I Read, Therefore I Blog

Into The Groove: The 1980s The Ultimate Decade In Music History by Justin Lewis

Sun, 31 May 2026 22:45:19 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

Travel back to the 1980s …

… and discover an epic collection of remarkable facts, notable events and fascinating anecdotes from the decade’s diverse and inventive music scene.

The eighties was one of the most innovative periods in the history of pop music - and even forty years on remains one of the best loved, championed by radio, television, advertisements, theatre and films, with many of the key acts still performing and recording.

Into The Groove is a tale of pop and circumstance. It charts the global state of pop music month by month from January 1980 to December 1989, highlighting a wide variety of events and tracing the career paths of hundreds of noteworthy acts around the world, from Salt-N-Pepa to The Sugarcubes, Kate Bush to Kraftwerk, Run-DMC to INXS, and Neneh Cherry to Youssou N’Dour.

It celebrates genres of all kinds - the enduring and the faddish, the mainstream and the underground, post-punk and acid house, heavy rock and electronic, hip hop and teen pop. And it showcases many of the decade’s landmark recordings, figures and events, while also revealing plenty of intriguing lesser-known stories to create a wry and diverse musical tapestry.

The perfect gift for any music lover or eighties aficionado, Into The Groove is an endlessly entertaining homage to the 1980s.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Justin Lewis is a writer, researcher and editor with an encyclopaedic knowledge of pop music. This terrific book - perfect for music fans, connoisseurs and any Generation X-ers nostalgic for the 1980s - daintily treads the fine line of being informative and entertaining while also drawing out the connections and development of singers and bands and I particularly liked how, notwithstanding the UK/US focus, it also takes in African music artists.

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Checkmate In Berlin by Giles Milton

Sun, 23 Nov 2025 21:37:44 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

Berlin was in ruins when Soviet forces fought their way towards the Reichstag in the spring of 1945.

Berlin’s fate had been sealed four months earlier at the Yalta Conference. The city, along with the rest of Germany, was to be carved up between the victorious powers - British, American, French and Soviet. On paper, it seemed a pragmatic solution; in reality, it fired the starting gun for the Cold War.

Rival systems, rival ideologies and rival personalities ensured that Berlin became an explosive battleground. The ruins of this once-great city were soon awash with spies, gangsters and black-marketeers, all of whom sought to profit from the disarray.

For the next four years, a handful of charismatic but flawed individuals - British, American and Soviet - fought an intensely personal battle over the future of Germany, Europe and the entire free world.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Giles Milton is a writer and best-selling historian. This very readable and informative book explores Berlin between 1945 and 1950 sets out how the agreement between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at the Yalta Conference set the seeds for the Berlin Blockade and the Cold War. Extensively footnoted and drawing on personal papers from Colonel Frank Howley it’s particularly good on the specifics of governing and everyday life in post-war Berlin.

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

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Nuclear Folly: A New History Of The Cuban Missile Crisis by Serhii Plokhy

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 22:16:13 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

The definitive new history of the Cuban Missile Crisis from the author of Chernobyl, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize.

For more than four weeks in the fall of October 1962 the world teetered. The consequences of a misplaced step during the Cuban Missile Crisis could not have been more grave. Ash and cinder, famine and fallout; nuclear war between the two most-powerful nations on Earth.

In Nuclear Folly, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy tells the riveting story of those weeks, tracing the tortuous decision-making and calculated brinkmanship of John F. Kennedy, Nikita Kruschchev and Fidel Castro, and of their advisors and commanders on the ground. More often than not, Plokhy argues, the Americans and Soviets simply misread each other, operating under mutual distrust, second-guesses and false information. Despite all of this, nuclear disaster was avoided thanks to one very human reason: fear.

Drawing on an impressive array of primary sources, including the recently declassified KGB files, Plokhy masterfully illustrates the drama of those tense days. Authoritative, fast-paced and unforgettable, this is the definitive new account of the Cold War’s most perilous moment.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Serhii Plokhy is Professor of History at Harvard University and a leading authority on Eastern Europe. Published in 2021, this gripping book draws on then recently released KGB files to analyse the Cuban Missile Crisis from both the US and Russian perspective, drawing out how badly Kruschev and Kennedy misread and misunderstood each others positions and how nuclear war was averted by fear and accident more than negotiation and decision.

