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 ]
More than half of Tate's London bookshop staff are facing redundancy, with several roles in its books team and publishing operation also at risk, The Bookseller has learned. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-16 14:07:35 UTC ]
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Seeing unexpected pairings of readers and books quickly dispels the idea of who reads what• Time to reset: more brilliant ideas to remake the worldI have a party trick. If you name three books you like and two you hate, I can write you a reading list of 10 books you will love.I’ve gained this... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-08-15 10:00:40 UTC ]
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Hodder Faith, in partnership with mini-chain St Andrew’s Bookshop, will launch a national church book club this autumn, to be known as The Big Church Read. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-12 13:00:50 UTC ]
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Bookshop has helped many independents weather the pandemic, but some booksellers say the ABA is not being transparent about its financial relationship with the online retailer and worry that Bookshop poses new competition. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-08-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Interviews Richard van Leeuwen is a senior lecturer in Islamic studies at the University of Amsterdam. This year, he won the 2020 Sheikh Zayed Book Award in the Arabic Culture in Other Languages category for his book The Thousand and One Nights and... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-08-10 20:32:46 UTC ]
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The Zoom call was going well. I liked the technology on show, and I felt bookshops could definitely benefit from using it. It provided a way of alerting the bookshop - ahead of a visit - when someone with a disability (or who needed additional help) would be arriving at the shop. Staff would be... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-09 12:28:32 UTC ]
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Waterstones has announced the permanent closure of its bookshop in the Centre MK Shopping Centre, Milton Keynes, over “excessive” rent demanded from its landlord. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-04 18:17:36 UTC ]
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Around 35% of regular bookshop customers are unsure about returning to bricks and mortar premises now lockdown has eased, according to a survey by Nielsen. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-17 09:56:49 UTC ]
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In Michaela Coel’s excellent BBC TV series “I May Destroy You”, her character Arabella’s journey concludes in a bookshop with the launch of her self-published book. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-17 06:11:20 UTC ]
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Profile Books will publish Shaun Bythell's Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops in November. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-08 23:31:01 UTC ]
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David’s Bookshop in Hertfordshire has been bought by its staff and remodelled as a John Lewis-style employee ownership trust. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-01 19:30:47 UTC ]
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Not to sound like an assistant district attorney from SVU, but it is beyond a shadow of a doubt that acclaimed essayist and book critic Ilana Masad has carved a prominent space for herself in the realm of mother-daughter literature with her debut novel, All My Mother’s Lovers. It sits upon a... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-06-22 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishing, including books, newspapers and magazines, could see a £7bn fall in revenue and 51,000 jobs axed due to Covid-19's effect on bookshop closures and print sales, a report claims. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-17 06:06:17 UTC ]
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Will browsing be allowed, or will we have to judge a book by its cover? With Waterstones and some indie shops set to open on 15 June, Alison Flood finds out what the plan isMelissa Davies had planned to fulfil a lifelong dream and open her independent bookshop, Pigeon Books, in Southsea, at the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-06-12 06:00:14 UTC ]
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Bernardine Evaristo and Reni Eddo-Lodge take No 1 slots in wake of anti-racist demonstrations, as Waterstones staff ask chain to support causeBernardine Evaristo and Reni Eddo-Lodge have become the first black British women to top the UK’s fiction and nonfiction paperback charts, in a week where... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-06-10 13:46:40 UTC ]
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Children's bookshop Button & Bear in Shrewsbury is to close blaming the "fickle" high street and customer expectations on price. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-08 23:59:54 UTC ]
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IN 1984, George Ramsden, a 30-year-old British bookseller who had never read anything by Edith Wharton, bought her personal library for $80,000. He kept the books in a room above his bookshop where he would invite select visitors to view them by asking if they wanted to come up and see “Edith.”... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-06-08 12:30:25 UTC ]
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It’s never too early to learn that racism is wrong and we should be doing something about it. These books will help show our kids how, writes publisher and bookseller Aimée FeloneDo the work: Layla F Saad’s anti-racist reading list The weight of the world seems heavier than ever right now. The... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-06-04 07:00:00 UTC ]
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Nestled in the heart of Melbourne's city laneways, Leonardo Art Shop - also known as Nibbi's - provided inspiration and education to a generation of young artists. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2020-05-21 20:00:41 UTC ]
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The pandemic has thrown publishing and booksellers into crisis – and left customers struggling to obtain books when they most want them. But some in the industry sense an opportunity to drag it into the 21st centuryOn 18 March, Emma Corfield-Walters received the news that for the second year... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-05-10 08:00:20 UTC ]
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