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Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of the blockbuster 2006 memoir Eat, Pray, Love. Her ninth book, the new memoir All the Way to the River, explores her stormy, codependent relationship with her friend and lover Rayya Elias, who died of cancer in 2018.
‘The Summer Book’ by Tove Jansson (1972)
In this slim, magical novel, a wild young girl and her equally wild grandmother spend the summer on a remote Finnish island, using adventure and creativity to heal from loss. Never has childhood girl power been more eloquently expressed. I call this my favorite book nobody has ever read. Buy it here.
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‘The Little Locksmith’ by Katharine Butler Hathaway (1943)
This vivid memoir tells of how spinal tuberculosis, diagnosed in childhood, threatened (but failed) to limit the scope of Hathaway’s big, imaginative life. Despite being literally tied down for all of childhood and in pain for all of adulthood, Hathaway lived a grand, artistic, and even sensual existence. Buy it here.
‘The Awakened Woman’ by Dr. Tererai Trent (2017)
There is no easy pathway from rural African poverty, illiteracy, and early marriage to a doctoral degree in America—but in this memoir, Trent shows how she created that path for herself, with relentless drive and the guidance of her ancestors. This is the truly heroic journey of a woman I admire more than anyone else I’ve met. Buy it here.
‘Matrix’ by Lauren Groff (2021)
Plenty of women in history have been sent to convents as punishment, but in Groff’s brilliant and muscular novel, the 12th-century mystical poet Marie de France takes that banishment and turns it into might, becoming a leader who transforms her convent into a hidden world of creativity, prosperity, and autonomy for all women. Buy it here.
‘How to Say Babylon’ by Safiya Sinclair (2023)
Raised in the crushing patriarchy of contemporary Jamaica, Sinclair fought back against the limitations of her father and her Rastafarian culture to become a magnificent poet, traveler, and author. Sinclair essentially wrote her way out of poverty and oppression, and the result, this gorgeous memoir, is pure fire. Buy it here.
‘Harley Loco’ by Rayya Elias (2013)
My new book tells the story of my friendship and love with Rayya Elias, but in this memoir, she tells her own harrowing story of immigration, alienation, drug addiction, music, and recovery. Raw and unflinching, her voice continues to shine long after her death. Buy it here.
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El Paso airspace closure tied to FAA-Pentagon standoffSpeed Read The closure in the Texas border city stemmed from disagreements between the Federal Aviation Administration and Pentagon officials over drone-related tests
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Political cartoons for February 12Cartoons Thursday's political cartoons include a Pam Bondi performance, Ghislaine Maxwell on tour, and ICE detention facilities
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Arcadia: Tom Stoppard’s ‘masterpiece’ makes a ‘triumphant’ returnThe Week Recommends Carrie Cracknell’s revival at the Old Vic ‘grips like a thriller’
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Arcadia: Tom Stoppard’s ‘masterpiece’ makes a ‘triumphant’ return
The Week Recommends Carrie Cracknell’s revival at the Old Vic ‘grips like a thriller’
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My Father’s Shadow: a ‘magically nimble’ love letter to LagosThe Week Recommends Akinola Davies Jr’s touching and ‘tender’ tale of two brothers in 1990s Nigeria
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Send Help: Sam Raimi’s ‘compelling’ plane-crash survival thrillerThe Week Recommends Rachel McAdams stars as an office worker who gets stranded on a desert island with her boss
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Book reviews: ‘Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind’ and ‘Football’Feature A right-wing pundit’s transformations and a closer look at one of America’s favorite sports
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Catherine O'Hara: The madcap actress who sparkled on ‘SCTV’ and ‘Schitt’s Creek’Feature O'Hara cracked up audiences for more than 50 years
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6 gorgeous homes in warm climesFeature Featuring a Spanish Revival in Tucson and Richard Neutra-designed modernist home in Los Angeles
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Touring the vineyards of southern BoliviaThe Week Recommends Strongly reminiscent of Andalusia, these vineyards cut deep into the country’s southwest
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Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency – an ‘engrossing’ exhibitionThe Week Recommends All 126 images from the American photographer’s ‘influential’ photobook have come to the UK for the first time