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

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Don’t Stop The Music: A Year Of Pop History One Day At A Time by Justin Lewis

Sun, 06 Apr 2025 21:18:48 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

Discover an intriguing collection of notable events, remarkable nuggets and entertaining coincidences from music history - from 1894 to the present - for every day of the year in this constantly surprising compendium.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Justin Lewis is an editor and writer specialising in music. This hugely entertaining compendium of pop music facts comprises a number of facts for each day of the year including song releases or the birth/death of people involved in pop music (writers, artists, producers etc). The entries cover events from 1894 up to 2023 and it’s filled with fascinating nuggets that make it perfect for music aficionados and dilettantes alike.

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Don’t Look Back In Anger by Daniel Rachel

Sun, 19 May 2024 21:15:14 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

An ambitious oral history charting the epic highs and crashing lows of the UK’s most creative and hedonistic period: the nineties, told in the words of its architects.

Remember when …

Blue and Oasis battled to be Top of the Pops?

You raved the night away in a baggy T-shirt and dungarees?

Football was coming home?

New Labour won a landslide victory and things could only get better?

We really, really, really wanted to be Baby, Scary, Posh, Ginger or Sporty?

You rushed home from the pub to watch TFI Friday?

‘Girls and Boys’ embraced Girl Power and Lad Culture?

The Young British Artists were household names?

Whichever aspect of the nineties you feel nostalgic for, there is something in this book for you?

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Daniel Rachel is a musician turned critically acclaimed author. On balance this account of the 1990s ‘Cool Britannia’ phenomenon is worth a read as Rachel has secured interviews with some key figures (including Tony Blair, Noel Gallagher, Jarvis Cocker, Tracey Emin and Melanie Chisholm) if only to get their view on what happened and what it meant but there are notable omissions (e.g. Justine Frischmann) and nothing on Black British contributions.

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

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Lightspeed: The Ghostly Aether And The Race To Measure The Speed Of Light by John C. H. Spence

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 23:17:30 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

This book tells the human story of one of man’s greatest intellectual adventures - how it came to be understood that light travels at a finite speed, so that when we look up at the stars, we are looking back in time. And how the search for an absolute frame of reference in the universe led so improbably to Einstein’s famous equation E = mc2,, which represents the energy that powers the stars and unclear weapons. From the ancient Greeks measuring the distance to the Sun, to today’s satellite navigation, the book takes the reader on a gripping historical journey. We see how Galileo with his new telescope discovered the moons of Jupiter and used their eclipses as a global clock, allowing travellers to find their Longitude. And how Ole Roemer, noticing that the eclipses were a little late, used this to obtain the first measurement of the speed of light, which takes eight minutes to get to us from the Sun. We then move from the remarkable international collaborations to observe the Transits of Venus, including Cook’s voyage to Australia, to the extraordinary achievements of Young and Fresnel, whose discoveries eventually taught us that light travels as a wave but arrives as a particle, and all the quantum weirdness which follows. In the nineteenth century, we find Faraday and Maxwell, struggling to understand how light can propagate through the vacuum of space unless space is filled with a ghostly vortex Aether foam. We follow the brilliantly gifted experimentalists Hertz, discoverer of radio, Michelson with his search for the Aether wind, and Foucault and Fizeau with their spinning mirrors and light beams across the rooftops of Paris. Messaging faster than light, Einstein’s theory, quantum entanglement, and the reality of the quantum world, conclude this saga.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

John C H. Spence teaches physics at Arizona State University and is Snell Professor and Director of Science for the National Science Foundation’s BioXFEL Consortium. This is an absorbing historical account of how scientists learned to measure the speed of light but although I enjoyed the personal details Spence gives on the scientists and he does try to simplify the complicated mathematical formulae, some of the book was above my skill level.

