St. Pauli – Another Football is Possible (Carles Viñas and Natxo Parra)

Carles Viñas and Natxo Parra
St. Pauli – Another Football is Possible

A run through of the history of FC St Pauli and it's relationship with the local community in particular the autonomous squatter movement in and around the Hamburg red light district and port where St Pauli is based. Much more than a book about a club it's a run through of pre and post war German politics within the context of football, Hamburg and St Pauli (the club and urban area). Shows that another football is possible, i.e. isn't all about the money and sponsorship or even winning, although the pressures on the club to embrace the commercial / capitalist world are great in order to survive financially and improve league table wise. An excellent read if you are interested in football, politics and society. Surely that's everyone then.

Out of Time (Miranda Sawyer)

Miranda Sawyer
Out of Time

As the author says not a self help book but her experiences. The plus sides are shared experiences as to what life was like when we were younger and what it's like moving into middle age with long term relationships, responsibilities and kids. The downside is that it feels a little bit smug about what a great time Miranda used to have when young and I feel a bit of that smugness too. I don't necessarily agree with the basic premise of mid life crisis books as they all assume that we all have some frustrated objectives in life. Many of us just live it and what comes with it and never did want to trek up Killamanjaro as part of a Price Waterhouse Coopers sponsored charity event. I know Miranda and can imagine her telling these anecdotes. She's the chair of the Catholic school where I'm a governor (the only non Catholic) and as such is now a converted Catholic. Maybe that's how she's come to terms with death which she devotes a fair bit of time to. On that note... the remarks about the nurses who looked after her gran are way way out of order. Don't blame the hospital staff for how this country treats those who are near death. They are doing their jobs under very difficult circumstances especially if it was an NHS hospital. That ruined the book for me and made the smugness seem more like expected privilege. 

What Really Happened in Wuhan (Sharri Markson)

What Really Happened in Wuhan: a Virus Like No Other, Countless Infections, Millions of Deaths
Sharri Markson

Fairly interesting angle on Covid-19 about how it leaked from a Chinese lab rather than being a naturally occurring jump from animals to humans. The latter was the general scientific community's line with anyone suggesting a lab leak being labelled a conspiracy theorist. On the author's side of the argument there are a lot of things leading to a lab leak not least that there is a lab looking at coronaviruses right in the middle of Wuhan. With the Chinese government's secrecy and the wider world's shutting down of anything related to Covid that isn't the general opinion (i.e. WHO) then the conspiracy theory seems plausible. Like so much to do with Covid we are being kept in the dark and lied to by scientists and politicians, with social media companies actively deleting posts that go against the general opinion. Obviously much of this is unravelling including the value of general population lock downs and Covid origins. The downsides of the book is that it's far too long, repeats a lot, has a lot of irrelevance (describing dinner parties) and nearly all sources are either anonymous or rabid right wingers with an axe to grind. The arguments are greatly diminished by being put forward by Trump supporters although to be fair the author does blame the scientific community's dislike of Trump to bad mouth anyone who supports his questioning as to whether it was a lab leak. Why would you believe an ex head of MI5 an organisation that exists solely to deceive and spy on other nations? The final straw is in acknowledgements where the author thanks Rupert Murdoch (who pays her) for running media organisations that are completely independent and don't support particular political parties. Just goes to show that you cannot trust either side in the Covid crisis and it's very difficult to sort out what is right and what is wrong. Not recommended as you could find out a much more balanced view given half hour on the internet.