Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jill LeovyAlastair Humphreys|title=GhettosideLocal|rating=3.5|genre=Politics and SocietyTravel |summary=There are enough LA rappers around 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 attest that living as a black man home and then wrote about it. As he says in South Central his introduction, the book is no easy taskan attempt ''to share what I have learnt about some big issues from a year exploring a small map. Dismiss these urban lyricists at your perilNature loss, pollution, land use and access, agriculture, as crude they may bethe food system, but rewilding…''Ghettoside'' will soon inform One of the joys of the disbeliever book for me was that life on the streets biggest thing he learned about all of LA these things was that there are no easy answers, no single 'right or wrong', that every upside is hard. With a 40 times higher chance of being murdered than a white person in America, what made the LA of the 80s through likely to the late 2000s such have a dangerous place to live downside for young black men?somebody and that there are some hard choices ahead.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784700762</amazonuk>1785633678

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Ben CoatesEdel Rodriguez|title= Why the Dutch are DifferentWorm: A Journey into the Hidden Heart of the Netherlands Cuban American Odyssey|rating= 4|genre= TravelGraphic Novels|summary= I know Holland We're in childhood, and we're in the way everyone doesCuba. Pancakes The revolution has happened, and windmills Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the country, has proven himself a Communist, and Potnot done nearly enough to create a level playing field for all. Well, oh mythose hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time away. But it Our narrator's one of the few European countries Ifamily weren've never lived t in for any period the happiest of timeplaces here, an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and so I was intrigued not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to know more.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>185788633X</amazonuk>1474616720

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Emma MarriottSarah Wilson|title= I Used This One Wild and Precious Life: the path back to Know That: Historyconnection in a fractured world|rating= 43.5|genre= Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary= IMy 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?'ve picked up a few things over the years, most notably from English language text books while TEFLing abroad (there's nothing like an exciting lesson on Guy Fawkes I get to have a classroom of Mexicans wondering why we so love to celebrate a terrorist attack that didnline so much because my answer is 't happen)'This! Precisely this. But '' I have gaps, of this 'm lucky enough to be living my one wild and precious life the way I am sure, and want to. Sarah Wilson is equally lucky. In her book that takes Oliver's words as her title (though I thought can't see that she acknowledges the source) she pushes us to get a basic understanding of, well, think about whether we really ''are'' living the life we want – the basics best life that we all should knowcould be living. Her answer is an unequivocal ''no, a quick read of this book wouldnwe are not''. Don't hurtcare what you're doing, she thinks you (we, I) could be doing more…And she's effing furious about the fact that we are not.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782434488</amazonuk>1785633848

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Emma Marriott1785633457|title= I Should Know That - Great BritainCharging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson|rating= 4.5|genre= Politics and SocietyTravel|summary= I am Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a dreadful Britpreference for slow travel. I'm better at As he neared his eightieth birthday the geography idea of Colombia than exploring the UK (true story, I had to google where Essex edges of England in an electric car was the other day)not totally outrageous. Despite 17 years of full time education in the UKIn fact, I probably wouldn't pass it should be a simple citizenship test. Which is a little embarrassingpleasant holiday for Clive and his wife, Joan, really. So when this book came up for review I thought Ishouldn'd have t it, both for interest and as a subtle way to brush up on my Britain. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782434313</amazonuk>?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tony Wilkinson1529153050|title=Capitalism and Human ValuesBritain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson

