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Book Reviews
Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. Without books, the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are the engines of change, windows on the world, “lighthouses” (as a poet said) “erected in the sea of time.” They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print (Barbra W. Tuchman, 1912-1989). If you wish to share your own book reviews please send them to books@intrepid-optimist.com.
Sea Sick. By Alanna Mitchell
You thought the climate was the problem? Actually, it's the ocean. Sea Sick is the first book to explain how the global ocean — 99 per cent of the planet's living space — is undergoing vast chemical changes at the hand of man and why that matters.
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt
Tony Judt’s detailed monumental work (over 800 pages) is well-written and well-organized. He begins by documenting the devastation in Europe following World War II. Post-war planning for Europe was heavily influenced by the knowledge that both Fascism and Communism thrived on social despair; ergo “the physical and moral condition of the citizenry” became a matter of common interest for both the victors and the vanquished. Economic recovery was deemed to be essential.
Beat the Reaper - Josh Bazell
This mafia meets ER action-romp is a page turner extraodinaire. Accompany Dr. Peter Brown as he spends a day trying not to kill any patients in his drug fuelled, sleep deprevived rounds. You'll never want to end up in hospital again.
The Spiv and the Architect By Richard Hornsey
As London emerged from the devastation of the Second World War, planners and policymakers sought to rebuild the city in ways that would reshape the behavior of its citizens as much as it would its buildings and infrastructure—a program defined by a strong emphasis on civic order and conservative values of national community. One of the groups most significantly affected by this new, moralistic climate of reformation and renewal was queer men, whom the police, the media, and lawmakers targeted as an urgent urban problem by marking their lives and desires as criminal and deviant.
Mr Rosenblum's List ~ Natasha Solomons
Mr Rosenblum's list is a funny, touching and sometimes sad story about Jack and Sadie Rosenblum, who escape Nazi Germany in 1937. On arrival Jack aspires to become an Englishman. Having been given the leaflet While you are in England : Helpful Information and Friendly Guidance for every Refugee Jack decides that assimilation is the way forward and proceeds to live his life by the letter of the rules. Sadie meanwhile is grieving and continues to do so, not only for her family left behind but for the loss of her way of her Jewish way of life and its traditions.
The Spirit Level: by Richard Wilkinson, Kate Pickett
It is common knowledge that in rich societies the poor have shorter lives and suffer more from almost every social problem. Large inequalities of income are likewise often regarded as divisive and corrosive. This groundbreaking book, based on thirty years' research, goes an important stage beyond either of these ideas: it demonstrates that more unequal societies are bad for almost everyone within them – the well-off as well as the poor.
Satan’s Playground:By Paul J. Vanderwood
Mobsters And Movie Stars At America’s Greatest Gaming Resort is the story of the gambling business in Tijuana, Mexico, during the 1920s—in particular, Agua Caliente, a jumbo-sized, tricked-out complex opened in 1928, at the height of Prohibition in America. Needless to say, the casinos—not to mention the easily accessible prostitution, horse racing, and alcohol surrounding them—were a rousing success with American tourists, and run by crooks from both sides of the border.
Hugh Trevor-Roper: the Biography: by Adam Sisman
At a house party at Boughton in the early Fifties, the publisher Jamie Hamilton and his wife encountered Hugh Trevor-Roper. “We found ourselves wondering if one so young and gifted ought to spend quite so much time hating people,” Hamilton reported back to the art historian Bernard Berenson. “He has hardly a charitable word for anyone, and seems to relish the discomfiture even of those he is supposed to like. A strange mixture, and rather a frightening one.”