Book Reviews Photo by Daniel on Unsplash Readers will naturally and, perhaps, unfortunately, wish to make connections between Sayaka Murata’s (b. 1979) newest novel, Earthlings, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori (Grove Press, 2021), and her wonderfully quirky Convenience Store Woman (which I previously reviewed for WLT). To be sure, the two novels share a focus on people who live at the margins of a stereotypically conformist Japanese society. Indeed, Natsuki, the protagonist of Earthlings, is waging a long-term battle against “The Factory,” her term for the myriad social expectations and constraints that serve to channel “Earthlings” into the dual roles of productive economic cogs and breeding receptacles for future cogs. She resolutely adopts a lifestyle that rejects such a regimented life and, in so doing, ensures that she will be the locus for society’s ire. That, however, is where the similarities end, and this is why it is well to resist the easy comparison to Murata’s earlier novel. Earthlings is a much darker work, building upon themes that privilege violations of taboos, some quite traumatic, to weave a tale that, in its conclusion, is about as different from Convenience Store Woman in tone as one might imagine. Here, Murata interrogates the transgressive potential of difference, yet we do not sense, in that exploration, the expected condemnations. Rather, we are asked to consider the forces that impinge on... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2022-04-19 20:44:40 UTC ]
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Science fiction illustrates the perspective-bending challenge of conjuring intelligent life that’s radically different from humans. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2023-04-18 11:00:00 UTC ]
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The decision was announced on November 12, at the regularly scheduled meeting of the LC's Policy and Standards Division, which maintains Library of Congress Subject Headings and comes after a long-running advocacy campaign—and a conservative political backlash against the effort. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-11-12 05:00:00 UTC ]
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“A Woman of Pleasure,” Kiyoko Murata’s first novel to be translated into English, explores the world of sex work in early-20th-century Japan. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-26 10:00:14 UTC ]
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The bestselling author’s latest, ‘The Demon of Unrest,’ documents the tense five-month period leading up to the American Civil War Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-23 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The bestselling author’s latest, ‘The Demon of Unrest,’ documents the tense five-month period leading up to the American Civil War. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-23 05:00:00 UTC ]
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I first read Carl Sagan’s Contact and Cosmos in high school, when I was working at a bookstore that let us borrow any book we had at least two copies of on the shelves. I loved them then and was excited to revisit these books in the course of my research for The Possibility of […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-18 08:54:28 UTC ]
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Sarah Krasnostein meets true believers from around the world, and treats them with dignity. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2022-03-11 13:00:04 UTC ]
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With Disclosure around the corner it is time to test your alien book knowledge. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-06-11 12:00:00 UTC ]
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An astrophysicist argues that a strange object seen in space was made by extraterrestrials. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-01-29 13:00:00 UTC ]
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The book critic and Fake Accounts author says that smart readers are not being served by the publishing industry. The post Lauren Oyler on America’s Alienating Literary Culture appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2020-11-18 21:30:25 UTC ]
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Caitlin Horrocks’s historical novel explores why the Frenchman wasn’t better known. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-08-13 16:42:32 UTC ]
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Sky One will this December show an animated adatation of Aliens Love Panta Claus by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort (Simon & Schuster Children’s). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Women’s writing magazine Mslexia has removed Lionel Shriver as a competition judge following the author’s controversial statements on diversity in publishing. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Shappi Khorsandi has expanded on the reasons for her decision to withdraw Nina is Not OK (Ebury) from the Jhalak Prize longlist, saying she wants her writing to be "inclusive" to all her readers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-01-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Picador is publishing a new long poem by Kate Tempest composed from the lyrics of her forthcoming album. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-09-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The founder of 'author-centric' independent publisher September Publishing has said publishers should find time to “constructively” reject authors or they will “abandon the industry” and become self-published. Speaking on a panel entitled ‘Writing the future: author-centric publishing’ at... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Barbadian songstress Rihanna will join the director of "The Fifth Element," Luc Besson, in his truly-insane-sounding science fiction picture "Valerian," which is set on a space station that houses over 8,000 different species from across the universe. Besson announced the news of the Rihanna... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2015-10-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Wake' centers on the sinking of the British ship the Lusitania in 1915. The book will be released on March 10. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Like book authors who hate Amazon’s policies, crafters who hate Etsy find it hard to leave because of the site’s immense traffic and generally positive public reputation. Just before the Christmas rush, I finally put my money where my mouth is and shut down my shop. The post How Etsy Alienated... Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2015-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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