Literature Therapy: finding the book that heals

Latest Blog Posts - Literature Therapy: finding the book that heals

• How human are you?
  on May 13, 2013 in A Beautiful Truth
  A Beautiful Truth, by Colin McAdam What does it even mean to be human?  Anthropologists used to claim that using tools is what separated man from beast.  When a variety of species were discovered using tools, that claim was abandoned.&nbs...
• Do you know your Feminist history?
  on Apr 19, 2013 in Death of a Revolutionary The New Yorker
  “Death of a Revolutionary” by Susan Faludi (The New Yorker, April 15, 2013)Up till this morning, I believed that in the old days (ie mid sixties and before) that since many bars  had a separate entrance for “ladies and escorts” then clea...
• Are you culture bound?
  on Mar 13, 2013 in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
  Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See It’s so easy to see the flaws in the cultures of other peoples while we’re completely blind to our own.  In this novel set in the time of foot binding in rural China, Lily describes her world from...
• Are you single minded?
  on Mar 4, 2013 in The Headmaster’s Wager
  The Headmaster’s Wager, by Vincent Lam Do people accuse you of being on one track, and one only?  We have many positive words to describe this personality trait: persistent, ambitious, driven, firm, determined, driven…  People who...
• Do you believe we’re in a steep literary decline?
  on Jan 19, 2013 in Midnight’s Children
  Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie How we worry about losing our love for language—texters and their OMG, the use of u for you, broken grammar, misspellings, we seem to be afloat in language sewage.  We often lament that writing just is...
• Are you suffering from affluenza?
  on Dec 8, 2012 in The Semplica-Girl Diaries
   “The Semplica-Girl Diaries”, by George Saundersinfluenza= an illnessaffluence= luxurious comfort and wealthaffluenza= unrelenting desire for comfort and wealth that makes people and the planet sickThere are times when I come across a short...
• Do You Need Some Magic?
  on Nov 17, 2012 in Beautiful Losers
   Beautiful Losers, by Leonard Cohen Last night I saw Leonard Cohen’s Old Ideas Tour, 2012 and though I usually refer to entire novels, today I’m reflecting on an excerpt from Beautiful Losers, a novel I read as a teenager.  That novel l...
• Has your family stuffed you into a role?
  on Nov 13, 2012 in Crow Lake
  Crow Lake, by Mary Lawson“I remember reading somewhere a theory to the effect that each member of the family has a role—‘the clever one,’ ‘the pretty one,’ ‘the selfish one.’  Once you’ve been established in the role for a whil...
• How Much Power is Enough?
  on Nov 11, 2012 in Wolf Hall
  Wolf Hall by Hilary MantelIt took me months to read this book, which would normally mean I’m not that into it.  In this case, I persevered because it’s a vivid depiction of people who crave and seize power.  My slowness at reading...
• Have you ever wanted to emmigrate?
  on Sep 9, 2012 in Small Island
  Small Island, by Andrea LevyI too recall pictures of the British Monarch hanging on the front wall of every classroom of my youth.  She was ‘our’ Queen, yet she lived in a different country.  I was lucky indeed that our Catholic teacher...

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