Difference between revisions of "Newest Lifestyle Reviews"

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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1454955546
|author=Olga Levancuka
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|title=Sugarless
|title=How to Be Selfish (and Other Uncomfortable Advice)
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|author=Nicole M Avena
|rating=3.5
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|rating=5
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=It's strange how you come to read a particular book.  A couple of days ago I was chatting to a dog-walking friend who retired about a year agoHe'd been surprised to find that the main problem in retirement was one which he hadn't anticipated: all his life he'd had to account for himself to somebody else and now he was struggling to discover what it was that ''he'' wanted to doThen I found myself chatting to Olga Levancucka, author of ''How To Be Selfish'' - but she seemed like one of the most unselfish people I'd ever met. There was a book here waiting to be read!
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|summary=''This isn't a diet book.  The last thing anyone needs is another diet book.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1468115987</amazonuk>
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There was a time, not that long ago, when it was thought that sugary food was better for you than food with high-fat contentFat 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, thoughSugar is addictive and can hijack your brain in much the same way as drugs like heroin and cocaine.  Does that sound over the top?  Well, it isn't.
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1635866847
|author=Mark Matousek
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|title=The Lavender Companion
|title=When You're Falling, Dive
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|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=You never quite know what life is going to serve up next and even the happiest moments or saddest news can be turned around in a heartbeat. For the author Mark Matousek his down was learning he was HIV positive, while his up, a while later, was being informed that it wasn’t quite the death sentence originally imposed and that he had quite a bit of life left. In this book he looks at how you can find the good in the bad or, to quote the subtitle, the keys to 'Using your pain to transform your life'. The art of survival is an intriguing one. The same scale of trauma affects different people in different ways and this book seeks to draw on the wisdom of those who triumph in the face of adversity to share what they know and inspire the same behaviour in us.
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|summary=It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage.  I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally.  (There's a recipe in the book, 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 problem.  I ''loved'' this book already.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848504926</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=0760381267
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|title=Verdura: Living a Garden Life
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|author=Perla Sofia Curbelo-Santiago
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|rating=3.5
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|genre=Lifestyle
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|summary=''The most important part of a garden is the one who enjoys it''.
  
{{newreview
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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 answerSo, how did it stack up?
|author=Karen French
 
|title=The Hidden Geometry of Life
 
|rating=2.5
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
 
|summary=
 
''The Hidden Geometry of Life'' aims to explore the esoteric and often mystical meanings contained in ''shapes and patterns [that] represent ideas and distil the essence of reality''. This mystical angle was a little bit of a unpleasant surprise for this readerI should have had a better look at Karen French's Amazon pages and previous work, but I was attracted by an exciting-sounding title, attractive cover and and references to author's art.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780281080</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Sarah Wilson
|author=Michael Neill
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|title=This One Wild and Precious Life: the path back to connection in a fractured world
|title=Feel Happy Now
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|rating=3.5
|rating=4
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|genre= Lifestyle
|genre=Lifestyle
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|summary= My favourite Mary Oliver line is the one in which she asks ''What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?''   I get to love that line so much because my answer is ''This!  Precisely this.''  I'm lucky enough to be living my one wild and precious life the way I want to.  Sarah Wilson is equally lucky.  In her book that takes Oliver's words as her title (though I can't see that she acknowledges the source) she pushes us to think about whether we really ''are'' living the life we want – the best life that we could be living.  Her answer is an unequivocal ''no, we are not''. Don't care what you're doing, she thinks you (we, I) could be doing more…And she's effing furious about the fact that we are not.
|summary=''Feel Happy Now'' is a dummy’s guide to happiness written by an NLP expert who Paul McKenna has dubbed 'The finest success coach in the world'. What makes this book stand out, perhaps, is the way the complexity is done away with, and everything is broken down to an accessible level without being too patronizing. Its expert concepts presented in layman speak and the result is a highly readable and accessible book regardless of your belief in the subject.
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|isbn=1785633848
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848504942</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1394159544
|author=Simon Oxford
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|title=Recycling for Dummies
|title=Make Yourself Immune to Heart Attack
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|author=Sarah Winkler
|rating=3
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|rating=5
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=The older you get, the more likely it is that you will suffer from some form of heart disease or even die from it.  Many deaths occur without warning in people who are apparently healthy - so it's not something that you can wait to be diagnosed and plan on doing something about at that stage. Whatever your age there's a real possibility that you can make a significant improvement in your health ''and'' improve the quality of your life. I came to read this book because family members of my generation were suffering ''severe'' heart problems and it was a wake-up call that was impossible to ignore.
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|summary=''Recycling one ton of plastic can save up to 16.3 barrels of oil.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907629319</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
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''Recycling one ton of paper can save 17 trees from being cut down.''
|author=Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha
 
