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A delicious selection of book reads for the weekend, especially if you are going to make it a long one with the 4th of July holiday. Enjoy! 1. “All-American Murder: The Rise and Fall of Aaron Hernandez, the Superstar Whose Life Ended on Murderers’ Row” by James Patterson and Alex Abramovich is actually a piece of non-fiction about the young and exceptionally gifted NFL player who murdered his fiancee’s sister’s partner. After being convicted and on a life sentence in prison he committed suicide at the age of 27. Based on court testimony, legal documents and reporting from various key...

In general, well-known works of fiction compel us to celebrate the creativity of the writer. The books listed here however take creativity to a whole new level, particularly Henry Darger’s eccentric manuscript on the Vivian Girls beautifully analysed and explained in John M Macgregor’s Henry Darger: In the Realms of the Unreal (only a genius or otherwise truly bizarre mind can drum up the content he crafted over decades), Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore with its stupendous world of talking cats, spirits that make love or kill and oedipal fantasies, Margaret Atwood’s disturbing dystopia, Oryx and Crake and Catherine Dunn’s fascinatingly odd Geek Love. Nonetheless these highly imaginative and unique yet strange works...

The weekend’s here! Make it a bookish one with these great weekend reads: 1. James Patterson and Bill Clinton’s novel “The President is Missing” for the political junkies who enjoy a bit of drama and suspense. It’s beautifully written too. Grab a copy at: https://amzn.to/2KdZCtL 2. A highly informed look at the Theranos scandal by John Carreyrou: “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Start Up”. Get your copy at: https://amzn.to/2MP1Ykv 3. A remarkable look at heredity: “She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity” by Carl Zimmer. Grab a copy at: https://amzn.to/2MOEyeZ 4.“Reinventing Capitalism in the...

Reading has always been a great literary cure for loneliness. However when it stops acting as a cure and instead becomes a channel through which loneliness becomes a popular state of existence, that’s when alarm bells start ringing. This is nowhere more notable than in Japan where a third of all households live alone. More over 65-year-olds live alone than anywhere else in the world. 30% of men and women will never marry by the year 2030. With such alarming statistics, it is no surprise that a new genre in literature is emerging: one that celebrates and praises the solitary state....

Sometimes we all crave a comfort read just to temporarily get us through a challenging situation that is mentally draining. We may want to simply pass time or take a break from a tough day. Other times we need to find hope again and remove ourselves from the despair that clouds us. For me personally there has been a lot of change over the last couple of years with moving countries and having babies. To get me through stressful times and cope with the constant change I went in search for some literary escapism to reaffirm my faith that everything...