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[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Matthew d'AnconaAlastair Humphreys|title=Post-Truth: The New War on Truth and How to Fight BackLocal|rating=3.5|genre=Politics and SocietyTravel |summary=''Our own post-truth era is what happens when society relaxes its defence of values that underpin cohesion, namely veracity, honesty Alastair Humphreys has walked and accountabilitycycled all over the world. And then written about it.'' I'm old enough or perhaps naive enough For this book he walked and cycled very close to believe that when making a decision home and then wrote about political votingit. As he says in his introduction, you should be able the book is an attempt ''to rely absolutely on share what the candidate tells youI have learnt about some big issues from a year exploring a small map. INature loss, pollution, land use and access, agriculture, the food system, rewilding…'ve been suspicious for a decade or more, but it's become difficult to ignore the change in political attitudes since Brexit and One of the election joys of Donald Trump. With regard to the latter, when Trump book for me was challenged on a statement that the biggest thing he'd made which learned about all of these things was subsequently found to be incorrectthat there are no easy answers, his response was no single ''Who cares if I got it right or wrong?'' He was able , that every upside is likely to tap to the fading concept of 'the American Dream' - those Americans who were used to waiting patiently in line have a downside for somebody and who had found themselves overtaken by ''women, immigrants and public sector workers''that there are some hard choices ahead.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785036874</amazonuk>1785633678

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Stephen MossEdel Rodriguez|title= Wild KingdomWorm: Bringing Back Britain's WildlifeA Cuban American Odyssey|rating= 4|genre= Animals and WildlifeGraphic Novels|summary= Wildlife has been declining We're in Britain over the last few decades; it is an unfortunate by-product of human population growthchildhood, which and we're in Cuba. The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the modern world country, has increased significantly. Through this book Moss suggests proven himself a few ways in which we can start Communist, and not done nearly enough to bring back some create a level playing field for all. Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of Britaintaking his time away. Our narrator's wildlife without compromising family weren't in the human way happiest of life: we can coplaces here, an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-exist Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. The mother gets the couple jobs with nature. the party to ease some of the heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099581639</amazonuk>1474616720

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nick CleggSarah Wilson|title=PoliticsThis One Wild and Precious Life: Between the Extremespath back to connection in a fractured world|rating=43.5|genre=Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary=The political landscape My favourite Mary Oliver line is changing rapidly at the moment. A little more than two years ago we were facing the end of the UKone in which she asks ''s first coalition government since World War II What is it you plan to do with your one wild and fully expecting precious life?'' I get to love that we would see another. line so much because my answer is ''This! Instead we saw a Conservative government elected with a workable majorityPrecisely this. '' Brexit saw the end of I'm lucky enough to be living my one Prime Minister wild and another elected by a few members of parliamentprecious life the way I want to. Sarah Wilson is equally lucky. As In her book that takes Oliver's words as her title (though I write can't see that she acknowledges the source) she pushes us to think about whether wereally ''are're facing another general election' living the life we want – the best life that we could be living. Her answer is an unequivocal ''no, with a Conservative landslide predictedwe are not''. In two years Don't care what you're doing, she thinks you (we, I) could be doing more…And she've seen s effing furious about the Liberal Democrats collapse from being part of the ruling coalition to a party whose MPs could hold a meeting in a decent-sized carfact that we are not.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784704164</amazonuk>1785633848

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Jess Phillips1785633457|title= EverywomanCharging Around: One Woman's Truth About Speaking Exploring the TruthEdges of England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson|rating=3.5|genre= Politics and SocietyTravel|summary=''Everywoman'' announces itself proudly, Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a chapter named ''The Truth about Speaking up''preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of exploring the edges of England in an electric car was not totally outrageous. Jess PhillipsIn fact, the Labour MP it should be a pleasant holiday for Birmingham Yardley, tells us many times that she is ''gobby'' Clive and that she has a loud voice. Her voice does come throughhis wife, clear and urgent. Using her journey to Westminster and her experiences in ParliamentJoan, Phillips teaches the reader the truths sheshouldn's learned on her journey.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786330776</amazonuk>t it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Tormod V Burkey1529153050|title=Ethics for a Full World or, Can Animal-Lovers Save the World?Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson

