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As Christian conquerors from the north of the Iberian Peninsula gradually gained possession of Islamic Spain during the medieval reconquista (largely between 1085 and 1492), they not only took control of lands, cities and peoples but also came into contact with a very different architectural style. The result was a fascinating coexistence of cultural hybridity and anti-Islamic prejudice. While some Islamic buildings were torn down and replaced with new Christian edifices (such as the Great Mosque of Toledo), others were preserved or adapted (mostly notably the Mosque/Cathedral of Cordoba, the Mosque/Cathedral of Seville and the Alhambra palace in Granada, which all survive today and are major tourist attractions). Elements of Islamic art and architecture were incorporated into buildings built after the conquest in what has, since the nineteenth century, commonly been called the 'Mudejar style'.

This is a long overdue review of an outstanding book, which richly deserved the 2022 NSW Premier's History Award for Australian History. On that occasion, the judges rightly suggested that one of this book's major strengths lay in providing a novel and an unexpected understanding of Australianness. It does so by shedding light on how, since its conception, colonial Australia was much more cosmopolitan—and much less British—than we may have previously thought. I have had the pleasure of reading Bergantz's book more than once in recent years and I have watched it receive glowing reviews. These include Jim Davidson's article in the Australian Book Review in which he heralds it as "an exemplary piece of cultural history",¹ and Gemma King's review in The French Australian Review in which she commended the subtle manner in which French Connection has been able to capture "the ways in which Frenchness was interpreted, used and reimagined in the service of defining an Australian identity".² While much has already been written on this book, then, and by colleagues so well placed to assess it, this temporal décalage has allowed me the rare privilege of prolonged reflection on Bergantz's arguments, which have provided food for thought not only for ongoing academic projects, but also in my own journey of self-discovery as a relatively recent Italian migrant and new Australian citizen.

Both the title and the author—writer of the famous and influential book From Memory to the Written Record—excite the would-be reader. But there is a warning in the subtitle Mothers and the Teaching of Reading in the Middle Ages. How are the title and subtitle related? The book consists of seven chapters, comprising an introduction followed by six reprints of articles published between 1983 and 2011. The title of the book in fact turns out to be the title of Chapter 2. We are not told whether the articles have been revised, but it appears not and that only the number of illustrations has been augmented (and presumably rephotographed; all forty-nine are in colour and of excellent quality). In their subject matter the former articles are closely interrelated, and this leads to considerable repetition of references to the same pieces of evidence, mainly books and pictures, which some readers may find disconcerting.

Visitors to the northern Italian city of Padua often marvel at the city's medieval pictorial artworks which adorn the interiors of its ancient buildings. Most queue to be admitted into the environmentally regulated Scrovegni Chapel to view Giotto's stupendous works completed at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Those who venture further into Padua's historic center will never forget the experience of stepping into the city's baptistery. Admitted through a small wooden door nonchalantly by a proud but often helpful Paduan, the viewer - as soon as his/her eyes adjust to the soft light - is embraced by the splendor of the baptistery's ceilings and walls. Although the city's adjoining cathedral was gradually transformed from its late medieval form during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, the baptistery has retained both its facade and interior frozen in the late fourteenth century. Perhaps the only significant change occurred early in the fifteenth century when the sarcophagi of the city's penultimate lord Francesco Il Vecchio da Carrara (1325-1393) and his consort Fina Buzzacarini (1328-1378) were removed.

This groundbreaking study will attract those interested in the history, material culture, religion and archaeology of the Czech lands. The book avoids technical discourse with a specialist audience. For example, the author does not describe archaeological method. Instead, Klápště seeks to introduce the subject to a broad audience, and it should be noted that a synoptic survey does not exist for the subject or the period even in Czech. This makes this study particularly valuable. For the neophyte, the book defines the historic Czech lands as Bohemia, Moravia, and the southern part of historical Silesia. Today this is mainly in the Czech Republic.

The Archaeology of The rich premise of this book is that archaeological art—including cave art of Ice Age Europe—can be compared with art in the recent past, and that it is possible to use ideas from contemporary art criticism when analyzing prehistoric visual art and communication. By "prehistoric," Liliana Janik means art predating written accounts communicated about the art itself, although she does not acknowledge the slight that some Indigenous people feel as a result of that word.

