I Read, Therefore I Blog

The Blurb On The Back:

In Breaking Bread, expert baker and food writer David Wright explores bread’s deep connection to culture, health and the environment, whilst addressing challenges like industrialisation, food trends and bakery closures. He examines bread’s pivotal role in civilisations, food security and sustainability, questioning its future in a changing role.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

David Wright is a baker, writer and presenter. This thought-provoking book examines bread and its role in society and the economy, its impact on health and the environment and industry challenges (which is particularly strong and draws on Wright’s own experiences with his family bakery). I wanted more on how gluten intolerance decreases when “proper” bread is eaten and Wright constantly repeats his credentials but it definitely held my interest.

BREAKING BREAD: HOW BAKING SHAPED OUR WORLD was released in the United Kingdom on 20 March 2025. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

In this important new book, Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi take a fresh look at the big questions surrounding the peculiar social form known as “capitalism”, upending many of our commonly held assumptions about what capitalism is and how to subject it to critique. They show how, throughout its history, various regimes of capitalism have relied on a series of institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature, periodically readjusting the boundaries between these domains in response to crises and upheavals. They consider how these “boundary struggles” offer a key to understanding capitalism’s contradictions and the multiple forms of conflict to which it gives rise.

What emerges is a renewed crises critique of capitalism which puts our present conjuncture into broader perspective, along with sharp diagnoses of the recent resurgence of right-wing populism and what would be required of a viable Left alternative. This major new book by two leading critical theorists will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the nature and future of capitalism and with the key questions of progressive politics today.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Nancy Fraser is Professor of Political & Social Science at the New School for Social Research and Rahel Jaeggi is professor of practical and social philosophy at the Humboldt University, Berlin. This highly academic book, framed as a conversation between the authors uses (and assumes that the reader is grounded in) critical theory to explore what capitalism is, how it’s been viewed in history, how it can be capitalised and how it can be defeated.

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

The Blurb On The Back:

Venture into the world of Alexandre Dumas as you’ve never seen it before, where pirates rule the high seas and vampires lurk on land …

Morgane grew up at sea, daughter of the fierce pirate captain of the Vengeance, raised to follow in her footsteps as scourge of the Four Chains Trading Company. But when Anna-Marie is mortally wounded in battle, she confesses to Morgane that she is not her mother.

The captain of the enemy ship reveals he was paid to kill Anna-Marie and bring Morgan home to France and her real family. Desperate to learn the truth about her lineage, Morgane spares him, leaving the Vengeance and everything she knows behind.

Her quest reveals a world of decadence and darkness, in which monsters view for control of royal courts and destinies of nations. She discovers the bloody secrets of the Four Chains Trading Company, and the truth about her real mother’s death, nearly twenty years before …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Emma Newman’s fantasy novel (the first in a trilogy) is a sapphic romp featuring vampires, werewolves and pirates but while there’s fun to be had with Morgane’s ignorance of social mores and colourful swearing, Morgane is one of those annoying characters who doesn’t ask questions and rushes into things without thinking. The plot is uneven, the antagonist two-dimensional and Lisette an insipid love interest whose introduction comes too late.

THE VENGEANCE was released in the United Kingdom on 8 May 2025 and in the United States in 6 May 2025. Thanks to Solaris Books for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

There is no Blurb on the Back, instead there are the following quotes:

“Stevenson had a meteoric rise from the rags of east London to the riches of Citibank, and his book charts that journey … A darkly funny book that makes a convincing case that high finance is as toxic, reckless and deeply cynical as ever.”
The Guardian

“The Wolf of Wall Street with a moral compass.”
Irvine Walsh

“Hilarious, shocking and deeply sad - often in the same sentence.”
Sunday Times

“Terrific … an unlikely hero, brimming with wit and a low tolerance for nonsense.”
Daily Telegraph

“A sharp observer, with a gift for colourful if merciless description.”
Financial Times

“Rude and funny … fast-paced … Gary Stevenson’s account of the frenzy and follies of trading ‘trillions a day’ is powerful … he tells a vivid story.”
TLS

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Gary Stevenson is a former Citibank trader turned YouTuber and anti-inequality activist. This is an absorbing memoir of his life as a top trader at Citibank but the sections setting out how he rose from a working class upbringing in Ilford, Essex to become a top trader making millions of pounds in bonuses are more convincing than the final section, which charts how he became disillusioned with his job and its role in fuelling societal inequality.