|genre= Animals and WildlifeHumour|summary= Burkey argues that manSeeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is coming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, I was nudged towards ''Britain's current practices are outside the realms Best Political Cartoons of nature2022''. He is no longer part of Sharp eyes will have noted that we're not yet through the ecosystem, but instead exists above it through his dominating ways. He is himself distanced even further by advancement in technologies, industry, money and all year: the pollution that comes with themcartoons run from 4 September 2021 to 31 August 2022. The natural world, Burkey argues, no longer exists for man because he has altered it by such things. Indeed, global warming has caused climate change, which, if it continues, Who can imagine what there will make the world unrecognisable. For the world to become fuller, for it to be a world that seeks to provide for come in the needs of every living thing, then it needs to change. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905570856</amazonuk>2023 edition?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Benjamin Wittes and Gabriella BlumB0B7289HKQ|title= The Future of Violence - Robots Conversations Across America: A Father and GermsSon, Alzheimer's, Hackers and Drones: Confronting 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the New Age Soul of ThreatAmerica|author=Kari Loya|rating= 4|genre=Politics and SocietyTravel|summary=Looking back over this monthKari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, April 2017, the news has been full of terrorist attacks perpetrated by lone individuals. A suicide bombing on the St Petersburg Metro killed 15 people way) wanted to spend some time with his father and injured 64 more. In Stockholm, Sweden, the period between two jobs seemed like a hijacked truck steered into a pedestrian shopping area and department storegood time to do it. Most recently The decision was made to ride the Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, a shooting in Paris just two days agoVirginia to Astoria, claimed the life Oregon - all 4250 miles of a police officer and injured several others. Whilst it is true that governments have access to impressive, cutting-edge technology in 2015. They had 73 days to combat terrorism, do it is also - slightly less than the recommended time - but there were factors which pointed this up as more of a fact challenge that these resources are becoming increasingly available to individualsit would be for most people who considered taking it on. Merv Loya was 75 years old and he was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer's. At what cost?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445655934</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Lynn Knight1739593901|title= 22 Ideas About The Button BoxFuture|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating= 45|genre= HistoryScience Fiction|summary= Buttons are the underdogs of the clothing world: dismissed as functional elements ''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of clothingflying cars, falling into the same dustbin category we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with zips geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.'' I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and shoe laces, they tend then forget to return to the book. There's got to be seen as necessary for keeping clothes on, rather than contributors a very compelling hook to stylekeep me engaged. But Lynn Knight is set to prove that Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the opposite is trueworld scape are purely incidental. We So, what did I think nothing of lacing discussions about clothing and feminism with headscarves, bikinis, and underweight models – and buttons deserve a place on the pedestal book of gender discussiontwenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, tooI loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593092</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Paul FlynnJane Goodall and Douglas Abrams |title= Good As You: From Prejudice to Pride - 30 Years The Book of Gay BritainHope |rating= 5|genre= History Politics and Society |summary=The last 30 years have seen done thing is to read a tidal wave of change sweep book all the country with regards way through before you sit down to how gay people are perceived and acceptedreview it. In 1984I’m making an exception here, the pulsing electronic beats of ''Smalltown Boy'' became an anthem because I don’t want to unite Gay Men, but just a month later, a virus called HIV would be identified, spreading a climate lose any of panic and fear across the nation, and marginalising a community who were already ostracised. 30 years later thoughexperience of reading this amazing book, the long road I want to gay equality would reach a climax with the legalistion of gay marriage. Journalist Paul Flynn charts this remarkable journey via the cultural milestones that affected this change - with interviews with such protagonists capture it as Kylie, Russell T Davies, Will Young, Holly Johnson and Lord Chris Smithit hits me. This And it is the story of Britain's brothers, sons, cousins, fathers and husbandshitting me. Of public outrage and personal loss, the (not always legal) highs and desperate lows, and the final collective victory as Gay Men were finally recognised to be as Good As YouThis beautiful book has me in tears. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785032925</amazonuk>024147857X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Mark Aylwin Thomas1788360737|title= Blades Artivism: The Battle for Museums in the Era of GrassPostmodernism|author=Alexander Adams|rating= 4.52|genre= BiographyPolitics and Society|summary= Any book that has me Can art ever be apolitical? All art is political because art is not made in tears at the end has been worth my timea vacuum. It is made by people. Any book Antonio Gramsci stated that has me hoping it will end differently ‘’Every man… contributes to modifying the way I know it social environment in which he develops’’. Therefore, all art must is worth the readingbe political, even implicitly. Any Alexander Adams in his new book that convinces me that maybe there is still hope ‘Artivism: The Battle for Museum in the world – Era of Postmodernism’ is adamant that for all the mistakes made thus far, still being made right now, there art is a common humanity which ultimately, eventually, must do some good – that freer when it is worth the writing and the reading and the timeart for art’s sake. Blades The recent trend of Grass is one such bookso-called artivism has caused artists to become more overtly political (read: left wing). It's Their seemingly grass roots movements have been astroturfed by large “left-wing” donors and media elites hoping to create a forgotten story, an unknown story to most peoplemore globalist and progressive regime. It is one that should be told – and reflected uponOr at least that’s what Alexander Adams believes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524676969</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Preston1398508632|title=A Very English Scandal: Sex, Lies and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the EstablishmentThe Wilderness Cure|author=Mo Wilde

