Essays Books
Fitzcarraldo Editions Fifty Sounds
Book SynopsisWhy Japan? In Fifty Sounds, winner of the 2019 Fitzcarraldo Editions Essay Prize, Polly Barton attempts to exhaust her obsession with the country she moved to at the age of 21, before eventually becoming a literary translator. From min-min, the sound of air screaming, to jin-jin, the sound of being touched for the very first time, from hi'sori, the sound of harbouring masochist tendencies, to mote-mote, the sound of becoming a small-town movie star, Fifty Sounds is a personal dictionary of the Japanese language, recounting her life as an outsider in Japan. Irreverent, humane, witty and wise, Fifty Sounds is an exceptional debut about the quietly revolutionary act of learning, speaking, and living in another language.Trade Review‘Witty, exuberant, also melancholy, and crowded with intelligence – Fifty Sounds is so much fun to read. Barton has written an essay that is also an argument that is also a prose poem. Let’s call it a slant adventure story, whose hero is equipped only with high spirits, and a ragtag band of phonemes.’ — Rivka Galchen, author of Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch ‘This book: a portrait of a young woman as language-learner, as becoming-translator, as becoming-writer, in restless search of her life. It is about non-understanding, not-knowing, vulnerability, harming and hurt; it is also about reaching for others, transformative encounters, unexpected intimacies, and testing forms of love. It is a whole education. It is extraordinary. I was completely bowled over by it.’ — Kate Briggs, author of This Little Art ‘It seems fitting, somehow, that this marvelous study of the expansiveness and precarity of human communication is so woefully ill-served by a literal description of its contents. As in all great works of genreless nonfiction, all of the subjects Fifty Sounds is putatively “about” – Japan, translation, the philosophy of language – are inspired pretexts for the broad-spectrum exercise of an associatively vital and thrillingly companionable mind. This is a gracious, surprising, and very funny debut from a writer of alarming talent.’ — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, author of A Sense of Direction‘Fifty Sounds explodes the redundancy of the phrase “I’m learning a language,” showing us that the experience is more akin to relearning reality and who we are in it. Barton writes of being “souped” in the sounds of speech and a new place, but also in what is not said or written. She beautifully recreates the monumental intuition and exposure required to immerse oneself in a new mode of living, and the quantum levels of attention required to translate literature. It chimes and charms, a resounding wonder about identity, communication and love.’ — Jen Calleja, author of That’s All We Have Time For‘Polly Barton is a brilliant, learned and daring writer and Fifty Sounds is a magnificent book. Through her eddying philosophical vignettes, Barton creates a unified work of extraordinary wisdom and vitality.’ — Joanna Kavenna, author of Zed‘I loved this book and learned a lot from it, especially about subjects I thought I knew about – place, displacement, language-doubles and the double-selves we have when we move between our languages. It’s not just just that it’s winningly-written, insightful and formally exciting, though that would be enough. It’s that it’s genuinely gripping: forthright, inventive, personal, and fizzing with ideas.’ — Patrick McGuinness, author of Other People’s Countries‘Learning a language through immersion means learning with the tips of your fingers and the back of your neck; with stubbed toes and goosebumps. It’s exhausting and humiliating and exhilarating, and it makes you do things you don’t want to do, become versions of yourself you don’t expect or particularly want to become, on your way to finding some order in the chaos, the voices in the noise. In its richness, its honesty…Fifty Sounds is both a record of that struggle and its ultimate product.’ — Max Norman, The National
£12.34
Penguin Books Ltd Selected Writings on Art and Literature Penguin
Book SynopsisDiscusses works by great painters such as Delacroix and Ingres. This title features writings on Poe, Flaubert and Gautier.Table of ContentsThe Salon of 1845 (extracts); the Salon of 1846 (extracts); of virtuous plays and novels; the universal exhibition of 1855 - the fine arts (extracts); of the essence of laughter, and generally of the comic in the plastic arts; Edgar Allan Poe, his life and works; further notes on Edgar Poe; some French caricaturists; "Madame Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert; Theophile Gautier; the Salon of 1859 (extracts); Richard Wagner and "Tannhauser" in Paris; the life and work of Eugene Delacroix; the painter and modern life.
£13.49
Penguin Books Ltd A Short History of Decay
Book SynopsisA Short History of Decay (1949) is E. M. Cioran''s nihilistic and witty collection of aphoristic essays concerning the nature of civilization in mid 20th-century Europe. Touching upon man''s need to worship, the feebleness of God, the downfall of the Ancient Greeks and the melancholy baseness of all existence, Cioran''s pieces are pessimistic in the extreme, but also display a beautiful certainty that renders them delicate, vivid, and memorable. Illuminating and brutally honest, A Short History of Decay dissects man''s decadence in a remarkable series of moving and beautiful pieces.Trade ReviewTo miss reading this book would be a deprivation * Los Angeles Times *Sheds remarkable light on the literature, culture and politics of the region...anyone coming fresh to the field will be captivated by the richness, variety, humour and pathos of a classic literature that, through a shared historical experience, transcends national and linguistic boundaries. -- CJ Schüler * Independent on Sunday *
£9.49
Poetry Wales Press The Waters That Raised Us
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£11.69
Pan Macmillan Everybody: A Book About Freedom
Book Synopsis'Intensely moving, vital and artful' - Guardian'A dizzying ride . . . both timely and beguiling' - Sunday TimesFrom the award-winning author of Crudo, this is an exhilarating and eminently readable study of the long struggle for bodily freedom – from gay rights and sexual liberation to feminism and the civil rights movement.Drawing on her own experiences in protest and travelling from Weimar Berlin to the prisons of McCarthy-era America, Laing grapples with some of the most significant and complicated figures of the past century, among them Nina Simone, Sigmund Freud, Susan Sontag and Malcolm X.At a time when basic rights are once again in danger, Everybody is a crucial examination of the forces arranged against freedom – and a celebration of how ordinary human bodies can resist oppression and reshape the world.Longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize.'An ambitious, absorbing achievement that will make your brain hum' – Evening Standard 'Sets her alongside the likes of Arundhati Roy, John Berger and James Baldwin' – Financial Times Trade ReviewAn ambitious, absorbing achievement that will make your brain hum * Evening Standard *Astonishing . . . I love this book -- Esmé Weijun Wang, author of The Collected SchizophreniasLaing’s gift for weaving big ideas together with lyrical prose sets her alongside the likes of Arundhati Roy, John Berger and James Baldwin. In other words, she is among the most significant voices of our time * Financial Times *Intensely moving, vital and artful -- Josh Cohen * Guardian *Radically subversive * The Times Literary Supplement *Laing has written a piercing book. That she has no final answer to the problem of freedom does not detract from her achievement. Indeed, she encourages us all to ask new questions to discover how it feels, and what it means, to be free. -- Aziz Huq * Washington Post *Laing is a truly thrilling thinker, with an impressively roving intellectual eye * Telegraph *Andrea Dworkin, Sontag, Malcolm X, Freud – they speak to us and come alive again, but we aren’t asked to decide if they are good or bad; we can listen to their thoughts and ideas. It’s a revelation in an age when we seem endlessly to judge and condemn our artists and thinkers -- Chantal Joffe * Guardian *Even as she glides between subjects and themes, Laing remains anchored by the bond between the body and personhood. In a standout chapter, she claims that the harm of violence is not the work it does to transform subjects into objects, but the incompletion of that work: the soul becomes a “ruin with a human face” * New Yorker *Bristles with energy and understanding as it charts the body’s pleasures and pains, its fragilities, and endurance in the long 20th century . . . This really is a book for everybody -- Lisa Appignanesi, author of Mad, Bad and SadA dizzying ride . . . both timely and beguiling * The Sunday Times *A quintessential book for the precarious moment we’ve found ourselves in * Washington Post *Olivia Laing writes so well and engagingly -- Philippa Perry, author of How to Stay SaneOlivia Laing’s mind is a thrill to watch -- Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of The Fact of a BodyThrough [Laing’s] incisive lens, the body—that knot of mind, matter, culture, and society that we dwell inescapably within—becomes almost impossibly fascinating -- Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like MineA new book by Olivia Laing is always cause for celebration and Everybody: A Book About Freedom is no exception * Frieze *A provocative inquiry into the body’s power and vulnerability . . . casting fresh light on the unending struggles for freedom and autonomy -- Jenn Shapland, author of My Autobiography of Carson McCullersBrainy, open-hearted and bold -- Sarah Schulman, author of Conflict Is Not Abuse and Let the Record ShowLaing is radically empathetic, a writer-activist * Vulture *A free-wheeling and joyful exploration -- Jack Halberstam, author of Gaga FeminismAt a time in which all of our bodies have made us so strangely isolated and dangerous to each other, Everybody is especially resonant; and shows us just how important it is to explore our sexual identity in order to know who we really are -- Julia Blackburn, author of Time SongsImpassioned and provocative . . . This lucid foray into some of life’s deepest questions astonishes * Publishers Weekly, starred review *Intellectually vigorous and emotionally stirring * Kirkus, Starred Review *Everybody possesses a looseness, richness, and abundance of originality . . . One does not expect a political study to perform such sharp close readings of art and literature, or to describe emotions so elegantly. Line by line and thought by thought, Laing writes with surgical discipline * New Yorker *
£10.44
Daunt Books In the Garden
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Hajar Press We, the Heartbroken
Book Synopsis
£12.50
Renard Press Ltd On Being Ill
Book SynopsisPenned in 1925 during the aftermath of a nervous breakdown, On Being Ill is a groundbreaking essay by the Modernist giant Virginia Woolf that seeks to establish illness as a topic for discussion in literature. Delving into considerations of the loneliness and vulnerability experienced by those suffering from illness, as well as aspects of privilege others might have, the essay resounds with an honesty and clarity that still rings true today. ‘Novels, one would have thought, would have been devoted to influenza, epic poems to typhoid, odes to pneumonia, lyrics to toothache. But no – with a few exceptions… literature does its best to maintain that its concern is with the mind; that the body is a sheet of plain glass through which the soul looks straight and clear, and, save for one or two passions such as desire and greed, is null, and negligible and non-existent.’
