KINGDOM OF FEAR

Hunter S. Thompson (Jul 1937-Feb 2005) was a fiercely political American writer of the 20th century. Starting out as a freelance reporter and going on to produce a number of novels, this book "Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century" 2003 is an autobiography of Hunter's life and works, and an incredible insight into his early confrontations with the law and how this has influenced his life.

This book if you are not familiar with his early work can be hard to follow at points as Hunter's passion often sends him on wildly imaginative tangents, usually quite funny as well as poignant. As well as the writing style the reason this book is so memorable is Hunter's life! It takes you on segments of his first hand experiences through some of the most memorable moments of America's mid to late 20th Century.

The early to mid 60's saw Hunter travel across the States and South America while freelancing, a life of which you get a glimpse at through his book "The Rum Diary", eventually published in 2008. In 1965 Hunter was commissioned to write a book on the new phenomenon of the "Hells Angels", this as an early piece was shocking in it's content but lacked some of the creativity we see in later publications but which helped Hunter to realize there was a "freak" market out there.

By the 70's Hunter had moved to Aspen with his family. Feeling let down by his experiences with the law and armed with his patriotism, passion and the pen Hunter launched his "Thompson for Sheriff" campaign which along with the "Freak Power" movement of the era set out to exploit the system showing it's corruption and how it wasn't working. It was through this campaign Hunter became acquainted with and started to work for "Rolling Stone", a culture publication coming out of San Francisco born of the same "Freak Power" wave.

It was this amalgamation that gave birth to the writing style of "Gonzo Journalism", the most creative and imaginative style of reporting giving you a strongly visual and mostly factual account of situations. "Gonzo" is the style in which "Kingdom of Fear" is written so in order to fully appreciate these accounts it may be an idea to tackle his earlier books "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail" in which Hunter really captures the atmosphere and tensions of his journeys both physical and psychological.

"Kingdom of Fear" is a first hand account of all of this and so much more. To hear the reflection on decades of American politics and culture from the horses mouth is priceless and adds an extra dimension to any of his work you may have read before.

BATHROOM GRAFFITI

This is a book that like the subject matter you'll either find expressive and inspirational or a waste of time and an eye sore. If like me it's the first then you'll be delighted to come across a book like this one. Bathroom Graffiti's author Mark Ferem has pulled together a collection of humorous and thought provoking graffiti from public restrooms across America.

The book is broken down into sections such as "woman's, men's, political and art" etc. Each offering a glimpse at a true expressive culture we will never see reflected in the mainstream media, a little too truthful for TV perhaps.

Weather you appreciate those little tokens of opinion and expression we find in almost every public bathroom when you see a collection of this volume documenting that many voices with something to say it should be difficult to ignore by anyone's standards.

Bathroom Graffiti is an enjoyable insight into the human psyche and the influences of societies... Now all we need is a UK version!

AS THE WORLD BURNS

This Graphic Novel's full title "As The World Burns, 50 simple things you can do to stay in denial" would seem to be a direct dig at the famous book "50 Simple Things You Can Do To Save the Earth" first published in 1995. As The World Burns is coauthored by American activists Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillan who also illustrates the novel.

Derrick is well known as an activist and philosopher through his previous "Endgame, A Language Older Than Words" and "The Culture Of Make Believe" writing about certain futures for the planet both bleak as well as bright. Stephanie McMillan is a cartoonist/illustrator who has been producing political comic strips since the late 90's and having them published in 2005. As The World Burns sees Derrick and Stephanie team together and produce in 2007 a story, telling of a dark world built on naivety and greed in hope of changing the readers attitude towards the severity of today’s environmental situation.

The story takes you through a series of situations and how we are or could be dealing with them, not least is illustrated when aliens land on our planet intent on sucking it dry of any life only to discover that we’d already set the systems in place for them. It’s through the often unheard voice of a dark haired little girl the book tries to argue against our ignorant when it comes to global issues and attempts to wake the reader up to a complete change of attitude and perception, posing this as the only viable starting point to achieving a sustainable planet.

Although the book states a fair bit of the obvious it's overall take on the subject matter is completely engaging. There are points where it feels as though you're being told there's no point in trying to do your (small) bit but if you can read the dry humor you'll see its sarcasm points to the wider issues we often ignore.

This book is accessible and can be enjoyed by anyone around their early teens upwards, children any younger might find some of the subject matter hard to deal with. As The World Burns aims to trump other environmental books that paint your recycling bin as the answer, instead it offers a gritty perspective with grimmer predictions in that hope of igniting change in societies attitude.

This book unfortunately reinforced my opinion on the way our leaders and most of the societies they govern approach these issues. It's take something epic and many more books like this to change the perspectives of the next generation. As for ours who knows, maybe the aliens will land one day and all our petty squabbles over climate, starvation and war will be rendered pointless. Either way this novel is definitely worth the time and for Earth's sake spread the word!