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[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David GreeneEdward W Said|title=Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey into Representations of the Heart of RussiaIntellectual

|summary=ItEdward Said's no mistake that the cover of my edition ''Representations of this book is a photo where the Trans-Siberian Railway is horizontal in the frame. ItIntellectual''s well known for going east-west, left to right across the map of the largest country by far in the world. 9,288 kilometres from Moscow to the eastern stretches of Russia, it could only be a long, thin line across the cover, as it is in our imagination of it as less a form strict theory of transport what intellectuals are and more a travel destination in its own rightpassionate argument for what they should be. So when this book mentions it as Said clearly rejects the spine or backbone comfortable image of Russia the intellectual as a couple of timesdetached expert speaking only to other specialists. Instead, that's got to be of he insists on the intellectual as a prone Russia – one lying downpublic figure, not upright or active. David Greeneoften awkward, a stalwart of northern American radio journalismabrasive, uses this book to see just how active or otherwise Russia and Russians are – and finds their lying down to be quite a definite verdictunpopular, as well as a slight indictment. It's no mistake either for this cover who speaks truth to have people in the frame alongside the train carriages, for the people met both riding and living alongside the tracks of the Railway are definitely the ribs of the piecepower even when it is inconvenient or risky.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846883709</amazonuk>1804272248

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan Allen Ariel Saramandi|title=Portrait of an Island on Fire|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=In this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks to 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. Saramandi describes the country at one stage as ''rotting'', a blunt yet apt metaphor for the systemic decay brought about by the malignant forces of racism, patriarchy, environmental degradation and Amie Parnesgovernmental dysfunction. Each essay in this collection serves as a kind of diagnostic, charting the various diseases afflicting the island state.|isbn=1804271616}}{{Frontpage|author=Gregor Hens and Jen Calleja (translator)|title=HRC: State Secrets The City and the Rebirth of Hillary ClintonWorld

|summary=Hillary Clinton initially came The title of this novel refers to our attention 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 First Lady 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 even then 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 might have faded 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 international obscurity had anonymity and maintaining her own subjectivity, as she holds it not been 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 way book is a collection of essays in which she managed Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the complex prism of her varied life: from rape to hold her head high during those unfortunate incidents with Bill 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 - well, HRC wasn2024|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 ''involvedand 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 '' but Ireally'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn'm sure t the book for you know . If that's what you're looking for, Idon'm talking 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 aboutsome big issues from a year exploring a small map. Then she 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'rein 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-emerged through long speeches of his were kind of taking his time away. Our narrator's family weren't in the fog 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 George W Bush presidency couple jobs with her bid the party to gain ease some of the Democratic nominationheat, losing 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 hotly contested series of primaries 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 Barack Obama - do with your one wild and went on precious life?'' I get to become his Secretary of Statelove that line so much because my answer is ''This! Precisely this. '' Now I'm lucky enough to be living my one wild and precious life the question 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 or 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 will make another run for President in 2016thinks you (we, I) could be doing more…And she's effing furious about the fact that we are not.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099594692</amazonuk>1785633848

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mike McIntyre and Chris Brinkley (narrator)1785633457|title=The Kindness Charging Around: Exploring the Edges of Strangers: Penniless Across AmericaEngland by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson|rating=4.5