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

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Horrible Histories – The Worst In The World by Terry Deary

Sun, 20 Aug 2023 21:53:07 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

Horrible Histories - The Worst In The World is packed full of the foulest gold, silver and bronze medal-winning entries in horrible categories such as:

Diseases, Battles, Emperors, Punishments, Schools and More

Discover what made the cut for the worst job in history (spoiler alert - it involves a king, a toilet and some botty wipes), or the worst ever pirate (must be the one who tied his own noose around his neck).

History - it’s the absolute worst!

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Terry Deary is an actor and author who is well known for his best selling HORRIBLE HISTORIES SERIES for children aged 7+. This entertaining book (with fun illustrations by Martin Brown) sets out a top 3 of some of the nastiest, horrifying and disgusting parts of history. It’s breezy and fun albeit quite western specific (I wish there had been more from Africa and the far east) but hopefully will stimulate readers’ interest in the subject.

HORRIBLE HISTORIES - THE WORST IN THE WORLD was released in the United Kingdom on 13th April 2023. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

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God Save Texas: A Journey Into The Future Of America by Lawrence Wright

Sun, 13 Aug 2023 21:46:14 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

God Save Texas takes us on a journey through the most controversial state in America.

Texas is a Republican state in the heart of Trumpland; but it is also a state in which minorities form a majority (including the largest number of Muslim adherents in the United States). The cities are Democrat and among the most diverse in the nation. Oil is still king but Texas now leads California in technology exports and has an economy only somewhat smaller than Australia’s.

Lawrence Wright has written an enchanting book about what is often seen as an unenchanting place. Having spent most of his life there, while remaining deeply aware of its oddities, Wright is as charmed by Texan foibles and landscapes as he is appalled by its politics and brutality. With its economic model of low taxes and minimal regulation producing both extraordinary growth and striking income disparities, Texas, Wright shows, looks a lot like the America that Donald Trump wants to create. This profound portrait of the state, completed just as Texas battled to rebuild after the devastating storms of summer 2017, not only reflects the United States back as it is, but as it was and as it might be.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Lawrence Wright is a writer, journalist and fellow at the Center for Law and Security at New York University. A mix of travelogue, anecdotes of his life in Texas and overview of Texas’s history, politics and economy, I enjoyed Wright’s conversational writing style but didn’t feel like I understood the contradictions within the state, partly because he skewers towards the view of the privileged rather than those with a lower income.

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

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Why Do People Fight Wars? by Ali Brownlie and Alex Woolf

Sun, 28 May 2023 22:07:26 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

Why do people fight wars?

- Why do people go to war?
- Is it ever right to kill another person?
- Can we solve problems without fighting about them?

This book looks at wars past and present and the reasons behind why people fight. Find out how wars start, and what happens to soldiers and to ordinary people who are caught up in them. Discover more about the history of peacekeeping organisations and the ways in which conflicts may be resolved without violence.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Ali Brownlie is a former humanities teacher who has written numerous books for children. Alex Woolf specialises in 20th century history and political books for children. This book for readers aged 9+ deals with the difficult topic of war and conflict but while there are some useful sections here, the way it deals with some major conflicts is superficial and I think risks being misunderstood by younger readers.

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

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Don’t Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri

Sun, 18 Dec 2022 22:18:28 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

Straightened. Stigmatised. “Tamed”. Celebrated. Fetishised. Forever misunderstood.

Black hair is never ‘just hair’. It’s time we understood why.

Recent years have seen the conversation around black hair reach tipping point, yet detractors still proclaim “It’s only hair!” when it never is. This book is about why black hair matters and how it can be viewed as a blueprint for decolonisation. Emma Dabiri takes us from pre-colonial Africa, through the Harlem Renaissance, Black Power and into today’s Natural Hair Movement, the Cultural Appropriation Wars and beyond.

