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{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> <!-- Bremner -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Bremner_Us.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0525533184/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Us vs Them: The Failure of Globalism by Ian Bremmer]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] It wasn't supposed to be like this, was it? Every day seems to bring yet more news of doom and gloom. The spectre of terrorism hangs over most of the world, fuelling refugee crises and worries about national security. People keep saying that robots are coming to take all our jobs. Anti-establishment political parties are making huge gains in countries all around the world. And inequality is as much of a problem as it ever was – if not more so. [[Us vs Them: The Failure of Globalism by Ian Bremmer|Full Review]] <!-- Wolff -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Wolff Trump.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1408711400?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1408711400]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] As I began listening to ''Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House'' we were treated to the unedifying spectacle of the President of the United States taking to Twitter to establish that he was ''a stable genius'', as opposed, we must conclude to being an unstable... Well, let's not go there. It's a little too frightening: this is the most powerful man in the world. So what made me listen to this book? Well, Donald Trump didn't want me to read it: US presidents don't often go down that road and rarely to a good destination (I'm thinking of Richard Nixon here) and that made me really want to know what was between the covers. But how did the book stack up? [[Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Anderson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Anderson_Fantasyland.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785038656?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785038656]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Fantasyland by Kurt Andersen]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]], [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] Fantasyland covers the history of America from 1517 to 2017 in awesome detail. Covering five centuries of tempestuous history, Andersen paints the conjuring of America in vivid relief. Discussing everything from pilgrims to politicians, the exhilarating gold rush to alternative facts, seminal episodes are explored in forensic detail with razor sharp wit. [[Fantasyland by Kurt Andersen|Full Review]] <!-- Connolly -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Connolly_working.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1911585363?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1911585363]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Know Your Place: Essays on the Working Class by the Working Class by Nathan Connolly]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] Simple summary: ''Know Your Place'' is an anthology of essays on the working class by the working class. There are twenty-three disparate pieces talking about everything you can imagine: day trips to the seaside, access to the arts, food poverty, pub culture, glass ceilings, housing estates, vulgarity-as-class-marker, and much more. FrontpageAnd a full disclosure: ''Know Your Place'' was brought to fruition by crowdfunding and I was a contributor. I read the proposed spec and just ''knew'' I would love the book, should it reach its fundraising target, and that's why I stumped up some cash. I think class is both an under- and mis-discussed topic with working class people defined externally and talked about rather than listened to or allowed to define themselves. And I really did love the book just as I thought I would. So you know - there's a possible reviewer bias here that you should know about. I like to think I would have criticised ''Know Your Place'' had it fallen short of my hopes for it but just in case, I'm letting you know. [[Know Your Place: Essays on the Working Class by the Working Class by Nathan Connolly|Full Review]] <!-- Smith -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Smith_Dont.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/147212345X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=147212345X]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Don't Let My Past Be Your Future: A Call to Arms by Harry Leslie Smith]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]], [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] Don't Let My Past Be Your Future: A Call to Arms is part autobiography and part rallying call for society to tackle the systemic, endemic and debilitating inequality faced by the people of the United Kingdom, particularly in the North. Through reflecting on his own experiences during his childhood, Harry Leslie Smith has painted a frank and uncompromising picture of the grim, appallingly miserable childhood he had to endure due to the poverty faced by his family contrasted with the, shamefully still, grim and miserable lives many people endure today in a country ravaged by cuts, austerity and political turmoil. [[Don't Let My Past Be Your Future: A Call to Arms by Harry Leslie Smith|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Bristow -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Bristow China.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1910985902?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1910985902]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[China in Drag: Travels with a Cross-dresser by Michael Bristow]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]], [[:Category:Travel|Travel]] Having worked for nine years in Bejing as a journalist for the BBC, author Michael Bristow decided to write about Chinese history. Having been learning the local language for several years, Bristow asked his language teacher for guidance - the language teacher, born in the early fifties, offered Bristow a compelling picture of life in Communist China - but added to that, Bristow was greatly surprised to find that his language teacher also enjoyed spending his spare time in ladies clothing. It soon becomes clear that the tale told here is immensely personal - yet also paints a fascinating portrait of one of the world's most intriguing nations. [[China in Drag: Travels with a Cross-dresser by Michael Bristow|Full Review]] <!-- Landreth -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Edward W Said[[image:Landreth_Swell.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1472938941?