literary hoohah
This book was one of the few review copies I have been accepting recently, and I'm glad I decided to read and review it, because it's something a little different - but once I got into it I realised it actually is the sort of thing I like. Gone: A Girl, A Violin, A Life… Continue reading Gone: A Girl, A Violin, A Life Unstrung by Min Kym
I’d heard of The Glass Castle long before I read it, and I was vaguely interested in it, but the real impetus to read it came from two things: my putting together reading lists of the books I most wanted to read; and the news that it has been adapted into a film starring some… Continue reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
I'm not usually one for celebrity autobiographies. I think Anjelica Huston's memoir was the first I actually read (that I can remember), and I only read that because I love Huston's work, and the book seemed down to earth and non-sensationalist, which it was. It was a journey through a life. I decided to read… Continue reading Wildflower by Drew Barrymore
In my last post I mentioned that I had been away on holiday and therefore hadn't blogged in a while, but promised to be back soon. But then I got food poisoning and was off grid practically the whole week. Bloody perfect. So this is a delayed 'return' to the blog. Finally! It's been too… Continue reading Reading Mental Health: Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
As a rule I rather like reading memoirs, though I must say I am picky about whose I read. I've read mostly literary memoirs or those about an ordinary person who had an extraordinary experience (such as Wild or The Rules of Inheritance). I don't think I've ever read a memoir of a celebrity before.… Continue reading A Trip Down Memory Lane with Anjelica Huston
Hi all, as I'm sure you know BookTube is a really big 'thing', and I follow a fair amount of booktubers, so I decided to give it a go! So here I go...
When we learn about trauma, we also learn about catharsis, about 'getting it out' and finding closure. About having a cathartic experience. This is why we read books about war and suffering, why survivor testimonies are always popular books in whatever form they may take - from the wonder of writers like Primo Levi, to… Continue reading In Praise Of: Sad Stories
I mentioned The Undertaker's Daughter in my post about 'simplifying women' in book titles. Kate Mayfield is more than just the daughter of an undertaker, of course; but the title is warranted here as this book covers the first part of her life, when she mostly lived at home, and when her father was an… Continue reading The Undertaker’s Daughter by Kate Mayfield
Already we have reached the sun of the year, the hot nights and outdoor lunchtimes that tell us it’s summer. Already it is July! We are about half way through 2014, and so it is a good time to look back at the year so far and assess what we’ve done, what we liked and… Continue reading Top 5 Books of 2014… So Far!
"The relation to handicraft is nourishing, beautiful. Related bodily to a solid block of lead letters, to the weight of the composition tray, to the adroitness of spacing, the tempo and temper of the machine - you acquire some of the weight of the lead, the strength and power of the machine, the bodily conquests… Continue reading Anais Nin on Printing Her Own Books