Touching on everything from women’s solidarity and friendship, to forgotten African scholars, to the dubious provenance of Kim Kardashian’s braids, Don’t Touch My Hair proves that far from being only hair, black hairstyling culture can be understood as an allegory for black oppression and, ultimately, liberation.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Emma Dabiri is a teaching fellow in the Africa Department at SOAs and a Visual Sociology PhD researcher at Goldsmith’s College. This passionate, fascinating and very interesting book uses black hair as the basis for examining racial attitudes, colonial attitudes, double standards and how it damages Black people and mixes Dabiri’s personal experience with history, sociology, and anthropology to produce a nuanced, thought-provoking read.

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

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Legacies: Black British Pioneers by Lania Narjee

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 23:04:57 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

Discover amazing people who made their mark on the world!

From scientists to sports stars, artists to activists, read all about Black British people who set records, broke new ground, and lifted others up. Find out what it means to create a legacy with these inspiring stories of incredible people and their hugely informative achievements.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Lania Narjee is an artist, educator and art psychotherapist. This inspiring book for readers aged 9+ is a hugely informative and important look at Black British people who have made a difference, whether through sport, art and music, STEM or politics with warm and evocative portrait illustrations from Chanté Timothy. I learnt a lot from this book and my only complaint was that I wanted it to be longer as the biographies are very short.

LEGACIES - BLACK BRITISH PIONEERS was released in the United Kingdom on 4th August 2022. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

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What You Did Not Tell: A Russian Past And The Journey Home by Mark Mazower

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 23:04:14 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

This is the remarkable story of a family, and the sacrifices and silences that marked a generation and their descendants. Mark Mazower uncovers the history of his ancestors, who fate drove into the siege of Stalingrad, the Vilna ghetto, occupied Paris, and even into the ranks of the Wehrmacht. His British father was the lucky one, the son of Russian Jewish emigrants who settled in London after escaping the civil war and revolution. Max, the grandfather, had started out as a socialist and manned the barricades against tsarist troops, but never spoke of it. His wife, Frouma, came from a family ravaged by the Great Terror yet somehow making its way in Soviet society.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Mark Mazower is Professor of History at Columbia University. This fascinating book looks at Mazower’s family history starting with his grandfather, Max, a Jew born in the Russian Empire to piece together who they were and what drove them overseas. However while Mazower does his best to fill in the blanks, there is a lot of supposition here, so while you learn a lot about the politics, his family themselves remain to an extent unknowable.

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

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Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy Of White Male Power by Ijeoma Oluo

Sun, 23 Oct 2022 21:24:10 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

Introducing:
Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male Power

White men lead our ineffective government with almost guaranteed re-election.

They lead our corrupt and violent criminal justice system with little risk of facing justice themselves.

And they run our increasingly polarised and misinforming media, winning awards for perpetrating the idea that things run best when white men are in charge.

This is not a stroke of white male luck; this is how our white male supremacist systems have been designed to work.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Ijeoma Oluo is a journalist and best-selling author. This book draws on US history to provide a devastating examination of the USA’s systems which created and reinforce white, male mediocrity as a means of retaining white power. It is clearly written and makes a lot of interesting points but is very US-centric and although it discusses intersectionality at length, I wondered how much of this is grounded in patriarchy more than in race.

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

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Lost Kingdom by Serhii Plokhy

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 20:54:49 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

An astonishing wide-ranging history of Russian nationalism from a pre-eminent scholar of Eastern Europe.

In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and attempted to seize a portion of Ukraine. While the world watched in outrage, this violation of national sovereignty was in fact only the latest iteration of a centuries-long effort to expand Russian boundaries and create a pan-Russian nation. In Lost Kingdom, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues that we can only understand the merging of imperialism and nationalism in Russia today by delving into its history. Spanning over two thousand years, from the end of the Mongol rule to the present day, Plokhy shows how leaders from Ivan the Terrible to Joseph Stalin to Vladimir Putin have exploited existing forms of identity, warfare and territorial expansion to achieve imperial supremacy. A strikingly ambitious book, Lost Kingdom chronicles the long and belligerent history of Russia’s empire and nation-building quest.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Serhii Plokhy is Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University, director of its Ukrainian Research Institute and a leading authority on Eastern Europe. This book, written after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, Donbas and Luhansk, examines Russian history to explain its nationalistic view of Ukraine but although it’s informative, you need a background in the subject to keep up with Plokhy’s arguments and at times I was left confused.

