Mike Robbins's Blog, page 3

Why Nations Fail

I've read this twice, and have thought about the arguments in it very hard.

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty



I have put my thoughts here. Comments and arguments welcome. https://mikerobbinsnyc.blogspot.com/2...

A coup, and a departure

A new blog post from me - a rare event nowadays; but this is heartfelt.

Omar el-Beshir, the dictator of Sudan since 1989, has fallen, the victim of a coup very similar to the one that brought him to power. For me this means more than it would to most non-Sudanese, as I was in Sudan at the time of his own coup, and my work there was brought to an end as a result of it. There is a feeling for me of history coming full circle at last.

About 18 months after the Beshir coup I wrote my own account of the day he seized power, and the weeks that followed. It eventually appeared as the last chapter of my book Even the Dead Are Coming, published in 2009. Here it is, mildly edited so that it can stand alone.

Best wishes to all Sudanese people, who I always found most gracious, generous, and civil; and I hope that they will find a peaceful path to whatever form of government they now want.

https://mikerobbinsnyc.blogspot.com/2...

Rumer Godden and India

Rumer Godden was one of the most successful writers of her lifetime. Several of her novels, including Black Narcissus and The River, became successful films. But some of her best work is not fiction at all. Her memoirs of India are drenched with light and colour; and now they have been reissued by an enterprising Indian publisher, Speaking Tiger.

An appreciation of some really beautiful writing:
http://mikerobbinsnyc.blogspot.com/20...

Diana Athill

Saddened by the passing of Diana Athill - who I wrote about only a few weeks ago, including an appreciation of her books Instead of a Letter: A Memoir and Stet: An Editor's Life.
https://mikerobbinsnyc.blogspot.com/2...

It's about the bike

Heartfelt thoughts from an old cyclist. And some nice reading suggestions for those of us with wheels.

https://mikerobbinsnyc.blogspot.com/2...

Diana Athill

Reading, and enjoying, two fine books by Diana Athill. To whom happy 101st birthday. https://mikerobbinsnyc.blogspot.com/2...

An anthology of anger

The Anti-Austerity Anthology brings together some of the best active indie authors in a collection of original poetry, prose and more. It is an angry book. It should be.

Read more about it here.
http://mikerobbinsnyc.blogspot.com/20...

Lifting the lid on Westminster

In the House tonight: Murder, booze and buggery. Two good books that have one thinking about who governs us, and how.

http://mikerobbinsnyc.blogspot.com/20...

Review copies

I never contact people offering books for review. To do so is at best bad manners; at worst it is spamming. In any case, I interact with people on this site as a fellow-reader at least as much as a writer, and I'd like to keep it that way.

But as I writer, I do need readers' reviews. I will be pleased to send e-copies to anyone genuinely interested in doing an honest review of one or more of these books. If you get one and then decide not to review it, that's also fine. If you do upload a review to Amazon, Goodreads or any other site or retailer, that will be great. Three are fiction, two travel and one is a polemic.

Send me a message via Goodreads, or my Facebook author page at https://www.facebook.com/mikerobbinsNYC. State which file format you'd like (PDF, EPUB or MOBI).

These are the titles:

The Lost Baggage of Silvia Guzmán






Dog!: You'll Never Look At Your Dog the Same Way Again. Also available in Spanish as ¡Perro!






The Nine Horizons: Travels in Sundry Places






Three Seasons: Three Stories of England in the Eighties






Even the Dead Are Coming






Such Little Accident: British Democracy and Its Enemies





Thank you, everyone; and whatever you are reading right now, I hope that you are enjoying it.

Best
Mike

Inequality and democracy

Can inequality destroy democracy? And if it does, what will the endgame be?

Thoughts after reading Robert Reich on inequality, Joseph Tainter on the collapse of complex societies - and A.L. Rowse on Elizabethan England. Three books that appear to have nothing in common, but just may point to our near future.

http://mikerobbinsnyc.blogspot.com/20...