Shiny New Books
  • About
  • Editorial & Review
  • Privacy
  • Fiction Review Index
  • Non-Fiction Index
    • Architecture, Art & Design, Craft, Home & Garden, Photography
    • Biography, Memoir & Diaries
    • Books about Books, Lit Crit, Publishing, Reading & Writing
    • Ecology & Environment, Natural World
    • Entertainment, Media, Film & Music
    • Mind and Body, Medicine, Psychology
A Novel Calling Anthology Architecture, Homes & Gardens Art & Design, Craft & Photography Art of Writing & Translation Biographical articles Biography & Memoir, Diaries BookBuzz Books About Books, Publishing Books into Film Business Children's classic Ecology & Environment, Natural World Entertainment, Media Essays Exhibitions Fiction Five Fascinating Facts Flash & Original Fiction Food & Drink Graphic Novel Guest Post History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Humour Interview, Q&A Linguistics Lit Crit Literary Prizes & Festivals Mind and Body, Medicine, Psychology Miscellaneous Music Myths & Legends, Fairytale New Translations of Older Works Non Fiction Philosophy Playscripts & Screenplays Poetry Poetry Competition Reading Guide Relligion Reprint Reviewer's Choice Science & Technology Self-help Sports & Leisure Spotlight on Publishing The Eds Discuss The Shiny Book Club Translated Travel & the World True Crime Uncategorized YA Spotlight
Books About Books, Publishing History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

Commemorative Modernisms by Alice Kelly

Review by Rob Spence Modernism has always resisted precise definition, and in recent years it has been normal in literary-critical circles to use the plural form in order to emphasise…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books April 20, 2021
0 747 0
Read Later Share
History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

Love Lives by Carol Dyhouse

Reviewed by Harriet It’s probably a common experience among people who read a lot that sometimes two books will overlap in unexpected ways. This has just happened to me. I…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books April 15, 2021
0 1161 1
Read Later Share
Biography & Memoir, Diaries History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

The Panic Years by Nell Frizzell

Reviewed by Harriet ‘Every millennial woman should have this on her bookshelf’ says Pandora Sykes on the front of Nell Frizzell’s new book. New in the sense that it’s just…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books March 4, 2021
0 1687 1
Read Later Share
Biography & Memoir, Diaries Ecology & Environment, Natural World History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

Thin Places by Kerri ní Dochartaigh

Review by Peter Reason I have been totally absorbed in Kerri ní Dochartaigh’s Thin Places since it arrived in the morning mail and I read in the Preface: ‘The right…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books February 25, 2021
0 1614 1
Read Later Share
Biography & Memoir, Diaries Essays History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

Chauvo-Feminism: On Sex, Power and #MeToo by Sam Mills

Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth Remember the 1990s? It was a decade where lads’ mags decorated magazine shelves in supermarkets and where Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus with…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books February 23, 2021
0 1293 1
Read Later Share
History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women’s Rights, edited by Polly Russell and Margaretta Jolly

Reviewed by Liz Dexter It used to be that we attended exhibitions and treated ourselves to the catalogue in the shop on the way out. Now, it’s more a case…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books February 2, 2021
0 973 1
Read Later Share
History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

The Haunting of Amelia Fielding, by Kate Summerscale

Reviewed by Basil Ransome-Davies Believe it or not, the occult is always a source of fascination. For the persuaded, it offers an expanded view of reality, free from the constraints…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books December 8, 2020
0 863 0
Read Later Share
History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

Work: A History of How We Spend our Time by James Suzman

Reviewed by Liz Dexter I will say right away that this is probably not the book you think it will be. The subtitle suggests it will be a history of…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books November 26, 2020
0 1428 0
Read Later Share
History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

The Spirit of the Blitz – edited by Paul Addison and Jeremy A. Crang

Reviewed by Hayley Anderton I thought I’d learnt to check how long a book is before I agreed or offered to review it, but I’m in this case I had…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books November 10, 2020
0 747 0
Read Later Share
History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

Kitted Out: Style and Youth Culture in the Second World War by Caroline Young

Reviewed by Liz Dexter This extremely well-researched and authoritative book takes us through the Second World War, in the UK, the US, the Far and Middle East and Europe, through…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books October 15, 2020
0 1032 1
Read Later Share
Ecology & Environment, Natural World History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes

Reviewed by Liz Dexter A book that is in turns entertaining, lyrical and shocking, you won’t think about the countryside – or the rivers – of England in quite the…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books September 8, 2020
0 1230 2
Read Later Share
History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology New Translations of Older Works

King Kong Theory by Virginie Despentes

Translated by Frank Wynne Reviewed by Annabel I write from the realms of the ugly, for the ugly, the old, the bull dykes, the frigid, the unfucked, the unfuckable, the…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books September 3, 2020
0 2398 3
Read Later Share
Ecology & Environment, Natural World History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