|genre=Politics and SocietyHumour|summary=Tony Wilkinson has a first class honours degree in philosophy Seeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is coming to seem more and has worked in government service and investment management - the ideal background for a consideration more like an adrenaline sport, I was nudged towards ''Britain's Best Political Cartoons of capitalism and the human values which propel it2022''. ItSharp eyes will have noted that we's re not too long ago - certainly within my lifetime - that religion largely dictated yet through the year: the values held by individuals, but true religious belief now seems cartoons run from 4 September 2021 to be the exception rather than the rule31 August 2022. In its place we have a society for whom consumerism is the driving force - and a widening gap between those who Who can afford imagine what there will be to consume and those who cannot. As Wilkinson says ''Getting and spending have come to define who we are.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845407881</amazonuk>in the 2023 edition?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Luke GittosB0B7289HKQ|title=Why Rape Culture is a Dangerous MythConversations Across America: From Steubenville to Ched EvansA Father and Son, Alzheimer's, and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Soul of America|author=Kari Loya|rating=3.54|genre=Politics and SocietyTravel|summary=It is said that we live in a rape culture. Tabloid headlines scream Kari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, by the number of rapes is on the increase way) wanted to spend some time with his father and that the police and the courts are failing period between two jobs seemed like a good time to deal with the problemdo it. There's a belief that The decision was made to ride the rate Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, Virginia to Astoria, Oregon - all 4250 miles of conviction is consistently lowit - in 2015. It's also said that sexism and misogyny have created a society in They had 73 days to do it - slightly less than the recommended time - but there were factors which rape is pointed this up as more of a regular occurrence, frequently not reported to the police and challenge that society at large doesn't really careit would be for most people who considered taking it on. Luke Gittos, a solicitor practicing criminal law, argues that these claims are based on myths and misunderstandings of the statistics Merv Loya was 75 years old and that far he was suffering from ''improving'' the way that rape and sexual assaults are dealt with itearly-stage Alzheimer's actually working against the interests of victims.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845408373</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anna Krien1739593901|title=Night Games: A Journey to the Dark Side of Sport22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=SportScience Fiction|summary=Mere mortals relax by having a game ''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of footy of a weekend flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.'' I've got a couple of drinks, but what does a professional sportsman do confessions to cut loose? make. What do they do when they go out en masse? Investigative journalist Anna Krien looks at a rape trial of an Australian Rules footballer, just into his twenties and follows the case I'm not keen on short stories as I find it goes easy to court, interviewing some of those directly or indirectly involved read a few stories and digressing into related areasthen forget to return to the book. In deference to the fact that the woman had automatic anonymity sheThere's chosen got to be a very compelling hook to give the man who was charged the name of keep me engaged. Then there'Justins science fiction: far too often it' in an attempt to level s the technology which takes centre stage along with the playing field, so to speakworld-building. You could Google It's human beings who fascinate me: the facts technology and come up with the correct nameworld scape are purely incidental. So, but this isn't what did I think of a book of gossip about particular people. twenty-two science fiction short stories? It's an investigation of a culture which has increasingly treated women as sexual commoditiesWell, I loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224100033</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian McMillanJane Goodall and Douglas Abrams |title=Neither Nowt Nor Summat: In search The Book of the meaning of YorkshireHope |rating=45|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Ian McMillan, poet, radio presenter, poet in residence at Barnsley Football Club and professional Yorkshireman, The done thing is worriedto read a book all the way through before you sit down to review it. It has crossed his mind that he might not be ''Yorkshire enough''I’m making an exception here, given that his father was not from God's Own County, but was a Scot by birth. In a series of discursions on the subject because I don’t want to lose any of Yorkshire he attempts to distil the essence experience of the county and to understand what being a Yorkshireman means. To reading this end we accompany him through towns and citiesamazing book, the Cudworth Probus Club, Ilkley Moor and elicit contributions from Mad Geoff the barber, a kazoo-playing train guard and four Saddleworth council workers in search of a mattressI want to capture it as it hits me. Amongst others. All of Yorkshire life And it is herehitting me. Including Yorkshire puddingsThis beautiful book has me in tears.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091959950</amazonuk>024147857X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Xinran1788360737|title= Buy Me Artivism: The SkyBattle for Museums in the Era of Postmodernism|author=Alexander Adams|rating= 52

|summary= I started reading Xinran thirteen years agoCan art ever be apolitical? All art is political because art is not made in a vacuum. It is made by people. Antonio Gramsci stated that ‘’Every man… contributes to modifying the social environment in which he develops’’. Therefore, and whilst I haven't read all art must be political, even implicitly. Alexander Adams in his new book ‘Artivism: The Battle for Museum in the Era of her books, every one Postmodernism’ is adamant that I art is freer when it is art for art’s sake. The recent trend of so-called artivism has caused artists to become more overtly political (read: left wing). Their seemingly grass roots movements have read has been astroturfed by large “left-wing” donors and media elites hoping to create a more globalist and progressive regime. Or at some point had me in tears. This one was no differentleast that’s what Alexander Adams believes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846044715</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ray Barron Woolford1398508632|title=Food Bank BritainThe Wilderness Cure|author=Mo Wilde|rating=45|genre=Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary=One morning Ray Barron Woolford watched as It had been on the cards for a smartlywhile but it was the week-dressed young man foraged long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of eating only wild food. The end of November, particularly in waste bins for foodCentral Scotland was perhaps not the best time to start, less than in a mile from world where the riches of the City of Londonnormal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, Brexit and a pandemic. Intrigued as to what Wilde had a few advantages: the area around her was going on he went to aska known habitat with a variety of terrains. The man explained She had electricity which allowed her to him that he'd just got run a job after two years of being unemployedfridge, but it would be five weeks before he was paidfreezer and dehydrator. He couldn't claim benefits as he was in work She had a car - and had no savingsfuel. Most importantly, so the bins she had shelter: this was not a plan to be his source of food and by the following week he would have to walk ''live'' wild just to work as he couldn't afford the fares. That was the inspiration for the [http://www.wecarefoodbanks.co.uk/ We Care Food Bank]live off its produce.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>099308091X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chloe Combi1529149800|title=Generation ZThings You Can Do: Their Voices, Their Lives How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste|author=Eduardo Garcia and Sara Boccaccini Meadows