|genre=True CrimeLifestyle|summary=Jeremy Thorpe It had been on the cards for a while but it was the sort week-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of person who was generally liked by otherseating only wild food. He The end of November, particularly in Central Scotland was flamboyant and gregarious but could give perhaps not the best time to start, in a world where the impression that meeting someone normal sores had made his daybeen exacerbated by climate change, Brexit and a pandemic. He never seemed to forget Wilde had a name and he few advantages: the area around her was witty, charismatic and very charminga known habitat with a variety of terrains. He appeared She had electricity which allowed her to be run a decent man, with views with which I would have agreed on racefridge, capital punishment freezer and membership of the Common Market, as the European Union was then knowndehydrator. For this was the nineteen sixties and Thorpe She had entered Parliament at the age of thirty a car - and by 1967 he would be party leaderfuel. On the surface he Most importantly, she had shelter: this was not a man who had everything going for himplan to ''live'' wild just to live off its produce.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241973740</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sarah Bakewell1529149800|title= At The Existentialist CaféThings You Can Do: Freedom, Being How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste|author=Eduardo Garcia and Apricot CocktailsSara Boccaccini Meadows

|genre= Politics Home and SocietyFamily|summary= You know We begin with a telling story. All the birds and animals fled when the forest fire took hold and most of them stood and watched, unable to think of anything they could do. The tiny hummingbird flew to the river and began taking tiny amounts of water and flying back to drop them into the fire. The animals laughed: what good was that old saying about judging books by their cover? doing. Ignore it! ''I have found 'm doing the best I can'', said the hummingbird. And that by judging a book by its cover and getting it completely wrong , really, is a great the only way to find yourself committed to reading a book that you'd never have picked in a million years and yetwe will solve the problem of climate change – by each of us doing what we can, somehow, being amazingly glad you didhowever small that might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554887</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tony Benn and Ruth Winstone (editor)1638485216|title=The Benn DiariesBlack, White, and Gray All Over: The Definitive CollectionA Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds

