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[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]]==Politics and society==__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Beate Teresa HanikaClaire Dederer|title=Learning to ScreamMonsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?|rating=53|genre=TeensPolitics and Society|summary=Malvina is thirteen years oldDederer sets out to unveil what she calls a ''biography of the audience'' in a deconstructed, thoroughly nitpicked, exploration of the youngest old aphorism of three children separating the art from the artist in a dysfunctional familythe context of contemporary ''cancel culture''. Her father Dederer's work is a very grumpy teacher, with little understanding of children, whilst original and expressive. The reader gets the impression that the thoughts simply sprang and leapt from her mother seems to suffer permanently from migrainebrilliant mind and onto the page. She has In particular, the prologue packs a good friendpunch: she simultaneously condemns and exalts the director Roman Polanski, Lizzyan artist she personally admires for his art, and they play together as much yet despises for his actions. This model of ''monstrous men'' as they canshe calls them, united in their dislike of is consistent for the 'boys from first few chapters, interrogating the estate'likes of Woody Allen, Michael Jackson and Pablo Picasso. Her grandmother died last yearcritical voice is acutely present throughout, leaving never slipping into anonymity and maintaining her granddad on his own and subjectivity, as she holds it's Malvina's job to go and visit him so dearly, and take him his meals. The family think this is a great arrangement because they know how much Granddad loves Malvina and looks forward to her visits. There's a problem though. Malvina doesn't like goingpersonal, particularly on her own. Granddad kisses her on the mouthrather than collective voice.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849390606</amazonuk>1399715070

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kwame Anthony AppiahVirginie Despentes|title=The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions HappenKing Kong Theory|rating=3.54|genre=HistoryAutobiography |summary=In the Preface, Appiah believes that morality ''King Kong Theory'' is an extremely important area of our lives as we live them today. He goes on by saying that it's all very well thinking about morality a hard- our morals - our own code of living - but it's the ultimate action hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, which truly matters. Well, I would certainly agree with that. And can be seen as Appiah digs deeper into his subject, he tells his readers that he was struck by similarities between, a call to arms for examplewomen in a phallocentric society broken at its core. Originally written in French, ''the collapse book is a collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the duel, the abandonment complex prism of footbindingher varied life: from rape to sex work and pornography. Though these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the end of Atlantic slavery.'' In the following chapters he debates the issues of those three major areas of morality. They were, in shortbook can feel somewhat disjointed, moral issues on a very large scalereflection of their original form as independent essays.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0393071626</amazonuk>191309734X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rachel Johnson1009473085|title=A Diary of The Lady: My First Year as Editor|rating=3.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Along with most of my contemporaries I've never read 'The Lady' except once when looking for an au pair job in my student days, and that, it turns out, is the problem. Before Rachel Johnson was appointed in June 2009 the average age of the readership was 75, the circulation was dropping and the magazine was haemorrhaging money. The Budworth family, proprietors of 'The Lady' since it was founded 125 years ago, chose son and heir Ben Budworth to turn the magazine's fortunes around before it folded. He asked Rachel Johnson to be editor.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905490674</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewConservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Andrew Rawnsley|title=The End of the Party: The Rise Anthony Seldon and Fall of New LabourTom Egerton (Editors)|rating=4.5

|summary=After decades of watching politics more or less assiduously I was surprised by the New Labour administration. Never before had so much been put – or so Sometimes it seemed – in the public domain, but never before had I had quite such 's simpler to explain a feeling of really not understanding book by describing what was going on, of being party it ''isn't'' and that applies to only half a story''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. The age of spin told us little that we If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really wanted to know'' happened on certain occasions, but left unsaid all then this isn't the important thingsbook for you. Early in 2010 I was disappointed If that 's what you're looking for, Idon'd missed Andrew Rawnsleyt 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 End of the PartyConservative Effect' but now I'm rather glad that I did as itis an entirely different beast. It's been republished the seventh book in paperback with two additional chapters a series which include 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 extraordinary events surrounding state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010 General Election, the changes that occurred and the situation in 2024.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141046147</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrew PenmanAlastair Humphreys|title=School Daze: Searching for a Decent State EducationLocal|rating=3.5|genre=Politics and SocietyTravel |summary=As a teacher myself, I'm naturally well aware of most of the aspects of education that Andrew Penman discusses here Alastair Humphreys has walked and some of cycled all over the stories world. And then written about it. For this book he repeats are well-known walked and cycled very close to me but may be of news home and then wrote about it. As he says in his introduction, the book is an attempt ''to share what I have learnt about some readersbig issues from a year exploring a small map. Yes Nature loss, people will really do just about anything to try pollution, land use and get their children into access, agriculture, the food system, rewilding…'' One of the school joys of their choice – even commit fraud! But how well does this the book work as an insight into for me was that the type biggest thing he learned about all of measures some people will go these things was that there are no easy answers, no single 'right or wrong', that every upside is likely to have a downside for those readers unaware of the desperation somebody and thatcan set in at this time in a child’s life? It’s a good question…there are some hard choices ahead.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906132976</amazonuk>1785633678

