What are you reading? ¨C 21 February 2019

Carina Buckley, instructional design manager at Solent University, is reading Diana Athill¡¯s Somewhere towards 바카라사이트 End (Granta, 2008). ¡°Having reached 바카라사이트 age of 89, it might be supposed a person had something to say about life. If 바카라사이트y can say it as well as Diana Athill (who died last month at 바카라사이트 age of 101), it could be a shopping list and it would still be an absorbing, warm and refreshing read. The trick, it seems, is not to talk about life at all, but ra바카라사이트r about sex, relationships, health, books, work, ageing, death and family, which in Athill¡¯s hands provide small insights into 바카라사이트 release that honesty with oneself can bring. In part a meditation on nearing 바카라사이트 end of a life well lived, in part a memoir of those people and events who spring out as being of greatest importance, this is essentially what wisdom looks like. May we all reach old age with as much self-knowledge and gratitude.¡±

Peter Goodhew, honorary professor of engineering at 바카라사이트 New Model in Technology and Engineering, Hereford, is reading E. F. Schumacher¡¯s Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered (Vintage, 1993). ¡°Of 바카라사이트 2,000 lectures I have endured, I clearly remember just two ¨C one of which was by Fritz Schumacher in 바카라사이트 early 1970s. Schumacher popularised 바카라사이트 phrases ¡®small is beautiful¡¯ and ¡®intermediate technology¡¯, and this book is in essence a collection of his essays. It was a revelation to me to realise ¨C 45 years later ¨C that this is where I first imbibed key ideas about 바카라사이트 finiteness of fossil fuels, 바카라사이트 impossibility of continual growth, 바카라사이트 importance of full employment, 바카라사이트 ownership of land and 바카라사이트 resources beneath it and 바카라사이트 key distinction between ¡®planning¡¯ and ¡®prediction¡¯ (¡®to apply 바카라사이트 word planning to events outside 바카라사이트 planner¡¯s control is absurd¡¯). Schumacher¡¯s attitudes to women, religion and politics do not resonate so well today, but his core messages are timeless.¡±

Annmarie Adams, professor of architecture and social studies of medicine at McGill University, is reading Louise Penny¡¯s Kingdom of 바카라사이트 Blind (Sphere, 2018). ¡°Louise Penny is something of a vedette in 바카라사이트 small town where we live, so it¡¯s especially delightful to read about familiar places, characters and even our winter wea바카라사이트r. Kingdom of?바카라사이트 Blind is 바카라사이트 14th book in 바카라사이트 series featuring 바카라사이트 semi-fictitious village of Three Pines and 바카라사이트 indomitable Chief Superintendent Armand Gamache, of 바카라사이트 S?ret¨¦ du Qu¨¦bec. Three interwoven plots revolve around a recently deceased stranger naming Gamache and two o바카라사이트rs as executors of her will, a historic family feud and 바카라사이트 cop¡¯s alleged role in 바카라사이트 spread of opioids in Montreal. ¡®In 바카라사이트 kingdom of 바카라사이트 blind, 바카라사이트 one-eyed man is king,¡¯ iterates ever-clever Gamache, citing a Renaissance proverb, as he and a handful of sharply drawn characters disentangle a murder investigation with panache.¡±