The Anatomy Shelf Issue #17 (December 2022)
A note from the editor:
The Anatomy Shelf was on hiatus for a few months due to unforeseen circumstances. Thank you so much for your patience and support during this difficult time. I am thrilled that The Anatomy Shelf is to be released on a monthly basis once again!
I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who liked, subscribed, shared, and contributed to The Anatomy Shelf. A special thanks to Charlotte Winter and Emmet Jackson for their fantastic guest articles, click the links below to read them:
Handling Human Remains: ‘The Small Skull’ and a Change of Perspective By Emmet Jackson (PhD Candidate, History of Egyptology)
The Weird: A Love Letter by Charlotte Winter
I am very excited for 2023, head to the submissions sections if you would like to be featured in The Anatomy Shelf next year!
Thank you all!!!
Best wishes,
Lauren
Gothicbookworm
Thank you for subscribing to The Anatomy shelf, a monthly newsletter exploring the body in literature and history, dedicated in bringing you the latest news! The text (blurbs, bios, events etc) have all been copied from the original source.
If you wish to submit to The Anatomy Shelf, please read the submission guidelines & contact information via the link below:
I am looking for written pieces, reviews, articles, short fiction, images, photography, art, and more, all related to the body in history, literature, and art, so please get in touch theanatomyshelf@gmail.com
Social media links: TWITTER & INSTAGRAM [@theanatomyshelf]
CONTENTS:
Highlights of 2022: A look back on some great anatomy themed book releases this year
The Facemaker: One Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris
What my Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo
Strange Relics: Stories of Archaeology and the Supernatural, 1895-1954 edited by Amara Thornton and Katy Soar
The Horned God: Weird Tales of the Great God Pan Michael Wheatley
Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda
Murder Isn't Easy: The Forensics of Agatha Christie by Carla Valentine
What to Expect in 2023
More from The Anatomy Shelf
Jack Harding
Submissions!
Thank you!
Highlights of 2022: A look back on some great anatomy themed book releases this year
This year has seen an incredible amount of book published with an anatomical theme. From academic text to fictional stories, 2022 has been a fantastic year for publishing with anatomy content! Here are just a few highlights:
*I have not included academic/scholarly books in this issue as there will be a special in 2023!
The Facemaker: One Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris (Penguin Books Ltd), ISBN: 9780241389379 336 pages
Shedding light on the ambitious work of the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies with the First World War soldiers who sustained facial injuries in battle, The Facemaker tells the story of how imagination and medical innovation helped to restore faces – and identities – wrecked by war.
From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: mankind's military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. The war caused carnage on an industrial scale, and the nature of trench warfare meant that thousands sustained facial injuries. In The Facemaker, award-winning historian Lindsey Fitzharris tells the true story of the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, who dedicated himself to restoring the faces of a brutalized generation.
Gillies, a Cambridge-educated New Zealander, established one of the world's first hospitals dedicated entirely to facial reconstruction. At a time when losing a limb made a soldier a hero but losing a face made him a monster to a society largely intolerant of facial differences, Gillies restored not just faces, but identities and spirits.
The Facemaker places Gillies's ingenious surgical innovations alongside the dramatic stories of soldiers whose lives were wrecked and repaired. The result is a vivid account of how medicine and art can merge, and of what courage and imagination can accomplish in the presence of relentless horror.
More information: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-facemaker/lindsey-fitzharris/9780241389379
What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo, (Atlantic Books) ISBN: 9781911630944, 352 pages, Hardback, £18.99
Every cell in my body is filled with the code of generations of trauma, of death, of birth, of migration, of history that I cannot understand. . . . I want to have words for what my bones know.
By the age of thirty, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: she had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at This American Life and a loving boyfriend. But behind her office door, she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk every morning. After years of questioning what was wrong with herself, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD - a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years.
Both of Foo's parents abandoned her when she was a teenager, after years of physical and verbal abuse and neglect. She thought she'd moved on, but her new diagnosis illuminated the way her past continued to threaten her health, relationships, and career. She found limited resources to help her, so Foo set out to heal herself, and to map her experiences onto the scarce literature about C-PTSD.
In this deeply personal and thoroughly researched account, Foo interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies. She returns to her hometown in California to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations. Ultimately, she discovers that you don't move on from trauma - but you can learn to move with it.