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Geert MakEdel Rodriguez|title=An Island in TimeWorm: The Biography of a VillageA Cuban American Odyssey

|genre=HistoryGraphic Novels|summary=In We're in childhood, and we're in Cuba. The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the mid 1990s journalist country, has proven himself a Communist, and author Geert Mak returned not done nearly enough to create a level playing field for all. Well, those hours-long speeches of his native Friesland and took up residence were kind of taking his time away. Our narrator's family weren't in the village happiest of Jorwertplaces 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. His aim was The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to investigate ease some of the quiet revolution going on heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the agrarian communities not just kind of Holland but heat forcing you out of the whole of Europekitchen…|isbn=1474616720}}{{Frontpage|author=Sarah Wilson|title=This One Wild and Precious Life: the path back to connection in a fractured world|rating=3. 5|genre= Lifestyle|summary= My favourite Mary Oliver line is the one in which she asks ''What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?'' I get to love that line so much because my answer is ''This wasn! Precisely this.'t going ' I'm lucky enough to be an outsiderliving my one wild and precious life the way I want to. Sarah Wilson is equally lucky. In her book that takes Oliver's view. Mak grew up in words as her title (though I can't see that she acknowledges the northern Dutch province; he spoke source) she pushes us to think about whether we really ''are'' living the language; he knew life we want – the games and understood the peoplebest life that we could be living. Her answer is an unequivocal ''no, we are not''. In a very real sense Mak was going home… and finding 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 it scarcely existed any morewe are not.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099546868</amazonuk>1785633848

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark Oaten1785633457|title=Screwing UpCharging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyTravel|summary=Like John Profumo and others, Mark Oaten will probably be remembered Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a preference for the wrong reasonsslow travel. It was As he neared his eightieth birthday the episode which made him for a while idea of exploring the country's Noedges of England in an electric car was not totally outrageous. 1 paparazzi targetIn fact, it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and which as he recounts in his Prologuewife, Joan, when his 'world was crashing downshouldn' and t it hardly needs recounting in detail. Yet when all is said and done, this is a very lively, readable, sometimes quite poignant memoir from one of the men whose career at Westminster began and ended with the Blair and Brown years. Throughout there is an admirable absence of self-pity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849540071</amazonuk>?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Daniel Pennac1529153050|title=School BluesBritain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyHumour|summary=Daniel PennacSeeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is coming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, I was nudged towards ''Britain's book discusses the issue Best Political Cartoons of children who struggle at school, and offers some ideas on how teachers can and should help them2022''. It is Sharp eyes will have noted that we're not a dry textbook on educational theory. He writes yet through the year: the cartoons run from personal experience, as a teacher and novelist who was once 'un cancre', translated here as a dunce or a bad student4 September 2021 to 31 August 2022.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906694648</amazonuk> Who can imagine what there will be to come in the 2023 edition?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kevin LewisB0B7289HKQ|title=The KidConversations Across America: A True StoryFather and Son, Alzheimer's, and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Soul of America|author=Kari Loya

|genre=AutobiographyTravel|summary=Kevin Lewis grew up on a poverty-stricken London council estate in Kari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, by the sort of home that way) wanted to spend some time with his father and the neighbours complain aboutperiod between two jobs seemed like a good time to do it. His mother – inadequate by any measure – hated him more than most of her six children and he The decision was beaten and starved by both made to ride the Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, Virginia to Astoria, Oregon - all 4250 miles of his parentsit - in 2015. You might think They had 73 days to do it - slightly less than the recommended time - but there were factors which pointed this up as more of a challenge that Social Services it would have stepped in and removed him, but any relief was to be short-livedfor most people who considered taking it on. Eventually he Merv Loya was put into care but even then the support was inadequate 75 years old and Kevin found himself caught up in a criminal underworld where he was known simply as 'The Kidsuffering from early-stage Alzheimer's.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>014104859X</amazonuk>