£6.79
Fitzcarraldo Editions King Kong Theory
Book Synopsis‘I write from the realms of the ugly, for the ugly, the frigid, the unfucked and the unfuckables, all those excluded from the great meat market of female flesh, and for all those guys who don’t want to be protectors, for those who would like to be but don’t know how, for those who are not ambitious, competitive, or well-endowed. Because this ideal of the seductive white woman constantly being waved under our noses – well, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t exist.’ Powerful, provocative and personal, King Kong Theory is a candid account of how the author of Baise-moi came to be Virginie Despentes. Drawing from personal experience, Despentes shatters received ideas about rape and prostitution, and explodes common attitudes towards sex and gender. King Kong Theory is a manifesto for a new punk feminism, reissued here in a brilliant new translation by Frank Wynne.Trade Review‘I can think of almost no book I’ve enjoyed in recent years as much as King Kong Theory – in part for its content, in part for the ferocity of its style. In a world that continues to have difficulty contending with sex work, porn, class, and sexual violence without resorting to tired tropes, Virginie Despentes offers a fresh, necessary, inspiring path forward, just as she has been doing for decades now in a variety of media. This book is a classic, and I’m so grateful for it.’ — Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts‘I love King Kong Theory. It’s a fuck-you push-back against a blood-sucking patriarchal culture that keeps murdering and raping women till they get the idea (the survivors, ha) that they should be stupidly grateful to serve men, just lucky to even be allowed to play. This is liberatory galloping prose, inhale it now and if you’ve read it before read it again in this new jangling translation, ornery and alive like we need to be. This short fiery book is essential.’ — Eileen Myles, author of Chelsea Girls‘In the dire age of corporatized and sanitised feminism, King Kong Theory is the radical – and darkly funny – manifesto we need.’ — Amelia Abraham, author of Queer Intentions‘Despentes is often described as a “rock-and-roll” Balzac ... She also resembles, by turns, William Gibson, George Eliot and Michel Houellebecq, with a sunnier attitude.’ — Chris Kraus, author of I Love Dick‘Part-memoir, part-critical treatise on masculinity and power, with reference to rape, pornography, and prostitution, King Kong Theory is the kind of book you want to place in the hands of everyone you know. It is arresting from the very first lines; there’s something aggressively incantatory about it, a kind of battle-rap braggadocio.’ — Lauren Elkin, Harper’s
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Some Men In London Queer Life 19451959
Book Synopsis**A TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR**Quite simply, this book is a work of genius - Matthew Parris, The SpectatorAn essential study of post-war gay London life... one of the best anthologies I have ever read - John Self, The ObserverWith it's wide-ranging selection, generous biographical notes and provocative bibliography, Some Men in London is a serious and important contribution to our understanding of Britain up to today - Fiona Sampson, The TabletAn absolutely extraordinary book about actually what life was like for homosexual men in London in the 1940s and the 1950s It's amazing - Dominic Sandbrook The first part of a major new anthology which uncovers the rich reality of life for queer men in LondonIn the 1940s, it was believed that homosexuality had been becoming more widespread in the aftermath of war. A moral panic ensued, centred around London as the place to which gay men gravitated.In a major new anthology, Peter Parker explores what it was actually like for queer men in London in this period, whether they were well-known figures such as John Gielgud, Chips' Channon and E.M. Forster, or living lives of quiet or occasionally rowdy anonymity in pubs, clubs, more public places of assignation, or at home. It is rich with letters, diaries, psychological textbooks, novels, films, plays and police records, covering a wide range of viewpoints, from those who deplored homosexuality to those who campaigned for its decriminalisation.This first volume, from 1945 to 1959, details a community forced to live at constant risk of blackmail or prison. Yet it also shows a thriving and joyous subculture, one that enriched a mainstream culture often ignorant of its debt to gay creators. Some Men In London is a testament to queer life, which was always much more complex than newspapers, governments and the Metropolitan Police Force imagined.
£24.00
David Zwirner Blue
Book SynopsisDerek Jarman’s Blue weaves a sensory tapestry that serves as both a political call to action and a meditation on illness, dying, and love. “For Blue there are no boundaries or solutions.” —Derek Jarman Originally released as a feature film in 1993, the year before the acclaimed artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman’s death due to an AIDS-related illness, Blue is a daring and powerful work of art. The film - and this highly-anticipated book’s text - serve as iconoclastic responses to the lack of political engagement with the AIDS crisis. Written poetically and surrealistically, Jarman’s text moves through myriad scenes, some banal, others fantastical. Stories of quotidian life––getting coffee, reading the newspaper, and walking down the sidewalk––escalate to visions of Marco Polo, the Taj Mahal, or blue fighting yellow. Facing death and a cascade of pills, Jarman presents his illness in delirium and metaphors. He contemplates the physicality of emotions in lyrical prose as he grounds this story in the constant return to Blue - a color, a feeling, a funk. Michael Charlesworth’s compelling introduction brings Blue into conversation with Jarman’s visual paintings as never before.
