Should you read this book?

Should you read this book? I thought this was great - until about half way through. My friend thought the opposite. So either it's all great or all shit. Stand out moments:  interesting description of carving out a role as deputy prime Minister; brilliant analysis of populis; demolition of Theresa May; Osborn and Cameron not that nice.

Yes. Definitely. I'd heard of Biafra, I thought it was about famine. Turns out that famine was a deliberate war strategy to starve a section of what is now Nigeria into submission. This is the story. I'm aware it pretty much followed rich Biafrans, with some visits to camps of starving people, rather than having its protagonists suffer the full event. Even so, worth knowing, important stuff. Dreadful film btw.

Yes probably. It's a bit of a hotch potch of columns mushed together. But it provoked lots of thoughts on a pretty regular basis which is invaluable.

Yep 100% and straight into my all time good reads. It's a fictional autobiography of a whelk picker turned music hall star, It's pretty explicit, loads of plot, historically interesting...what more could anyone want?

I'm 50/50 on whether you should read this one. It's plotty (hurrah!) and fast moving. Descends a bit, flipping between characters and scenes and grating punchlines . Really good, powerful and thought-provoking ending, which you needed the rest of the novel to really get.

Read it for quirky Irish gloom. The book won the 1996  Guardian  Fiction Prize and the 1996 South Bank Show Annual Award for Literature, is a  New York Times  Notable Book, won the  Irish Times  International Fiction Prize and the Irish Literature Prize in 1997, besides being shortlisted for the  Booker Prize  in 1996. [2]  It has been translated into 20 languages. [3] It's just ok.

100% yes, an all time favourite. Beautiful writing, matter-of-fact / shocking / blunt. I was living in Victorian England there for a while. It takes 40 hours to listen to, which I didn't realise until I'd bought it, and I'm so glad I did. Plenty of direct address to readers and grim irony.

Yes read this one. It's a series of life stories compiled by a journalist. Importance of marriage, living with abusive in-laws, importance of having a son... Makes you realise how far women in the West have come, and how much there is to do for women who are being abused as a cultual norm in many parts of the world.

Nope. Really sorry. All well written stories. Some more fragmentary. Nothing wrong with them. Netflix is better.

Yes if you want a brilliant horror story gradually revealed.   It put me off meat eating and farming generally. I was a vegan for a few hours there.

Only read this if you are a History Geek, in which case you will enjoy it v much. Shakespeare didn't call any of his plays Edward IV. He wrote about Henry VI and Richard III on either side. Is that why Ed IV is slightly shadowy? More famous are his sons (the princes in the tower) his brother (Richard III) his grandson (Henry VIII) great granddaughter (Elizabeth 1) and cousin Warwick the Kingmaker. But Edward himself is brilliant and well worth the attention.

Yes. Everyone should read this one. In conjunction with WTF that's just about everything covered. Beautifully clear writing in a chatty style, gradually explaining complex (for me) ideas. Really thought provoking about early humans. So worrying you come out the other side of worry. We caused a mass extinction 13000 years ago and we're doing a mega one right now. We've turned the world back into Pangaea - the original single land mass. We've reunited species that have spent millennia apart.  Amazing stuff in here on Neadertals and orangutans. My favourite line is "what gene made us so different to Neanderals that we could kill them off, then dig them up and piece together their genome?"

No. Don't bother. Unless you wnat some "light" reading, in which case, why not try Netflix or Amazon Prime for some entertainment that's had millions spent on it. This is a speedy read, a cliche, has a little anger at Americans, a little political comment, is full of types, is poorly written (about age 11 - 13 story telling). I can see it as a feel good movie. 

It's well written enough but I don't think I'd trouble you with this one. It's very short and quite beautifully written. It's about an au pair's first foray into life away from her mother, so like, who cares? Some interesting class / privelege insights, and the narrator is complex and often unlikeable.

Yes. You should definitely read this one. Well absolutely definitely the first 40 pages for everyone, and the last 50 or so for nearly everyone. That's the ancient humans (could have spent more of his book on them - really well written, conversational tone) and the future taken care of. And in between? The industrial and the scientific revolutions, and sort of combining lots of history from everywhere into his thesis, in a very entertaining way. It's sort of philosophy, sort of history, and really thought provoking. If I were him, I'd have done a 250 pager on the ancient humans, and the rest of history in his second book.

Yes. Ok I read half this one and fleshing out more detail onto my hazy notion of Ghengis Khan was fascinating - preconception after preconception falling to the floor. Most interesting? Kidnap of women, including his mother by his father, how the Mongol argmy moved (no infantry) - their own supply of food under their saddles. The rules Ghengis Khan had - clever tricks of changing the system so it worked for him, including banning the kidnap of women. Had enough when it moved on to his son, as I was listening to it and I couldn't keep track of the names without seeing them any more.

No. Probably not. Just read lots of reviews of it and literati are raving. I'm not. It ends with the moral of the story ffs. Glad I went there - to Africa in the middle of coups. But not enough plot.

1. WTF   Robert Preston's readable account of Brexit and the future. Head in hands time I'm afraid. 2. This is going to Hurt Good old laugh out loud war stories of a junior doctor. Avoid if you might give birth in the future. 3. Chance Witness Matthew Parris' life story - beautifully told. Behind the scenes in Parliament (leaves you wondering why bother with the place) and his journalistic career. 4 Live from Downing Street / Election Notebook Nick Robinson is a fabulous writer and both these books are gripping. The first is a more historical overview of politics and the media.The second is his account of the 2015 election and his recovery from cancer. 5. The Course of Love Still disappointed that romance is an illusion? Still deluded that romance exists? Read this by Alain de Botton and you'll be furious we