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[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove --> {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dan JonesAriel Saramandi|title=Magna Carta: The Making and Legacy Portrait of the Great Charteran Island on Fire|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryPolitics and Society|summary=For what do we – and by courtesy In this powerful collection of a lengthy timeline in historyessays, would the Americans likewise – most likely owe thanks Saramandi seeks to a spigurnel? What is intradermally dissect the most revered legal document in historysociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, which sets out tunneling deep into the rights of man – but also has time wounds left by colonialism and slavery to talk about widowsexpose how these legacies still shape modern life. Saramandi describes the country at one stage as ''rotting'' rights, fish traps, and to be both sexist and to discuss a blunt yet apt metaphor for the importance to people's estates to debts owed Jewish moneylenders? What will probably be systemic decay brought about by the only notable historical experience malignant forces of Britain in 1215racism, patriarchy, when we finally get diverted from thinking about WWI environmental degradation and discuss the 800 years governmental dysfunction. Each essay in this collection serves as a kind of something elsediagnostic, even though charting the authority of no less than various diseases afflicting the Pope declared it null and void within ten weeks of its being finished?island state.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781858853</amazonuk>1804271616

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Krishna BhattGregor Hens and Jen Calleja (translator)|title=The Royal EnigmaCity and the World|rating=24|genre=Historical FictionPolitics and Society|summary=There is absolutely nothing wrong with books that cross genres. In ''The best historical novels City and the World'', Gregor Hens reveals how cities are as much history imagined spaces as fictionthey are physical ones. However, it is With a golden rule deep affection for the urban landscapes that have shaped his life, Hens reflects on places like Cologne, Berlin, and Goch on the Lower Rhine with a book must know who blend of personal memory and what it isthoughtful observation. One of His writing, at times abstract, captures not just architectural features but the problems with The Royal Enigma is that it suffers from emotional and mental geographies tied to each location, for example, his perspectives as a child as opposed to as an adult. From Belgium and Germany to Berkeley and Columbus, Hens traces a serious map of experiences, turning cities into reflections of identity crisisand belonging.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B005Q8QCTY</amazonuk>1804271691

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adrian HartPaul B Preciado|title=That's Racist: How the regulation of speech and thought divides us allDysphoria Mundi

|summary=Adrian Hart has a long history of campaigning against racism, not least because he was subjected to racial abuse when he was at school. With jet-black hair and a complexion that was just ''slightly'' darker than was normal he was It is never too late to embrace the closest that his school had to someone who might be revolutionary optimism of Pakistani origin. It was only name calling from a group of boys but the experience stuck and hechildhood's put much of his working life where his mouth is. So, you might expect that he would be a devotee of the zero tolerance approach to racist speech, but he's far from certain that this is the right way to go and believes that this might be causing more divisions in society than racism itself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845407555</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|title=Encyclopedia Paranoiaca|author=Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf|rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=We're screwed. Wherever we lookThrough this hybrid text, whatever we think consisting of doingarias, there is a reason why we shouldn't be doing itletters, essays and people to back that reason up with scientific data. Take any aspect of your daily life – what you eatautofiction, how you workPreciado expresses his own hybrid self, how you rest evenand brings forth a new sensorium as an offering to the new generation, what you touch – all have problems that could provoke a serious illness or worsenew feeling mechanism in which detachment is not considered a sign of political apathy. And outside that daily sphere there Rather, it is the proportional, valid response to ''the epistemological and political crack we are economic disastersliving through, nuclear meltdowns, errant AI scientists and passing comets the tension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that could turn characterize our world upside down at present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''. The whole text is framed against the blink backdrop of an eyethe Covid-19 pandemic as that which has catalysed this revolution, when dysphoria began to emerge on a global scale, or as ''pangea covidica''. Perhaps then you better read Rather than taking this book first – extreme dysphoria as a sign of weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for it may well turn out political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to be ''use dysphoria as your last…revolutionary platform''. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0715649213</amazonuk>1804271454

