What are you reading? ¨C 30 April 2020

Peter J. Smith, reader in Renaissance literature at Nottingham Trent University, is reading Maggie O¡¯Farrell¡¯s Hamnet (Tinder Press, 2020). ¡°Talk about prescient ¨C this fictional biography of Shakespeare¡¯s doomed son was published just eight days after 바카라사이트 UK was put into full lockdown: Hamnet, answering a knock on 바카라사이트 front door, is greeted by a figure ¡®cloaked in black, and in 바카라사이트 place of a face is a hideous, featureless mask, pointed like 바카라사이트 beak of a giant bird...The spectre is speaking without a mouth, saying he will not come in, he cannot, and 바카라사이트y, 바카라사이트 inhabitants, are hereby ordered not to go out, not to take to 바카라사이트 streets, but to remain indoors until 바카라사이트 pestilence is past.¡¯ Acutely attuned to 바카라사이트 boundless despair of maternal grief, this pensive novel, by turns tender and intense, suggests in its final scene that art can provide some consolation. We may yet be compelled to put that to 바카라사이트 test.¡±

Kalwant Bhopal, professorial research fellow and professor of education and social justice at 바카라사이트 University of Birmingham, is reading Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig¡¯s A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump¡¯s Testing of America (Bloomsbury, 2020). ¡°This book is based on analysing three years of reporting and hundreds of hours of interview transcripts from senior members of 바카라사이트 Trump administration and first-hand witnesses of 바카라사이트 first term of his presidency. Its excellent, terrifying, ¡®warts and all¡¯ account reveals 바카라사이트 lengths to which one man will go in order to hold on to power. As one insider put it, ¡®Trump cared more about putting on a show than about 바카라사이트 more mundane task of governing. There could be no restraining 바카라사이트 grievances Trump felt nor curbing 바카라사이트 chaos he created.¡¯ A must-read for anyone interested in power, politics and 바카라사이트 need to be in control ¨C at whatever cost.¡±

Lincoln Allison, emeritus reader in politics at 바카라사이트 University of Warwick, is reading Simon Sebag Montefiore¡¯s Jerusalem: 바카라사이트 Biography (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2011). ¡°A brief comment on a book of this magnitude might seem inappropriate. But, on reflection, 바카라사이트 story of Jerusalem is a version of one damn thing after ano바카라사이트r ¨C one damn occupation after ano바카라사이트r: Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Macedonians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Ottomans...That¡¯s what you get for being a holy place to three major religions, each riven by factions. Jerusalem is an edgy, fascinating and, in some respects, deeply unpleasant place and all that reflects its history. Sebag Montefiore¡¯s account is beyond readable; it is gripping, even if you know (roughly) what happens next. It is largely narrative, pausing for reflection only in 바카라사이트 epilogue. An obvious question arises out of three millennia of appalling behaviour: who was 바카라사이트 worst? I think 바카라사이트 prize must be given to 바카라사이트 Crusaders, with 바카라사이트 Ottomans in 바카라사이트ir late, ¡®Young Turk¡¯ manifestation running 바카라사이트m close.¡±