Author: Shannon Turlington
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Subvert the dominant paradigm: link roundup
Here’s a roundup of online reading I’ve been doing lately around issues fo diversity, gender equality, and culture change. Enjoy! Why gender equality is good for everyone — a very interesting TED talk by Michael Kimmel. Twofer from the New York Times this Sunday — when can women stop looking perfect? (hint: now) and it’s payback time…
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Reading journal: Ringing in 2016
This year, I’ve decided to post snippets from my ongoing reading journal that aren’t full reviews, just thoughts about what I’m reading and what I want to read. This will possibly be terribly dull; I’ll let you decide. Here’s what I’ve been reading since the start of the year — a lot of short books!…
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Links for readers…
Happy new year! I have decided that 2016 is the year of not giving a fuck. And yes, there is a book for that. Here’s a fresh roundup of links for your reading pleasure. Those books that we buy and then pile up on our shelves, unread? There is a word for that. Rebecca Solnit,…
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Recommended reading: The Expendable Man
This week I’m recommending The Expendable Man by Dorothy B. Hughes, a crime noir classic recently reissued by New York Review Books. A young doctor driving from California to a family wedding in Phoenix, Arizona, sees a teenage girl hitchhiking on a desert road and stops to pick her up, setting in motion a chain of events that…
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Top Five Reads of the Year
Here are my five favorite reads of the year, a nice mix of old classics and new discoveries. Please post your favorite reads of the year in the comments. (These are books read during the past year and enjoyed, but not necessarily published in 2015.) Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (my essay on a kinder, gentler…
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Recommended Reading: The Bloody Chamber
I’m recommending a hidden classic this week: The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter. Carter gives familiar fairy tales a feminist twist. The stories revolve around the theme of young women (and sometimes men) crossing the threshold into adulthood, generally through sexual experiences. Penguin has some beautiful editions, and this is one of them.
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Here they come, the best books of 2015…
I like NPR’s Book Concierge better than any other end-of-year roundups I’ve seen. It’s an elegant design that lets you hone in on just the types of books you’re most interested in. I already added several promising reads to my gigantic “to read” list. The Wall Street Journal just picks the best of the best-of lists here. And New York…
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Patricia Highsmith, misanthrope…
I explore my reactions to two of Highsmith’s thrillers and her cynical view of human nature in this essay.
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An appreciation of Jane Austen…
I recently completed reading all of Jane Austen’s finished novels, a pleasant and rewarding project. Although her body of work was not large, there is not a single clunker in the bunch. The same cannot be said for many other novelists. The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good…
Shannon Turlington 