I Read, Therefore I Blog

The Blurb On The Back:

Is Weekend Update fake news?
How can we tell the difference between satire, smart-assert, and seriousness?
What is the benefit of jokes that cause outrage?
The Church Lady has a bad case of moral superiority. How about you?
What can Wayne and Garth teach us about living a happy life?

Live from New York for over forty years, Saturday Night Live is seriously funny, and through decades of sketches, monologues, commercials, music acts, and a huge cast of recurring characters, NBC’s original late-night comedy sketch show has brought a touch of levity to everything that is laughable about modern life. Many of the greatest minds in modern comedy - Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Chris Rock, Kate McKinnon and more - have honed their craft at SNL, finding fresh ways to highlight the ridiculous and absurd in our boardrooms, newsrooms, mailrooms, sorority houses, music studios, churches, schools, and everywhere in-between. Politicians from Gerald Ford to Donald Trump have had their faults and foibles lampooned by SNL’s election sketches and satirical news segments, and all the while, Weekend Update has shown us that the medium is the message.

Of course, comedian-philosophers from Socrates to Sartre have always produced and provoked us, critiquing our most sacred institutions and urging us to examine ourselves in the process. In Saturday Night Live and Philosophy, a star-studded ensemble cast of philosophers takes a close look at the “deep thoughts” beneath the surface of the award-winning late-night variety show and its hosts’ hijinks. In this book, philosophy and comedy join forces with the strength of the Ambiguously Gay Duo to explore the meaning of life itself through the riffs and beats of the subversive parody that gives the show its razor-sharp wit and undeniable cultural and political significance.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Jason Southworth is a philosophy instructor at several colleges and universities. Ruth Tallman is department chair and teaches philosophy at Hillsborough Community College. This mixed bag of 20 essays (part of a series on philosophy and pop culture) examines the elements of Saturday Night Live through various philosophical schools of thought but you need to be a hardcore SNL fan or an undergraduate philosophy student to get the most from it.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Once a year, a road appears in the woods at midnight and the ghost of Lucy Gallows beckons, inviting those who are brave enough to play her game. If you win, you escape with your life. But if you lose …

It’s almost a year since Becca went missing. Everyone else has given up searching for her, but her sister, Sara, knows she disappeared while looking for Lucy Gallows. Determined to find her, Sara and her closest friends enter the woods. But something more sinister than ghosts lurks on the road, and not everyone will survive.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Kate Alice Marshall’s YA horror novel is a haphazard, disjointed affair whose plot draws on the legend of Ys. However its connection with small-town America is never explained and neither is the narrative framing device while many of the side characters are interchangeable. That said there are some genuinely creepy moments and sinister imagery such that although the book did not work for me, I’d be interested in reading Marshall’s other work.

Thanks to Walker Books for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

On the day he retires, Inspector Ashwin Chopra discovers that he has inherited an elephant: an unlikely gift that could not be more inconvenient. For Chopra has one last case to solve …

But as his murder investigation leads him across Mumbai - from the richest mansions to its murky underworld - he quickly discovers that a baby elephant may be exactly what an honest man needs.

So begins the start of a quite unexpected partnership, and an utterly delightful new series.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The first in Vaseem Khan’s BABY GANESHA AGENCY SERIES is a delightful cosy crime novel that includes the grit of poverty, economic change and corruption. Chopra is an interesting character, who feels increasingly anachronistic in modern India while mourning for what his country is becoming and I enjoyed his relationship with the spirited Poppy who enjoys modern developments while Ganesha brings playful whimsy. I will definitely read on.

The Blurb On The Back:

Brave soldiers, important battles, life on the Home Front! It’s time to learn everything about World War II.

Packed with facts, pictures and maps it’s ideal for homework, topic work, KS2 school projects and anyone who is simply curious about history.

