What We're Reading – April 2019

Her Body and Other Parties, by Carmen Maria Machado I've absolutely loved this collection of short stories, which floats between the weird and the queer, passing horror, black comedy and feminism along the way. Doubles and others are especially important: a wife enters her wife’s dream when they are apart; a girlfriend fades until her girlfriend accidentally falls through her in bed. Most noticeably, in the magnificent story ‘Especially Heinous’, detectives Stabler and Benson from Law & Order: SVU meet Abler and Henson, who always get to the crime scene first but do nothing about the beautiful murdered girls whose deaths fuel most episodes of Law & Order: SVU. Machado’s stories are direct, fast-paced, and funny, yet there’s always a slow-moving malevolence to them, a hidden seriousness, a careful confusion, and a sense of meaning that’s just out of reach for the characters. I can’t wait for her second book – a memoir – to be published later this year. Swithun Cooper, Research and Information Manager   Ordinary People, by Diana Evans Just shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize. Ordinary People is the story of two couples in the second flush of marriage, wondering about where their lives together are going and what compromises they’ll have to make along the way. It’s also a love-letter to London, and to the music of John Legend. I’m enjoying Diana Evans’ lyrical writing style and in depth exploration of her characters inner lives, their frustrations and complex... Continue reading at 'British Council global'

[ British Council global | 2019-04-11 08:49:28 UTC ]

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‘Swan Dive’ gives voice to every suspicion you may harbor about professional ballet

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James Whiteside isn’t a typical ballet star, and his memoir isn’t a typical ballet story

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Of Roots and Reckonings: Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’s Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois, by Adele Newson-Horst

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Bodley Head acquires Werner Herzog memoir in two-book deal

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A Memoir’s Painful Question: Where Are You From?

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Mirror Books to publish memoir from Christine McGuinness

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Column: Why Billie Jean King finally took control of her own story

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning was ahead of her time. ‘Two-Way Mirror’ does justice to her riveting life.

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He Spent 14 Years at Guantánamo. This Is His Story.

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How I Tracked Down the Hidden Lives of the Radical, Wealthy Morris Sisters

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Pointing out racism in books is not an ‘attack’ – it’s a call for industry reform | Monisha Rajesh

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Headline signs Me Too founder Tarana Burke's memoir

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Cecily Strong has a raw new memoir about grief. That surprises her too.

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