I am no stranger to homesickness. I've spent close to half my life moving town and country with a regularity that's truly baffling when you consider how little I enjoy change. Until I turned 16, I had always lived in the same town - Basingstoke: the butt of many jokes about England's quietly unattractive (and … Continue reading Bibliotherapy For Homesickness: Fiction Recommendations For Tough Times
"Just as the painter Rubens amused himself with being the ambassador to the court of St. James's - a sufficient career in itself for most busy men - so Mrs. Lucas amused herself, in the intervals of her pursuit of art for art's sake, with being not only an ambassador but a monarch. Riseholme might … Continue reading Review: Mapp and Lucia by E.F. Benson
"These were the hidden violences. Day-long deaths that snuffed out our small and limited futures. Since we grew up around London towers, struggle was a standard echo in our speech, in thought, in action. But it was only after the release of that one video, clipped from a phone of a witness, that everyone else … Continue reading Review: In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne
Another month has flown by and it seems that we're heading unrelentingly into summer. Summer in the US midwest is actually the setting for some incredibly productive reading time. If possible, I become even more reclusive than in the winter, as part of a desperate attempt to avoid the heat. Not only am I completely … Continue reading The Monthly Reader: May 2019
"Sakamochi clapped his hands a few times and admonished, 'All right, all right, all right, quiet down, everyone!' The uproar quickly subsided, and he continued. 'Okay, I'll explain. We've had you come here for one and only one reason'. Then: 'Today, you're all going to kill each other'. This time, no outburst came. The students … Continue reading Review: Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
Of all the challenges that we face as individuals, grief is perhaps the most universal. There are few - if any - people able to get through life without experiencing loss, making grief an inevitability for all of us. I am lucky to have reached 30 without losing any of the people close to me … Continue reading Bibliotherapy For Grief: Fiction Recommendations For Tough Times
"He knew my work - where it was, what I did there, the hours, the days and the twenty-past-eight bus I caught every morning when it wasn't being hijacked to get me into town to it. Also he made the pronouncement that I never caught this bus home. This was true. Every weekday, rain or … Continue reading Review: Milkman by Anna Burns
April has flown by in the breathless fury that always seems to associate itself with mid-spring. Although I remain devastated at my loss of the UK's four-day Easter weekend, April remains one of my favourite months of the year. It is also just about the only mild month that the US midwest seems to get … Continue reading The Monthly Reader: April 2019
"To be a Parisian in Nablus was to be out of step with the times, locked in an old colonial formula where subjects imitated masters as if in the seams of their old garments they hoped to find some dust of power left trapped. This was not precisely the case with Midhat, who seemed rather … Continue reading Review: The Parisian by Isabella Hammad
One of the most prevalent challenges facing society today is undoubtedly loneliness. The news abounds with headlines showing that loneliness among almost all generations is on the increase. Although counterintuitive at first sight - we might expect that both the internet at large and social media in particular offer us plentiful opportunities for connection - … Continue reading Bibliotherapy For Loneliness: Fiction Recommendations For Tough Times
