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[[Category:Politics and Society|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Edward W Said|title=The Why Axis: Hidden Motives Representations of the Intellectual |rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Edward Said's ''Representations of the Undiscovered Economics Intellectual'' is less a strict theory of Everyday Lifewhat intellectuals are and more a passionate argument for what they should be. Said clearly rejects the comfortable image of the intellectual as a detached expert speaking only to other specialists. Instead, he insists on the intellectual as a public figure, often awkward, abrasive, and unpopular, who speaks truth to power even when it is inconvenient or risky.|isbn=1804272248}}{{Frontpage|author=Uri Gneezy and John ListAriel Saramandi|title=Portrait of an Island on Fire|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Wow! This is a most surprising economics book.  Behavioral economists (if you’ll excuse In this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks to intradermally dissect the sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, tunneling deep into the American spelling) investigate people’s buying behaviour wounds left by colonialism and consuming patternsslavery to expose how these legacies still shape modern life. I guess we know about that already because supermarkets here lull us into buying three for Saramandi describes the price of twocountry at one stage as ''rotting'', to come back next week for £10 off a £100, or to garner extra points on a loyalty card (Oh why can’t they just go blunt yet apt metaphor for a cheaper price at the point systemic decay brought about by the malignant forces of sale? Why do profits have to be racism, patriarchy, environmental degradation and governmental dysfunction. Each essay in double percentage point increases year on year?). A fair bit of manipulation to ensure that this collection serves as a company survives is already part and parcel kind of our lives. If you’d asked me before I read this bookdiagnostic, I would have lined up that sort of consumer marketing psychology alongside banking as profiteering. However … these guys are different: they really do seem to care about charting the plight of various diseases afflicting the underprivileged, and they come from an academic setting, rather than a commercial oneisland state.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847946747</amazonuk>1804271616
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alain de BottonGregor Hens and Jen Calleja (translator)|title=The News: A User's ManualCity and the World
|rating=4
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Alain de Botton maintains that In ''The City and the newsWorld'' has assumed the position in our lives which was once occupied by religion, with some consumers viewing it Gregor Hens reveals how cities are as often much imagined spaces as every fifteen minutes (slight blush there - let's say about every hourthey are physical ones.With a 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 blend of personal memory and thoughtful observation..). FurthermoreHis writing, at times abstract, captures not just architectural features but the emotional and mental geographies tied to each location, for example, we do it completely unprotected against every political scandal or celebrity storyhis perspectives as a child as opposed to as an adult. The sub-title 'A User's Manual' sets out From Belgium and Germany to remedy thisBerkeley and Columbus, Hens traces a map of experiences, turning cities into reflections of identity and belonging.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B00HYGYIGA</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}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert A CaroJacqueline Feldman|title=The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of AscentPrecarious Lease|rating=3.5|genre=AutobiographyBiography|summary=ItThe title of this novel refers to a French legal term (''bail précaire''s only a matter ) associated with squatters in France, affording them temporary suspension from eviction charges and processes, but few scant property rights. Among mentions of days since I finished listening to [[The Years other squats dotted around Paris like Le Carrosse and La Miroiterie, Feldman takes particular interest in one squat of Lyndon Johnsonmassive proportions which adopted an almost mythical status for its inhabitants, admirers and detractors alike: The Path to Power by Robert A Caro|The Years Le Bloc. Something like a haven for artists and marginal members of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power]]society (as one character, Le Général, repeats throughout, ''I live on the margins of the first part margins of Robert A Carothe margins''s definitive work on ), Le Bloc was subject to the President continual threat of eviction and despite having just spent over forty hours on the book I wanted to learn morepressures from above which oppressed its inhabitants' lives. I was torn though - the second book We follow Le Bloc from its opening in 2012 until its eventual dissolution, framed as a series is not often as good as the first and it struck me that these might not be the most exciting years tragedy in Johnson's life. Was this book going to be the link which took us on to the more exciting times? Not a bit of it.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B00GSHD0U6</amazonuk>1804271403
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=A Good African Story: How a Small Company Built a Global Coffee BrandClaire Dederer|authortitle=Andrew RugasiraMonsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?
