#Elizabeth Day

[contedivaldoca]

Le persone giungono a noi per una ragione. Lo scopo della loro interazione con noi è insegnarci qualcosa che abbiamo bisogno di apprendere

“L’arte di saper fallire”, E.Day

#Elizabeth Day #l'arte di saper fallire #letteratura #citazioni

[t0rschlusspan1k]

The Telegraph | 'God told us to exorcise my daughter's demons. I don't regret her death'

By Elizabeth Day

27 November 2005 • 12:01am

[...] From the very beginning, Anneliese's life was governed by fear. Her family was deeply religious. Her father had considered training as a priest and three of her aunts were nuns. But the Michels had a secret. In 1948, Anneliese's mother gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, Martha, bringing such disgrace on her family that she was forced to wear a black veil on her wedding day. When Anneliese was born in 1952, her mother encouraged her to atone for the sins of illegitimacy through fervent devotion. But when Martha was eight, she died from complications arising from an operation to remove a kidney tumour. Anneliese, a kind-hearted and deeply sensitive girl, must have felt ever more strongly the pressure to do penance for her mother.

She found herself increasingly surrounded by evidence of sinfulness and increasingly anxious to be rid of it. While other children in the 1960s were rebelling testing the limits of their freedom, Anneliese slept on a bare stone floor to atone for the sins of the drug addicts who slept rough at the local train station. In 1968, aged 17, she began to suffer convulsions. Although initially diagnosed with grand mal epilepsy, she started experiencing devilish hallucinations while praying. By 1973, she was suffering severe depression and considering suicide. Voices in her head told her she was damned. She asked the local priest for exorcism and was twice refused. But gradually, Anneliese slipped further into the abyss. She would perform 600 genuflections a day, eventually rupturing her knee ligaments. [...] In 1975, her third request for exorcism was granted by the Bishop of Wurzburg. "I don't regret it," says Anna Michel firmly. "There was no other way." We shall never know if there was. By this stage, Anneliese had refused further medical intervention from the Psychiatric Clinic Wurzburg. Her symptoms have subsequently been compared to schizophrenia and should have responded to treatment. There has also been speculation that Anneliese might have been influenced by the release of William Friedkin's The Exorcist, in 1973. But whatever lay behind her disturbance, the exorcism could have caused Anneliese to believe her own hallucinations. [...] Her parents buried her next to Martha at the outer edges of the cemetery - ground normally reserved for illegitimate children and suicides. Even in death, Anneliese was not free of the sinfulness she fought so hard to repent of.

Today, the 2000 inhabitants of Klingenberg are unwilling to speak of Anneliese Michel. A gentle enquiry to passers-by is greeted with hostile glares and a shake of the head. "The town is ashamed," says Christiana Metzler, 42, who works in the tourist office. "I was at school when it happened and there were a lot of things covered up. People don't want to talk about it. There is a feeling that it was the parents' fault because they were so religious they didn't see what was happening. Sometimes Catholic pilgrims come to her grave because they think she can save lost souls. But there are not many of them. Now there is this film coming out, we are worried it will all be stirred up again." It is a past that the Church is ashamed of, too. In 1984, German bishops petitioned Rome to review the exorcism rite in the light of the Michel case. Although their recommendations were not adopted, the Vatican published a revised exorcism rite in 1999 - the first update since the 17th century - and has introduced a qualification in exorcism that maks priests undergo medical training. "I wouldn't have carried out the exorcism [on Anneliese Michel]," admits Fr Dieter Feineis, the current priest at St Pankratius Church in Klingenberg. "But both Anna Michel and her husband remained absolutely convinced that what they had done was right. The view of the Church is that it is possible to be possessed, but in Germany there are no more exorcisms." In Italy, however, it is a different matter. According to the Italian Association of Psychiatrists and Psychologists, half a million Italians seek exorcisms each year. There are about 350 practising exorcists worldwide. Earlier this year, a priest and several nuns in a Romanian Orthodox convent in Tanacu believed that Maricia Irina Cornici, a 23-year-old nun, was possessed. They carried out an exorcism ritual and tied her to a cross, pushing a towel in her mouth and denying her food or water, She was dead three days later. [...]

