Kate’s 2¢: “Beyond Black” by Hilary Mantel  

“Beyond Black” by Hilary Mantel  

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   I enjoyed listening to Martha Harmon Pardee dramatically read this lengthy story, however, I mussed have missed the point of the narrative.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dame Hilary Mary Mantel DBE FRSL (/mænˈtɛl/ man-TEL;[4] born Thompson; 6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories.[5] Her first published novel, Every Day Is Mother’s Day, was released in 1985. She went on to write 12 novels, two collections of short stories, a memoir, and numerous articles and opinion pieces.

Early life[edit]

Hilary Mary Thompson was born on 6 July 1952 in Glossop, Derbyshire,[7] the eldest of three children, with two younger brothers, and raised as a Roman Catholic[8] in the mill village of Hadfield, where she attended St. Charles Roman Catholic Primary School.

Her parents, Margaret (née Foster) and Henry Thompson (a clerk), were both Catholics of Irish descent, born in England. When Mantel was seven, her mother’s lover, Jack Mantel, moved in with the family. He shared a bedroom with her mother, while her father moved to another room. Four years later, when she was eleven, the family, except for her father, moved to Romiley, Cheshire, to escape the local gossip. She never saw her father again.[9]

When the family relocated, Jack Mantel (1932–1995)[10][11] became her unofficial stepfather, and she legally took his surname.[12][13] She attended Harrytown Convent school in Romiley, Cheshire.

In 1970, she began studies at the London School of Economics to read law.[5] She transferred to the University of Sheffield and graduated as a Bachelor of Jurisprudence[14] in 1973.[11] After university, Mantel worked in the social work department of a geriatric hospital and then as a sales assistant at Kendals department store in Manchester.[15]

In 1973, she married Gerald McEwen, a geologist.[15] In 1974, she began writing a novel about the French Revolution, but was unable to find a publisher (it was eventually released as A Place of Greater Safety in 1992). In 1977 Mantel moved with her husband to Botswana, where they lived for the next five years.[16] Later, they spent four years in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.[17] She later said that leaving Jeddah felt like “the happiest day of [her] life”.[18] She published memoirs of this period in The Spectator,[19] and the London Review of Books.[20][21]

Her 2005 novel, Beyond Black, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2005.

Set in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it features a professional medium, Alison Hart, whose calm and jolly exterior conceals grotesque psychic damage. She trails around with her a troupe of “fiends”, who are invisible but always on the verge of becoming flesh.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Beyond black DB61533

Author: Mantel, Hilary

Reading Time: 13 hours, 47 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Martha Harmon Pardee

Subjects: Occult and Horror Fiction, Psychological Fiction

For five years divorcée Colette has lent her business skills to professional psychic Alison, a clairvoyant beleaguered by spirits of the deceased. The women attempt to reinvent themselves in the English countryside, where they face material and metaphysical obstacles including nosy neighbors and ghostly adversaries. Strong language. 2005.

New York : Henry Holt and Co., c2005.

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Kate’s 2¢: “All That’s Left To Say” byEmery Lord  

“All That’s Left To Say” byEmery Lord  

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Krystal Hammond did a good job reading this story. I like the way the debate strategy was applied to so many situations. The ending was inspirational and helpful.

A few take-aways:

–It’s possible to acknowledge a clever play  and resent it at the same time.

–I didn’t attempt recovery….because I thought I was better off drunk.

–Secrets mean shame or resentment, which makes it harder not to drink.

–I think it is better to drag things out into the light.

–Sometimes I thought I’d lost my instinct for the realethical truth.

–Recovery from any thing requires supportI don’t have to go it alone.

Featured snippet from the web

Emery Lord biography

Emery Lord is an American author of contemporary young adult fiction. Her novels often explore themes of friendship, identity and resilience, set against realistic backdrops. Her debut novel, Open Road Summer (2014), follows a teenage girl on tour with a country singer friend.Jul.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

All that’s left to say DB122434

Author: Lord, Emery

Reading Time: 12 hours, 50 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Krystal Hammond

Subjects: Mystery and Detective Stories, Psychological Fiction, Young Adult

Downloaded: 11/17/2025

“A year ago Hannah MacLaren’s cousin and best friend Sophie died of an overdose. Drowning in grief, Hannah became obsessed with one question: Who gave Sophie those pills? She enrolls at her cousin’s fancy private school with a new look and a mouthful of lies, determined to uncover the truth. She didn’t expect Sophie’s friends to be so complicated. She didn’t expect to fall for her longtime enemy. Will Hannah see her search through to its end– even if it means destroying herself?” — Adapted from jacket Unrated. Commercial audiobook. For senior high and older readers.

New York : OrangeSky Audio, 2024.

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Kate’s 2¢: “The underworld: journeys to the depths of the ocean” by Susan Casey   

“The underworld: journeys to the depths of the ocean”

by Susan Casey   

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

Susan Casey did a good job of narrating her own book for us. It was one of seven books sent to me on one cartridge from the NLS.

   I liked the way she gave not just the facts about the history of submersibles, but also some of the personalities she met and the feelings they had about their dives and careers.