|title=The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|summary=In decades gone by, educated workers in many industries could view their careers as an elevator – rising through the ranks of a company before stepping aside and settling into a comfortable retirement. In today's vastly different job market, with much less loyalty from both employers and employees, your career is more likely to follow the model of some promotions mixed in with frequent sideways moves to other companies and perhaps even completely different industries. Time, then, for a new guide to how to handle your employment prospects.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184794079X</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
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If you send an apple core to landfill, it will take between 6 months and 2 years to decomposeA glass bottle will take up to 1 million years.
|author=Charlotte Watts and Anna Magee
 
|title=The De-Stress Diet: The Revolutionary Lifestyle Plan for a Calmer, Slimmer You
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|summary=Most people will recognise that excessive stress is not good for you.  It's the cause of depression, high blood pressure, skin problems and insomnia - to name just a few problems from a very long listThere's also mounting evidence that chronic stress is responsible for excessive weight gain and not just because there's a tendency (er, yes, I can testify to this...) to turn to comfort eating.  Too many stress hormones in the body encourage fat storage - particularly in that ''obvious'' and very-hard-to-shift area around the middle. The aim of the De-Stress Diet is to bring about a slimmer, calmer person with a better quality of life.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848507798</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
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As a just-post-WWII baby, I faced a dilemma: reducing, reusing and recycling is part of my DNA. NEVER throw away anything that might ''possibly'' come in handy now or in the futureNEVER buy anything if you can cobble together something that would serve the purpose.  Almost everything can be used one more time and any purchase must pass the test of 'Is this absolutely essential?' On the other hand, I suspected I was guilty of wishcycling: assuming that something must be recyclable (toothpaste tubes - I'm looking at you) and dropping it in the kerbside binYes, I could go searching on the internet - and get conflicting advice - but what I needed was a recycling bible.s
|author=Anita Anand, Julian Barnes, Bella Bathurst, Alan Bennett and others
 
|title=The Library Book
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|summary=I had better begin by saying that I had a vested interest in liking this book since I am a chartered librarian myself and so am wholeheartedly in support of saving our nation's public librariesBut you don't need to be a librarian to enjoy this bookIt is rich with anecdotes from some wonderful writers and makes a pleasant read whether you're keen to save libraries or not.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250057</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=0760378134
|author=Francesca Beauman
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|title=The First-Time Gardener: Container Food Gardening
|title=Shapely Ankle Preferr'd: A History of the Lonely Hearts Advertisement
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|author=Pamela Farley
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=History
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|genre=Home and Family
|summary=You might think the Lonely Hearts ad a trivial matterYou might think it should appear in lower case and not be capitalised, but you'd be in disagreement with Ms Beauman, who gives a big L and a big H to it every time she writes of it in her survey of its historyWhat's more, she gets to write about a lot more than just the contents of the adverts in this brilliant book.
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|summary=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 a meal – but realised that you wouldn't know where to start, this is the book you needIt's comprehensive: you'll cover everything from why you should grow your own food, what you're going to grow, what you'll grow it in (both containers and soil), where you'll put these containers, how you'll water and fertilise them and you finish the main part of the book with a handy section on troubleshootingThere's also a good glossary. So, is it any good?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009951334X</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1398508632
|author=Roman Krznaric
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|title=The Wilderness Cure
|title=The Wonderbox: Curious Histories of How to Live
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|author=Mo Wilde
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=History
 
|summary='How should we live?'  asks author Roman Krznaric.  To answer this ancient question, he looks to history.  'I believe that the future of the art of living can be found by gazing into the past', he says.  Creating a book which is as full of curiosities as a Renaissance 'Wunderkammer', he has a stab at the big questions:  love, belief, money, family, death.  The result is a pot-pourri of delights which left this particular reader stimulated and invigorated.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683939</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|author=Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschappeler
 