|genre=Politics Home and SocietyFamily|summary=Generation Z, for anyone like me who didn’t know, is made up of those young people born between 1995 We begin with a telling story. All the birds and 2001. It is one of animals fled when the central contentions forest fire took hold and most of Chloe Combi’s book 'Generation Z: Their voicesthem stood and watched, Their Lives' that these young people’s lives are unlike anyone else’s in British historyunable to think of anything they could do. From The tiny hummingbird flew to the radical technological innovation which produced the internet river and began taking tiny amounts of water and smart phones flying back to multiculturalism, life for these children and teenagers is characterised by so much drop them into the fire. The animals laughed: what good was that was not experienced by their parents and grandparentsdoing. In ''I'm doing the best I can'Generation Z', thensaid the hummingbird. And that, Combi offers some glimpses into really, is the only way that we will solve the worlds problem of climate change – by each of young people todayus doing what we can, in what she wishes to however small that might be 'a conversation starter between teenagers and adults'. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091958776</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Garland1638485216|title=Azzi Black, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in BetweenLife and Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds

|genre=For SharingAutobiography|summary=Our story begins in a country at war''Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. Unfortunately you could probably put a name It has everything to it (although it isndo with character. Period.'' ''One more body just wouldn't named) as it happens all too regularlymatter''. Our heroine is Azzi The murder of George Floyd, a young girl whose life was not ''too'' affected forty-six-year-old black man, on 25 May 2020 by the warDerek Chauvin, but every day it came a little closerforty-four-year-old police officer, in the US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around the world. Her father still worked as We rarely see pictures of a doctor and her mother made beautiful clothes. Her grandmother wove warm blankets. Then the day came when they had to run, for their lives, and escape murder taking place but Floyd's death was by boat and they became refugeesan exception. The three image of them - for Grandma had been left behind - had been luckier than most for they were accepted Chauvin kneeling on a temporary basis into another country (again itGeorge's neck is not named) one which I'll ever forget and they had the protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. There was a home, although it was backlash against the police - and not just one roomin Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''all'' tarred by the Chauvin brush.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847806511</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=BarrouxMatthieu Aikins|title=Where's the Elephant?|rating=5|genre=For Sharing|summary=We've all had great fun with books such as ''Where's Wally'', havenThe Naked Don't we? They appeal to children and adults and everyone who has seen ''Where's the Elephant?'' has jumped in with great enthusiasm, keen to show just how observant they are. We start off with a forest - actually it's the Amazon Rainforest - full of glorious colours and our three friends, who are hiding in there. Elephant is probably the easiest to spot, but Snake and Parrot are in there too and with a little concentration you'll find them. When you turn the page you'll scan the trees again and discover their hiding places. You even wonder if it might get a little ''boring'' if it goes on like this.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405271388</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Jeremy Treglown|title=Franco's Crypt: Spanish Culture and Memory Since 1936|rating=3.5|genre=History|summary=With ''Franco’s Crypt'' Jeremy Treglown has taken a highly charged subject – life in Spain under Franco – and placed it under what to some might appear a somewhat revisionist microscope. His aim appears to be twofold: to consider the nature of collective memory, particularly in the light of the exhumations of mass graves that commenced earlier this century, and, secondly, to examine – and celebrate - Spain’s cultural output during Franco’s years as dictator.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784701157</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=David Greene|title=Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey into Fear the Heart of RussiaWater