|summary=In 1994 Mike McIntyre was Clive Wilkinson has a thirty-seven-year-old journalist history of travelling by unconventional means with a secret: preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of exploring the edges of England in an electric car was frightenednot totally outrageous. There were specific fearsIn fact, but what it boiled down to was that he was frightened of life - and then there was should be a memory. He remembered - with some shame - not stopping pleasant holiday for a hitchhiker with a gas can in the desert. It was almost on a whim that he decided to cross America, from San Francisco in California to Cape Fear in North CarolinaClive and his wife, which might sound like a great adventureJoan, but McIntyre decides to do shouldn't it without money - to be completely reliant on the kindness of strangers. He was confronting his own fears.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00PWMVWTY</amazonuk>?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stian Bromark and Hon Khiam Leong (translator)1529153050|title=Massacre in Norway: The 2011 Terror Attack on Oslo and the Utoya Youth CampBritain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson|rating=2.54|genre=HistoryHumour|summary=Anders Behring Breivik Seeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is coming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, I was 32 when he both planted a van bomb in Oslonudged towards ''Britain's central government district to hit out at what he thought was Best Political Cartoons of 2022'Cultural Marxism', which killed 8, then left for an island in a lake 24 miles away, where a notably political youth gathering was enjoying itself. He gunned down 69 people – more than one in ten of those at Sharp eyes will have noted that we're not yet through the year: the camp – and wounded many scores morecartoons run from 4 September 2021 to 31 August 2022. He also spammed countless people with another of his projects, a lengthy manifesto declaring his ideas about Islamisation and Who can imagine what he saw as a pernicious multiculturalism ruining his country. His case was one of the more superlative events there will be to come in modern Nordic history – as was the surprisingly lenient sentence for over 70 lives of just 21 years. This is, as you'd expect, one of the many books to result from the case.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1612346685</amazonuk>2023 edition?

{{newreview|author=John Campbell|title=Roy JenkinsI'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: A Wellfar too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-Rounded Life|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=building. It must be rare indeed that a British political figure 's human beings who never became Prime Minister is fascinate me: the technology and the subject world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of or deserves a biography comprising 750 pages book of text. twenty-two science fiction short stories? However, as John Campbell demonstrates in this volumeWell, I loved it is difficult to do justice to the life, times and career of Roy Jenkins in much less than that.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224087509</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dan JonesJane Goodall and Douglas Abrams |title=Magna Carta: The Making and Legacy Book of the Great CharterHope

|genre=HistoryPolitics and Society |summary=For what do we – and by courtesy of a lengthy timeline in history, would the Americans likewise – most likely owe thanks The done thing is to read a spigurnel? What is the most revered legal document in history, which sets out book all the rights of man – but also has time way through before you sit down to talk about widows' rights, fish trapsreview it. I’m making an exception here, and because I don’t want to be both sexist and to discuss lose any of the importance to people's estates to debts owed Jewish moneylenders? What will probably be the only notable historical experience of Britain in 1215reading this amazing book, when we finally get diverted from thinking about WWI and discuss the 800 years of something else, even though the authority of no less than the Pope declared I want to capture it as it hits me. And it null and void within ten weeks of its being finished?is hitting me. This beautiful book has me in tears. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781858853</amazonuk>024147857X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Krishna Bhatt1788360737|title=Artivism: The Royal EnigmaBattle for Museums in the Era of Postmodernism|author=Alexander Adams

|genre=Historical FictionPolitics and Society|summary=There Can art ever be apolitical? All art is political because art is not made in a vacuum. It is absolutely nothing wrong with books made by people. Antonio Gramsci stated that cross genres‘’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 best historical novels are as much history as fiction. However, it Battle for Museum in the Era of Postmodernism’ is a golden rule adamant that a book must know who and what art is freer when it isart for art’s sake. One The recent trend of the problems with The Royal Enigma is that it suffers from 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 serious identity crisismore globalist and progressive regime. Or at least that’s what Alexander Adams believes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B005Q8QCTY</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adrian Hart1398508632|title=That's Racist: How the regulation of speech and thought divides us allThe Wilderness Cure|author=Mo Wilde|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary=Adrian Hart has It had been on the cards for a while but it was the week-long history consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of eating only wild food. The end of campaigning against racismNovember, particularly in Central Scotland was perhaps not least because he was subjected the best time to racial abuse when he was at schoolstart, in a world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, Brexit and a pandemic. With jet-black hair and Wilde had a complexion that few advantages: the area around her was just ''slightly'' darker than was normal he was the closest that his school a known habitat with a variety of terrains. She had electricity which allowed her to someone who might be of Pakistani originrun a fridge, freezer and dehydrator. It was only name calling from She had a group of boys but the experience stuck car - and he's put much of his working life where his mouth isfuel. SoMost importantly, you might expect that he would be she had shelter: this was not a devotee of the zero tolerance approach plan to racist speech, but he's far from certain that this is the right way 'live'' wild just to go and believes that this might be causing more divisions in society than racism itselflive off its produce.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845407555</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529149800|title=Encyclopedia ParanoiacaThings You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste|author=Henry Beard Eduardo Garcia and Christopher CerfSara Boccaccini Meadows

