Do Muslim women need saving?
No – but not for the reasons Lila Abu-Lughod gives.
Hot takes: Murakami
Haruki Murakami has become a household name. Often seen as the frontrunner of Japanese literature in the West, he has also become an increasingly divisive author. Despite criticism regarding his presentation of women, and repetitiveness or banality in his oeuvre, Murakami still emerges as a widely read, well-enjoyed novelist. So
Murakami: movement to survival
A comparative analysis of Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance
The Elements
What I thought would be a quick pitstop at a local bookshop in Chiswick turned into a half-hour chat with the owner where I realised I hadn’t read a life-changing book in a while. The conversation inspired a strong urge to change that; I grabbed a copy of The
Nature or Nurture: Zadie Smith's White Teeth
Zadie Smith’s postcolonial family saga White Teeth is a vibrant ode to London’s multiculturalism. Its blend of humour, history, drama, and even biology(!) made it a favourite of mine almost immediately. It follows Archie, an Englishman, and Samad, a Bangladeshi man, who meet during World War II. Samad
Of Mice and Cells
John Steinbeck and the phalanx
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
A delicious collection of Murakami’s unique brand of realistic weirdness in 24 short stories. Some ended abruptly, some ended perfectly, some could only be understood in a certain frame of mind. It’s hard not to be drawn back again and again by any writing by Murakami – to dislike
Braiding Sweetgrass
Braiding Sweetgrass is a beautiful collection of stories that, broadly, follow the life of the author, Robin Wall Kimmerer (a botanist and professor of environmental biology who is of Native American descent), and her evolving understanding of the relationship between scientific and indigenous ways of knowing, along with the implications
The Dream of the Jaguar
I really enjoyed The Dream of the Jaguar. It follows the life of an orphan found in the street by a mute beggar woman in Maracaibo, Venezuela, who builds his life up from poverty until he becomes the most successful surgeon in the country. This family saga is divided into
Essays in Love
A stage-by-stage analysis of a romantic relationship from beginning to end, Essays in Love doesn’t completely lose its focus amid the passion of love, but it isn’t so objective that it reads like an academic paper. It’s full of discomfiting facts for romantics everywhere: chief among them
Immune
Immune by Philipp Dettmer I admit, I lied. I haven’t actually fully finished Immune despite coming back to it multiple times over the years. At first glance, it felt like a public-friendly introduction to the immune system which was good and all – but seemed all exposition. Fast-forward two years
Eurotrash
Eurotrash is a demeaning portmanteau, combining “European” and “white trash”, used to describe pretentious European elites. Provocative from the start, Christian Kracht’s autofictional International Booker Prize Winner foreshadows the unsettling aristocratic class themes explored within the novel. A Swiss-German middle-aged man trying to break free from his family’s