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[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]]==Politics and society==__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan GreenAlastair Humphreys|title=Murder in the High HimalayaLocal|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyTravel |summary=The Himalayan mountains mean many things 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 different peoplehome and then wrote about it. To the people of TibetAs he says in his introduction, trapped under the atheist occupiers book is an attempt ''to share what I have learnt about some big issues from Chinaa year exploring a small map. Nature loss, who ran the Dalai Lama out in the 1950s in their consuming urge for lebensraum pollution, land use and mineral miningaccess, they are a near-impenetrable barrieragriculture, the food system, protecting their country from historyrewilding…''s prior ravages, but keeping people who want out, very much in. To rich Westerners, they are a sparkling challenge - a task One of the joys of the highest order, a box to tick on book for me was that the way to self-fulfilment - something to be climbedbiggest thing he learned about all of these things was that there are no easy answers, because theyno single 'right or wrong're , that every upside is likely to have a downside for somebody and that thereare some hard choices ahead.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1586487140</amazonuk>1785633678

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Frances WoodsfordEdel Rodriguez|title=Dear Mr BigelowWorm: A Transatlantic FriendshipCuban American Odyssey

|genre=AutobiographyGraphic Novels|summary=Meet Mister BigelowWe're in childhood, and we're in Cuba. He's elderlyThe revolution has happened, and Castro, living alone on Long Islandfirst thought of as a saviour of the country, New Yorkhas proven himself a Communist, with some health problems but more than and not done nearly enough family and friends to get him by, and still create a very active interest in yachting, regattas and morelevel playing field for all. MeetWell, too, Frances Woodsfordthose hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time away. SheOur narrator's reaching middlefamily weren't in the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-ageCommunism skirmish, living with her brother such as Angola) and the father being watched and mum in Bournemouthwatched, and working not liked for the local baths as organiser of eventshis successful photography business, office lackey and moresuccess being frowned upon. I suggest you do meet them, although neither ever met The mother gets the other. Despite this they kept up a brisk and lively conversation about all aspects of life, from couple jobs with the late 1940s until his death at the beginning party to ease some of the 60s. And as a result comes heat, but in this booksultry island country, it remains the kind of heavily edited highlights, which opens up a world heat forcing you out of social history and entertaining diary-style comment.the kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099542293</amazonuk>1474616720

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rebecca SklootSarah Wilson|title=The Immortal This One Wild and Precious Life of Henrietta Lacks|rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=In John Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, in October 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a mother of five children, died of cervical cancer at the age of 31. However, a sample of her cancer cells taken : the same year lived on, grew and reproduced. Often referred path back to as HeLa cells, cells with their origins connection in the original sample are still being used in medical and scientific research today, nearly sixty years on. Many of the scientific breakthroughs that have been made using HeLa cells are hugely profitable. But her children have spent their lives in low waged jobs and on welfare, unable to afford basic health insurance. Understandably they feel a lot of anger at this injustice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230748694</amazonuk>}}  {{newreview|author=Garrett Keizer|title=The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=What is noise? Do we count birdsong at sunrise as noise? And if so, what different term would we use to describe a jet aircraft taking off? Why do we respond so differently to the two? Even more intriguingly, would our response change if the birdsong woke us from an exhausted sleep but the aircraft was taking off to jet us on a long awaited holiday?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1586485520</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Douglas Rushkoff|title=Life Inc: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Backfractured world

|genre=Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary=The author of 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 book was mugged outside his apartment one Christmas Eve. He posted a note online to warn his neighbours '' I'm lucky enough to be extra careful, living my one wild and was promptly berated for doing something so public 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 potentially damage property values in his local areabe living. This Her answer is a thought-provoking snippetan unequivocal ''no, we are not''. Don't care what you're doing, and if the whole book was like thisshe thinks you (we, I) could be doing more…And she'm sure I would have been grippeds effing furious about the fact that we are not.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099516691</amazonuk>1785633848