|summary=It's no mistake easy to forget at times that The Naked Don't Fear the cover of my edition of this book is Water isn't actually fiction, because it reads very much like a photo where the Transwell-Siberian Railway paced thriller at times. This is horizontal in the frame. It's well known for going east-west, left to right across the map of the largest country not by far in the world. 9,288 kilometres from Moscow to the eastern stretches of Russia, it could only be any means a long, thin line across the covercriticism, as it is in our imagination of it as but rather a form of transport and testament to how well Matthieu Aikins – a travel destination in its own right. So when this book mentions it Canadian citizen who decided to accompany his friend as the spine or backbone of Russia a couple of times, that's got to be of a prone Russia refugee from Afghanistan through Europe – one lying down, not upright or active. David Greene, recounts a stalwart of northern American radio journalism, uses this book to see just how active or otherwise Russia vast and Russians at times painful journey. There are – tense moments and finds their lying down to be quite a definite verdict, as well as a slight indictmentgripping accounts of border crossings which had me on edge the whole way through. ItBut it's no mistake either for this cover written with a haunting and almost lyrical quality that allows the reader to have people in the frame alongside the train carriages, for perfectly envisage the environments and people met both riding and living alongside the tracks of the Railway are definitely the ribs of the piecedescribed.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846883709</amazonuk>B09N9157T6

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes1785633074|title=HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary ClintonStaggering Hubris|author=Josh Berry|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyHumour|summary=Hillary Clinton initially came Members of Parliament like us to our attention as First Lady and even then she might have faded into international obscurity had it not been for believe that the country is run by politicians, headed by the way in which she managed to hold her head high during those unfortunate incidents with Bill Prime minister - well, HRC wasnthe 't 'primus inter pares'involved'(that' s for those of you who are Eton and Oxbridge educated) but Ithe reality is that the ''prime'm sure you know what I'm talking aboutmovers are the special advisers - the SPADS - who are the driving force behind the government. Then she re-emerged through We are in the fog privileged position of the George W Bush presidency with her bid having access to gain the Democratic nominationmemoirs of Rafe Hubris, losing in a hotly contested series the man who was behind the skilful control of primaries to Barack Obama - and went on to become his Secretary the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of State2020. Now You might not know the question is whether or not she name now but he will make another run for President in 2016certainly be the man to watch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099594692</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mike McIntyre and Chris Brinkley (narrator)1846276772|title=The Kindness End of StrangersBias: Penniless Across AmericaHow We Change Our Minds|author=Jessica Nordell

|genre=TravelPolitics and Society|summary=In 1994 Mike McIntyre was a thirty-seven-year-old journalist with a secretAnyone 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: he was frightened. There were specific fears, but what it boiled down to was that he was frightened 's simply a part of everyday life - and then there was a memory. He remembered - with some shame - not stopping for a hitchhiker with a gas can in White men will always come first. The able will come before the desertdisabled. It was almost on a whim that he decided to cross AmericaJobs, from San Francisco in California to Cape Fear in North Carolina, which might sound like a great adventurepromotions, but McIntyre decides to do it without money - to be completely reliant on higher salaries are the kindness preserve of strangersthe white man. He was confronting his own fears.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00PWMVWTY</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Stian Bromark and Hon Khiam Leong (translator)|title=Massacre in Norway: The 2011 Terror Attack on Oslo and Even when those who wouldn't pass the Utoya Youth Camp|rating=2.5|genre=History|summary=Anders Behring Breivik was 32 when he both planted medical become a van bomb in Oslopart of an organisation it's central government district to hit out at what he thought was 'Cultural Marxism'rare that their views are heard, which killed 8, then left for an island in a lake 24 miles away, where a notably political youth gathering was enjoying itselfthat their concerns are acknowledged. He gunned down 69 people – more than one in ten of those at the camp – It's personally appalling and wounded many scores more. He also spammed countless people with another of his projects, a lengthy manifesto declaring his ideas about Islamisation and what he saw as a pernicious multiculturalism ruining his country. His case was one of degrading for the more superlative events in modern Nordic history – as was individuals on the surprisingly lenient sentence for over 70 lives receiving end of the bias but it's not just 21 years. This is, as you'd expect, one of the many books to result from the caseindividuals who are negatively impacted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1612346685</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Campbell1529148251|title=Roy JenkinsMisfits: A Well-Rounded LifePersonal Manifesto|author=Michaela Coel