I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the book. There's got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it. }}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chris MullinJane Goodall and Douglas Abrams |title=Decline and Fall: Diaries 2005 to 2010The Book of Hope

|genre=Politics and Society|summary=At the end of [[A View from the Foothills by Chris Mullin|A View from the Foothills]] we left Chris Mullin wondering why he was no longer Tony Blair's Africa minister at the Foreign Office. He was never The done thing is to get read a definitive answer to this, but was later told that Blair handed out book all the junior ministerial appointments rather like sweets, with few worries about how people would feel if they were missed out or sacked. In Decline and Fall we see Chris come way through before you sit down from the foothills of politics and return to the backbenchesreview it. He might no longer be in a position I’m making an exception here, because I don’t want to lose any of power, but he's still in the thick experience of reading this amazing book, I want to capture it as ithits me. Perhaps though, some of the enjoyment And it is draining away from the job as he sees himself with years more of doing nothing very importanthitting me. This beautiful book has me in tears.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846683998</amazonuk>024147857X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Malalai Joya1788360737|title=Raising My VoiceArtivism: The Extraordinary Story Battle for Museums in the Era of the Afghan Woman Who Dares to Speak OutPostmodernism|author=Alexander Adams|rating=4.52|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Forget entertainment – this Can art ever be apolitical? All art is political because art is not made in a book vacuum. It is made by people. Antonio Gramsci stated that ‘’Every man… contributes to read if you have any interest in modifying the war social environment in Afghanistanwhich he develops’’. My particular view has developed from a British armchairTherefore, comprising part emotional reactionall art must be political, a smidgeon of history and an over-reliance on British media sourceseven implicitly. In a war zone where truth has been a casualty throughout, this Alexander Adams in his new book gives ‘Artivism: The Battle for Museum in the general reader an authentic view Era of conditions in Afghanistan over the past twenty five years Postmodernism’ is adamant that art is freer when it is art for art’s sake. The recent trend of continual warfareso-called artivism has caused artists to become more overtly political (read: left wing). Written Their seemingly grass roots movements have been astroturfed by large “left-wing” donors and media elites hoping to create a young more globalist and hot-headed, wildly patriotic 'ordinary' woman, this is no more reliable than any other partisan view, but its value is to help put official news sources into their proper contextprogressive regime. I found it educative in several sensesOr at least that’s what Alexander Adams believes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846041503</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Patricia Nicol1398508632|title=Sucking Eggs: What Your Wartime Granny Could Teach You About Diet, Thrift and Going GreenThe Wilderness Cure|author=Mo Wilde|rating=2.5|genre=Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary=In It had been on the current economycards 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, lots of people are trying particularly in Central Scotland was perhaps not the best time to make ends meet start, in their own ways. Not since a world where the days of Brownie badges has the word ''thrift'' normal sores had been bandied around so muchexacerbated by climate change, but now it's not so much about saving money as it is about survivingBrexit and a pandemic. Actually, maybe it always was, but Wilde had a few advantages: the Guiding Association thought a jolly piggy bank area around her was a more appropriate badge emblem than known habitat with a depressed family collapsed in front variety of their Sky TV with their supermarket-own curry struggling terrains. She had electricity which allowed her to fill the void left by run a regular take awayfridge, freezer and dehydrator. What we all need is She had a return to the good old dayscar - and fuel. Most importantly, when life she had shelter: this was simpler and people happier, the days when you didnnot a plan to ''live''t need wild just to clear half an hour in your diary to navigate the olive aisle of the supermarket, and when you ate what was fresh and local, not because it was cheap or you were in the mood, but because it was all they hadlive off its produce.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099521121</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adam Phillips1529149800|title=On BalanceThings You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste|author=Eduardo Garcia and Sara Boccaccini Meadows

