World Book Day 2022

Posted on: 3 March 2022 by School of Law & Social Justice Staff in Blog

Thursday 3rd March 2022 marks 25 years of World Book Day! To celebrate and share in the joy of reading, we asked our School Leads and Professional Services Staff to share their recommendations - some with a social justice link, of course!

School Leads

Anna Vowles, Head of Operations at School of Law and Social Justice:

•  The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt by Topy Wilkinson "Really enjoyable to read and easy to understand!"

Ever wondered about how the Pharaonic state of Ancient Egypt really ran its course? Wilkinson’s The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, makes known that "Political propaganda, an ideology of xenophobia, close surveillance of the population, and brutal repression" were the essential keynotes of the pharaonic state. Get an insight into the pharaohs, as Wilkinson’s book makes for an interesting read that is easy to understand! - The Guardian

• The Harry Hole Series by Jo Nesbo "12 in total! Scandi noir crime fiction, Read in order!"

Jo Nesbo is the bestselling author of this 12-book series. If you like crime fiction and yet can’t quite find a series that captures your attention then this is a good place to start. - Goodreads

Warren Barr, Interim Dean at School of Law and Social Justice:

• The Book of Trespass: Crossing the Lines that Divide Us by Nick Hayes 

A meditation on the fraught and complex relationship between land, politics and power, this is England through the eyes of a trespasser. - Goodreads

• What Have Charities Ever Done for Us?: The Stories Behind the Headlines by Steven Cook and Tania Mason

When the coronavirus pandemic took hold early in 2020, charities were among the first to respond to the resulting social and economic distress. But recent scandals and a more critical climate have overshadowed the vital role they play. - Waterstones.

Susan Pickard, Head of Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology:

• Recollections of my Non-Existence by Rebecca Solnit "A recent feminist memoir" 

An electric portrait of the artist as a young woman that asks how a writer finds her voice in a society that prefers women to be silent. - Goodreads.

• Fun Home by Alison Bechdel "A slightly older, graphic memoir"

In this graphic memoir, Alison Bechdel charts her fraught relationship with her late father. - Goodreads.

• How to be a Failure and Still Live Well by Beverley Clack

In consumer economies, success has increasingly been defined in terms of material attainment and the achievement of status. This model of 'the good life' and its formulas for success ignore the haunting possibility that one may not succeed and as a result be deemed 'a failure'. How to be a Failure and Still Live Well explores that often neglected theme of failure, not just as the opposite of achievement, but also, and more importantly, how it has been conflated with loss: that which haunts all transient, mortal human experience. - Goodreads.

Helen Stalford, Interim Head of Liverpool Law School:

•  Educated by Tara Westover

Westover’s Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes and the will to change it. - Goodreads

• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

While Hugh “Shuggie” Bain may give his name to the title of the book, it is as much about Shuggie’s mother, Agnes, and her damaged, doomed attempts to be a wife and mother amid the booze-soaked brutality of 1980s Glasgow. Given its immediate success, plans for a film are also in the making. - The Guardian

Nicola Barker, Chair in Law:

•  Fan: A Novel by Danny Rhodes

In 1989, 18-year-old John Finch spends his Saturdays following Nottingham Forest up and down the country, and the rest of the week trudging the streets of his hometown as a postal worker. Leading inexorably towards the FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough, the worst sporting disaster on British history, 'Fan' glides between 1989 and 2004, when the true impact of this tragic day becomes evident. - Waterstones.

• The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins

A servant and former slave is accused of murdering her employer and his wife in this astonishing historical thriller that moves from a Jamaican sugar plantation to the fetid streets of Georgian London--a remarkable literary debut with echoes the likes of Alias Grace and The Underground Railroad. - Goodreads.

• Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

Inspired by Nigeria's folktales and its war, Under the Udala Trees is a deeply searching, powerful debut about the dangers of living and loving openly. Ijeoma comes of age as her nation does; born before independence, she is eleven when civil war breaks out in the young republic of Nigeria. Sent away to safety, she meets another displaced child and they, star-crossed, fall in love. They are from different ethnic communities. They are also both girls. - Goodreads

• Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer by Michael Mansfield

A radical lawyer with an unparalleled commitment to his clients, driven by anger at injustice and hypocrisy, intelligent, handsome and dynamic, Michael Mansfield has been tearing down the citadels of arcane legal conventions for more than forty years. Unafraid of rejection or failure, Michael has taken on the most difficult and challenging cases of our times and despite the odds, won plenty. - Goodreads.