|genre=Popular ScienceHome and Family|summary=We're screwedbegin with a telling story. Wherever we lookAll the birds and animals fled when the forest fire took hold and most of them stood and watched, whatever we unable to think of doing, there is a reason why we shouldn't be doing it, anything they could do. The tiny hummingbird flew to the river and began taking tiny amounts of water and people flying back to back drop them into the fire. The animals laughed: what good was that reason up with scientific datadoing. Take any aspect of your daily life – what you eat''I'm doing the best I can'', how you work, how you rest even, what you touch – all have problems that could provoke a serious illness or worsesaid the hummingbird. And outside that daily sphere there are economic disasters, nuclear meltdownsreally, errant AI scientists and passing comets is the only way that could turn our world upside down at we will solve the blink problem of an eye. Perhaps then you better read this book first climate change – for it may well turn out to by each of us doing what we can, however small that might be your last…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715649213</amazonuk>.

{{newreview|title=How To Be A Conservative|author=Roger Scruton|rating=3.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Roger Scruton has been described by Jesse Norman as 'one of the few intellectually authoritative voices in British conservatism'One more body just wouldn't matter''. His central theme in this book is to defend and champion the value of the home, a society based on free association and the nation state. The simplest of biographical sections demonstrates that the author was brought up not from ‘privileged’ stock but within a Labour-voting, lower middle class family, to demonstrate that his conservatism was not inherited but a product of his own intellectual journey.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472903765</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|title=The Wall Between Us|author=Matthew Small|rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=In this personal account murder of his visit to Israel and the West BankGeorge Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man, on 25 May 2020 by Derek Chauvin, a forty-four-year-old police officer, Small journals his time spent with people he meets along in the way and attempts to make sense US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around the conflict that has dominated this area for many yearsworld. We rarely see pictures of a murder taking place but Floyd's death was an exception. Small openly admits the issue there 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 simple one backlash against the police - and his visit reinforces not just in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''all'' tarred by the fact that there are many complexities preventing peace from happeningChauvin brush.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910266302</amazonuk>

 {{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. As Andrew Rugasira points out in ''A Good African StoryShe brings a hug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and again.''(Alma Derricks, former CMO, the people who make money from African exports are virtually always white Westerners. Even Fair Trade participants remain skewed by the status quo of trade barriers which discriminate against Third World countries.Cirque du Soleil RSD)|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099571927</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=Play It Again: An Amateur Against The Impossible|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 ''To claim space is to live the life of an amateur pianist, choosing unapologetically 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 bookbravely. A quick browse through the first couple of pages on Amazon revealed that the author could indeed tell a clear story: it It is his stock-in-trade as Editor of to live the Guardian. And the book duly held me through a messy, interrupted week of bedtime readinglife you've always wanted.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554747</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=Winter|author=Adam Gopnik|rating=4|genre=Reference|summary=In this collection of five essays, each one offering Sometimes the reviewing gods are generous: at a unique and fascinating perspective on the season of winter, Adam Gopnik takes time when violence against women is much in the reader on a captivating journeynews, exploring history, art and society, through ''Romantic WinterA Women's Guide to Claiming Space', 'by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. Now - to be clear - this book is not a 'Radical Winterhow 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 ''Recuperative Winterprotected'', . I''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 ve always thought that women need to these pivotal notions. He also includes two sections featuring collections of artwork to illustrate his viewpoints, which add a charmingrise above this, 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; be people pretend to have qualifications and degrees they havenwho don't rightfully earned; buses are too busy with shopping women need protection, people who should be indoors already, cooking for claim their working menfolk… own space. It's a very clever idea If all women did this, those few men who are violent to show exactly what is behind the 'disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' tag, and as a book women would realise that we are not just an easy target to be shelved alongside those with the wackier letters sent used to the ''Daily Telegraph'', these selections from the Royal town's press itself make a great eye-opener to the complaints and complainants of Kentprove that they are big men.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908096918</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=How Much have Global Problems Cost the World?: A Scorecard from 1900 to 2050Polly Barton|authortitle=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