Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives Harper Collins, 2010 (Looking for a swallow rather than a full glass? ORANGE Squirt below.) Countless contemporary novels have taken the landscape of the monogamous marriage and its secrets as their subject, so it’s hardly surprising that a polygamous marriage, like
Karen Russell’s Swamplandia! Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. (Looking for a swallow rather than a full glass? ORANGE Squirt below.) Loving an excerpt as much as I loved “The Dredgeman’s Revelation” brings a sense of trepidation alongside excitement when approaching the longer work. Would Swamplandia! leave me with the same pressing desire
Agnes Jekyll’s Kitchen Essays (1922) Persephone No. 30 Persephone Books, 2001 Agnes Jekyll explains in her introduction to Kitchen Essays that these pieces have been published in book form as a result of readers of The Times having requested such a ready reference. These traditional recipes and rituals straddle nostalgia and practicality,
Blindfolded, only hearing the prose, or seeing the opening lines pulled from the narrative, would you recognize these stories to be the work of Alice Munro based on the first few sentences alone? The opening of “Changes and Ceremonies”: Boys’ hate was dangerous, it was keen and bright, a miraculous
Massimo Marcone’s Acquired Tastes Key Porter, 2010 The subtitle of Massimo Marcone’s book gives it all away: “on the trail of the world’s most sought-after delicacies”. After briefly considering what constitutes a delicacy, and how the concept shifts across time and varies between cultures, the author focuses on a handful