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Beaumont1785633457|title=The Secret Life Charging Around: Exploring the Edges of War: Journeys Through Modern Conflict England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson

|genre=Politics and SocietyTravel|summary=Peter Beaumont is the Foreign Affairs editor at The Observer. He joined the paper in 1989 and Clive Wilkinson has spent much a history of the intervening time dealing travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the kind idea of 'foreign affairs' that is better described as 'war reporting'. 'The Secret Life exploring the edges of War' is a distillation of his years England in the fieldan electric car was not totally outrageous. It is In fact, it should be a book ill-served by both its title pleasant holiday for Clive and its coverhis wife, except maybe insofar as both might serve to sneak it onto the bookshelves of those who really need to read itJoan, but probably wouldnshouldn't choose to do so were it more accurately wrapped.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520982</amazonuk>?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gary Younge1529153050|title=Who Are We - And Should It Matter in the 21st Century?Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson|rating=54|genre=AutobiographyHumour|summary=Journalist Gary Younge’s book draws heavily on his articles for Seeking some light relief from the Guardian newspapercurrent political turmoil which is coming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, as he mentions in his acknowledgements, but it isn’t just a collection I was nudged towards ''Britain's Best Political Cartoons of his journalism2022''. Who Are We? is partly a memoir and partly a thoughtful and incisive exploration of Sharp eyes will have noted that we're not yet through the politics and political impact of identity, including race, gender, language groups, religion, sexuality in various countries around year: the worldcartoons run from 4 September 2021 to 31 August 2022. He sets out to explore 'To Who can imagine what extent can our various identities there will be mobilized to accentuate our universal humanity as opposed to separating us off into various, antagonistic campscome in the 2023 edition?'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917036</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bernhard SchlinkB0B7289HKQ|title=Guilt About Conversations Across America: A Father and Son, Alzheimer's, and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the PastSoul of America|author=Kari Loya

|genre=Politics and SocietyTravel|summary=ConsiderKari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, if you will, guilt. You might have it tainting you, as 'beyond by the perpetrators, every person who stands in solidarity way) wanted to spend some time with them his father and maintains solidarity after the fact becomes entangled'. The link might not strictly be period between two jobs seemed like a legal one, but concern 'norms of religion and morals, etiquette and custom as well as day-good time to-day communications and interactions'. Hence a collective guilt like no other - that witnessed in Germanydo it. 'The assumption that membership decision was made to a people engenders solidarity is something Germans of my generation do not easily like ride the Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, Virginia to accept'Astoria, we readOregon - all 4250 miles of it - in 2015. However difficult it might have been back then in its day, Germany They had to physically renounce anything 73 days to do with Nazism, to actively 'optit - slightly less than the recommended time -out' but there were factors which pointed this up as more of connections to avoid the solidarity seen connecting the whole nation like a toxic spider webchallenge that it would be for most people who considered taking it on. And since then itMerv Loya was 75 years old and he was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer's linked in all the children, in a ''bequeathal'' of guilt.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905636776</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Michael Wolff|title=The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World I've got a couple of Rupert Murdoch|rating=3confessions to make.5|genre=Politics I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and Society|summary=There can be few people who are unaware of then forget to return to the name of Rupert Murdochbook. Over four decades heThere's built News International into got to be a seventy billion dollar corporation from its original Australian basevery compelling hook to keep me engaged. His position in Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the UK media is such that hetechnology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It's courted by politicians human beings who fascinate me: the technology and has the world scape are purely incidental. So, what many believe to be an excessive amount did I think of power for someone who is not elected and is not even a UK citizen. book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? He's now expanding into Southeast Asia and in his eightieth year Well, I loved it's still difficult to imagine when – or where – he will stop.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099523523</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neil MacFarquharJane Goodall and Douglas Abrams |title=The Media Relations Department Book of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy BirthdayHope |rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=''What are the chances of change in the Middle East?'' The done thing is to read a book all the question central way through before you sit down to this bookreview it. Since Neil MacFarquhar spent thirteen years wandering the length and breadth I’m making an exception here, because I don’t want to lose any of the Islamic stronghold experience of the Middle Eastreading this amazing book, I feel inclined want to believe his in-depth assessmentcapture it as it hits me. In descriptive and reasoned terms, he identifies conservative forces which predominate in the region, primarily the religious and political machinery which condemns liberalization and modernizationAnd it is hitting me. This discussion of attempts to promote change, for example by individual dissidents or the media, is strengthened beautiful book has me in the second half of the book by detailed case studies of six nations with particular reference to their readiness and motivation for changetears. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1586488112</amazonuk>024147857X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Aaronovitch1788360737|title=Voodoo HistoriesArtivism: How Conspiracy Theory Has Shaped The WorldBattle for Museums in the Era of Postmodernism|author=Alexander Adams|rating=4.52|genre=Politics and Society|summary=What shape Can art ever be apolitical? All art is political because art is not made in a conspiracy theory? Unusual questionvacuum. It is made by people. Antonio Gramsci stated that ‘’Every man… contributes to modifying the social environment in which he develops’’. Therefore, I knowall art must be political, but I think on this evidence even implicitly. Alexander Adams in his new book ‘Artivism: The Battle for Museum in the Era of Postmodernism’ is adamant that art is freer when it is roundart for art’s sake. A conspiracy theory is lumpen, ragged, full The recent trend of holes, and so-called artivism has a huge circular gap where the obvious and sensible has dropped through, leaving the believer or theorist with the implausible skeleton of what they choose caused artists to think insteadbecome more overtly political (read: left wing). They certainly Their seemingly grass roots movements have a habit of coming round in circles been astroturfed by large “left- if I mentioned wing” donors and media elites hoping to create a heinous crime caused by a western leader that killed hundreds or more people, purely to get their way globalist and get a war started, I could be referring to Roosevelt and Pearl Harbor, Maggie Thatcher and the General Belgrano, or Bush etc and 9/11progressive regime. Or at least that’s what Alexander Adams believes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009947896X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Douglas Rogers1398508632|title=The Last ResortWilderness Cure|author=Mo Wilde

