You can tell a lot about a man from the company he keeps, but also, added Hilaire Belloc, from the library he keeps. Naturally enough, I’m casting an eye around mine to see what kind of a man I might be. Principally a self-important one, if I consider these shelves a library at all, and, … Read more
Are there any resources you recommend for BDSM or kink-curious people who might not see much representation of their desires in their daily lives? Well, there are as many different styles of BDSM as there are people. You know, one thing that I talk about in the book is that sexuality is often siloed in … Read more
There’s a brilliant photograph of Sofia Coppola on the set of Marie Antoinette in which she appears, mid stride, amid dozens of actors dressed in 18th-century courtly attire: britches and elaborate waistcoats on the men, robes à la françaises on the women, white powdered wigs on all. Coppola, meanwhile, is dressed in a white men’s … Read more
If you’ve ever spoken to someone and later felt that you would have better spent your time talking to a brick wall, you’ll surely identify with the observations of Rebecca West. “There is no such thing as conversation,” the novelist and literary critic wrote in her collection of stories, The Harsh Voice. “It is an … Read more
With I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself, MacNicol, a veteran writer for The New York Times and many other publications, artfully indicts the ageist industrial complex through her own lived experience. “I have found most of what we’re told about getting older to be a lie,” she says. “As you age, you are told you … Read more
Tal Danino’s day job at Columbia University, New York, is engineering “living” medicines. “We program microbes for cancer therapy using synthetic biology,” he says. As a side hustle he manipulates and photographs the microbial world; his images are collected in a book, Beautiful Bacteria. Taking bacteria from substances such as wastewater, dental plaque or kimchi, … Read more
A book featuring same-sex parenting will return to library shelves after a Sydney council rescinded its ban on the text over concerns it betrayed the community’s “conservative values”. Cumberland City Council, which covers a population of about 240,000 people living near Parramatta, narrowly voted earlier in May to “take immediate action to rid same-sex (parenting) … Read more
In the 10 years since John William started to lose his vision, he’s been finding new ways to enjoy his vast personal library in Vancouver, B.C. Right now, that involves glasses and a magnifying glass with bright lights to illuminate the pages. But he says it’s time to say goodbye to much of his collection, … Read more
Well, unfortunately, not while I was writing, because I hadn’t read her yet; I’ll get to her in a second. My lineage for my work is predominantly cis women, and it’s one that includes Jamaica Kincaid, Arundhati Roy, Marguerite Duras, Clarice Lispector, Sylvia Plath, Ingeborg Bachmann; these are the people I’ve been in communion with … Read more
Rebel Wilson has claimed that she was once invited to a drug-fuelled orgy by an unnamed member of the British royal family. The group was reportedly seeking more female attendees. WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Rebel Wilson’s memoir stripped from Australian shelves. Stream the world’s best reality, entertainment and true-crime shows free on 7plus “He was … Read more
