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Newest Politics and Society Reviews (view source)
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1504321383Alastair Humphreys|title=SingleLocal|rating=5|genre=Travel |summary= Alastair Humphreys has walked and cycled all over the world. And then written about it. For this book he walked and cycled very close to home and then wrote about it. As he says in his introduction, Againthe book is an attempt ''to share what I have learnt about some big issues from a year exploring a small map. Nature loss, pollution, land use and Againaccess, agriculture, the food system, rewilding…'' One of the joys of the book for me was that the biggest thing he learned about all of these things was that there are no easy answers, no single 'right or wrong', that every upside is likely to have a downside for somebody and Againthat there are some hard choices ahead.|isbn=1785633678}}{{Frontpage|author=Louisa PatemanEdel Rodriguez|title=Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyGraphic Novels|summary=We're in childhood, and we'You can't be happy and fulfilled on your ownre in Cuba. You are The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the country, has proven himself a Communist, and not complete until you find done nearly enough to create a man''level playing field for all. This was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to believe Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time away. It wasnOur narrator's family weren't unkind: it was simply in the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the adults in her life advising her country demanded (especially as to what they thought he would probably be best shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and not liked for herhis successful photography business, success being frowned upon. It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where The mother gets the girl (she's usually fairly young) is rescued by couple jobs with the handsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever after. Few girls are lucky enough party to be brought up ''without'' ease some of the expectation that they will marry and have children. It was a belief and heat, but in this sultry island country, it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''a belief is a choice''.remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…|isbn=1474616720
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{{Frontpage
|author=Sakinu AhronglongSarah Wilson|title=Hunter SchoolThis One Wild and Precious Life: the path back to connection in a fractured world|rating=43.5|genre=AutobiographyLifestyle|summary= The flyleaf My favourite Mary Oliver line is the one in which she asks ''What is it you plan to this little collection tells us do with your one wild and precious life?'' I get to love that it line so much because my answer is a work of fiction''This! Precisely this. That's possibly misleading' I'm lucky enough to be living my one wild and precious life the way I want to. I am not sure whether it Sarah Wilson is "fiction" in the sense equally lucky. In her book that Ahronglong made it all up, or whether it is takes Oliver's words as her title (though I can't see that she acknowledges the blurb goes on source) she pushes us to say think about whether we really ''recollections, folklore and autobiographical storiesare''. It feels like living the life we want – the latterbest life that we could be living. It feels like the stories he tells about his experiences as a child, as Her answer is an adolescentunequivocal ''no, as an adult we are real and truenot''. But memory is a fickle thingDon't care what you're doing, and maybe poetic licence has taken over here and thereshe thinks you (we, and maybe calling it fiction means I) could be doing more…And she's effing furious about the fact that its safer and therefore more people will read it. More people shouldwe are not.|isbn=19997912821785633848
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Frederic Gros1785633457|title=A Philosophy Charging Around: Exploring the Edges of WalkingEngland by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson
|rating=5
|genre= Politics Travel|summary=Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of exploring the edges of England in an electric car was not totally outrageous. In fact, it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and Societyhis wife, Joan, shouldn't it?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153050|title=Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary= I confess I picked this one up Seeking some light relief from the library in my pre-lockdown forage current political turmoil which is coming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, I was nudged towards ''Britain's Best Political Cartoons of random stuff2022''. Now I Sharp eyes will have to go out an buy my own copy so noted that I can turn down we're not yet through the year: the pages I have marked and return to its varying wisdom when I need cartoons run from 4 September 2021 to. Some books draw you in slowly31 August 2022. This one had me Who can imagine what there will be to come in the first two pages, wherein Gros explains why ''walking is not a sport''.|isbn=17816883702023 edition?
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=B0B7289HKQ|title=Lun ZhangConversations Across America: A Father and Son, Adrien GombeaudAlzheimer's, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Soul of America|titleauthor=Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered HopesKari Loya|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic NovelsTravel|summary=I never really followed Kari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, by the events of Tiananmen Square way) wanted to spend some time with much attention when his father and the period between two jobs seemed like a good time to do it . The decision was playing out – someone in made to ride the second half Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, Virginia to Astoria, Oregon - all 4250 miles of their teens has other priorities, you knowit - in 2015. I certainly didn't know of They had 73 days to do it - slightly less than the weeks of protests and hunger strikes from the students before the massacre and the birth recommended time - but there were factors which pointed this up as more of the Tank Man image, I didn't know how the area had long been a venue challenge that it would be for political protest, and I didn't know more than a spit about the most people involved who considered taking it on either side. This book is practically flawless in giving a general browserMerv Loya was 75 years old and he was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer's context for the whole season of protests back in 1989.|isbn=1684056993
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Sharon Blackie1739593901|title=If Women Rose Rooted22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre= BiographyScience Fiction|summary= I normally say that you can tell how much a book means to me by how many pages have corners turned down''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Perhaps an even greater measure Instead of impact is setting out flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to buy my own copy before Itrack grandma.''ve finished reading the one I've borrowedgot a couple of confessions to make. I want 'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to avoid clichés like read a few stories and then forget to return to the book. There'powerfuls got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there' s science fiction: far too often it'inspiring' 'lifes the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-changingbuilding. It' – although it is definitely s human beings who fascinate me: the first two technology and only time will tell about the third – but clichés exist for world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a reason and I'm not sure book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I can succinctly put loved it any better.|isbn=1912836017
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{{Frontpage
|author= Linda ScottJane Goodall and Douglas Abrams |title= The Double X EconomyBook of Hope
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary= The done thing is to read a book all the way through before you sit down to review it. I’m making an exception here, because I don’t want to lose any of the experience of reading this amazing book, I want to capture it as it hits me. And it is hitting me. This beautiful book has me in tears.