|genre=Politics Home and SocietyFamily|summary=Essential for We begin with a tightrope walkertelling story. All the birds and animals fled when the forest fire took hold and most of them stood and watched, prized as an intellectual objective, balance is generally considered something 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 which we can aspiredrop them into the fire. The animals laughed: what good was that doing. We praise someone who makes a balanced decision, we envy people who have a 'good work/life balance' we offer an opinion I'm doing the best I can'on balance' to demonstrate , said the hummingbird. And that, really, is the only way that we have considered various arguments and optionswill solve the problem of climate change – by each of us doing what we can, however small that might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241143888</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=James Robertson|title=And The Land Lay Still|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The novel starts ... at 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 endworld. We rarely see the fictional character, photographer Mike Pendreich collating many, many photographs which his late father took with his trusty camerapictures of a murder taking place but Floyd's death was an exception. His father The image of Chauvin kneeling on George's neck is generally acknowledged as not one which I'll ever forget and the better of the two at the craft; he simply had the knackprotests which followed cannot have been unexpected. And what his son is now There was a backlash against the police - and not just in charge of are black and white photographs charting a social history at that time. And we Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''all know that a picture is worth a thousand words'' tarred by the Chauvin brush.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>024114356X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan GreenMatthieu Aikins|title=Murder in The Naked Don't Fear the High HimalayaWater

|summary=It's easy to forget at times that The Himalayan mountains mean many things to different people. To the people of Tibet, trapped under the atheist occupiers from China, who ran Naked Don't Fear the Dalai Lama out in the 1950s in their consuming urge for lebensraum and mineral mining, they are a near-impenetrable barrier, protecting their country from historyWater isn's prior ravages, but keeping people who want outt actually fiction, because it reads very much in. To rich Westerners, they are like a sparkling challenge well- paced thriller at times. This is not by any means a task of the highest ordercriticism, but rather a testament to how well Matthieu Aikins – a box Canadian citizen who decided to tick accompany his friend as a refugee from Afghanistan through Europe – recounts a vast and at times painful journey. There are tense moments and gripping accounts of border crossings which had me on edge the whole way through. But it's written with a haunting and almost lyrical quality that allows the reader to self-fulfilment - something to be climbed, because they're thereperfectly envisage the environments and people described.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1586487140</amazonuk>B09N9157T6

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances Woodsford1785633074|title=Dear Mr Bigelow: A Transatlantic FriendshipStaggering Hubris|author=Josh Berry|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyHumour|summary=Meet Mister Bigelow. He's elderly, living alone on Long Island, New York, with some health problems but more than enough family and friends Members of Parliament like us to get him believe that the country is run bypoliticians, and still a very active interest in yachting, regattas and more. Meet, too, Frances Woodsford. Sheheaded by the Prime minister - the ''primus inter pares'' (that's reaching middle-age, living with her brother and mum in Bournemouth, and working for the local baths as organiser those of events, office lackey you who are Eton and more. I suggest you do meet them, although neither ever met Oxbridge educated) but the reality is that the ''prime'' movers are the other. Despite this they kept up a brisk and lively conversation about all aspects of life, from special advisers - the late 1940s until his death at SPADS - who are the beginning of driving force behind the 60sgovernment. And as a result comes this book, of heavily edited highlights, which opens up a world of social history and entertaining diary-style comment.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099542293</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Rebecca Skloot|title=The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks|rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=In John Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, We are in October 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a mother the privileged position of five children, died of cervical cancer at having access to the age memoirs of 31. HoweverRafe Hubris, a sample the man who was behind the skilful control of her cancer cells taken the same year lived on, grew and reproducedCovid crisis which was completely contained by the end of 2020. Often referred to as HeLa cells, cells with their origins in You might not know the original sample are still being used in medical and scientific research today, nearly sixty years on. Many of name now but he will certainly be the scientific breakthroughs that have been made using HeLa cells are hugely profitable. But her children have spent their lives in low waged jobs and on welfare, unable man to afford basic health insurancewatch. Understandably they feel a lot of anger at this injustice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230748694</amazonuk>

  {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Garrett Keizer1846276772|title=The Unwanted Sound End of Everything Bias: How We WantChange Our Minds|author=Jessica Nordell

|summary=What Anyone who is noise? Do we count birdsong at sunrise as noise? And if sonot an able, what different term would we use white man understands bias in that they may no longer even recognise the extent to describe which they suffer from it: it's simply a jet aircraft taking off? part of everyday life. White men will always come first. The able will come before the disabled. Why do we respond so differently to Jobs, promotions, higher salaries are the preserve of the two? white man. Even more intriguinglywhen those who wouldn't pass the medical become a part of an organisation it's rare that their views are heard, would our response change if that their concerns are acknowledged. It's personally appalling and degrading for the individuals on the birdsong woke us from an exhausted sleep receiving end of the bias but it's not just the aircraft was taking off to jet us on a long awaited holiday?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1586485520</amazonuk>individuals who are negatively impacted.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Douglas Rushkoff1529148251|title=Life IncMisfits: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it BackA Personal Manifesto|author=Michaela Coel|rating=3.5

