. And here, in one grandiloquent volume, do things or do some actions more than I should and in time for Christmas, are many of James May's desires.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340994533</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Richard Mabey |title=Wild Cooking|rating=4|genre=Cookery|summary=It's become fashionable now no matter how I try to make do, what seem to cut back - even for those who have no need to do so. Conspicuous consumption is frowned upon and thriftiness is the new black, so ''Wild Cooking'', previously published in hardback as ''The New English Cassoulet'' is going be quite monumental changes I never quite seem to appeal get to the mood of the moment grips with its approach of 'busking in the kitchen' and making doconcepts. Some of it might seem a little extreme – I really can't imagine that constantly fail and then I will ever slow cook a Peking Duck in front get cross with myself for failing. Lack of a fan heater simply because it might as well cook the food whilst it's heating the room – but I love the idea of using a glut willpower is another burden to add to make broad bean hummus, or even of gathering up vegetables which have been left when the field has been harvestedlist.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522969</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Deirdre Bounds1785785516|title=Fulfilled: A Personal Revolution in Seven Steps Fucking Good Manners|author=Simon Griffin
|rating=4
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Dierdre Bounds' Manners maketh man, they say. It certainly makes life was at rock bottom when she was introduced to the Twelve Step Plan used easier if everybody abides by Alcoholics Anonymous and within a matter set of conventions, some of years she had built which are ages old and other which have evolved over time. Manners are not about how much to tip or how you should behave if you get an internet business into an award-winning organisation invitation to Buckingham Palace, they have nothing to do with class or financial status: they're about getting the basics right before we try to deal with more difficult matters. Of course we all have more relaxed manners when we're with family and sold friends, but it 's best if we learn to a FTSE 100 companydistinguish between our public and private lives and to act appropriately. She's adapted 'Fucking Good Manners'' aims to help us on the twelve steps to produce her personal revolution in seven stepsway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0273725521</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth Ford and Daniela Drake1999811402|title=Smart Girls Marry Money|rating=3.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=If your friend told you that she'd fallen for a gorgeous man – they were deeply in love and getting married as soon as possible – the probability is that you'd be delighted for her. On the other hand if she said that she'd met a man whom she thought was the best she was likely to meet and on the basis that he was wealthy she was planning to marry him, what would you think? Does the word ''gold-digger'' spring to mind? Are you horrified? Well, think again as it just might be that the second solution could be the one that leaves your friend in the best position.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0762435178</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewPainting Snails|author=Tracey Whitmore |title=How to Write an Impressive CV and Cover Letter: A Comprehensive Guide for the UK Job Seeker|rating=1.5|genre=Business and Finance |summary=Back home in the UK after a stint abroad, and job hunting for the first time in years, this book is a rather timely addition to my shelves. Having spent the last year and a bit teaching English, I also like to think I know a little about grammar and general language use. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the author of this book, and while it's all very well advising readers that ''first impressions really do count'', this carries less weight than it should when you notice the dubious grammar in the first line of the introduction, and in virtually every chapter which follows.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845283651</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jane Haynes|title=Who Is It That Can Tell Me Who I Am?Stephen John Hartley
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|genre=LifestyleAutobiography|summary=This is It's very difficult to classify ''Painting Snails'': originally I thought that as it's loosely based around a year on an allotment it would be a remarkable lifestyle book, but you're not going to get advice on what to plant when and where for the best results. It gives an insight into The answer would be something along the process lines of psychotherapy'try it and see'. Then I considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his A levels, both from the theoretical point of view anddid an engineering apprenticeship, more significantlybecame a busker, from actual conversations finally got into medical school and sessions is now an A&E consultant (part-time). I found out that there's an awful lot more to what goes on in a Major Trauma Centre than you'll ever glean from ''Casualty'', but that isn't really what the consulting roombook's about. Jane Haynes takes us through her own development as There's a client (although she doesnlot about rock & roll, which seems to be the real passion of Hartley's life, but it didn't like that word) in her own self-discovery and therapy sessions, and then actually fit into some of her consulting sessions after she qualifies as the entertainment genre either. Did we have a therapistcategory for 'doing the impossible the hard way'? Yep - that's the one. IIt've always thought of this kind of thing as very American, but this book is entirely Britishs an autobiography.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845299728</amazonuk>
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