|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=Tony Benn must be one of the most famous diarists of the modern age. He kept a diary from his schooldays in the nineteen forties until he made his last entry in 2009''Corruption is not department, five years before his deathgender or race specific. Benn was also a particularly charismatic politician: since my teens I've found myself listening It has everything to him believing that I disagreed do with what he was saying and then realising that perhaps we werencharacter. Period.'' ''One more body just wouldn't so far apart after allmatter''. Whatever he spoke about always gave food for thought. Of course the ideal way to enjoy the diaries would be to read the individual volumes The murder of George Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man, beginning with {{amazonurl|isbn=0099497719|title=Years Of Hope: Diarieson 25 May 2020 by Derek Chauvin,Letters and Papers 1940a forty-four-year-1962}}old police officer, in the US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around the world. We rarely see pictures of a murder taking place but thatFloyd's a lengthy undertaking and ''death was an exception. The Benn Diaries: The Definitive Collectionimage of Chauvin kneeling on George's neck is not one which I' edited by Ruth Winstone gives you ll ever forget and the opportunity to sample protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. There was a backlash against the best of the diaries police - and not just in a mere seven hundred Minneapolis: whatever their colour or so pages. Be warned though: there has been a previous {{amazonurl|isbn=0099634112|title=composite volume}}, also called creed they were ''The Benn Diariesall'' and published in 1996tarred by the Chauvin brush. The current volume goes to 2009.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786330768</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Henning MankellMatthieu Aikins|title= Quicksand|rating= 5|genre= Autobiography|summary= How do you judge a book? Not by its cover, we're told. In my case, often by the number of turned down corners or post-it-note-marked pages by the time I've finished reading it. Sometimes, by whether I worry about leaving its characters to fend for themselves while I take a break…or by how much of it stays with me afterwards or for how long. In this case, it doesnThe Naked Don't matter. However, I judge ''Quicksand'' Fear the judgement comes up the same. This collection of vignettes from an ageing, possibly dying, writer looking back on his own life is as powerful as it is simple, as easy to read as it is impossible to forget.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784701564</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Anne Glyn-Jones|title= Morse Code Wrens of Station XWater|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= Bletchley Park is probably now the least secret of all the secret ops that went on during World War II. I for one am pleased about that: technology has moved on so far that there can't be anything that happened back then on the communications front that is worth continuing to shroud in mystery. With most of the participants either departed or at least in the departure lounge, the more recollections we can still gather the better. What remained secret far longer however, is the work of the telegraphers that served Station X: those posted to the Y-stations. There are few of them left to tell their tales, so I applaud those who finally saw fit (a) to release them from their life-long bonds of secrecy and (b) encourage them to write it down, tell us what it was really like.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845409086</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Donald Naismith|title=A Bradford Apprenticeship|rating=4

|summary=with all schools removed from their control and established as freestanding and self-governing academies. In effect this would (and possibly will) mean It's easy to forget at times that what was once a national serviceThe Naked Don't Fear the Water isn't actually fiction, locally administered will become because it reads very much like a local service, nationally administeredwell-paced thriller at times. Donald Naismith This is perhaps best known as the former Chief Education Officer of Richmond-upon-Thamesnot by any means a criticism, Croydon and then Wandsworth but rather a testament to how well Matthieu Aikins – a Canadian citizen who decided to accompany his education friend as a refugee from Afghanistan through Europe – recounts a vast and at times painful journey. There are tense moments and formative working years took place in his adopted home city gripping accounts of Bradford. In ''A Bradford Apprenticeship'' he gives us an affectionate tribute to the city border crossings which made him what he is and his thoughts had me on edge the education systemwhole way through. Bradford was once one of the countryBut it's leading education authorities written with a haunting and he values almost lyrical quality that allows the opportunities it gave him reader to fine tune his thinkingperfectly envisage the environments and people described.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1524636118</amazonuk>B09N9157T6

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Siri Hustvedt1785633074|title= A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women: Essays on Art, Sex and the MindStaggering Hubris|author=Josh Berry|rating= 4.5|genre= Politics and Society Humour|summary= I must confess Members of Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by politicians, headed by the Prime minister - the ''primus inter pares'A Woman Looking'(that' spoke to me on a profound, intimate level. This s for those of you who are Eton and Oxbridge educated) but the reality is in part due to that the ''prime'' movers are the special advisers - the apparent similarities between me and Siri Hustvedt SPADS - we are both feminists who love art and also love science in a world which emphasises that these two passions are mutually exclusivethe driving force behind the government. What Hustvedt suggests We are in ''A Woman Looking'' is that it is the similarities between these two areas we should emphasise and that a cohesiveprivileged position of having access to the memoirs of Rafe Hubris, inclusive approach towards art and science could help fill the gaps in both disciplinesman who was behind the skilful control of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of 2020. You might not know the name now but he will certainly be the man to watch. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473638895</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=T J Coles1846276772|title=The Great Brexit SwindleEnd of Bias: Why the Mega-Rich and Free Market Fanatics Conspired to Force Britain from the European Union|rating=3.5|genre=Business and Finance|summary=''Have you been mis-sold Brexit by posh men in sharp suits promising you free healthcare? If so, you might be entitled to compensation...'' There wasn't much could make me laugh on the morning after the EU referendum but this spoof advert on Twitter managed it. Only, it seems that it wasn't completely a joke - well apart from the bit about compensation. In ''The Great Brexit Scandal'' T J Coles looks at the substantial core of free marketeers in the Conservative party who were determined to rid the UK of the Brussels red tape which was putting a brake on their activities. You might also know these views as ''neoliberalism'', an ideology which looks to deregulate markets and maximise profits. On the surface that doesn't sound bad, until you realise that the benefit will go to the people who are already in the group which Coles refers to as the ''mega-rich'' and the losers will be working people.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905570813</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewHow We Change Our Minds|author= Erin Moore|title= That's Not EnglishJessica Nordell|rating= 4.5