£10.40
Vintage Publishing The Adversary: A True Story of Monstrous
Book Synopsis**SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**On the Saturday morning of January 9, 1993, while Jean Claude Romand was killing his wife and children, I was with mine in a parent-teacher meeting…With these chilling first words, acclaimed master of psychological suspense, Emmanuel Carrère, begins his exploration of the double life of a respectable doctor, eighteen years of lies, five murders, and the extremes to which ordinary people can go.Discover the true story that is ‘beyond the imagination of even the best crime writer' (Sunday Times)'A disturbing look at the dark side of human nature that is powerfully written and beautifully told' Louis Theroux'Mesmerising' Sunday Telegraph'Stunning' Evening Standard'Unputdownable' Washington Post'A masterpiece' New York TimesTrade ReviewA disturbing look at the dark side of human nature that is powerfully written and beautifully told -- Louis TherouxThe story told here is truly beyond the imagination for even the best crime writer * Sunday Times *The mesmerizing true crime tale of an apparently ordinary man whose life mutates in the space of a few blood-splattering hours from the realm of Renoir to that of Stephen King * People *He’s the best kind of writer, not just a bestseller but a man who is not afraid to leave the comfort zone of his desk, go out into the world, take risks, and get his shoes dirty * Observer *Unputdownable... Imagine a sleek, twenty-first century version of In Cold Blood * Washington Post *A triumph of insight and concision, brilliant both as a psychological study and as the portrayal of a community * Independent on Sunday *A masterpiece... It's a level of moral discomfort almost without equal in literature * New York Times *Savagely intense and utterly compelling... This is his paciest and cleanest-cut book...few books could better deserve a second chance to find new readers * Sunday Times *The Adversary is exactly the idea I have of a modern novel: struggling deftly with facts and with itselfAn absolutely stunning piece of work, totally involving and unforgettable * Evening Standard *This is the sort of story I dreamed of covering when I was a journalist. The sort of story for which the phrase You couldn’t make it up was invented. The Adversary takes a deep, mesmerising dive into the darkness of a human soul. There were moments when I truly could not believe what I was reading. But unlike other serial killer noirs sitting on my shelves, this horror is real. And so much more chilling for that.[A] book that fairly struck me over the head was The Adversary… it’s the coexistence of almost unimaginably variant realities within a family that haunts you. -- Megan Nolan * New Statesman, *Books of the Year* *A remarkably thoughtful and unnerving book...mesmerising * Sunday Telegraph *Profoundly disturbing...a remarkable and undoubtedly important book - perhaps even a necessary one * Daily Express *A fascinating meditation on Jean-Claude Romand and what his bizarre life might mean... Carrère's inquiry is highly personal, written in lucid prose...the narrative is often mesmerizing, and revealing about the fragility of human relationships * New York Times *
£9.49
Simon & Schuster What My Mother and I Don't Talk About: Fifteen
Book Synopsis In the early 2000's, as an undergraduate, Michele Filgate started writing an essay about being abused by her stepfather. It took many years for her to realize what she was actually trying to write about: the fracture this caused in her relationship with her mother. When her essay, “What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About,” was published by Longreads in October of 2017, it went on to become one of the most popular Longreads exclusives of the year and was shared on social media by Anne Lamott, Rebecca Solnit, Lidia Yuknavitch, and other writers, some of whom had their own individual codes of silence to be broken. The outpouring of responses gave Filgate an idea and the resulting anthology offers an intimate, therapeutic and universally resonant look at our relationships with our mothers. As Filgate poignantly writes, “Our mothers are our first homes and that’s why we’re always trying to return to them.”Contributions by Cathi Hanauer, Melissa Febos, Alexander Chee, Dylan Landis, Bernice L. McFadden, Julianna Baggott, Lynn Steger Strong, Kiese Laymon, Carmen Maria Machado, André Aciman, Sari Botton, Nayomi Munaweera, Brandon Taylor, and Leslie Jamison.Trade Review“These essays, each one exceptional on its own, encompass both love and writing at their most vulnerable, and could power entire cities with their electricity.”--Booklist, starred review "Fifteen essayists—many luminaries—write unflinchingly about their mothers...Each one of these intimate and gut-wrenching essays reaches beyond itself to forge connections with readers."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review"The essays all address the authors' relationships with their mothers in stories to be savored but not necessarily read in one sitting. …beautifully composed."--Library Journal, starred review"A fascinating set of reflections on what it is like to be a son or daughter… the range of stories and styles represented in this collection makes for rich and rewarding reading."--Publishers Weekly "These are the hardest stories in the world to tell, but they are told with absolute grace. You will devour these beautifully written—and very important— tales of honesty, pain, and resilience.”--Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Eat Pray Love"By turns raw, tender, bold and wise, the essays in this anthology explore writers’ relationships with their mothers. Kudos to Michele Filgate for this riveting contribution to a vital conversation.”--Claire Messud, bestselling author of The Burning Girl"Fifteen literary luminaries, including Filgate herself, probe how silence is never even remotely golden until it is mined for the haunting truths that lie within our most primal relationships-with our mothers. Unsettling, brave, sometimes hilarious and sometimes scorching enough to wreck your heart, these essays, about love or the terrifying lack of it, don’t just smash the silence; they let the light in, bearing witness with grace, understanding and writing so gorgeous you’ll be memorizing lines."--Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Is This Tomorrow and Pictures of You“This collection of storytelling constellated around mothers and silence will break your heart and then gently give it back to you stitched together with what we carry in our bodies our whole lives.”--Lidia Yuknavitch, national bestselling author of The Misfit's Manifesto"This is a rare collection that has the power to break silences. I am in awe of the talent Filgate has assembled here; each of these fifteen heavyweight writers offer a truly profound argument for why words matter, and why unspoken words may matter even more."--Garrard Conley, New York Times bestselling author of Boy Erased"Who better to discuss one of our greatest shared surrialities -- that we are all, once and forever, for better or worse, someone's child -- than this murderer's row of writers? The mothers in this collection are terrible, wonderful, flawed, human, tragic, triumphant, complex, simple, baffling, supportive, deranged, heartbreaking and heartbroken. Sometimes all at once. I'll be thinking about this book, and stewing over it, and teaching from it, for a long time."--Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Too Much of Life
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewNo two columns are alike: strands of dialogue, observed scenes, diaristic entries, life advice, even the author admiring herself in the mirror . . . Too Much of Life is a huge addition to an already impressive collection of evidence that Lispector could transcribe a guestbook and make it interesting -- J. Howard Rosier * Vulture, Best New Books *In 1967, Brazil's leading newspaper asked the avant-garde writer Lispector to write a weekly column on any topic she wished. For almost seven years, Lispector showed Brazilian readers just how vast and passionate her interests were . . . Indeed, these columns should establish her as being among the era's most brilliant essayists. She is masterful, even reminiscent of Montaigne, in her ability to spin the mundane events of life into moments of clarity that reveal greater truths. Superb, wonderfully obsessed with exuberance and what it unlocks and reveals * Publisher's Weekly *This is Clarice Lispector as one-woman chorus and psychic weather forecaster, and the charm, wit and engagement that she brings to her columns transcends barriers -- John Biscello * Riot Material *The closest thing we have to an autobiography by Lispector and contain many rewarding reflections on her own work . . . thrillingly unpredictable . . . singular visitations from a brilliant entity -- Nick Holdstock * Literary Review *Lispector writes and thinks like nobody else, sending her readers off to look at the world through strange new lispectacles -- Miranda France * TLS *An emblematic twentieth-century artist who belongs in the same pantheon as Kafka and Joyce -- Edmund WhitePlenty of writers inspire fierce devotion in their readers... but no one converts the uninitiated into devout believers as suddenly and as vertiginously as Clarice Lispector, the Latin American visionary, Ukrainian-Jewish mystic, and middle-class housewife and mother so revered by her Brazilian fans that she's known by a single name: "Clarice" * New Republic *She writes with sensuous verve, bringing her earliest passions into adult life intact, along with a child's undiminished capacity for wonder * The New York Times Book Review *For those unfamiliar with her, this book opens a door into her uniquely challenging and rewarding body of work . . . the pieces, some amounting to a few sentences, some many pages long, make up a self-portrait in bits and pieces. The result is, like Lispector herself, witty, mystical, surreal and profound: a treasure to return to again and again -- Madoc Cairns * Guardian *Her crônicas - short pieces of observational writing inflected by personal experience but aimed at illuminating something larger - came after her novels, and met with great acclaim... Reading Lispector is unlike reading anyone else...the texts collected in Too Much Life evidence a perspicacious and playful mind keen to share in the magic and mystery of living. -- Franklin Nelson * Financial Times *A golden apple has to go to the extraordinary Too Much of Life: Complete chronicles by Clarice Lispector ... a collection of newspaper columns, bursting with lapidary wisdom and hallucinatory, voluptuous imagery -- Keith Miller * TLS Books of the Year *Too Much of Life is an extraordinary collection of fragmented, essayistic, fictive thoughts ... vast, playful and volcanic -- Carlos Valladares * Gagosian Quarterly *
£13.49
Penguin Books Ltd Essays and Aphorisms Penguin Classics
Book SynopsisThis selection of thoughts on religion, ethics, politics, women, suicide, books, and much more is taken from Schopenhauer's last work, Parerga and Paralipo-mena, published in 1851.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.Table of ContentsEssays and Aphorisms - Arthur Schopenhauer Selected and Translated with an Introduction by R. J. HollingdaleIntroductionEssaysOn the Suffering of the WorldOn the Vanity of ExistenceOn the Antithesis of Thing in Itself and AppearanceOn Affirmation and Denial of the Will to LiveOn the Indestructibility of our Essential Being by DeathOn SuicideOn WomenOn Thinking for YourselfOn Religion: A DialogueAphorismsOn Philosophy and the IntellectOn EthicsOn Law and PoliticsOn AestheticsOn PsychologyOn ReligionOn Books and WritingOn Various SubjectsList of Correspondences
£10.44
The Emma Press Tiny Moons: A Year of Eating in Shanghai
Book SynopsisTiny Moons is a collection of essays about food and belonging. Nina Mingya Powles journeys between Wellington, Kota Kinabalu and Shanghai, tracing the constants in her life: eating and cooking, and the dishes that have come to define her. Through childhood snacks, family feasts, Shanghai street food and student dinners, she attempts to find a way back towards her Chinese-Malaysian heritage.
