{"id":12359,"date":"2025-08-14T15:34:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T14:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leedsjp.org.uk\/?post_type=views&p=12359"},"modified":"2026-09-01T18:10:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T17:10:50","slug":"summer-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/2025\/08\/14\/summer-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\nby Sara Forrest<\/em>

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\n\u2018Not The End of The World\u2019 by Hannah Ritchie<\/strong>

If your young ones are worried about Climate Change and you want to be able to reassure them then \u2018Not The End of The World\u2019 by Hannah Ritchie is a good read.

Remember how we succeeded in closing the ozone layer?

Talks about the importance of political will to make things happen and contains some surprising facts about the impact of our individual decisions.

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nWe are bombarded by doomsday headlines that tell us the soil won’t be able to support crops, fish will vanish from our oceans, that we should reconsider having children.

But in this bold, radically hopeful book, data scientist Hannah Ritchie argues that if we zoom out, a very different picture emerges. The data shows we’ve made so much progress on these problems, and so fast, that we could be on track to achieve true sustainability for the first time in history.

Packed with the latest research, practical guidance and enlightening graphics, this book will make you rethink almost everything you’ve been told about the environment, from the virtues of eating locally and living in the countryside, to the evils of overpopulation, plastic straws and palm oil. It will give you the tools to understand what works, what doesn’t and what we urgently need to focus on so we can leave a sustainable planet for future generations.

These problems are big. But they\u00a0are\u00a0solvable. We are not doomed. We can build a better future for everyone. Let’s turn that opportunity into reality.

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\n\u2018Fluke\u2019 by Brian Klaas<\/strong>

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\nIn \u2018Fluke\u2019 by Brian Klaas you get an explanation of why so many forecasts, predictions and polls don\u2019t get it right. (The world is too complex.)

\nAnd that is why we should look behind the headlines and question data presented in a way that drives an emotional response (populism) to make better decisions and live better lives.

\nIt\u2019s not as dry as it sounds!

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nFluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters:<\/strong>
In Fluke, myth-shattering social scientist Brian Klaas deep-dives into the phenomenon of randomness, unpicking our neat and tidy storybook version of events to reveal a reality far wilder and more fascinating than we have dared to consider.

\nThe bewildering truth is that but for a few incidental changes, our lives – and our societies – would be radically different. Offering an entirely new perspective, Fluke explores how our world really works, driven by strange interactions and random events.

\nHow much difference does our decision to hit the snooze button make?

\nDid one couple’s vacation really change the course of the twentieth century?

\nWhat are the smallest accidents that have tilted the course of history itself?

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\n\u2018Great Britain? How We get Our Future Back\u2019 by Torsten Bell<\/strong>

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\n\u2018Great Britain? How We get Our Future Back\u2019 by Torsten Bell is a readable explanation of how decades of under-investment by both UK Government and private organisations has stalled our economy.

\nA book for someone who is perhaps fed up with the Government.

\nThe Generation Wars and Housing chapters are particularly thought provoking.

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nAn essential blueprint for a better future, from the leading economist & Labour rising star<\/strong>

\u2018Stellar: brilliant, incredibly pragmatic\u2019<\/em>\u00a0Rory Stewart
\u2018Refreshingly optimistic\u2019<\/em>\u00a0The Times
\u2018No one has done more to re-inject sanity into our national policy\u2019<\/em>\u00a0Emily Maitlis

There are few who are better placed to investigate Britain\u2019s plight than Torsten Bell, Labour MP for Swansea West and former Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation.

In\u00a0Great Britain?\u00a0<\/em>he offers both a clear-eyed diagnosis of the problems facing our country \u2013 a uniquely toxic combination of huge inequality and stagnant economic growth \u2013 and a bold vision for the alternative. This is a book bursting with ideas and infectious hope.

In his treasure trove of enlightening and original analysis, Torsten Bell argues that our era of chaos and cynicism needs neither utopianism nor nostalgia, but a practical patriotism to raise living standards and create a more equal country. He passionately points us towards a Britain that we can actually build \u2013 a future worth fighting for.

\u2018A roadmap to the new normal\u2019<\/em>\u00a0Observer
‘Pretty cool \u2026 the think tank work I raved about on\u00a0The Rest Is Politics\u00a0has morphed into a book’<\/em>\u00a0Alastair Campbell
\u2018A dose of Torstenomics is the only thing that can give us hope\u2019<\/em>\u00a0Amol Rajan
\u2018Spiced with wit, masterful, fact-packed\u2019<\/em>\u00a0Polly Toynbee

**A\u00a0FINANCIAL TIMES\u00a0AND\u00a0OBSERVER\u00a0BEST BOOK OF 2024**\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[551],"tags":[650,4,651,652,653],"class_list":["post-12359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-views","tag-book-review","tag-climate-change","tag-economy","tag-labour","tag-uk-government"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12359"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19906,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12359\/revisions\/19906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}