|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=''How am I able to be so transparent on paper about rape, malpractice and poverty, yet still compartmentalise? It must 's as though I were telling the truth whilst simultaneously running away from it.'' Before you start reading ''Misfits'' you need to be rare indeed that in a British political figure who never became Prime Minister is the subject certain frame of mind. You're not going to read a book of essays or deserves a biography comprising 750 pages of textself-help book. You're going to read writing which was inspired by Michaela Coel's 2018 MacTaggart Lecture to professionals within the television industry at the Edinburgh TV Festival. However, You might be ''reading'' the book but you need to ''listen'' to the words as John Campbell demonstrates though you're in this volume, it is difficult to do justice to the life, times lecture theatre. The disjointedness will fade away and career you'll be carried on a cloud of Roy Jenkins in much less than thatexquisite writing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224087509</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dan Jones0008350388|title=Magna Carta: The Making and Legacy of the Great CharterWe Need to Talk About Money|author=Otegha Uwagba

|genre=HistoryPolitics and Society|summary=For what do we – ''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 courtesy Otegha Uwagba ''0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a lengthy timeline in history, would the Americans likewise – most likely owe thanks to writer of colour while only 7% study a book by a spigurnel? woman.'' What is the most revered legal document in history, which sets out the rights of man – but also has time to talk about widows' rights, fish traps, and 'The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021 Otegha Uwagba came to be both sexist the UK from Kenya when she was five years old. Her sisters were seven and to discuss the importance to people's estates to debts owed Jewish moneylenders? nine. It was her mother who came first, with her father joining them later. What will probably be the only notable historical experience of Britain in 1215The family was hard-working, when we finally get diverted from thinking about WWI principled and discuss determined that their children would have the 800 years best education possible. There was always a painful awareness of something else, even though the authority money although this did not translate into a shortage of no less than anything: it was simply carefully harvested. When Otegha was ten the Pope declared it null family acquired a car. For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to a private school in London and void within ten weeks of its being finished?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781858853</amazonuk>then a place at New College, Oxford.

{{newreview|author=Krishna Bhatt|title=The Royal Enigma|rating=2|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=There is absolutely nothing wrong with books that cross genres. The best historical novels are as much history as fiction. However, it is a golden rule that a book must know who and what it is. One of the problems with The Royal Enigma is that it suffers from a serious identity crisis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B005Q8QCTY</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adrian HartRichard Brook|title=ThatUnderstanding Human Nature: A User's Racist: How the regulation of speech and thought divides us allGuide to Life

|genre=Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary=Adrian Hart has 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 history ago, if I had come across this book I'd have skimmed it, found some of campaigning against racismit interesting, but it would not least have 'hit home' in the way that it does now. I believe it came to me not just because he I was subjected likely to racial abuse when he was at school. With jet-black hair and give it a complexion that was just favourable review [ ''slightlyfull disclosure The Bookbag'' darker than was normal he was the closest that his school had to someone who might be of Pakistani origins u. It was only name calling from a group of boys but the experience stuck and he's put much of his working life where his mouth .p. is. Sothat people chose their own books rather than getting them randomly, you might expect that he would be so there is a devotee of predisposition towards expecting to like the zero tolerance approach to racist speechbook, but heeven if it doesn's far from certain t always turn out that this way'' ] – but also because it is the a book I needed to read, right way to go and believes that this might be causing more divisions in society than racism itselfnow.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845407555</amazonuk>1800461682

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=Encyclopedia Paranoiaca1787332098|authortitle=Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf|rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=We're screwed. Wherever we look, whatever we think of doing, there is a reason why we shouldn't be doing it, and people How to back that reason up with scientific data. Take any aspect of your daily life – what you eat, how you work, how you rest even, what you touch – all have problems that could provoke Love Animals in a serious illness or worse. And outside that daily sphere there are economic disasters, nuclear meltdowns, errant AI scientists and passing comets that could turn our world upside down at the blink of an eye. Perhaps then you better read this book first – for it may well turn out to be your last…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715649213</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=How To Be A ConservativeHuman-Shaped World|author=Roger ScrutonHenry Mance|rating=3.5