£8.54
Icon Books Hijab Butch Blues: A Memoir
Book Synopsis'A masterful, must-read contribution to conversations on power, justice, healing, and devotion from a singular voice I now trust with my whole heart'GLENNON DOYLE, author of Untamed**Roxane Gay's Book Club March 2023 Pick**When Lamya is fourteen, she decides to disappear. It seems easier to ease herself out of sight than to grapple with the difficulty of taking shape in a world that doesn't fit. She is a queer teenager growing up in a Muslim household, a South Asian in a Middle Eastern country. But during her Quran class, she reads a passage about Maryam, and suddenly everything shifts: if Maryam was never touched by any man, could Maryam be... like Lamya?Written with deep intelligence and a fierce humour, Hijab Butch Blues follows Lamya as she travels to the United States, as she comes out, and as she navigates the complexities of the immigration system - and the queer dating scene. At each step, she turns to her faith to make sense of her life, weaving stories from the Quran together with her own experiences: Musa leading his people to freedom; Allah, who is neither male nor female; and Nuh, who built an ark, just as Lamya is finally able to become the architect of her own story.Raw and unflinching, Hijab Butch Blues heralds the arrival of a truly original voice, asking powerful questions about gender and sexuality, relationships, identity and faith, and what it means to build a life of one's own.Trade ReviewAs funny as it is original. -- New York TimesA masterful, must-read contribution to conversations on power, justice, healing, and devotion from a singular voice I now trust with my whole heart, Lamya H.'s gorgeously written and life-affirming debut Hijab Butch Blues traces the intertwining of faith and doubt, and invites us all to a deeper, more loving way to live -- Glennon Doyle, author of UNTAMEDWith a supple skill, Hijab Butch Blues treats gender and devotion with a thrilling sense of multiplicity and expansiveness. This is a book attentive to the fullness of being human. Among the meshes of power and orthodoxy, Lamya H. moves with curiosity, humour and vulnerability, divining new sources of hope and of life. -- Seán Hewitt, author of ALL DOWN DARKNESS WIDEA singular memoir about identity, queerness, racism and resistance which engages with the Islamic faith in open, nuanced and quietly radical ways. I love Lamya's intimate, intelligent and honest voice -- Arifa Akbar, author of CONSUMEDA gracefully-wrought memoir about the importance of community, faith and family in a world that is so often unwilling to accept and celebrate each of us in our beautiful complexity -- Eleanor Bally * Skinny *Exploring the strength and stories of the Quran that inform her own experience and celebrating how we move forwards to accept different viewpoints and ideas while telling the tale of her life, this is a brilliant read to savour -- Francesca Brown * Stylist *A moving reconciliation of identity and faith -- Katie Goh * i-D Magazine *Lamya H has accomplished in words all the tenderness, defiance, and nuance that their story demands. To be invited into the richness of their interior world - the beauty of childhood skepticism, the complexity of Muslim storytelling, and the glory of life in a queer body - is no minor gift. Hijab Butch Blues is for anyone coming home to themselves in a world content to disorient us. Lamya H will show us the way -- Cole Arthur Riley, author of This Here FleshHIjab Butch Blues is a revelation, an emotional journey of faith, family, community and sexuality. With precision, compassion, and deeply observed storytelling, Lamya H - a new, distinctive voice - navigates the fault lines of life and love in a queer Muslim body -- Linda Villarosa, author of UNDER THE SKINA richly textured and deeply moving testament to the power of faith - not only in the divine, but in the human spirit. In spare yet poetic prose, the author gifts us with stories from her quest to find belonging as a queer hijabi immigrant in America. Leaping effortlessly from the personal to the political, Hijab Butch Blues is one of those rare texts that seamlessly weaves trenchant social analysis with gorgeous storytelling skill. This book is sure to become a queer classic -- Kai Cheng Thom, author of FIERCE FEMMES AND NOTORIOUS LIARSDespite contending with secrets and silence and shame, Lamya H has been brave enough and bold enough to live her own dynamic life: Muslim, queer, politically radical, devoted to her faith. Using memoir, theological discussions of Quranic surahs, and critical reflection on American culture and society, Lamya has fashioned in this book what I never thought possible: she describes a world in which I could live -- Kazim Ali, author of FASTING FOR RAMADAN
£15.29
Penguin Books Ltd Revelations of Divine Love
Book SynopsisOne of the first woman authors, Julian of Norwich produced in Revelations of Divine Love a remarkable work of revelatory insight, that stands alongside The Cloud of Unknowing and Piers Plowman as a classic of Medieval religious literature. This Penguin Classics edition is translated from Middle English by Elizabeth Spearing, with an introduction and notes by A.C. Spearing.After fervently praying for a greater understanding of Christ''s passion, Julian of Norwich, a fourteenth-century anchorite and mystic, experienced a series of divine revelations. Through these ''showings'', Christ''s sufferings were revealed to her with extraordinary intensity, but she also received assurance of God''s unwavering love for man and his infinite capacity for forgiveness. Written in a vigorous English vernacular, the Revelations are one of the most original works of medieval mysticism and have had a lasting influence on Christian thought.This edition of the Table of ContentsRevelations of Divine Love IntroductionFurther ReadingTranslator's NoteRevelations of Divine LoveShort TextLong TextNotesAppendix I: List of ShowingsAppendix II: Original Texts of the RevelationsAppendix III: Margery Kempe's Meeting with Julian
£10.44
Ebury Publishing The Anthropocene Reviewed: The Instant Sunday
Book SynopsisA deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John GreenThe Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.
£12.83
Penguin Books Ltd The Fly Trap
Book SynopsisFredrik Sjöberg's Swedish bestseller about summer, islands, freedom and boundaries.'The light, the warmth, the smells, the mist, the birdsong - the moths. Who can sleep? Who wants to?'Fredrik Sjöberg finds happiness in the little things. Millions of them, in fact. This beguiling bestseller is his unique meditation on collecting hoverflies. It is also about living on a remote Swedish island, blissful long summer nights, lost loves, unexpected treasures, art, nature, slowness, and how freedom can come from the things we least expect.'Full of charm, a book about how to find meaning in life' Melissa Harrison, The Times, Books of the Year'I often return to The Fly Trap, it remains close to my heart. The minute observations from nature that reveal sudden insights into one's life. Sometimes I almost think that he wrote it for me' Tomas Tranströmer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature'Charming, witty and original' Patrick Barkham, Guardian 'Nature writing that can laugh at itself, a real tonic' Gregory Day, Sydney Morning Herald'Delightful, at once informative and often humorously digressive . . . a humane man of wide-ranging curiosity, Sjöberg writes with infectious passion' Paul Binding IndependentFredrik Sjöberg collects hoverflies on the island Runmarö, in the archipelago east of Stockholm. He is also a literary critic, translator, cultural columnist and the author of several books including The Art of Flight and The Raisin King, which form a trilogy with The Fly Trap.Trade ReviewCharming, witty and original . . . a sly challenge to virtually every contemporary orthodoxy -- Patrick Barkham * Guardian *Its joy lies in Sjöberg's loose-limbed prose . . . at once whimsical and yet laden with erudition and a deep feeling for the natural world and our place in it * Financial Times *Delightful, at once informative and often humorously digressive . . . a humane man of wide-ranging curiosity, Sjöberg writes with infectious passion * Independent *Subtle, convincing . . . Sjöberg thrives in the indistinct boundary between science and literature * New Scientist *A quirky tapestry . . . an enjoyable if wayward tale * Ecologist *Entertaining . . .iconoclastic . . . the writing is whimsical, digressive and pleasingly devoid of anything too weighty or purposeful -- Richard Coniff * Wall Street Journal *
£10.44
Scribe Publications Blueberries: essays concerning understanding
Book Synopsis‘I mean who cares about opinions, gossip, whatever, when bodies are so vulnerable, in search only of love and breath.’ Brilliant young writer Ellena Savage explores Portuguese police stations and Portland college campuses, suburban Melbourne libraries and wintry Berlin apartments. She circles back to scenes of crimes or near-crimes, to lovers or near-lovers, to turn over the stones, re-read the paperwork, check the deeds, approach from another angle altogether. These essays traverse cities and spaces, bodies and histories, moving through forms and modes to find a closer kind of truth. Blueberries is ripe with acid, promise, and sweetness.Trade Review‘In this electric collection of personal essays, Savage leads readers through a range of subjects … There is so much to admire in Savage’s literary style … Savage deftly shifts between stylistic devices, narrative voices, and time, and the result is breathtaking … The collection, for all its differences in tone, content, and structure, comes together beautifully.’ -- Roz Bellamy * The Guardian *‘Savage explores the sites of identity — trauma, gender, class, religion, the body — in clear rhythmic prose.’ -- Natasha Randall * TLS *‘Ellena Savage is savagely smart and talented.’ -- Rachel Kushner, author of The Mars Room‘Ellena Savage is a rare kind of true intellectual, a voice that rises above the cacophony with remarkable insight. In Blueberries she cuts fearless swathes through the ways that we write and think and live now and leaves us far better for it: the book is unsettling, life-affirming and essential.’ * Jean Hannah Edelstein, author of This Really Isn’t About You *‘Once I started reading Blueberries, I found it almost impossible to put down. It’s fascinating to watch Ellena Savage’s mind at work in this book — her essays unfurl, expand and dance in unexpected and satisfying ways. This is a masterful, fearless book in which strength and vulnerability collide.’ -- Chelsea Hodson, author of Tonight I’m Someone Else‘Blueberries feels like laying down on the train tracks and looking up at the sky — a reverie, shot through by a feeling of acceleration, of something vast coming at you. Ellena’s essays are heartstopping epics of self-inquiry and world-inquiry.’ -- Maria Tumarkin, author of Axiomatic‘Quite simply one of the best essay collections of the last twenty years.’ -- Chloe Walker * CultureFly *‘A breathtaking interrogation of the self in the world; the self within structures of power and oppression … Blueberries is exciting and distinctive.’ STARRED REVIEW * Books+Publishing *‘Reading Ellena Savage’s Blueberries engaged me completely. Savage’s sparkling writing is bold, witty, insightful, fearless, and funny. It emerges from an astute mind at odds with itself, with culture and society. Savage wrestles and plays with received ideas of all kinds, and with what has and hasn’t shaped her. Savage’s fierce essays and stories are true to a lived life, and fascinating and irresistible.’ -- Lynne Tillman, author of Men and Apparitions: A Novel‘Ellena Savage, in Blueberries, confronts the past convulsively, compulsively. In dialogic language and form, the author, facing memory’s traumas and perplexities, and also its delights, is constantly aware that it's all about the translation of experience from the private to the public realm. In extremis, which is where Savage shines especially, it's as if she saying to the "repressed": go ahead and return; make my day.’ -- David Lazar, Professor of Creative Writing, Columbia College Chicago‘Savage navigates delicate and difficult terrain with wit, ruthless scrutiny and painfully sharp analysis … If Yellow City is any indication, Blueberries will be one of the most exciting debuts of the new year.’ * Overland *‘The 15 essays contained here wear various guises, from experimental prose to poetry, memoir to polemic to cultural critique. … Savage’s idealism and eloquence are a much-needed counterbalance to our by-now-threadbare belief that all the hard questions of how to order our world have been answered, that everything unsettling such certainty is a glitch, to be soldered onto the technocratic motherboard and run through the circuits of the polity. Blueberries is an adamant and unruly book. It is also the most exciting work of creative nonfiction to be published in this country since Maria Tumarkin took up the pen.’ -- Geordie Williamson * The Australian *‘In fifteen works, Savage blends memoir, personal essay, stream of consciousness, journalism, and prose poetry to interrogate the messy and fragmented life of a writer, a woman, and a body … A masterclass in experimental nonfiction…Savage is fiercely intelligent and manages to inject dry humour into even the most serious topics, creating a delicate balance between dire existentialism and life-affirming joy. By questioning the very nature of memoir itself, Savage breathes new life into the non-fiction form and considers what it means to be alive in today’s uncertain world.’ -- Chloë Cooper * Kill Your Darlings *‘Savage plays with form like a poet, and excavates the roots of her experience with an impressive generosity and fierce intelligence that mirror her mentor, Maria Tumarkin … Fans of Tumarkin and Jia Tolentino should hunt this down … and luxuriate in a recent past where whiplash-inducing international travel was an option.’ -- Jo Case * InDaily *‘[F]or fans of the understated yet insightful prose of Rachel Cusk and Sally Rooney … Wrestling with the intricacies of memory, identity, class and trauma, [Blueberries] sees Savage contemplate her past with unflinching clarity … Take it to your next book club.’ * Elle Australia ‘Book of the Month’ *‘Ellena Savage has produced a collection that defies categorisation but is fervently experiential, candid, and original.’ * Readings Monthly *‘For fans of Maria Tumarkin, Kathy Acker, and Maggie Nelson, Blueberries marks Savage as an experimental writer and essayist to watch.’ * Adelaide Review *‘Blueberries asks piercing questions about power, desire, and violence. The essays explore what it means to be an artist, a body, a woman, a friend, a lover, a daughter — and how these roles intersect with systems of oppression. Each essay has its own form and process, but in each one Savage focuses her sharply analytic eye on the world she moves through — as well as on herself.’ -- Caitlin McGregor * Australian Book Review *‘A collection of finely judged personal essays … The writing is great, but Ellena Savage’s adeptness with form is what really makes this worth reading.’ -- John McGregor * The Week *‘The essays display a fiercely intelligent mind that blends the personal with polemic ... It is original, forthright, and will have you challenging your own views and assumptions.’ -- Melinda Woledge * Good Reading, starred review *‘That the self exists in narrative form lies at the centre of Blueberries, as Savage explores the sites of identity — trauma, gender, class, religion, the body — in clear, rhythmic prose … In the last few pages she expunges herself from the narrative, exposing the scaffolding of her project, and leaves us to ponder the untold: the self that is yet to be, “the she of what next: action”.’ * Times Literary Supplement *‘Blueberries is a sometimes playful, sometimes fierce collection that is, in its own zigzagging way, a coming-of-age story. In every piece, Savage has a biting interrogation of the world and herself … Savage is an excellent critic and a droll one.’ -- Catie McLeod * The Sydney Morning Herald *‘Never before has memoir read quite like this … a collection that challenges, tests and demands engagement from the reader … a journey of experimentation that is fuelled by her strong, independent voice throughout. In form and in content, Blueberries is exquisite.’ * Judges’ Report from the 2021 Stella Prize *‘Savage is skilled at imparting language to universal feelings that are difficult to articulate.’ * BOMB Mag *Praise for Yellow City: ‘In Yellow City, Ellena Savage’s mind translates the memory of violence into astonishingly brilliant language. She perfectly articulates the creeping feeling that one’s life is irreversible in a way that, prior to reading, I felt language may be incapable of capturing. This made me sure that she was either a genius, or a witch, or my dream coupling of the two.’ -- Rita Bullwinkel, author of Belly UpPraise for Yellow City: ‘Delving into troubling territory, Savage brings a fierce intellect, sharp wit, and a handful of uncomfortable truths. To read her is to be simultaneously thrilled and uneasy. Savage is a writer not to miss.’ -- Jessie Cole, author of StayingPraise for Yellow City: ‘And it’s so funny! So snide and clever and irreverent.’ -- Eloise Grills, author of Big Beautiful Female Theory
£10.44
Little, Brown Book Group Me Talk Pretty One Day
Book Synopsis'He's like an American Alan Bennett, in that his own fastidiousness becomes the joke, as per the taxi encounter, or his diary entry about waiting interminably in a coffee-bar queue' Guardian review of An Evening with David SedarisTrade ReviewSedaris is the premier observer of our world and its weirdnesses -- Adam Kay, author of This is Going to HurtStill keeps me company like a party guest who's been asked to spend the night...His essays about living in Paris are full of piss and vinegar and achingly funny * Armistead Maupin *He is, simply, very funny... refusing to find anything an unfit subject for humour * Sunday Times *A deadpan, darkly comical portrait of the American underbelly . . . Sedaris shares something of [Alan] Bennett's detached curiosity, and they both have a thirst for amusement -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *So often Sedaris's phrasing is beautiful in its piquancy and minimalism...His life is extraordinary in so many ways - the drug addiction, the eccentric family, the crazy jobs, the fame, the globetrotting - but one of the more unlikely achievements here is in making it all seem quite ordinary. Ultimately, his masterstroke is in acting as a bystander in his own story * Guardian *Audaciously combining memoir, essay, and what has to be fiction, this fourth collection of short pieces offers pleasures normally to be found only in the best novels and the rare standup act that is actually funny * The New Yorker *He makes me laugh so much. In an era when US satire is outpacing our own he's a sharp, humane and hilarious voice that never fails to make you smile - and sometimes weep. Apparently effortless humour is difficult, and precious. He's the real thing -- James Naughtie * Radio Times *The world's most eloquent malcontent, Sedaris has turned self-deprecation into a celebrated art form * Amazon.com editor review *Still keeps me company like a party guest who's been asked to spend the night...His essays about living in Paris are full of piss and vinegar and achingly funny. * Armistead Maupin *Audaciously combining memoir, essay, and what has to be fiction, this fourth collection of short pieces offers pleasures normally to be found only in the best novels and the rare standup act that is actually funny. * THE NEW YORKER *He is, simply, very funny... refusing to find anything an unfit subject for humour. * SUNDAY TIMES *A sophisticatedly funny take on modern life. Treat yourself to this book. * IRISH TIMES *
£8.79
Wordsworth Editions Ltd Meditations
Book SynopsisThe Meditations of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius are a readable exposition of the system of metaphysics known as stoicism. Stoics maintained that by putting aside great passions, unjust thoughts and indulgence, man could acquire virtue and live at one with nature.
£6.40
Penguin Books Ltd A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees
Book Synopsis''It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom you have never met...''Moonlight, sake, spring blossom, idle moments, a woman''s hair - these exquisite reflections on life''s fleeting pleasures by a thirteenth-century Japanese monk are delicately attuned to nature and the senses.Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin''s 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.Yoshida Kenko (c. 1283-1352). Kenko''s work is included in Penguin Classics in <
£5.63
Faber & Faber Dispatches from the Diaspora
Book SynopsisBY THE WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR JOURNALISM 2023*Includes additional material*A powerful collection of journalism on race, racism and black life and death from one of the nation's leading political voices.Outstanding.' BERNARDINE EVARISTOSharp and grounded.' NEW STATESMANCompelling.' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENTTimeless.' AFUA HIRSCHHumane.' JOHN LEGENDImpressive.' JEREMY CORBYNFor the last three decades, Gary Younge has sat ringside with the most significant personalities to impact the black diaspora and been on the frontline of historic events. He has witnessed the possibilities of change and the power of systems to thwart those aspirations. Dispatches from the Diaspora is an unrivalled body of work from a unique perspective that compels you to imagine a world in which you might thrive, for which there is no evidence. And then fight for it.'
