Dec 24, 2009 Posted by booktiger

When A Crocodile Eats The Sun – Peter Godwin

I seem to have read a number of books recently which filled me with various emotions – anger at injustice, sadness at the blind greed and selfishness of the human race, and rage at people who use power for their own ends, whilst trampling on anyone around them who gets in their way. When A Crocodile Eats The Sun is a memoir from the journalist, Peter Godwin who was a white who was born and grew up in... read more

Dec 23, 2009 Posted by booktiger

Flat Earth News – Nick Davies

I am really not a big fan of the mainstream media – that, as most of you will know, is no secret. I don’t like sensationalism, I hate celebrity culture, and I dislike the paternalistic, materialistic nonsense which seems to be characteristic of most news channels today, whether visual, audio or written. I came to Flat Earth News with this attitude, and this book didn’t just reinforce it... read more

May 14, 2009 Posted by booktiger

Making Light of Being Heavy – Kandy Siahaya

Obesity is so frequently hailed as a ‘problem’ and a ‘disaster for the country’ in the newspapers nowadays that it is no surprise that we assume that every overweight person is just one more statistic whose life will be cut short because their heart will give out by the time they are 20, and in the short years they are alive they will be so miserably unhappy that they will do... read more

Mar 20, 2009 Posted by booktiger

Deep Thinking The Human Condition: New Ideas We Can’t Do Without – S.A. Odunsi

In the modern world, why is it that half of the population lives in relative affluence, with abundant food, good housing, employment and luxuries, yet the other half suffers from persistent underdevelopment and poverty? How is it that with technological advances, ever increasing business and growing education that a large number of people spend each day merely trying to survive? This is the question that... read more

Oct 16, 2008 Posted by booktiger

The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front – Mark Thompson

I received The White War as an Early Reviewer on LibraryThing, and it wasn’t a disappointment. I love reading history, particularly when the period is relatively unknown and undocumented as this. As readers of this blog will know, I read Hemingway’s Farewell to Arms and wasn’t particularly enamoured with it, although that was more for the writing style than than the period of history... read more

Aug 5, 2008 Posted by Nancy Williams

Charlatan: The Fraudulent Life of John Brinkley – Pope Brock

If someone casually mentioned to you that they had discovered the secret to eternal youth and vitality, would you sit up and listen? If they then told you that in order to achieve this, and the rampant sex drive which would naturally accompany it, you may have to undergo surgery, would you ask for more information? What, then, would you say if you were told that this secret required you to go under the... read more

Apr 1, 2008 Posted by Nancy Williams

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition and Other Confusions Of Our Time – Michael Shermer

During the Second World War, the Nazi’s orchestrated the systematic murder of millions of Jews in the gas chambers of concentration camps around Europe. This horror known as the Holocaust is remembered and studied by students and academics alike. But there are a few people out there who, for some reason, deny that it ever happened and try and suggest that the whole thing is a big conspiracy. In the... read more

Jan 4, 2008 Posted by Nancy Williams

The Nuremberg Interviews – Leon Goldensohn

The Nuremberg Interviews were conducted by Leon Goldensohn during the trials of 1945-1946. Gathered together and finally published by his brother, Eli, and carefully edited and annotated by Robert Gellately, this primary historical source makes for chilling reading. Goldensohn, an American Jewish psychiatrist, was present at the prison and conducted interviews with many of the defendants and witnesses of... read more