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 ]
The lead protagonist in the British TV comedy series Black Books might even relish being in lockdown. If you don’t, you might enjoy watching this show. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2021-08-27 00:11:11 UTC ]
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An Essex-based indie bookshop is doubling in size after "thriving" during the pandemic. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-25 20:03:30 UTC ]
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A new independent bookshop which nods to Bristol’s “radical past and present” has opened in the city’s Harbourside area, near where Edward Colston's statue was brought down last year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-25 11:33:12 UTC ]
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Headline Review has acquired two more books from Matt Cain, whose fourth novel, The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle, was published by the imprint earllier this year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-19 11:27:18 UTC ]
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A story for children about families with same-sex parents has been published in Russia as part of a campaign to have the country’s ‘gay propaganda’ law repealedA month after a Hungarian bookshop chain was fined for selling a children’s story about a day in the life of a child with same-sex... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-08-17 14:33:19 UTC ]
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More than 60 bookshops launched in the UK and Ireland in the past 18 months – but who would open one in a pandemic? We asked five to share their stories, while bestselling author Val McDermid remembers the bookshops of her youthWhen I was growing up in a small Scottish town, we had a bookshop... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-08-15 11:00:06 UTC ]
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The fourth outing of the award produced by the Desperate Literature bookshop in Madrid features work centered on colonial oppression. The post Madrid’s ‘Desperate Literature’ Short Fiction Prize: Paige Cowan-Hall appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-08-13 21:40:40 UTC ]
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The stories in The Rock Eaters often have an elastic relationship with reality, familiar political landscapes or emotional struggles warped by the uncanny. Some stories fall more explicitly within the bounds of science fiction or fantasy, but most show us a world nearly known, but not quite. In... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-08-13 11:00:00 UTC ]
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A steadfast member of the radical bookselling community is to retire after 45 years at Liverpool store News From Nowhere. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-10 05:23:08 UTC ]
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An independent bookshop spotlighting women’s writing is opening in Edinburgh today (6th August), inspired by a successful book club. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-06 19:47:21 UTC ]
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Before Covid, A Good Used Book was a pop-up bookshop thriving across L.A. It's back to physical business this month — at the end of a long, hard road. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-08-05 13:00:28 UTC ]
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Matt Haig has become the first author to feature on Bookshop.org's Indie Champions list with two titles in the same month. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-01 01:03:15 UTC ]
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Líra Könyv made to pay £600 for failing to clearly indicate the story featured ‘a family that is different than a normal family’A bookshop chain in Hungary has been fined for selling a children’s story depicting a day in the life of a child with same-sex parents, with officials condemning the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-07-08 12:09:32 UTC ]
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Former Review Bookshop manager Katia Wengraf has raised more than £10,000 online to help fund her new independent store, Mount Florida Books, in a former tattoo parlour in Glasgow. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-20 21:34:09 UTC ]
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New figures from the Publishers Association show fiction and audiobooks did particularly well, with value of consumer sales up 7% on 2019 despite bookshop closuresFiction sales in 2020 soared by more than £100m for UK publishers, as readers locked down at home made their escape into books, with... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-04-26 23:01:49 UTC ]
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An indie bookshop in Brigg, north Lincolnshire, was forced to close on Tuesday (13th April) after only a day's post-lockdown trading, following a break-in that left the shop unsafe for customers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-04-13 17:09:48 UTC ]
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Discover the rich culture and history of Cuba with these stories, from romance to historical fiction and magical realism. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-04-01 10:30:00 UTC ]
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The UK arm of Bookshop.org, the online retailer that partners with indie bookstores, has a new initiative on the way: it’s launching a series of online events for its customers as well as customers of unaffiliated indies. For the first event on March 23rd, Bookshop is partnering with Faber to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-03-11 19:42:27 UTC ]
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The familiar Amazonian preview called 'Look Inside' gets a storefront cousin in Jellybooks' new 'Discovery,' using QR codes to offer samples. The post UK: Jellybooks Pilots Bookshop ‘Peek Inside’ Capacity at Blackwell’s appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-03-11 16:45:04 UTC ]
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Back in 2018, an advert for what seemed like the perfect job for book lovers went viral after Sonu Shivdasani, founder of Soneva luxury holiday resorts, and Philip Blackwell, c.e.o. of Ultimate Library—a company that creates bespoke book collections for hotels and private clients—came up with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-25 23:24:10 UTC ]
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