The Blurb On The Back:

Nothing can be gained without sacrifice …

Desperate to free the shikigami, Kurara journeys deep into the mountains of Mikoshima - through villages devastated by a roaming swarm of shadowy monsters, and a country at war across land and sky. If Kurara cannot find a way to make the Star Seed bloom, the suffering she has caused will be for nothing.

But there is more to lose than she knows.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The conclusion to Ann Sei Lin’s YA fantasy trilogy delves deeper into the mythology of her Japanese-inspired world and focuses on themes of grief, loss and guilt. However there’s too much plot here for the length of the book, which means that some storylines unfurl in too perfunctory a way and don’t have the room they need to give the emotional punch Lin wants readers to experience, which is a real shame in the case of one specific character death.

REBEL DAWN was released in the United Kingdom on 7th November 2024. Thanks to Walker Books for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Leora loves everything about Hanukkah, the candles, the food … and especially Bubba and Zaida’s stories.

And this year she has a very special wish … but will it come true and make this the happiest Hanukkah ever?

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Ivor Baddiel and Kathryn Selbert’s picture book (part of a series on faith/ethnic holidays) explains what Hanukkah involves and why it’s celebrated and Selbert’s colourful illustrations bring the family bond to life. My only criticism is that I didn’t quite understand why Leora was so intent on lighting the candle and why it was important to her but otherwise it’s a solid way of introducing the holiday to young readers who are unfamiliar with it.

THE HAPPIEST HANUKKAH was released in the United Kingdom on 7 November 2024. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Looking for your one shot to rise to the “top of the pots” in the cutthroat world of interstellar cuisine? Look no further - you might have what it takes to be an Interstellar MegaChef!

Stepping off a long-haul star freighter from Earth, Saras Kaveri has one bag of clothes, her little flying robot Kili … and an invitation to compete in the galaxy’s most watched, most prestigious cooking show. Interstellar MegaChef is the showcase of the planet Primus’s austere, carefully synthesised cuisine. Until now, no-one from Earth - where they’re so incredibly primitive they still cook with fire - has ever graced its flow metal cook stations before, or smiled awkwardly for its buzzing drone-cams.

Corporate prodigy Serenity Ko, inventor of the smash-hit sim SoundSpace, has just got messily drunk at a floating bar, narrowly escaped an angry mob and been put on two weeks’ mandatory leave to rest and get her work-life balance back. Perfect time to start a new project! And she’s got just the idea: a sim for food. Now she just needs someone to teach her how to cook.

A chance meeting in the back of a flying cab has Saras and Serenity Ko working together on a new technology that could change the future of food - and both their lives - forever …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Lavanya Lakshminarayan’s SF novel (the first in a duology) is an exuberant celebration of food and community that also contains themes of prejudice, colonialism and the irresponsibility of technology companies. If the characterisation is sometimes a little two-dimensional and the inevitable romance unearned, then the enthusiasm and scale of imagination carries you through to the extent that I am very much looking forward to reading the sequel.

INTERSTELLAR MEGACHEF was released in the United States on 5th November 2024 and in the United Kingdom on 7th November 2024. Thanks to Rebellion Publishing for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

On the misty streets of Shelwich, a strange magic rises and falls with the Tide …

When the waves are out, the magic is only a murmur, but when the water is high, anything can happen - and people have started to disappear. Rumour has it they are being snatched by monsters, but Ista Flit doesn’t want to believe that. Not when her own father is among the missing.

And Ista is a face-changer, able to take on the appearance of anyone she’s seen, making her the perfect detective. Teaming up with unexpected allies Nat and Ruby, who have both lost family too, Ista must delve into the hidden caverns beneath Shelwich to find her father before it’s too late …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Clare Harlow’s debut fantasy novel for readers aged 9+ (the first in a series and beautifully illustrated by James Mountford) is a vividly imagined, enjoyable story with solid characterisation, a great sense of place and an interesting plot. Itsa is a well drawn and driven protagonist uncomfortable with having to trust Nat and Ruby. The fantasy elements are thought-through and the cliff hanger ending ensures I’ll read the sequel.