|summary=It's Anyone who is not clear who first coined an able, white man understands bias in that they may no longer even recognise the expression ''divided by a common language'' about Brits and Americans, but as this highly entertaining book demonstrates, extent to which they suffer from it: it isn't our language that divides us. On the contrary the language s simply reflects the divisions that exist. We tend to watch a lot part of TV at home, but rarely find anything that totally engrosses useveryday life. As a result we tend to talk over a lot of TV White men will always come first. We play games with some of what we watchThe able will come before the disabled. One Jobs, promotions, higher salaries are the preserve of those games is spotting anachronismsthe white man. Another is "would she ever have got the job" – particularly fun with crime programmes that think it's ok for lab techs to have long free-flowing locks Even when doing evidence analysis or have Detective Sergeants those who frankly wouldn't have passed pass the medical become a part of an organisation it's rare that their CV submissionviews are heard, that their concerns are acknowledged. A long-running one involves spotting It's personally appalling and degrading for the individuals on the spread receiving end of British English in American TV shows. Erin Moore explains why. Not directly, indeed Ithe bias but it'm s not sure she even makes just the connection – but the fact that there individuals who are a lot more Brits in the higher echelons of US TV-making might just explain why CSI, NCIS, Law and Order and a whole host of other shows will slip in words like wallet, handbag, boot (of a car), pavement…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784701912</amazonuk>negatively impacted.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris McIvor1529148251|title=The World is ElsewhereMisfits: A Personal Manifesto|author=Michaela Coel

|genre=AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary=As a Country Director''How am I able to be so transparent on paper about rape, malpractice and poverty, Chris McIvor has worked for a number of years at Save yet still compartmentalise? It's as though I were telling the Childrentruth whilst simultaneously running away from it. 'The World is Elsewhere' covers his time there and, his journeys across  Before you start reading ''Misfits'' you need to be in a number certain frame of countriesmind. It is You're not going to read a beautiful mix book of autobiography and travelessays or a self-help book. It also captures his philosophical thoughts on international aid. He reflects on both You're going to read writing which was inspired by Michaela Coel's 2018 MacTaggart Lecture to professionals within the good and television industry at the bad with a very easy, conversational writing style that makes Edinburgh TV Festival. You might be ''reading'' the book truly captivating. I read from cover but you need to ''listen'' to cover the words as though you're in a single sitting, unusual for a reviewer. Such was the draw as he laid himself barelecture theatre. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124346</amazonuk>The disjointedness will fade away and you'll be carried on a cloud of exquisite writing.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Anna Bikont0008350388|title= The Crime and the Silence|rating= 4|genre= History|summary= Where was your father? Where was your brother, your mother, your uncle? These are the questions Anna Bikont struggles to ask during her investigation into a shocking act of violence committed against the Jewish community in Jedwabne during the summer of 1941. The Crime and the Silence weaves together journals, interviews and pictures to share the story of a community torn apart by hatred and intolerance. It is also a moving testament We Need to the dedication of Bikont, who documents her struggle to find the truth with grace and dignity in the face of silence, rationalisation, and even anger, from members of the Polish community who would rather not stir up the crimes of the past.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099592525</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewTalk About Money|author=Kate Harrad|title=Purple Prose: Bisexuality in BritainOtegha Uwagba

