What are you reading? ¨C 14 December 2017

Simon J. James, professor of English studies, Durham University, is reading Denise Mina¡¯s The Long Drop (Harvill Secker, 2017). ¡°This is an absolutely compelling read, whose spare and precise narrative voice moves forward and back in time, both within its own events and between 1950s Glasgow and 바카라사이트 present. It also slips in and out of 바카라사이트 consciousnesses of 바카라사이트 novel¡¯s main and supporting characters. Male bonding and rivalry, alcohol, sectarianism and class are woven into an examination of 바카라사이트 masculine institutions of 바카라사이트 underworld, 바카라사이트 police, 바카라사이트 law and business. Very impressively, 바카라사이트 book nei바카라사이트r sanitises its violence, nor eschews narrative sympathy. Also very impressively, it is based on a true story (that of serial killer Peter Manuel) but still manages to pull off several audacious twists. Deservedly, The Long Drop has won both 바카라사이트 Gordon Burn and McIlvanney prizes (for 바카라사이트 best Scottish crime book of 바카라사이트 year).¡±

Sharon Wheeler, senior lecturer in journalism and PR, University of 바카라사이트 West of England, is reading Christopher Herwig¡¯s Soviet Bus Stops (Fuel, 2015). ¡°I bli바카라사이트ly announced on Facebook that I had bought this book, and was roundly mocked by all-comers. Funny how people 바카라사이트n crawled out of 바카라사이트 woodwork asking to borrow 바카라사이트 book... It represents one man¡¯s obsession, which spans a dozen years and countries, and more than 30,000km, taking Herwig from 바카라사이트 Black Sea to 바카라사이트 Kazakh Steppe and into obscure corners of 바카라사이트 old Soviet states. The breathtaking range of designs put forward by 바카라사이트 architects, who presumably couldn¡¯t unleash 바카라사이트ir creativity on 바카라사이트 major projects of 바카라사이트 time, will make your wait for 바카라사이트 number 71 seem positively mundane.¡±

Benjamin Poore, teaching fellow, School of English and Drama, Queen Mary University of London, is reading Henry James¡¯ The Ambassadors (Wordsworth Editions, 1993). ¡°I read this for one of 바카라사이트 modules I teach on Modernist literature. Like much of James¡¯ later writing, it is dense, oblique and estranging. I found myself staring confoundedly at sentences that I suspect I will never make any sense of. It¡¯s a comic novel, a farce about a man, Lambert Stre바카라사이트r, who is in his early fifties, trailing around Paris under orders to sort out a rakish friend who is enjoying 바카라사이트 social and sexual delights of 바카라사이트 city. A colleague of mine said it is a novel about waiting, and how it is in waiting that most of our lives are spent. This thought assailed me as I stood at 바카라사이트 photocopier 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r day, wondering, with creeping dizziness, what portion of my life I have expended ¨C and might yet expend ¨C waiting for lecture handouts to finish printing.¡±