Category Archives: Non-fiction

Different for Girls – Joan Smith

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Ela

(Chatto & Windus 1997) Joan Smith’s book about how the world treats women differently, is a little dated – one of the main women she considers as an icon of womenkind, Princess Diana, was to die not long after Smith’s … Continue reading →

Posted in 2011 New Reads, Feminism, Non-fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Hungry City – Carolyn Steel

Posted on October 16, 2010 by Ela

(Chatto & Windus 2008) This book has been sitting in my to-read pile for quite some time, and it’s only now that I’ve got round to reading it and wishing I had done sooner. I should state upfront that Carolyn … Continue reading →

Posted in 2010 New Reads, Non-fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism – Natasha Walter

Posted on October 7, 2010 by Ela

(Virago 2010) Like Ariel Levy in her earlier book, Female Chauvinist Pigs: The Rise of Raunch Culture, Natasha Walter argues in this well-researched and quietly angry book that women* are themselves becoming complicit in a current “hypersexual” culture, particularly aimed … Continue reading →

Posted in 2010 New Reads, Non-fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

The Image of the City – Kevin A. Lynch

Posted on October 1, 2010 by Ela

(MIT Press, 1960) This is an interesting (but slightly dated) little book which looks at how people who live and work in cities see them and navigate around them – in short, how their image of the city is constructed. … Continue reading →

Posted in 2010 New Reads, Non-fiction | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Voyage of the ‘Beagle’ – Charles Darwin

Posted on September 22, 2010 by Ela

(Vintage edition with On the Origin of Species) The Voyage of the ‘Beagle’ is the publication which made Charles Darwin’s name as a naturalist: he accompanied HMS Beagle, whose captain and crew had the remit to undertake a detailed survey … Continue reading →

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McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime – Misha Glenny

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Ela

Glenny is known as a journalist and foreign correspondent, particularly for eastern Europe, and has previously written about the Balkans and the fall of Yugoslavia. McMafia is a fascinating study of the way organised crime has spread throughout the world, … Continue reading →

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Travel books – Lawrence Durrell

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Ela

My first acquaintance with Lawrence Durrell was as Gerald Durrell’s irascible brother Larry in ‘My Family and Other Animals‘, and then through his thriller, White Eagles over Serbia, and Antrobus stories. Recently I’ve been reading his travel books – the … Continue reading →

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‘The Ascent of Money’ – Niall Ferguson

Posted on June 10, 2010 by Ela

Trying to make sense of the current global financial meltdown is not easy, but Niall Ferguson’s very accessible and readable history of money (and its derivatives, such as bonds, insurance and banking) is a good place to start. The book … Continue reading →

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A Book of Silence – Sara Maitland

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Ela

Exactly what it says on the tin – a book about Maitland’s long search for and attempts to live in silence. I found it interesting, though she looks at things largely from the viewpoint of a committed Christian, and therefore … Continue reading →

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Churchill’s Wizards – Nicholas Rankin

Posted on August 6, 2009 by Ela

Subtitled ‘The British Genius for Deception 1914-1945’, this is a history of those men (and they were nearly all men) who began and continued the arts of wartime deception: propaganda, camouflage, ruses, misdirection, rumour-mongering, double-agents, false suggestion, and so on. … Continue reading →

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