You can order Everything World War II: Facts And Photos From The Front Line To The Home Front by National Geographic Kids from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstone’s or Bookshop.org UK.  I earn commission on any purchases made through these links.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

This book by National Geographic Kids is aimed at children aged 8+ is a UK-centric breezy overview of World War II from Appeasement to the dropping of the A-bombs. There are plenty of pictures and it’s written in a way that’s easy to understand, but I was surprised there’s no mention of the Bletchley Park code breakers or the black market that surrounded rationing and it conflates sonar and radar, when they’re subtly different.

EVERYTHING WORLD WAR II was released in the United Kingdom on 22nd July 2021. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Everything you need to know about helping your favourite garden guests!

Roly is a curious, prickly hedgehog who loves to explore gardens, including yours. But gardens can be dangerous, from deep ponds to smelly rubbish, so Roly must be careful. He can’t face these challenges alone - he needs your help!

Part of a beautiful series, Roly The Hedgehog provides its little readers with all the tips and tricks they need to help keep these adorable spiny creatures safe in the garden.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

This picture book (part of a series about garden and countryside creatures) by Frances Rodgers with lovely illustrations by Ben Grisdale that are coupled with photographs gives plenty of tips and advice to young readers about what hedgehogs are and how to make them feel welcome. The language is easy to understand without being patronising and it’s a good way of getting young ones interested in nature.

HOW CAN I HELP? ROLY THE HEDGEHOG was released in the United Kingdom on 28th October 2021. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Keeping people’s skills in sync with fast-changing markets is the biggest challenge of our time.

For companies and their employees to succeed, they need to focus on building skills for the future. The Expertise Economy shows how the most forward-thinking companies, big and small, are transforming their employees into experts and ultimately, creating their biggest competitive advantage.

Kelly Palmer, Silicon Valley thought leader from LinkedIn, Degreed, and Yahoo!, and David Blake, co-founder of Ed-tech pioneer Degreed, share their experiences and provide insights from innovative companies and industry thought leaders like:
- Google
- Airbnb
- Unilever
- NASA
- MasterCard
- Whitney Johnson
- Daniel Pink
- Sal Khan
- Todd Rose
- Clayton Christensen

The Expertise Economy dares you to let go of outdated and traditional ways of closing the skills gap, and challenges CEOs and business leaders to embrace the urgency of reselling and upskilling the workforce.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Kelly Palmer was LinkedIn’s chief learning officer and is on Degreed’s executive team. David Blake is co-founder and executive chairman of Degreed. This book makes some interesting suggestions about establishing on-going learning to ensure that companies stay ahead of the curve and don’t suffer a skills gap, but many are tech dependent and notably Degreed heavy and I’d have liked consideration of apprenticeships and cross-departmental training.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Once upon a time, public relations departments and agencies had no way to effectively tell their clients’ stories other than through the mainstream media. Journalists, editors, and analysts were ultimately the mouthpieces for every PR campaign. Then came the age of digital disruption and now PR professionals can tae full control over their messages, deliver the directly to the intended audiences, and accurately quantify the return on investment. Inbound PR tells the story of how inbound marketing can refresh, expand, and optimise PR for today’s connected world.

Written by a global thought teacher at HubSpot, the pioneering software company behind inbound marketing, Illiyana Starve applies her expertise for growing businesses with inbound marketing to PR in an innovative methodology that both grows your PR business and your network of engaged media contacts. This step-by-step road map to amplifying your PR influence to standout levels gives you practical guidance on using the attention-grabbing content you already produce to raise awareness, generate leads, and delight them into followers.

The secret to this game-changing approach is measuring results. Forget about advertising value equivalents that only measure cost, and start calculating the meaningful bottom-line returns your work generates in the four major types of media with a turnkey framework. Specifically written for everyone in the day-to-day mechanisms of PR and especially agency owners, this custom-fit guidebook enables you to embrace metrics and put analytics at the centre of your campaigns and organisation so that you can make highly informed, data-based decisions that give state-of-the-art leaders a competitive advantage.

