Category: Memoir
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Narratives of Covid: Loss, dying and death during COVID-19
This month I am taking part in Memoir March. Memoirs are an interesting genre of books. Memoirs are based on people’s life stories but memories are not fixed entities, instead feelings towards, and interpretations of, memories might change over time. Furthermore, whilst memoirs are based on ‘true events’, sometimes the truth needs to bend to…
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The Silly Thing: Shaping the Story of Life & Death
This month I am taking part in Memoir March. Memoirs are an interesting genre of books. Memoirs are based on people’s life stories but memories are not fixed entities, instead feelings towards, and interpretations of, memories might change over time. Furthermore, whilst memoirs are based on ‘true events’, sometimes the truth needs to bend to…
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Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?
This month I am taking part in Memoir March. Memoirs are an interesting genre of books. Memoirs are based on people’s life stories but memories are not fixed entities, instead feelings towards, and interpretations of, memories might change over time. Furthermore, whilst memoirs are based on ‘true events’, sometimes the truth needs to bend to…
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Narratives of Parental Death, Dying and Bereavement: a kind of haunting
This month I am taking part in Memoir March. Memoirs are an interesting genre of books. Memoirs are based on people’s life stories but memories are not fixed entities, instead feelings towards, and interpretations of, memories might change over time. Furthermore, whilst memoirs are based on ‘true events’, sometimes the truth needs to bend to…
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No place to lie
This month I am taking part in Memoir March. Memoirs are an interesting genre of books. Memoirs are based on people’s life stories but memories are not fixed entities, instead feelings towards, and interpretations of, memories might change over time. Furthermore, whilst memoirs are based on ‘true events’, sometimes the truth needs to bend to…
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A Matter of Death and Life
Happy 2022 everyone! This is my first blog after a bit of a hiatus as I finished my postdoc at the University of Surrey. A downside is that I am now unemployed. The upside is that I have more time reading books and writing about them! I don’t really believe in New Year’s Resolutions (and…
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A Quarter Glass of Milk
September marks suicide prevention and awareness month, and September 10 (today) is World Suicide Prevention day. Globally, more than 700.000 people die by suicide each year, which is roughly one person every 40 seconds. In upcoming blogs this month I will focus on books that revolve around the topic of suicide. The first being A…
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Heartwood: The art of living with the end in mind
In this week’s blog we turn our attention to another memoir, as Barbara Becker has kindly sent me a digital copy of her book Heartwood. The Art of Living with the end in Mind. This has taught me, amongst more profound things, that it is much more difficult to take a good picture of an…
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Life in pieces
Take your mind back to early 2020, when there were only whispers of a mysterious virus in Wuhan. Coronavirus was something that was happening ‘out there’ on the other side of the world, not something to really worry about. I remember stickers where placed inside the bathroom stalls at my University advising people who had…
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Dear Reader. The comfort and joy of books
I mentioned before that I love reading books. Then I started reading Cathy Rentzenbrink’s book Dear Reader. The Comfort and Joy of Books, and now I am not so sure, because, boy, does she love books! Using books as a red thread, Rentzenbrink weaves her life story from childhood to adulthood together, highlighting the books…
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The Way Through The Woods
There is something about grief and loss that makes people decide to take new chances, to pursuit new hobbies, to try out new things. As much as a loss can rupture someone’s life, I find it beautiful that it opens up space to walk a new path. Long Litt Woon lost her husband of thirty…
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365 days past the traffic lights
Originally published 26 April 2021 This memoir, written by twentysomething Rose Yavneh Taylor, explores the impact and messiness of losing a parent in young adulthood. She argues that while there are plenty of self-help and other books available about grief and bereavement, few focus on the experiences of people in this particular stage of life….