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=How To Be A ConservativeJacqueline Feldman|authortitle=Roger ScrutonPrecarious Lease

|summary=Roger Scruton has been described by Jesse Norman as Dederer sets out to unveil what she calls a ''biography of the audience''one in a deconstructed, thoroughly nitpicked, exploration of the few intellectually authoritative voices old aphorism of separating the art from the artist in British conservatismthe context of contemporary ''cancel culture''. His central theme in this book Dederer's work is to defend original and champion expressive. The reader gets the impression that the value of thoughts simply sprang and leapt from her brilliant mind and onto the homepage. In particular, the prologue packs a society based on free association punch: she simultaneously condemns and exalts the nation statedirector Roman Polanski, an artist she personally admires for his art, and yet despises for his actions. The simplest This model of biographical sections demonstrates that ''monstrous men'' as she calls them, is consistent for the first few chapters, interrogating the author was brought up not from ‘privileged’ stock but within a Labour-votinglikes of Woody Allen, Michael Jackson and Pablo Picasso. Her critical voice is acutely present throughout, never slipping into anonymity and maintaining her own subjectivity, lower middle class familyas she holds it so dearly, to demonstrate that his conservatism was not inherited but and a product of his own intellectual journeypersonal, rather than collective voice.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472903765</amazonuk>1399715070

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Wall Between UsVirginie Despentes|authortitle=Matthew SmallKing Kong Theory

|summary=In this personal account of his visit Sometimes it's simpler to Israel explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the West Bankinside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, Small journals his time spent with people he meets along then this isn't the way book for you. If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read and attempts should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to make sense of politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the conflict that impact a government has dominated made and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this area for many yearsas the most important. Small openly admits This book follows the issue there is not well-established format: a simple one series of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and his visit reinforces the fact that there are many complexities preventing peace from happeningsituation in 2024.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910266302</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan ShawAlastair Humphreys|title=Britain in a Perilous World: The Strategic Defence and Security Review we need Local|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyTravel |summary=The 2010 Strategic Defence 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 Security Review has stayed then wrote about it. As he says in his introduction, the mind for the wrong reasons: rather than looking book is an attempt ''to develop share what I have learnt about some big issues from a strategyyear exploring a small map. Nature loss, to examine the short pollution, land use and long term threats which access, agriculture, the country facedfood system, rewilding…'' One of the emphasis joys of the book for me was on cutting costs, with some cuts appearing ludicrous at first glance. In that the intervening years 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 been occasions when it was difficult not to wonder if the United Kingdom was poorly equipped - and without clear-cut aims - as a result of the 2010 review. The opportunity to put this right comes in 2015 downside for somebody and Major General Jonathan Shaw looks not at what the Review should say, but at how it should be tackledthat there are some hard choices ahead.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908323817</amazonuk>1785633678

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=The EconomistEdel Rodriguez|title=Pocket World in Figures 2015Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey|rating=4.5|genre=ReferenceGraphic Novels|summary=There are people who donWe't understand the joy re in childhood, and we're in Cuba. The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of raw data: no accompanying analysis (or spin) - just as a collection saviour of figures relevant the country, has proven himself a Communist, and not done nearly enough to create a particular circumstancelevel playing field for all. If you're one Well, those hours-long speeches of those people then this book will mean little to you, but if you want a pocket (well, certainly handbag or briefcase) work his were kind of reference then this book will be a treasuretaking his time away. I once gave a copy Our narrator's family weren't in the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to a diplomat and he kept his wife awake until be the good soldier the early hours country demanded (especially as he came across another gem which she had would probably be shipped off to know without delaysome minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. The 2015 edition is mother gets the twenty fourth couple jobs with the party to ease some of the heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the series - and diplomatic (and similar) spouses everywhere should prepare themselves for kind of heat forcing you out of the onslaught.kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781252734</amazonuk>1474616720

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sarah Wilson|title=Stand This One Wild and DeliverPrecious Life: A Design for Successful Government|author=Ed Strawthe path back to connection in a fractured world|rating=43.5|genre=Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary=Confidence My favourite Mary Oliver line is the one in politicians which she asks ''What is at an all-time lowit you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?'' I get to love that line so much because my answer is ''This! Precisely this.'' I'm lucky enough to be living my one wild and precious life the way I want to. Sarah Wilson is equally lucky. In fact, an alarming number of Britons express outright contempt, not just for their leaders, but for her book that takes Oliver's words as her title (though I can't see that she acknowledges the entire political class - for source) she pushes us to think about whether we really ''are'' living the politicans themselves, for life we want – the civil servants standing behind thembest life that we could be living. Her answer is an unequivocal ''no, even for the Westminster bubble of commentators and policy wonks. We vote for them in ever-decreasing numbers and even those who continue to vote often do we are not feel represented''. Worse still Don't care what you're doing, the younger she thinks you are(we, the more likely you are to I) could be politically disengaged. Wedoing more…And she're in danger of losing an entire generation from s effing furious about the political processfact that we are not. How can this be good for a democracy?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>099294760X</amazonuk>1785633848

