{"title":"Marina Benjamin","description":"\u003cp\u003eMarina Benjamin is a distinguished author whose works delve into the intricacies of human experience through the lenses of philosophy, science, and personal development. Her books resonate with readers seeking profound insights into life's transitional phases and the complexities of the modern age.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eA Little Give\u003c\/em\u003e, Benjamin explores themes of resilience, vulnerability, and the subtle gifts that life offers in times of adversity. This book offers a reflective examination of how individuals can find strength and meaning in life's challenges.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eInsomnia\u003c\/em\u003e takes readers on a profound journey into the restless world of sleeplessness. With a philosophical touch, Benjamin blends personal narrative with broader reflections on the cultural and psychological dimensions of insomnia, offering solace and understanding to those familiar with this nightly struggle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith \u003cem\u003eThe Middlepause: On Turning Fifty\u003c\/em\u003e, Benjamin provides an insightful and candid exploration of midlife. Balancing science, philosophy, and personal anecdotes, she addresses the physical and emotional transformations that accompany this milestone, ultimately presenting a refreshed perspective on ageing and self-renewal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhether you're seeking to understand the internal dialogues of midlife, the nightly dance with wakefulness, or the quiet resilience in life's pressures, Marina Benjamin's collection offers valuable wisdom and a gentle touch of humanity.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"a-little-give-by-marina-benjamin-9781922585660","title":"A Little Give","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSometimes 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 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, \u003ci\u003eA Little Give\u003c\/i\u003e depicts domestic life anew as a site of paradox and conflict, but also of solace and profound meaning. In it, productivity sits alongside self-erasure, resentment with tenderness, and the animal self is never far away, perpetually threatening to break through.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on the work of figures such as Natalia Ginzburg, Paula Rego, and Virginia Woolf, Benjamin writes with forensic 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 whose culture she rejected, to looking after her mother and seeing her teenager move out of home, she examines her relationships with family, community, her body, and 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'We all know the existential funk that housework can incite, women more so than men as they have traditionally carried the load. Not to mention the mixed emotions that go with caring for others. Marina Benjamin ruminates on the historical and societal pressures, constraints and value of this work through the lens of her own Iraqi-Jewish family - her dynamic, frustrated mother who drummed into her that \"women were put on this planet to please\" and her creative father who didn't question that being looked after was his due. No simple solutions are offered. Instead, she rewardingly riffs on the visceral push and pull of this work.'\u003c\/em\u003e - Cameron Woodhead, \u003ci\u003eThe Sydney Morning Herald\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Acerbic and tender all at once, \u003ci\u003eA Little Give\u003c\/i\u003e voices the unspeakable tangle of feelings that assail women in middle age. I can think of few writers so astute and exact as Marina Benjamin.'\u003c\/em\u003e - Katherine May, author of \u003ci\u003eWintering\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'With its unfailing attentiveness to the sensory and emotional textures of everyday life, Marina Benjamin's beautiful writing feels like a model of good care. A wry, absorbing, and very moving book.'\u003c\/em\u003e - Josh Cohen, author of \u003ci\u003eHow to Live. What to Do\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46342541213932,"sku":"9781922585660","price":34.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/14267723482872.jpg?v=1743918455"},{"product_id":"insomnia-by-marina-benjamin-9781925322767","title":"Insomnia","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn intense, lyrical, witty, and humane exploration of a state we too often consider only superficially.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith her new memoir \u003cem\u003eInsomnia\u003c\/em\u003e, Marina Benjamin has produced an unsettling account of an unsettling condition that treats our inability to sleep not as a disorder, but as an existential experience that can electrify our understanding of ourselves, and of creativity and love.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eInsomnia\u003c\/em\u003e is a bravura piece of writing. At once philosophical and poetical, the book 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. With \u003cem\u003eInsomnia\u003c\/em\u003e, Benjamin aims to light up the workings of our inner minds, delivering a startlingly fresh look at what it means to be wakeful in the dark.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46549191393516,"sku":"9781925322767","price":32.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/13553003482873.jpg?v=1749888434"},{"product_id":"the-middlepause-on-turning-fifty-by-marina-benjamin-9781925321340","title":"The Middlepause: on turning fifty","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Middlepause\u003c\/em\u003e offers hope and heart. Cutting through society's clamorous demands to work longer and stay young, it delivers a clear-eyed account of midlife's challenges.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSpurred by her own brutal propulsion into menopause, Marina Benjamin weighs the losses, joys and opportunities of our middle years, taking inspiration from literature and philosophical example. She uncovers the secret misogynistic history of HRT, and tells us why a dose of Jung is better than a trip to the gym.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAttending to ageing parents, the shock of bereavement, parenting a teenager, and her own health woes, she emerges into a new definition of herself as daughter, mother, citizen and woman.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMarina Benjamin suggests there's comfort and guidance in memory, milestones and margins, and offers an inspired and expanded vision of how to be middle-aged happily and harmoniously, without sentiment or delusion, making \u003cem\u003eThe Middlepause\u003c\/em\u003e a companion, and a friend.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46868892582124,"sku":"9781925321340","price":37.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/13538733482873.jpg?v=1759774838"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/marina-benjamin.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}