The combative broadcaster’s memoir mixes engaging snapshots of his early career with some score-settling and a robust defence of his interviewing styleJohn Humphrys is the first to admit he doesn’t deal well with authority. He inherited it from his father, who refused to use the service entrance at the grand houses where he worked as a French polisher and, as a child, once watched his aunt get a humiliating dressing-down from the vicar for missing church. Humphrys had his own brush with condescending authority figures when he was in hospital with a cyst on his spine at 13, and an “arrogant posh bastard consultant” told his retinue of trainees it was because he didn’t wash regularly. “I don’t like being defined or told what to do, whoever is in charge,” he notes, a stance that has proved useful for grilling politicians (he has interviewed eight prime ministers), though it has also landed him in hot water.His memoir mixes engaging snapshots of his early career and analysis of the evolution of broadcasting with diatribes and petty score-settling. The early chapters tell of his passage from teen lackey on the Penarth Times in Wales, where his main task was standing outside the local church taking the names of those attending weddings and funerals, to being the first journalist on the scene at the Aberfan disaster, near Merthyr Tydfil, in which 116 children and 28 adults died after a colliery tip collapsed. Later he became a BBC foreign correspondent, reporting on the 1971 war... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-10-10 06:30:10 UTC ]
“I’m fascinated by stories of how the various plant specimens we take for granted today were originally discovered,” says the actor, whose latest book is “Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-12-05 10:00:03 UTC ]
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Led by sales of such of powerhouse titles as Delia Owen's wildly popular novel 'Where the Crawdads Sing' on the fiction list, and Michelle Obama's memoir 'Becoming' for nonfiction, Amazon released lists of the e-tailers top selling books of 2019. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-12-05 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Storybound is a radio theater program designed for the podcast age. Hosted by Jude Brewer and with original music composed for each episode, the podcast features the voices of today’s literary icons reading their essays, poems, and fiction. In our first episode, Mitch Albom reads an excerpt from... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-12-03 09:47:32 UTC ]
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Of Bohumil Hrabal’s six great loves, guess how many were cats? (Hint: almost all of them.) | Lit Hub Memoir The car culture that’s helping destroy the planet was by no means inevitable: on the relentless campaign to force Americans to accept the automobile. | Lit Hub History Here are the 78 best... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-11-30 12:30:39 UTC ]
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“UNLIKE MOST JEWISH BOYS from New Jersey, I have a Jamaican accent,” writes Ross Kenneth Urken in Another Mother, his memoir in which he goes in search of both his recollections of the Jamaican nanny who raised him and all of the things he never knew about her before she died. He writes,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-11-24 20:00:33 UTC ]
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THE QUEER COMING-OF-AGE MEMOIR is a weapon against erasure. The best of these memoirs move us by daring to be profoundly specific, providing a necessary consolation to readers who might have believed until then that they were alone in the dark. That their suffering would have no choice but to... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-11-24 13:30:59 UTC ]
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If Michelle Obama's memoir left you looking for more of the same, you're not alone. Check out these books like BECOMING and fill that hole in your heart. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-11-20 11:36:56 UTC ]
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Elton John was greeted by a standing ovation last night as the legendary singer took to the stage to discuss his life in the spotlight. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-19 16:03:01 UTC ]
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Henry Barajas’ Latinx memoir and graphic biography of his social activist great-grandfather, 'La Voz de M.A.Y.O.: Tata Rambo' with art by J. Gonzo, will be published this month by Image Comics. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-11-19 05:00:00 UTC ]
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I first encountered Carmen Maria Machado in 2016, reading her short fiction “Horror Story” in Granta. Her innovative and acclaimed debut collection Her Body and Other Parties had not yet been published, but I scourged the internet for everything I could find. What I found were stories about... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-11-15 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Comedian and actor Alan Davies is publishing a memoir, Just Ignore Him, with Little, Brown. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-15 09:50:15 UTC ]
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Michael O’Mara Books is to publish a memoir by Jay Jayamohan, a consultant paediatric neurosurgeon at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, and star of the acclaimed BBC fly-on-the-wall series Brain Doctors. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-15 05:03:30 UTC ]
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Carmen Maria Machado explains why she dedicated a chapter of her new book to recapping a sci-fi show from the ‘90s. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2019-11-14 23:07:23 UTC ]
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Altan’s cri de coeur is a timeless testament to the art and power of writing amid Orwellian repression. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-11-14 18:01:28 UTC ]
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Orlando Patterson’s “The Confounding Island” is a sociologist’s analysis of his birthplace as well as a personal memoir of affection and failure. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-11-13 19:00:09 UTC ]
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NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has claimed his memoir Permanent Record has been censored in China, saying it breaks the terms of his publishing agreement. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-13 03:25:45 UTC ]
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Virtually none of us will ever know what Ahmet Altan has gone through, and continues to live through. After the 2016 Turkish coup d’etat attempt, the writer was arrested along with his brother on such claims as “sending subliminal messages to coup supporters.” In 2018, they were sentenced to... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-11-11 12:00:01 UTC ]
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Caren Beilin’s new book, Blackfishing the IUD (Wolfman Books, 2019), is a memoir about reproductive health and the IUD, gendered medical gaslighting, and activism in the chronic illness community. Beilin considers the copper IUD’s role in triggering her sudden onset rheumatoid arthritis. She... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-11-08 09:47:44 UTC ]
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“A Warning” is the latest and most unusual tell-all political memoir to emerge from President Trump’s administration. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-11-08 06:50:32 UTC ]
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Adam Kay’s junior doctor memoir racked up impressive sales over the course of the year and topped the chart, but a self-published title was hot on its heels in second spot. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-08 05:28:53 UTC ]
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