#articles #The Telegraph #Anneliese Michel #exorcisms #religion #bigotry #true crime #murder #filicide #The Exorcism of Emily Rose #The Exorcist #1960s #1970s #women in history #Elizabeth Day #2005 #2000s #religious trauma #childhood trauma

[denimbex1986]

'I'm at home in London, currently in my kitchen. It's fine. It's a bit of a weird time, but I'm kind of determined that when it's all over I'll get something out of it, you know? It's the first time in a long time that I've been able to stop, so if people I love are able to remain healthy then I feel kind of grateful.

People keep talking about the eerie calm, but I don't think it's the calm that's eerie, it's the fact it's happened so quickly, because stuffing ourselves into a tube five days out of seven is pretty eerie, I think. There's loads of eerie stuff the other way too.

I've got a few daily activities to stay calm. The main one is avoiding freaking out. I decided to have five things that I'm going to do every day and if i don't do them I'm not going to freak out. The best thing that I did was listen to Mo Gawdat. He wrote a book on happiness [Solve For Happy] and Elizabeth Day interviews him on her podcast. He just speaks with an incredible humanity, generosity, wisdom and calm about what this could be and how rather than following the herd we should focus on what we do and think ourselves. The majority of us are safe, he says – though he doesn't minimise the pain that some people are going through – and it's really been beneficial. It's brilliant. Elizabeth Day has just interviewed the great philosopher Alain de Botton too. Both are just guys who have great overviews.

I encourage all people to use the mute button on social media more, by the way. We are surrounded by so much information at the moment. I do not need to see a picture of an empty shelf in a supermarket, because that signifies to me that you, my friend, are an empty shelf.

This is the first pandemic we've had with social media and there's so much information. It's brilliant, Instagram, but you suddenly become aware, when your world becomes smaller, that you just don't need to engage. And people's misery seems to be the same as their showing off – people seem to show off their misery as much as their fabulousness. There are some people on Instagram who make you think, “That person is invading my daily life and I haven’t even met them!” So to be able to decide “I don't need you at this time”… there's something good about that. It's about looking to console people, rather than be consoled.

I suppose one thing I'd really like to change after the pandemic is people's attitude to what social media actually is. The point is about real connection, not just to filter the fuck out of everything.

With Zoom and being able to be online all the time, maybe there is a way of staggering traffic into the office, for instance. Maybe you don't need to be in work for 9am every day. It makes you realise things can change. Good stuff will come out of it, I think. Shaking things up and making people question who they are outside of their day-to-day persona: that's not a bad thing. The question is what makes you genuinely happy? What do you miss?

I am missing dressing up and occasions and all that stuff. But I've always been a big fan of the nonevent. Like the day after a wedding or at a funeral, when you don't expect anything specific and you're allowed to be whatever you want.

I had a Zoom conversation with one of my friends the other day and we showed each other all the shit clothes we're wearing right now. We did a little fashion show. It's amazing how it moves to the background in a situation like this, clothes and all of that stuff. There's a great freedom in that.

I went to a surprise Zoom birthday last week and it makes you realise what you bring to a party. You've got to bring something! Dressing up and having a sense of occasion is usually what you bring to a party, but in Zoom land you've got to bring more than that – you've got to bring the party! You can't just stand there.

I find on Zoom after two drinks I'm hammered and then you come off the call and you find yourself in your apartment swaying around and your like, “Jesus, I'm absolutely gone. Who else will I Zoom?”

Sometimes you need to stop and look at what's outside work – what's important. It sounds like a cliché, but that's a really big one for me.

Both my sisters put me on to Ryan Heffington's dance classes. He's based in LA and he's just full of joy and it's really stupid. He asks you to pick up bits of your laundry and swing them around. He's got some “punch the president” moves. The music is really fun, really camp. It's on LA time, but it stays up until the next day. But he’s a really brilliant choreographer and he leads you through the moves so it's not all high-octane. Afterwards you just feel really brilliant!" [Follow Ryan Heffington on Instagram here.]

I'm in love with my resistance bands. You can do so much with them. In this time when everyone's in their head, it's important to keep the exercise up. I never really used these before because I always went to the gym, but I've found out that you can break a sweat at home! You can do all sorts of things with these – you stretch them as much as you can.

I've been watching a lot of Tiger King, obviously, but I've also been watching Making The Cut, that new show with Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn. It's amazing. I love a design show – I loved Project Runway, I liked Next In Fashion – but the judges in this are Naomi Campbell and Carine Roitfeld, so it's proper high fashion. I love all that kind of stuff.