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

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Enemies And Neighbours: Arabs And Jews In Palestine And Israel, 1917 – 2017 by Ian Black

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 22:12:55 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

On the centenary of Britain’s Balfour Declaration - promising a Jewish ‘national home’ in Palestine - comes a major new history of the Palestinians and Israelis.

In Enemies and Neighbours, Ian Black has written a gripping and timely account of the most polarising conflict of our age: the unresolved and unequal struggle between Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land. Beginning in the final years of Ottoman rule, he sheds fresh light on critical developments from the Arab rebellion of the 1930s and the watersheds of the 1948 and 1967 wars up to the present day. Drawing on a wide range of sources, from oral testimonies to Black’s own decades of reporting, Enemies and Neighbours illuminates a bitter conflict that shows no sign of ending - which is why it is essential that we understand it.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Ian Black is a visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics and former Middle East editor for The Guardian. Published in 2017 to coincide with the Balfour Declaration’s centenary (although the book begins in 1882 and the arrival of Zionist settlers), this book provides a plain facts account of the struggle between Israelis and Palestinians that explains what happened but doesn’t elucidate on why, leaving me with half the story.

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

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The Great Wall Through Time: A 2,700 Journey Along The World’s Greatest Wall illustrated by Du Fei

Sat, 06 Aug 2022 23:33:19 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

Embark on a time-travelling adventure along The Great Wall of China, spanning 2,700 years and more than 21,000km (13,000 miles). From the first defensive forts built in the 7th century BCE to modern-day tourist sites, discover the fascinating secrets of one of the world’s greatest landmarks and the people who helped build it.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Du Fei is Professor of Mural Painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China. His illustrations depicting numerous scenes from the history of the Great Wall of China for readers aged 7+ (part of a series) are gorgeous - packed with detail and information and reminding me of Bruegel. Sadly he is let down by text that is less rich in detail, offering a patchy and uncontextualised history of the wall and its significance.

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

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Why Did Ancient Greeks Ride Elephants Into Battle? by Tim Cooke

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 22:12:54 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

Why did ancient Greeks ride elephants into battle?

Discover history for yourself with this fun, quirky series that tackles the questions other books are afraid to ask!
- Why did the ancient Greeks exercise naked?
- How did an owl inspire a city-state?
- And just what was Pythagoras’ theory of … beans?

A QUESTION OF HISTORY: THE ANCIENT GREEKS answers all these questions and much more.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Tim Cooke is an experienced children’s author and editor with a particular interest in history. This fun introduction to the ancient Greeks (part of a series) aimed at readers aged 9+ has cheerful illustrations by Matt Lilly and gives you a very broad idea of who the ancient Greeks were (perhaps too broad as some topics are a bit random). That said, it’s a good way of getting youngsters interested in classical history and so is worth a look.

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

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Did Vikings Have Horns On Their Helmets? by Tim Cooke

Sat, 30 Jul 2022 22:01:11 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

Did Vikings have horns on their helmets?

Discover history for yourself with this fun, quirky series that tackles the questions other books are afraid to ask!
- Were the Vikings the VAINEST people in Europe?
- Did the Vikings really start fires with wee?
- And what on earth was toga honk?

A QUESTION OF HISTORY: VIKINGS answers all these questions and much more.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Tim Cooke is an experienced children’s author with a particular interest in history. This terrifically fun introduction to Viking history (one in a series) aimed at readers aged 9+ has cheerful illustrations by Matt Lilly and gives you a great sense of what Viking society was like and who they were as people. I learned a number of things that I hadn’t known before and I thoroughly enjoyed the humour - perfect for getting youngsters into history.

