Kirjahaku

From the first landings on the moon to the implications of our cyber worlds, this unusual and intriguing book takes a provocative look at our fascination with space. Rocket Dreams is a fast-moving, fact-filled study of how all the dreams that went in to moonflight in the '60s have found new homes and mutated into new fascination with space. It is about our unquenchable desire to reach out to other worlds, physical and imaginative. From the Apollo astronauts to the military origins of the internet, and the whole phenomenon of 'virtual communities', it reveals how the ideals and longings pinned on cyberspace have evolved directly from those of the space age. Space dreams have been transformed into screen dreams, but the longing for communication with 'the other' lies at the heart of both.

Remember when the race to the moon held the rapt attention of millions? Remember the Apollo missions that were supposed to herald the beginning of the Space Age? Thirty years after the last moonwalk, those missions now appear to have ushered in an era's conclusion. What happened? Marina Benjamin has been asking that question ever since her childhood fascination with space exploration ended in disappointment. Rocket Dreams is her thought-provoking look at the Space Age and the shadow it casts on the fabric of our modern lives. When the futuristic expectations we pinned on Apollo came crashing back to earth, Benjamin argues, new phenomena took up the cause. Pulling movies, literature, junk culture, and the Internet into an irreverent alternative account of the post-Apollo years, she links the demise of the Space Age to groups like the "church" of Noetics -- founded by astronaut Edgar Mitchell -- to the spread of UFO believers, even to the birth of fantasy literature. Propelling us through the golden age of Space Age-dreaming during the seventies and eighties, Benjamin finally touches down on...the Web. Has cyberspace become the new frontier we once thought outer space would be? From Florida's overgrown rocket graveyards to Roswell, New Mexico, and beyond, this skillful blend of history and social observation examines the rise and fall of America's space obsession as never before.

Marina Benjamin grew up in London, feeling estranged from her family's Middle Eastern ways, refusing to speak Arabic or eat their food. But when Benjamin had her own child a few years ago, she realized that she was losing her link to the past, inspiring a journey to Baghdad and into her family's history. Her discoveries will haunt anyone who seeks to understand a country whose ongoing struggles continue to command the world's attention. By turns moving and funny, "Last Days in Babylon" is an adventure story, a riveting history and a timely reminder that behind today's headlines are real people whose lives are caught in the crossfire of misunderstanding, prejudice and ambition.

In a society obsessed with living longer and looking younger, what does middle age mean today? Spurred by her own brutal propulsion into menopause, Marina Benjamin’s clear-eyed account of our middle years takes inspiration from literature and philosophy to weigh the challenges and opportunities of mid-life. It offers an inspired and expanded vision of how to be middle-aged happily and harmoniously, without sentiment or delusion.

An intense, lyrical, witty, and humane exploration of a state we too often consider only superficially. At once philosophical and poetical, Insomnia ranges widely over history and culture, literature and art, exploring a threshold experience that is intimately involved with trespass and contamination: the illicit importing of day into night.

Featured in Stylist’s ‘Can’t Miss’ Books of 2023 Sometimes I think that carrying — other people, the continuity of history, generational identity, the emotional load of the everyday — is the main thing that women do. In Marina Benjamin’s new set of interlinked essays, she turns her astute eye to the tasks once termed ‘women’s work’. From cooking and cleaning to caring for an ageing relative, A Little Give depicts domestic life anew: as a site of paradox and conflict, but also of solace and profound meaning. Here, productivity sits alongside self-erasure, resentment with tenderness, and the animal self is never far away, perpetually threatening to break through. Drawing on the work of figures such as Natalia Ginzburg, Paula Rego, and Virginia Woolf, Benjamin writes with fierce candour of the struggle to overwrite the gender conditioning that pulls her back into ‘the mud-world of pre-feminism’ even as she attempts to haul herself out. From her upbringing as the child of immigrants with fixed traditional values, to looking after her mother and seeing her teenager move out of home, she examines her relationships with family, community, her body, even language itself. Ultimately, she shows that a woman’s true work may lie at the heart of her humanity, in the pursuit both of transformation and of deep acceptance.

