What are you reading? ¨C 18 April 2019

Stephen Halliday, senior member of Pembroke College, Cambridge, is reading Virginia Woolf¡¯s A Room of One¡¯s Own and Three Guineas (edited by Anna Snaith, Oxford World¡¯s Classics, 2nd?edition, 2015). ¡°For those who, like me, struggle with Virginia Woolf¡¯s novels, this is a user-friendly introduction to 바카라사이트 workings of her mind and 바카라사이트 style of her writing. It sets out her view of 바카라사이트 frustrations suffered by a highly intelligent late-Victorian woman who was denied a good education because of 바카라사이트 patriarchal attitudes that underlay that society. The biographical introduction offers an excellent summary and 바카라사이트 references to contemporary events and to people in Woolf¡¯s life are in 바카라사이트mselves interesting social history. However, 바카라사이트 decision to place 바카라사이트 Notes and References and 바카라사이트 Explanatory Notes in separate sections at 바카라사이트 end obliges 바카라사이트 reader endlessly to be turning pages. Publishers are famously reluctant to use footnotes for fear of frightening off readers, but this book cries out for 바카라사이트m.¡±?

Kalwant Bhopal, professorial research fellow and professor of education and social justice, University of Birmingham, is reading Derren Brown¡¯s Happy: How More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine (Corgi, 2016). ¡°This book is about being happy and what we should and shouldn¡¯t be doing to achieve happiness. Brown makes it very clear from 바카라사이트 onset that he has not written a self-help book. Superbly entertaining with wit and charm, he explores 바카라사이트 flaws in our thinking and how self-help suggestions of positive thinking, self-belief and setting goals can actually be disastrous for our well-being and lead to greater anxiety. Instead, drawing on 바카라사이트 Stoics and Epicureans and 바카라사이트 discipline of psychology, he explores how we can change conceptions of happiness and allow ourselves to flourish and to live more happily. Brown¡¯s prose is honest, witty and beautiful ¨C and challenges us to question what truly is important in our lives.¡±

?A.W. Purdue, visiting reader at 바카라사이트 Open University, is reading James Buchan¡¯s John Law: A Scottish Adventurer of 바카라사이트 Eighteenth Century (MacLehose Press, 2018). ¡°The ¡®Scotsman on 바카라사이트 make¡¯ was a familiar 18th-century figure. Yet few reached 바카라사이트 heights achieved by John Law. He set out on 바카라사이트 ¡®high road to England¡¯ but, having killed a man in a disorganised duel, had to flee to 바카라사이트 Continent. His path to success was via Holland and Genoa ¨C where he founded his fortune by organising banks and lotteries ¨C to Paris. Charismatic and persuasive, he found a supporter in 바카라사이트 French Regent, busy trying to sort out 바카라사이트 mess in which Louis XIV had left France¡¯s finances. The result was a General Bank, which became 바카라사이트 Royal Bank, and a France awash with paper money. Law¡¯s undoing was 바카라사이트 Louisiana scheme, which, like Britain¡¯s South Sea Company, crashed spectacularly. But what a man! He took great risks, but many of his ideas are now financial orthodoxy. Buchan does him justice.¡±