|title=The Question Book
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=
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|summary=It had been on the cards for a while but it was the week-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of eating only wild 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.
Most of us have probably made at least one of those end-of-the-year lists of the best books, albums and parties we have been to in the previous twelve months. But can you, with some effort, locate the one you made in 1987? Have you ever constructed a graph of your ups and downs in a given period, and then decided to expand it by separating emotional, intellectual, sexual and financial aspects and colour coding them? Have you made a list of all your lovers, bosses or friends and then rated them from 1 to 10 on several dimensions each? Do you have one of the books that list ''100 things to do before you die'' or ''500 books to read in your life'' (and ticked off the ones you have done)? Did you ever spend a whole evening and half of a night filling in dubious 'personality' questionnaires on the Internet? Have you ever doodled something, decided that it beautifully expresses the deepest essence of your personality and then proceeded to draw such icons for all your friends?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685389</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)
|author=Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez
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|title=I May Be Wrong
|title=The Little Book Of Perfumes
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
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|genre= Autobiography
|summary=I have always admired people who seem to know about scent, those whose dressing tables are littered with bottles none of which flaunt the name of a major (or increasingly, minor) celebrity. Some of the bottles might be works of art in themselves, but the general understanding is that they’ve been bought not for their vessels, nor for their exclusive advertising campaigns, special offers or celeb endorsement, but for their evocative scent. Perfumery is clearly an art and a science and if your skills aren’t as honed as they might be, this is a wonderful little book to sink your teeth into as you’re guided through the field by two people very much in the know.
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|summary= When the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'm inclined to think it doesn't really matter how the rest of the world responds to your book.  I know, having read the book in question, that Lindeblad would disagree with that thought. He knows (and at core so do I) that it matters very much how the rest of the world responds to this book, because it tells the truth as it is, in the early 21st century.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685192</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1526644827
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1732898731
|author=Linda M James
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|title=The Boy Who Loved Boxes: A Children's Book for Adults
|title=How to Write and Sell Great Short Stories
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|author=Michael Albanese
|rating=5
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Having read any number of books about crafting great stories, I thought I had had my fill and that there were no more books left that could bolster my enthusiasm and help me to get on with my writing. In short, I thought the only thing left that could motivate me was, well, me.
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|summary=There was a Boy who loved boxes.  He had a box for everything and he was meticulous about storage: his parents probably couldn't believe their luck!  It began with art supplies, stuffed toys and the like: all the things which most children have in abundance.  The Boy's delight was in the sense of order in his room: it made him feel happy.  As he grew up and became a Man, his life became more complicated and he dealt with this by getting bigger and better boxes. Look carefully at the pictures and you'll see that one of them has a padlock...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846947162</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1846276772
|author=Tom Ryan
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|title=The End of Bias: How We Change Our Minds
|title=Following Atticus: How a little dog led one man on a journey of rediscovery to the top of the world
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|author=Jessica Nordell
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Pets
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|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Tom Ryan is a middle-aged, stressed journalist, running his own newspaper, the ''Undertoad'' in Newburyport in AmericaHis life is full of political intrigues and mayoral elections, boardroom deals and subterfuge and his life is full of challengesHe doesn't need a dogHe doesn't even particularly want a dog, but when a miniature schnauzer enters his life one day, everything changes.
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|summary=Anyone who is not an able, white man understands bias in that they may no longer even recognise the extent to which they suffer from it: it's simply a part of everyday life.  White men will always come first.  The able will come before the disabledJobs, promotions, higher salaries are the preserve of the white manEven when those who wouldn't pass the medical become a part of an organisation it's rare that their views are heard, that their concerns are acknowledgedIt's personally appalling and degrading for the individuals on the receiving end of the bias but it's not just the individuals who are negatively impacted.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141048972</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Erling Kagge
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|title=Walking: One Step At A Time
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|rating=5
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|genre= Lifestyle
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|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).
  
{{newreview
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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.
|author=Jolyon Fenwick and Marcus Husselby
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|isbn=0241357705
|title=It Could Have Been Yours: The enlightened person's guide to the year's most desirable things
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|summary=In a world of diamond-encrusted skulls, gold-leafed iPhones and luxury yachts ten a penny, of blingy shit (or should that be shitty bling?) it's a relief to know people are still spending money on unique one-offs that are more worthwhile. The records for costliest photo, artwork, musical instrument and manuscript have all been broken in the twenty four months leading up to this book's release. Our collators have scoured the press for those and other, similarly noteworthy auctions, and found what other people paid for what you didn't know you would have wanted given the money.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684900</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Richard Brook
|author=David Savage
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|title=Understanding Human Nature: A User's Guide to Life
|title=Furniture with Soul: Master Woodworkers and Their Craft
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|rating=4.5
|rating=5
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|genre=Lifestyle
|genre=Crafts
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|summary= I am a firm believer that sometimes we choose books, and sometimes books choose us.  In my case, this is one of the latter. Not so very long ago, if I had come across this book I'd have skimmed it, found some of it interesting, but it would not have 'hit home' in the way that it does now.   I believe it came to me not just because I was likely to give it a favourable review [ ''full disclosure The Bookbag's u.s.p. is that people chose their own books rather than getting them randomly, so there is a predisposition towards expecting to like the book, even if it doesn't always turn out that way'' ] – but also because it is a book I needed to read, right now.
|summary=David Savage is a master furniture maker and one of the artists featured in the book, so he is not – as he says himself – a neutral observer and nor can he be neutral in choosing who to include in the book.  Having said that, the pictures alone will tell you that he has chosen people who create furniture of great beauty and – often – originality. It's the text that makes the book shine, though – as it seeks not to give a critical appreciation of each man and one woman's work, but to look at what makes them tick, what drives them on and how they have handled the good times as well as the bad.  It is, if you like, ten in-depth biographies of artists who work in a common medium and ten shorter pieces about those we should look out for in the future.
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|isbn=1800461682
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>4770031211</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=0753558378
|author=Alex Buckley
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|title=Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters
|title=Ssh! Lose Weight in 20 Minutes
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|author=Greg McKeown
|rating=3
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=After years of limited exercise combined with a love of fine food, Alex Buckley was known to his friends as Fat Al. He followed a number of diet plans to no effect before coming up with his own solution, which is outlined in this book. His message is basically an extended version of the long standing sound advice that to lose weight you need to eat less and exercise more.  Buckley's suggestions break this broad truth down into achievable micro steps.  He provides tips on ways of sustaining weight loss by very gradually changing your behaviour.  The book does not offer detailed recipes or a programme of food exclusion.  It is very much about advice on small day to day choices and gradual change, written in a straightforward and easily accessible style.
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|summary=''The marginal return of working harder was, in fact, negative.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908218282</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
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That's what happened to Patrick McGinnis. It's no exaggeration to say that he devoted his life to the company he worked for, struggling through, even when he was ill, only to find that he was working for a bankrupt company. His stock had fallen by 97%, he had lost his health and his job had little value. He made a bargain with God; if he survived, he would make some changes.  He did survive and came through stronger - and richer. There is, you see, a different way: ''great things are not reserved for those who bleed, for those who almost break.''
|author=Rosie O'Hara
 