People keep saying, “Stay connected,” and I think that's important, but the person you're spending all your time with is yourself. And If I'm not checking in with what's going on with me, and I'm constantly Face Timing people and looking outwards rather than inwards… you go a bit nuts. So it's been a good time to meditate. I've had a mixed experience with meditation, but as things have gone a bit more mental I've needed a still space. And with all this information, I've found that if you look inwards and find peace, you're able to take that peace to the world. It doesn't feel hippy-dippy to me; it feels scientific. If you get better at finding the calm in yourself, I think it's easier to make sense of what's happening.

In terms of grooming I'm using Murdock's sea salt spray, because it's the only bit of sea I'm going to get right now!'

#Mo Gawdat #Elizabeth Day #Andrew Scott #Lockdown #Tiger King #Making The Cut #Zoom #Alain de Botton #Solve For Happy #Ryan Heffington #Project Runway #Next in Fashion

[theimpalatales]

"We live in a culture that celebrates impossible perfection. We are repeatedly fed the lie that aspiration and ambition can only ever be grounded in our lust for unobtainable things... when, in fact, we can motivate ourselves in a different way, by seeking to find contentment in the expression of our truest selves as we already are."

Failosophy

If you use my link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org whose fees support independent bookshops.

#failosophy #elizabeth day #wednesday wisdom #mental health #bookblr #book addict #bookish #tbe

[105nt]

I finished Scissors Paper Stone by Elizabeth Day. She can write, I think. I was drawn on to finish the book despite the subject matter being disturbing and occasionally repulsive. I particularly liked reading people's often erroneous or harsh perceptions of each other back to back, especially the older women, Janet and Ann, whose relationship appears to be so throwaway at the start, but builds into something pivotal. I liked the hopefulness.

I was going to read Beloved by Toni Morrison next but I think I need something lighter between that and this so I am going to dip my toe into an Ann Cleeves series.

#my reading #scissors paper stone #elizabeth day

[chicastrology]

Waterstones Haul

Hey! As promised from my previous books post (My Top 10 Books of 2021) here are all the books I got from Waterstones a while ago. I was really lucky to get a £50 gift card as an incentive from my workplace and could choose where I wanted to spend it and my first thought was “Yes I can get more books!” As soon as I could I headed to the Waterstones flagship store in Piccadilly, London – the…

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#blogger #book blogger #book community #book cover #book lover #book recommendations #book review #book reviews #book wishlist #Books #bookworm #dark places #Elizabeth Day #Gillian Flynn #grown ups #haul #J.P. Delaney #Lifestyle #magpie #Normal People #review #Sally Rooney #The Last Thing He Told Me #waterstones

[azazel-dreams]

Magpie by Elizabeth Day

Rating: ❤️❤️❤❤❤

#Magpie #Elizabeth Day #books #book recommendations #book reviews

[cursemewithyourkiss]

The problem is that everything is now so deeply intermeshed I no longer know where I finish and where Ben starts. We are in the end just two chambers of the same poisoned heart.

The Party — Elizabeth Day

#hello its another day of feeling absolutely normal about hannibal #this book was also Something #hannibal #nbc hannibal #the party #the party elizabeth day #elizabeth day #words #books #webweaving #parallels #my edit

[oracleofmadness]

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for this Arc!

I love a good thriller! And, this was perfect especially because it included so much more than just thrills and chills!

Marisa finally finds somebody that she feels comfortable enough to start a life with. Jake seems like a great guy, however, nothing is exactly how it seems at first. This is something that I quickly understood as the author starts outlining the characters in the beginning of the story.

The happy couple move in together and fairly quickly realize they will need to take on a lodger to help pay the bills. Kate joins the household, a little too comfortably in Marisa's opinion. When Marisa becomes pregnant the story really takes on some interesting twists.

This wasn't like the usual thrillers I read because there was such an intense sense of hope bound to this story. Definitely a lot of intriguing pieces to put together and more than what I would typically expect.

Definitely recommend this!

Out May 3rd!

