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1 month ago | 
katemanne.substack.com | Kate Manne |Carmen Machado
Content warning: rape and sexual traumaAs I build this newsletter, one thing I’ve been wanting to do is run more extracts from books I love, want to support, and know my readers will be into. I’m pleased and proud to say that the first such extract is by Kate Hamilton, the extraordinary writer of Mad Wife: A Memoir, a harrowing yet ultimately uplifting portrait of her survival of marital rape, abuse, and gaslighting.
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Oct 25, 2024 | 
lifestyleasia-onemega.com | Pilar González |Carmen Machado |Junji Ito |E.M. Carroll
Halloween is just around the corner, which means costume parties and trick-or-treating activities galore. However, the spooky occasion doesn’t have to be an all-out event—sometimes, the best kind of Halloween celebration is one spent curled up in bed and immersed in some good old fashioned chilling stories. Whether you prefer books, movies, or shows, there’s something for everyone in this creepy Halloween media list.
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Jul 2, 2024 | 
audible.com | Susie Dumond |Carmen Machado |Erin Kelly |Bryan Stevenson
As his 18-year-old nephew lay unconscious in a hospital bed after being shot nine times, award-winning musician and filmmaker MK Asante turned to prose, verse, and music to make sense of tragedy. Asante realized there was so much about their family's history that his nephew hadn't yet learned. In this lyrical, dynamic memoir, Asante collects letters to his nephew, journal entries, rap lyrics, prayers, funeral programs, and more to explore his family's past, present, and future.
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Jun 23, 2024 | 
shorturl.at | Henry James |Octavia E. Butler |Carmen Machado |Lucy Pearson
It was in August of last year; the cold of winter was drifting away into a bright, blue-skied spring. I had my favourite sort of weekend ahead; one with no plans other than rifling through the unread stack of books on my kitchen table. One of them jumped out at me: Green Dot, by Madeleine Gray, and I soon settled myself onto my window-seat, where I began to read. After ten pages I was hooked, and I wolfed it down in less than four hours. By the time I finished, I was bereft. I was obsessed.
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Jun 18, 2024 | 
valerieanne.substack.com | Jessica Lewis |Kalynn Bayron |Natasha Ngan |Carmen Machado
It's time for BOOKS!!! As some of you know, after being a bookworm my entire life, something broke inside of me and I somehow didn't read any books in 2020, one in 2021, then zero again in 2022. Last year, I finally rekindled my love of reading, and read 27 books. This year, only six months in and I've almost hit that, already at 22 books. I had set a goal of reading 30 this year, but I have a feeling I'm going to have to adjust it before the year is through.
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May 28, 2024 | 
criterion.com | Carmen Machado
It’s as memorable a protagonist introduction as you can imagine: teenage bodies crisscrossing high-school halls in slow motion, rushing off to class; behind them, a young woman canted against a bank of red lockers, a backpack slung over one shoulder. Her stance is wide, her clothes oversize, her hands shoved so deeply in her pockets that we can’t see them at all. A tighter shot follows. She couldn’t be any more still, or any more different from the others—a stone in an eddying stream.
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May 14, 2024 | 
scientificamerican.com | Carmen Machado
Playing with Reality: How Games Have Shaped Our Worldby Kelly Clancy. Riverhead, 2024 ($30)When was the last time you played a game? Maybe you beat a friend at chess, or played Sushi Go! with your kids, or recently lost hours of your life to Baldur’s Gate 3 (raises hand). But even if you can’t remember, the fact is, you probably played a game today. Have you felt the languorous tug of swiping or scrolling through videos or dating profiles? Counted your steps?
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Mar 29, 2024 | 
mamamia.com.au | Carmen Machado |Ottessa Moshfegh |Mona Awad |Lisa Jewell
Their lives become intertwined when Josie offers up her complicated and frankly dreary story to Alix to tell on her podcast. From there, disturbing truths begin to unravel. Both characters are pretty complicated and at times incredibly irritating, because they make a lot of bad decisions that hurt a lot of people. Overall though, None Of This Is True is one of those books you devour in an evening. If the suspense doesn't kill you, the characters' audacity surely will.
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Mar 25, 2024 | 
writersdigest.com | Greg Wrenn |Carmen Machado |Sofia Samatar |Florence Williams
When I sat through my first life-saving ayahuasca ceremonies in Peru, there wasn’t just a puke bucket beside me. I also kept close a binder of research I’d printed out about the healing potential of psychedelics. (6 Types of Personal Essays for Writers to Try.)As traumatic memories surfaced in the hours-long medicine journeys, I sometimes felt for the articles in the darkness.
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Mar 21, 2024 | 
lifestyleasia-onemega.com | Pilar González |Toni Morrison |Doreen G. Fernandez |Carmen Machado
With the Holy Week break fast approaching, it’s an opportune time for avid (and even casual) readers to prepare a list of books to read as they unwind. In the spirit of National Women’s Month, it may also be a great time to immerse oneself in more female voices. After all, the world has no shortage of talented women writers, both locally and internationally.