Notes From An Apocalypse by Mark O’Connell

Review by Annabel O’Connell is an Irish journalist who won the Wellcome Book Prize for his previous title, To Be a Machine (which I reviewed for Shiny here). His exploration…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books July 28, 2020
0 1801 7
Read Later Share
Minna Salami Sensuous Knowledge
History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction Philosophy

Sensuous Knowledge: A black feminist approach for everyone by Minna Salami

Review by Peter Reason Minna Salami is a Nigerian and Finnish social critic, founder of the MsAfropolitan blog, who draws on Africa-centric and feminist perspectives to offer a more inclusive…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books June 18, 2020
0 1725 1
Read Later Share
History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans by David Abulafia

Review by Liz Dexter The reason this book is in the news now is that it has been shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize (more on the shortlist here). I…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books June 9, 2020
0 1285 2
Read Later Share
History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights by Helen Lewis

Review by Liz Dexter First of all a caveat, in case any keen-eyed reader finds my name in the acknowledgements: I did work on this book in my professional capacity,…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books April 30, 2020
0 991 1
Read Later Share
History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

She-Merchants, Buccaneers and Gentlewomen: British Women in India by Katie Hickman

Reviewed by Harriet What an enticing title! Made even more so by the sub-title, ‘British Women in India’.  Katie Hickman, who herself led a peripatetic life as the daughter of…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books April 7, 2020
0 922 1
Read Later Share
Architecture, Homes & Gardens History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

Square Haunting by Francesca Wade

Review by Karen Langley “Square Haunting” was published to much fanfare and acclaim recently; a book which looks at the lives of five notable women centred around a specific Bloomsbury…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books February 27, 2020
0 1021 0
Read Later Share
John Gallagher Learning Languages
History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Linguistics Non Fiction

Learning Languages in Early Modern England by John Gallagher

Review by Liz Dexter Has it ever struck you that before England obtained its empire, no one else in the world bothered to speak the language? Did you realise what…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books February 5, 2020
0 822 0
Read Later Share
Tales of the troubled dead catherine belsey
Books About Books, Publishing History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

Tales of the Troubled Dead: Ghost Stories in Cultural History – Catherine Belsey

Review by Hayley Anderton Tales of the weird have a deep hold on our collective imagination, and of all the things we’ve given credence to over the course of human…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books December 5, 2019
0 945 0
Read Later Share
Violencia history spain jason webster
History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

Violencia – A New History of Spain: Past, Present and the Future of the West, by Jason Webster

Review by Michael Eaude. Jason Webster takes a long, long view of Spanish history. Most history books concentrate on small chunks of time: this or that war; or a defined…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books October 24, 2019
0 1111 0
Read Later Share
anna of kleve alison weir
History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

Anna of Kleve – Queen of Secrets by Alison Weir

Review by Julie Barham It is well known that Henry VIII had six wives – and none more mysterious than the one that he married virtually unseen, and parted from…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books August 20, 2019
0 1523 0
Read Later Share
extinction rebellion this is not a drill
Ecology & Environment, Natural World History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

This Is Not a Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook

Edited by: Farrell, Clare, Alison Green, Sam Knights, and William Skeaping Review by Peter Reason There cannot be many followers of Shiny New Books who are not aware of the…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books July 11, 2019
0 1010 0
Read Later Share
chaos tom o'neill charles manson cia
History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction

CHAOS:Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O’Neill

Review by Basil Ransome-Davies In Stephen Dobyns’ murder mystery Saratoga Swimmer Charlie Bradshaw, unlicensed private eye and true-crime addict, recounts the story of New York gangster Dutch Schultz’s 1935 assassination…

Shiny New Books
Shiny New Books July 4, 2019
0 973 0
Read Later Share
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
Categories

Join 3,713 other subscribers.
The posts you’re looking at most…
  • Fair Play by Louise Hegarty
  • Re-reading The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman Diaries, edited by Alan Taylor
  • Diplomatic Baggage: Adventures of a Trailing Spouse, by Brigid Keenan
  • The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton
  • The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe
Our Affiliate LInk to Blackwell’s – When you click through and purchase, it earns us a small commission to help pay for this site’s upkeep. Thank you.
www.blackwells.co.uk
My Tweets
Recent Comments
  • kaggsysbookishramblings on Conversations with Rilke by Maurice Betz
  • Liz Dexter on Conversations with Rilke by Maurice Betz
  • hopewellslibraryoflife on Cloistered: My Years as a Nun by Catherine Coldstream
  • kaggsysbookishramblings on Conversations with Rilke by Maurice Betz
  • Margot Kinberg on Conversations with Rilke by Maurice Betz
Recent Posts
  • The Place of Tides by James Rebanks
  • The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
  • Universality by Natasha Brown
  • Cloistered: My Years as a Nun by Catherine Coldstream
  • Conversations with Rilke by Maurice Betz
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
Shiny on Facebook
Shiny on Facebook
Blog Stats
  • 785,854 hits
© 2014-2023, Shiny New Books and its Contributors
Meta
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

  • July 2025
  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • October 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • April 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
  • April 2014

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Archives

  • July 2025
  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • October 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • April 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
  • April 2014