A hugely informing book, with tons & tons of anonymous insider information & direct accounts from bankers & members of the financial sector on the industries internal machinations. Yes, that’s straight from the horse’s mouth, off-record (or rather with assured anonymity) revelations & insight from sources operating in the profession from a wealth of positions. Continue reading Swimming With Sharks – My Journey into the World of the Bankers (Joris Luyendijk)
So I am thinking on which angle to begin writing on this historical book? should it be on the “conspiracy theory”? or rather when the “theory”, after years of strenuous denial by the perpetrators, media & the regulators & legal operators that should have been bringing them down, gets total & utter public confirmation & an ‘oh yes! You were actually 100% right all along’ moment? Or should it be the Continue reading Blacklisted – The Secret War Between Big Business and Union Activists (Dave Smith & Phil Chamberlain)
A front-line testament of a revolution from writer & journalist Andrey Kurkov. Apparently never intended to be compiled into a book, Kurkov began writing a diary on Ukraine’s 2013 pro-European protests from a first-hand perspective (his flat being just a few hundred yards from Independence Square in Kiev). Getting accurate information on Ukraine can be difficult, as both Europe/The West & especially Russia deploy so much disinformation, hyper-bias, omission & propaganda. Continue reading Ukraine Diaries – Dispatches from Kiev (Andrey Kurov)
A year in the United Kingdom without spending so much as a single penny!? A concept/action of such importance, taken to a considerable extreme (of such) to fully demonstrate the capacity of human ingenuity & ability even in the modern day environment. It’s challenging to over exaggerate the importance of such experimentation. By taking it to such consummate frontier (an entire year on absolutely zero money) Continue reading The Moneyless Man – A Year of Freeconomic Living (Mark Boyle)
An absolute smasher of a book! on a page tearing tip. I came across it by chance whilst sifting through the isles in a decent shop. Wus’ this? It’s got pretty poor sleeve design, especially considering the strength & style of the material within. But the vignette on the back convinced me that this was essential reading based on the journalists insight. I wasn’t wrong. Continue reading Nothing Is True And Everything Is Possible – Adventures in modern Russia (Peter Pomerantsev)
An extremely important & timely exposé. Bill Gates is an absolute fucking monster! Beyond his repulsive corporate aggression, brand-bloat, ‘compulsory’-software imposition/unilateral product bondage & horrible diversity-quelling market monopolizing mania of Micro Soft miasma, a much more sick, sinister & damaging agenda is at foot. Continue reading No Such Thing As A Free Gift – The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy (Linsey McGoey)
So two words to kick the door in with – VITAL & MANDATORY!!! Capitalism & calamity, profit & crisis – are becoming like conjoined twins. War-pollution-incarceration… inflict, sustain, clean-up/eradicate, reaping revenues at every stage. You notice how many of today’s greatest problems/threats/fiascos crawled out of yesterday’s solutions or technological advancements (ISIS/Terrorism, Climate Extermination, Food Insecurity etc’ etc’ etc). Continue reading Disaster Capitalism – Making a killing out of catastrophe (Antony Loenwenstein)
Somehow, despite my huge interest in the topic, I only discovered Joanna Blythman recently. Not unlike fellow peer Felicity Lawrence (who works more on the abuse of workers & modern slavery in large-scale commercial food production), Blythman shares the front-line of food journalism/activism. This is her fifth book on food & deals predominantly with the hidden ingredients & deceptive stealth-feeding from an increasingly abnormal industry. Continue reading Swallow This – Serving up the food industry’s darkest secrets (Joanna Blythman)
“The rise of a major power is made up of thousands of details; like dispatching troops, mining mountains, building trading ports and skyscrapers, and most importantly entering the hearts and minds of the people without anyone noticing.”
This is a book for me that will most definitely be contending for 2016’s best title (I snatched it only this February). In this extraordinary piece, intellectual/observer/moralist/dissident/ analyst/”bad element” Xu Zhiyuan delivers an unprecedented critique & perspicacious reflection on China’s “economic miracle” & the true cost of this disastrous achievement. With remarkable clarity, Xu serves an almost sublime invective, with a grace & composure that almost contradicts the strength of the criticism & quiet outrage that he enacts. Continue reading Paper Tiger – Inside The Real China (Xu Zhiyuan)
Bit of a game changer this one. It’s a rare occasion that such a substantial blow is landed on a central pillar of tabloid tyranny (the most central in this case). It’s also an absurdly inspiring display of how just two deeply dedicated geezers (author & journalist Nick Davies & companion & former Guardian editor Allen Rusbridger) can make an unprecedented change to the unchallenged dominance of the corrupt status-quo, seriously contesting the invulnerability & unilateral hegemony of the corrupt giant & their squalid modus-operandi. Continue reading Hack Attack: How the truth caught up with Rupert Murdoch – Nick Davies