|title=No More Bingo Dresses: Using NLP to cope with breast cancer and other people
 
|rating=2.5
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|summary=I'd love to meet Rosie O'Hara. She sounds like a full-on, earthy lady who has more than a few tales to tell about her life to date. Rosie is a professional neuro-linguistic programming trainer in the Highlands of Scotland, and has already published an NLP-based self-help book. At the beginning of 2009, a routine mammogram turned up 'a little breast cancer'. Rosie set out in her very direct and determined way to put the cancer in its rightful place as a challenge in her life rather than a defining disaster and this feisty diary is the result.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908218347</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1523092734
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|title=A Women's Guide to Claiming Space
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|author=Eliza Van Cort
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|rating=5
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|genre=Politics and Society
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|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)
  
{{newreview
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''To claim space is to live the life of choosing unapologetically and bravelyIt is to live the life you've always wanted.''
|author=Anthony T DeBenedet and Lawrence Cohen
 
|title=The Art of Roughhousing: Good Old Fashioned Horseplay and Why Every Kid Needs It
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Home and Family
 
|summary=Rather than running around outdoors, going for bike rides and building dens, lots of children nowadays end up spending hours watching TV or playing computer games.  Play times in school are often very regimented and in some schools certain games like 'British Bulldog' and 'Leapfrog' and even 'Tag' have even been bannedChildren are discouraged from physical play, for fear that they will hurt themselves and also through the fear that those responsible for them will find themselves facing a lawsuit if someone does get hurt.  This book aims to support the thinking that very physical play is 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>
 
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{{newreview
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Sometimes the reviewing gods are generous: at a time when violence against women is much in the news, ''A Women's Guide to Claiming Space'' by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. Now - to be clear - this book is not a 'how to disable your attacker with two simple jabs' manual: it's something far more effective, but discussion at the moment seems to be about how women can be ''protected''.  I've always thought that women need to rise above this, to be people who don't need protection, people who claim their own space.  If all women did this, those few men who are violent to women would realise that we are not just an easy target to be used to prove that they are big men.
|author=Sue Brayne
 
|title=Sex, Meaning and the Menopause
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|summary=Things change as you get older. As men – and particularly women – approach their late forties and early fifties they expect that there will be physical changes, some more permanent than others, but they're frequently taken by surprise by the mental changes which occur. Women expect that the menopause will bring the end of menstruation (some looking at this more gratefully than others...) but fail to appreciate that they are moving into a different stage of their life.  Looked at positively this can be the most fulfilling period of woman's lifecycle – and I doubt that there's a husband who would object to that!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0826423019</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1529109116
|author=Diane Ackerman
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|title=Call Me Red: A Shepherd's Journey
|title=One Hundred Names For Love: A Stroke, a Marriage, and the Language of Healing
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|author=Hannah Jackson
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Diane Ackerman's husband, Paul West, had been in hospital for three weeks with a kidney infection and was just rejoicing in the fact that he was to go home the next day. As Diane watched , Paul suffered a massive stroke. The effects were catastrophic, but worst of all, the man who had been a brilliant wordsmith was robbed of his power of speech and lost his extensive vocabulary. It's eight years since this happened and the intervening years have been a constant battle to improve Paul's speech and restore some joy to his life. There have been ups – and many downs – but despite a brain scan indicating that Paul might well be a vegetable he has since his stroke written books. His vocabulary will never be back to what it was, but it remains impressive and, strangely enough, many of the words which he finds easiest to use are those which he encountered a number of years ago.
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|summary=''I want the image of a British farmer to simply be that of a person who is proudly employed in feeding the nation. I don't think that is too much to ask.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>039307241X</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
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The stereotypical farmer was probably born on the land where ''his'' family have farmed for generations. He's probably grown up without giving much thought as to what he really wants to do: he knows that he'll be a farmerIt's not always the case thoughHannah Jackson was born and brought up on the Wirral: she'd never set foot on a commercial farm until she was twenty although she'd always had a deep love of animalsHer original intention was that she would become 'Dr Jackson, whale scientist' and she was well on her way to achieving this when her life changed on a family holiday to the Lake DistrictShe saw a lamb being born and, although 'Hannah Jackson, farmer' lacked the kudos of her original intention, she knew that she wanted to be a shepherdWith the determination that you'll soon realise is an essential part of her, she set about achieving her ambition.
|author=Eleanor Birne
 