|isbn=024147857X
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1788360737
|title= Artivism: The Battle for Museums in the Era of Postmodernism
|author=Alexander Adams
|rating=2
|genre= Politics and Society
|summary=''Women are economically disadvantaged Can art ever be apolitical? All art is political because art is not made in every country in the world''a vacuum. It's a bold statement for an opening chapter, but it's far from hyperbole as is made by people. Antonio Gramsci stated that ‘’Every man… contributes to modifying the following pages explainsocial environment in which he develops’’. This book shines a light on what is happening in different placesTherefore, all art must be political, and the impact on the local and world economyeven implicitly. What can be learnt from the great strides Alexander Adams in gender-equalising legislation his new book ‘Artivism: The Battle for Museum in the west? What can be done about the selling Era of Postmodernism’ is adamant that art is freer when it is art for art’s sake. The recent trend of young women into marriage, so-called artivism has caused artists to become more overtly political (read: left wing). Their seemingly grass roots movements have been astroturfed by large “left-wing” donors and media elites hoping to create a more globalist and progressive regime. Or at least that’s what can chimpanzees and bonobos teach us about mothering?|isbn=0571353606Alexander Adams believes.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1398508632|title=The Wilderness Cure|author=Danny DorlingMo Wilde|rating=5|genre=Lifestyle|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.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529149800|title=SlowdownThings You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste|author=Eduardo Garcia and Sara Boccaccini Meadows
|rating=4
|genre=Politics Home and SocietyFamily|summary= We are living in begin with a time of rapid change, and we're worried about ittelling story. Dorling tells us that All the birds and animals fled when the latter is normalforest fire took hold and most of them stood and watched, natural and probably good for usunable to think of anything they could do. We are designed The tiny hummingbird flew to worry the river and began taking tiny amounts of water and with flying back to drop them into the current state of fire. The animals laughed: what we're good was that doing in the world we have much to be worried about. However, over ''I'm doing the next three-hundred-and-some pages, if you best I can follow the arguments, it sets out in scientific detail why either we shouldn't be as worried as we are', or in some cases that we're worrying about said the wrong thingshummingbird. Mostly. Because mostlyAnd that, really, things are not changing as rapidly as is the only way that we think they are. In fact, will solve the rate problem of climate change in many things is slowing down and the direction – by each of change will in some cases go into reverseus doing what we can, however small that might be.|isbn=0300243405
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=02414467321638485216|title=Our House is on FireBlack, White, and Gray All Over: Scenes of a Family A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and a Planet in CrisisLaw Enforcement|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante ThunbergFrederick Reynolds
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=''Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. It has everything to do with character. Period.''
''One more body just wouldn't matter''.