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

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Civil Rights Stories – Racial Equality by Anita Ganeri and Toby Newsome

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 21:56:33 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

Civil Rights Stories
Racial Equality

Discover the powerful real-life stories of racial inequality from history and from around the world. The colour of your skin shouldn’t mean that you are treated badly and with prejudice. But discrimination by white people against Black, Asian and indigenous peoples, means that racism affects the happiness and safety of millions.

Civil rights are the rights that all people should have, no matter who they are or where they live. But not everyone enjoys equal rights. Civil Rights Stories shines a light on some of the people, movements and moments in the struggle for equality - a struggle that continues to this day.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Anita Ganeri is an award-winning children’s non-fiction writer and Toby Newsome is an award-winning illustrator. This powerful book for readers aged 7+ (part of a series on Civil Rights Stories) examines examples of racial injustice throughout history and across the world and gives a potted history of white supremacy and prejudice that explains how this history has created present day inequality and discrimination for people of colour.

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

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Forgotten Bastards Of The Eastern Front by Serhii Plokhy

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 21:20:09 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

In October 1943, with the outcome of the Second World War hanging in the balance, the Allies needed a new plan. The Americans’ audacious suggestion to the Soviets was to open a second air front, with the US Air Force establishing bases in Soviet-controlled territory. Despite Stalin’s obvious reservations about the presence of foreign troops in Russia, he was persuaded, and in early 1944 Operation Baseball and then Frantic were initiated as B-17 Flying Fortresses were flown from bases in Italy to the Poltava region in today’s Ukraine.

Award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy tells the gripping, little-known story of this encounter between American and Soviet soldiers and how their collaboration quickly fell apart, anticipating the transition from the Grand Alliance to the Cold War. Soviet secret policemen watched over the Americans, shadowing their every move. A catastrophic air raid by the Germans revealed the limitations of Soviet air defences. As their initial enthusiasm turned into disappointment, the American soldiers started calling themselves the Forgotten Bastards of Ukraine. Ultimately, no common purpose could overcome their cultural and political differences.

Drawing on newly opened KGB and FBI records, Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front offers a riveting bottom-up history of one of the Second World War’s most unlikely alliances.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Serhii Plokhy is Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University, director of its Ukrainian Research Institute and a leading authority on Eastern Europe. This absorbing, very readable book looks at a forgotten period in World War II when Stalin permitted the USA to operate 3 airbases in the Ukraine between April 1944 and June 1945 and makes a convincing case for how the US/Soviet experience there fuelled the start of the Cold War.

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

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Rag And Bone by Lisa Woollett

Sun, 16 Jan 2022 16:53:32 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

From relics of Georgian empire-building and slave-trading, through Victorian London’s barged-out refuse to 1980s fly-tipping and the pervasiveness of present-day plastics, Rag and Bone traces the story of our rubbish, and, through it, our history of consumption.

In a series of beachcombing and mudlarking walks - beginning in the Thames in central London, then out to the Kentish estuary and eventually the sea around Cornwall - Lisa Woollett also tells the story of her family, a number of whom made their living from London’s waste, and who made a similar journey downriver from the centre of the city to the sea.

A beautifully written but urgent mixture of social history, family memoir and nature writing, Rag and Bone is a book about what we can learn from what we’ve thrown away - and a call to think more about what we leave behind.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Lisa Woollett is a beachcomber and award-winning photographer. This thoughtful book (structured around mudlarking on the Thames and beachcombing in Cornwall) combines her family history with the history of consumption and the effect that waste is having on nature. However it’s a shame that Woollett never really explains why she’s so fascinated by mudlarking/beachcombing or why she regards certain objects as treasure and others as waste.

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

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Everything World War II by National Geographic Kids

Sun, 02 Jan 2022 20:25:42 GMT

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.

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The Hunt For Mount Everest by Craig Storti

Sat, 06 Nov 2021 17:22:34 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

The height of Mount Everest was first measured in 1850, but the closest any westerner got to Everest during the next 71 years, until 1921, was 40 miles. The Hunt For Mount Everest tells the story of the 71-year quest to find the world’s highest mountain. It’s a tale of high drama, of larger-than-life-characters - George Everest, Francis Younghusband, George Mallory, Lord Curzon, Edward Whymper - and a first quiet heroes - Alexander Kelly’s, the 13th Dalia Lama, and Charles Bell.

