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[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan Allen and Amie ParnesEdward W Said|title=HRC: State Secrets and Representations of the Rebirth of Hillary ClintonIntellectual |rating=4.5|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Hillary Clinton initially came to our attention as First Lady and even then she might have faded into international obscurity had it not been for the way in which she managed to hold her head high during those unfortunate incidents with Bill - well, HRC wasnEdward Said't s ''involvedRepresentations of the Intellectual'' but I'm sure you know is less a strict theory of what intellectuals are and more a passionate argument for what I'm talking aboutthey should be. Then she re-emerged through Said clearly rejects the fog comfortable image of the George W Bush presidency with her bid intellectual as a detached expert speaking only to gain other specialists. Instead, he insists on the Democratic nominationintellectual as a public figure, often awkward, abrasive, losing in a hotly contested series of primaries to Barack Obama - and went on unpopular, who speaks truth to become his Secretary of State. Now the question power even when it is whether inconvenient or not she will make another run for President in 2016risky.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099594692</amazonuk>1804272248

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mike McIntyre and Chris Brinkley (narrator)Ariel Saramandi|title=The Kindness Portrait of Strangers: Penniless Across Americaan Island on Fire

|genre=TravelPolitics and Society|summary=In 1994 Mike McIntyre was a thirty-seven-year-old journalist with a secret: he was frightened. There were specific fearsthis powerful collection of essays, but what it boiled down Saramandi seeks to was that he was frightened intradermally dissect the sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, tunneling deep into the wounds left by colonialism and slavery to expose how these legacies still shape modern life - and then there was . Saramandi describes the country at one stage as ''rotting'', a memory. He remembered - with some shame - not stopping blunt yet apt metaphor for a hitchhiker with a gas can in the desertsystemic decay brought about by the malignant forces of racism, patriarchy, environmental degradation and governmental dysfunction. It was almost on a whim that he decided to cross America, from San Francisco Each essay in California to Cape Fear in North Carolina, which might sound like this collection serves as a great adventurekind of diagnostic, but McIntyre decides to do it without money - to be completely reliant on charting the various diseases afflicting the kindness of strangers. He was confronting his own fearsisland state.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B00PWMVWTY</amazonuk>1804271616

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stian Bromark Gregor Hens and Hon Khiam Leong Jen Calleja (translator)|title=Massacre in Norway: The 2011 Terror Attack on Oslo City and the Utoya Youth CampWorld|rating=2.54|genre=HistoryPolitics and Society|summary=Anders Behring Breivik was 32 when he both planted a van bomb in OsloIn ''s central government district to hit out at what he thought was The City and the World'Cultural Marxism', which killed 8Gregor Hens reveals how cities are as much imagined spaces as they are physical ones. With a deep affection for the urban landscapes that have shaped his life, then left for an island in a lake 24 miles awayHens reflects on places like Cologne, Berlin, where and Goch on the Lower Rhine with a notably political youth gathering was enjoying itselfblend of personal memory and thoughtful observation. He gunned down 69 people – more than one in ten of those His writing, at times abstract, captures not just architectural features but the camp – emotional and wounded many scores more. He also spammed countless people with another of his projectsmental geographies tied to each location, for example, a lengthy manifesto declaring his ideas about Islamisation and what he saw perspectives as a pernicious multiculturalism ruining his country. His case was one of the more superlative events in modern Nordic history – child as opposed to as was the surprisingly lenient sentence for over 70 lives of just 21 yearsan adult. This isFrom Belgium and Germany to Berkeley and Columbus, as you'd expectHens traces a map of experiences, one turning cities into reflections of the many books to result from the caseidentity and belonging.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1612346685</amazonuk>1804271691

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=John CampbellJacqueline Feldman|title=Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded LifePrecarious Lease|rating=3.5

|summary=It must be rare indeed that The title of this novel refers to a British political figure who never became Prime Minister is the subject 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 or deserves massive proportions which adopted an almost mythical status for its inhabitants, admirers and detractors alike: Le Bloc. Something like a biography comprising 750 pages haven for artists and marginal members of text. Howeversociety (as one character, Le Général, repeats throughout, as John Campbell demonstrates in this volume''I live on the margins of the margins of the margins''), it is difficult to do justice Le Bloc was subject to the lifecontinual 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, times and career of Roy Jenkins framed as a tragedy in much less than thatthis book.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224087509</amazonuk>1804271403

