Another Point of View [Import] [Paperback]

Lisa Jardine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 16, 2009

A collection of the provocative and inspirational talks given by Lisa on her weekly BBC Radio 4 programme. A leading academic, who embraces both the arts and sciences, she has the gift of making her subject accessible to a mainstream audience.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lisa Jardine CBE is Centenary Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London and Chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and an Honorary Fellow of King's College, Cambridge and Jesus College, Cambridge. Lisa writes and reviews for all the major UK national newspapers and magazines and for the Washington Post, and has presented and appears regularly on arts, history and current affairs programmes for TV and radio. She judged the 1996 Whitbread Prize, the 1999 Guardian First Book Award, the 2000 Orwell Prize and was Chair of Judges for the 1997 Orange Prize and the 2002 Man Booker Prize.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Preface Publishing (June 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1848090994
• ISBN-13: 978-1848090996
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,592,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Power Bars for the Mind, July 2, 2009

By 

takingadayoff "takingadayoff" (Las Vegas, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Another Point of View (Paperback)

This is what I love about British radio. You can tune in, spin the dial at any given time, and find someone talking about Tudor underwear or the political origins of daylight savings time or who invented the tea kettle thermostat that automatically turns off the kettle when it starts boiling.

In fact, those are all topics that Lisa Jardine touches on in Another Point of View: A Little Book of Big Ideas. These short essays were originally broadcast on radio. They move effortlessly from one topic to another, making connections while mixing science, history, and art. There's nothing stuffy about these pieces. They are more like conversations than lectures. She chats about the size of her Christmas turkey and why she prefers traveling by train rather than by plane. She discusses global warming, which leads to why the Falklands War was really about oil. A discussion about an art installation at the Tate Modern leads to an observation about the changing nature of museum-going.

Another Point of View is quite short, fewer than 200 pages, 22 essays. Each is only a few pages long, and runs nine or ten minutes on radio. The amount of information, connection, relationships, conclusions, and observations that Jardine can fit into such a short time is impressive. They're like power bars for your mind -- they look small but they are quite filling.

I finished the book quickly, but I find that bits of it keep coming up in my own conversations and thoughts, even weeks later. And I am pleased to discover that I can listen to or read the new essays as they are posted on the BBC Radio 4 website. There is also a book that came before this one, A Point of View, which I am looking forward to reading soon.