She defines the gift economy as, “wealth is understood as having enough to share, and the practice for dealing with abundance is to give it away. In fact, status is not determined by how much one accumulates, but by how much one gives away. The currency in a gift economy is relationship, which is expressed in gratitude, as interdependence and the ongoing cycles of reciprocity” (p32-33, Serviceberry). Continue reading
So, I thought. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so terrible to make a summer reading list written and recommended by an avid reader and book-loving human with some literary qualifications up her sleeve.
Below, you’ll find six books that I highly recommend for reading over the summer. Some are new releases, and some are recent. There is a mixture of fiction and nonfiction. They are weird, serious, and hilarious. Hopefully, there is something for everyone. You get extra points if you read all six over the summer and let me know what you thought of them in the comments below. Continue reading
I find it so strange that two books, both by Japanese women, both discussing themes of societal and cultural pressures around femininity, work (domestic and paid), and food, would have such wildly different receptions. Continue reading
The novel is set in a not-so-distant future in Iceland and follows four main characters as they navigate a campaign leading up to a national referendum that would see an extremely controversial ’empathy test’ made mandatory for all Icelandic citizens. It is not a futuristic novel by any means, and the events and setting of the novel actually feel like they could be happening right now – making it all the more unsettling as a reader. Continue reading
John and Ivar live in a suspended state of freedom—John has not yet revealed to Ivar why he came to Ivar’s island. The convictions John had before meeting Ivar, before his accident, seem to have fallen away, and all that remains is love. Continue reading
Luda is a journalist and she seems to have an almost cut-throat nature when it comes to her reporting. She sees the story and the opportunity to tell it – and not really who is involved in the storytelling and how their lives become swept up in the drama of the story. When Luda publishes the picture of the girl falling to her death off the coastline of the remote community she moves to, she is quickly ostracized by the community. In a moment of profound grief – Luda can only seem to see the opportunity to tell a story of climate disaster with little regard for how the disaster of losing a child might affect the family involved. Continue reading
The novel follows the life of Roland Baines, and the novel swaps between Roland’s formative years at an all boys boarding school in the U.K. and his adult life as a single father to his son Lawrence, after his wife disappears one day. Continue reading
Keegan is an Irish author who grew up in Ireland but she has also lived in the United States, Wales, and is now back in Ireland. Her writing, like all Irish writing seems to have to beauty and softness about it that I can’t quite explain, but truly love to read. I’ve written about my love of Irish authors a lot on this blog and one of my favourites is Niall Williams’ This is Happiness. You can read my review of Williams’ book here. Continue reading
I think everyone experiences the loss of a friendship at some stage in their life, sometimes multiple friendships and the reasons for these losses are vast, complex, and sometimes confusing. It can be as simple as a friend moving to a different state and losing touch. It can be from a fight. And it can also be a slow unwinding that can be anything from ghosting to drifting apart. We have a lot of words to describe romantic love and breakups – we have song after poem, after novel after film about romantic love. Although very little about friendships. Continue reading
These questions are large and complex and cannot easily be answered, but I loved that Isaacson, like Ishiguro, asks us to address and think about these questions. It seems that many can agree that there is a possibility for gene editing to be used for the good of humanity, but where should we draw the line? Continue reading
bound2books 
You must be logged in to post a comment.