A story that traverses the Alps, the Himalayas, Nepal and Tibet, the British Empire (especially British India and the Raj), the Anglo-Russian rivalry known as The Great Game, the disastrous First Afghan War, and the phenomenal Survey of India - it is far bigger than simply the tallest mountain in the world. Encountering spies, war, political intrigues, and hundreds of mules, camels, bullocks, yaks, and two zebrules, Craig Storti uncovers the fascinating and still largely overlooked saga of all that led up to that moment in late June of 1921 when two English climbers, George Mallory and Guy Bullock, became the first westerners - and almost certainly the first human beings - to set foot on Mount Everest and thereby claimed the last remaining major prize in the history of exploration.

With 2021 bringing the 100th anniversary of that year, most Everest chronicles have dealt with the climbing history of the mountain, with all that happened after 1921. The Hunt For Mount Everest is the seldom-told story of all that happened before.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Craig Storti is a consultant and trainer in inter-cultural communications. This engrossing book deals with the discovery (by Westerners) of Mount Everest, tracking the efforts made to identify where it was and its height up until the first expedition to scale it in 1921 and taking in Britain’s imperialist interests in India and the wider region (including its rivalry with Russia) and the emergence of mountaineering as a sport.

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

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Seven Lives From Mass Observation by James Hinton

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 22:24:32 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

What was it like to live in Britain during the second half of the twentieth century? In a successor to his acclaimed Nine Wartime Lives: Mass Observation and the Making of the Modern Self, James Hinton uses autobiographical writing contributed to Mass Observation since 1981 to explore the social and cultural history of late-twentieth-century Britain. Prompted by thrice-yearly open-ended questionnaires, Mass Observation’s volunteers wrote about their political attitudes, religious beliefs, work, childhoods, education, friendships, marriages, sex lives, mid-life crises, ageing - the whole range of human emotion, feeling, attitudes, and experience. At the core of the book are seven ‘biographical essays’: intimate portraits of individual lives set in the context of the shift towards a more tolerant and permissive society from the 1960s, and the rise of Thatcherite neo-liberalism as the structures of Britain’s post-war settlement crumbles from the later 1970s.

The mass observers featured in the book, four women and three men, are drawn from across the social spectrum - wife of a small businessman, teacher, social worker, RAF wife, mechanic, lorry driver, banker: all active and forceful characters with strong opinions and lives crowded with struggle and drama. The honesty and frankness with which they wrote about themselves takes us below the surface of public life to the efforts of ‘ordinary’, but exceptionally articulate and self-reflective, people to make sense of their lives in rapidly changing times.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

James Hinton is Professor Emeritus at Warwick University with expertise on 20th century British social history. Using 7 contributors to the Mass Observation project (which has been running since 1981) this absorbing and moving book assesses attitudes to the societal and economic changes of the 80s and 90s (albeit with caveats as to the reliability of the opinions expressed given that it’s a self-reporting project) and made me want to read more.

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The Place For Me: Stories About The Windrush Generation by Black Cultural Archives

Sun, 25 Jul 2021 15:44:15 GMT

The Blurb On The Back:

”Home ain’t jus’ where you live. Home is your heart an’ yer history.”

The Place For Me - twelve moving tales of sacrifice and bravery, inspired by first-hand accounts of the Windrush generation. Each inspiring and authentic story helps to bring the real experience of Black British people into focus.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The Black Cultural Archives is the UK’s only national heritage centre dedicated to collecting, preserving and celebrating the history of African and Caribbean people in Britain. This moving, thoughtful illustrated book for readers aged 9+ is a mix of short stories inspired by the Windrush generation of Caribbean people who came to help re-build Britain after World War II, combined with facts about some of those people and their accomplishments.

THE PLACE FOR ME was released in the United Kingdom on 3rd June 2021. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

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