Powerful, enlightening and hopeful, What My Bones Know is a brave narrative that reckons with the hold of the past over the present, the mind over the body - and examines one woman's ability to reclaim agency from her trauma.
More information: https://www.waterstones.com/book/9781911630944
Strange Relics Stories of Archaeology and the Supernatural, 1895-1954 by Amara Thornton (editor), Katy Soar (editor) (Handheld Press) ISBN: 9781912766581, 195 pages, Paperback, £12.99
Handheld Press presents a new classic short story anthology, combining the supernatural and archaeology. Never before have so many relics from the past caused such delicious and intriguing shivers down the spine. Archaeological historian Amara Thornton of the University of London, and Classical archaeologist Katy Soar from the University of Winchester have curated a selection of twelve outstanding short stories encompassing horror, ghosts, hauntings, and possession, all from archaeological excavation. From a Neolithic rite to Egyptian religion to Roman remains to medieval masonry to some uncanny ceramic tiles in a perfectly ordinary American sun lounge, the relics in these stories are, frankly, horrible. Stories include: 'The Ape', by E F Benson 'Roman Remains', by Algernon Blackwood 'Ho! The Merry Masons', by John Buchan 'Through the Veil', by Arthur Conan Doyle 'View From A Hill', M R James 'Curse of the Stillborn', by Margery Lawrence 'Whitewash', by Rose Macaulay 'The Shining Pyramid', by Arthur Machen 'Cracks of Time', by Dorothy Quick 'The Cure', by Eleanor Scott
Strange Relics is an anthology of classic short stories in which the supernatural and archaeology are combined, originally published from 1895 to 1954. Never before have so many relics from the past caused such delicious and intriguing shivers down the spine.
Archaeological historian Amara Thornton of the University of London, and Classical archaeologist Katy Soar from the University of Winchester have curated a selection of twelve outstanding short stories encompassing horror, ghosts, hauntings, and possession, all from archaeological excavation. From a Neolithic rite to Egyptian religion to Roman remains to medieval masonry to some uncanny ceramic tiles in a perfectly ordinary American sun lounge, the relics in these stories are, frankly, horrible.
More information: https://www.handheldpress.co.uk/shop/fantasy-and-science-fiction/strange-relics-stories-of-archaeology-and-the-supernatural/
https://www.waterstones.com/book/strange-relics/amara-thornton/katy-soar/9781912766581
***It should be noted all of the books Handheld Press publish are fantastic, this one in particular which was released this year stood out for me on an anatomical reading
The Horned God: Weird Tales of the Great God Pan - British Library Tales of the Weird (32) edited by Michael Wheatley (British Library Publishing) ISBN: 9780712354967, 320 pages, Paperback, £9.99
'...and then the music was so loud, so beautiful that I couldn't think of anything else. I was completely lost to the music, enveloped by melody which was part of Pan.' In 1894, Arthur Machen's landmark novella The Great God Pan was published, sparking the sinister resurgence of the pagan goat god. Writers of the late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, such as Oscar Wilde, E. M. Forster and Margery Lawrence, took the god's rebellious influence as inspiration to spin beguiling tales of social norms turned upside down and ancient ecological forces compelling their protagonists to ecstatic heights or bizarre dooms. Assembling ten tales and six poems - along with Machen's novella - from the boom years of Pan-centric literature, this new collection revels in themes of queer awakening, transgression against societal bonds and the bewitching power of the wild as it explores a rapturous and culturally significant chapter in the history of weird fiction.
More information: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-horned-god/michael-wheatley/9780712354967
***It should be noted all of the British Library Tales of the Weird collection have been a delight to read, this one in particular which was released this year stood out for me on an anatomical reading
Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda (Little, Brown Book Group, 2022) ISBN: 9780349015613 256 pages, Hardback, £14.99
Following Lydia, a young gallery intern in London who can only digest human blood, Woman, Eating puts a deliciously fresh spin on a vampire narrative, while mining serious themes of race, misogyny and body image with pitch-perfect subtlety.
Lydia is hungry. She's always wanted to try sashimi, ramen, onigiri with sour plum stuffed inside - the food her Japanese father liked to eat. And then there is bubble tea and the vegetables grown by the other young artists at the London studio space she is secretly squatting in. But Lydia can't eat any of this. The only thing she can digest is blood, and it turns out that sourcing fresh pigs' blood in London - where she is living away from her vampire mother for the first time - is much more difficult than she'd anticipated.