|rating=3
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=There are 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 billionaire black African entrepreneurschapters, 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. As Andrew Rugasira points out in |isbn=1399715070}}{{Frontpage|author=Virginie Despentes|title=King Kong Theory|rating=4|genre=Autobiography |summary=''A Good African StoryKing 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 people who make money 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 African exports rape to sex work and pornography. Though these discussions are virtually always white Westernersintertwined, their placement within the book can feel somewhat disjointed, a reflection of their original form as independent essays. Even Fair Trade participants remain skewed |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 status quo of trade barriers which discriminate against Third World countriesinside 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|amazonuktitle=<amazonuk>0099571927</amazonuk>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.
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Play It Again: An Amateur Against The ImpossibleAlastair Humphreys|authortitle=Alan RusbridgerLocal|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyTravel |summary=I’ve maintained for a long time that I’ll read anything, if it’s well-enough Alastair Humphreys has walked and cycled all over the world. And then writtenabout it. So it was with For this fascinating memoir, even though it’s a year in the life of an amateur pianist, book he walked and cycled very close to home and I don’t play the piano – or indeed a note of musicthen wrote about it. I couldn’t even have placed the name Alan Rusbridger As he says in his professional role before I read introduction, the bookis an attempt ''to share what I have learnt about some big issues from a year exploring a small map. A quick browse through Nature loss, pollution, land use and access, agriculture, the first couple food system, rewilding…'' One of pages on Amazon revealed that the author could indeed tell a clear story: it is his stock-in-trade as Editor joys of the Guardian. And the book duly held for me through 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 messy, interrupted week of bedtime readingdownside for somebody and that there are some hard choices ahead.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099554747</amazonuk>1785633678
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=WinterEdel Rodriguez|authortitle=Adam GopnikWorm: A Cuban American Odyssey
|rating=4
|genre=ReferenceGraphic Novels|summary=In this collection of five essaysWe're in childhood, each one offering a unique and fascinating perspective on the season of winterwe're in Cuba. The revolution has happened, Adam Gopnik takes the reader on a captivating journey, exploring history, art and societyCastro, through ''Romantic Winter''first thought of as a saviour of the country, ''Radical Winter''has proven himself a Communist, ''Recuperative Winter'', ''Recreational Winter'' and ''Remembering Winter''not done nearly enough to create a level playing field for all. In each essay Well, Gopnik focuses on one or two central themes, whilst also touching on surrounding ideasthose hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time away. For example, Our narrator's family weren't in Romantic Winter his central topics are art and poetrythe happiest of places here, howeveran uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, issues such as changing societyAngola) and the father being watched and watched, technology, sex and culture are also explorednot liked for his successful photography business, in relation success being frowned upon. The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to these pivotal notions. He also includes two sections featuring collections ease some of artwork to illustrate his viewpointsthe heat, which add a charmingbut in this sultry island country, individual touch to this book.it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780874472</amazonuk>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}}{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1785633457|title=Outraged 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 Tunbridge Wells: Original Complaints from Middle Englandin 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=Nigel CawthorneTim Benson
|rating=4
|genre=Humour
|summary=It Seeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is coming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, I was ever thus… nudged towards ''Britain's Best Political Cartoons of 2022''. cyclists go too fast, without using a hooter or lights; 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 are hoodlums everywhere one looks, and no public conveniences; people pretend will be to have qualifications come in the 2023 edition?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0B7289HKQ|title=Conversations Across America: A Father and degrees they haven't rightfully earned; buses are too busy with shopping women who should be indoors alreadySon, cooking for their working menfolk… ItAlzheimer's a very clever idea to show exactly what is behind , and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the 'disgusted Soul of Tunbridge Wells' tagAmerica|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 as the period between two jobs seemed like a book good time to be shelved alongside those with do it. The decision was made to ride the wackier letters sent Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, Virginia to the ''Daily Telegraph''Astoria, these selections from the Royal town's press itself make a great eyeOregon - all 4250 miles of it -opener in 2015. They had 73 days to do it - slightly less than the complaints 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 complainants of Kenthe was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer's.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908096918</amazonuk>
}}
{{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.''
