Other books that might interest you

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  There Is No Blue

  Martha Baillie

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  THE GLOBE AND MAIL: BOOKS TO READ IN FALL 2023
  		 
  Martha Baillie’s richly layered response to her mother’s passing, her father's life, and her sister’s suicide is an exploration of how the body, the rooms we inhabit, and our languages offer the psyche a home, if only for a time.
  		 
  Three essays, three deaths. The first is the death of the author’s mother, a protracted disappearance, leaving space for thoughtfulness and ritual: the washing of her body, the making of a death mask. The second considers Baillie's father, his remoteness, his charm, a lacuna at the center of the family even before his death, earlier than her mother's. And then, third, shockingly, the author’s sister, a visual artist and writer living with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, who writes three reasons to die on her bedroom wall and then takes her life, just before the book the sisters co-authored is due to come out.
  		 
  In this close observation of a family, few absolutes hold, as experiences of reality diverge. A memoir of cascading grief and survival from the author of The Incident Report.
  		 
  ”Martha Baillie’s novels are thrillingly, joyously singular, that rare combination of sui generis and just plain generous. That There Is No Blue, her memoir, is all of those things too, is no surprise; still, she has gone somewhere extraordinary. This triptych of essays, which exquisitely unfolds the “disobedient tale” of the lives and deaths of her mother, her father, and her sister, is a meditation on the mystery and wonder of grief and art making and home and memory itself. It made me think of kintsugi, the Japanese art of repair, in which the mending is not hidden but featured and beautifully illuminated. Baillie’s variety of attention, carved out of language, is tenderness, is love.” — Maud Casey, author of City of Incurable Women
  		 
  “This is a stunning memoir, intense and meticulous in its observations of family life. Baillie subtly interrogates and conveys the devastating mistranslations that take place in childhood, the antagonism and porousness of siblings,  and the tragedy of schizophrenia as it unfolds.  I couldn’t put it down.” — Dr. Lisa Appignanesi, author of Mad, Bad and Sad and Everyday Madness
  		 
  “Exquisite.” — Souvankham Thammavongsa, author of How to Pronounce Knife
  		 
  “I am grateful for this profound meditation on family and loss.” — Charlie Kaufman, filmmaker
  		 
  ”This strange, unsettling memoir of outer life and inner life and their bizarre twining captures the author’s identity by way of her mother’s death, her sister’s failing battle with mental illness, and the mysterious figure of her father.  It combines anguished guilt, deep tenderness, and bemused affection in highly evocative, often disturbing prose.  Its brave honesty is amplified by a persistent lyricism; its undercurrent of fear is uplifted by a surprising, resilient hopefulness.  It is both a plea for exoneration and an act of exoneration, an authentic meditation on the terrible difficulty of being human.” — Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon

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  The Ballad Of Geoff & Yoko An...

  Geoffrey Giuliano

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  In 1983 Yoko Ono selected journalist Geoffrey Giuliano for an exclusive interview (one of her first after the tragic death of John Lennon) over the iconic Barbara Walters. Arriving early at the Dakota apartments for what was initially a one-hour interview it turned into an all-day affair with Giuliano staying until early evening talking freely with Yoko Ono and a young Sean Lennon. 
   
  The remarkable interview presented here is the fruit of that long-ago day which turned out to be much more than just a one-off interview. Subsequent to that first visit Geoffrey formed some kind of a relationship with Yoko and regularly visited the Dakota and spoke with her on the phone. 
   
  This interview was partially used for a feature in Playgirl magazine that same year so with approximately 90% of the tape left unheard for decades. This then is the complete record of their first afternoon together in the rambling white Gothic apartment of the great John Lennon.

