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
The question of what makes a classic a classic is one that has occupied literary theorists and literature lovers for centuries. From Homer's The Iliad to the entire back-catalogue of Charles Dickens, none of us will escape encounters with the 'classics' of literary canon and the weighty prestige that this label carries. I am a self-proclaimed lover … Continue reading What Makes A Classic A Classic?
"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
"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
"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
"Angel's Laundromat is in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fourth Street. Shabby shops and junkyards, secondhand stores with army cots, boxes of one-socks, 1940 edition of Good Hygiene. Grain stores and motels for lovers and old women with hennaed hair who do their laundry at Angel's. Teenage Chicana brides go to Angel's. Towels, pink shortie nighties, bikini underpants … Continue reading Review: A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
"What a world it is, Cora thought, that makes a living prison into your only haven. Was she out of bondage or in its web: how to describe the status of a runaway? Freedom was a thing that shifted as you looked at it, the way a forest is dense with trees up close but … Continue reading Review: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Over the course of my life, I've faced a few different challenges with my mental health. By far the most persistent, however, has been my battle with anxiety and panic attacks. I've suffered from crippling anxiety for as long as I can remember and have lived with panic attacks since childhood. All of us have … Continue reading Bibliotherapy For Anxiety and Panic: Fiction Recommendations For Tough Times
Still steeped in the dregs of winter's last remaining weeks, it is the opportune moment to revisit the most interesting and exciting literary happenings for the month of February. Whether this has been a month of sweet anticipation for the oncoming spring, romantic indulgence, or a continuing demonstration of hibernation habits, this edition of The Monthly … Continue reading The Monthly Reader: February 2019