{{newreview|title=How Much have Global Problems Cost 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 World?: A Scorecard from 1900 book. There's got to be a very compelling hook to 2050|author=Bjorn Lomborg (Editor)|rating=4keep me engaged.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=The authors are leading researchers in their fields, and their papers have been critiqued by peer Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-reviewersbuilding. Each of It's human beings who fascinate me: the chapters reports technology and the results of a modelling exercise, examining progress or decline in one of ten key areas, including armed conflict, trade barriers, malnutrition, air pollution, ecosystem and biodiversity, health, water and sanitationworld scape are purely incidental. Key economicSo, growth and other variables from credible sources provided what did I think of a common set book of data and assumptionstwenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, used in each studyI loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1107679338</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tony BennJane Goodall and Douglas Abrams |title=The Last Diaries: A Blaze Book of Autumn SunshineHope |rating=45|genre=AutobiographyPolitics and Society |summary=Throughout my life I've found that whilst I might not always agree with Tony Benn's politics, whatever he had The done thing is to say would give me food for thought - and frequently changed read a book all the way that I viewed a situationthrough before you sit down to review it. He's a wonderful mixture of supreme intelligence and humanity which is so rarely found - particularly in modern-day politics and it was with some misgivings that I’m making an exception here, because I opened this volume don’t want to lose any of his diaries, given that the slipcover speaks experience of the ''compensations and challenges of old age'' and ''the disadvantages of growing olderreading this amazing book, the loneliness of widowhood, the upheaval of moving from the family home of sixty years and the problems of failing healthI want to capture it as it hits me. And it is hitting me.'' I've always been relieved that Benn This beautiful book has never ''quite'' achieved the status of national treasure, but surely he couldn't be me in decline?tears. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091943876</amazonuk>024147857X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1788360737|title=What Should We Tell Our Daughters?Artivism: The Pleasures and Pressures Battle for Museums in the Era of Growing Up FemalePostmodernism|author=Melissa BennAlexander Adams|rating=32|genre=Politics and Society|summary='I am shocked when I read young feminists today blithely admitting that they don't know what second-wave feminists wroteCan art ever be apolitical? All art is political because art is not made in a vacuum.' As a twenty-something year old feminist, it pains me to admit how much this quote applied to meIt is made by people. Having grown up knowing that college and university were paths I could definitely take, never being told Antonio Gramsci stated that settling down and finding a husband was an important goal ‘’Every man… contributes to have, and always getting modifying the same opportunities as my male peers social environment in the workplacewhich he develops’’. Therefore, I'd never seen – orall art must be political, at least, ''thought'' I'd seen – even implicitly. Alexander Adams in his new book ‘Artivism: The Battle for Museum in the inequalities, misogyny and chauvinism Era of Postmodernism’ is adamant that were still apparently abundant in today's societyart is freer when it is art for art’s sake. The feminist movement had always seemed like an amazing wave recent trend of new ideas that had happened forty or fifty years agoso-called artivism has caused artists to become more overtly political (read: left wing). It was the reason my mother Their seemingly grass roots movements have been astroturfed by large “left-wing” donors and I were now able media elites hoping to work create a more globalist and find a role outside of the homeprogressive regime. Or at least that’s what Alexander Adams believes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848546270</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1398508632|title=Peas and Queues: The Minefield of Modern MannersWilderness Cure|author=Sandi ToksvigMo Wilde
