Here are just some of my favourites from my 2021 reading: ‘The Blind Woman Without a Toe’, by Intan Paramaditha, from the collection Apple and Knife Paramaditha’s short story collection reimagines fairy and folk tales, with a dark twist. This particular story is a fun retelling of Cinderella, while the others are tales from the author’sContinue reading “My top 10 of 2021”
Tag Archives: Memoir
A short story I recently re-read
‘Black-Eyed Women’, by Viet Thanh Nguyen Read it here, in about 40 minutes. Thinking about metafiction… Metafiction is fiction that is self-referential. Fiction that draws attention to its own fictionality, either overtly (e.g. the narrator directly addresses the reader) or covertly (e.g. the story is about writing stories). Black-Eyed Women’ is all about the natureContinue reading “A short story I recently re-read”
My top 10 of 2020
It’s hard to narrow it down, but, gun to my head, here are my 10 favourite reads from 2020: ‘Without a Map’, by Meredith Hall, in True Stories, Well Told: From the First 20 Years of Creative Nonfiction Magazine (Lee Gutkind, Ed.) In 1972 the author, broken, abandons her life and wanders, on foot, fromContinue reading “My top 10 of 2020”
Book review
‘Educated’ by Tara Westover An Extract from the opening is available here. This is the beautiful and shocking memoir of a woman who grew up in a difficult family situation, but escaped (in every sense of the word) through education. She lost a lot in the process, but gained a tremendous amount as well, althoughContinue reading “Book review”
Book review
‘A Year in Provence’, by Peter Mayle The setting of this creative nonfiction book, Provence, in the south of France, conjures up feelings of nostalgia for me, as I spent many sun-soaked, soporific, childhood holidays in the region. This is enhanced by the fact it was written and published so long ago – in 1989,Continue reading “Book review”
Mina Ma 