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASINtitle=1472938941]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Swell by Jenny Landreth]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]], [[:Category:Sport|Sport]], [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] I love Jenny's own description of her book as a waterbiography and I love her encouragement that we should each write our own. This is more than just (I say ''just''!) a recollection of the author's own encounters with water; it's also a history of women's fight for the right to swim. That sounds absurd until you start reading about it, then it becomes serious. Not too serious though – because Jenny Landreth is clearly a lover of the absurd. Not a lover Representations of book blurbs myself, I do always seek to give a shout-out to those who get it dead right: in this case I'm definitely with Alexandra Heminsley's ''giggles-on-the-commute funny''. [[Swell by Jenny Landreth|Full Review]] <!-- Maconie -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:ISBN.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/ISBN/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Long Road From Jarrow by Stuart Maconie]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Travel|Travel]], [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] I cancelled my ''Country Walking'' magazine subscription about a year ago and the only thing I miss is Stuart Maconie's column. His down-to-earth approach and sharp wit belie an equally sharp intellect and a soul more sensitive than he might be willing to admit. Let's be honest, though, I picked this one up because of someone else's review, in which I spotted names like Ferryhill and Newton Aycliffe. Places I grew up in. Like Maconie I have no connection (that I know of) to the Jarrow Crusade but when he talks about it being ''a whole matrix of events reducible to one word like Aberfan, Hillsborough, or Orgreave'' then somehow it does become part of my history too. Tangentially, at least. [[Long Road From Jarrow by Stuart Maconie|Full Review]] |} {{newreview|author=Francis O'Gorman|title=Forgetfulness: Making the Modern Culture of AmnesiaIntellectual
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=After a glut of books about mindfulness it came as something of a relief to encounter Edward Said's 'Forgetfulness'Representations of the Intellectual', Francis O'Gorman's thinking on why the twenty-first century is losing touch with the past, on why less a strict theory of what intellectuals are and more a passionate argument for what is likely - or could they should be made - . Said clearly rejects the comfortable image of the intellectual as a detached expert speaking only to happen is so much more important than what has gone beforeother specialists. The book is supremely intelligentInstead, but with he insists on the knowledge worn lightly intellectual as a public figure, often awkward, abrasive, and unpopular, who speaks truth to power even when it's eminently readable, regardless of how you feel about the conclusions he drawsis inconvenient or risky. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1501324691</amazonuk>1804272248
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Raymond WilliamsAriel Saramandi|title= Culture and Society 1780-1950Portrait of an Island on Fire|rating= 4.5|genre= Politics and Society|summary= From In this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks to intradermally dissect the last decades sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, tunneling deep into the eighteenth century wounds left by colonialism and slavery to expose how these legacies still shape modern life. Saramandi describes the country at one stage as ''rotting'', a blunt yet apt metaphor for the systemic decay brought about by the final words malignant forces of modernism, this book tracks societal changes through exploring five key words: industryracism, democracypatriarchy, class, art environmental degradation and culturegovernmental dysfunction. The meanings Each essay in this collection serves as a kind of such thingsdiagnostic, their essence, changes as per their use and charting the various diseases afflicting the era in which their implications were consideredisland state.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784870811</amazonuk>1804271616
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Patrick WestGregor Hens and Jen Calleja (translator)|title= Get Over Yourself: Nietzsche for our timesThe City and the World|rating= 14|genre= Politics and Society|summary= Get Over Yourself considers NietzscheIn 's imagined perceptions of modern society 'The City and uses our society to explain his philosophy. Ithe World'm sorry if that sounds vague but it's , Gregor Hens reveals how cities are as much imagined spaces as they are physical ones. With a deep affection for the best I can do from the blurb urban landscapes that have shaped his life, Hens reflects on places like Cologne, Berlin, and Goch on the backLower Rhine with a blend of personal memory and thoughtful observation. After reading Get Over Yourself from cover His writing, at times abstract, captures not just architectural features but the emotional and mental geographies tied to covereach location, I am still none the wiser about the purpose of this bookfor example, his perspectives as a child as opposed to as an adult. It appears From Belgium and Germany to be Berkeley and Columbus, Hens traces a series map of personal opinions held together with quotesexperiences, which don't always appear relevant, from Nietzsche, Chumbawumba turning cities into reflections of identity and newspaper articlesbelonging.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845409337</amazonuk>1804271691
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Paul B Preciado
|title=Dysphoria Mundi
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=''It is never too late to embrace the revolutionary optimism of childhood''
Through this hybrid text, consisting of arias, letters, essays and autofiction, Preciado expresses his own hybrid self, and brings forth a new sensorium as an offering to the new generation, a new feeling mechanism in which detachment is not considered a sign of political apathy. Rather, it is the proportional, valid response to ''the epistemological and political crack we are living through, and the tension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that characterize our present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''. The whole text is framed against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic as that which has catalysed this revolution, when dysphoria began to emerge on a global scale, or as ''pangea covidica''. Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a sign of weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to ''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''.