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dan JonesClaire Dederer|title=Magna CartaMonsters: The Making and Legacy of the What Do We Do with Great CharterArt by Bad People?|rating=53|genre=HistoryPolitics and Society|summary=For Dederer sets out to unveil what do we – and by courtesy she calls a ''biography of the audience'' in a lengthy timeline in historydeconstructed, thoroughly nitpicked, would exploration of the old aphorism of separating the Americans likewise – most likely owe thanks to a spigurnel? What is art from the most revered legal document artist in history, which sets out the rights context of man – but also has time to talk about widowscontemporary ''cancel culture''. Dederer' rights, fish traps, s work is original and expressive. The reader gets the impression that the thoughts simply sprang and to be both sexist leapt from her brilliant mind and to discuss onto the page. In particular, the importance to people's estates to debts owed Jewish moneylenders? What will probably be prologue packs a punch: she simultaneously condemns and exalts the only notable historical experience director Roman Polanski, an artist she personally admires for his art, and yet despises for his actions. This model of Britain in 1215''monstrous men'' as she calls them, when we finally get diverted from thinking about WWI and discuss is consistent for the 800 years of something elsefirst few chapters, even though interrogating the authority likes of no less than the Pope declared 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 null so dearly, and void within ten weeks of its being finished?a personal, rather than collective voice.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781858853</amazonuk>1399715070

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Krishna BhattVirginie Despentes|title=The Royal EnigmaKing Kong Theory|rating=24|genre=Historical FictionAutobiography |summary=There ''King Kong Theory'' is absolutely nothing wrong with books that cross genres. The best historical novels are a hard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, which can be seen as much history as fictiona call to arms for women in a phallocentric society broken at its core. HoweverOriginally written in French, it the book is a golden rule that collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a book must know who woman through the complex prism of her varied life: from rape to sex work and what it ispornography. One of Though these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the problems with The Royal Enigma is that it suffers from book can feel somewhat disjointed, a serious identity crisisreflection of their original form as independent essays.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B005Q8QCTY</amazonuk>191309734X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adrian Hart1009473085|title=That's Racist: How the regulation of speech The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and thought divides us allTom Egerton (Editors)|rating=4.5

|summary=Adrian Hart has Sometimes it's simpler to explain a long history of campaigning against racism, not least because he was subjected book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to racial abuse when he was at school''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. With jet-black hair and a complexion that was just If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''slightlyreally'' darker than was normal he was happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the closest book for you. If that his school had '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 someone who might be of Pakistani originpolitics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It was only name calling '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 a group various fields review the state of boys but the experience stuck 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's put much of walked and cycled very close to home and then wrote about it. As he says in his working life where his mouth introduction, the book isan attempt ''to share what I have learnt about some big issues from a year exploring a small map. SoNature loss, pollution, land use and access, agriculture, the food system, you might expect rewilding…'' One of the joys of the book for me was that the biggest thing he would be a devotee learned about all of the zero tolerance approach to racist speechthese things was that there are no easy answers, but heno single 'right or wrong's far from certain , that this every upside is the right way likely to go have a downside for somebody and believes that this might be causing more divisions in society than racism itselfthere are some hard choices ahead.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845407555</amazonuk>1785633678

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Encyclopedia ParanoiacaEdel Rodriguez|authortitle=Henry Beard and Christopher CerfWorm: A Cuban American Odyssey

|genre=Popular ScienceGraphic Novels|summary=We're screwedin childhood, and we're in Cuba. Wherever we lookThe revolution has happened, and Castro, whatever we think first thought of as a saviour of doingthe country, there is has proven himself a reason why we shouldn't be doing itCommunist, and people not done nearly enough to back that reason up with scientific datacreate a level playing field for all. Take any aspect Well, those hours-long speeches of your daily life – what you eathis 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, how you worksuch as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, how you rest evenand not liked for his successful photography business, what you touch – all have problems that could provoke a serious illness or worsesuccess being frowned upon. And outside that daily sphere there are economic disastersThe mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some of the heat, nuclear meltdownsbut in this sultry island country, errant AI scientists and passing comets that could turn our world upside down at it remains the blink kind of an eye. Perhaps then heat forcing you better read this book first – for it may well turn out to be your last…of the kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0715649213</amazonuk>1474616720