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary=Dear Sandi  You are my all 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 favourite celebrity lesbadyketo start, in a world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, Brexit and one a pandemic. Wilde had a few advantages: the area around her was a known habitat with a variety of the reasons I’m so very excited to be heading to Denmark this coming weekend (are all people there like you? Please say yes)terrains. For this alone, I She had electricity which allowed her to get my mitts on your latest offering. I wasn’t that fussed about obtaining run a book on manners previouslyfridge, having always thought mine were quite ok, but I knew your take on the matter would be suitably hilarious freezer and well worth dehydrator. She had a readcar - and fuel. I Most importantly, she had shelter: this was not wronga plan to ''live'' wild just to live off its produce.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250324</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529149800|title=Global Modernity Things You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Other EssaysReduce Waste|author=Tom RubensEduardo Garcia and Sara Boccaccini Meadows
|rating=4
|genre=Politics Home and SocietyFamily|summary=It’s been difficult We begin with a telling story. All the birds and animals fled when the forest fire took hold and most of them stood and watched, unable to think of anything they could do. The tiny hummingbird flew to the river and began taking tiny amounts of water and flying back to write this reviewdrop them into the fire. The book’s eclectic natureanimals laughed: what good was that doing. ''I'm doing the best I can'', with subject matter ranging from Nietzsche to said the English Police Forcehummingbird. And that, makes it difficult to summarise and secondlyreally, I’m no academic and philosophy is just HARD|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845405633</amazonuk>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.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1638485216
|title=Black, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement
|author=Frederick Reynolds
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=''Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. It has everything to do with character. Period.''
 
''One more body just wouldn't matter''.
The murder of George Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man, on 25 May 2020 by Derek Chauvin, a forty-four-year-old police officer, in the US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around the world. We rarely see pictures of a murder taking place but Floyd's death was an exception. The image of Chauvin kneeling on George's neck is not one which I'll ever forget and the protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. There was a backlash against the police - and not just in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''all'' tarred by the Chauvin brush.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Education Under Siege: Why There is a Better AlternativeMatthieu Aikins|authortitle=Peter MortimoreThe Naked Don't Fear the Water
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Peter MortimoreIt's thoroughgoing analysis of easy to forget at times that The Naked Don't Fear the absurdities of current educational practice and prescriptions for finding a far better alternative deserves Water isn't actually fiction, because it reads very much like a wide readershipwell-paced thriller at times. It This is not just an organisation which is under siege by any means a criticism, but rather a testament to how well Matthieu Aikins – a Canadian citizen who decided to accompany his friend as his personal anecdotes indicate, more vigorously than his rigorously argued statistics, people are sufferinga refugee from Afghanistan through Europe – recounts a vast and at times painful journey. Parents There are anxious, teachers badly led tense moments and burdened with confused policies and worst gripping accounts of all pupils are pressurised from early infancyborder crossings which had me on edge the whole way through. Reading his book you might be forgiven for wondering But it's written with a) why so many young students are being abused by such distress haunting and b) as Cicero might have asked, ''Cui bono'', almost lyrical quality that allows the reader to whose benefit? Professor Mortimore outlines perfectly envisage the positive alternatives suggested by international comparisons especially with Scandinavian methods. He argues that their procedures are more effective, that support students environments and produce a fairer, harmonious societypeople described.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447311310</amazonuk>B09N9157T6
