5. What PGS Staff Are Reading This Summer

 

Dan Frampton

I am looking forward to reading Feminisms: a Global History by Delap. I love this series of introductory books from Pelican- they always seem to get the balance of breadth and depth just right and I am hoping that this title is no different. I am particularly interested in the ‘global’ element here, a useful enhancer/corrective to my Eurocentric understanding. The cover art is great too!

Having read his very personal condemnation of gay conversion therapy in Boy Erased a few summers ago, I am intrigued to read Conley's new historical novel, All the World Beside. Set in 18th century Puritan New England, it explores forbidden love and religion, and has been well reviewed by a number of authors I have enjoyed in the past, including Douglas Stuart and Torrey Peters. I can’t wait to get it out of the library.

Finally, I also hope to read Alone by Schreiber. Having previously published on the writer and critic Susan Sontag, Schreiber here is on somewhat different territory, meditating on the value of loneliness and solitude in the modern day. As we all prepare for a number of weeks away from school, when much of the rest of the world is still about their usual business, perhaps this book will prove a useful reflective companion. 

Ruth Richmond

Sadly, I don’t get the chance to do much reading  for joy during the school term, so I particularly look forward to getting some space to read during the summer break. I am going to attempt to read at least 2 books and here is what I have chosen: Mania by Lionel Shriver and Johnson at No 10 by Anthony Seldon.

Lionel Shriver is one of my favourite novelists (she is also a talented broadcaster). She attempts themes, one being the concept of cancel culture, that can be quite hard to find in today’s novels. I was blown away by her first novel ‘We need to talk to Kevin’ and that is a book that I would recommend before reading other works by Shriver. She has been described as a polarising figure on the literary world; for me this is like a red rag to a bull and I want to read it to see what all the fuss is about! But what is ‘Mania’ about? The main character is Pearson Converse who is an English lecturer at a small university at a time when the ‘Mental Parity movement’ has overtaken America, with the seductive notion that all human brains are equal so no one can be smarter than anyone else. Tests are outlawed, the supposedly intelligent are shunned, whole swathes of fiction and media are disappeared due to problematically gifted main characters, and you can lose your job for using the wrong word. Pearson and her best friend Emory, a TV journalist, are happy to mock the system in private, until one goes too far and faces losing everything. I am not sure if this will match the genius of We Need to Talk about Kevin but I am going to give the book a go !

I can’t wait to read Anthony Seldon’s biography about Boris Johnson. It has been sitting on my book shelf for over a year. How weird it will be reading it during the first few weeks (I suspect) of a Labour government.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Martin Hill

I’ll be reading Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix.  I started reading them at the same time as my son as he enjoyed them so much.  He was talking in a different language of Muggles and Quidditch so I needed to read them to understand this!  

But once I read the first I have just wanted to keep going.