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- REVIEW: Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry – B. S. Johnson
- REVIEW: Perfiditas – Alison Morton
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Category Archives: Non-fiction
Different for Girls – Joan Smith
(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
Hungry City – Carolyn Steel
(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 agriculture, cities, dining, food, history, planning, ready meals, waste
1 Comment
Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism – Natasha Walter
(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 biologically determined sexism, equality, feminism, neurology, raunch culture
3 Comments
The Voyage of the ‘Beagle’ – Charles Darwin
(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
Posted in 2010 New Reads, Non-fiction, Reviews, Travel
Tagged atoll formation, Beagle, Charles Darwin, finches, gaucho, islands, mountains, natural history, South America, specimens
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McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime – Misha Glenny
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
Posted in 2010 New Reads, Journalism, Non-fiction, Reviews
Tagged black market economies, consumers, counterfeit goods, crime, criminals, drugs, fraud, investigation, prostitution
3 Comments
Travel books – Lawrence Durrell
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
‘The Ascent of Money’ – Niall Ferguson
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
Posted in Non-fiction, Reviews
Tagged banking, economics, finance, financial markets, history, money
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A Book of Silence – Sara Maitland
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
Churchill’s Wizards – Nicholas Rankin
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