The murder of George Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man, on 25 May 2020 by Derek Chauvin, a forty-four-year-old police officer, in the US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around the world. We rarely see pictures of a murder taking place but Floyd's death was an exception. The image of Chauvin kneeling on George's neck is not one which I'll ever forget and the protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. There was a backlash against the police - and not just in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''all'' tarred by the Chauvin brush.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Matthieu Aikins
|title=The Naked Don't Fear the Water
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=It's easy to forget at times that The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normalNaked Don't Fear the Water isn't actually fiction, because it reads very much like a well-paced thriller at times. This is not by any means a criticism, but rather a testament to how well Matthieu Aikins – a Canadian citizen who decided to accompany his friend as a refugee from Afghanistan through Europe – recounts a vast and at times painful journey. Malena Ernman was an opera singer There are tense moments and Svante Thunberg took gripping accounts of border crossings which had me on most of edge the parenting of their two daughterswhole way through. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating But it's written with a haunting and talking almost lyrical quality that allows the reader to perfectly envisage the environments and her sister, Beata, then nine years old, struggled with what was happeningpeople described.|isbn= B09N9157T6}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1785633074|title=Staggering Hubris|author=Josh Berry|rating=4. In such circumstances5|genre=Humour|summary=Members of Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by politicians, itheaded by the Prime minister - the ''primus inter pares'' (that's natural to seek a solution close to home, for those of you who are Eton and Oxbridge educated) but eventually, it became clear to the family reality is that they were the ''burnedprime'' movers are the special advisers -out people on a burnedthe SPADS -out planet''who are the driving force behind the government. If they were We are in the privileged position of having access to find a way the memoirs of Rafe Hubris, the man who was behind the skilful control of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of 2020. You might not know the name now but he will certainly be the man to live happily again their solution would need to be radicalwatch.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=06486848061846276772|title=Clara ColbyThe End of Bias: The International SuffragistHow We Change Our Minds|author=John HollidayJessica Nordell|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=The path of Clara Dorothy BewickAnyone 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 was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. At White men will always come first. The able will come before the time she was just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and three brothersdisabled. InsteadJobs, she remained with her grandparentspromotions, who doted on her and saw that she received a good education, both in and out higher salaries are the preserve of schoolthe white man. She was Even when those who wouldn't pass the only child in the household and her childhood was glorious. By contrast, her family had medical become pioneer farmers in the mid-west a part of the United States and life was hardan organisation it's rare that their views are heard, as Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to join the familythat their concerns are acknowledged. Clara would only know her mother It's personally appalling and degrading for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and died in childbirth the individuals on the receiving end of the bias but it's not long after Clara arrived. As just the eldest girl, a heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was a rude awakeningindividuals who are negatively impacted.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=183895015X1529148251|title=Misfits: A Bit of a Stretch: The Diaries of a PrisonerPersonal Manifesto|author=Chris AtkinsMichaela Coel
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Documentary filmmakers don't usually get 'How am I able to be so transparent on paper about rape, malpractice and poverty, yet still compartmentalise? It's as though I were telling the run truth whilst simultaneously running away from it.'' Before you start reading ''Misfits'' you need to be in a certain frame of establishments mind. You're not going to read a book of essays or a self-help book. You're going to read writing which was inspired by Michaela Coel's 2018 MacTaggart Lecture to professionals within the Mountbatten-Windsor Hotel Group, television industry at the Edinburgh TV Festival. You might be ''reading'' the book but after getting involved you need to ''listen'' to the words as though you're in an illegal tax scheme to fund his latest film, Chris Atkins was invited for a five-year staythe lecture theatre. The first nine months were spent in HMP Wandsworth, which is probably the oldest, largest disjointedness will fade away and most dysfunctional prison in Europeyou'll be carried on a cloud of exquisite writing.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Michael Harris0008350388|title=Solitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded WorldWe Need to Talk About Money|author=Otegha Uwagba
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...'' ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba
''0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of colour while only 7% study a book by a woman.'' ''The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021
Otegha Uwagba came to the UK from Kenya when she was five years old. Her sisters were seven and nine. It was her mother who came first, with her father joining them later. The family was hard-working, principled and determined that their children would have the best education possible. There was always a painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage of anything: it was simply carefully harvested. When Otegha was ten the family acquired a car. For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to a private school in London and then a place at New College, Oxford.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Richard Brook
|title=Understanding Human Nature: A User's Guide to Life
|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary= This I am a firm believer that sometimes we choose books, and sometimes books choose us. In my case, this is not one of the latter. Not so very long ago, if I had come across this book I was expecting 'd have skimmed it to be. For , found some reason I expected of it to be another self-help manual on how to find calm, how to step outside the mainstreaminteresting, but it is would not have 'hit home' in the way that at allit does now. Instead of telling us how I believe it came to me not just because I was likely to give it is more about the a favourable review [ ''why'full disclosure The Bookbag's u.s.p. Harries examines how we're eroding solitude, which used to be a natural part of our human life, and why is that matters. Of course, he talks about how some people have found solitude and what has come of thatchose their own books rather than getting them randomly, and eventually in so there is a predisposition towards expecting to like the final chapter he talks about his own experience of having deliberately sought book, even if it doesn't always turn outthat way'' ] – but also because it is a book I needed to read, but mostly he wanders down the alleys and by-ways that his thinking about this lost art led himright now.|isbn=18479476621800461682
