Category: art, poetry, literature, book reviews
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Book Review: ‘House of Gucci’ by Sara Gay Forden
House of Gucci: A True Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara Gay Forden is a non-fiction account of the luxury goods brand Gucci and the dynasty behind it. It covers the sensational murder of Maurizio Gucci orchestrated by his ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiani. House of Gucci is a…
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Book Review: ‘The Wife Between Us’ by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen is a mystery thriller about Richard, a handsome, wealthy, abusive hedge fund manager and his ex-wife Vanessa who share a complicated relationship, and a new, younger woman that Richard is engaged to. If I explain anything more, I’d be sure…
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Contemplation with Poetry: ‘Small Kindnesses’
[Painting: A Day of Celebration by Fanny Brate] Small Kindnesses By Danusha Laméris I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walkdown a crowded aisle, people pull in their legsto let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”when someone sneezes, a leftoverfrom the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we…
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Book Review: ‘Enter Ghost’ by Isabella Hammad
Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad is a fictional novel that reflects on the Israel-Palestine conflict through a theatre production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the West Bank. I spent some time reading about the Israel-Palestine conflict, in light of the genocide happening right now. You can read a book review of…
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This Week: 3 Million, Sher-Gil in photos, divided selves, and more!
[Feature image: Girl Reading by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Public Domain)] The past few weeks have been all about settling into new routines. After a stint in the hospital and strict instructions to not exercise, I’ve been slowly returning to my great love of working out and particularly, running. It has also…
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On Foucault’s ‘The Politics of Health in the Eighteenth Century’
In the past few months, I have dedicated myself to reading more Foucault. I began somewhat haphazardly with his collection of writings on Power, purely because the subject fascinated me more than others. Part of the collection of essays, lectures and interviews is his piece titled ‘The Politics of Health…
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Book Review: ‘Giovanni’s Room’ by James Baldwin
James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, written in the mid 1950s, is a passionate tale of love and loss between two men in Paris. It was a bold story for the times in which it was published, foregrounding homosexual love and the fragile lives gay people led under the harsh eyes of…
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This Week: Tomato Mafias, Colonialism, Impatience & more!
[Painting: La Siesta – Joaqúin Sorolla y Bastida] Ah, to nap in the sunlight, free of cares like Sorolla’s lovely sleeping women! Well, the last few weeks in my life have been punctuated by illness of the strangest variety – the kind that is bone deep and mortality-reminding. The characters…
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Book Review: ‘A Murder on Malabar Hill’ by Sujata Massey
Sujata Massey’s A Murder on Malabar Hill is a fictional murder mystery set in 1920s Bombay. The protagonist is Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s first female solicitor, who sets out to uncover the mysterious murderer and defend her clients as best she can. This book marks the beginning of a new series…
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This Week: Bad Boys of Baroque, Bhakshak, Female Photojournalists & more!
[Painting: Self-Portrait by Judith Leyster] I’m excited to report that this week’s edition of things I’ve been musing over is being typed up on a brand new laptop! Old age took away my previous one which I’d had for the last 6 years. With a display that was psychedelic at…
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Contemplation with Poetry: ‘Wild Geese’
It’s been a couple of years since I made one of these posts, but my love for poetry has remained ever strong! Here’s a phenomenal poem by my all-time favourite poet & genius lover of all things outdoors – Mary Oliver. Enjoy! Analysis: ‘Wild Geese’ by Mary Oliver is a…
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Book Review: ‘Convenience Store Woman’ by Sayaka Murata
Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman is a fictional tale that follows the life of a 36 year old woman Keiko Furukura who believes it is her life’s destiny and purpose to be a convenience store worker. The novel, which won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, was translated into the English language…
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Book Review: ‘The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine’ by Michael Scott-Baumann
The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine is a part of the The Shortest History series that cover a range of themes, such as War, The Universe, India, The Soviet Union, and Democracy, among others. They are meant to be handy, informative guides that offer a comprehensive understanding of a…
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Book Review: ‘Swimming in the Dark’ by Tomasz Jedrowski
Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski is a Polish novel written in English about discovering oneself, one’s sexuality, young love, and social success against the backdrop of the political strife of 1980 in the Polish People’s Republic. The novel is set in Poland in a period which reflects the…
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Book Review: ‘Being Mortal’ by Atul Gawande
Being Mortal is a work of non-fiction written by surgeon and author Atul Gawande on the theme of mortality and the ways in which medicine helps and hinders us in our last days. I’m not going to lie, this book is a tremendously difficult read. Not because of his writing…
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Book Review: ‘All The Beauty in the World’ by Patrick Bringley
All the Beauty in the World is part memoir of the author, Patrick Bringley, who worked as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for 10 years. Previously an employee at The New Yorker, his whole life was shaken when his older brother died of cancer. Following this…
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On Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands’ “Unnatural Passions?: Notes Toward a Queer Ecology”
Note: This was first published on a separate blog as part of my final dissertation presentation for my MA degree in English and Cultural Studies. Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands, a Canadian scholar of environmental humanities, opens her essay with a poignant example of what she calls “queer ecological sensibility”, wherein she refers…
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On Vandana Shiva’s “Development, Ecology and Women”
Note: This was first published on a separate blog as part of my final dissertation presentation for my MA degree in English and Cultural Studies. The Indian scholar, environmental activist and ecofeminist Vandana Shiva, in her essay “Development, Ecology and Women”, attempts to explain the exploitative and neo-colonialist agendas driving…
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On Zsea Bowmani’s “Now is the Time for Black Queer Feminist Ecology”
Note: This was first published on a separate blog as part of my final dissertation presentation for my MA degree in English and Cultural Studies. Zsea Bowmani’s essay, “Now is the Time for Black Queer Feminist Ecology”, is an intervention on the tendency of law and academic inquiry to categorise the…
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On Alex Carr Johnson’s “How to Queer Ecology One Goose at a Time”
Note: This was first published on a separate blog as part of my final dissertation presentation for my MA degree in English and Cultural Studies. In his essay, “How to Queer Ecology: One Goose at a Time“, Alex Carr Johnson asks us to consider the boundaries of nature and human, and…
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