• Eve was Framed: Women and British Justice by Helena Kennedy

Eve Was Framed offers an impassioned, personal critique of the British legal system. Helena Kennedy focuses on the treatment of women in our courts - at the prejudices of judges, the misconceptions of jurors, the labyrinths of court procedures and the influence of the media. - Goodreads.

• The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law by Albie Sachs

From a young age Albie Sachs played a prominent part in the struggle for justice in South Africa. As a result he was detained in solitary confinement, tortured by sleep deprivation and eventually blown up by a car bomb which cost him his right arm and the sight of an eye. His experiences provoked an outpouring of creative thought on the role of law as a protector of human dignity in the modern world, and a lifelong commitment to seeing a new era of justice established in South Africa. - Goodreads.

Firat Cengiz, School of Law and Social Justice PGR Director and Senior Lecturer in Law:

• The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery "child or adult, everyone should read this at least once a year"

A pilot stranded in the desert awakes one morning to see, standing before him, the most extraordinary little fellow. "Please," asks the stranger, "draw me a sheep." And the pilot realizes that when life's events are too difficult to understand, there is no choice but to succumb to their mysteries. He pulls out pencil and paper... And thus begins this wise and enchanting fable that, in teaching the secret of what is really important in life, has changed forever the world for its readers. - Goodreads

• Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo "related not only to World Book Day but also Black History Month and International Women's Day"

Teeming with life and crackling with energy — a love song to modern Britain and black womanhood.
Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.- Goodreads

•  Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke "It feels like Umberto Eco mixed with Jane Austin"

Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that eight hundred pages leave readers longing for more. - Goodreads.

• My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk "extremely entertaining who done it novel that teaches Ottoman history"

At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of sixteenth-century Istanbul, from one of the most prominent contemporary Turkish writers. - Goodreads.

Paul Walmsley, Research Fellow in Childrens Rights & Social Justice:

• Just An Ordinary Decent Criminal by Paul Walmsley "It’s on some dept reading lists and thought it could of use  to those interested in  social justice, crime and the psychology learnt behaviour."

From an overcrowded council house in Norris Green, North Liverpool to the opulence of Marbella on the Costa del Crime.
Via Istanbul, Amsterdam, Heysel, Switzerland, Jamaica, New York and Toronto; this story plots the life of an ardent supporter of Liverpool Football Club who fell into the murky world of drug dealing as a young teenager. - Goodreads.

Professional Services Staff:

Jayne Bryson, Research & Impact Co-ordinator:

• Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky by Patrick Hamilton

A timeless classic of sleazy London life in the 1930s, a world of streets full of cruelty and kindness, comedy and pathos, where people emerge from cheap lodgings in Pimlico to pour out their passions, hopes and despair in pubs and bars. - Goodreads.

• The Diary of a Booksellar by Shaun Bythell

Shaun Bythell owns The Bookshop, Wigtown - Scotland's largest second-hand bookshop. It contains 100,000 books, spread over a mile of shelving, with twisting corridors and roaring fires, and all set in a beautiful, rural town by the edge of the sea. A book-lover's paradise? Well, almost... - Goodreads.

• The Chimp Paradox by Professor Steve Peters

Leading consultant psychiatrist Steve Peters knows more than anyone how impulsive behaviour or nagging self-doubt can impact negatively on our professional and personal lives. In this, his first book, Steve shares his phenomenally successful mind-management programme that has been used to help elite athletes and senior managers alike to conquer their fears and operate with greater control, focus and confidence. - Goodreads.

Karen Scott, Research Support Co-ordinator:

• The Phone Box at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina

When Yui loses both her mother and her daughter in the tsunami, she begins to mark the passage of time from that date onward: Everything is relative to March 11, 2011, the day the tsunami tore Japan apart, and when grief took hold of her life. Yui struggles to continue on, alone with her pain. -Goodreads.

Kevin Melling, Interchange Co-ordinator:

• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 

Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets? -Goodreads.

Emma Elkington, Marketing Recruitment and Events Administrative Assistant:

•  Maggie & Me by Damian Barr "if you liked Shuggie Bain"

BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, Winner of the Stonewall Award and The Sunday Times Memoir of the Year. Ideal for fans of Shuggie Bain and It's A Sin - Goodreads.

• Mayflies by Kevin O'Donnell "for some escapism"

A man awakens to find that his brain has been used as the core of the powerful computer, which runs an enormous space ship. - Goodreads.