I read only non-white authors for 12 months. What I learned surprised me | Sunili Govinnage

Reading science fiction, chick lit and fantasy novels by people of colour for a year brought home to me just how white my reading world wasIn 2014, I managed to read 25 novels. All of them were written by people of colour. That was the result of a small challenge I set myself: not to read books by white authors for a year. The things I learned in my year of selective reading made me pretty glad to have persevered. Rather than restricting myself, my decision to be conscious about what I read introduced me to books I ordinarily would not have bothered with. Instead of my usual crime/procedural/legal thrillers, I actually read some science fiction. And some fantasy. And I loved it. Saladin Ahmed’s Throne of the Crescent Moon and Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death are now two of my favourite books. I would never have heard of them had I not deliberately sought them out.One difference that my book list made is that it ever-so-delicately altered the way I looked at the world. It was slow at first, but opening myself up to a variety of female perspectives made me more aware of the female lives around me … Feminism, as bell hooks pointed out, is for everyone. And when we become more aware of the small injustices and tiny everyday tragedies around us, we become better people. Reading women’s voices helped me to hear them more loudly in my daily life. Our culture is getting better and better at encouraging women to speak, but it’s not doing enough to listen to what they say when they... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-02-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #reading women #daily life #encouraging women

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US Authors Guild attacks Amazon over Kindle Lending

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Tue, 15/11/2011 - 10:12 The US Authors Guild has accused Amazon.com of "boldly breaching its contracts" with publishers by signing them up to its new Kindle Lending programme without permission. It claimed it is doing this to drive sales of its Kindle... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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*Openmargin Hopes to Be More Than Social E-Reading

Notes in the margins of ebooks could be the next platform for social interaction. At least that's what Amsterdam-based *openmargin is hoping. Continue reading at AllThingsD

[ AllThingsD | 2011-11-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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‘The Great Big Book of Horrible Things,’ by Matthew White

Matthew White, a self-described “atrocitologist,” at the African Burial Ground National Monument in Lower Manhattan. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2011-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Neil White moves to Sphere

Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Mon, 07/11/2011 - 14:00 Crime thriller writer Neil White has moved to Sphere from Avon with a new series set to make use of the author's expertise as a criminal prosecutor. Sphere associate publisher Daniel Mallory bought UK and Commonwealth rights... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Yale has a rummage through authors' books

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 31/10/2011 - 08:00 Yale University Press will be nosing around authors' bookshelves with the publication of Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books next month, with authors including Philip Pullman, Jonathan Lethem and Junot Díaz... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pullman and Díaz to reveal reads for Yale

Yale University Press will be nosing around authors' bookshelves with the publication of... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booked Up 'encourages more reading'

Booked Up, the government-funded programme that gives a free book to Year 7 pupils, has found... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kimmage surprise entry on William Hill shortlist

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Fri, 28/10/2011 - 13:09 Paul Kimmage is the surprise inclusion in this year's William Hill Sports Book of the Year shortlist, after he was left out of the longlist. His book Engage (Simon & Schuster), a biography of England Under 21 rugby player... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Meredith Increases Dividend by 50% and Authorizes a $100 Million Stock Repurchase

This story first appears on FOLIO: sister site, minonline. Meredith Corp. chairman/CEO (since July 2004) Steve Lacy announced that the board of directors approved a $1.02-to-$1.53 per-share increase in the quarterly dividend paid to investors and authorized the repurchase of $100 million of... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Reading for pleasure kicks in

Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Mon, 24/10/2011 - 08:05 The Government emphasis on reading for pleasure could be behind an uplift in sales to school libraries, claims bookseller Marilyn Brocklehurst of the Norfolk Children's Book Centre. She said: "The pronouncements by the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Somper sets up author training company

Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Fri, 21/10/2011 - 11:35 Vampirates author and long-time children's book publicist Justin Somper has set up Author Profile, a training company aimed at helping authors navigate the media and social networking. Writers including Damian Kelleher,... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Rowland White to return to Penguin

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 21/10/2011 - 11:05 Orion non-fiction publishing director Rowland White is moving back to Penguin in the role of publishing director for Michael Joseph. White will focus on mainstream non-fiction and thriller-based fiction, and will report... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors to Get Sales Data From Three Big Publishers

Simon & Schuster, Random House and the Hachette Book Group said they would allow authors to access book sales data online, a service Amazon began providing last year. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2011-10-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kobo launches surprise tablet

Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Wed, 19/10/2011 - 14:51 Kobo has launched a tablet rival to the Kindle Fire, which it is launching in the US and Canada priced at $199. The surprise device is called the Kobo Vox eReader, and ships on 28th October, two weeks ahead of Amazon's Kindle... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pearson adds free learning management tools to Google Apps for Education

Publishing and educational tools company Pearson on Thursday launched the beta version of OpenClass, a free, cloud-based learning management system (LMS) that is integrated with Google Apps for Education, and will be available in the Google Apps Marketplace. Earlier today, techie Ryan Tyler... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2011-10-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Steve Jobs Biography Arrives in October, a Month Early

Steve Jobs's death has prompted Simon & Schuster to move up the publication date for his much-anticipated biography by Walter Issacson. The CBS-owned publishing unit has moved up the release date for "Steve Jobs" from Nov. 21 to Oct. 24. Not surprisingly, preorders for the book are... Continue reading at AllThingsD

[ AllThingsD | 2011-10-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Doncaster to hand 12 libraries to volunteers

Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Wed, 05/10/2011 - 08:50 Doncaster council has announced plans to hand 12 libraries over to volunteer-running, some as early as November, the BBC reports. The development, which comes after a year's moratorium on library cuts, comes despite a... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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State of Maine Sees Highest Tablet Usage for Month of August

Mobile advertising network Jumptap releases a MobileSTAT Report, covering network data for the month of August. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-10-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hodder to release Kercher title next month

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 04/10/2011 - 15:45 Hodder has now decided to bring forward the publication of its Meredith Kercher case title, Death in Perugia by John Follain, by five weeks. When contacted this morning by The Bookseller, Hodder had no plans to change the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Perseus Creates New Service for Authors Seeking to Self-Publish

David Steinberger of Perseus, which will offer distribution and marketing to authors. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2011-10-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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