Culture Heather Christle’s The Crying Book: a cultural history of tears Like other poets who write non-fiction, Christle favours a fragmentary style in this history of crying. By
Culture Kathleen Jamie’s Surfacing: documenting the beauty of our endangered earth By Marina Benjamin
Books Lisa Appignanesi’s brave memoir explores what happens when grief gives way to anger By Marina Benjamin
Culture Didier Eribon’s Returning to Reims is a potent memoir about the cost of changing class By Marina Benjamin
Books Holocaust memoir Maybe Esther is a mesmerising work of reconstruction and reflection By Marina Benjamin
Karl Ove Knausgaard’s Autumn has gorgeous, poetic observations on almost every page With his latest book, the author turns his gaze out towards the world. By Marina Benjamin
The Day That Went Missing: a memoir that breaks all the rules Richard Beard's book is brimful of anger and guilt, fails to deliver an uplifting ending and opens with a death. By Marina Benjamin
Why can you change gender but not race? Marina Benjamin on the curious logic of modern identity politics. By Marina Benjamin
Metaphors for madness: the new wave of mental health memoirs It is no accident that women are writing in ever greater numbers about their mental anguish and pain. By Marina Benjamin
Blood relations: how to live with a killer in the family Marina Benjamin probes the stories of the Columbine killers and the Unabomber through A Mother’s Reckoning by Sue Klebold… By Marina Benjamin
No place like home: a meditation on the meaning of hotels Hotel by Joanna Walsh is deft and imaginative, tripping between references to Katherine Mansfield, Mae West, the Marx Brothers… By Marina Benjamin
Matthew Spender’s dreams from his father Stephen Spender’s is a life well documented. Now his son has written about him. By Marina Benjamin
Marina Benjamin: what it means to be a woman aged 50 As she prepares for her 50th birthday, the author and journalist reflects on what it means to be “middle-aged”… By Marina Benjamin