|title=When Will I Sleep Through the Night? An A - Z of Babyhood
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Home and Family
 
|summary=When it comes to parenting, I have discovered that a lot of people lieThey lie about sleep, about tantrums, about feeding and nappies and the effects of a screaming newborn on your marriageThere are books galore, 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 babyIt's all glowing skin and sunshine smiles and meeting friends for coffeeI 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 of a non-sleeping babyNow, 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 me.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684862</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1786495902
|author=Hugh Bowring
+
|title=The Natural Health Service: How Nature Can Mend Your Mind
|title=Green Living Guide
+
|author=Isabel Hardman
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=5
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=The 'Green Living Guide' is a Magbook - so the format is like that of a magazine - and although it initially seems a little expensive for something that looks just like a magazine you quickly find, on opening, that it contains an enormous amount of interesting and useful information. Even already determined eco-warriors should find something of interest in this wide-ranging guide.
+
|summary=Isabel Hardman suffered a trauma which she chooses not to share. She says that a friend who does know, burst into tears and health-care professionals' jaws have sagged in disbelief. Hardman dealt with this at the time by 'keeping going': the next day she went to work to cover the budget, next there was the EU referendum, the political party leadership contests and then it was party conference season. One night she had to be sedated and returned home to begin long-term sick leave. That was what brought me to this book: 2020 was the year when the bins went out more often than I did.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907232060</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Lauren Martin
|author=Arianne Cohen
+
|title=The Book of Moods
|title=The Sex Diaries Project
+
|rating=5
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|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 of testimony from people about their thoughts regarding sex - having it, not having it, having it with whom they're with, having it with those whom they're not with.  And in every sense, the results can be exceedingly queer.
+
|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 ''great'' being delivered with an eye roll and a sigh, through clenched teeth. I had spent the best part of a rainy, windy weekend afternoon out on the water at our local sailing club in the rescue rib, on standby in case anyone who was racing needed support. It's a volunteer duty we all do during the year, and normally I'm happy to, but that day the weather was miserable and I was miserable, and it all came to a head that evening when I noticed on the website that we had been thanked for our time as "Dave and wife". Wow. I had never needed this book more.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091939356</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1538733625
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0008420386
|author=Vatsyayana
+
|title=Failosophy: A handbook for when things go wrong
|title=Kama Sutra
+
|author=Elizabeth Day
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=''Kama Sutra'', then... What could I possibly say to introduce it that you don't already know or think you know?
+
|summary=What 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've all failed and - more importantly - they've been willing to appear on Elizabeth Day's podcast to discuss their failures and how life worked out for them afterwards.  You'll find the results of these discussions in ''Failosophy''
 +
}}
 +
{{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''.
  