|summary=Roger Scruton has been described by Jesse Norman as 'one 'When we do think about animals, we break them down into species and groups: cows, 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 zoos, and millions of wild animals stay out there, ''somewhere,'' hopefully on the few intellectually authoritative voices in British conservatismnext David Attenborough series.'' I was going to argue. I mean, cows are for cheese (I couldn't consider eating red meat. His central theme ..) and I much prefer my elephants in this book is the wild but then I realised that I was quibbling for the sake of it. Essentially that quote sums up my attitude to defend animals - and champion I consider myself an animal lover. If I had to choose between the value company of humans and the homecompany of animals, a society based on free association and I would probably choose the nation stateanimals. The simplest of biographical sections demonstrates I insisted that the author I read this book: no one was brought up not from ‘privileged’ stock trying to stop me but within a Labour-votingI was initially reluctant. I eat cheese, lower middle class familyeggs, chicken and fish and I needed to demonstrate either do so without guilt or change my choices. I suspected that his conservatism was making the decision would not inherited but a product of his own intellectual journeybe comfortable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472903765</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1523092734|title=The Wall Between UsA Women's Guide to Claiming Space|author=Matthew SmallEliza Van Cort|rating=45

|summary=In this personal account of his visit to Israel ''She brings a hug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and the West Bankagain.'' (Alma Derricks, former CMO, Small journals his time spent with people he meets along Cirque du Soleil RSD) ''To claim space is to live the way life of choosing unapologetically and attempts bravely. It is to make sense of live the conflict that has dominated this area for many yearslife you've always wanted. Small openly admits '' Sometimes the reviewing gods are generous: at a time when violence against women is much in the issue there news, ''A Women's Guide to Claiming Space'' by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. Now - to be clear - this book is not a 'how to disable your attacker with two simple one and his visit reinforces jabs' manual: it's something far more effective, but discussion at the fact moment seems to be about how women can be ''protected''. I've always thought that women need to rise above this, to be people who don't need protection, people who claim their own space. If all women did this, those few men who are violent to women would realise that there we are many complexities preventing peace from happeningnot just an easy target to be used to prove that they are big men.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910266302</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan ShawPolly Barton|title=Britain in a Perilous World: The Strategic Defence and Security Review we need Fifty Sounds

|summary=The 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has stayed in the mind been on my radar for a while and if the wrong reasons: rather than looking to develop a strategyworld hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but I am not hopeful. And like Barton, I don't know the answer to examine the short and long term threats question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of the question in the first essay, which is on the country facedsound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, among other things, the emphasis sound of ''every party where you have to introduce yourself''.|isbn=1913097501}}{{Frontpage|author=Stephen Fabes|title=Signs of Life|rating=5|genre=Travel|summary= I was brought up on cutting costs, with some cuts appearing ludicrous at maps and first glance-person narratives of tales of far away places. I was birth-righted wanderlust and curiosity. In Unfortunately, I didn't inherit what Dr. Stephen Fabes clearly had which was the intervening years there have been occasions when guts to simply go out and do it was difficult not . I also didn't inherit the kind of steady nerve, ability to talk to wonder strangers and basic practicality that would have meant that I would have survived if I had been gifted with the United Kingdom was poorly equipped - and without clear-cut aims - as a result of the 2010 reviewrequisite 'bottle'. The opportunity to put this right comes in 2015 In order words I'm not the sort of person who will get on a bike outside a London hospital and Major General Jonathan Shaw looks not at what the Review should say, but at how it should be tackledcome home for six years. Fabes did precisely that.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908323817</amazonuk>1788161211

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=The Economist1504321383|title=Pocket World in Figures 2015Single, Again, and Again, and Again|author=Louisa Pateman

|genre=ReferenceAutobiography|summary=There are people who don''You can't understand the joy of raw data: no accompanying analysis (or spin) - just a collection of figures relevant to a particular circumstancebe happy and fulfilled on your own. If You are not complete until youfind a man''re one of those people then this book will mean little . This was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to you, but if you want a pocket (well, certainly handbag or briefcase) work of reference then this book will be a treasurebelieve. I once gave a copy to a diplomat and he kept his wife awake until It wasn't unkind: it was simply the early hours adults in her life advising her as he came across another gem which she had to know without delaywhat they thought would be best for her. The 2015 edition It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the girl (she's usually fairly young) is rescued by the twenty fourth in handsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever after. Few girls are lucky enough to be brought up ''without'' the series - expectation that they will marry and diplomatic (have children. It was a belief and similar) spouses everywhere should prepare themselves for the onslaughtit would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''a belief is a choice''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781252734</amazonuk>