Thursday, 3 March 2016

Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant, Gwyn A. Williams, Artisans and Sans-Culottes: Popular Movements in France and Britain during the French Revolution, Robert Merle, Heretic Dawn, Barry Cunliffe, By Steppe, Desert and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia

Loved 'The Buried Giant', a very sweet and dreamlike story of an old couple very much in love in the dark ages trying to find their son. 'Heretic Dawn' is the 3rd in the Fortunes of France series which are gradually being translated into english. Everyone compares them to Dumas, and they're full of swordplay, intrigue and romance. Barry Cunliffe's book is a sweeping study of Eurasia and the interplay between the european peninsula, the near east and China via the steppe. Great to read the long view.

Right now, Tottenham are favourites to win the league, something I've never experienced before. We're spurs though, we'll find a way to blow it. It's Arsenal this weekend, let's see how that goes. Even more astonishingly, the bloviating oaf Donald Trump seems to have the republican presidential nomination sewn up. It's genuinely bizarre - the more idiotic and offensive his announcements, the more he goes up in the polls. He calls Mexicans rapists, he goes up in the polls. The sheer amount of chutzpah it takes for a draft dodger to claim John McCain isn’t a war hero is astounding. What’s more, how on earth is a privileged, divorced, unchristian Manhattan resident appealing to conservatives? It's like he's America's id, all knee jerk reaction, no filter. 

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