This go-to resource makes transforming your business into an inbound PR agency simply and profitable by giving you:
- A proven, seven-step process for writing the best positioning strategy for your agency and practical advice on defining and packaging Inbound PR services into a twelve-month retainer
- Detailed systems for taking an inbound approach to media relations, including creating a robust online newsroom specifically for journalists, bloggers, producers, etc
- Actionable guidance for working every step of the inbound process, from attracting leads into your sales funnel, nurturing them, and finally retaining a new client.

Stop pushing your message and chasing clients by attracting them all to your brand with Inbound PR.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Ilyana Stareva is a global partner program manager at HubSpot and runs a highly regarded blog discussing inbound PR. This book is aimed at people who run PR agencies but is still useful for clients who are looking to get something extra from external PR advisors. Be aware though that it is repetitive, lacks detail on how to use the techniques described and is silent on GDPR considerations (a notable omission in these data sensitive times).

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

In this exhilarating sequel to his acclaimed Pandemic!: COVID-19 Shakes The World, Slavoj Žižek delves into the surprising dimensions of lockdowns, quarantines, and social distancing - as well as the increasingly unruly opposition to them by a “response-fatigued” public around the world.

Žižek examines the ripple effects on the food supply of harvest failures caused by labour shortages, and the hyper-exploitation of the global class of care workers, without whose labour daily life would be impossible. Through such examples he pinpoints the inability of contemporary capitalism to safeguard effectively the public in times of crisis.

Writing with characteristic daring and zeal, Žižek ranges across critical theory, pop culture, and psychoanalysis to reveal the troubling dynamics of knowledge and power emerging in these viral times.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The philosopher, cultural critic and sociologist Slavoj Žižek is International Director for Humanities at Birkbeck College. This brave sequel, written during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic uncertainty in 2020 and published in January 2021, tries to make sense of what’s happening and what it means for the future. It’s a time capsule whose assumptions aren’t always correct but are nonetheless useful for future historians analysing this period.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Period positivity starts with asking questions.

This informative, irreverent, and absorbing book covers all your period-related questions - why they’re taboo (and needn’t be) and how to navigate the whole bleeding thing, from first periods to fertility, euphemisms to uteruses, menstrual products to menopause.

Period Positive movement founder and menstrual researcher Chella Quint’s answers are frank, fun, and fascinating.

Let’s get period positive.

It’s about bloody time.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Chella Quint is a period educator and one of the UK’s top experts on menstruation education. This is a breezy, taboo-busting guide for menstruators of all ages that explains what’s going on at different times of your life and how to deal with the side effects and embarrassing consequences. I would have definitely benefitted from this book as a teenager and younger woman but wish there’d been a little more on the menopause and post-menopause.

BE PERIOD POSITIVE was released in the United Kingdom on 8th July 2021. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Today, globalism has a bad reputation. ‘Citizens of the world’ are depicted as recklessly uninterested in how international economic forces can affect local communities. Meanwhile, nationalists are often derided as racists and bigots.

But what if the two were not so far apart? What could globalists learn from the powerful sense of belonging that nationalism has created? Faced with the injustices of the world’s economic and political system, what should a responsible globalist do?

British-Iraqi development expert Hassan Damluji proposes six principles - from changing how we think about mobility to shutting down tax havens - which can help build consensus for a stronger globalist identity. He demonstrates that globalism is not limited to ‘Davos man’ but is a truly mass phenomenon that is growing fastest in emerging countries. Rather than a ‘nowhere’ identity, it is a new group solidarity that sits alongside other allegiances.

With a wealth of examples from the United States to India, China and the Middle East, The Responsible Globalist offers a boldly optimistic and pragmatic blueprint for building an inclusive, global nation.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Hassan Damluji is leader of the Middle East team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and co-founder of the multilateral development fund $2 Billion Lives and Livelihoods. This book has some interesting ideas and sets out 6 principles to establish a “global national sentiment” that draw on ideas that make nationalism popular but leans into the fears of immigration and takes at face value the calls from billionaires to pay higher taxes.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.