FiveBooks Newsletter 44

This week on FiveBooks, we brought you conversations with American feminist
legend Erica Jong, _Economist_ correspondent and language blogger Robert
Lane Greene, and – last but most definitely not least – star novelist Ian
McEwan. You'll find these three interviews, as well as several other
illuminating reads, at the links below.

Please also be sure to check out today's interview with _[1]John Thorn_, the
Official Historian for Major League Baseball. He talks to us about the
history of the sport – and tells us why he thinks attending a ball game is
like watching a play by Aeschylus. Enjoy!
Links:
1. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/john-thorn-on-baseball

FiveBooks News

[2]Mark Malloch Brown on Globalisation
Links:
2. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/mark-malloch-brown-on-globalisation

Monday April 18th

The Chief of Staff of the United Nations under Kofi Annan and former
Administrator of the UN Development Programme talks us through some of the
key ideas and institutions that helped develop globalisation [3]Continue
reading…
Links:
3. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/mark-malloch-brown-on-globalisation

[4]Martin Marty on Religion versus Secularism in History
Links:
4. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/martin-marty-on-religion-versus-secularism-history

Tuesday April 19th

The professor of religious history says that though the world may seem to be
increasingly secular, the growth of Christianity and Islam in some places
disproves it. He chooses five books that fuel the debate [5]Continue
reading…
Links:
5. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/martin-marty-on-religion-versus-secularism-history

[6]Robert Lane Greene on Language and the Mind
Links:
6. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/robert-lane-greene-on-language-and-mind

Wednesday April 20th

_Economist_ correspondent and author discusses "grammar grouches",
linguistic evolution, and why the world looks different in other languages
[7]Continue reading…
Links:
7. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/robert-lane-greene-on-language-and-mind

[8]Erica Jong on Unmissable Books on Women, Feminism and Life
Links:
8. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/erica-jong-on-unmissable-books-women-feminism-and-life

Thursday April 21th

American feminist legend Erica Jong selects essential reading for women –
and says the revolution is far from over [9]Continue reading…
Links:
9. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/erica-jong-on-unmissable-books-women-feminism-and-life

[10]Ian McEwan on Books That Have Helped Shape His Novels
Links:
10. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/ian-mcewan-on-five-books-have-influenced-my-novels

Friday April 22th

Novelist Ian McEwan talks about the books that have helped shape his own –
from the biography of a scientific genius to a treatise on the end of time
– and the importance of finding ‘mental freedom’ [11]Continue reading…
Links:
11. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/ian-mcewan-on-five-books-have-influenced-my-novels

[12]The Chernobyl That Nobody Wants
Links:
12. http://b.rw/f2b1aL

Barys Piatrovich | Eurozine | 22 April 2011

Gripping account of first month after Chernobyl's nuclear disaster. 25 years
ago, uncertainty turned to anxiety and then panic as "virtually the whole of
the radioactive end of Mendeleev's periodic table fell on Belarus"