£10.44
Charco Press Forgotten Manuscript
Book Synopsis"Sergio Chejfec is an admirable writer." —Patti Smith“Could anyone possibly believe that writing doesn’t exist? It would be like denying the existence of rain.”The perfect green notebook forms the basis for Sergio Chejfec’s work, collecting writing, and allowing it to exist in a state of permanent possibility, or, as he says, “The written word is also capable of waiting for the next opportunity to appear and to continue to reveal itself by and for itself.” This same notebook is also the jumping off point for this essay, which considers the dimensions of the act of writing (legibility, annotation, facsimile, inscription, typewriter versus word processor versus pen) as a way of thinking, as a record of relative degrees of permanence, and as a performance. From Kafka through Borges, Nabokov, Levrero, Walser, the implications of how we write take on meaning as well worth considering as what we write. This is a love letter to the act of writing as practice, bearing down on all the ways it happens (cleaning typewriter keys, the inevitable drying out of the bottle of wite-out, the difference between Word Perfect and Word) to open up all the ways in which “when we express our thought, it changes.” Trade Review************Praise for Sergio Chejfec"Sergio Chejfec is an admirable writer." —Patti Smith“Chejfec's latest work should be treated as a significant event." —Publisher's Weekly"It is hard to think of another contemporary writer who, marrying true intellect with simple description of a space, simultaneously covers so little and so much ground.” —Times Literary Supplement"I'd locate My Two Worlds among the rarae aves of recent fiction, among those books still capable of blazing new paths on the perilous trajectory of the modern novel." —Enrique Vila-Matas"This first novel by New York-based Argentine native Chejfec to be translated into English is a slim, gracefully discursive work....[My Two Worlds] allows us to enter the thoughts of a restless intellectual whose streams of thought involve the reader in his quest to find meaning in everything he sees and does." —Kirkus Reviews"If genius can be defined by the measure of depth of an artist’s perception into human experience, then Chejfec is a genius." —Coffin Factory“Sergio Chejfec’s The Incompletes is a masterfully nested narrative where writing—its presence on the page, its course through time, its prismatic dispersion of meaning—is the true protagonist. Heather Cleary’s flawless translation adds yet another layer to this extraordinary palimpsest of a novel.” —Hernan Diaz"This was one of Sergio’s great gifts as a writer: his ability to take the small, the fragmentary, and to reveal the worlds contained within." —Heather Cleary, Lit Hub"A beautifully baffling book about the peripatetic wanderings of your own mind through the hotels, hallways, and postcards of the protagonists, or about the instability hiding in every apparently solid building, or maybe even how you don’t know an event is significant until some disconnected and celestial phenomenon illuminates it." —Josh Cook , Porter Square Books
£10.79
Folding Rock Ltd Folding Rock 003 Music
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£11.70
Penguin Books Ltd Mutual Aid
Book SynopsisA pioneering treatise on embracing cooperation and reciprocity to usher in a greener and more inclusive world, from the major anarchist thinkerA Penguin ClassicWelcome to the anarchist history of the world. In this lively, provocative work, Peter Kropotkin argues that mutual aid is a natural instinct in all of us, animal and human. Cooperation, reciprocity, support: these, for Kropotkin, are the overlooked foundations of our history. From the earliest days of evolution through to artisanal guilds, indigenous nomads, and even the Royal National Lifeboat Association, it is a pragmatic, mutually beneficial bond to our fellow humans that has allowed us to survive. In this, Kropotkin challenges all the major orthodoxies of his age, from individualism and social Darwinism to Marxist theories of the savior state. Instead, these essays insist that a better life for all of us--and our planet--begins when we reject competition, and embrace the local, the mutual, and the collective.
£9.49
Random House A Room of Ones Own
Book SynopsisVirginia Woolf (1882-1941) was born in London. She became a central figure in The Bloomsbury Group, an informal collective of British writers, artists and thinkers. In 1912 Virginia married Leonard Woolf, a writer and social reformer. She wrote many works of literature which are now considered masterpieces, including Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, and The Waves.
£17.00
Granta Books Things That Disappear
Book SynopsisThe Palace of the Republic, that once housed the East German parliament, is demolished. A grandmother's laughter passes from life into memory. Furniture that once made a home is taken to the tip. A friendship drops into silence. Old ways are erased by the new. In this fascinating collection of essays, most of them written for her column in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Jenny Erpenbeck meditates, with a sense of both deep melancholy and wry humour, on the disappearance and impermanence of things. Whether recalling the shop that used to darn tights in the days before you could just buy a new pair, reflecting on changing social attitudes, or considering the mysterious vanishing of a piece of cheese from her fridge, Jenny Erpenbeck's sharp intelligence, eye for telling detail, and her nuanced perspective on her country's past and present imbue these brief pieces with lasting power.
£11.69
Cornerstone The Secret Lives of Booksellers Librarians
Book SynopsisTo be a bookseller or librarian . . .You have to play detective.Be a treasure hunter. A matchmaker. A brilliant listener.A person who creates a kind of magic by pulling a book from a shelf, handing it to someone and saying, ''You''ve got to read this. You''re going to love it''.In this love letter to the heroes of literacy, James Patterson uncovers true stories from booksellers and librarians. Prepare to enter a world where you can feed your curiosities, discover new voices, and find whatever you need.Meet the smart and talented people who live between the shelves - and who can''t wait to help you find your next great read._________________________________PRAISE FOR JAMES PATTERSON''No one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent - which is what Jim has, in spades.'' LEE CHILD''James Patterson is The Boss. End of.'' IAN RANKIN''The master storyteller of our times'' HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON''One of the greatest storytellers of all time'' PATRICIA CORNWELL''Patterson is in a class by himself'' GUARDIAN
£9.89
Peninsula Press Ltd On Not Knowing: How to Love and Other Essays
Book SynopsisMoments of clarity are rare and fleeting; how can we become comfortable outside of them, in the more general condition of uncertainty within which we make our lives? Written by critic Emily Ogden while her children were small, On Not Knowing forays into this rich, ambivalent space. Each of her sharply observed essays invites the reader to think with her about questions she can't set aside: not knowing how to give birth, to listen, to hold it together, to love. Unapologetically capacious in her range of reference and idiosyncratic in the canon she draws on, Ogden moves nimbly among the registers of experience, from the operation of a breast pump to the art of herding cattle; from one-night stands to the stories of Edgar Allan Poe. Committed to the accumulation of knowledge, Ogden nonetheless finds that knowingness for her can be a way of getting stuck, a way of not really living. Rather than the defensiveness of wilful ignorance, On Not Knowing celebrates the defencelessness of not knowing yet - which, Ogden suggests, may be a form of love.Trade Review'Ogden's essays are remarkable for their subtle and ingenious curiosity. Her willingness to be at once candid, lucid, and utterly intriguing - in a language lyrical and exact - makes these essays irresistibly compelling. The vision and revision that is her writing renews the essay as a vital form.' Adam Phillips
£10.44
Peninsula Press Bad Language
£10.44
Fitzcarraldo Editions Happening – WINNER OF THE 2022 NOBEL PRIZE IN
Book SynopsisIn 1963, Annie Ernaux, 23 and unattached, realizes she is pregnant. Shame arises in her like a plague: understanding that her pregnancy will mark her and her family as social failures, she knows she cannot keep that child. This is the story, written forty years later, of a trauma Ernaux never overcame. In a France where abortion was illegal, she attempted, in vain, to self-administer the abortion with a knitting needle. Fearful and desperate, she finally located an abortionist, and ends up in a hospital emergency ward where she nearly dies. In Happening, Ernaux sifts through her memories and her journal entries dating from those days. Clearly, cleanly, she gleans the meanings of her experience. Trade Review‘The author of one of the most important oeuvres in French literature, Annie Ernaux’s work is as powerful as it is devastating, as subtle as it is seething.’ — Édouard Louis, author of The End of Eddy‘Happening is gripping and painfully inevitable to read – like a thriller. I felt close to Annie Duchesne, in her aloneness, in a way I’ve rarely felt close to a character in a book. Women will be grateful to Ernaux for her wisdom, concision, and commitment to writing about death and life.’ — Daisy Hildyard, author of Emergency‘I’ve just finished Happening by Annie Ernaux, in which she writes about her experience of unwanted pregnancy and illegal abortion in 1960s France. The Years was one of my favourite reads of last year and that same rigorous clarity of vision – even when dealing with the complex or ambiguous – is just as evident here again. The experience of living simultaneously on the inside and outside of your own body is very particular to the female experience I think – and not only in relation to pregnancy but in myriad other ways too. I like the measured, unforgiving way she works her way through the logic, or illogic, of that. I find her work extraordinary.’ — Eimear McBride, author of Strange Hotel‘Universal, primeval and courageous, Happening is a fiercely dislocating, profoundly relevant work — as much of art as of human experience. It should be compulsory reading.’ — Catherine Taylor, Financial Times‘Meticulous catalogues of longing, humiliation, class anxiety and emotional distress, Ernaux’s books are unsparing in detail, pitiless in tone. In contrast to those of so many of her confession-minded peers, her shock tactics feel principled, driven less by narcissism or the need for self-justification than by some loftier impulse: a desire to capture the past as it was, undistorted by faulty memories, moral judgments or decorative literary flourishes.’ — Emily Eakin, New York Times Book Review‘Ernaux’s work is an attempt at truth. Not a narrative bend on truth, but an “endeavour to revisit every single image”.... Ernaux’s work is important. Not just because of her subject matter, but because of the way she hands it over: the subtle contradictions; her dispassionate stoicism, mixed with savagery; her detailed telling, mixed with spare, fragmented text.’ — Niamh Donnelly, Irish Times‘This short book ... is one of the most powerful memoirs I have ever read. Ernaux is famed in France, and is gathering fame abroad ... as an autobiographer of unusual talent and insight, virtually creating (although she disavows the term) a genre called “autofiction”, a hybrid style mixing, as the name suggests, autobiography and fiction, although there is nothing in Happening that suggests any fictional element. This is the truth, as bare as it can be told, although every so often Ernaux reminds us, carefully, that memory is slippery.’ — Nicholas Lezard, Dhaka Tribune
£7.99
Penguin Books Ltd Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors
Book SynopsisSontag wrote Illness as Metaphor in 1978, while suffering from breast cancer herself. In her study she reveals that the metaphors and myths surrounding certain illnesses, especially cancer, add greatly to the suffering of the patients and often inhibit them from seeking proper treatment. By demystifying the fantasies surrounding cancer, Sontag shows cancer for what it is - a disease; not a curse, not a punishment, certainly not an embarrassment, and highly curable, if good treatment is found early enough. Almost a decade later, with the outbreak of a new, stigmatized disease replete with mystifications and punitive metaphors, Sontag wrote Aids and Its Metaphors, extending the argument of the earlier book to the AIDS pandemic.
