Snapshot: The Visual Almanac for Our World Today

Edited by: CIRCA (Cambridge International Reference on Current Affairs)
Publisher: Mitchell Beazley 
Publication Date: September 2009 
ISBN: 978-1845335236 
Reviewed by: Deb Fowler 
Review Date: December 2009

This is a book that is literally difficult to hang onto. Every time I laid the book down someone picked it up and wowed someone else in the room with a fact they have found that interested them. Before I even started reading, I heard several of them. Facts, facts, facts and more facts. This book is extremely interesting and each person who tried to walk off with it seemed to rivet themselves on a particular topic. One was focusing on the natural disasters section, more interested in the “disasters waiting to happen” section than those that have come to pass. Have you heard of the Yellowstone Supervolcano? I have now. Another focused on the “renewable energy” section and spiritedly began to talk about European wind power and solar energy. Just to give you an inkling of what is actually in this book (I would want to know), here is a peek at the contents:

Part One

THE ENVIRONMENT
Climate Change
Biodiversity
Disasters
Water
Resources
Population
Megacities
Built Environment

Part Two

SOCIETY
Health
Food
Sex and Society
Religion
Aging
Race
Education
Crime and Punishment
Drugs
Corruption

Part Three

THE STATE
Voting
Government
Policing Freedom
The Press
War
Refugees
Trafficking Terrorism

Part Four

FINANCE AND COMMERCE
Money
Wealth
Debt
Globalization
Work
Advertising
Fair Trade
Arms
Organized Crime

Part Five

TECHNOLOGY
Energy
Communications
The Internet
Surveillance
Transport
New Technologies

Part Six

CULTURE
Language
Television
News
Tourism
Sport
Art
Fashion
Music
Film

If this book had to be rated on a scale that measured “fascination” it would be off the charts. It is not the type of book one reads in a continuous manner, but rather one that is more fun to pick up and browse. There is a generalized index, but I only used that when I wanted to return to a section that was particular alluring. The book is far from bland looking because each section has a totally different design. There are photographs, charts, maps, and statistics galore. There are fifty topics, each one developed on a two-page spread and is “grouped under six general headings: the Environment, Society, the State, Finance and Commerce, Technology, and Culture.” The book uses British English and the metric system. I haven’t been mesmerized by a book in some time, but this one did it!

Quill says: If you’ve never heard about that Supervolcano, you just might want to take a look at this book!