Best for: Those who enjoy literary non-fiction and are not deterred by fairly grim subject matters. In a nutshell: Author Maggie O’Farrell examines, with lovely prose, moments in her life that could have led to her imminent death. Worth quoting: “Crossing time zones in this way can bring upon you an unsettling, distorted clarity. Is it the altitude, the unaccustomed inactivity, the physical confinement, the lack of sleep, or a collision of all four?” “To be so unheard, so disregarded, so disbelieved: I was unprepared […]
Checks All the Boxes and Does It Well
Best for: Anyone who likes fairly humorous personal memoirs, especially of the healthcare variety. Probably not best for those currently pregnant, unless they want to read a bunch of vignettes about the various things that might go wrong during labor and delivery (though to be fair, only one such vignette ends poorly, and that’s near the end of the book). In a nutshell: Former junior doctor Adam Kay unearthed his diaries from the few years he was a doctor working in the NHS. Worth quoting: […]
Unruly Bodies
I listened to Roxane Gay read her own book, Hunger: A Memoir Of (My) Body. It was a soul punch. Maybe I shouldn’t have listened at a time when I was struggling with feelings about my family, or maybe it was the exact right time. Several versions of this review were only appropriate for my therapist. I am fat, and I was always going to be fat unless I either put myself on a constant, punitive diet, or devoted hours and hours of my day […]
Depression & Other Magic Tricks
You know that a book is good when you highlight/mark something in the acknowledgements of the author. Depression & Other Magic Tricks by Sabrina Benaim is a collection of poems dealing with depression: thoughts, what she wishes others knew, conversations she had, the struggle and finally, the hope they have that they will be well someday. While the poem “Explaining My Depression to My Mother” has become the poem associated with Benaim it was her poem “On Releasing Light” that I got the “feelz” from. […]