|summary=Before reading Kate Harrad's thought provoking insight into bisexuality in Britain I have 'To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to confess be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...'' ''We Need to being as guilty of the misconceptions surrounding the subject as everyone elseTalk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba ''0. It is only when you read this collection 7% of essays and anecdotes, you realise the prejudice they face on English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a daily basis. The very nature writer of bisexuality is widely misunderstood colour while only 7% study a book by the heterosexual and gay communities alike. As a result bisexuals find themselves marginalised, or, in the worst-case scenario, completely ostracisedwoman. Far from having, ''the best of both worlds ''The Bookseller'', they are considered 29 June 2021 Otegha Uwagba came to be sitting on the fenceUK from Kenya when she was five years old. Her sisters were seven and nine. It was her mother who came first, unable to come to terms with their true sexualityher father joining them later. ''Purple Prose'' tackles these myths and ill The family was hard-informed ideas head onworking, principled and in determined that their children would have the process shows best education possible. There was always a community that does have many issues, just painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage of anything: it was simply carefully harvested. When Otegha was ten the ones that are being laid family acquired a car. For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to a private school in London and then a place at their doorNew College, Oxford. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0996460160</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Wade GrahamRichard Brook|title=Dream CitiesUnderstanding Human Nature: Seven Urban Ideas That Shape the WorldA User's Guide to Life

|genre= HistoryLifestyle|summary=Between 1950 I am a firm believer that sometimes we choose books, and 2014 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 worldway 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 urban population increased from 746 million to 3u.s.9 billionp. The urbanising trend is set to continue with the United Nations predicting that by the middle of the century 66% of us will be city dwellerspeople chose their own books rather than getting them randomly, so there is a massive six billion people. How have city planners and architects tried predisposition towards expecting to cope with like the recent surge? How can they avoid repeating mistakes from the past? Both of those questions are considered in Dream Cities – Seven Urban Ideas That Shape The Worldbook, Wade Grahameven if it doesn't always turn out that way''s excellent field guide ] – but also because it is a book I needed to the modern worldread, right now. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1445659735</amazonuk>1800461682

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=T J Coles1787332098|title=Britain's Secret WarsHow to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World|author=Henry Mance

|summary= Britain's Secret Wars is a chilling 'When we do think about animals, we break them down into species and groups: cows, dogs, foxes, elephants and disturbing book to readso on. With all four corners of the globe hell-bent And we assign them places in society: cows go on plates, dogs on conflictsofas, foxes in rubbish bins, elephants in zoos, oppression and injusticemillions of wild animals stay out there, our sanitised media portrays Britain''somewhere, as a nation, responding '' hopefully on the next David Attenborough series.'' I was going to harrowing global eventsargue. What is chilling I mean, cows are for cheese (I couldn't consider eating red meat...) and I much prefer my elephants in T J Coles book, is the wild but then I realised that I was quibbling for the political establishment, through sake of it. Essentially that quote sums up my attitude to animals - and I consider myself an animal lover. If I had to choose between the military company of humans and intelligence community appear to be complicit in instigating many the company of themanimals, I would probably choose the animals. What is disturbing is I insisted that the majority of information he has used I read this book: no one was trying to form his analysis stop me but I was initially reluctant. I eat cheese, eggs, chicken and conclusion is freely available fish and in I needed to either do so without guilt or change my choices. I suspected that making the public domaindecision would not be comfortable. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905570783</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Angela Lightburn1523092734|title=An Annoyance of Neighbours: Life is Never Dull When You Have Neighbours!A Women's Guide to Claiming Space|author=Eliza Van Cort|rating=4.5

|summary=You can choose your friends. You can't choose your relatives, but you can 'She brings a hug- usually kick- put some physical distance between you thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and them, but you can't choose your neighbours again and once youagain.'re '(Alma Derricks, former CMO, Cirque du Soleil RSD) 'there'' it can be very expensive or even impossible To claim space is to break live the linklife of choosing unapologetically and bravely. Now, I can't give It is to live the life you any advice on this thorny subject as it's more than thirty years since I've been in a position to have anything to complain about, but Angela Lightburn knows all there is to knowalways wanted. She's spent years collating all the different problems which people have with their neighbours and ways of improving the situation which don't involve a lengthy prison sentence.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785892029</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Ian Goldin and Chris Kutarna|title= Age of Discovery: Navigating the Risks and Rewards of Our New Renaissance |rating= 3.5|genre= Politics and Society|summary=Here we are, world, in the midst of a new Renaissance. What will it be, to flounder or to flourish?

