106 | Talking Politics Guide to ... Summer Reading

Regular Talking Politics contributors tell us about the books they’ve most enjoyed reading, and what they are looking forward to reading next. We've added the list of books mentioned below, but have deliberately not linked through to online purveyors: if you're shopping for summer reads, please take this list into your favourite local bookstore...

  • What we have been reading:
    • Aaron Rapport: The Power by Naomi Alderman
    • Helen Thompson: The Radetzky March and The Emperor’s Tomb by Joseph Roth
      Memoirs of an Anti-Semite and The Snows of Yesteryear by Gregor von Rezzori
    • Andrew Preston: 1491: The Americas before Columbus by Charles Mann
    • Jennifer Cobbe: Repeal The 8th: A Collection of Stories, Essays, Poetry and Photography around the Movement for Reproductive Rights in Ireland, edited by Una Mullally
    • David Runciman: American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld;
      The Nominee by Curtis Sittenfeld
    • Chris Brooke: Emily Wilson’s new translation of The Odyssey
    • Chris Bickerton: The Rise and Fall of American Growth by Robert Gordon
  • What we plan to read this summer:
    • Aaron: Hopefully the next in the Saga graphic novel series: written by Brian K. Vaughan, and illustrated by Fiona Staples
    • Helen: Crashed by Adam Tooze
    • Andrew: Watergate, A Novel and Finale, A Novel Of The Reagan Years by Thomas Mallon
    • Jennifer: Privacy’s Blueprint: The Battle to Control the Design of New Technologies by Woodrow Hartzog
    • David: The Way Of All Flesh by Samuel Butler
      The unabridged audiobook of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan read by Peter Wickham
    • Chris Brooke: Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World by Samuel Moyn
    • Chris Bickerton: The Occupation Trilogy by Patrick Modiano

You can also find a carefully-curated reading list to support each of our summer guides over at lrb.co.uk/guides.

101 | Populism, Migration and Merkel

 In a special live edition recorded at the Guardian's King's Place Politics Festival - David, Helen and Chris Bickerton discuss whether the migration crisis has opened up a new dividing line in European politics.  Is Viktor Orban right that Europe is now split between the countries that will accept immigrants and the countries that won't?  What does that mean for Merkel's survival prospects?  Where does Macron stand in this fight?  Plus we take questions from the audience about what populism really means and what, if anything, we can do about the current state of politics.
 

98 | Oh Italy!

 A new Italian government spells a heap of trouble for Europe.  We ask how we got to this point and what it means the future of the Euro.  What really spooked the markets?  Who blinked first?  And why does Italian politics have such a soft spot for university professors?  Plus we talk about the new government in Spain and we weigh up the state of democracy across the continent.  Is this how democracy is meant to work or is this really how democracy ends?  With Helen Thompson, Chris Bickerton and Lucia Rubinelli from the LSE

97 | Socialism in this Country?

After John McDonnell said he was still committed to the socialist transformation of Britain, we ask what that might mean.  Does socialism really require the overthrow of capitalism?  What's the difference between socialism and communism?  And with successful Democratic candidates in the US starting to use the s-word in public, what does socialism have to offer in America?  Plus we talk about whether social media and social networks offer the possibility of a new kind of socialism for the twenty-first century.  With Helen Thompson, Chris Bickerton and Chris Brooke.

96 | Iran, Israel, Korea, the World

This week we try to make sense of what's happening to the international order, from the end of the Iran deal to the on-again-off-again US-North Korean summit to opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem.  Can Europe carve out a separate foreign policy from the Trump administration?  Is regime change still the name of the game?  And what has it all got to do with the price of oil?  Plus we ask if anything is left of Obama's legacy and why it was so easy to undo.  With Helen Thompson, Aaron Rapport and Chris Bickerton.