£11.69
Unbound Museum Without Walls
Book SynopsisJonathan Meades has an obsessive preoccupation with places. He has spent thirty years constructing sixty films, two novels and hundreds of pieces of journalism that explore an extraordinary range of them, from natural landscapes to man-made buildings and 'the gaps between them', drawing attention to what he calls 'the rich oddness of what we take for granted'. This book collects fifty-four pieces and six film scripts that dissolve the barriers between high and low culture, good and bad taste, deep seriousness and black comedy. Meades delivers what he calls 'heavy entertainment' – strong opinions backed up by an astonishing depth of knowledge. To read Meades on places, buildings, politics or cultural history is an exhilarating workout for the mind. He leaves you better informed, more alert, less gullible.Trade Review 'The scope of his ideas, the force of his arguments, the sheer vitality of his sentences: these things come at you like negative ions after a storm' Rachel Cooke, New Statesman 'For the last thirty years Britain's most consistently surprising and informative writer on the built environment' Owen Hatherley, London Review of Books 'Lively, inventive and pugnacious . . . In an English literary tradition that, sweeping up Ian Nairn, John Betjeman and Charles Dickens along the way, takes us back to William Corbett's Rural Rides' ' Jonathan Glancey, Architectural Review 'An indispensible companion to one of the most original and valuable commentators on architecture working today' Will Wiles, Building Design 'Meades is consistently, cuttingly entertaining' Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times Books of the Year 'Jonathan Meades is a consistently amusing and provocative polemicist and this book is a rollercoaster ride, though not to be consumed all in one go . . . It is all richly entertaining, invigorating and provoking' Tim Richarson, Literary Review 'One of the great revelations of Mr Meades's writing is his ability not just to expose the tawdriness and cynicism of those who manage our landscape and our past, but also to find interest and beauty in what others, affording it a passing glance, would find drab and unremarkable . . . It is an unfortunate cliché to call any book an eye-opener, but this one unquestionably is' Simon Heffer, Standpoint
£11.69
Vintage Publishing A Long Game
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£13.49
Fitzcarraldo Editions Pretentiousness
Book SynopsisWhat is pretentiousness? Why do we despise it? And more controversially: why is it vital to a thriving culture? In this brilliant, passionate essay, Dan Fox argues that it has always been an essential mechanism of the arts, from the most wildly successful pop music and fashion through to the most recondite avenues of literature and the visual arts. Pretentiousness: Why it Matters unpacks the uses and abuses of the term, tracing its connections to theatre, politics and class, advocating critical imagination over knee-jerk accusations of elitism or simple fear of the new and the different. This book is a timely defence of pretentiousness as a necessity for innovation and diversity in our culture.
£8.54
Fitzcarraldo Editions The City and the World
Book SynopsisIn The City and the World Gregor Hens considers the phenomenon of the contemporary city and our place within it. Hens travels the world ? from Berlin to Las Vegas to Shenzen, from Cologne to Santiago de Chile to Paris ? reading, walking and swimming, asking how we perceive the city and how it may perceive us. Threading memoir and personal reflections with travelogue, philosophy, photography and references from a wide variety of writers and thinkers, The City and the World is a captivating, illuminating and expansive journey into the heart of the modern city.
£13.49
David Fickling Books Daemon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling
Book SynopsisWarm, entertaining, and above all thought-provoking, Daemon Voices provides a remarkable insight into the mind of one of our greatest writers. He explains which storytellers have meant the most to him, including William Blake and John Milton, why their work has resonated with him, and how it has inspired his own thinking. In over 30 essays, written over 20 years, Philip Pullman reveals the narratives that have shaped his vision, his experience of writing, and the keys to mastering the art of storytelling.Trade ReviewPullman is eloquent on the craft and power of storytelling * Observer *As if I'm sneaking into a year of lectures and classes with one of the masters of this art . . . Pullman shares advice, secrets, thoughts in such a down-to-earth, friendly manner, it almost makes me want to weep * Guardian Best Books of 2017 *Luminously written * The Times Literary Supplement *A gold mine . . . So much richness is to be found in this collection . . . Humane, wise and immensely readable, Daemon Voices is a fascinating tour of Pullman's teeming imagination and an inestimable illumination of the writing life * Financial Times *[Pullman's] reflections on how to nourish the imagination of children in an age of screens are excellent * Spectator *Daemon Voices casts an entrancing spell . . . To read [these essays] is to be invigorated by the company of a joyfully wide-ranging, endlessly curious and imaginative mind * New York Times *A compelling, convincing, eminently readable treatise on the importance of imagination and telling tales, Daemon Voices is a powerful insight into the mind of the greatest storyteller of our time * Kiran Millwood Hargrave *Pullman is as fine a thinker as he is a storyteller . . . abundant wisdom, provocative notions, and illuminating insights * Kirkus starred review (US) *This very impressive collection of essays, lectures and reviews . . . distils the thoughts on storytelling of one of our great storytellers * Children's Books History Society *
£12.34
Hodder & Stoughton The Book of Delights: The life-affirming New York
Book SynopsisA NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERAs Heard on NPR's This American Life'The delights he extols here (music, laughter, generosity, poetry, lots of nature) are bulwarks against casual cruelties . . . contagious in their joy' New York TimesThe winner of the NBCC Award for Poetry offers up a spirited collection of short lyric essays, written daily over a tumultuous year, reminding us of the purpose and pleasure of praising, extolling, and celebrating ordinary wonders.Among Gay's funny, poetic, philosophical delights: a friend's unabashed use of air quotes, cradling a tomato seedling aboard an aeroplane, the silent nod of acknowledgement between the only two black people in a room. But Gay never dismisses the complexities, even the terrors, of living in America as a black man or the ecological and psychic violence of our consumer culture or the loss of those he loves. More than anything other subject, though, Gay celebrates the beauty of the natural world - his garden, the flowers peeking out of the sidewalk, the hypnotic movements of a praying mantis.The Book of Delights is about our shared bonds, and the rewards that come from a life closely observed. These remarkable pieces serve as a powerful and necessary reminder that we can, and should, stake out a space in our lives for delight.***'These charming, digressive "essayettes" surprise and challenge more than a reader might expect . . . experiences of "delight," recorded daily for a year, vary widely but yield revealing patterns through insights about everything from nature and the body to race and masculinity.' New Yorker'Pure balm for your soul. Savor one at a time every morning, this summer, or wolf them all down en masse on a gorgeous sunny day.' Celeste Ng'A reminder of what the personal essay is best at: finding the profound in the mundane . . . His delight is infectious. It's hard to read Gay and not to be won over.' Seattle TimesTrade ReviewThe delights he extols here (music, laughter, generosity, poetry, lots of nature) are bulwarks against casual cruelties. As such they feel purposeful and imperative as well as contagious in their joy * The New York Times Book Review *These charming, digressive 'essayettes,' in the manner of Montaigne, surprise and challenge . . . Gay, an award-winning poet, knows the value of formal constraint: his experiences of 'delight,' recorded daily for a year, vary widely but yield revealing patterns through insights about everything from nature and the body to race and masculinity. The fruits of this experiment-for which gardens and gardening provide a frequent, apt metaphor-attest to an imagination cultivated in hostile conditions. Gay's optimism is as easy as it is improbable, his 'heart cooing like a pigeon nestled on a windowsill where the spikes rusted off. * New Yorker *Ross Gay's poems are little celebrations of joy, and this book of mini-essays - each centering around a particular 'delight,' from sleeping in your clothes to planting tomato seedlings to the nod of greeting between the only two black people in a room - is a pure balm for your soul. Savor one at a time every morning, this summer, or wolf them all down en masse on a gorgeous sunny day. -- Celeste NgEveryone