[[Category:Home and Family|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Home and Family]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
{{newreview
|title=It's Worth a Try
|summary=Babies, unlike new cars, don't come with a manual. There are always plenty of people, each with their own unique advice, happy to stick an oar in on whatever parenting issues you're facing, but I have often found as a mum that I'm left confused and floundering, wondering which piece of conflicting advice is least likely to permanently damage my little ones! I've watched Supernanny. I've read about how to have a contented baby. So seeing this book, with such a nice, positive title, I had to give it a go!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144411056X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Umberto Eco and Jean-Claude Carriere
|title=This is Not the End of the Book;
|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=In many ways, the cover of my edition of this book is perfectly appropriate. Huge, bold serif script, with nothing but the typeface; a declamatory instance of the art in the most common of fonts, and that perfect semi-colon at the end of the book's name - proving that that itself is not the be-all and end-all. Buy this book, as you can, in electronic form, and you might see this cover for ten seconds at most, but it is so much part and parcel of what's within.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099552450</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Simon Barnes
|title=How to be a BAD Birdwatcher
|rating=4.5
|genre=Home and Family
|summary=''Look out of the window.''<br>
''See a bird''<br>
''Enjoy it.''<br>
''Congratulations. You are now a birdwatcher.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780720866</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Brett Cohen
|title=Stuff Every Dad Should Know
|rating=4
|genre=Home and Family
|summary=For an object lesson in how important the little things are, consider this book's title. This is not one of those collections of trivia or whimsies for fathers to appear cool to their children (ten great variations on tag; 6,000 good records with which to ween your daughter off Justin Bieber), it's not that kind of knowledge on offer. Here instead is practical information on rearing your own little thing, and in a quiet way this pocket diary-sized volume has the cojones to expect to stick around being useful for a generation, as it starts at budgeting for children in the first place, and goes from the actual birth to marrying them off.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594745536</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Emma Smith
|title=The Cambridge Shakespeare Guide
|rating=5
|genre=Home and Family
|summary=Does the world need another guide to Shakespeare's plays? There are plenty about and students these days have the added resource of the Internet to get the basics. However, if it does, then this is as good as any you will find. It's nicely written and beautifully clear and above all, succinct. In fact I'm doing a disservice to Emma Smith already by terming it a guide to his plays, because she also includes the poems and sonnets.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>052114972X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Roman Krznaric
|title=The Wonderbox: Curious Histories of How to Live
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary='How should we live?' asks author Roman Krznaric. To answer this ancient question, he looks to history. 'I believe that the future of the art of living can be found by gazing into the past', he says. Creating a book which is as full of curiosities as a Renaissance 'Wunderkammer', he has a stab at the big questions: love, belief, money, family, death. The result is a pot-pourri of delights which left this particular reader stimulated and invigorated.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683939</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Susan Maushart
|title=The Winter of Our Disconnect: How One Family Pulled the Plug and Lived to Tell/text/Tweet the Tale
|rating=4
|genre=Home and Family
|summary=Back in early 2009 Susan Maushart - a single mother of three teenagers - came to the conclusion that the family plugged into their workstations, TVs, DVD players, iPods and gaming consoles at the expense of normal relationships, or what we’ll come to call Real Life. She included herself in this - her relationship with her iPhone was about the strongest she had outside of her children - and she decided that something drastic had to be done. So began the winter of our disconnect - six months without screens of any description, mobile phones or listening devices in the home. You think that’s not enough of a shock to the system? Nor did Susan - she started off with two weeks without any power in the home.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668465X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschappeler
|title=The Question Book
|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=
Most of us have probably made at least one of those end-of-the-year lists of the best books, albums and parties we have been to in the previous twelve months. But can you, with some effort, locate the one you made in 1987? Have you ever constructed a graph of your ups and downs in a given period, and then decided to expand it by separating emotional, intellectual, sexual and financial aspects and colour coding them? Have you made a list of all your lovers, bosses or friends and then rated them from 1 to 10 on several dimensions each? Do you have one of the books that list ''100 things to do before you die'' or ''500 books to read in your life'' (and ticked off the ones you have done)? Did you ever spend a whole evening and half of a night filling in dubious 'personality' questionnaires on the Internet? Have you ever doodled something, decided that it beautifully expresses the deepest essence of your personality and then proceeded to draw such icons for all your friends?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685389</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Patrick Cockburn and Henry Cockburn
|title=Henry's Demons: Living with Schizophrenia. a Father and Son's Story
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In February 2002 Patrick Cockburn was in Kabul, reporting to The Independent on the fall of the Taliban. While he was there he called his wife Jan at home in England, and was shocked to learn that their 20-year-old elder son Henry had been rescued by fishermen after coming close to death while swimming, fully clothed, in the icy waters of the Newhaven estuary. The police had decided that he was a danger to himself, and he was now in a mental hospital.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847377033</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kate Brian
|title=Precious Babies: Pregnancy, Birth and Parenting after Infertility
|rating=5
|genre=Home and Family
|summary=
There are lots of avenues of support for those dealing with infertility, but what happens if you do finally get pregnant? You're still dealing with the scars, both emotional and physical that infertility can leave behind, but it might seem callous to ask for help from other friends from your support network who themselves aren't yet pregnant. This book aims to be a helpful guide that discusses everything from pregnancy to birth to parenting after birth in the light of your history with infertility.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749954019</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Steve Roud
|title=The Lore of the Playground: The Children's World - Then and Now
|rating=4.5
|genre=Home and Family
|summary=Like many reviewers of the hardback edition, I thoroughy enjoyed reading this book, a nostalgic excursion into my own childhood games and rhymes. It's quite fun to identify the regional context of childhood lore. It cleared up for me, as a South-East Londoner, the exact nature of a hitherto mysterious game called tag. If you have already delved into the classic ''The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren'' by Iona and Peter Opie (1959), you might find this book adds little for a general readership. For the specialist, I'm sure this book will take its rightful place in the scholarly literature on childhood culture.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099505274</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Judy Bartkowiak
|title=So You've Passed Your Driving Test... What Now? Advanced Driving Skills For Young Drivers
|rating=4
|genre=Home and Family
|summary=It's always struck me that the most difficult time for young drivers is that period just after they pass their driving test. Someone has told you that you're an OK driver, right? ''But'' you're out there, all on your own, without anyone to explain those odd things which you still haven't come across or to be the extra pair of eyes. You've got a sense of freedom, but somehow it's a little bit ''daunting''. Judy Bartkowiak offers something a little bit different. It's not another book about road signs, driving etiquette and stopping distances – it's some ideas for getting into the right mindset to absorb the new experiences and learning some skills which might help you in other areas of your life too.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908218371</amazonuk>
}}