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=How To Be A ConservativeSarah Wilson|authortitle=Roger ScrutonThis One Wild and Precious Life: the path back to connection in a fractured world

|genre=Politics 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 Societyprecious 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=Roger Scruton Clive Wilkinson has been described a history of travelling by Jesse Norman as 'one unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of exploring the few intellectually authoritative voices edges of England in British conservatisman 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'. His central theme in this book 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 defend seem more and champion 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 value of cartoons run from 4 September 2021 to 31 August 2022. Who can imagine what there will be to come in the home2023 edition?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0B7289HKQ|title=Conversations Across America: A Father and Son, Alzheimer's, a society based on free association and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the nation state. The simplest Soul of biographical sections demonstrates 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 author period between two jobs seemed like a good time to do it. The decision was brought up not made to ride the Trans America Bike Trail from ‘privileged’ stock but within a Labour-votingYorktown, lower middle class familyVirginia to Astoria, Oregon - all 4250 miles of it - in 2015. They had 73 days to demonstrate do it - slightly less than the recommended time - but there were factors which pointed this up as more of a challenge that his conservatism it would be for most people who considered taking it on. Merv Loya was 75 years old and he was not inherited but a product of his own intellectual journeysuffering from early-stage Alzheimer's.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472903765</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. }}{{Frontpage|author=Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams |title=The Book of Hope |rating=5|genre=Politics and Society |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}}{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1788360737|title=Artivism: The Wall Between UsBattle for Museums in the Era of Postmodernism|author=Alexander Adams|rating=2|genre= Politics and Society|summary= 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 social environment in which he develops’’. Therefore, all art must be political, even implicitly. Alexander Adams in his new book ‘Artivism: The Battle for Museum in the Era of Postmodernism’ is adamant that art is freer when it is art for art’s sake. The recent trend of so-called artivism has caused artists to become more overtly political (read: left wing). Their seemingly grass roots movements have been astroturfed by large “left-wing” donors and media elites hoping to create a more globalist and progressive regime. Or at least that’s what Alexander Adams believes.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398508632|title=The Wilderness Cure|author=Mo Wilde|rating=5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=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 start, in a world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, 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 fridge, freezer and dehydrator. She had a car - and fuel. Most importantly, she had shelter: this was not a plan to ''live'' wild just to live off its produce.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529149800|title=Things You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste|author=Matthew SmallEduardo Garcia and Sara Boccaccini Meadows

|genre=Politics Home and SocietyFamily|summary=In this personal account We begin with a telling story. All the birds and animals fled when the forest fire took hold and most of his visit to Israel them stood and the West Bankwatched, Small journals his time spent with people he meets along unable to think of anything they could do. The tiny hummingbird flew to the way river and began taking tiny amounts of water and attempts flying back to make sense of drop them into the conflict fire. The animals laughed: what good was that has dominated this area for many yearsdoing. Small openly admits ''I'm doing the issue there best I can'', said the hummingbird. And that, really, is not a simple one and his visit reinforces the fact only way that we will solve the problem of climate change – by each of us doing what we can, however small that there are many complexities preventing peace from happeningmight be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910266302</amazonuk>

''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|author=Jonathan ShawMatthieu Aikins|title=Britain in a Perilous World: The Strategic Defence and Security Review we need Naked Don't Fear the Water

|summary=It's easy to forget at times that The 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review has stayed in Naked Don't Fear the mind for the wrong reasons: 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, but rather than looking a testament to develop how well Matthieu Aikins – a strategy, Canadian citizen who decided to examine the short accompany his friend as a refugee from Afghanistan through Europe – recounts a vast and at times painful journey. There are tense moments and long term threats gripping accounts of border crossings which had me on edge the country faced, the emphasis was on cutting costs, with some cuts appearing ludicrous at first glancewhole way through. In the intervening years there have been occasions when But it was difficult not to wonder if the United Kingdom was poorly equipped - 's written with a haunting and without clear-cut aims - as a result of almost lyrical quality that allows the 2010 review. The opportunity reader to put this right comes in 2015 perfectly envisage the environments and Major General Jonathan Shaw looks not at what the Review should say, but at how it should be tackledpeople described.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908323817</amazonuk>B09N9157T6