For all that Kama Sutra is, it's no longer a guide to the art of pleasure. It's a fascinating historical document, and undoubtedly influential, but it's very much of its time and of its society. Try to follow all its suggestions and at best you'd never get laid again; at worst, you'll be up on a rape charge within a week. (''After sending the nurse's daughter away, he takes the girl's maidenhead while she is alone, asleep and out of her senses...'')
+
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''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846141095</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1538731738
|author=Jane Shilling
+
|title=Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful Life
|title=The Stranger in the Mirror: A Memoir of Middle Age
+
|author= Sarah Ban Breathnach
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
+
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Middle-aged women disappear. They are not see on television, their lives do not appear in newspapers, the legions of novels that are written each year rarely feature them. At least, that is what the author Jane Shilling believes as she wakes up aged 47 to find the narrative of her contemporaries and their lives which she has been reading about and living in parallel with since leaving university has vanished. She looks in the mirror and sees a face she does not recogniseEven with a punishing regime of early bed, no alcohol and litres of water, 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.
+
|summary=Someone once said: it's not self-indulgence, it's therapy! I think they were talking about shopping, but it probably can be applied to most thingsIn my case, it applies to writing about things because I want to, rather than because I can sell it or because I've got something to sell.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701181001</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Sharon Blackie
|author=Jacques Bonnet, James Salter and Sian Reynolds
+
|title=If Women Rose Rooted
|title=Phantoms on the Bookshelves
+
|rating=5
|rating=3.5
+
|genre= Biography
|genre=Lifestyle
+
|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 borrowedI 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.
|summary=Translated from French this beautifully presented little book takes the reader into homes boasting book collections, large and smallStudded with succinct and appropriate quotations such as 'there is no better reason for not reading a book than having it' by Anthony Burgess.
+
|isbn=1912836017
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906694583</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1543987877
|author=Sandy Donaghy
+
|title=Learn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life
|title=The Longest Journey: Nine Keys to Health, Wealth and Happiness
+
|author=Dr Thomas Jordan
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=How many self-help books have you read where the ideas all seem very good, but they've not been tested in the fire, so to speak? The end result seems good, but you suspect that the starting point wasn't ''all'' that disadvantageous and more to the point, the cynic inside you wonders if the motivation for writing the book was financial gainHas it made you shy away from such books? Now, I want you to drop the cynicism, because what we have here is a book that's written from the heart and not the wallet and the only motivation in writing it was to help people.  Unusual?  Yup; it is.
+
|summary=''Learn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life'' is a book about love relationships rather than a book about love. The two greatest emotions are love and grief and love is the opposite of grief: ''if you love'', Dr Thomas Jordan tells us, ''you will inevitably grieve''Your love relationships begin the moment you're born and end only when you die. 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.  Some people suffer multiple disappointments - sometimes repeating the same mistakes - and this eventually becomes resignation.  For people who are making the same mistakes repeatedly, self-preservation, in the form of resignation is a necessity.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1425161065</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Michael Harris
|author=Roy Vickery
+
|title=Solitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World
|title=Garlands, Conkers and Mother-Die: British and Irish Plant-Lore
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=History
+
|genre=Lifestyle
|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 ''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.
+
|summary= This is not the book I was expecting it to be. For some reason I expected it to be another self-help manual on how to find calm, how to step outside the mainstream, but it is not that at all. Instead of telling us how, it is more about the ''why''.  Harries examines how we're eroding solitude, which used to be a 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 eventually in the final chapter he talks about his own experience of having deliberately sought it out, but mostly he wanders down the alleys and by-ways that his thinking about this lost art led him.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441101950</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1847947662
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0753553236
|author=Cindy M Meston and David Buss
+
|title=Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything
|title=Why Women Have Sex: Understanding Sexual Motivation from Adventure to Revenge (and Everything in Between)
+
|author=B J Fogg
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
+
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Many many years ago, a man who was far too young to be the fusty, dusty RE teacher he was shaping to be, asked my best friend and I why we were each having sex with our girlfriendsEven aged fifteen I thought something along the lines of 'well, if he doesn't know by now, he never will', and listed that it was great fun, a very enjoyable sensation, showed an appetite for the relationship, and that sex proved the ultimate in bonding - how much closer, to be blunt, could you be to someone than actually inside them? I'll come clean now and admit said girlfriend was not real, but several have been since, and I have had heaps of fun finding out how - and perhaps why - women have sexI was never to know, until now, there are 237 reasons for it.
+
|summary=Go on, admit it - you're not quite perfect.  You still have those odd, quirky even loveable (to you) habits which seem to annoy other peopleOther people, of course, are sorely afflicted with some dreadful flaws which they could so easily correct, if only they would make just a little bit of effort.  Or put another way, I get cross with myself because I forget to do things or do some actions more than I should and no matter how I try to make what seem to be quite monumental changes I never quite seem to get to grips with the concepts. I constantly fail and then I get cross with myself for failingLack of willpower is another burden to add to the list.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546639</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1785785516
|author=Karen Wilkin
+
|title=Fucking Good Manners
|title=Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey
+
|author=Simon Griffin
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=I'm all in favour of Edward Gorey becoming a bigger name, especially here in the UK, where his output is certainly less lauded than in his native USA. It's evident from the bright, glossy pages here that he was an extraordinary talentPolymath and know-all in real life, in his ink drawings he can show the complexity of someone like Dore, while using his draughtsmanship to pen macabre whimsy, like an old-fashioned love-child of Mervyn Peake and Edward Lear.
+
|summary=Manners maketh man, they say.  It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by a set of conventions, some of 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 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 mattersOf course we all have more relaxed manners when we're with family and friends, but it's best if we learn to distinguish between our public and private lives and to act appropriately.  ''Fucking Good Manners'' aims to help us on the way.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0764948040</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=1999811402
 +
|title=Painting Snails
 +
|author=Stephen John Hartley
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Autobiography
 +
|summary=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 lifestyle book, but you're not going to get advice on what to plant when and where for the best results.  The answer would be something along the lines of 'try it and see'.  Then I considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his A levels, did an engineering apprenticeship, became a busker, finally got into medical school and 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 book's about.  There's a lot about rock & roll, which seems to be the real passion of Hartley's life, but it didn't actually fit into the entertainment genre either.  Did we have a category for 'doing the impossible the hard way'?  Yep - that's the one.  It's an autobiography.
 +
}}
 +
 +
Move on to [[Newest Literary Fiction Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 09:32, 12 December 2023

1454955546.jpg

Review of

Sugarless by Nicole M Avena

5star.jpg Lifestyle

This isn't a diet book. The last thing anyone needs is another diet book.