|genre=BiographyLifestyle|summary=Author Douglas Rogers is It had been on the cards for a Zimbabwean who moved awayfrom 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 country many years agobest time to start, but has never in a world where the normal sores had been able to persuadehis parents – two white farmersexacerbated by climate change, Lyn Brexit and Roz – to follow him out oftheir homeland, despite a pandemic. Wilde had a few advantages: the resettlement policies area around her was a known habitat with a variety of Robert Mugabeterrains. She had electricity which allowed her to run a fridge,the hyperfreezer and dehydrator. She had a car -inflation, and the corruption in the countryfuel. Instead Most importantly, thepair she had shelter: this was not a plan to ''live'' wild just wanted to stay on the farm welcoming people to Drifters,their backpackers' lodgelive off its produce.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906021910</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Archie Brown1529149800|title=The Rise Things You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste|author=Eduardo Garcia and Fall of CommunismSara Boccaccini Meadows|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryHome and Family|summary='A source of hope for We begin with a radiant future or…the greatest threat on telling story. All the face 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 earth'. Whichever river and began taking tiny amounts of these descriptions you would apply water and flying back to Communism you will find Archie Browndrop them into the fire. The animals laughed: what good was that doing. ''I'm doing the best I can''s detailed and largely objective study enlightening and engrossing, said the hummingbird. On one level And that, really, this is a chronological description the only way that we will solve the problem of how a political force grew to dominate a third climate change – by each of the world's population then virtually disappeared within a period of less than a centuryus doing what we can, however small that might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950674</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Dave Eggers|title=Zeitoun|rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Flicking through the channels on the TV the other night I stumbled across an interview with George Bush's former Deputy Chief of Staff, Karl Rove. After witnessing an especially cringe making hip hop turn at the Washington Correspondents' Dinner (if you havenOne more body just wouldn't seen it take a look at [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln5RD9BhcCo here]. It really is jaw droppingly awful) attention turned to weightier matters, most notably Guantanamo Bay and the war on terror and the Bush administrations response to Hurricane Katrinamatter''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144841</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Martin Bell|title=A Very British Revolution: The Expenses Scandal and How to Save Our Democracy|rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=I've long thought it strange that murder of all 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 ills that have befallen US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around the country over the last few years it 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 really the bankersone which I' follies or the swine flu that never really got off the ground but ll ever forget and the venality of our MPs protests which caught the public's attentionfollowed cannot have been unexpected. Compared to the amounts required to bail out There was a bank backlash against the sums involved were minute, but moats, floating duck houses police - and flipping houses caught the imagination and our elected representatives became not just a little wary of admitting what in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they did for a livingwere ''all'' tarred by the Chauvin brush.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848311281</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dominique LapierreMatthieu Aikins|title=A Rainbow in The Naked Don't Fear the Night Water

|summary=A book integrating otherwise piecemeal news stories picked up over It's easy to forget at times that The Naked Don't Fear the past forty years into Water isn't actually fiction, because it reads very much like a coherent explanation well-paced thriller at times. This is always welcomenot 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. This book explores South AfricaThere are tense moments and gripping accounts of border crossings which had me on edge the whole way through. But it's history written with a haunting and development, from almost lyrical quality that allows the earliest Dutch arrivals in 1652 reader to perfectly envisage the first racially integrated elections in 1994environments and people described.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0306818477</amazonuk>B09N9157T6