Near the end of Ian Hoskins excellent history of Australia and the Pacific he notes that Australia can be seen as the 'prodigal son' of the Pacific, having charted a path that has separated itself from the peoples and concerns of its oceanic neighbours. From one perspective, this can be called Australian 'exceptionalism' or 'mateship', and is reflected in the enormous wealth and technological prowess that has paved the way for Australian dominance of southwestern Pacific. From another perspective this aloofness has been exhibited by mistreatment of non-European peoples, visions of an imperial Australia in the Pacific and a collective amnesia that Australia is a Pacific state. This history is exemplified by the mistreatment of Aboriginal Australians, the indentured labour from the Pacific Islands that underpinned the Australian sugar industry in the 19th century (Blackbirds), the White Australia policy, colonial administration in Papua New Guinea, and the present-day lack of concern about Australia's enormous greenhouse gas contributions that pose an existential threat to its Pacific Island neighbours.

In Widow Inheritance and Contested Citizenship in Kenya, Awino Okech examines the practice among Luo communities in Kenya, focusing on its reception among widows and the wider Luo community. Okech argues that widow inheritance, like so many cultural rites that focus on women’s bodies and sexuality, is understood and mobilized in the face of repeated experiences of structural and physical political violence, and other threats to Luo cultural integrity.

The book presents five succinct chapters with an introduction and conclusion, and is based on a case study of a specific set of villages just outside Kisumu city in 2008–09. Okech conducted interviews and focus groups with women who had experienced widow inheritance, as well as men who held roles within the rite, and cultural leaders. The roles of women and the centrality of their bodies in preserving Luo cultural practice and identity in the face of the postcolonial Kenyan national project are explored through an examination and assessment of their performances of culturally appropriate femininity—gendered performances that have the capacity to reinforce and reconstitute Luo identity.

Strom and Martin engage with the non-linear philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari (Citation1987) to trouble linear thinking about classroom practices, teachers' work, and subjectivities. The authors, with their background in K-12 classroom teaching, and in particular working with students of color and English learners in high-poverty neighborhoods in the USA, speak back to neoliberal conceptions of effective first year pedagogy. They highlight how classroom dynamics, when theorised using a monist ontology, are fluid, multiplistic, and dynamic – in constant change and flux.

Since William Labov established quantitative sociolinguistics as a field of study in its own right, research into the nature and scope of linguistic variation has continued to expand its frontiers. Variation has been examined in the context of second language acquisition (Adamson 2009), substrate influence on creole languages (Meyerhoff 2009), historical relatedness of creole varieties (Poplack & Tagliamonte 2001) and bi-varietal language use (Dixon 2017), to name but a few. While each of these applications is motivated by distinct theoretical concerns, they are united by a shared understanding: that language change is predicated on instability in the linguistic system, and that this instability comes in the form of intra-speaker variation. For change to happen, individual speakers have to stop doing one thing and instead do another. Rarely does this involve a singular leap from 'doer-of-one-thing' to 'doer-of-the-other'. Rather, there is a process of acclimation, during which speakers maintain a foot in both camps. In short, you can't have change without variation (Weinreich et al. 1968: 188). The close examination of intra-speaker variation, therefore, is the study of potential or nascent language change.

Teaching Pronunciation with Confidence is a comprehensive, open educational resource (OER, 2024) aimed at ESL/EFL teachers and learners, with a focus on effective pronunciation teaching. The book was conceptualized by lead author, Guskaroska, who had worked on a course created by Levis with fellow PhD students at that time, Zawadski and Challis. The purpose of the book was to create an online resource for future students in Levis' pronunciation teaching course that could transform the course's paper-based activities into interactive online activities, providing immediate feedback for students completing the activities. At the same time, an OER publication offered teachers seeking to integrate pronunciation teaching into their classroom practice an accessible resource that drew on up-to-date technological resources and pedagogical approaches. ESL/EFL teachers and students will appreciate its clear, accessible format and descriptions of research-informed classroom activities that are appropriate for most levels of instruction. Teacher educators of TESOL trainees will find that the book (particularly in Chapters 1 and 2) provides succinct but thorough summaries of the theoretical background and research to ESL/EFL pronunciation teaching. Teacher trainers could find it a useful resource to draw on when preparing professional learning sessions. This review briefly outlines and evaluates each of the book's sections, including the foundational aspects of pronunciation instruction, segmentals (vowels, consonants), suprasegmentals (stress, rhythm, intonation), and assessment strategies.

Finding ways to measure effectiveness and evaluate the impact of the work that community workers do is essential. In the context of disaster recovery, which is particularly relevant in Australia currently, the survival of whole communities could depend on this (Lonne et al., 2017). Despite this, such a topic is often only addressed in the final chapters of text books, which downgrades its importance. The Impact of Community Work: How to Gather Evidence breaks this tradition and starts at the point where many texts end. The chapters provide insight into different methodological perspectives and the book provides a comprehensive and useful overview of the tools available for gathering evidence and evaluating it in the context of group programs or community work.