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1785633457|title=Harry's Last StandCharging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car|author=Harry Leslie SmithClive Wilkinson

|genre=Politics and SocietyTravel|summary=RAF veteran Harry Leslie Smith rose to prominence last year Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a famous Guardian article 'This year, I will wear a poppy preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the last time' about the way in which idea of exploring the remembrance edges of those who died England in the great wars has been co-opted to justify today’s military conflictsan electric car was not totally outrageous. HereIn fact, it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and his wife, he tackles themes of povertyJoan, shouldn't it?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153050|title=Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=Seeking some light relief from the current political corruptionturmoil which is coming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, unemployment, and a lack I was nudged towards ''Britain's Best Political Cartoons of hope felt by so many people today2022''. Sharp eyes will have noted that we're not yet through the year: the cartoons run from 4 September 2021 to 31 August 2022.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848317263</amazonuk> Who can imagine what there will be to come in the 2023 edition?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B0B7289HKQ|title=Angela MerkelConversations Across America: The Chancellor A Father and Son, Alzheimer's, and Her World300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Soul of America|author=Stefan KorneliusKari Loya

|genre=BiographyTravel|summary=You have Kari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, by the way) wanted to admire spend some time with his father and the lady, this rather awkward and shy daughter of period between two jobs seemed like a staunch Lutheran pastor who himself had been born as a Polish Catholicgood time to do it. His daughter studied with such intelligence and application that soon brought her academic success particularly in Russian and finally in Quantum Chemistry. At The decision was made to ride the age of 26Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, Virginia to Astoria, she obtained her doctorate and Oregon - in passing, all 4250 miles of it rather seems - her first husband, the physicist Ulrike Merkelin 2015. Her rise They had 73 days to power was rapid and took place through do it - slightly less than the period in recommended time - but there were factors which the DDR collapsed pointed this up as Russian policy under Gorbachev changedmore of a challenge that it would be for most people who considered taking it on. Along with a wry Merv Loya was 75 years old and dry sense of humour Angela Merkel’s personality is the embodiment of the characteristic known in German as ''fleissighe was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer'' - hardworking, sedulous, diligent and assiduouss.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846883180</amazonuk>

I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the book. There's got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it. }}{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=An Atheist's History of BeliefJane Goodall and Douglas Abrams |authortitle=Matthew KnealeThe Book of Hope |rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=I’ve been an atheist since I was old enough The done thing is to take read a view on book all the subjectway through before you sit down to review it. (Many atheists would argue that we’re all atheists at birthI’m making an exception here, but that’s not a subject for a because I don’t want to lose any of the experience of reading this amazing book review). , I did have want to take Religious Studies at school but have entirely forgotten almost everything I learned!capture it as it hits me. And it is hitting me. This beautiful book has me in tears. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099584425</amazonuk>024147857X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1788360737|title=Notebooks, 1922-86Artivism: The Battle for Museums in the Era of Postmodernism|author=Michael OakeshottAlexander Adams|rating=3.52|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Michael Oakeshott Can art ever be apolitical? All art is usually described as political because art is not made in a conservative thinkervacuum. It is made by people. According Antonio Gramsci stated that ‘’Every man… contributes to Perry Andersonmodifying the social environment in which he develops’’. Therefore, all art must be political, even implicitly. Alexander Adams in his work influenced John Major's style of politics; he named him new book ‘Artivism: The Battle for Museum in the London Review Era of Books in 1992 as one of four ‘outstanding European theorists of the intransigent Right’Postmodernism’ is adamant that art is freer when it is art for art’s sake. Luke O’Sullivan, who edited this collection The recent trend of notebooks, so-called artivism has often said that he considers such descriptions limitingcaused artists to become more overtly political (read: left wing). O’Sullivan is clearly enthusiastic about Oakeshott’s work Their seemingly grass roots movements have been astroturfed by large “left-wing” donors and strove media elites hoping to enable these notebooks, spanning create a period of over sixty years, to be publishedmore globalist and progressive regime. Or at least that’s what Alexander Adams believes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845400542</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1398508632|title=The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday LifeWilderness Cure|author=Uri Gneezy and John ListMo Wilde

