Interviews Weina Dai Randel burst onto the literary scene a number of years ago with her duology about Empress Wu Zetian, China’s first woman leader. After winning the prestigious Rita Award in 2017 and seeing her novels translated into seven languages, she is back now with a new historical novel set in 1940s Shanghai. Keeping with her love of strong women characters, her new book, The Last Rose of Shanghai, centers on a nightclub owner named Aiyi Shao who falls for a Jewish refugee who had recently escaped Nazi Germany. Through their love of jazz, they develop a forbidden bond set during one of Shanghai’s most volatile and exciting eras. Randel is the first Chinese American author to write about Shanghai Jewish refugees, although there have been dozens of memoirs, narratives, and novels about this phenomenon from Jewish authors. We recently spoke over Zoom about what made Shanghai so special and why it matters now, along with the reasons Jews escaped to Shanghai during World War II and how Chinese and Jewish traditions are so similar. Susan Blumberg-Kason: It seems that the popularity of 1930s and ’40s Shanghai rose both in China and the US about twenty-five years ago. Can you talk about the appeal of this time and why it’s so special, both to people in the US and China? Weina Dai Randel: I think many aspects of Old Shanghai appeal to us today. From the late 1920s to the early 1940s, the period of Old Shanghai was a symbol of... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2022-01-20 14:33:49 UTC ]
The music streaming giant is poised to enter the audiobook market. Here's what that means for publishers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-09-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Jumping from one to three major unlimited-subscription services for audio content, Spain's publishing market is growing fast. The post Audiobook Subscriptions: Audible and Podimo Join Storytel in Spain appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-09-21 16:07:40 UTC ]
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Gore Vidal’s “Hollywood” is finally getting the audiobook treatment, and not a moment too soon. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-09-14 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Famed writer and activist Cory Doctorow is selling the audio version of his upcoming book via Kickstarter to sidestep the walled garden of Amazon-owned audiobook platform Audible. When science fiction writer and activist Cory Doctorow releases his new novel, Attack Surface, next month, you’ll be... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2020-09-12 09:00:52 UTC ]
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Books written by incarcerated writers raise vital questions about how we can build a more just society: Your weekly guide to the best in books Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2020-09-11 17:15:05 UTC ]
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Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens. Seraphine Valentine narrates Alexis Daria’s charming romance, You Had Me at Hola, where the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-11 08:41:16 UTC ]
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These YA books with trans protagonists by trans and non-binary authors range from contemporary to speculative fiction, including titles like When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-09-10 10:38:02 UTC ]
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Holliday Grainger will read the audiobook version of Dolly Alderton's eagerly-awaited debut novel Ghosts (Fig Tree). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-02 15:24:17 UTC ]
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The prankish device is the subject of a new audiobook that pokes serious fun at Silicon Valley’s culture of disruption. We spoke with its inventor. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2020-08-31 12:00:00 UTC ]
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The Oscar-nominated actor narrates “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” in an audiobook project he says “doesn’t change my perspective so much as it amplifies it.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-08-30 09:00:11 UTC ]
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Sir Paul Nurse will narrate the audio edition of his book What is Life?, to be published by Faber in September. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-27 14:56:38 UTC ]
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Get immersed in a world and get in deep with the characters in these compelling audiobook series (and learn the length of each series). Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-08-25 10:33:00 UTC ]
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W F Howes is to release new audiobook versions of a "cult series of horror-genre" books, using 40-year-old recordings made by their original publisher The Eden Book Society. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-19 10:06:08 UTC ]
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Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens. The hosts of the “Call Your Girlfriend” podcast are warm, open, and matter-of-fact narrators... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-08-14 08:44:10 UTC ]
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LinkedIn offloaded presentation-sharing service SlideShare to ebook and audiobook platform Scribd for an undisclosed price. The professional network acquired SlideShare for $118.75 million in May 2012. Scribd will begin operating SlideShare Sept. 24, managing accounts and content, and Scribd... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2020-08-12 14:55:00 UTC ]
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Do you always listen to audiobooks on a certain speed? Is it worth listening on double speed to get through twice as many books? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-08-11 10:39:00 UTC ]
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Richard Barrios’s new book delves into the history of the film adaptation that did boffo business and won multiple Oscars. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-07-29 13:56:23 UTC ]
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Leaders will need to be resilient, open-minded, and creative. Poetry can show them the way. “I would like to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2020-07-28 03:00:09 UTC ]
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Lana Del Rey is releasing her forthcoming poetry collection, Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass, on Tuesday, July 28 in digital form. In case you prefer your celebrity poetry spoken aloud, though, she has also recorded an audio version of the book, which will be released on vinyl, CD,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-07-24 16:04:22 UTC ]
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Amanda Brainerd’s novel, Age of Consent, is out now, so we asked her a few questions about reading, writer’s block, and David Bowie. * Who do you most wish would read your book? Teenage girls—there are so few adult books written about them. What do you always want to talk about in interviews but... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-07-24 08:48:44 UTC ]
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