could use a bit more delight in their days . . . Gay, who is the winner of the NBCC Award for Poetry, is here to provide just that, with essays celebrating everything from air quotes to candy wrappers to pickup basketball games * New York Post *The Book of Delights is both practice and perfection in an unassuming package . . . These pieces reflect and examine the natural world, masculinity, racism, and other topics with vibrancy. Most essays are a few paragraphs, a page or two at maximum, but it's not the width or length of the pieces that ultimately grabbed my attention. It was the heart and intelligence found within his daily introspections * The Rumpus *A reminder of what the personal essay is best at: finding the profound in the mundane . . . his delight is infectious. It's hard to read Gay and not to be won over. * Seattle Times *The shock of Gay's writing . . . is his seamless shift from breezy, affable observation to sober (and admittedly still affable) profundity . . . I want to say that Gay's writing is magical because that's the way it feels when I read it. But . . . calling it magic undercuts Gay's craft, the effort that goes into producing literature that feels as fluent and familiar as a chat with a close friend. His voice has integrity, in both senses of the word: a completeness or consistency, true to itself; and an honesty and compassion so frankly subjective that it produces an incorruptible vision. Gay's loose-limbed sentences diagram his delight, partaking in numerous asides - some as paragraph-long parentheticals - and equally numerous asides within asides, as well as nested subordinate clauses that are the purview of intimate conversation, not written prose. They are clauses and asides in which, as Gay writes them, you feel his hand on your arm, you feel him lean in toward you, conspiratorially or simply to emphasize his meaning * The New York Review of Books *
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Species of Spaces and Other Pieces
Book SynopsisGeorges Perec produced some of the most entertaining and spirited essays of his age. His literary output was amazingly varied in form and style and this generous selection of Perec''s non-fictional work also demonstrates his characteristic lightness of touch, wry humour and accessibility.
£10.44
Peninsula Press Ltd Lovebug
Book SynopsisIn Lovebug, Daisy Lafarge explores metaphors of love and disease as she seeks to understand human vulnerability and our intimacy with microbial life. Turning to microbiology, mysticism, and psychoanalysis – as well as the raw materials of love and life – Lafarge navigates the uncomfortable intimacy between the human body and the many bacteria, vi-ruses, and parasites to which it is host. Lovebug is a book about the poetics of infection, and about how we can learn to live with multispecies ambivalence. How might we forge non-phobic relationships to our ‘little beasts’? How might we re-wild our imaginations? In weaving the personal with the pathological, Lovebug complicates the idea of coherent selfhood, revealing life as a site of radical vulnerability and an ongoing negotiation with limit.
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other
Book SynopsisMalthus'' life''s work on human population and its dependency on food production and the environment was highly controversial on publication in 1798. He predicted what is known as the Malthusian catastrophe, in which humans would disregard the limits of natural resources and the world would be plagued by famine and disease. He significantly influenced the thinking of Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace and his theories continue to raise important questions today in the fields of social theory, economics and the environment.With an introduction by Robert Mayhew.
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Burning Questions: The Sunday Times bestseller
Book SynopsisIn Burning Questions Atwood aims her constant curiosity and impish humour at our world and reports back to us on what she finds.In it she seeks answers to Burning Questions such as: Why do people everywhere, in all cultures, tell stories? How can we live on our planet? What do zombies have to do with authoritarianism? The roller-coaster period covered in the collection brought an end to the end of history, a financial crash, the rise of Trump and a pandemic. From debt to tech, the climate crisis to freedom; from when to dispense advice to the young (answer: only when asked) to how to define granola, we have no better questioner of the many and varied mysteries of our human universe.INCLUDES NEW MATERIAL FOR PAPERBACK‘A wonderfully written insight into everything from zombies to the climate crisis’ Stylist‘The mighty Margaret Atwood writes about everything from granola to Trump' The TimesTrade ReviewThis isn't just a collection of essays for Atwood fans. Rather, this is an attempt to make sense of the world, taking in with characteristic verve everything from Anne of Green Gables to Donald Trump, zombies to censorship . . . While the tone skates from surreal off-kilter wit to impassioned gravity, Atwood always makes the idea of big questions a little more digestible . . . The collection is polyphonic, enthusiastic, illuminating -- Sophie Macintosh * i News *Margaret Atwood was recently described in a Guardian interview as "arguably the most famous living literary novelist in the world", and she is undoubtedly the most venerable . . . It's fascinating to read Atwood's reflections on her own novels and their continued relevance . . . but equally striking to see how many pieces she has included here generously celebrating other writers -- Stephanie Merritt * Observer *If there's one person in the world from whom you'd want a hot take on the most pressing issues, it would surely be Margaret Atwood . . . She answers our burning questions on climate change, the rise of Trump and on to debt and tech -- Joanna Taylor * Evening Standard *With her bold imagination, calm insight, and wit, Atwood gathers diverse strands into a marvellous collection ranging from the history of forests to the nature of science fiction and beyond. Burning Questions is a delicious antidote to intellectual fragmentation that left me inspired -- Merlin Sheldrake, author of Entangled LifeA compilation of essays that pick the brain of Booker Prize-winning author Margaret Atwood, this is a wonderfully written insight into everything from zombies to the climate crisis * Stylist *
£11.69
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC And Our Faces My Heart Brief as Photos
Book SynopsisThis is a collection of fragments about time and space by a writer and critic.Trade Review'Berger is a writer one demands to know more about ... He has an intriguing and powerful mind and talent' New York Times 'He handles thoughts the way an artist handles paint. His mind is spattered with colour ... his writing has a physical reality' The Times 'There is a great stillness in Berger's prose. But after a few pages, his statements start to sing and go on singing' New Republic 'John Berger is genius invisible. His life's work is synonymous with the creation of unforgettable living portraits' Scotsman
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World
Book Synopsis
£21.25
Granta Books All The Devils Are Here
Book SynopsisTwenty years ago, in a series of mysterious, incandescent writings, David Seabrook told of the places he knew best: the declining resort towns of the Kent coast. The pieces were no advert for the local tourist board. Here, the ghosts of murderers and mad artists crawl the streets. Septuagenarian rent boys recall the good old days and Carry On stars go to seed. Clandestine fascist networks emerge. And all the time, there is Seabrook himself - desperate perhaps, and in danger. Dark, strange and immediate, this is a classic work of sui generis British literature. There are devils here, and the reader will remember them.Trade ReviewDavid Seabrook, it is a pleasure to report, is the real thing * Sunday Times *His book, the first to do justice to the transcendent weirdness of this boot of land that is not London, should be treasured. By living so long in the past, by digging and listening and making the phone-calls, Seabrook has hallucinated an alternate English history -- Iain Sinclair[Psychogeography] doesn't begin to capture its intense interest, its uncanny spookiness, the way it ensnares you, turning your stomach, messing with your head... All the Devils Are Here demands to be reread, picked over, endlessly discussed... And yet to know it is somehow not to know anything at all -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *The book's rediscovery will hopefully install it as an urtext for the hordes of drifters following in its slipstream... All the Devils are Here outshines most work of a similar ilk by being completely committed to its subject [...] it is an archaeological dig, an exorcism, an occultist reading of wrong-doings in Rochester, Chatham, Ramsgate, Deal and Margate -- Ben Myers * New Statesman *[A] decidedly creepy and unsettling corpse-strewn journey through the seaside towns of Kent. A sort of literary beachcomber -- Lucy Scholes * BBC Culture *
£10.44
