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Recent content by Sybarite

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    Gay marriage

    That is screwed up and unhealthy on so many levels. 'Oh goodness – I've discovered that I'm gay! But it's bad, so I'll have to try to ignore or conquer it'.
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    books on the holocaust

    Maus by Art Spiegelmann. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
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    Gay marriage

    I've only just seen this, but as Thomas puts it, so shall I: :stars5:
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    Gilbert Adair: Buenas Noches, Buenos Aries

    Hi Comeflyaway. Thanks for the comments, but just to clarify, it's written as a memoir – there's nothing to suggest that it actually is anything other than a piece of fiction.
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    Gilbert Adair: Buenas Noches, Buenos Aries

    Buenas Noches, Buenos Aries by Gilbert Adair When Gideon leaves England to start work at the Berlitz language school in Paris, he's a shy and introverted young man with little experience, who has only just managed to come out to himself. So the male staff room at the school, where he finds...
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    José Saramago: The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

    The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by José Saramago, translated by Giovanni Pontiero It might seem an unlikely subject for a communist and atheist to tackle, but Portuguese Nobel laureate José Saramago's Gospel According to Jesus Christ is an extraordinary novel of great power and beauty...
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    Linda Grant: The Thoughtful Dresser

    Thanks, abecedarian. :) I used to hate shopping for clothes, for many of the reasons that Linda Grant touches on in the book. The first chapter in particular made me laugh out loud a number of times because some of the experiences were so recognisable.
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    Linda Grant: The Thoughtful Dresser

    Novelist Linda Grant doesn’t claim to be a stylist or even a fashion buff. What she enjoys, she explains, are good clothes. And shoes. And handbags. So what she has set out to do in her new book is to explore why clothes are important – and why making an effort to think about how we dress is...
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    Books on Homosexuality

    Biographies of Oscar Wilde and Thomas Mann (in the case of the latter, Anthony Heilbut's excellent book). Death in Venice, then by Mann (although it's not just about sexuality). The Naked Civil Servant, as already mentioned, is super – very funny in places. Colm Tóibín's Love in a Dark Time...
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    Belle de Jour: Slut or Celebrity?

    From a Joseph Kessel novel of 1928. ;) She's one of a number of anonymous female bloggers who have upset some people by being open about their sexuality. We still do not readily accept voracious female sexual appetite. It makes some people feel uncomfortable. As a slight aside, in some areas...
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    Happy Bithday Stewart!

    Belated happy birthday, Stewart. Hope you had a good one (if you can remember it).
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    Wendy Cope: Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis

    Inspiration comes from all sorts of sources. There was I, watching the final of University Challenge last night, when poet Wendy Cope walked out to hand over the trophy. 'Ah,' I thought. 'I'm sure I've got one of her books on the shelf. It's about time I read it.' A few hours later, I...
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    Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion

    The points that beer good made, in his excellent post, are absolutely valid in my opinion. Non-fiction in particular will inevitably cross over into real life. And Monkeycatcher's post has just raised, again, an issue that Dawkins very particularly raises in The God Delusion – that of the...
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    Favorite Actor

    Forgot to mention Alan Rickman, Armin Müller-Stahl, Geoffrey Rush ...
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    Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion

    Rather more generally, I think that it needs to be remembered the background against which Dawkins wrote The God Delusion. The last decade or so has seen a rise in religious fundamentalism. Some of it has been obvious, such as Islamic terrorism or the hate and bile of the likes of Westboro...
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