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  Whack Job - A History of Axe Murder

  Rachel McCarthy James

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  A brilliant and bloody examination of the axe's foundational role in human history, from prehistoric violence, to war and executions, to newspaper headlines and popular culture.For as long as the axe has been in our hands, we have used it to kill.Much like the wheel, the boat, and the telephone, the axe is a transformative piece of technology—one that has been with us since prehistory. And just as early humans used the axe to chop down trees, hunt for food, and whittle tools, they also used it to murder. Over time, this particular use has endured: as the axe evolved over centuries to fit the needs of new agricultural, architectural, and social development, so have our lethal uses for it.Whack Job is the story of the axe, first as a convenient danger and then an anachronism, as told through the murders it has been employed in throughout history: from the first axe murder nearly half a million years ago, to the brutal harnessing of the axe in warfare, to its use in King Henry VIII's favorite method of execution, to Lizzie Borden and the birth of modern pop culture. Whack Job sheds brilliant light on this familiar implement, this most human of weapons. This is a critical examination of violence, an exploration of how technology shapes human conflict, the cruel and sacred rituals of execution and battle, and the ways humanity fits even the most savage impulses into narratives of the past and present.A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

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  Born in Chains - The Diary of an...

  Clinton Chauke

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  Just like in the squatter camp in Atteridgeville, there was no electricity in our new home. But here it was very different: it was safe. Only years later I figured out why the crime rate was so low in our village: there was nothing to steal. 
    
  Born in Chains is a first-hand account of living in abject poverty in South Africa. Clinton Chauke was born in 1994 into a Vatsonga household and has faced all the challenges of growing up at the edges of society: first in rural Limpopo, then in a village bordering the Kruger National Park, and finally in a squatter camp near Pretoria. 
    
  Navigating a world of racism and tribalism and confronting urban life as a country ‘bumpkin’, the author depicts the lifelines and pitfalls of a young life: going to school, coming to terms with tradition, religion and politics, becoming a man and – ultimately – finding his identity as a young black person in South Africa. 
    
  Uncompromising, honest and witty, Chauke’s memoir is a story of hope and perseverance and of succeeding against all the odds.

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  Philosophical Stories - Stories...

  Alexander Kuprin, Ambrose...

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  We love reason, advancing through facts to reach a conclusion that explains exactly where we are at.   
   
  When literary masters create their stories on this theme we are left with some quite brilliant and riveting works that help us gain fascinating insight into both author, story and the world beyond. 
   
  1 - Philosophical Stories - An Introduction 
  2 - In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka 
  3 - Bartleby the Scrivener - Part 1 by Herman Melville 
  4 - Bartleby the Scrivener - Part 2 by Herman Melville 
  5 - The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
  6 - Parker Adderson, Philosopher by Ambrose Bierce 
  7 - Dickory Cronke, The Dumb Philosopher or Great Britain's Wonder by Daniel D 
  8 - Plato's Dream by Voltaire 
  9 - The Shades, A Phantasy by Vladimir Korolenko 
  10 - Gods in Exile by Heinrich Heine 
  11 - An Evening Guest by Alexander Kuprin 
  12 - Bellerophon To Anteia by Mary Butts 
  13 - Putois by Anatole France 
  14 - The Lightning Rod Man by Herman Melville 
  15 - Moxon's Master by Ambrose Bierce 
  16 - A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka

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  Room for Two

  Abel Keogh

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  "Sweetie, I'm home." I tried to put as much kindness into my voice as possible. I didn't want to have another argument - at least not right away. 
  Silence. 
  "Sweetheart?" 
  A gunshot echoed from our bedroom, followed by the sound of a bullet casing skipping along a wall. 
  Everything slowed down. 
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  When a life is destroyed, when guilt says you played a role in its destruction, how do you face the days ahead? Twenty-six-year-old Abel Keogh chooses to ignore the promptings he receives concerning his wife's mental illness, and now he feels he is to blame for her choices. If only he had listened . . . 
  At some point in our lives, each of us face devastating afflictions and must eventually cope with loss. Regardless of how it happens, the outcome is still the same - we are left isolated, alone, wondering what we could have done differently, and where we can turn for peace. This is Abel's story of love and loss in his own words. His search for peace and the miracle that follows is proof that love and hope can endure, despite the struggles and tragedies that shape each of our lives.

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