Then there are the humans: the people at the gallery she interns at, the strange men who follow her after dark, and Ben, a goofy-grinned artist she is developing feelings for. Lydia knows that they are her natural prey, but she can't bring herself to feed on them.
If Lydia is to find a way to exist in the world, she must reconcile the conflicts within her - between her demon and human sides, her mixed ethnic heritage, and her relationship with food, and, in turn, humans. Before any of this, however, she must eat.
More information: https://www.waterstones.com/book/woman-eating/claire-kohda/9780349015613
Murder Isn't Easy: The Forensics of Agatha Christie by Carla Valentine (Little, Brown Book Group)
ISBN: 9780751577792 368 pages, Paperback, £9.99
Agatha Christie is one of our most beloved authors - a storyteller unparalleled in her clever plots and twisting tales. But Agatha was also a forensic expert; in each of her books she employs an expert weaving of human observation, ingenuity and genuine science of the era.
In Murder Isn't Easy Carla Valentine illuminates all of Agatha's incredible knowledge, showing how she stayed at the cutting edge of forensics from ballistics to fingerprint analysis, as seen through much-loved characters such as Poirot and Miss Marple.
From the glamour and grit of Agatha Christie's stories, to the real-life cases that inspired them, Murder Isn't Easy will immerse you in the forensics that influenced generations of writers and scientists alike.
More information: https://www.waterstones.com/book/murder-isnt-easy/carla-valentine/9780751577792
WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2023
The structure of The Anatomy Shelf will remain relatively similar, with nee and upcoming releases, special features, CFPs, and free online events. However, I will also be incorporating some new features as well! You can expect more reviews, interviews, and guest articles especially. Here’s to a fabulous 2023!
Speaking of guest articles, here is how you can submit yours! Click the link below for more information!
JACK HARDING!
From the author that brought you Ripper Country and Dark Lines, Harding is on a roll! Already established as a gifted horror writer, we can expect further amazing things from this incredible new talent in horror, watch this space!
In the meantime, check out Jack’s books so far:
Ripper Country by Jack Harding (Dark Lit Press/Blood Rites Horror), ISBN: 9781738705412, 385 pages
A darkly twisted feast of Gothic horror stories that will take you to the edge of darkness - and beyond...
Welcome to RIPPER COUNTRY.
A semi-alternate Victorian London where imagination runs wild and madness reigns supreme. Where the cobbled streets run red with the blood of the innocent, and unscrupulous fiends come out to play. Where the wicked stench coming off the old river pales in comparison to the foulness of the crimes that will forever haunt the annals of British history.
Where the man you know as Jack The Ripper is the least of Whitechapel's worries.
Inside these pages, you will find stories of fear, madness, suspense and terror that will stay with you long after you turn the last page.
Enjoy this blood-soaked debut collection from Jack Harding, author of React and Driving in the Dark, a British horror author set to leave his own bloody legacy on this haunted land...
Moe information: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ripper-Country-Collection-Jack-Harding/dp/1915272041
Dark Lines: Haunting Tales of Horror by Jack Harding, ISBN-13 : 979-8813699962, 500 pages
From the author of Ripper Country comes sixteen tales of psychological horror, each more frightening than the last. Venture into a dark and brooding world of twists and turns where things are rarely as they seem, and terror reigns supreme…
A mother is haunted by an apocalyptic vision…a husband banished to the couch is awoken by a bump in the night…a vampire catches up with an old friend…a brooding man-child suffers some unpleasant side effects from a new medication…an office worker’s routine commute home turns out to be anything but…
Let Jack Harding take you on a perilous journey into the nightmare-inducing landscape he has crafted for your enjoyment. Dark Lines: Haunting Tales of Horror is a versatile and gut-wrenching collection that will stir your senses, and stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.
Thank you for reading this month’s issue of The Anatomy Shelf.
If you have anything you would like me to include in the next issue, please DM me on social media, email theanatomyshelf.gmail.com or message me on Substack by Monday 23rd January to guarantee its inclusion.
Please also send me your submissions! If you wish to submit to The Anatomy Shelf, please read the submission guidelines & contact information via the link below:
I am looking for written pieces, reviews, articles, short fiction, images, photography, art, and more, all related to the body in history, literature, and art, so please get in touch theanatomyshelf@gmail.com
For more updates, please visit my social media:
Twitter: @gothicbookworm @theanatomyshelf
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Best wishes,
Lauren, The Gothic Bookworm