|genre=Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary=Wow! This is It had been on the cards for a most surprising economics book.  Behavioral economists (if you’ll excuse while but it was the American spelling) investigate people’s buying behaviour and consuming patternsweek-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of eating only wild food. I guess we know about that already because supermarkets here lull us into buying three for the price The end of twoNovember, particularly in Central Scotland was perhaps not the best time to come back next week for £10 off start, in a £100world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, or to garner extra points on Brexit and a loyalty card (Oh why can’t they just go for pandemic. Wilde had a cheaper price at few advantages: the point area around her was a known habitat with a variety of sale? Why do profits have terrains. She had electricity which allowed her to be in double percentage point increases year on year?)run a fridge, freezer and dehydrator. A fair bit of manipulation to ensure that She had a company survives is already part car - and parcel of our livesfuel. If you’d asked me before I read this book Most importantly, I would have lined up that sort of consumer marketing psychology alongside banking as profiteering. However … these guys are differentshe had shelter: they really do seem this was not a plan to care about the plight of the underprivileged, and they come from an academic setting, rather than a commercial one''live'' wild just to live off its produce.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847946747</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alain de Botton1529149800|title=The NewsThings You Can Do: A User's ManualHow to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste|author=Eduardo Garcia and Sara Boccaccini Meadows

|genre=Politics Home and SocietyFamily|summary=Alain de Botton maintains that 'We begin with a telling story. All the news' has assumed birds and animals fled when the position in our lives which was once occupied by religionforest fire took hold and most of them stood and watched, with some consumers viewing it as often as every fifteen minutes (slight blush there - let's say about every hourunable to think of anything they could do...) The tiny hummingbird flew to the river and began taking tiny amounts of water and flying back to drop them into the fire. Furthermore, we do it completely unprotected against every political scandal or celebrity storyThe animals laughed: what good was that doing. The sub-title 'A User's ManualI'm doing the best I can'' sets out to remedy this, said the hummingbird. And that, really, is the only way that we will solve the problem of climate change – by each of us doing what we can, however small that might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00HYGYIGA</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert A Caro1638485216|title=The Years of Lyndon JohnsonBlack, White, and Gray All Over: Means of AscentA Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds

|summary=''Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. Ithas everything to do with character. Period.'' ''s only a One more body just wouldn't matter of days since I finished listening to [[''. The Years murder of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power George Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man, on 25 May 2020 by Robert A Caro|The Years Derek Chauvin, a forty-four-year-old police officer, in the US city of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power]], Minneapolis sent shock waves around the first part world. We rarely see pictures of Robert A Caroa murder taking place but Floyd's definitive work death was an exception. The image of Chauvin kneeling on the President George's neck is not one which I'll ever forget and despite having just spent over forty hours on the book I wanted to learn moreprotests which followed cannot have been unexpected. I There was torn though - the second book in a series is not often as good as backlash against the first police - and it struck me that these might not be the most exciting years just in JohnsonMinneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''all''s life. Was this book going to be the link which took us on to tarred by the more exciting times? Not a bit of itChauvin brush.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00GSHD0U6</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=A Good African Story: How a Small Company Built a Global Coffee BrandMatthieu Aikins|authortitle=Andrew RugasiraThe Naked Don't Fear the Water|rating=34.5

|summary=There are few billionaire black African entrepreneurs. As Andrew Rugasira points out in It's easy to forget at times that The Naked Don'A Good African Story'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, the people but rather a testament to how well Matthieu Aikins – a Canadian citizen who make money decided to accompany his friend as a refugee from African exports Afghanistan through Europe – recounts a vast and at times painful journey. There are virtually always white Westernerstense moments and gripping accounts of border crossings which had me on edge the whole way through. Even Fair Trade participants remain skewed by But it's written with a haunting and almost lyrical quality that allows the reader to perfectly envisage the status quo of trade barriers which discriminate against Third World countriesenvironments and people described.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099571927</amazonuk>B09N9157T6

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1785633074|title=Play It Again: An Amateur Against The ImpossibleStaggering Hubris|author=Alan RusbridgerJosh Berry

|summary=It was ever thus… cyclists go too fastMembers of Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by politicians, without using a hooter or lights; there are hoodlums everywhere one looks, and no public conveniences; people pretend to have qualifications and degrees they havenheaded by the Prime minister - the ''primus inter pares''t rightfully earned; buses are too busy with shopping women who should be indoors already, cooking for their working menfolk… It(that's a very clever idea to show exactly what is behind the 'disgusted for those of Tunbridge Wells' tag, you who are Eton and as a book to be shelved alongside those with Oxbridge educated) but the wackier letters sent to reality is that the ''Daily Telegraphprime'', these selections from movers are the special advisers - the Royal town's press itself make a great eyeSPADS -opener who are the driving force behind the government. We are in the privileged position of having access to the complaints and complainants memoirs of Rafe Hubris, the man who was behind the skilful control of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of Kent2020. You might not know the name now but he will certainly be the man to watch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908096918</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1846276772|title=The End of Bias: How Much have Global Problems Cost the World?: A Scorecard from 1900 to 2050We Change Our Minds|author=Bjorn Lomborg (Editor)Jessica Nordell

