Book Reviews Photo by Dominik Scythe / Unsplash A new book by a Nobel laureate and Booker award-winning author always brings with it a sense of trepidation. Will the new novel live up to the already established high expectations? Klara and the Sun (Knopf, 2021) is particularly tricky because it revisits questions about life in posthuman futures, explored partly in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005). However, Ishiguro’s new novel and its nonhuman narrator, Klara, weave a spell on the reader from the opening pages that continues to be all-absorbing. We forget that the narrator is a robot and remain involved in the vicissitudes of her life, till the final pages when she is waiting for an end to her powers by the slow decline of her electronic circuitry. As we are immersed in the trajectory of Klara’s life, Ishiguro invites us to explore the question of what it is that constitutes us as human. To what extent can machines approximate the qualities of a human, and is there anything unique in the human mind in a world where artificial intelligence is increasingly powerful? The novel begins with Klara being displayed in the window of a store selling AI “friends” to children. Klara is very observant and records her perceptions in her memories for future use. She forms an instantaneous bond with Josie when she comes in to check out AI friends and then waits for many weeks for Josie to come back and take her home as promised.... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2022-03-01 21:50:34 UTC ]
Today's edition of Daily Deals is sponsored by The Boardwalk Bookshop by Susan Mallery.`The Boardwalk Bookshop by Susan... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-06-02 15:17:24 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Some days after Barry’s death on December 25, 2020, I pulled every book of his I owned from the shelves around my apartment and stacked them on a corner of my desk. Then I walked down the hill to the used bookshop in the small Oregon town where I live and found several books of […] Continue reading at The Paris Review
[ The Paris Review | 2022-05-31 16:36:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this
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... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2022-04-19 20:44:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this
L.A. transplant Stanley Rose's short-lived 1930s bookstore and boozy backroom became a literary haven for Chandler, Fante, Faulkner, West and many more. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-04-14 13:00:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Shelf Talkers is a new series at Lit Hub where booksellers from independent bookstores around the country share their favorite reads of the moment. Here are recommendations from the staff at The Bookshop, a store in East Nashville, Tennessee, founded in 2016. * Kyle Lucia Wu, Win Me Something... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-04-11 08:51:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Barnes & Noble finally has a direct answer to Amazon's purchase of Audible. The bookseller has launched a B&N Audiobooks service in the US that lets you either buy recordings or pay $15 per month for a subscription that offers one recurring monthly credit. You'll have access to more than... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-04-07 16:21:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Book Reviews Photo by Yousef Espanioly on Unsplash Fahredin Shehu writes of Gili Haimovich’s Promised Lands (Finishing Line Press, 2020), “This book communicates globally giving more than a single book of poems may offer. There is her origin and... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2022-03-09 21:17:53 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Prolific author and illustrator whose affectionate image of childhood has been instantly recognisable for more than 60 yearsShirley Hughes, who has died aged 94, was an award-winning author of more than 50 children’s books, and illustrator of some 200 more, with worldwide sales of more than 11m.... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-03-02 11:09:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Book Reviews Photo by Dominik Scythe / Unsplash A new book by a Nobel laureate and Booker award-winning author always brings with it a sense of trepidation. Will the new novel live up to the already established high expectations? Klara and the... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2022-03-01 21:50:34 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Essay “Literature was a vast minefield occupied by enemies,” Roberto Bolaño, who enjoyed accruing enemies in the pantheon of Latin American letters, writes in the short story “Meeting with Enrique Lihn” (New Yorker, December 22, 2008): except for a few... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-28 21:05:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this
News and Events Laura and Bunmi celebrate 41 books by Black authors. From Black joy to history to empowerment, the books on this list provide affirming messages for children and young adults with a special shout-out to NSK Neustadt Prize finalist Jason... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-24 19:13:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Anti-racism activist and co-founder of New Beacon Books, Britain’s first specialist black bookshop and publishing companyThe veteran activist Sarah White, who has died aged 80, was for more than half a century a stalwart of initiatives dedicated to anti-colonialism, anti-racism and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-02-16 19:10:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Photo credit: Nigel DaviesSunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award marks the 30th anniversary with one of it's most decorated shortlists to date:• Irish novelist Megan Nolan for her darkly funny debut novel Acts of Desperation;• US-based writer Anna Beecher for her novel... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2022-02-16 14:40:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this
From reads about lexicographers and bookshop employees to librarians, these books about books, including The Sentence, are for serious bibliophiles only. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-01-21 11:36:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
More than 100 writers, artists, comedians and musicians will voice James Joyce’s seminal novel in celebration of its publication a century agoOne hundred years ago, in February 1922, Sylvia Beach, owner of the Paris bookshop Shakespeare and Company, published James Joyce’s Ulysses, in full, for... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-01-20 09:30:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Waterstones has apologised and said it is "deeply embarrassed" after award-winning author Derek Owusu was asked for ID in a London branch when he offered to sign copies of his books. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-16 01:22:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Award-winning author Alex Marwood has written a Jeffrey Epstein-inspired psychological thriller for Sphere, The Island of Lost Girls, exploring the “obscene levels of wealth and the sex trafficking of vulnerable teenage girls”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-07 23:48:26 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The number of independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland has grown for the fifth consecutive year despite challenges brought by the pandemic, the Booksellers Association says. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-07 22:34:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Award-winning author and illustrator Paul Howard, whose recent work includes Joe Wicks' debut picture book The Burpee Bears (HarperCollins Children's Books), has been appointed the new Children’s Writing Fellow for Northern Ireland. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-31 03:43:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The UK's first Black specialist bookshop is to shut its doors and move entirely online, as financial constraints jeopardise its future. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-28 16:05:54 UTC ]
More news stories like this