 {{newreview|author=Marina Hyde|title=Celebrity: How Entertainers Took Over The World and Why We Need an Exit Strategy|rating=3.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=I have what is perhaps a regular-sized interest in A and B-list celebrities. I can name the off-spring of many an actress, tell you who the spokespeople for certain brands are, write a list of celebs with publicly declared devotions to certain religions, even win the odd pub quiz thanks to knowing the birth names of various performers. I know all sorts of things about this rather small subset of society, but I know the ''what'' more than the ''why'', and that's exactly the problem, according to this book. After all, if more of us sat down to wonder about what it actually ''is'' that the likes of Geri Halliwell and Nicole Kidman bring to the UN, we might seriously question how and why they ever got involved in the first place.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532050</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Salman Rushdie1785633074|title=Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticisms 1981 - 1991|rating=3.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=We read some authors because we know we're going to enjoy them. Others, we feel somehow obliged to read. If we consider ourselves ''readers'', and certainly if we have any pretensions (I use the word advisedly) to being ''well-read'', then there are some books and more particularly some authors with whom we are required to become familiar.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099542250</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewStaggering Hubris|author=Carole White and Sian Williams|title=Struggle or StarveJosh Berry

|genre=AutobiographyHumour|summary=Struggle or Starve Members of Parliament like us to believe that the country is a collection run by politicians, headed by the Prime minister - the ''primus inter pares'' (that's for those of autobiographical writings about girlsyou who are Eton and Oxbridge educated) but the reality is that the ''prime' and women's lives movers are the special advisers - the SPADS - who are the driving force behind the government. We are in South Wales between the wars. This is a new edition privileged position of having access to the memoirs of Rafe Hubris, the man who was behind the skilful control of a book first published in 1998 the Covid crisis which was completely contained by Honno, an independent publisher set up to encourage Welsh women writersthe end of 2020. Most of You might not know the name now but he will certainly be the contributors in this book came from miners' families and grew up in real poverty and economic insecurityman to watch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784094</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett1846276772|title=The Spirit LevelEnd of Bias: Why Equality Is Better For Everyone How We Change Our Minds|author=Jessica Nordell

|summary=If you asked people why it Anyone who is (or might be) a good idea not an able, white man understands bias in that they may no longer even recognise the extent to reduce inequality in which they suffer from it: it's simply a societypart of everyday life. White men will always come first. The able will come before the disabled. Jobs, many people would assume that reducing inequality works by making promotions, higher salaries are the life preserve of the poorest better: 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 poor are bias but it's not just the ones individuals who benefit from reduction of inequalityare negatively impacted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141032367</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Shields1529148251|title=Reality HungerMisfits: A Personal Manifesto|author=Michaela Coel

|summary='The Novel is Dead' is not really what a novelist wants How am I able to read first be so transparent on picking up a new book – but I persevered with Shields' manifesto paper about rape, malpractice and Ipoverty, yet still compartmentalise? It'm glad s as though I did. This is a thought-provoking wake-up call that any artist, writer or book-lover will enjoy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>024114499X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Chinua Achebe|title=The Education of a British-Protected Child|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=This book is a collection of autobiographical essays by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, whose best known work is were telling the novel Things Fall Apart, published in 1958truth whilst simultaneously running away from it. Topics covered include Nigerian, Biafran and Igbo history and culture, African literature and the legacy of colonialism in his country and the rest of Africa. Some of the essays are taken from guest lectures at universities around the world and conference papers, and others are written for this book, particularly many of the more personal pieces about Achebe's family.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846142598</amazonuk>}}'