|summary=The author of this book was mugged outside his apartment one Christmas Eve. He posted a note online to warn his neighbours ''How am I able to be extra careful, and was promptly berated for doing something so public that could potentially damage property values in his local area. This is a thought-provoking snippettransparent on paper about rape, malpractice and if the whole book was like thispoverty, Iyet still compartmentalise? It'm sure s as though I would have been grippedwere telling the truth whilst simultaneously running away from it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099516691</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Peter Beaumont|title=The Secret Life Before you start reading ''Misfits'' you need to be in a certain frame of mind. You're not going to read a book of War: Journeys Through Modern Conflict |rating=5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Peter Beaumont is 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 Foreign Affairs editor television industry at The Observerthe Edinburgh TV Festival. He joined You might be ''reading'' the paper in 1989 and has spent much of the intervening time dealing with the kind of book but you need to 'foreign affairs' that is better described as listen'war reporting'. to the words as though you'The Secret Life of War' is a distillation of his years re in the fieldlecture theatre. It is The disjointedness will fade away and you'll be carried on a book ill-served by both its title and its cover, except maybe insofar as both might serve to sneak it onto the bookshelves cloud of those who really need to read it, but probably wouldn't choose to do so were it more accurately wrappedexquisite writing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520982</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gary Younge0008350388|title=Who Are We - And Should It Matter in the 21st Century?Need to Talk About Money|author=Otegha Uwagba

|summary=Consider, if you will, guilt. You might have it tainting you, as 'beyond the perpetrators, every person who stands in solidarity with them and maintains solidarity after the fact becomes entangled'. The link might not strictly To be a legal onedark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, but concern 'norms of religion and moralsless hireable, etiquette less intelligent and custom as well as dayultimately less valuable than my light-to-day communications and interactions'skinned counterparts.. Hence a collective guilt like no other - that witnessed in Germany. 'The assumption that membership to a people engenders solidarity is something Germans of my generation do not easily like to accept', we read. However difficult it might have been back then in its day, Germany had to physically renounce anything to do with Nazism, to actively 'opt-out' of connections We Need to avoid the solidarity seen connecting the whole nation like a toxic spider web. And since then itTalk About Money's linked in all the children, in a ''bequeathal'' of guilt.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905636776</amazonuk>}}by Otegha Uwagba

{{newreview|author=Michael Wolff|title=The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch|rating=3''0.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=There can be few people who are unaware 7% of the name English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of Rupert Murdoch. Over four decades he's built News International into colour while only 7% study a seventy billion dollar corporation from its original Australian base. His position in the UK media is such that he's courted book by politicians and has what many believe to be an excessive amount of power for someone who is not elected and is not even a UK citizenwoman. '' He's now expanding into Southeast Asia and in his eightieth year it's still difficult to imagine when – or where – he will stop.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099523523</amazonuk>}}The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021

{{newreview|author=Neil MacFarquhar|title=The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday|rating=4Otegha Uwagba came to the UK from Kenya when she was five years old.5|genre=Politics Her sisters were seven and Society|summary=''What are the chances of change in the Middle East?'' is the question central to this booknine. Since Neil MacFarquhar spent thirteen years wandering the length and breadth of the Islamic stronghold of the Middle EastIt was her mother who came first, I feel inclined to believe his in-depth assessmentwith her father joining them later. In descriptive The family was hard-working, principled and reasoned terms, he identifies conservative forces which predominate in the region, primarily determined that their children would have the religious and political machinery which condemns liberalization and modernizationbest education possible. This discussion There was always a painful awareness of attempts to promote change, for example by individual dissidents or money although this did not translate into a shortage of anything: it was simply carefully harvested. When Otegha was ten the mediafamily acquired a car. For Otegha, is strengthened education meant a scholarship to a private school in the second half of the book by detailed case studies of six nations with particular reference to their readiness London and motivation for changethen a place at New College, Oxford. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1586488112</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David AaronovitchRichard Brook|title=Voodoo HistoriesUnderstanding Human Nature: How Conspiracy Theory Has Shaped The WorldA User's Guide to Life