   Her descriptions of the animals and formations she observed while in the deeps were vivid and intriguing. I’d agree with her that the “stip mining’ of the oceans is a bad idea.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Susan Casey (born 1962) is a Canadian writer. She has been led editor of Sports Illustrated Women and O, The Oprah Magazine and she has written several non-fiction books including The Devil’s Teeth concerning sharks in the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary in California. In 2023, Casey published The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean, an investigation of the deep ocean, its history, its champions, and the urgent need for protection from destruction. Captivated by mysteries held by the 98% of our biosphere which is in the dark, Casey spent years researching the book, including two deep dives in Hawaii and the Caribbean.[9]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The underworld: journeys to the depths of the ocean DB117876

Author: Casey, Susan

Reading Time: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Read by: Susan Casey

Subjects: Nature and the Environment, Science and Technology

“A journey through the history of deep-sea exploration, from the myths and legends of the ancient world to storied shipwrecks we can now reach on the bottom, to the first intrepid bathysphere pilots, to the scientists who are just beginning to understand the mind-blowing complexity and ecological importance of the quadrillions of creatures who live in realms long thought to be devoid of life.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

New York : Penguin Random House Audio, [2023]

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Kate’s 2¢: “Cocktails with George and Martha: movies, marriage, and the making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” by Philip Gefter

“Cocktails with George and Martha: movies, marriage, and the making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” by Philip Gefter

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Laura Giannarelli did a good job of narrating this lengthy book for us. It was one of seven books sent to me on one cartridge.

   “What a dump! May live forever in the minds of those who watched “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Wolf?”, but this story is sometimes difficult to follow through the many strands of songs, plays, plots, and diversions.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Philip Gefter is an American cultural historian[1] and the author of four books: Photography After Frank (2009), a book of essays; Wagstaff: Before and After Mapplethorpe (2014),[2] the biography of Sam Wagstaff, for which he received the 2014 Marfield Prize, the national award for arts writing. What Becomes A Legend Most (2020), the biography of Richard Avedon; and Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2024). He was on staff at The New York Times for over fifteen years, both as a picture editor and photography critic. He produced the 2011 documentary film, Bill Cunningham New York.

Life[edit]

Gefter received a fine arts degree from the Pratt Institute in painting and photography.[3] He began his career as a picture researcher in the Time-Life Picture Collection,[citation needed] which exposed him to the photographs of Walker Evans, Margaret Bourke-White, Robert Capa, W. Eugene Smith, Gordon Parks, and Alfred Eisenstaedt, among other consequential photographers. Following that, he took a job at Aperture Foundation, where, as assistant editor, he worked on the Aperture History of Photography series and on publications such as Edward Weston: Nudes; America and Lewis Hine; and the re-publication of Robert Frank’s The Americans.

From 1992 until 2016, he was on staff at The New York Times as a picture editor, becoming the Page One Picture Editor from 1999 until 2003, and, then, as a picture editor in Culture, writing about photography as a critic for the paper.

In 2002, he and Richard Press (who were married in 2008) commissioned the architect, Michael Bell, to build a house for them in New York State’s Hudson Valley. The Gefter-Press House,[4] completed in 2007, is included in the book, American Masterworks: Houses of the Twentieth and Twenty First Centuries (Rizzoli), by the architectural historian, Kenneth Frampton.

In 2011, he and Richard Press released their feature-length documentary film Bill Cunningham New York, about The New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham.

In 2011, Gefter received a Museum Scholar residency at the Getty Research Institute,[5] the Getty Center, in Los Angeles, to work on a biography of Sam Wagstaff, the curator, collector, and patron of Robert Mapplethorpe, for the publisher W. W. Norton/Liveright, a project he began in 2009.

In 2025, Gefter’s papers were acquired by the Beinecke Library at Yale University, including his writings, his journals, personal papers, correspondence, photographs, drawings, printed material, and artifacts. [6]

Gay rights[edit]

Beginning in the early 1970s, Gefter was active in the gay rights movement, in the Gay Activists Alliance; Gay Academic Union; and Gay Media Coalition.[citation needed] He coauthored and was a subject of a book about his same-sex relationship, Lovers: The Story of Two Men (Avon, 1979). In 1981, he was a founding member of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, formed in Larry Kramer’s living room when the earliest cases of HIV/AIDS (still then yet to be named) were reported. In 1991, he was a founding member of the New York chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, serving as chapter president from 1993 to 1995.[citation needed]

• 2024: Theater Library Association’s Richard Wall Memorial Award Special Jury Prize [8] for Cocktails with George and Martha.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Cocktails with George and Martha: movies, marriage, and the making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? fDB121300

Author: Gefter, Philip

Reading Time: 14 hours, 24 minutes

Read by: Laura Giannarelli

Subjects: Biography of Entertainers, Biography of Writers, Drama, Human Relations, Literature

“An award-winning author presents the history and impact of both the theatrical and cinematic versions of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and how it forced audiences to confront deeply-held concepts about relationships, sex, and family”–OCLC. Strong language.

New York : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024.

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