Jan Swafford's slablike life of Brahms is more discursive than Mr Carr's book but just as readable.

ECONOMIST: Composers�� lives: Setting it straight | The

Instead, the pope often took a scholarly approach to public speaking, using discursive and, at times, provocative prose to tackle complex and divisive issues, ranging from the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV, to the West's relations with the Muslim world.

WSJ: Pope Defended Church Teachings

Instead, the pope has often taken a scholarly approach to public speaking, using discursive and, at times, provocative prose to tackle complex and divisive issues, ranging from the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV, to the West's relations with the Muslim world.

WSJ: Pope Moved to Build Church's Spiritual Life

He extolled all the things he loved about America - its show business, its popular music, and its sports, as well as its politics and its higher culture - and he did so in talks carefully pre-written to sound as natural, discursive and conversational as possible, and delivered in comforting, mellifluous tones.

BBC: Magazine

When it comes to parsing and understanding the politics of cybersecurity, keeping our noses to the ground is a necessary check on the abuse of privilege and is a means to exercise some oversight over a system that is currently failing to curb the discursive excesses of powerful interests within government and industry.

FORBES: "Cyberwar": A Classic Opportunity For Threat Inflation