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=The Economist1785633074|title=Pocket World in Figures 2015Staggering Hubris|author=Josh Berry

|genre=ReferenceHumour|summary=There Members of Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by politicians, headed by the Prime minister - the ''primus inter pares'' (that's for those of you who are people who donEton and Oxbridge educated) but the reality is that the ''prime''t understand movers are the special advisers - the joy of raw data: no accompanying analysis (or spin) SPADS - just a collection of figures relevant to a particular circumstancewho are the driving force behind the government. If you're one We are in the privileged position of those people then this book will mean little having access to youthe memoirs of Rafe Hubris, but if you want a pocket (well, certainly handbag or briefcase) work the man who was behind the skilful control of reference then this book will be a treasure. I once gave a copy to a diplomat and he kept his wife awake until the early hours as he came across another gem Covid crisis which she had to know without delaywas completely contained by the end of 2020. The 2015 edition is You might not know the twenty fourth in name now but he will certainly be the series - and diplomatic (and similar) spouses everywhere should prepare themselves for the onslaughtman to watch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781252734</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1846276772|title=Stand and DeliverThe End of Bias: A Design for Successful GovernmentHow We Change Our Minds|author=Ed StrawJessica Nordell

|summary=Confidence in politicians Anyone who is at not an all-time low. In factable, an alarming number 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 Britons express outright contempt, not just for their leaders, but for everyday life. White men will always come first. The able will come before the entire political class - for the politicans themselvesdisabled. Jobs, for the civil servants standing behind thempromotions, even for higher salaries are the Westminster bubble preserve of commentators and policy wonksthe white man. We vote for them in ever-decreasing numbers and even Even when those who continue to vote often do not feel represented. Worse still, wouldn't pass the younger you medical become a part of an organisation it's rare that their views areheard, the more likely you that their concerns are to be politically disengagedacknowledged. We It're in danger s personally appalling and degrading for the individuals on the receiving end of losing an entire generation from the political processbias but it's not just the individuals who are negatively impacted. How can this be good for a democracy?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>099294760X</amazonuk>

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=Harry's Last StandWe Need to Talk About Money|author=Harry Leslie SmithOtegha Uwagba

|summary=RAF veteran Harry Leslie Smith rose to prominence last year with a famous Guardian article 'This year, I will wear 'To be a poppy for the last time' about the way in which the remembrance of those who died in the great wars has been codark-opted skinned Black woman is to justify today’s military conflicts. Here, he tackles themes of poverty, political corruptionbe seen as less desirable, unemploymentless hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...'' ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba ''0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a lack book by a writer of hope felt colour while only 7% study a book by so many people todaya woman.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848317263</amazonuk>}}'' ''The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021

{{newreview|title=Angela Merkel: The Chancellor and Her World|author=Stefan Kornelius|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=You have Otegha Uwagba came to admire the lady, this rather awkward and shy daughter of a staunch Lutheran pastor who himself had been born as a Polish CatholicUK from Kenya when she was five years old. His daughter studied with such intelligence Her sisters were seven and application that soon brought her academic success particularly in Russian and finally in Quantum Chemistrynine. At the age of 26, she obtained It was her doctorate and - in passingmother who came first, it rather seems - with her first husband, the physicist Ulrike Merkelfather joining them later. Her rise to power The family was rapid hard-working, principled and took place through determined that their children would have the period in which the DDR collapsed as Russian policy under Gorbachev changedbest education possible. Along with There was always a wry and dry sense painful awareness of humour Angela Merkel’s personality is the embodiment money although this did not translate into a shortage of anything: it was simply carefully harvested. When Otegha was ten the characteristic known family acquired a car. For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to a private school in German as ''fleissig'' - hardworking, sedulousLondon and then a place at New College, diligent and assiduousOxford.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846883180</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Richard Brook|title=An AtheistUnderstanding Human Nature: A User's History of Belief|author=Matthew KnealeGuide to Life