#magpie #elizabeth day #netgalley #arc book #arc review #arc #advancedreaderscopy #advanced reader copy #book #bookish #books #bookworm #book review #currently reading #read #bookblogger #reading #thriller #thriller books

[kkecreads]

The Magpie by Elizabeth Day

The Magpie by Elizabeth Day

Published: May 3, 2022Simon & SchusterPages: 332Genre: Psychological FictionKKECReads Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily. Elizabeth Day is an author, journalist, and broadcaster. Elizabeth is a columnist for You magazine on the Mail on Sunday and a feature writer for numerous publications in the UK and US, including The Telegraph, The…

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#5 stars #amazon #approved #arc #blog #blogger #blogging #book #book blog #book blogger #Book review #booklr #Books #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #dark #Elizabeth day #excellent book #family #fiction #five stars #goodreads #intense #katy #Katy approved #katy approves #katyapproved #kindle #kkec #kkecreads

[contedivaldoca]

I nostri pensieri peggiori molto spesso non ci dicono la verità

“L’arte di saper fallire”, E.Day

#Elizabeth Day #l'arte di saper fallire #letteratura #citazioni

[a-skirmish-of-wit-and-lit]

Book Review: Magpie by Elizabeth Day

Marissa and Jake move in together after only three months of dating, both of them intent on starting a family as soon as possible. However, when money trouble forces them to take in a lodger named Kate, their relationship is pushed to the brink when she starts crossing too many boundaries. Not only does Kate become overly familiar with Jake - touching him playfully, making him meals, signing her text messages with little "x's" - but she soon starts to treat their home, and Marisa's pregnancy, as if it were her own. What is going on? Why is this lodger everywhere, with her nose in everything the couple does? And how come when Marisa grows more unsettled and suspicious about Kate's intentions does Jake brush it aside, or worse, not seem to mind? As far as domestic thrillers go, Magpie is taut, twisted, and psychologically suspenseful. At least for the first half of the story. There's an unexpected twist partway through that changes everything from the narrative point of view to the readers' perception of what is real and which characters they can or cannot trust that gives this book its pulse, that gives it its major surge of adrenaline and intensity. That part was excellent. It kept me on the edge of my seat. However, I am sorry to say that tension did not last through to the end. While the conflicts between Marisa, Kate, and Annabelle were layered, were laced with a lot of emotional and psychological subtext, they didn't seem to build toward anything concrete or substantial. They tapered off in wayward directions the longer the story progressed. What was the point of that initial twist then? Why the switch up? How come the first and second halves of the plot felt so disconnected? With that in mind, the climax didn't hit with the wild, crazy KA-BOOM I was anticipating. Instead, it landed with a dull thud that felt disembodied from the rest of the story. So that was disappointing. I did like the character-driven focus of this, though. There were a lot of insights about mental health, romantic and familial relationships, surrogacy, and infertility that I found to be compelling. Despite my issues with the ending, I thought it was a fast, foreboding read and I'd still recommend it thriller lovers everywhere. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC.

3/5 stars

**Follow me on Goodreads

#ashlee bree's book reviews #magpie #elizabeth day #arcs #contemporary #mystery/thriller #domestic thriller #recs: ashlee approved! #read march 2022 #coming may 2022 #bookblr #book reviews

[rachaelstray]

Friendaholic - review (AD)

I was kindly given an advanced electronic copy of Friendaholic by Elizabeth Day in exchange for an honest review*. Friendaholic book blurb As a society, there is a tendency to elevate romantic love. But what about friendships? Aren’t they just as – if not more – important? So why is it hard to find the right words to express what these uniquely complex bonds mean to us? In Friendaholic:…

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#book #book review #Elizabeth Day #Friendaholic #read #Reading #recommendation

[theimpalatales]

“Negative feelings will sometimes give us the wrong advice because they are automatic reflexes, hardwired in us from past experiences that might no longer be relevant to our current situation.”

Elizabeth Day, Failosophy

#monday motivation #mental health #bookblr #elizabeth day #monday #reading #booklover #failosophy #readers #writerblr

[fashionandfrappes]

Everything I Read in October 2023: Some Disappointments and Some Discomfort

Now when I look back, reading in October 2023 was not great. One major disappointment, some indifferent and some decent enough light reads. The only book I can say I will remember vividly in a few months time is The Whispers. I don’t think I can say the same about the rest. Continue reading Untitled

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#Ashley Audrain #Elizabeth Day #Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

[105nt]

I finished Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans. I have a full life and limited time to myself and I couldn't wait to get back to this book every day. It was laugh-out-loud funny, warmed my heart - well, I am menopausal actually so it didn't need warming - perhaps it soothed my heartburn and was over far, far too quick. If you like a story about the underbelly, the grifters, the prosaic, day-to-day type of wrong-doing this might be for you. Loved it.

Moving on to ...

... which will be my first Elizabeth Day and one of two in my TBR pile.

#crooked heart #my reading #lissa evans #elizabeth day #scissors paper stone #to be read