Bookshops are Back: The Joys of In-Person Book Buying
'There’s something magical about running your fingers across a shelf, gazing over each stack and meandering through a cavern full of works of literature.'
Judging books by their covers?
When browsing the shelves of a bookshop, what I am most drawn to is art. I hunt for the brightest colour, the most striking typography, a good-looking image with which to decorate my bedside table. Book covers can use their beauty to their advantage, or even as a form of rebellion.
Books I’m Reading this Ramadan
'Ramadan is a highlight of the Islamic calendar and involves a month of self-reflection and improvement as well as abstinence from food and water. Gaining knowledge is hugely celebrated within Islam, and with more time on my hands not eating or drinking, this spiritual month is the perfect opportunity to learn something new.'
Cherwell Recommends: University Reads
Trinity 2021 will see at least a significant portion of the student body return to ‘normal Oxford’, a loose collection of memories, activities, and...
Cherwell Recommends: YA Guilty Pleasures
In an already unusual term, this 5th Week, giving its name to '5th week blues,' might be more difficult than most. Whether after an...
Cherwell Recommends: Love of all kinds
As Valentine's Day looms, it's not hard to find examples of romantic love. But literature celebrates the expanse of human emotion, so our books editors have picked out two moving illustrations of the other forms love takes.
Scientists behind Oxford vaccine to publish book
A new book is set to reveal the inside story behind the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.
Debating the Preservation of Cultural Infrastructures: the Example of Tolkien’s Property
Fans of J.R. Tolkien have been troubled by the prospects of having Tolkien’s home sold to private buyers. Should it go on the market...
A novel experience: managing the pressures of productivity in a pandemic
My pandemic summer was spent staring at a computer, but these were a startlingly productive and educational few months and, as with most exciting things in my unexciting life, it starts with a blank page.
Best Reads of 2020
Hamnet — Maggie O’Farrell
The subtle majesty of Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell’s eighth novel,would have been welcome in any year, but it was a particular blessing...
Some Women Don’t Owe You Pretty
From the suffrage movement and Sojourner Truth’s ‘Ain’t I a Woman?,’ to the isolation of black women within the 1970s Women’s Liberation Movement, repeatedly we have witnessed the failures of white women’s feminism.
Cherwell Recommends: Memoir
"Memoir is an exploration of the complex layers of human memory: fallible, emotional and moulded by subsequent reflection. Like life itself, memoir is messy - but all the more enjoyable for it."
Cherwell Recommends: Feminist Fiction
"Each of this week’s recommendations demonstrate that female voices are far more nuanced and diverse than fiction has traditionally led us to believe."
Fact and Fiction: Where Should the Boundary Lie?
Novels, TV shows, films. They are a form of art. And in art
there is no wrong answer. Yet this becomes more complex for historical...