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1785633074|title=Inventing the Enemy: Essays on EverythingStaggering Hubris|author=Umberto EcoJosh Berry|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryHumour|summary=Imagine a sumptuous Italian feast in Members of Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by politicians, headed by the sunlitPrime minister -bathed ancient countryside near Milan. Next to you a gentleman talks and eats with furious energy. He tells the ''primus inter pares'' (that's for those 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 who are Eton and even breaks wind. His conversation contains nuggets of information Oxbridge educated) but in the flow of his discourse there reality is a fondness for iteration and reiteration. He throws bones over his shoulder and when he reaches that the ''prime'' movers are the special advisers - the cheese course SPADS - definitely too much information on who are the mouldy bacteria! When you finally get up things driving force behind the elderly gentleman has said prompt your imaginationgovernment. You We are better informed, intrigued and prodded in the privileged position of having access to examine his discourse again and againthe memoirs of Rafe Hubris, even if only to challenge what you have heardthe man who was behind the skilful control of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of 2020. Such are You might not know the effects of reading Eco’s essays in ''Inventing name now but he will certainly be the Enemy''man to watch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553945</amazonuk>
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=George Brock1846276772|title=Out The End of PrintBias: Newspapers, Journalism and the Business of News in the Digital AgeHow We Change Our Minds|author=Jessica Nordell|rating=34.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=At about Anyone who is not an able, white man understands bias in that they may no longer even recognise the turn extent to which they suffer from it: it's simply a part of the century most people on the street where I live had a morning paper delivered and a good number also got an evening papereveryday life. White men will always come first. The queue at able will come before the newsagent in disabled. Jobs, promotions, higher salaries are the village would be out preserve of the door each morning as people picked up a paper on their way to workwhite man. I canEven when those who wouldn't remember when I last saw pass the medical become a newspaper boy (or girl) on part of an organisation it's rare that their views are heard, that their rounds and we only buy the weekend papers as an indulgence with a more leisurely breakfastconcerns are acknowledged. Times have changed - It's personally appalling and theredegrading for the individuals on the receiving end of the bias but it's no sign that the situation is likely to settle in not just the near futureindividuals who are negatively impacted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749466510</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529148251
|title=Misfits: A Personal Manifesto
|author=Michaela Coel
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=''How am I able to be so transparent on paper about rape, malpractice and poverty, yet still compartmentalise? It's as though I were telling the truth whilst simultaneously running away from it.''
Before you start reading ''Misfits'' you need to be in a certain frame of mind. You're not going to read a book of essays or a self-help book. You're going to read writing which was inspired by Michaela Coel's 2018 MacTaggart Lecture to professionals within the television industry at the Edinburgh TV Festival. You might be ''reading'' the book but you need to ''listen'' to the words as though you're in the lecture theatre. The disjointedness will fade away and you'll be carried on a cloud of exquisite writing.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0008350388|title=Against Their Will: The Secret History of Medical Experimentation on Children in Cold War AmericaWe Need to Talk About Money|author=Allen M Hornblum, Judith L Newman and Gregory J DoberOtegha Uwagba
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=If I told you that doctors had been using human beings in the most horrible of medical experiments, that they had done things like tie toddlers ''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to beds to insert live pathogens into their eyesbe seen as less desirable, injected children with radiationless hireable, sterilised those thought less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...'' ''We Need to be subhuman and even castrated Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba ''0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a child just to get book by a supply writer of tissue for colour while only 7% study a book by a lab experiment, you might very reasonably assume I am talking abut Nazi Germanywoman. I am not.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230341713</amazonuk>}}'' ''The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021