{{newreview|author=Norah Vincent|title=Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin|rating=3.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=Before you start reading ''Voluntary MadnessMisfits'' is journalist Norah Vincent's account of her visits you need to three mental health facilities be in Americaa certain frame of mind. The first is an urban, public hospital that houses mainly homeless, psychotic patients, many You're not going to read a book of whom are addicted essays or a self-help book. You're going to read writing which was inspired by Michaela Coel's 2018 MacTaggart Lecture to drugs. In this hospital, professionals within the doctors are overworked and jaded and medication is always television industry at the answerEdinburgh TV Festival. Soon, You might be ''reading'' the author finds that her latent depression (which led her book but you need to ''listen'' to do the book words as though you're in the first place) is returninglecture theatre. The process of being institutionalised breaks her sense of self-worth down astonishingly fast. Indeed, she suggests that it is the lack disjointedness will fade away and you'll be carried on a cloud of autonomy in institutional life, even for those patients who voluntarily commit themselves, that makes it so hard for them to rebuild independent lives when they finally leave the institutionexquisite writing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099513439</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gabriel Weston0008350388|title=Direct RedWe Need to Talk About Money|author=Otegha Uwagba

|summary=Cameron Doomadgee – Mulrunji – was just thirty six years old when he was arrested on Palm Island. Quite why he was arrested was never clear. He wasn't drunk, although he had been drinking beer – and was walking along the road singing ''Who Let the Dogs Out?'' Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley felt that there was reason To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to arrest Mulrunji for creating be seen as public nuisance less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and he was taken to the police stationultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts. What happened next was to be the subject of intense media speculation and legal proceedings over the coming years, but within forty five minutes Mulrunji was dead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520761</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Dana Fowley|title=How Could She?|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=From the age of five Dana Fowley was subjected to unimaginable sexual abuse and before long her sister would be subjected to more of the same. '' She was raped by her mother's partner and taken 'We Need to the homes of her grandparents where she was abused Talk About Money'' by them and others. At other times she was forced to go to the homes of other men where she was raped and abused. Did her mother not know what was going on? Did she turn a blind eye? It was neither of those. Her mother was a willing participant in the abuse and organised much of it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009952225X</amazonuk>}}Otegha Uwagba

{{newreview|author=Amy V Fetzer and Shari Aaron|title=Climb the Green Ladder: Make Your Company and Career More Sustainable|rating=4|genre=Business and Finance|summary=With the abject failure ''0.7% of the Denmark Climate Change Conference fresh English Literature GCSE students in our minds, it is perhaps time to turn away from the politicians and look back toward what we can doEngland 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 Conference may family was hard-working, principled and determined that their children would have finally got the likes 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 USAfamily acquired a car. For Otegha, India and China education meant a scholarship to acknowledge that they have to join a private school in if we are going to save the planet as London and then a benevolent place for our species to liveat New College, but there is still too much posturing and not enough commitment.  Clearly our governments and 'leaders' are not going to do this for us; we have to do it for ourselvesOxford.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>047074801X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nicholas SternRichard Brook|title=Understanding Human Nature: A Blueprint for a Safer Planet: How We Can Save the World and Create ProsperityUser's Guide to Life

|genre=Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary=The hardback edition 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 'A Blueprint for a Safer Planethit home' in the way that it does now. I believe it came to me not just because I was published early in 2009 as an update likely to the 2006 Stern Review on the economics of climate changegive it a favourable review [ ''full disclosure The Bookbag's u.s.p. Now here is the paperback editionthat people chose their own books rather than getting them randomly, published too early so there is a predisposition towards expecting to critique Copenhagenlike the book, even if it doesn't always turn out that way'' ] – but nonetheless an interesting also because it is a book I needed to read. Stern is an expert witness who presents his evidence understandably for the layman; he is unemotional and very convincing, right now.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099524058</amazonuk>1800461682

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alex Hesz and Bambos Neophytou 1787332098|title=Guilt Trip: From Fear How to Guilt on the Green BandwagonLove Animals in a Human-Shaped World|author=Henry Mance|rating=4.5