|summary=Anyone who is not an able, white man understands bias in that they may no longer even recognise the extent to which they suffer from it: it's simply a part of everyday life. White men will always come first. The authors are leading researchers in their fields, and their papers have been critiqued by peer-reviewersable will come before the disabled. Each Jobs, promotions, higher salaries are the preserve of the chapters reports white man. Even when those who wouldn't pass the results of medical become a modelling exercise, examining progress or decline in one part of ten key areasan organisation it's rare that their views are heard, including armed conflict, trade barriers, malnutrition, air pollution, ecosystem and biodiversity, health, water and sanitationthat their concerns are acknowledged. Key economic, growth It's personally appalling and other variables from credible sources provided a common set degrading for the individuals on the receiving end of data and assumptions, used in each studythe bias but it's not just the individuals who are negatively impacted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1107679338</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Tony Benn|title=The Last Diaries: A Blaze Before you start reading ''Misfits'' you need to be in a certain frame of Autumn Sunshine|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Throughout my life Imind. You've found that whilst I might re not always agree with Tony Benn's politics, whatever he had going to say would give me food for thought read a book of essays or a self- and frequently changed the way that I viewed a situationhelp book. HeYou's a wonderful mixture of supreme intelligence and humanity re going to read writing which is so rarely found - particularly in modern-day politics and it was with some misgivings that I opened this volume of his diaries, given that inspired by Michaela Coel's 2018 MacTaggart Lecture to professionals within the slipcover speaks of television industry at the Edinburgh TV Festival. You might be ''compensations and challenges of old age'' and reading''the disadvantages of growing older, the loneliness of widowhood, the upheaval of moving from the family home of sixty years and the problems of failing health.book but you need to '' Ilisten've always been relieved that Benn has never 'to the words as though you'quite'' achieved re in the status of national treasure, but surely he couldnlecture theatre. The disjointedness will fade away and you't ll be in decline?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091943876</amazonuk>carried on a cloud of exquisite writing.

{{newreview|title=What Should We Tell Our Daughters?: The Pleasures and Pressures ''0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of Growing Up Female|author=Melissa Benn|rating=3|genre=Politics and Society|summary=colour while only 7% study a book by a woman.'I am shocked when I read young feminists today blithely admitting that they don't know what second-wave feminists wrote. ''The Bookseller''29 June 2021

As a twenty-something year Otegha Uwagba came to the UK from Kenya when she was five years old feminist, it pains me to admit how much this quote applied to me. Having grown up knowing that college and university Her sisters were paths I could definitely take, never being told that settling down seven and finding a husband nine. It was an important goal to haveher mother who came first, and always getting the same opportunities as my male peers in the workplace, I'd never seen – orwith her father joining them later. The family was hard-working, at least, ''thought'' I'd seen – the inequalities, misogyny principled and chauvinism determined that were still apparently abundant in today's societytheir children would have the best education possible. The feminist movement had There was always seemed like an amazing wave a painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage of new ideas that had happened forty or fifty years agoanything: it was simply carefully harvested. It When Otegha was ten the reason my mother and I were now able family acquired a car. For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to work a private school in London and find then a role outside of the homeplace at New College, Oxford.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848546270</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Richard Brook|title=Peas Understanding Human Nature: A User's Guide to Life|rating=4.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary= I am a firm believer that sometimes we choose books, and Queues: sometimes books choose us. In my case, this is one of the latter. Not so very long ago, if I had come across this book I'd have skimmed it, found some of it interesting, but it would not have 'hit home' in the way that it does now. I believe it came to me not just because I was likely to give it a favourable review [ ''full disclosure The Minefield of Modern MannersBookbag's u.s.p. is that people chose their own books rather than getting them randomly, so there is a predisposition towards expecting to like the book, even if it doesn't always turn out that way'' ] – but also because it is a book I needed to read, right now.|isbn=1800461682}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787332098|title=How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World|author=Sandi ToksvigHenry Mance

|summary=Dear Sandi ''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 next David Attenborough series.''

