I’m on loads of mailing lists for death and grief-related professional development. Over the years, I’ve noticed death/ grief ‘trends’. For example, ten years ago there was a focus on voluntary-assisted dying (it was topical in Australia at the time) and post-COVID there was lots about personal grief rituals (I think because COVID restrictions changed the way people conducted funerals). Lately, it’s all about death-bots and the problem of digital legacies. Continue reading
I know that Miranda July’s All Fours divided readers – I thought it was an astonishing story about a woman questioning her role and her identity (and without getting into gross generalisations, there’s a reason this happens during menopause, when the gentle scrim that oestrogen provides is ripped away). Wifehouse by Sonya Walger tackles similar themes (although without July’s humour and quirk).
…the ruin was internal, invisible and incremental. She had no words for the aching elasticity of time. Continue reading
I realise that my opinion on Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel will have some of you despairing…
I didn’t love it. Not even a little bit. And my very wonderful book group (who all thought it was brilliant) couldn’t convince me otherwise. Continue reading
I’ll admit that I pounced on The Ruiners by Ellena Savage because I wanted a bit of a sticky-beak. Continue reading
I was the child who wouldn’t get out of the water. My parents would stand at the shore, yelling for me to come in. They’d have packed up all our gear and would start walking, before I dashed out to catch up with them – wrinkled like a prune, crusted in salt, and gloriously happy. Continue reading
I finished Short Story September with one fictional collection – Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh – and one essay collection – Over the Water: Essays on Islands by various authors. Continue reading
Famesick by Lena Dunham Continue reading
I read Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash months ago – ridiculous to be writing a review now but I am because, since reading it (in May), I have recommended it to so many people.
And this is what I say when I recommend it – “The ending isn’t fab but it doesn’t matter because by the time you get there, you will have laughed so much, you won’t care.” Continue reading
In some ways, Sophie, Sill Standing by Meg Mason is wildly unbelievable. But in other ways (and I was reading it while I was enjoying the Edinburgh International Book Festival) it is clearly informed by experience and therefore quite believable (and Mason’s chat with Ann Patchett reveals a bit about that experience).
Anyway, real of not, it doesn’t matter a jot. The story is charming – it features Mason’s signature, gentle humour, and it’s set at a literature festival – what a bonus! Continue reading
First up, Literary Wives has had a rebrand – we are now The Marriage Plot. We decided that a new name was in order to be more inclusive, and broaden our definition and consideration of roles in long-term partnerships.
So, to the club selection – Family Family by Laurie Frankel. Even with our rebrand, this book didn’t fit our intended focus because there are no core partnerships in the story. Instead, Frankel looks at how families are formed and what counts as ‘family’.