{{newreview|title=Across Otegha Uwagba came to the Pond|author=Terry Eagleton|rating=3UK from Kenya when she was five years old.5|genre=Politics Her sisters were seven and Society|summary=Terry Eagleton is a Brit (Manchester bornnine. It was her mother who came first, no less) who now lives in Dublin with his American wife her father joining them later. The family was hard-working, principled and determined that their children, so he seems well placed to write a book about would have the difference between us and them, there Yanksbest education possible. Mid way through the pages, he even stops to tell us that in There was always a way he had to write painful awareness of money although this, because when he wishes to read did not translate into a book, he writes shortage of anything: itwas simply carefully harvested. To read someone else’s When Otegha was ten the family acquired a car. For Otegha, he suggestseducation meant a scholarship to a private school in London and then a place at New College, is ‘an unwarranted invasion of their personal space’. That’s how so very British he isOxford.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393347648</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jill StarkRichard Brook|title=High SobrietyUnderstanding Human Nature: My Year Without BoozeA User's Guide to Life
|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=On the first of January 2011 Jill Stark woke up with the hangover from HellI am a firm believer that sometimes we choose books, and sometimes books choose us. She was no stranger to them: at thirty five she'd been binge drinking for more than twenty years and was in the dubious position In my case, this is one of being the health reporter who wrote herself off at weekendslatter. And by Not so very long ago, if I had come across this book I'wrote herself off' I mean being seriously drunk on a very regular basisd have skimmed it, having consumed vast quantities found some of alcohol and having regularly put herself in danger of serious illnessit interesting, unwanted pregnancy and assault. But on that first day but it would not have 'hit home' in January Stark decided the way that she it does now. I believe it came to me not just because I was going likely to do something about give it and a favourable review [ ''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 initial decision was book, even if it doesn't always turn out that she would spend three months on the wagonway'' ] – but also because it is a book I needed to read, right now.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1922247030</amazonuk>1800461682
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1787332098|title=A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha MousaHow to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World|author=A T WilliamsHenry Mance
|rating=5
|genre=HistoryPolitics and Society|summary=Almost ten years ago on a Sunday morning back in September 2003, British Troops raided a hotel in Basra. It was a difficult period in the occupation, six months on from the U.S. led invasion. Temperatures were more than 50 degrees centigrade. Members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR) took ten suspects in for questioning from a hotel in the vicinity of insurgent weaponry. The Iraqis were hooded'When we do think about animals, plasticuffed, forced we break them down into stress positions species and subjected to karate chops and kidney punches by the British. Other men and officers watchedgroups: cows, dogs, walked by or wondered at the stench that resulted from vicious punishment. After 36 hours of torturefoxes, a 26 year-old hotel receptionist lay dead by asphyxiation. His grossly disfigured body bore 93 individual injurieselephants and so on. There are now And we assign them places in the region of another 250 individualssociety: cows go on plates, men and womendogs on sofas, whose families are making legal claims to have been killed foxes in further encounters with British patrols or prison guards.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099575116</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ryu Murakami|title=From The Fatherlandrubbish bins, With Love|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=From The Fatherlandelephants in zoos, With Love is a 2005 Japanese novel set in the then-near future of 2011. Fatherland (as I will abbreviate it) explores the social and political ramifications millions of one speculative scenario: what if North Korea invaded Japan?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908968451</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Polly Morland|title=The Society of Timid Souls: Orwild animals stay out there, ''somewhere, How to be Brave|rating=3.5|genre=Reference|summary='I see no reason why ' hopefully on the shy and timid in any community couldn’t get together and help each othernext David Attenborough series.''