|isbn=1804271454
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Jacqueline Feldman
|title=Precarious Lease
|rating=3.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=The title of this novel refers to a French legal term (''bail précaire'') associated with squatters in France, affording them temporary suspension from eviction charges and processes, but few scant property rights. Among mentions of other squats dotted around Paris like Le Carrosse and La Miroiterie, Feldman takes particular interest in one squat of massive proportions which adopted an almost mythical status for its inhabitants, admirers and detractors alike: Le Bloc. Something like a haven for artists and marginal members of society (as one character, Le Général, repeats throughout, ''I live on the margins of the margins of the margins''), Le Bloc was subject to the continual threat of eviction and the pressures from above which oppressed its inhabitants' lives. We follow Le Bloc from its opening in 2012 until its eventual dissolution, framed as a tragedy in this book.
|isbn=1804271403
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Claire Dederer
|title=Monsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?
|rating=3
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Dederer sets out to unveil what she calls a ''biography of the audience'' in a deconstructed, thoroughly nitpicked, exploration of the old aphorism of separating the art from the artist in the context of contemporary ''cancel culture''. Dederer's work is original and expressive. The reader gets the impression that the thoughts simply sprang and leapt from her brilliant mind and onto the page. In particular, the prologue packs a punch: she simultaneously condemns and exalts the director Roman Polanski, an artist she personally admires for his art, and yet despises for his actions. This model of ''monstrous men'' as she calls them, is consistent for the first few chapters, interrogating the likes of Woody Allen, Michael Jackson and Pablo Picasso. Her critical voice is acutely present throughout, never slipping into anonymity and maintaining her own subjectivity, as she holds it so dearly, and a personal, rather than collective voice.
|isbn=1399715070
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Virginie Despentes
|title=King Kong Theory
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=''King Kong Theory'' is a hard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, which can be seen as a call to arms for women in a phallocentric society broken at its core. Originally written in French, the book is a collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the complex prism of her varied life: from rape to sex work and pornography. Though these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the book can feel somewhat disjointed, a reflection of their original form as independent essays.
|isbn=191309734X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1009473085
|title=The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024
|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Sometimes it's simpler to 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 inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the 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 should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and the situation in 2024.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Alastair Humphreys
|title=Local
|rating=5
|genre=Travel
|summary= Alastair Humphreys has walked and cycled all over the world. And then written about it. For this book he walked and cycled very close to home and then wrote about it. As he says in his introduction, the book is an attempt ''to share what I have learnt about some big issues from a year exploring a small map. Nature loss, pollution, land use and access, agriculture, the food system, rewilding…'' One of the joys of the book for me was that the biggest thing he learned about all of these things was that there are no easy answers, no single 'right or wrong', that every upside is likely to have a downside for somebody and that there are some hard choices ahead.
|isbn=1785633678
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Edel Rodriguez
|title=Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey
|rating=4
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=We're in childhood, and we're in Cuba. The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the country, has proven himself a Communist, and not done nearly enough to create a level playing field for all. Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time away. Our narrator's family 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-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some of the heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…
|isbn=1474616720
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Sarah Wilson
|title=This One Wild and Precious Life: the path back to connection in a fractured world
|rating=3.5
|genre= Lifestyle
|summary= 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.'' I'm lucky enough to be living my one wild and 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 be living. Her answer is an unequivocal ''no, we are not''. Don't care 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.
|isbn=1785633848
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1785633457
|title=Charging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car
|author=Clive Wilkinson
|rating=5
|genre=Travel
|summary=Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of exploring the edges of England in an electric car was not totally outrageous. In fact, it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and his wife, Joan, 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 turmoil which is coming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, I was nudged towards ''Britain's Best Political Cartoons of 2022''. Sharp eyes will have noted that we're not yet through the year: the cartoons run from 4 September 2021 to 31 August 2022. Who can imagine what there will be to come in the 2023 edition?