Sometimes I think that carrying--other people, the continuity of history, generational identity, the emotional load of the everyday--is the main thing that women do. In Marina Benjamin's new set of interlinked essays, she turns her astute eye to the tasks once termed "women's work". From cooking and cleaning to caring for an aging relative, A Little Give depicts domestic life anew: as a site of paradox and conflict, but also of solace and profound meaning. Here, productivity sits alongside self-erasure, resentment with tenderness, and the animal self is never far away, perpetually threatening to break through. Drawing on the work of figures such as Natalia Ginzburg, Paula Rego, and Virginia Woolf, Benjamin writes with fierce candor of the struggle to overwrite the gender conditioning that pulls her back into "the mud-world of pre-feminism" even as she attempts to haul herself out. From her upbringing as the child of immigrants with fixed traditional values, to looking after her mother and seeing her teenager move out of home, she examines her relationships with with family, community, her body, even language itself. Ultimately, she shows that a woman's true work may lie at the heart of her humanity, in the pursuit both of transformation and of deep acceptance.

50 år gammel kommer forfatteren brått i overgangsalderen, og med inspirasjon fra litteratur, medisin og filosofi undersøker hun tapene, mulighetene og tabuene i årene mellom ung og gammel. Boken vil tjene som en følgesvenn for kvinner som går gjennom de sjeldent omtalte fysiske og mentale endringene i overgangsalderen, og forfatteren kommer fram til en ny definisjon av seg selv som mor, samfunnsborger og kvinne.

50 år gammel kommer forfatteren brått i overgangsalderen, og med inspirasjon fra litteratur, medisin og filosofi undersøker hun tapene, mulighetene og tabuene i årene mellom ung og gammel. Boken vil tjene som en følgesvenn for kvinner som går gjennom de sjeldent omtalte fysiske og mentale endringene i overgangsalderen, og forfatteren kommer fram til en ny definisjon av seg selv som mor, samfunnsborger og kvinne.

En inspirerende og indsigtsfuld beretning om at nå milepælen 50 år uden selvbedrag eller sentimentalitet, men derimod med glæde, harmoni og blikket rettet mod fremtiden. Om at skære igennem og sige fra over for samfundets højtråbende krav om, at vi skal holde os unge og arbejde længere. Ansporet af sit eget brutale møde med klimakteriet vejer Marina Benjamin den snart midaldrendes glæder, sorger og livsmuligheder op mod hinanden, blandt andet med inspiration fra litteraturen og filosofien. Undervejs afslører hun desuden hormonbehandlingernes hemmelige og kvindefjendske historie og fortæller, hvorfor en dosis Jung er bedre end en tur i fitnesscenteret. At tage sig af sine til stadighed ældre forældre, sorgen og chokket forbundet med at miste en af dem, samtidig med at hun selv er forælder til en teenager og hendes egne begyndende skavanker er livsvilkår, som er fælles for mange midaldrende. Og midt i alt dette viser hun, at det er muligt at hengive sig til og favne overgangsalderen.

Boken Mellantid är en ögonöppnare. Brittiska journalisten och författaren Marina Benjamin skriver där avväpnande, lättsamt och idéhistoriskt berikande om klimakteriet.Maria Domellöf-Wik, Göteborgs-PostenDet här är en bok för alla som vill spy på självhjälpsböcker med käcka tillrop om att livet börjar vid femtio. Den ser på åldrandet med klarsyn och inte utan sorg, men med en stark vilja att utforska alla aspekter av det. Vad händer med förhållandet till en ännu äldre mor? Vad händer när en dotter börjar bli vuxen? Bland vännerna, som blir ännu viktigare, utspelar sig en tragedi. En av dem drabbas av en aggressiv cancer och går bort, dryga femtio år fyllda. Jämfört med henne har författaren ändå en framtid, vilket drabbar henne med starka känslor av skuld.Mellantidär indelad i kapitel med rubriker som Hud, Ryggrad, Muskler och Inälvor, men det är en bok som når så mycket längre än att beskriva det kroppsliga åldrandet. Det är en bok om livet. Om den del vi helst inte pratar om. Boken Mellantid är en ögonöppnare. Brittiska journalisten och författaren Marina Benjamin skriver där avväpnande, lättsamt och idéhistoriskt berikande om klimakteriet.Maria Domellöf-Wik, Göteborgs-PostenMarina Benjamin har skrivit om [klimakteriet] i en personlig, bildad och skarp essä om ämnet, där hon utgår från medicinhistoria, psykologi – och sin egen svarta humor.Gunilla Kindstrand, SvDStörst tröst och mest visdom finner jag i nyutkomna boken ”Mellantid”, en idéhistorisk, filosofisk och personlig bok om övergångsåldern, där den brittiska författaren Marina Benjamin brottas med en kultur som uppmanar kvinnor att dölja och förneka åldrandet.Åsa Sandell, Sydsvenskan