The insidious growth of India’s Maoist movement has troubled the Central Government authorities who have been unable to check it beyond sending Reserve Police Forces to deal with the issue and creating a body known as the Salwa Judum in Chattisgarh. Also referred to as Naxalites, despite being a far wider movement than the original uprising in Naxalbari that gave rise to the name, the Maoists have made their way to the international media for a blend of violence and Robin Hood tactics. Arundhati Roy, for one, is a staunch supporter.

Rahul Pandita’s Hello Bastar is an in depth study of the movement, tracing its roots from Naxalbari and describing its spread and the reasons behind it.

Rahul Pandita

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Pink Princesses and Pole Dancers

This book is a disturbing account of the ways in which girls and young women are being encouraged to see themselves. It also examines the way that men and boys are conditioned to view women. It includes topics such as pole dancing, prostitution, glamour modelling and lads’ mags, children’s toys and theories on differences between female and male children from a very young age. At times I found it very uncomfortable and depressing reading, but it is well worth reading for the important arguments made.

The book is divided into two halves: The New Sexism and The New Determinism

Natasha Walter

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Since the beginning of the twentieth century fashion has undergone some remarkable changes, affected in part by a recession, two world wars, a huge increase in consumerism and more recently the influence of the Internet. In their study “Fashion since 1900”, Valerie Mendes and Amy de la Haye trace these changes, focusing on hairstyles, accessories and makeup as well as clothes. Whether you want to know which celebrities were setting the trends, which designers were most influential or how international events were changing the way people dressed, you will find something to interest you here.

The book is divided into ten chapters that are arranged chronologically, going from “1900-1913: Undulations and Exotica” in Chapter 1 up to “2000-: Planet Fashion” in the final chapter.

Amy de la Haye, Valerie Mendes

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Signs of Life by Natalie Taylor is an autobiographical account of sixteen months of the authors life, starting on the day her husband Josh died, and ending on their sons first birthday. At the age of 24, Natalie suddenly found herself widowed and pregnant.

When I was offered the chance to read and review Signs of Life, my initial reaction was that Natalie’s story is similar to that of a former colleague who lost her partner shortly after their daughter’s birth. I remember the grief that struck the office at that time, and I felt drawn to Signs of Life, to find out just how someone could cope with such a tragedy.

Natalie’s account is based on what she wrote every day during this period.

Natalie Taylor

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Every month I read a book which I would be unlikely to choose myself. Why, you ask? For my reading group. We all take turns making suggestions, and while you can see patterns in what some of us suggest, occasionally there is a book which knocks me sideways out of surprise. Nothing to Envy is one of those books.

Written by journalist Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea is a collection of true stories about life in the country under the regimes of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, told by defectors who have left North Korea. Demick opens by discussing what we know of the country, which is really very little – it is in her introduction that she mentions the fact that North Korea is a “black hole” on satellite photos of Asia at night, a fact which I hadn’t realised and which captivated me.

Barbara Demick

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Here is a scary thought for you: the divorce rate for first time marriages in the UK is currently at 42%. It gets worse. If you are lucky enough to get married for a second time, you stand a 60% chance of ending up divorced. Try it for a third time and the rate climbs again to a massive 70%. To say that there are thus a large number of people fresh out of long-term relationships looking for love again is probably putting it mildly. Noticing this growing market, online dating service eHarmony (www.eharmony.com)  has brought out a book based on the principles of “relationship science” that they use for matchmaking called, “Dating The Second Time Around: Finding Love That Lasts”. Yes, I laughed a bit at the thought that people could be paired up successfully by something as unromantic as scientific analysis too, but they claim to be responsible for 542 people getting married every day in the US alone, so I guess there must be something in it.

Dr Gian Gonzaga

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We all lie and deceive on a daily basis. “Lovely to see you again”; “I’m not busy”; “I don’t mind”; “we will keep a copy of your CV on file”. Lying is something that comes all too easily to most of us. We tell white lies (and worse) casually and often think of such things as just a necessary lubricant to smooth social intercourse. Telling the truth can get us into trouble – indeed, truth is trouble. Although we are told repeatedly that honesty is the best policy when we are children and our childhood stories are full of morals of why those who are dishonest never prosper, this certainty seems to fade into adulthood – perhaps because we have learnt by then how to lie and get away with it.

“Why We Lie: The Source of Our Disasters” is a book, unsurprisingly, about lying.

Dorothy Rowe

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In 2005 the world watched in horror as Hurricane Katrina attacked the city of New Orleans, bursting the levees and leaving the city neck-deep in water. The environmental devastation was beyond imagination but what shocked observers even more was the rapid breakdown of ‘normal’ human behaviour. The city descended into chaos and disorder; stores were looted, gangs roamed the streets and inhabitants – most of them poor and black – were herded into the Superbowl where rape, violence and despair were the order of the day. What the television reports didn’t tell us was about the violence and psychological abuse of innocent inhabitants, arrested without charge, denied even the basic rights of a phone call or the opportunity to let anyone know where they were – all in the name of ‘Homeland Security’.

Dave Eggers

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When I was presented with a copy of John Kay’s book Obliquity, my heart sank just a little at seeing the words “goals” and “achieved” used in the same sentence on the front cover. Books that use these sorts of words are usually dull, prescriptive and….well, the sort of books that Kay goes to considerable length to tell you are not in slightest bit helpful. Why? Because they are too direct to work in an uncertain world such as ours.

Obliquity – as a more effective alternative to directness in Kay’s terminology – is basically an extended essay that grew out of a short article in the Financial Times’ weekend magazine in January 2004.

John Kay

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I’m not much of a fan of the self-help genre and I believe that most self-help books do little for their readers other than inducing a greater sense of self-loathing and diminished self-worth when those readers fail to convert themselves into better people overnight. How many copies of ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ are sitting on the shelves of friendless and uninfluential people who can’t quite remember how they ever thought something they paid a few quid for was going to change their personality overnight? I try to avoid getting sucked in – well obviously when you’re perfect already there’s not much need – but even I am prone to the odd purchase. I have more shelf-space than I care to measure devoted to various tomes on mind mapping and ‘de-junking’ my life whilst my mind remains largely terra incognita and my life is absolutely full of junk.

Oliver Burkeman

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How the Girl Guides Won the War by Janie Hampton was a book I expected to be enjoyable but rather twee, full of sing songs around campfires and tales of irritatingly cheerful Girl Guides doing good deeds. How wrong I was.

These things are all present in the book, but there is much more to it. My expectation was similar to that of the author before she started writing; in her introduction Hampton notes that she not expected to write the book she did, which is full of praise for the Guide movement.

Founded in 1909 after girls took an interest in the recently formed Scouting movement, Girl Guides was something which was open to girls from all backgrounds around the world.

Janie Hampton

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