|summary=Did you know that Horlicks''When we do think about animals, that great sleep aidwe break them down into species and groups: cows, is sold dogs, foxes, elephants and so on. And we assign them places in society: cows go on plates, dogs on sofas, foxes in rubbish bins, elephants in India as a start-the-day energy boost? Not another concoction under the same brandzoos, and millions of wild animals stay out there, ''somewhere, but '' hopefully on the Exact Same Productnext David Attenborough series.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>047074622X</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Frank Furedi|title=Wasted: Why Education IsnI was going to argue. I mean, cows are for cheese (I couldn't Educating|rating=3consider eating red meat...5|genre=Politics ) and Society|summary=It seems I much prefer my elephants in the more problems wild but then I realised that I was quibbling for the schoolsake of it. Essentially that quote sums up my attitude to animals -aged generation pose and I consider myself an animal lover. If I had to societychoose between the company of humans and the company of animals, I would probably choose the more responsibility schools have animals. I insisted that I read this book: no one was trying to take, teaching not simply English and Maths, stop me but Personal Thinking and Learning SkillsI was initially reluctant. I eat cheese, Happiness Classeseggs, chicken and Emotional Education. The duty to raise a child well is taken out of the apparently 'incompetent' hands of parents, fish and given over I needed to either do so without guilt or change my choices. I suspected that making the education system, where values can decision would not be regulated and controlledcomfortable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847064167</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bill Butterworth1523092734|title=Reversing Global Warming For Profit |rating=3.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=There aren't many climate change deniers left, are there? We all know itA Women's there. We all know, too, that the world's population growth is on a collision course with the dwindling of its resources. The world's going to get hotter, its weather more extreme. Fossil fuels are going to run out. More and more people will compete for fewer and fewer of civilisation's luxuries. We're all worried. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312810</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stephen Baker|title=They've Got Your Number|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=If you are in the slightest bit paranoid, worry that ''Big Brother'' is always watching or like to believe that you are not a number, but a free man (or woman), then this may not be the book for you, as it will do nothing to dispel any of those worries. If, on the other hand, you think 'the mathematical modelling of humanity' sounds like one of the sexiest things ever, and are chomping at the bit to learn more about it, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has to say.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Steven Lowe and Alan McArthur |title=Is it Just Me or Has the Shit Hit the Fan?: Your Hilarious New Guide to Unremitting Global Misery|rating=3|genre=Humour|summary=''The banks fell over like fat Labradors running over a wet kitchen floor.'' Surely that is the wackiest, most inappropriate simile for the credit crunch and all it has done for the world. You won't get any such namby-pamby animal likenesses from these authors, instead with quite a potty mouth on them they will lambast the modern world, the entire banking system, all those who failed to see it coming, and those millions just seemingly waiting for us all to revert to high-interest, high-risk, high-lending capitalism, so they can get back on the expenses train, and back up the rich lists.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443656</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewClaiming Space|author=Robert Winnett and Gordon Rayner|title=No Expenses SparedEliza Van Cort|rating=4.5

|summary=It's always struck me as strange that in 'She brings a period of twelve months which saw Banks collapse, stock markets tumble and house prices slide the public have reserved most of their ire for a relatively small group of people who were not exceptionally wellhug-kick-paid thunderclap that every woman needs in the first place, but many of whom took the opportunity to make the most of the generous expenses which they could claimher life. There are only six hundred Again and again and forty six Members of Parliament – twelve months ago they were generally respected but many are now pariahsagain.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593065778</amazonuk>}}'' (Alma Derricks, former CMO, Cirque du Soleil RSD)

{{newreview|author=Alain de Botton |title=A Week at ''To claim space is to live the Airport: A Heathrow Diary|rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=A writer-in-residence at an airport is not as daft an idea as it might first seem. After all, TV programmes, and whole series, have entertained millions with what goes on in front life of, choosing unapologetically and behind the scenes at such placesbravely. So this book, which It is to live the fruit of such a residency, could be expected to produce few surpriseslife you've always wanted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683599</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Anita Thompson (Editor)|title=Ancient Gonzo WisdomSometimes the reviewing gods are generous: Interviews with Hunter S Thompson|rating=4at 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.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=It Now - to be clear - this book is almost 40 years since Dr Hunter S Thompsonnot a 'how to disable your attacker with two simple jabs' manual: it's seminal work something far more effective, but discussion at the moment seems to be about how women can be ''Fear And Loathing In Las Vegasprotected'' first graced the shelves. His gonzo style I've always thought that women need to rise above this, putting himself at the centre of the storyto be people who don't need protection, should tell readers as much about the person doing the writing as the event he is describingpeople who claim their own space. If all women did this, those few men who are violent to women would realise that's the case then what is we are not just an easy target to be learned from a selection of interviews with the main man himself then? The answer is plentyused to prove that they are big men.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330510711</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian JackPolly Barton|title=The Country Formerly Known As Great BritainFifty Sounds

|summary=Where do I think start? Icould start with where Barton herself starts, with the question 've now managed to master 'Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a while and if the maxim about not judging books world hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by their coversnow. I still struggle with the one about may get there later this year, but I am not judging them by their titles and hopeful. And like Barton, I very nearly cam unstuck and missed don't know the answer to the question ''why Japan?'The Country Formerly Known as Great Britain'. Being just about She explains her feelings in respect of an age with the author I worried that it might be a treatise about question in the first essay, which is on the fact that sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, among other things weren, the sound of ''every party where you have to introduce yourself't like this when I was a lad'. I was even more worried that I might agree with him.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224087355</amazonuk>1913097501