You I was going to argue. I mean, cows are for cheese (I couldn't consider eating red meat...) and I much prefer my all time favourite celebrity lesbadyke, and one elephants in the wild but then I realised that I was quibbling for the sake of the reasons I’m so very excited it. Essentially that quote sums up my attitude to be heading to Denmark this coming weekend (are all people there like you? Please say yes)animals - and I consider myself an animal lover. For this alone, If I had to get my mitts on your latest offeringchoose between the company of humans and the company of animals, I would probably choose the animals. I wasn’t insisted that fussed about obtaining a I read this book on manners previously: no one was trying to stop me but I was initially reluctant. I eat cheese, having always thought mine were quite okeggs, but chicken and fish and I needed to either do so without guilt or change my choices. I knew your take on suspected that making the matter decision would not be suitably hilarious and well worth a read. I was not wrongcomfortable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250324</amazonuk>

{{newreview|title=Global Modernity ''To claim space is to live the life of choosing unapologetically and Other Essaysbravely. It is to live the life you've always wanted.''|author=Tom Rubens|rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=It’s been difficult Sometimes the reviewing gods are generous: at a time when violence against women is much in the news, ''A Women's Guide to Claiming Space'' by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. Now - to write be clear - this reviewbook is not a 'how to disable your attacker with two simple jabs' manual: it's something far more effective, but discussion at the moment seems to be about how women can be ''protected''. The book’s eclectic nature I've always thought that women need to rise above this, with subject matter ranging from Nietzsche to the English Police Forcebe people who don't need protection, people who claim their own space. If all women did this, makes it difficult those few men who are violent to summarise and secondly, I’m no academic and philosophy is women would realise that we are not just HARD|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845405633</amazonuk>an easy target to be used to prove that they are big men.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Education Under Siege: Why There is a Better AlternativePolly Barton|authortitle=Peter MortimoreFifty Sounds

|summary=Peter MortimoreWhere do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question 's thoroughgoing analysis of the absurdities of current educational practice and prescriptions 'Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for finding a far better alternative deserves a wide readershipwhile and if the world hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. It is I may get there later this year, but I am not just an organisation hopeful. And like Barton, I don't know the answer to the question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of the question in the first essay, which is under siege but on the sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as his personal anecdotes indicatebeing, more vigorously than his rigorously argued statisticsamong other things, people are sufferingthe sound of ''every party where you have to introduce yourself''. Parents are anxious, teachers badly led |isbn=1913097501}}{{Frontpage|author=Stephen Fabes|title=Signs of Life|rating=5|genre=Travel|summary= I was brought up on maps and burdened with confused policies and worst first-person narratives of tales of all pupils are pressurised from early infancyfar away places. Reading his book you might be forgiven for wondering a) why so many young students are being abused by such distress I was birth-righted wanderlust and b) as Cicero might have askedcuriosity. Unfortunately, I didn't inherit what Dr. Stephen Fabes clearly had which was the guts to simply go out and do it. I also didn't inherit the kind of steady nerve, ability to talk to strangers and basic practicality that would have meant that I would have survived if I had been gifted with the requisite 'Cui bonobottle'. In order words I', to whose benefit? Professor Mortimore outlines m not the positive alternatives suggested by international comparisons especially with Scandinavian methodssort of person who will get on a bike outside a London hospital and not come home for six years. He argues that their procedures are more effective, Fabes did precisely that support students and produce a fairer, harmonious society.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447311310</amazonuk>1788161211

{{newreview|title=Inventing the Enemy: Essays on Everything|author=Umberto Eco|rating=4|genre=History|summary=Imagine a sumptuous Italian feast in the sunlit-bathed ancient countryside near Milan. Next Move to you a gentleman talks and eats with furious energy. He tells of Dante, Cicero, and St Augustine and quotes a multitude of obscure troubadours from the Middle Ages. He repeats himself, gestures flamboyantly, nudges you sharply in the ribs, belches and even breaks wind. His conversation contains nuggets of information but in the flow of his discourse there is a fondness for iteration and reiteration. He throws bones over his shoulder and when he reaches the cheese course - definitely too much information on the mouldy bacteria! When you finally get up things the elderly gentleman has said prompt your imagination. You are better informed, intrigued and prodded to examine his discourse again and again, even if only to challenge what you have heard. Such are the effects of reading Eco’s essays in ''Inventing the Enemy''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553945</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Popular Science Reviews]]