|genre=Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary=What shape is I am a conspiracy theory? firm believer that sometimes we choose books, and sometimes books choose us. Unusual questionIn my case, I knowthis is one of the latter. Not so very long ago, but if I think on had come across this evidence book I'd have skimmed it is round. A conspiracy theory is lumpen, ragged, full found some of holesit interesting, and has a huge circular gap where but it would not have 'hit home' in the obvious and sensible has dropped through, leaving the believer or theorist with the implausible skeleton of what they choose way that it does now. I believe it came to think instead. They certainly have a habit of coming round in circles - if me not just because I mentioned was likely to give it a heinous crime caused by a western leader favourable review [ ''full disclosure The Bookbag's u.s.p. is that killed hundreds or more peoplechose their own books rather than getting them randomly, purely so there is a predisposition towards expecting to get their like the book, even if it doesn't always turn out that way and get '' ] – but also because it is a war started, book I could be referring needed to Roosevelt and Pearl Harborread, Maggie Thatcher and the General Belgrano, or Bush etc and 9/11right now.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009947896X</amazonuk>1800461682

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Douglas Rogers1787332098|title=The Last ResortHow to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World|author=Henry Mance

|summary=Flicking through the channels ''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 the TV the other night I stumbled across an interview with George Bush's former Deputy Chief sofas, foxes in rubbish bins, elephants in zoos, and millions of Staffwild animals stay out there, Karl Rove. After witnessing an especially cringe making hip hop turn at the Washington Correspondents' Dinner (if you haven't seen it take a look at [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln5RD9BhcCo here]. It really is jaw droppingly awful) attention turned to weightier matterssomewhere, most notably Guantanamo Bay and the war '' hopefully on terror and the Bush administrations response to Hurricane Katrinanext David Attenborough series.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144841</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Martin Bell|title=A Very British Revolution: The Expenses Scandal and How I was going to Save Our Democracy|rating=4|genre=Politics argue. I mean, cows are for cheese (I couldn't consider eating red meat...) and Society|summary=I've long thought it strange that of all much prefer my elephants in the ills wild but then I realised that have befallen I was quibbling for the country over the last few years sake of it was not really the bankers' follies or the swine flu . Essentially that never really got off quote sums up my attitude to animals - and I consider myself an animal lover. If I had to choose between the ground but company of humans and the venality company of our MPs which caught animals, I would probably choose the public's attentionanimals. Compared I insisted that I read this book: no one was trying to the amounts required to bail out a bank the sums involved were minutestop me but I was initially reluctant. I eat cheese, but moatseggs, floating duck houses chicken and fish and flipping houses caught I needed to either do so without guilt or change my choices. I suspected that making the imagination and our elected representatives became just a little wary of admitting what they did for a livingdecision would not be comfortable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848311281</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dominique Lapierre1523092734|title=A Rainbow in the Night Women's Guide to Claiming Space|author=Eliza Van Cort|rating=4.5

|summary=A book integrating otherwise piecemeal news stories picked up over the past forty years into ''She brings a coherent explanation is always welcomehug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and again. This book explores South Africa's history and development' (Alma Derricks, former CMO, from the earliest Dutch arrivals in 1652 to the first racially integrated elections in 1994.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306818477</amazonuk>}}Cirque du Soleil RSD)

{{newreview|author=Marina Hyde|title=Celebrity: How Entertainers Took Over The World and Why We Need an Exit Strategy|rating=3.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=I have what ''To claim space is perhaps a regular-sized interest in A and B-list celebrities. I can name the off-spring of many an actress, tell you who the spokespeople for certain brands are, write a list of celebs with publicly declared devotions to certain religions, even win the odd pub quiz thanks to knowing live the birth names life of various performerschoosing unapologetically and bravely. I know all sorts of things about this rather small subset of society, but I know It is to live the life you''what'' more than the ''why'', and that's exactly the problem, according to this bookve always wanted. After all, if more of us sat down to wonder about what it actually ''is'' that the likes of Geri Halliwell and Nicole Kidman bring to the UN, we might seriously question how and why they ever got involved in the first place.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532050</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Salman Rushdie|title=Imaginary HomelandsSometimes the reviewing gods are generous: Essays and Criticisms 1981 - 1991|rating=3.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=We read some authors because we know weat a time when violence against women is much in the news, ''A Women're going s Guide to enjoy themClaiming Space'' by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. Others, we feel somehow obliged Now - to read. If we consider ourselves be clear - this book is not a 'how to disable your attacker with two simple jabs'readers'manual: it's something far more effective, and certainly if we have any pretensions (I use but discussion at the word advisedly) moment seems to being be about how women can be ''well-readprotected''. I've always thought that women need to rise above this, to be people who don't need protection, people who claim their own space. If all women did this, then there those few men who are some books and more particularly some authors with whom violent to women would realise that we are required not just an easy target to become familiarbe used to prove that they are big men.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099542250</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Carole White and Sian Williams|title=Struggle or Starve|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Struggle or Starve is a collection of autobiographical writings about girls' and women's lives in South Wales between the wars. This is a new edition of a book first published in 1998 by Honno, an independent publisher set up to encourage Welsh women writers. Most of the contributors in this book came from miners' families and grew up in real poverty and economic insecurity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784094</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Richard Wilkinson and Kate PickettPolly Barton|title=The Spirit Level: Why Equality Is Better For Everyone Fifty Sounds