The above words were uttered in 1943 by a gentleman called Bernard GabrielI was going to argue. Mr Gabriel was a piano player who founded a unique club I mean, cows are for cheese (I couldn''The Society t consider eating red meat...) and I much prefer my elephants in the wild but then I realised that I was quibbling for the sake of Timid Souls'' it. Essentially that encouraged timid performers quote sums up my attitude to animals - and fear-wracked musicians I consider myself an animal lover. If I had to come in out choose between the company of humans and the company of animals, I would probably choose the cold 'animals. I insisted that I read this book: no one was trying to playstop me but I was initially reluctant. I eat cheese, eggs, to criticise chicken and fish and be criticised in order I needed to conquer either do so without guilt or change my choices. I suspected that old bogey of stage fright.' The method evidently worked, as many a timid soul claimed to making the decision would not be cured by these unorthodox methods and club membership grew considerably in the years that followedcomfortable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781251908</amazonuk>
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rithy Panh1523092734|title=The EliminationA Women's Guide to Claiming Space|author=Eliza Van Cort|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Three years ago I went to Cambodia''She brings a hug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. I went to S21, because you cannot go to Phnom Penh Again and not go to the former high school Tuol Sleng (Tuol Slav Prey as it had been) again and see what it becameagain. I went to Choeung Ek'' (Alma Derricks, because you cannot NOT know about the killing fieldsformer CMO, and you cannot really know about them until you have stood there.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846689295</amazonuk>}}Cirque du Soleil RSD)
{{newreview|author=Ivo Mosley|title=In ''To claim space is to live the Name life of the People: Pseudo-Democracy choosing unapologetically and the Spoiling of Our World|rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=On the spectrum ranging between democracy and totalitarianism, Ivo Mosley upholds that the system of elective oligarchy lies closer bravely. It is to live the latterlife you've always wanted. And yet, he essentially says, Western democracy as we know it today is ''nothing'' but this form of representative government, excluding a large proportion of the people whose freedoms it claims to protect.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845402626</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Paul McMahon|title=Feeding Frenzy: The New Politics of Food|rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=It's predicted that Sometimes the world's population will reach nine billion by 2050 and given that there reviewing gods are regular appeals for money to relieve generous: at a famine time when violence against women is much in some part of the world it's not unreasonable to wonder whether or not we will be able to feed nine billion people. Recent turmoil in food markets adds to the worrynews, but the truth is that we could feed that number people ''nowA Women'' if different approaches were taken and there was cooperation rather than an unseemly scramble s Guide to secure access to food even if this results in starvation for the neighbour. Paul McMahon looks at how in this very readable book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250340</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mac Carty|title=The Vagaries Of Swing (Footprints on the Margate Sands of Time)|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Mac Carty tells us that the catalyst for Claiming Space'The Vagaries of Swing' was the BBC television series 'True Love' which portrayed a series of romantic encounters all set by the sea in his home town of MargateEliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. But Carty has taken the original idea Now - about relationships between people to be clear - and run this book is not a 'how to disable your attacker with two simple jabs' manual: it's something far more effective, extending 'but discussion at the moment seems to be about how women can be 'love'protected' into ''passion'', say for cricket, or (at the other end of the scale) as a human encounter which ends in violence. Whilst the television series might have been the catalyst for the book there was another and probably more compelling reason. When his friend Mike died he realised I've always thought that he had no one with whom women need to rise above this, to share his fund of stories about growing up in Margatebe people who don't need protection, all of which had been revisited on a regular basis and usually over a pintpeople who claim their own space. I've If all women did this, those few men who are violent to women would realise that we are not just read the resultan easy target to be used to prove that they are big men.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1291336761</amazonuk>
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Emily CockaynePolly Barton|title=Cheek by Jowl: A History of NeighboursFifty Sounds
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryPolitics and Society|summary=As Emily Cockayne emphasises at Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the beginning of the first chapter, almost everyone question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a neighbour; while and if you the world hadn't gone into melt-down I would have a neighbourvisited by now. I may get there later this year, you are one yourself; and neighbours can enrich or ruin our livesbut I am not hopeful. In this engaging bookAnd 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 on the sound ''giro' '' – which she takes various case studies and anecdotes describes as being, among other things, the sound of living side by side in Britain from around 1200 ''every party where you have to the present dayintroduce yourself''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099546949</amazonuk>1913097501
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{{newreview|author=Jonathan M Katz|title=The Big Truck That Went By|rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=It was January 12, 2010 and AP correspondent Jonathan M. Katz was preparing Move to ship out of Haiti after spending the last two and a half years reporting about political instability, riots and disasters. He was preparing for a change of scene, a stint in Afghanistan, concluding that ''It sounded like a good place for a break''. Nature had other plans. When the earthquake struck, Katz was unexpectedly thrown into the thick of the action. As the only American reporter on the ground at the time of the quake, he felt duty-bound to break news of unfolding events to an oblivious world.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>023034187X</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Popular Science Reviews]]