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0B7289HKQ
|title=Conversations Across America: A Father and Son, Alzheimer's, and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Soul of America
|author=Kari Loya
|rating=4
|genre=Travel
|summary=Kari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, by the way) wanted to spend some time with his father and the period between two jobs seemed like a good time to do it. The decision was made to ride the Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, Virginia to Astoria, Oregon - all 4250 miles of it - in 2015. They had 73 days to do it - slightly less than the recommended time - but there were factors which pointed this up as more of a challenge that it would be for most people who considered taking it on. Merv Loya was 75 years old and he was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer's.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1739593901
|title=22 Ideas About The Future
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of 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 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|author= Cathy Scott-Clark Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams |title=The Book of Hope |rating=5|genre=Politics and Adrian LevySociety |summary= The done thing is to read a book all the way through before you sit down to review it. I’m making an exception here, because I don’t want to lose any of the experience of reading this amazing book, I want to capture it as it hits me. And it is hitting me. This beautiful book has me in tears. |isbn=024147857X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1788360737|title= Artivism: The ExileBattle for Museums in the Era of Postmodernism|author=Alexander Adams|rating= 42
|genre= Politics and Society
|summary= An account of Can 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 fate of Al Qaeda and the Bin Laden family since the events of 9/11social environment in which he develops’’. Therefore, all art must be political, ''even implicitly. Alexander Adams in his new book ‘Artivism: The Exile'' plunges into Battle for Museum in the murky waters Era of international terrorism, espionage and politicsPostmodernism’ is adamant that art is freer when it is art for art’s sake. Detailed and meticulous, the book tackles the subject from all angles, providing a panoramic view The recent trend of the subject so-called artivism has caused artists to become more overtly political (read: left wing). Their seemingly grass roots movements have been astroturfed by large “left-wing” donors and acting media elites hoping to enlighten create a more globalist and inform the readerprogressive regime. Or at least that’s what Alexander Adams believes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408858762</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Emily Clarkson1398508632|title= Can I Speak to Someone in Charge?The Wilderness Cure|author=Mo Wilde|rating= 4.5|genre= Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary=''Can I Speak It had been on the cards for a while but it was the week-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of eating only wild food. The end of November, particularly in Central Scotland was perhaps not the best time to Someone start, in Charge?''a world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, blogger Emily Clarkson's debut book, is Brexit and a pandemic. Wilde had a few advantages: the area around her was a known habitat with a variety of terrains. She had electricity which allowed her to run a fiercefridge, witty freezer and laughdehydrator. She had a car -out-loud funny ode and fuel. Most importantly, she had shelter: this was not a plan to ''live'' wild just to feminismlive off its produce. In }}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529149800|title=Things You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste|author=Eduardo Garcia and Sara Boccaccini Meadows|rating=4|genre=Home and Family|summary=We begin with a series telling story. All the birds and animals fled when the forest fire took hold and most of open letters, she addresses the issues faced by every modern womanthem stood and watched, discussing everything from dealing with body hair unable to being made think of anything they could do. The tiny hummingbird flew to feel uncomfortable in the gym, as well as more personal issues, like her experiences river and began taking tiny amounts of being water and flying back to drop them into the fire. The animals laughed: what good was that doing. 'catfished' and sent abuse onlineI'm doing the best I can'', said the hummingbird. This And that, really, is a vital read for any girl born in the 1990sonly way that we will solve the problem of climate change – by each of us doing what we can, tackling some very serious social injustices beneath its fun exteriorhowever small that might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471156907</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage|author=Richard Brook|title=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 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 [[image:4star''full disclosure The Bookbag'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.jpg|linkisbn=Category:{1800461682}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787332098|title=How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World|author=Henry Mance|rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography=5|Autobiography]], [[:Category:genre=Politics and Society|Politics summary=''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 Society]]millions of wild animals stay out there, ''somewhere,'' hopefully on the next David Attenborough series.''
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1523092734
|title=A Women's Guide to Claiming Space
|author=Eliza Van Cort
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=''She brings a hug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and again.'' (Alma Derricks, former CMO, Cirque du Soleil RSD)
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Matthew d'AnconaPolly Barton|title=Post-Truth: The New War on Truth and How to Fight BackFifty Sounds|rating=34.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Our own post-truth era is what happens when society relaxes its defence of values that underpin cohesion, namely veracity, honesty and accountability.Why Japan?'' I'm old enough or perhaps naive enough to believe that when making Japan has been on my radar for a decision about political voting, you should be able to rely absolutely on what while and if the candidate tells youworld hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I've been suspicious for a decade or moremay get there later this year, but itI am not hopeful. And like Barton, I don's become difficult to ignore t know the change in political attitudes since Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. With regard answer to the latter, when Trump was challenged on a statement he'd made which was subsequently found to be incorrect, his response was question ''Who cares if I got it wrongwhy Japan?'' He was able to tap to the fading concept She explains her feelings in respect of 'the American Dream' - those Americans who were used to waiting patiently question in line and who had found themselves overtaken by the first essay, which is on the sound ''women, immigrants and public sector workersgiro''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785036874</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Stephen Moss|title= Wild Kingdom: Bringing Back Britain's Wildlife|rating= 4|genre= Animals and Wildlife|summary= Wildlife has been declining in Britain over – which she describes as being, among other things, the last few decades; it is an unfortunate by-product sound of human population growth, which in the modern world has increased significantly. Through this book Moss suggests a few ways in which we can start ''every party where you have to bring back some of Britainintroduce yourself''s wildlife without compromising the human way of life: we can co-exist with nature. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099581639</amazonuk>1913097501
}}
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