NON-FICTION

How Civil Wars Start by Barbara F Walter (Penguin Viking)

Barbara F Walter, US academic and member of a CIA advisory panel, is one of the world’s foremost experts on civil wars and insurgencies. Through studies of Iraq, Sri Lanka, the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere, she has mapped and investigated the causes that impel citizenry to rise against their government and each other. With civil wars on the rise globally and the US facing unprecedented challenges to its democracy, Walter’s book is a timely, sobering account, a warning from history, distant and very recent, how even the seemingly strongest democracies can slide into autocracies, fuelled in no small way by social media and individuals like Donald Trump. The only upside comes via the book’s subtitle (And How To Stop Them).

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?

by Dr Julie Smith (Michael Joseph) Drawing on her years of experience as a clinical psychologist, Dr Julie Smith’s debut book (she’s already a social media star and Tik Tok sensation with over 3 million followers) is another DIY guide (“part journal, part guide” is how the author defines it) to improve your mental health. From managing anxiety, dealing with criticism or battling low mood, to building self-confidence, finding motivation or learning to forgive yourself, and much more, Smith gives us her prescriptions and tools for a better life (“everyone has low days”) in short, bite-sized pieces that are easy to digest. “I am not a guru who has all the answers to the universe” she writes, but then who is?