The central aim of 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 discourse book is not a 'how to highlight our current positiondisable your attacker with two simple jabs' manual: it's something far more effective, and but discussion at the fact that there is a choice moment seems to be madeabout how women can be ''protected''. The authors date 1990 as the dawn of a new I've always thought that women need to rise above this, and our presentto be people who don't need protection, Renaissancepeople who claim their own space. As with the last, If all women did this time warrants in a whole host of risks, but it also offers the opportunity those few men who are violent to women would realise that we are not just an easy target to be used to reap the benefits of the changes occurring across the globeprove that they are big men.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147293637X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Xinran, Esther Tyldesley and David DobsonPolly Barton|title= Buy Me The SkyFifty Sounds|rating= 34.5|genre= Politics and Society|summary=Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''These single-sprout children are more precious than goldWhy Japan?'', says Japan has been on my radar for a Chinese woman to while and if the authorworld hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but I am not hopeful. Buy Me The Sky asks what itAnd like Barton, I don's like t know the answer to grow up as the question ''goldwhy Japan?'' through Xinran's conversations with ten adults from She explains her feelings in respect of the question in the first generation of Chinaessay, which is on the sound ''giro' ''s only children. In the highly informative introduction, – which she tells the story of a 22 year old male student whodescribes as being, in 2010among other things, ran over a female migrant worker in his car, and then was so fearful the sound of the consequences that he brutally murdered her. He was tried and executed in a hugely divisive case with some seeing him as an evil perpetrator and others, a victim''every party where you have to introduce yourself''. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846044731</amazonuk>1913097501

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tom BowerStephen Fabes|title=Broken Vows: Tony Blair The Tragedy Signs of PowerLife|rating=45|genre=BiographyTravel|summary=In May 1997 we went to vote gleefullyI was brought up on maps and first-person narratives of tales of far away places. I was birth-righted wanderlust and curiosity. Unfortunately, sure that there I didn't inherit what Dr. Stephen Fabes clearly had which was going the guts to be a change from the tired, sleaze-ridden Conservative government we'd been sufferingsimply go out and do it. The BlairsI also didn' entry into Downing Street t inherit the following day - through crowds kind of well-wishers - was like a breath of fresh air steady nerve, ability to talk to strangers and (perhaps fortunately) it basic practicality that would have meant that I would be years before have survived if I discovered that the 'well wishers' had been bussed in for gifted with the event. Looking back now it seems that our hopes for what the 'New Labourrequisite ' government could achieve were unreasonably high and therebottle's a special place in hell reserved for those who disappoint us in this way. In order words I've often wondered quite how history m not the sort of person who will see Blair: Afghanistan get on a bike outside a London hospital and Iraq as well as his failure to deal with Gordon Brown would always sour his premiership not come home for me, but to what extent could his achievements such as the Good Friday Agreement, the minimum wage and higher welfare payments be balanced against his failures?six years. Fabes did precisely that.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571314201</amazonuk>1788161211

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Popham 1504321383|title=The Lady Single, Again, and the Generals: Aung San Suu Kyi Again, and Burma's Struggle for FreedomAgain|author=Louisa Pateman

|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=On 13 November 2010, Aung San Suu Kyi ''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 released from house arrest after spending 15 of brought up to believe. It wasn't unkind: it was simply the previous 21 years adults in her life advising her as a prisoner of Burmato what they thought would be best for her. It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the girl (she's military juntausually fairly young) is rescued by the handsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever after. Political reforms soon followed, culminating with Suu (as she prefers Few girls are lucky enough to be known) being elected to parliament. The West rejoiced; leaders, business men, brought up ''without'' the expectation that they will marry and tourists poured in; and Suu entered the pantheon of modern-day political heroeshave children. Burma It was a burgeoning democracy, belief and Suu was it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''a belief is a saint. In reality, as Peter Popham argues in choice'The Lady and the Generals', the situation was far more complex.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846043719</amazonuk>