Chris

Staff Review: Chris writes: This is one of the most moving books I've read in recent months. I've been reading it aloud to my partner before bed each night before dozing off to dream of the worlds the object has invoked. This is bedtime reading at its best. It's a fantastic approach - to tell humanity's story through objects. Neil MacGregor brings alive these seemingly obscure objects - a north American otter pipe (200BC-AD100), a sphinx of Tarharqo (680BC), gold coins of Abd al-Malik (AD696) and Tang Tomb figurines (AD728) and places them in their historical and cultural context in an amusing and enticing way. "Wow" I found myself constantly exclaiming as I turned to a new beautifully-photographed object. Neil MacGregor the director of the British Museum and, over two years, choose the 100 objects from the museum's collection and, teaming up with BBC Radio produced a critically-acclaimed radio series of the same name, from which the book derives. A former art critic, MacGregor has a noticeable nous for translating the visual into the written word in a personal and funny way. Take for example the oldest object in the book, nearly two-million-year-old stone chopping tool. MacGregor points out that it has more chips than it needs to perform its job of cutting meat. "Those extra chips", he explains, "tell us that right from the beginning, we - unlike other animals - have felt the urge to make things more sophisticated than they need be." See what I mean? Intriguing!

Staff Review: Chris writes: Like his previous books, Bill Bryson's At Home is entertaining, engaging and easy to read. Bryson has the gift of taking everyday objects and events - in this case domesticity and the home - and finding the funny, informative, quirky stuff which he delivers with dry, goofy wit and affection for his topic.

Staff Review: Chris writes: Are you going to buy this book? Yes -> a wise choice. No -> why not? (a) because I'm not in the habit of buying flowchart guides to alien pickup lines, heavy-metal band names or which religion offers me the best afterlife and the whole thing just sounds a bit stupid to me -> probably fair enough but then again flowcharts are intended for the reluctant decision-maker, (b) I don't know anything about yet because you've stuck this silly flow-chart at the start of your review instead of telling me about the book -> also probably fair enough. American standup comic and book designer, Doogie Horner clearly has far too much time on his hands. Compressed into its hilarious 160 pages are enough flowcharts, pictograms, diagrams, scatter-graphs and piecharts to explain everything, (wrestling finishing moves, whether or not you have or are an evil twin or how to win any argument) or else induce Spontaneous Information Overload (SIO), whichever comes first. Embrace your inner nerd!

Staff Review: Chris writes: Man Bites Murdoch is an engaging insight into the workings of the upper echelons of Australia's major newspaper empires from a man who knows - a former Age, Herald-Sun, Who Weekly, Weekend Australian Magazine and People magazine editor. But it's also a very personal account of a man trying to maintain his sense of journalistic integrity amidst a profit-obsessed media machine and a conniving workplace culture. It's a first-person account of what happened to newspapers over the last 20 years - from newspaper dominance to relative decline. In particular, it's an account of the tension between newspaper journalists and newspapers' marketing and commercial arms - a tension heightened by circulation slumps. Despite boosting Herald Sun sales and winning the 2008 Editor of the Year award, Guthrie fell out of favour with Rupert Murdoch and Herald Sun's top brass - and had Guthrie fired. Guthrie sued for unfair dismissal and, in David and Goliath fashion, won. This is not an anti-Murdoch rant. It's a considered, often funny, engaging and personal account of a man who, over 40 years, has witnessed the most turbulent years of change in the newspaper industry from the belly of the beast. There's always tension between the marketing and commercial arms of newspapers, but the sales come under increasing pressure and the line that protects public interests from corporate interests is becoming more and more blurred.

Staff Review: Chris writes: Amexica is a street-level account of the war, corruption and exploitation that has immersed much of the 3200km-long US-Mexican borderlands from Tijuana to Matamoros. Part true-crime expose, part travelogue, Amexica is a journey through a kaleidoscopic landscape of exploitation, trafficking (in both directions), corruption and militarisation, but also of beauty, joy and resilience. Mexico's murderously competitive drug and weapon syndicates are a growing influence on both sides of the US-Mexico border. Mexican cartels control 70% of the narcotics importation into the US. But it's a problem, Vulliamy argues, made in America. The drug war, he contends, is tied up with free-trade-obsessed capitalism. In the early 2000s, new free-marketeers in Mexico broke all the old cosy agreements between the various cartels and the authorities. Amexica's format is cumbersome. It drifts from travelogue description to argumentation about various things like the relative paucity of the border. But its travelogue parts give a real flavour for the borderlands' colour and personality - filled with striking vignettes and larger-than-life characters. Amexica is not just about drugs, it's an absorbing survey of the results of free trade, migration, arms dealing & cheap labour. By turns horrific and sublime, its story is of a place and people in a time of war as much as it is of the war itself.

Staff Review: Chris writes: Jamie Oliver has been criticised for claiming that all the meals in this book and on his show take less than 30 minutes when in fact they pretty generally take longer. Fair enough. But, as a chronically under-confident cook with only basic cooking equipment, I've found Oliver’s philosophy: that everyday quality food needn't and shouldn't take ages to prepare - reassuring. I've cooked from this book and found it's true - these meals don't take forever. Its tone is unpretentious, chatty and, dare I say... fun. Thirty minutes is overly ambitious for these meals but there's 50 meal guides to choose from - all of which can be downsized or borrowed from for other meals. It's a great concept. Try it!

Staff Review: Chris writes: From the first Mardi Gras to the anti-eviction battle of Union Street in Erskineville, Radical Sydney engagingly reveals the stories and characters of Sydney's rich radical past. This lively history will give you a greater appreciation of the radicals who made Sydney what it is today.

Staff Review: Chris writes: I thoroughly enjoyed this compelling "people's history" of our world's majority, the Third World. I most liked that it re-explains the Cold War - not as a superpower showdown enveloping passive, Third-World pawns, but as an ever-changing global stage upon which a diverse but generally united "Third World project" of poor countries played off both empires in often heroic though not always successful efforts to shake off colonialism and develop. Prashad is passionate and engaging.