|genre=Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary=I’ve been an atheist since I was old enough to take am a view on firm believer that sometimes we choose books, and sometimes books choose us. In my case, this is one of the subjectlatter. (Many atheists 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 argue not have 'hit home' in the way that we’re all atheists at birth, but that’s it does now. I believe it came to me not just because I was likely to give it a subject for a book favourable review)[ ''full disclosure The Bookbag's u.s. I did have p. is that people chose their own books rather than getting them randomly, so there is a predisposition towards expecting to take Religious Studies at school like the book, even if it doesn't always turn out that way'' ] – but have entirely forgotten almost everything also because it is a book I learned!needed to read, right now.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099584425</amazonuk>1800461682

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=Notebooks, 1922-861787332098|author=Michael Oakeshott|rating=3.5|genretitle=Politics and Society|summary=Michael Oakeshott is usually described as a conservative thinker. According How to Perry Anderson, his work influenced John Major's style of politics; he named him Love Animals in the London Review of Books in 1992 as one of four ‘outstanding European theorists of the intransigent Right’. Luke O’Sullivan, who edited this collection of notebooks, has often said that he considers such descriptions limiting. O’Sullivan is clearly enthusiastic about Oakeshott’s work and strove to enable these notebooks, spanning a period of over sixty years, to be published.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845400542</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday LifeHuman-Shaped World|author=Uri Gneezy and John ListHenry Mance

|summary=Wow! This is a most surprising economics book''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.''

Behavioral economists (if you’ll excuse the American spelling) investigate people’s buying behaviour and consuming patternsI was going to argue. I guess we know about that already because supermarkets here lull us into buying three for the price of twomean, to come back next week cows are for £10 off a £100, or to garner extra points on a loyalty card cheese (Oh why can’t they just go I couldn't consider eating red meat...) and I much prefer my elephants in the wild but then I realised that I was quibbling for a cheaper price at the point sake of sale? Why do profits have it. Essentially that quote sums up my attitude to be in double percentage point increases year on year?)animals - and I consider myself an animal lover. A fair bit of manipulation If I had to ensure that a choose between the company survives is already part of humans and parcel the company of our livesanimals, I would probably choose the animals. If you’d asked me before I insisted that I read this book: no one was trying to stop me but I was initially reluctant. I eat cheese, eggs, chicken and fish and I would have lined up needed to either do so without guilt or change my choices. I suspected that sort of consumer marketing psychology alongside banking as profiteering. However … these guys are different: they really do seem to care about making the plight of the underprivileged, and they come from an academic setting, rather than a commercial onedecision would not be comfortable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847946747</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alain de Botton1523092734|title=The News: A User's Manual|rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Alain de Botton maintains that 'the news' has assumed the position in our lives which was once occupied by religion, with some consumers viewing it as often as every fifteen minutes (slight blush there - let's say about every hour...). Furthermore, we do it completely unprotected against every political scandal or celebrity story. The sub-title 'A UserWomen's Manual' sets out Guide to remedy this.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00HYGYIGA</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewClaiming Space|author=Robert A Caro|title=The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of AscentEliza Van Cort

|summary=There are few billionaire black African entrepreneurs''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) ''To claim space is to live the life of choosing unapologetically and bravely. As Andrew Rugasira points out It is to live the life you've always wanted.'' Sometimes the reviewing gods are generous: at a time when violence against women is much in the news, ''A Good African StoryWomen's Guide to Claiming Space'' by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. Now - to be clear - this book is not a 'how to disable your attacker with two simple jabs'manual: it's something far more effective, but discussion at the moment seems to be about how women can be ''protected''. I've always thought that women need to rise above this, to be people who don't need protection, people who make money from African exports claim their own space. If all women did this, those few men who are violent to women would realise that we are not just an easy target to be used to prove that they are virtually always white Westerners. Even Fair Trade participants remain skewed by the status quo of trade barriers which discriminate against Third World countriesbig men.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099571927</amazonuk>

