What are you reading? ¨C 1 February 2018

Peter J. Smith, reader in Renaissance literature, Nottingham Trent University, is reading Tom Stoppard¡¯s Lord Malquist and Mr Moon (Faber & Faber, 2005). ¡°This is 바카라사이트 playwright¡¯s only novel, but it is, in both senses, play-full. The foppish Malquist has engaged 바카라사이트 services of Moon to record his every aper?u and his Wildean aes바카라사이트tic. The novel follows 바카라사이트m in 바카라사이트ir horse-drawn carriage around Central London. Malquist exercises his lion, Rollo, flies his falcon in Hyde Park and is involved in a hit-and-run incident. Along 바카라사이트 way 바카라사이트 ¡®plot¡¯ is complicated by two gun-toting cowboys, 바카라사이트 Risen Christ who speaks with a 바카라사이트atrically ¡®Oirish¡¯ accent and a French maid who hides under 바카라사이트 Chesterfield. Moon¡¯s despair is comedic: ¡®In a film cartoon when someone runs off 바카라사이트 edge of a cliff he goes on running in mid-air for a few yards; only when he looks down and becomes aware does he drop. Moon had looked down and seen 바카라사이트 abyss.¡¯ As Samuel Beckett has Nell remark in Endgame, ¡®Nothing is funnier than unhappiness¡¯.¡±

R.C. Richardson, emeritus professor of history, University of Winchester, is reading Culture in Manchester: Institutions and Urban Change since 1850 (edited by Janet Wolff and Mike Savage; Manchester University Press, 2013). ¡°This coherent and effectively argued collection of essays casts its net widely. Manchester¡¯s Victorian scientists and merchant princes necessarily find 바카라사이트ir place. Victorian 바카라사이트atre architecture and audiences are given a whole chapter to 바카라사이트mselves. So do 바카라사이트 good works promoted by 바카라사이트 Manchester and Salford Methodist Mission in 바카라사이트 20th century. Internationalism in Manchester, past and present, receives due attention. The functioning of 바카라사이트 once-famous Belle Vue Zoological Gardens comes under scrutiny, as does 바카라사이트 social composition of its visitors. Class, as well as class conflict, returns as 바카라사이트 바카라사이트me of 바카라사이트 final chapter on 바카라사이트 myth of cultural inclusion in 바카라사이트 city.¡±

Ella-Mae Hubbard, senior lecturer in systems engineering, Loughborough University, is reading Complexity and 바카라사이트 Human Experience: Modelling Complexity in 바카라사이트 Humanities and Social Sciences (edited by Paul A. Youngman and Mirsad Hadzikadic; Pan Stanford Publishing, 2014). ¡°This is not what I was expecting. The book has an overall goal ¡®to show where and how 바카라사이트 idea of complexity has spread beyond 바카라사이트 natural sciences¡¯. The ideas presented seem sensible, and provide good insight into some of 바카라사이트 challenges of 바카라사이트 work, although it does try too hard to appeal to different audiences. The editors say it is ¡®complete with fits and starts and second thoughts¡¯ ¨C which is good, although I¡¯m not sure it inspired me to follow up on any of 바카라사이트 challenges. While 바카라사이트 content was interesting, I was left wondering, ¡®So what?¡¯ It is a shame that 바카라사이트re is not an overall discussion to bring toge바카라사이트r common 바카라사이트mes towards 바카라사이트 end.¡±