There was a 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? Well, it isn't. Full Review

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Review of

The Lavender Companion by Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

It's strange, the things that make you immediately feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading The Lavender Companion, I visited the author's website and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There's a recipe in the book, 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 problem. I loved this book already. Full Review

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Review of

Verdura: Living a Garden Life by Perla Sofia Curbelo-Santiago

3.5star.jpg Lifestyle

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? Full Review

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Review of

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

3.5star.jpg Lifestyle

My favourite Mary Oliver line is the one in which she asks What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? I get to love that line so much because my answer is This! Precisely this. I'm lucky enough to be living my one wild and precious life the way I want to. Sarah Wilson is equally lucky. In her book that takes Oliver's words as her title (though I can't see that she acknowledges the source) she pushes us to think about whether we really are living the life we want – the best life that we could be living. Her answer is an unequivocal no, we are not. Don't care what you're doing, she thinks you (we, I) could be doing more…And she's effing furious about the fact that we are not. Full Review

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Review of

Recycling for Dummies by Sarah Winkler

5star.jpg Lifestyle

Recycling one ton of plastic can save up to 16.3 barrels of oil.

Recycling one ton of paper can save 17 trees from being cut down.

If you send an apple core to landfill, it will take between 6 months and 2 years to decompose. A glass bottle will take up to 1 million years.

As a just-post-WWII baby, I faced a dilemma: reducing, reusing and recycling is part of my DNA. NEVER throw away anything that might possibly come in handy now or in the future. NEVER buy anything if you can cobble together something that would serve the purpose. Almost everything can be used one more time and any purchase must pass the test of 'Is this absolutely essential?' On the other hand, I suspected I was guilty of wishcycling: assuming that something must be recyclable (toothpaste tubes - I'm looking at you) and dropping it in the kerbside bin. Yes, I could go searching on the internet - and get conflicting advice - but what I needed was a recycling bible.s Full Review

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Review of

The First-Time Gardener: Container Food Gardening by Pamela Farley

5star.jpg Home and Family

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 a meal – but realised that you wouldn't know where to start, this is the book you need. It's comprehensive: you'll cover everything from why you should grow your own food, what you're going to grow, what you'll grow it in (both containers and soil), where you'll put these containers, how you'll water and fertilise them and you finish the main part of the book with a handy section on troubleshooting. There's also a good glossary. So, is it any good? Full Review

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Review of

The Wilderness Cure by Mo Wilde

5star.jpg Lifestyle

It had been on the cards for a while but it was the week-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of eating only wild food. The end of November, particularly in Central Scotland was perhaps not the best time to start, in a world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, Brexit and a pandemic. Wilde had a few advantages: the area around her was a known habitat with a variety of terrains. She had electricity which allowed her to run a fridge, freezer and dehydrator. She had a car - and fuel. Most importantly, she had shelter: this was not a plan to live wild just to live off its produce. Full Review

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Review of

I May Be Wrong by Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)

5star.jpg Autobiography

When the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'm inclined to think it doesn't really matter how the rest of the world responds to your book. I know, having read the book in question, that Lindeblad would disagree with that thought. He knows (and at core so do I) that it matters very much how the rest of the world responds to this book, because it tells the truth as it is, in the early 21st century. Full Review

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Review of

The Boy Who Loved Boxes: A Children's Book for Adults by Michael Albanese

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

There was a Boy who loved boxes. He had a box for everything and he was meticulous about storage: his parents probably couldn't believe their luck! It began with art supplies, stuffed toys and the like: all the things which most children have in abundance. The Boy's delight was in the sense of order in his room: it made him feel happy. As he grew up and became a Man, his life became more complicated and he dealt with this by getting bigger and better boxes. Look carefully at the pictures and you'll see that one of them has a padlock... Full Review

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Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Politics and Society

Anyone who is not an able, white man understands bias in that they may no longer even recognise the extent to which they suffer from it: it's simply a part of everyday life. White men will always come first. The able will come before the disabled. Jobs, promotions, higher salaries are the preserve of the white man. Even when those who wouldn't pass the medical become a part of an organisation it's rare that their views are heard, that their concerns are acknowledged. It's personally appalling and degrading for the individuals on the receiving end of the bias but it's not just the individuals who are negatively impacted. Full Review

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Review of

Walking: One Step At A Time by Erling Kagge

5star.jpg Lifestyle

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. Full Review

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Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

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

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Review of

Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters by Greg McKeown

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

The marginal return of working harder was, in fact, negative.

That's what happened to Patrick McGinnis. It's no exaggeration to say that he devoted his life to the company he worked for, struggling through, even when he was ill, only to find that he was working for a bankrupt company. His stock had fallen by 97%, he had lost his health and his job had little value. He made a bargain with God; if he survived, he would make some changes. He did survive and came through stronger - and richer. There is, you see, a different way: great things are not reserved for those who bleed, for those who almost break. Full Review

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Review of

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

5star.jpg Politics and Society

She brings a hug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and again. (Alma Derricks, former CMO, Cirque du Soleil RSD)

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

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

1529109116.jpg

Review of

Call Me Red: A Shepherd's Journey by Hannah Jackson

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

I want the image of a British farmer to simply be that of a person who is proudly employed in feeding the nation. I don't think that is too much to ask.