TIDEMAGIC: THE MANY FACES OF ISTA FLIT was released in the United Kingdom on 11 February 2025. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

A group of Chinese scientists arrive at the American research base in Antarctica in search of help. In their truck is a horrifying sight - a mysteriously murdered teammate. With no clear jurisdiction, the Americans don’t know what to do. But they soon realise the Chinese scientists have brought far more with them than just a body …

Within seventy-two hours, thirteen more lie dead in the snow.

An extremophile parasite, triggered by severe cold, is spreading by touch. Learning from them. Evolving. It triggers violent tendencies in the winter crew, and, more insidiously, the beginnings of a strange symbiotic telepathy.

The survivors cannot let anyone infected make it to the summer season or the parasite will be taken back home with them, and be free to take over civilisation.

You can order SYMBIOTE: A NOVEL by Michael Nayak from Amazon UK, Waterstone’s or Bookshop.org UK. I earn commission on any purchases made through these links.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers):”> It’s 18 June 2028. Dr Rajan “Raj )

The Blurb On The Back:

When a pseudonymous programmer introduced “a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party” to a small online mailing list in 2008, very few paid attention. Ten years later, and against all odds, this upstart autonomous decentralised software offers an unstoppable and globally-accessible hard money alternative to modern central banks. The Bitcoin Standard analyses the historical context to the rise of Bitcoin, the economic properties that have allowed it tot grow quickly, and its likely economic, political, and social implication.

While Bitcoin is a new invention of the digital age, the problem it purports to solve is as old as human society itself: transferring value across time and space. Ammous takes the reader on an engaging journey through the history of technologies performing the functions of money, from primitive systems of trading limestones and seashells, to metals, coins, the gold standard, and modern government debt. Exploring what gave these technologies their monetary role, and how most lost it, provides the reader with a good idea of what makes for sound money, and sets the stage for an economic discussion of its consequence for individual and societal future-orientation, capital accumulation, trade, peace, culture and art. Compellingly, Ammous shows that it is no coincidence that the loftiest achievements of humanity have come into societies enjoying the benefits of sound monetary regimes, nor is it coincidental that monetary collapse has usually accompanied civilisational collapse.

With this background in place, the book moves on to explain the operation of Bitcoin in a function and intuitive way. Bitcoin is a decentralised, distributed piece of software that converts electricity and processing power into indisputably accurate records, thus allowing its users to utilise the Internet to perform the traditional functions of money without having to rely on, or trust, any authorities or infrastructure in the physical world. Bitcoin is thus best understood as the first successfully implemented form of digital cash and digital hard money. With an automated and perfectly predictable monetary policy, and the ability to perform final settlement of large sums across the world in a matter of minutes, Bitcoin’s real competitive edge might just be as a store of value and network for final settlement of large payments - a digital form of gold with a built-in settlement infrastructure.

Ammous’ firm grasp of the technological possibilities as well as the historical realities of monetary evolution provides for a fascinating exploration of the ramifications of voluntary free market money. As it challenges the most sacred of government monopolies. Bitcoin shifts the pendulum of sovereignty away from governments in favour of individuals, offering us the tantalising possibility of a world where money is fully extricated from politics and unrestrained by borders.

The final chapters of the book explores some of the most common questions surrounding Bitcoin: Is Bitcoin mining a waste of energy? Is Bitcoin for criminals? Who controls Bitcoin, and can they change it if they please? How can Bitcoin be killed? And what to make of all the thousands of Bitcoin knock-offs, and the many supposed applications of Bitcoin’s ‘blockchain technology’? The Bitcoin Standard is the essential resource for a clear understanding of the rise of the Internet’s decentralised, apolitical, free-market alternative to national central banks.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Saifedean Ammous is Professor of Economics at the Lebanese American University. This book has useful summaries of the history of money and the development of Bitcoin but his arguments as to how Bitcoin meets the definition of money are unconvincing - no matter how many times he repeats his points - and his Austrian school economic arguments about Bitcoin’s superiority for settlement smacks of wishful thinking over the real world practicalities.

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