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=The EconomistStephen Fabes|title=Pocket World in Figures 2010Signs of Life

|genre=Politics and SocietyTravel|summary=It's just about a year since I reviewed [[Pocket World In Figures 2009 by The Economist|Pocket World in Figures 2009]] was brought up on maps and first-person narratives of tales of far away places. I was birth-righted wanderlust and at the time – September 2008 – we were watching in horror as the world financial crisis unfolded before our eyescuriosity. Looking back now the surprise is that for most people Unfortunately, I didn't inherit what happened came out of Dr. Stephen Fabes clearly had which was the blue. The clues were plain guts to see simply go out and all here in this handy little bookdo it. There was I also didn't inherit the worrying state kind of the Iceland economy steady nerve, ability to talk to strangers and different levels of mortgage lending in various parts of basic practicality that would have meant that I would have survived if I had been gifted with the worldrequisite 'bottle'. Best In order words I'm not the sort of all it was presented as verified figures, without any accompanying narrative person who will get on a bike outside a London hospital and it's consequently free of political spinnot come home for six years. BlissFabes did precisely that.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846681367</amazonuk>1788161211

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=1504321383|title=Scott Kilman Single, Again, and Again, and Roger ThurowAgain|titleauthor=Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of PlentyLouisa Pateman

|genre=Politics and SocietyAutobiography|summary=If you have ever wondered why famine is still widespread, so many years after Oxfam started nudging middle-class Britain into consciousness, then read ''Enough'You can't be happy and fulfilled on your own. As You are not complete until you find a young woman, I donated to Oxfam at the end of the 1960s in the belief that concerted international action through governments plus charities would eliminate hunger within a decade or so. Four decades later, itman''s impossible to comprehend why children are still dying at much the same rate: one every five seconds.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1586485113</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Arundhati Roy |title=Listening This was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to Grasshoppers|rating=5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Stories can provoke many different reactions in the reader: pleasure, pain, delight, horrorbelieve. The whole range of emotion is available to It wasn't unkind: it was simply the fiction writer adults in her life advising her as to ply and probewhat they thought would be best for her. Reactions to non-fiction works can be equally wide-ranging and can sometimes take It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the reader girl (she's usually fairly young) is rescued by surprisethe handsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever after. Like most people I came Few girls are lucky enough to Roy via the Booker-prize-winning novel, be brought up ''The God of Small Thingswithout'', which it transpires, is her only novel to datethe expectation that they will marry and have children. In the intervening twelve It was a belief and it would be many years Roy has concentrated her undoubted literary abilities in the political arena, engaging with the less attractive side of her native Indiabefore Louisa would conclude that ''a belief is a choice''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144620</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Rupert Wright |title=Take Me Move to the Source: In Search of Water|rating=3.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Whatever you expect from a book about water, ''Take Me to the Source'' probably won't provide it. Neither a whimsical aquatic travelogue, nor a polemic about the economics of water, it still manages to produce unexpected insights into the element which is so vital, yet so often taken for granted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099512289</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Maria Tatar |title=Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood|rating=3|genre=Home and Family|summary=Like most avid readers, I don't remember the time before there were books. We were brought up with books. There are family tales of my father as a child eating his breakfast with one hand, while trying to tie his shoelaces with the other and still contriving to read at the same time. They were a poor family, and books weren't just expensive, they were valuable. They were dear, in every sense of the word. Likewise my mother remembers her early school-years when every day ended with a chapter from one of the classics. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393066010</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lucy Wadham |title=The Secret Life of France|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=I'm rather at a loss to describe this book for you, and I'm still uncertain how to categorise it. It's part personal memoir and part analytical. Whether you regard this particular mix as brilliant or irritating is down, I suppose, to personal taste and intellectual curiosity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571236111</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Popular Science Reviews]]