No, that’s definitely not how I feel,’ and she said, ‘Well, don’t send it then,’ and I thought, What a good therapist. I looked at her and wondered when and how I had somehow got the message that, despite knowing that I was smart, my real goal should be to have someone fall in love with me; that would be the pinnacle of being a girl. Jasmine Donahaye in The Conversation UK on Victorian imperialist naming and claiming of Palestine's 'natural resources for western science, and for personal glory. The women’s mags told you the problem lay within you, not the world, that it wasn’t society that needed to change, it was you. The only reason why I gave 4 stars was that, at times, I felt that the sense of time (by this I mean when things were happening in her life) could be a little hazy.

At the age of 26, Wix and her father were involved in a serious car accident – one that seemed to mark the start of a series of staggered and life-altering tragedies. For anyone whose mental health makes them feel like an alien this will make you feel less like an alien and also make you laugh a lot. When Paula mentioned her memoir in a recent Winding Up the Week I was straight on the library catalogue and put in a reservation. As I type out some of the (many) quotes I’ve highlighted from Katy Wix’s Delicacy: A Memoir about Cake and Death I am struck again by the strength of emotion saturating this memoir. Shocking, raw, darkly funny and deeply humane, Katy Wix's exploration of trauma, grief, addiction, love, loss, memory and hope is truly unforgettable.

Delicacy took my breath away' - Lolly Adefope'Heartbreaking, ridiculously clever and laugh out loud funny. It’s not like I didn’t enjoy this book because I did, I just found it very slow (I’m starting to think this is a me thing now). There are moments of bone-dry wit, too, for this is a vivid account of the complexities of being human, and the full spectrum of emotional reactions that entails. He anchors it in his early experiences as an identical twin, and, through works by authors from Sophocles to Toni Morrison, shows us how the shapeshifting that they enable alters and expands our own sense of self. org/best-welsh-non-fiction-books-of-2023/ Our book Birdsplaining: A Natural History by Jasmine Donahaye makes the Wales Arts Review 2023 pick of the year for nonfiction!

Perhaps mourning begins the moment a baby first realises that it is a separate being from its mother. It’s also extremely sad in places as Katy has experienced intense grief (both her parents and her best friend died in quick succession). Ageing; learning; testing, stretching, abusing; consuming, nourishing; connecting and disconnecting; losing and coping - all trying to be simultaneously reflected upon and understood still through these words. Like many women, I don’t know exactly at what point food changed for me – I can remember leaving food on my plate as a child, happy to stop eating when satiated (something that later became unfathomably complicated) – but in reading this passage I felt a deep and resounding recognition. Veteran American literary scholar Arnold Weinstein presents an irresistible thesis in this agile, instantly engaging work of personal literary criticism.This quest for truth is felt throughout Delicacy , less in the exactness of its recounting and more in its emotional history – the understanding that our past feelings lay the foundation for the present and how, in relaying them, we might make them processable. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. It is that very tension, between the surreal and the serious, that suffuses Delicacy in both its content and construction. You muddle your needs with someone else’s very easily, because you don’t think your body is worth defending. Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item.

Here there’s a welcome admission that ‘being positive can come across as really creepy if you’re not careful’. Many of these chapters are about her mother's final illness and surviving the grief when she died, such as "Chimney cake, or, The thoughts I have about cancer when I open my fridge door at night for a snack". You realise that you are probably trying to fulfil your parents’ unrealised creative dreams, and yet she demonstrates to you that womanhood equals martyrdom. I have others I can discuss life with, of course – my husband, my best friend, friends with whom I’ve worked for years – but there’s still nobody like my mum was. There are points where I think some of the conceits employed as vehicles to speak about those things got in the way, which was a little frustrating.

It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy the feeling of cycling – the freedom, the smells and sights of being outdoors – it was more that I felt unwilling to let myself be looked at whilst doing it, because I struggled to ride a bike, and I looked like someone who struggled to ride a bike, and I was so ashamed. Oh wow - I saw the title and subtitle, but little had I realised what full on emotion I was going into with this. It’s the sort of insight Wix stamps across every page of Delicacy ; introspective, literary and tinged with sadness.