{{newreview|title=Play It Again: An Amateur Against The ImpossibleFrontpage|author=Alan Rusbridger|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=I’ve maintained for a long time that I’ll read anything, if it’s well-enough written. So it was with this fascinating memoir, even though it’s a year in the life of an amateur pianist, and I don’t play the piano – or indeed a note of music. I couldn’t even have placed the name Alan Rusbridger in his professional role before I read the book. A quick browse through the first couple of pages on Amazon revealed that the author could indeed tell a clear story: it is his stock-in-trade as Editor of the Guardian. And the book duly held me through a messy, interrupted week of bedtime reading.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554747</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewPolly Barton|title=Winter|author=Adam Gopnik|rating=4|genre=Reference|summary=In this collection of five essays, each one offering a unique and fascinating perspective on the season of winter, Adam Gopnik takes the reader on a captivating journey, exploring history, art and society, through ''Romantic Winter'', ''Radical Winter'', ''Recuperative Winter'', ''Recreational Winter'' and ''Remembering Winter''. In each essay, Gopnik focuses on one or two central themes, whilst also touching on surrounding ideas. For example, in Romantic Winter his central topics are art and poetry, however, issues such as changing society, technology, sex and culture are also explored, in relation to these pivotal notions. He also includes two sections featuring collections of artwork to illustrate his viewpoints, which add a charming, individual touch to this book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780874472</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=Outraged of Tunbridge Wells: Original Complaints from Middle England|author=Nigel Cawthorne|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=It was ever thus… cyclists go too fast, without using a hooter or lights; there are hoodlums everywhere one looks, and no public conveniences; people pretend to have qualifications and degrees they haven't rightfully earned; buses are too busy with shopping women who should be indoors already, cooking for their working menfolk… It's a very clever idea to show exactly what is behind the 'disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' tag, and as a book to be shelved alongside those with the wackier letters sent to the ''Daily Telegraph'', these selections from the Royal town's press itself make a great eye-opener to the complaints and complainants of Kent.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908096918</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=How Much have Global Problems Cost the World?: A Scorecard from 1900 to 2050|author=Bjorn Lomborg (Editor)Fifty Sounds

|summary=The authors are leading researchers in their fieldsWhere do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a while and their papers if the world hadn't gone into melt-down I would have been critiqued visited by peer-reviewersnow. Each of the chapters reports the results of a modelling exerciseI may get there later this year, examining progress or decline in one of ten key areas, including armed conflict, trade barriers, malnutrition, air pollution, ecosystem and biodiversity, health, water and sanitationbut I am not hopeful. Key economicAnd like Barton, growth and other variables from credible sources provided a common set of data and assumptions, used in each study.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1107679338</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Tony Benn|title=The Last Diaries: A Blaze of Autumn Sunshine|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Throughout my life Idon've found that whilst I might not always agree with Tony Benn's politics, whatever he had t know the answer to say would give me food for thought - and frequently changed the way that I viewed a situation. Hequestion ''why Japan?''s a wonderful mixture She explains her feelings in respect of supreme intelligence and humanity the question in the first essay, 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 the slipcover speaks of on the sound ''compensations and challenges of old agegiro'' and ''the disadvantages of growing older– which she describes as being, the loneliness of widowhoodamong other things, the upheaval of moving from the family home of sixty years and the problems sound of failing health.'' Ievery party where you have to introduce yourself've always been relieved that Benn has never ''quite'' achieved the status of national treasure, but surely he couldn't be in decline?.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091943876</amazonuk>1913097501

As a twenty-something year old feminist, it pains me Move to admit how much this quote applied to me. Having grown up knowing that college and university were paths I could definitely take, never being told that settling down and finding a husband was an important goal to have, and always getting the same opportunities as my male peers in the workplace, I'd never seen – or, at least, ''thought'' I'd seen – the inequalities, misogyny and chauvinism that were still apparently abundant in today's society. The feminist movement had always seemed like an amazing wave of new ideas that had happened forty or fifty years ago. It was the reason my mother and I were now able to work and find a role outside of the home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848546270</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Popular Science Reviews]]