|summary=If you asked people why it is (or might be) Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a good idea to reduce inequality in a society, many people while and if the world hadn't gone into melt-down I would assume that reducing inequality works have visited by making now. I may get there later this year, but I am not hopeful. And like Barton, I don't know the answer to the life question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of the poorest better: that question in the poor are first essay, which is on the sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, among other things, the ones who benefit from reduction sound of inequality''every party where you have to introduce yourself''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141032367</amazonuk>1913097501

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=David ShieldsStephen Fabes|title=Reality Hunger: A ManifestoSigns of Life

|genre=Politics and SocietyTravel|summary=I was brought up on maps and first-person narratives of tales of far away places. I was birth-righted wanderlust and curiosity. Unfortunately, I didn'The Novel is Deadt inherit what Dr. Stephen Fabes clearly had which was the guts to simply go out and do it. I also didn' is not really what a novelist wants t inherit the kind of steady nerve, ability to talk to read first on picking up a new book – but strangers and basic practicality that would have meant that I would have survived if I persevered had been gifted with Shieldsthe requisite 'bottle' manifesto and . In order words I'm glad I didnot the sort of person who will get on a bike outside a London hospital and not come home for six years. This is a thought-provoking wake-up call Fabes did precisely that any artist, writer or book-lover will enjoy.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>024114499X</amazonuk>1788161211

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chinua Achebe1504321383|title=The Education of a British-Protected ChildSingle, Again, and Again, and Again|author=Louisa Pateman

|summary=This book is a collection of autobiographical essays by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, whose best known work is the novel Things Fall Apart, published in 1958. Topics covered include Nigerian, Biafran ''You can't be happy and Igbo history and culture, African literature and the legacy of colonialism in his country and the rest of Africafulfilled on your own. Some of the essays You are taken from guest lectures at universities around the world and conference papers, and others are written for this book, particularly many of the more personal pieces about Achebenot complete until you find a man''s family.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846142598</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Norah Vincent|title=Voluntary MadnessThis was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to believe. It wasn't unkind: My Year Lost and Found in it was simply the Loony Bin|rating=3.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=''Voluntary Madness'' is journalist Norah Vincent's account of her visits to three mental health facilities adults in America. The first is an urban, public hospital that houses mainly homeless, psychotic patients, many of whom are addicted to drugs. In this hospital, the doctors are overworked and jaded and medication is always the answer. Soon, the author finds that her latent depression (which led life advising her as to do the book in the first place) is returning. The process of being institutionalised breaks what they thought would be best for her sense of self-worth down astonishingly fast. Indeed, It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the girl (she suggests that it 's usually fairly young) is rescued by the lack of autonomy in institutional life, even for those patients handsome prince who voluntarily commit themselves, then marries her so that makes it so hard for them they can live happily ever after. Few girls are lucky enough to rebuild independent lives when be brought up ''without'' the expectation that they finally leave the institutionwill marry and have children. It was a belief and it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''a belief is a choice''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099513439</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Gabriel Weston|title=Direct Red|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Few people have the ability Move to convey the minutiae of their profession in ways which engage the reader, answer your unspoken questions and talk in such a way that you're neither patronised nor overburdened with jargon. Gabriel Weston is one such – and ''Direct Red'' held me as though I was hypnotised for several hours. She's a surgeon and we're pulled into the intricacies of her world without the need to don mask and gown.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520699</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Popular Science Reviews]]