Why do so many people still love Friends? | Zoe Williams

The 90s were a decade of carefree optimism and comically low stakes. Matthew Perry’s death brings us crashing back into the now In 2004, the author Damian Barr published Get It Together: Surviving Your Quartlerlife Crisis. Barr would go on to write poignant and beautiful books (including the memoir Maggie and Me) but this wasn’t either of those things. It was more of a fun, generational howl: how’s this stuff supposed to work? How are you supposed to become an adult in these conditions? The dream of life in your 20s – flailing around not sure what to do, mooching from one dead-end job to another but still managing to afford a gigantic, lovely flat in the centre of everything, failing romantically, hilariously, while it all turns out for the best, never feeling anxious for no reason or as if you’re slipping through the sieve of polite society, too small and weightless to remain in the in-crowd – well, that dream was cracking a little. As Barr put it in a radio interview, the question, essentially, was this: what if Friends, which by then was in its 10th and final season, wasn’t very true to life?Definitely, the economic winds were changing: wages in the UK started to stagnate in 2003; in the US, graduate wages had been falling since 2000, and health cover cut for young employees, both graduate and not, since 2002. All of this, plus climbing student debt, was dwarfed by the 2007-2008 financial crash, after which everyone got much poorer, much faster. But the casual 90s... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-10-30 18:37:24 UTC ]

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Of Tibetans’ Disenchantment, Reclamation, and New Literacy Space: In Conversation with Tenzin Dickie, by Shelly Bhoil

Interviews Shelly Bhoil Tenzin Dickie is a Tibetan writer and translator and editor of The Treasury of Lives, a biographical encyclopedia of Tibet, Inner Asia, and the Himalayan region. Her edited anthology, Old Demons, New Deities: 21 Short Stories from... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2019-06-25 14:25:59 UTC ]
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Looking back on the life of advertising legend Philip Geier

Philip H. Geier, Jr., the long-time chairman and CEO of the advertising giant known as The Interpublic Group of Companies, died on Wednesday, June 19, at the age of 84. Over the course of his nearly six-decade-long career, Geier made a name for himself in the worlds of both advertising and... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-06-24 19:42:28 UTC ]
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Bobby Hundreds’ memoir is a snapshot of L.A.’s streetwear culture of the 2000s

The title of Bobby Hundreds’ book — “This Is Not a T-Shirt” — is straight-up transparent: It’s not a T-shirt. It’s less obvious at the outset — but not for long — that it’s also not a traditional memoir, brand history or “how-we-turned-a couple-hundred bucks-into-global-streetwear-label”... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-20 15:40:00 UTC ]
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Review:: Bobby Hundreds' memoir is a snapshot of L.A.'s streetwear culture of the 2000s

The title of Bobby Hundreds' book — "This Is Not a T-Shirt" — is straight-up transparent: It's not a T-shirt. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-20 15:30:01 UTC ]
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A Moby-Dick–Inspired Memoir of Menopause

On a quest to make sense of what was happening to her body, the author Darcey Steinke sought guidance from female killer whales. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2019-06-18 14:40:31 UTC ]
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Life Lessons from Memoirs

Memoirs of faith by Rachel Denhollander, Tom Voss and Rebecca Anne Nguyen, Helen Prejean, and others teach and reassure readers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-06-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Serpent's Tail snaps up 'devastating' memoir from Fuller

Serpent’s Tail will publish a new memoir by British-Zimbabwean author Alexandra Fuller. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-06-13 15:11:33 UTC ]
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Every Tory MP sent This Is Going to Hurt as reminder of Jeremy Hunt's record

Adam Kay is sending his exposé of life as a junior doctor during the leadership candidate’s time as health secretary to highlight how he ‘left the NHS in tatters’Adam Kay is sending a copy of his bestselling memoir about life as a junior doctor, This Is Going to Hurt, to all 330 Conservative MPs... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-06-12 11:40:05 UTC ]
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Last minute Father’s Day gifts for 7 different kinds of book-loving dads

Books are a go-to gift for Father's Day, but if you rely on chain bookstore displays, you'll probably find a lot of the same things: cookbooks with recipes for grilling obscenely large hunks of meat, ghostwritten memoirs by pro athletes, and techno-thrillers featuring very long descriptions... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-11 17:30:00 UTC ]
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Former NBA star Dwyane Wade to publish a memoir this fall

Newly retired NBA star Dwyane Wade will tell the story of his life and celebrated basketball career in a new memoir. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-05 17:29:40 UTC ]
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Review: Colin Dayan's 'In the Belly of Her Ghost' exorcises memories of mother after she's gone

Colin Dayan's brief but explosive memoir of her relationship to her mother should find a place among the more indelible life histories of the last several years. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-05 16:00:01 UTC ]
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Rob Zabrecky's memoir 'Strange Cures' is an ode to a forgotten L.A.

In musician and magician Rob Zabrecky's new memoir, "Strange Cures," the Los Angeles of the 1980s and early '90s is an alien landscape of raucous underground nightclubs, seedy Hollywood crack dens and low-rent Silver Lake duplexes; and the Valley is a place where errant teens roam free, sans... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-05-30 18:01:20 UTC ]
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Debbie Harry of Blondie to release her first memoir

Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry will tell the story of her career as a musician and actress in a new memoir set for release this fall. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-05-30 16:44:35 UTC ]
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Jonas Brothers announce a memoir for fall release

Pop sensations the Jonas Brothers will tell the story of their lives in the music world in a new memoir. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-05-29 17:59:56 UTC ]
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In the end, Game of Thrones needed better writers

Without George RR Martin, the last seasons of the TV spectacular lost their way, says the Observer columnist and GoT enthusiastGame of Thrones final episode review – epic ending corrects some major wrongsThe failure of the final season of Game of Thrones has its cheerful side. Despite the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-05-19 08:00:13 UTC ]
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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... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2019-04-11 08:49:28 UTC ]
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Art Connects Us: Sarah Odedina

As a recipient of the Arts Connects Us Grant I travelled to Ghana and Sierra Leone to meet with writers and publishing professionals working in the field of books for young readers to foster creative and collaborative exchanges between those contacts and publishing professionals and readers in... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2019-03-19 11:10:28 UTC ]
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Headbutts, snark and furious obsession: a toxic history of literary rivalries

When her first book came out, Lulah Ellender became obsessed with an author whose book launched the same week. She reflects on past feuds and how resentment now festers onlineWhen my first book was published last year I wasn’t prepared for how unhinged I would become. I’d expected review-induced... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Walking Dead: The Final Season' lands on August 14th

Ahead of E3, Telltalle Games released a trailer for The Walking Dead: The Final Season. This game is the final installment in a four-part series based on the popular comic book series. The release date is August 14th; The Final Season will be availab... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2018-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'House of Cards' Season 6 production shows signs of life

It looks as though production is about to begin in Maryland on the sixth and final season of “House of Cards,” which has been rewritten to omit star and executive producer Kevin Spacey. A casting notice was published Friday on Facebook for the “first official photo shoot for Season 6” with a... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun

[ Baltimore Sun | 2018-01-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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