8 Books To Read Right Now
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A Visible Man by Edward Enninful
A Visible Man traces an astonishing journey into one of the world's most exclusive industries. Edward Enninful candidly shares how as a Black, gay, working-class refugee, he found in fashion not only a home, but the freedom to share with people the world as he saw it. When Enninful became first Black editor-in-chief of British Vogue, few at the heights of the elitist world of fashion wanted to confront how it failed to represent the world we live in. But Enninful, a champion of inclusion throughout his life, rapidly changed that. Now, whether it's putting first responders, octogenarians or civil rights activists on the cover of Vogue, or championing designers and photographers of colour, Enninful has cemented his status as one of the world's most important change-makers. This is the story of a visionary who changed not only an industry, but how we understand beauty.
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I Fear My Pain Interests You by Stephanie LaCava
Margot is the child of renowned musicians and the product of a particularly punky upbringing. Burnt out from the burden of expectation and the bad end of her worst relationship yet, she leaves New York and heads to the Pacific Northwest. She’s seeking to escape both the eyes of the world and the echoing voice of that last bad man. But a chance encounter with a dubious doctor in a graveyard, and the discovery of a dozen old film reels, opens the door to a study of both the peculiarities of her body and the absurdities of her famous family. American author Stephanie LaCava’s new novel is a sexy and moving exploration of culture and connections, bodies and breakdowns – and a must for anyone who loves film.
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My Policeman by Bethan Roberts
This novel came out in 2012, but if you haven’t read it, now’s the time as the film adaptation –starring Harry Styles (Dunkirk) and Emma Corrin (The Crown) – comes out later this year. A tragic tale of thwarted love set in 1950s Brighton, the story centres on Marion, who meets policeman Tom. Over a summer, he teaches her to swim in the shadow of the pier and Marion is smitten – determined her love will be enough for them both. A few years later at the Brighton Museum, Patrick meets Tom. Patrick is besotted with this new man, who opens his eyes to a glamorous, sophisticated new world. Tom belongs to both Marion and Patrick, but in this age, it is safer for him to marry Marion. The two lovers agree to share him – until one of them breaks and all three lives are destroyed.
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Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
From the number-one bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere, this is a deep, heart-wrenching novel about the unbreakable love between a mother and child in a society consumed by fear. Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a talented linguist now relegated to shelving books in a library. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve 'American culture' in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic – including the work of Bird's mother, a Chinese-American poet who left the family when he was nine. Bird has grown up disavowing his mother and her poems; he doesn't know her work or what happened to her, and he knows he shouldn't wonder. But when he receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, he is drawn into a quest to find her.
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The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
Following the success of Hamnet – winner of the Waterstones Book of the Year and Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2020 – Maggie O’Farrell brings the world of Renaissance Italy to life in her newest book. It’s Florence in the 1560s. Third daughter Lucrezia is free to wander her palazzo at will, wondering at its treasures. But when her older sister dies on the eve of marriage to Alfonso d'Este, heir to the Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust into the limelight. Alfonso is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father to accept on her behalf. Having barely left girlhood, Lucrezia must now make her way in a troubled court where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her husband himself. Is he the playful sophisticate he appears before their wedding or the ruthless politician even his formidable sisters seem to fear? As Lucrezia sits in uncomfortable finery for the painting to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court's eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferrarese dynasty. Until then, for all her rank and nobility, her future hangs entirely in the balance.
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The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessel
How many women artists do you know? Who makes art history? Did women even work as artists before the 20th century? And what is the Baroque? In this fascinating book by the creator of @TheGreatWomenArtists, Sofonisba Anguissola of the Renaissance, the radical work of Harriet Powers in the 19th-century US and the artist who really invented the Readymade are given the spotlight. The book explores the Dutch Golden Age, the astonishing work of post-war artists in Latin America and the women defining art in the 2020s. From the Cornish coast to Manhattan, Nigeria to Japan, this is the story of art for our times – one with women at its heart, brought together for the first time.
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Undoctored: The Story of a Medic Who Ran Out of Patients by Adam Kay
The author of the bestselling This is Going to Hurt reflects on what happened after he left the NHS frontline in this sardonic and laugh-out-loud follow-up. This Is Going to Hurt was the publishing phenomenon of the century, read by millions and adapted into a major TV series starring Ben Wishaw. But it was only part of the story. By turns funny and tragic, Undoctored is about what happens when a doctor hangs up his scrubs, but medicine refuses to let go of him. It's about an extraordinary medical school education; hospital admissions and personal ones; and being both a doctor and a patient. If audiobooks are more your thing, this version features extra diary entries, plus an exclusive interview with bestselling author and broadcaster Rev. Richard Coles.
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What Just Happened?!: Dispatches from Turbulent Times by Marina Hyde
In What Just Happened?! arch political columnist Marina Hyde writes her way through what she describes as the “hellscape of post-referendum politics”. Readers are invited to relive every moment – from David Cameron to Theresa May to Boris Johnson. From ‘Trumpian WTF-ery’ to a cast of characters that include Hollywood sex offenders, populists, sporting heroes (and villains), dastardly dukes, media barons, movie stars, reality TV monsters, billionaires, police officers, various princes and princesses, wicked advisers, philanthropists, ‘fauxlanthropists’ and TV chefs, this collection of stories is drawn from her Guardian columns, and offers a welcome blast of humour and sanity in a world where reality has become stranger than fiction.
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