This weekend, Meghan Cox Gurdon opined in The Wall Street Journal that the current generation of young adult fiction is 'too dark' for readers; 'So dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and...
The infamous Soviet labor camps are described by one word - GULag - an acronym for Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies. Gulag is one of those words which everyone knows and...
Feminism FOR REAL, edited by Jessica Yee, Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, 2011 Mainstream feminist activism and academics, even in the 21st century, have continued to be overly-invested in...
Damon Galgut’s novel, In a Strange Room, did not win the Man Booker Prize last October. It lacked the novelty of Emma Donoghue’s powerhouse, Room, the historical significance of Andrea Levy’s...
Su Tong, Madwoman on the Bridge, Transworld Publishers, 2008. Su Tong is a Chinese author who has gained international recognition for his work, recently being nominated for the Man Booker...
Adam Kostko, Awkwardness, O books, 2010 It's a sign of a good piece of cultural criticism that it makes you re-evaluate a piece of art you'd previously discarded as uninteresting or even unpleasant....
Alex von Tunzelmann, Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean , Henry Holt and Co, 2011. Americans remain fascinated by the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the fall of 1962, American...
Judy Chicago and Frances Borzello, Frida Kahlo: Face to Face, Prestel Publishing, 2010 The name “Frida Kahlo” tends to provoke a passionate response among art fans and feminists alike. At...
Laurie Penny is an English journalist who came into the public eye last year with her gripping coverage of the student protests and occupations. She writes a column for the New Statesman, as well...
Lee-Ann Monk, Attending Madness: at work in the Australian colonial asylum, Rudopi, 2008. In Attending Madness (Rodopi, 2008), Lee-Ann Monk explores the lives and identities of asylum attendants...
