ADDENDUM 30/06/2014: Please note that I was young and impressionable when I wrote this review. Now, older and wiser, my opinion of Caitlin Moran has changed somewhat. Since Moranthology was published and I have read more of her work as well as more of the things she has said in the press, I have come… Continue reading Moranthology by Caitlin Moran
Category: Non-Fiction
The Receptionist: An Education at The New Yorker by Janet Groth
I cannot remember how exactly I came across Janet Groth's memoir of her time at The New Yorker. All I remember is that as soon as I did hear about it, I wanted to read it; a lot. Being a Londoner I had no experience of reading The New Yorker but knew of its popularity… Continue reading The Receptionist: An Education at The New Yorker by Janet Groth
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Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox by Lois Banner
There are countless books on Marilyn Monroe already - so why another? And why did I choose to read this one? The author of Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox, Lois Banner, is a prominent American feminist scholar and historian, and teaches history at the University of Southern California. The inside cover of this book, as… Continue reading Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox by Lois Banner
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More Lives Than One: A Biography of Hans Fallada by Jenny Williams
Last year (2011) I read Fallada's final novel Alone in Berlin, after reading about it in various magazines - it seemed to be unanimously praised, and thee subject matter seemed interesting, so I gave it a go. I wrote a review of it for a former (and frankly less good) incarnation of this blog, which… Continue reading More Lives Than One: A Biography of Hans Fallada by Jenny Williams
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Henry and June: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anais Nin
As those who read my review of Nin's novel A Spy in the House of Love will know, I have always heard of this strange and exotic writer but have never known much about her. This edition of a section of her unexpurgated (uncensored) diary therefore promised to teach me more about the elusive Anais.… Continue reading Henry and June: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anais Nin
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In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (Guest Post)
This is a guest post written by Hannah Gillow Kloster. When I picked up (by which I mean downloaded for free and converted to Kindle) my copy (file) of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, I knew almost nothing about the book. I knew about Truman Capote, of course. I also saw Phillip Seymour Hoffman in London once.… Continue reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (Guest Post)
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Blue Nights by Joan Didion
Blue Nights is a funny little book. The hardback is beautiful, with a blue background and lettering, a black and white photograph of a young Quintana covering the back. Beautiful, but funny. It is several things; but should not be viewed as a sequel to The Year of Magical Thinking. The earlier book was the literary actualisation of… Continue reading Blue Nights by Joan Didion
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Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
The dictionary defines 'truth' as several different things, the first of which is 'quality or state of being true', which seems logical enough. However, it also defines 'truth' as 'honesty; sincerity; genuineness'. These are the aspects of truth that apply most to what one may call a human truth - the truth of things as… Continue reading Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
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The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley is a writer that one generally associates with three things - Brave New World and science fiction, along with real life science, like eugenics; drug experimentation, particularly with LSD; and the Eastern spiritualism he practised in California. Huxley came from a distinguished scientific and literary family and was bound to achieve 'great things'. Brave… Continue reading The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley
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The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
The New Journalism movement of the 1960s was about reporting the situation exactly as it was by way of the journalist involving themselves in that situation as much as possible. This meant going in and talking to the protestors, spending nights with them in the tents, attending the entire political conference and getting to know the… Continue reading The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
These Little Words 