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17837843501787332098|title=This Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted HistoryHow to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World|author=Esther RutterHenry Mance
|rating=5
|genre=HistoryPolitics and Society|summary=It was December ''When we do think about animals, we break them down into species and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office jobgroups: cows, dogs, foxes, writing to people she'd never met elephants and preparing spreadsheetsso on. The job frustrated her And we assign them places in society: cows go on plates, dogs on sofas, foxes in rubbish bins, elephants in zoos, and even her knitting did not soothe her mindmillions of wild animals stay out there, ''somewhere,'' hopefully on the next David Attenborough series. January '' I was going to be a time argue. I mean, cows are for making changes cheese (I couldn't consider eating red meat...) and she decided I much prefer my elephants in the wild but then I realised that she would travel I was quibbling for the length sake of it. Essentially that quote sums up my attitude to animals - and breadth I consider myself an animal lover. If I had to choose between the company of the British Isles with occasional forays abroad, discovering humans and telling the story company of wool's history and how it had made and changed animals, I would probably choose the landscapeanimals. She'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk - '' a free-range child on the farm'' - and learned I insisted that I read this book: no one was trying to spinstop me but I was initially reluctant. I eat cheese, knit eggs, chicken and weave from her mother fish and her mother's friendI needed to either do so without guilt or change my choices. This was in her bloodI suspected that making the decision would not be comfortable.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=00082940111523092734|title=How A Women's Guide to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to DictatorshipClaiming Space|author=Ece TemelkuranEliza Van Cort|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary=A little while ago ''She brings a friend asked me if I thought hug-kick-thunderclap that we were living through what every woman needs in years to come would be discussed by A level history students when faced with the question her life. Again and again and again.'' (Alma Derricks, former CMO, Cirque du Soleil RSD) ''Discuss To claim space is to live the factors which led life of choosing unapologetically and bravely. It is to..live the life you've always wanted.'' I agreed that she was right and wasn't certain whether it was Sometimes the reviewing gods are generous: at a good or bad thing that we didntime when violence against women is much in the news, 't know what all 'thisA Women' was leading s Guide toClaiming Space'' by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. I think now that I do know. We are in danger of losing democracy and whilst Now - to be clear - this book is not a 'how to disable your attacker with two simple jabs' manual: it's a flawed system I something far more effective, but discussion at the moment seems to be about how women canbe ''protected't think of a better one, particularly as the 'benevolent dictator. I' is as rare as henve always thought that women need to rise above this, to be people who don's teetht 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.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1786893452Polly Barton|title=The Ungrateful Refugee|author=Dina NayeriFifty Sounds
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Here in Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the West, we see news reports about immigrants question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a regular basis – some media welcoming themwhile and if the world hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, some scaremongering about thembut I am not hopeful. But all of those stories are written by journalists – almost always westernAnd like Barton, and almost always, no matter how deep I don't know the investigative journalism they carry out, outsiders answer to the world and question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of the situations that refugees find themselves question in. It's rare that we find out the journeys from first essay, which is on the refugees themselves sound ''giro' '' – and this is a rare opportunity to do thatwhich she describes as being, in this intelligentamong other things, powerful and moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the middle sound of a revolution in Iran, fleeing ''every party where you have to America as a ten-year-oldintroduce yourself''.|isbn=1913097501
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1846045576Stephen Fabes|title=Walks In The Wild|author=Peter Wohlleben and Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp (Translator)Signs of Life|rating=45|genre=Animals and Wildlife|Animals and WildlifeTravel|summary=I was brought up on maps and first-person narratives of tales of far away places. I was birth-righted wanderlust and curiosity. Unfortunately, I didn''An instruction manual for t inherit what Dr. Stephen Fabes clearly had which was the forestguts to simply go out and do it. I also didn'' is how Wohlleben's publisher described t inherit the idea for this bookkind of steady nerve, ability to talk to strangers and basic practicality that would have meant thatI would have survived if I had been gifted with the requisite 'bottle'. In order words I's basically what it is – although right at m not the end the author says sort of person who will get on a bike outside a London hospital and not come home for six years. Fabes did precisely that it is not intended to be a reference book, but an appetiser.|isbn=1788161211
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17863316081504321383|title=Hard Pushed: A Midwife's StorySingle, Again, and Again, and Again|author=Leah HazardLouisa Pateman|rating=4.5|genre=LifestyleAutobiography|summary=Over the past few years, we've had a rash (sorry - no pun intended) of books by medical practitioners'You can't be happy and fulfilled on your own. Doctors have been at the forefront, but You are not complete until you find a man''Hard Pushed'' is the first book I've seen by a midwife. This was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to believe. Itwasn's an unusual profession in that t unkind: it's one of was simply the few callings within the medical system 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 most of the patients are healthy and the only one where one person comes into the system and girl (for she's usually fairly young) is rescued by the most part) more than one goes outhandsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever after. It's an amazing thing Few girls are lucky enough to be able to do - to escort new life into brought up ''without'' the world - expectation that they will marry and an enormous responsibilityhave children. Leah Hazard came to it after It was a career in television belief and it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''Hard Pusheda belief is a choice'' is the story of her career as a midwife - and the title tells more than one story.
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