The stereotypical farmer was probably born on the land where his family have farmed for generations. He's probably grown up without giving much thought as to what he really wants to do: he knows that he'll be a farmer. It's not always the case though. Hannah Jackson was born and brought up on the Wirral: she'd never set foot on a commercial farm until she was twenty although she'd always had a deep love of animals. Her original intention was that she would become 'Dr Jackson, whale scientist' and she was well on her way to achieving this when her life changed on a family holiday to the Lake District. She saw a lamb being born and, although 'Hannah Jackson, farmer' lacked the kudos of her original intention, she knew that she wanted to be a shepherd. With the determination that you'll soon realise is an essential part of her, she set about achieving her ambition. Full Review

1786495902.jpg

Review of

The Natural Health Service: How Nature Can Mend Your Mind by Isabel Hardman

5star.jpg Lifestyle

Isabel Hardman suffered a trauma which she chooses not to share. She says that a friend who does know, burst into tears and health-care professionals' jaws have sagged in disbelief. Hardman dealt with this at the time by 'keeping going': the next day she went to work to cover the budget, next there was the EU referendum, the political party leadership contests and then it was party conference season. One night she had to be sedated and returned home to begin long-term sick leave. That was what brought me to this book: 2020 was the year when the bins went out more often than I did. Full Review

1538733625.jpg

Review of

The Book of Moods by Lauren Martin

5star.jpg Lifestyle

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 great being delivered with an eye roll and a sigh, through clenched teeth. I had spent the best part of a rainy, windy weekend afternoon out on the water at our local sailing club in the rescue rib, on standby in case anyone who was racing needed support. It's a volunteer duty we all do during the year, and normally I'm happy to, but that day the weather was miserable and I was miserable, and it all came to a head that evening when I noticed on the website that we had been thanked for our time as "Dave and wife". Wow. I had never needed this book more. Full Review

0008420386.jpg

Review of

Failosophy: A handbook for when things go wrong by Elizabeth Day

4star.jpg Lifestyle

What 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've all failed and - more importantly - they've been willing to appear on Elizabeth Day's podcast to discuss their failures and how life worked out for them afterwards. You'll find the results of these discussions in Failosophy 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

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Review of

Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful Life by Sarah Ban Breathnach

5star.jpg Lifestyle

Someone once said: it's not self-indulgence, it's therapy! I think they were talking about shopping, but it probably can be applied to most things. In my case, it applies to writing about things because I want to, rather than because I can sell it or because I've got something to sell. Full Review

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Review of

If Women Rose Rooted by Sharon Blackie

5star.jpg Biography

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. Full Review

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Review of

Learn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life by Dr Thomas Jordan

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

Learn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life is a book about love relationships rather than a book about love. The two greatest emotions are love and grief and love is the opposite of grief: if you love, Dr Thomas Jordan tells us, you will inevitably grieve. Your love relationships begin the moment you're born and end only when you die. 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. Some people suffer multiple disappointments - sometimes repeating the same mistakes - and this eventually becomes resignation. For people who are making the same mistakes repeatedly, self-preservation, in the form of resignation is a necessity. Full Review

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Review of

Solitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World by Michael Harris

5star.jpg Lifestyle

This is not the book I was expecting it to be. For some reason I expected it to be another self-help manual on how to find calm, how to step outside the mainstream, but it is not that at all. Instead of telling us how, it is more about the why. Harries examines how we're eroding solitude, which used to be a 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 eventually in the final chapter he talks about his own experience of having deliberately sought it out, but mostly he wanders down the alleys and by-ways that his thinking about this lost art led him. Full Review

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Review of

Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything by B J Fogg

5star.jpg Lifestyle

Go on, admit it - you're not quite perfect. You still have those odd, quirky even loveable (to you) habits which seem to annoy other people. Other people, of course, are sorely afflicted with some dreadful flaws which they could so easily correct, if only they would make just a little bit of effort. Or put another way, I get cross with myself because I forget to do things or do some actions more than I should and no matter how I try to make what seem to be quite monumental changes I never quite seem to get to grips with the concepts. I constantly fail and then I get cross with myself for failing. Lack of willpower is another burden to add to the list. Full Review

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Review of

Fucking Good Manners by Simon Griffin

4star.jpg Lifestyle

Manners maketh man, they say. It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by a set of conventions, some of 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 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 friends, but it's best if we learn to distinguish between our public and private lives and to act appropriately. Fucking Good Manners aims to help us on the way. Full Review

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Review of

Painting Snails by Stephen John Hartley

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

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 lifestyle book, but you're not going to get advice on what to plant when and where for the best results. The answer would be something along the lines of 'try it and see'. Then I considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his A levels, did an engineering apprenticeship, became a busker, finally got into medical school and 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 book's about. There's a lot about rock & roll, which seems to be the real passion of Hartley's life, but it didn't actually fit into the entertainment genre either. Did we have a category for 'doing the impossible the hard way'? Yep - that's the one. It's an autobiography. Full Review

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