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50 Books Challenge: 6-10
Jul. 10th, 2013 09:25 pm***
Introduction to Forensic and Criminal Psychology by Dennis Howitt – One of the most used textbooks on the topic, currently on its 4th edition. This is a good introductory text and gives you a solid chapter in almost everything. The problem then is, of course, that it doesn’t have time to go in depth with anything but that’s common to these kinds of texts and shouldn’t be held against it. The layout is clear and the online resource centre adds value. Brilliant for first year students. This also has the added bonus of the author being British so it covers a lot of things from UK perspective.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes – I read this last autumn after picking it up from a charity shop for the train journey. It’s not a traditional love story and the ending is a realistic one, all of which I found really refreshing. Deals with a difficult topic well. Good writing, definitely an above average read.
The First Detective: The Life and Revolutionary Times of Vidocq by James Morton – I would recommend this if you are interested in French and/or police history. If neither of those rings your bell, you’ll probably find this hard work. I did at times. This is a superbly researched biography of Vidocq, the infamous criminal turned detective. The author clearly loves his subject but doesn’t shy away from showing Vidock's many less than appealing characteristics or deeds either. Writing is entertaining although the level of detail (especially with places and people) is exhausting and confusing at times (stay away from the footnotes unless you are seriously into French Revolution). I found this a fascinating read.
What The Night Knows by Dean Koontz – Another book of Koontz’s that I enjoyed muchly. This is a story of a detective who thinks a murderer who killed his family when he was a boy has come back as a spirit to have another go. The ending gets a little too meshed in Christian concepts of good and evil, but I can deal with it for the writing and characters. One of Koontz’s strengths is to create believable and personable characters, and he handles several voices, including those of child narrators, here with much deftness.
Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone? (2nd Edition: Including a Reply to Furedi's Critics): Confronting 21st Century Philistinism by Frank Furedi - This is not an easy book to read. I spent the whole of it being vexed and slowly persuaded although I am still chewing over a lot of his arguments. Furedi's central thesis is that the political agenda of inclusion and access (to culture, arts, higher education) is responsible for falling standards. But don’t dismiss him as a snob yet. For Furedi, “dumbing down does not refer to the intelligence of people. Rather it is a statement about culture – more specifically, about the elites who influence and regulate the flow of cultural ideas” (p. 156). Indeed, it is not the ethos of wider participation of the public in cultural life and education that Furedi disagrees with but the way in which it is promoted. He argues that the top down social inclusion agenda only serves to infantilise the public. The lowering of standards reveals a belief that the public is unable to reach the level of excellence required while the constant demand for relevance presumes the public incapable of understanding anything that isn’t immediately familiar. It is elitism in disguise. The idea of inclusion is admirable and worth struggling for but the ideology of it, as it is currently conceived, is not only patronising but also deeply problematic. By viewing social exclusion as a condition people suffer from pathologises the problem as something internal to the individual instead something endemic in the social system itself. The problem is articulated in terms of people feeling like they’re not part of some things, and the solution therefore is to ensure people feel better about themselves. This ignores the social and economic inequalities that indeed ensure that some people are not part of some things. In other words, it’s the ‘get on your bike and look for work’ argument dressed up. - I could talk about this for much longer and will indeed be posting some quotes from the book. Needless to say, however, but I highly recommended this book for anyone who enjoys a challenge.
***
Introduction to Forensic and Criminal Psychology by Dennis Howitt – One of the most used textbooks on the topic, currently on its 4th edition. This is a good introductory text and gives you a solid chapter in almost everything. The problem then is, of course, that it doesn’t have time to go in depth with anything but that’s common to these kinds of texts and shouldn’t be held against it. The layout is clear and the online resource centre adds value. Brilliant for first year students. This also has the added bonus of the author being British so it covers a lot of things from UK perspective.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes – I read this last autumn after picking it up from a charity shop for the train journey. It’s not a traditional love story and the ending is a realistic one, all of which I found really refreshing. Deals with a difficult topic well. Good writing, definitely an above average read.
The First Detective: The Life and Revolutionary Times of Vidocq by James Morton – I would recommend this if you are interested in French and/or police history. If neither of those rings your bell, you’ll probably find this hard work. I did at times. This is a superbly researched biography of Vidocq, the infamous criminal turned detective. The author clearly loves his subject but doesn’t shy away from showing Vidock's many less than appealing characteristics or deeds either. Writing is entertaining although the level of detail (especially with places and people) is exhausting and confusing at times (stay away from the footnotes unless you are seriously into French Revolution). I found this a fascinating read.
What The Night Knows by Dean Koontz – Another book of Koontz’s that I enjoyed muchly. This is a story of a detective who thinks a murderer who killed his family when he was a boy has come back as a spirit to have another go. The ending gets a little too meshed in Christian concepts of good and evil, but I can deal with it for the writing and characters. One of Koontz’s strengths is to create believable and personable characters, and he handles several voices, including those of child narrators, here with much deftness.
Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone? (2nd Edition: Including a Reply to Furedi's Critics): Confronting 21st Century Philistinism by Frank Furedi - This is not an easy book to read. I spent the whole of it being vexed and slowly persuaded although I am still chewing over a lot of his arguments. Furedi's central thesis is that the political agenda of inclusion and access (to culture, arts, higher education) is responsible for falling standards. But don’t dismiss him as a snob yet. For Furedi, “dumbing down does not refer to the intelligence of people. Rather it is a statement about culture – more specifically, about the elites who influence and regulate the flow of cultural ideas” (p. 156). Indeed, it is not the ethos of wider participation of the public in cultural life and education that Furedi disagrees with but the way in which it is promoted. He argues that the top down social inclusion agenda only serves to infantilise the public. The lowering of standards reveals a belief that the public is unable to reach the level of excellence required while the constant demand for relevance presumes the public incapable of understanding anything that isn’t immediately familiar. It is elitism in disguise. The idea of inclusion is admirable and worth struggling for but the ideology of it, as it is currently conceived, is not only patronising but also deeply problematic. By viewing social exclusion as a condition people suffer from pathologises the problem as something internal to the individual instead something endemic in the social system itself. The problem is articulated in terms of people feeling like they’re not part of some things, and the solution therefore is to ensure people feel better about themselves. This ignores the social and economic inequalities that indeed ensure that some people are not part of some things. In other words, it’s the ‘get on your bike and look for work’ argument dressed up. - I could talk about this for much longer and will indeed be posting some quotes from the book. Needless to say, however, but I highly recommended this book for anyone who enjoys a challenge.
***
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