In the age of Corbyn, is the time right for another Road to Wigan Pier?

It’s no surprise that the Left Book Club is being relaunched now, with the imprimatur of the Labour leader and Ken Livingstone. It began in the anxious 1930s, a decade that has all too many parallels with the current oneAiming to “set the agenda for a new age of political debate”, the Left Book Club was re-launched this week at a meeting at the Conway Hall in London. The Left Book Club last published a book in 1948. Jeremy Corbyn had yet to be born. Nevertheless the Labour leader has generously endorsed the revival as “a terrific and timely idea” that will give “intellectual ballast to the wave of political change sweeping Britain and beyond, encouraging informed and compassionate debate”. He added that he had a large collection of Left Book Club titles, some bought new by his parents and others that he acquired second hand. I speculate that the memory of these books in their plain red or orange covers – their flash upon his inward eye – must have provided Corbyn with a rare pleasurable moment in the past few weeks: the thought of them on his shelves having same kind of heart-filling effect that the daffodils had on Wordsworth.My own collection isn’t so large. In fact, it runs to just one book, Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier, and I didn’t inherit it. I bought it 20 or 30 years ago because I liked the idea of having such a fine book in its cheap and original form – seeing the words and photographs as its first readers must have seen them. Published in 1937, the year after... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Manson Girls: A Reading List for ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

The Manson girls drift their way through the new movie ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. These books help provide more context on who they really were. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2019-07-31 10:37:36 UTC ]
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Irish writers dominate Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award shortlist

The 2019 Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award shortlist is dominated by Irish authors with former winner and Booker Prize longlistee Kevin Barry and relative newcomers Danielle McLaughlin and Louise Kennedy in the running for the £30,000 prize. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-29 11:15:23 UTC ]
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Movies Aren’t Telling Love Stories Anymore. So The New York Times Brought Them to Amazon

The romance genre has all but disappeared from films, so now several cable and streaming outlets have claimed it for themselves. The latest to jump on board is Amazon Prime Video. The streaming service will soon air Modern Love, a new anthology series debuting Oct. 18 that features eight... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2019-07-28 00:59:10 UTC ]
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Is this all-ages coloring book the thing that will finally mobilize society in the climate crisis?

Remember a few years ago when adults discovered coloring books and a wave of new pieces hailed them as a tool for mindfulness and dealing with anxiety? In a move both educational and depressingly efficient, this coloring book on climate change and renewable energy covers the topic that is... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-07-26 15:06:44 UTC ]
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Time Taps ALM’s Dana Rosen as Chief Legal Officer | People on the Move

[caption id="attachment_162887" align="alignright" width="150"] Dana Rosen[/caption] Time named Dana Rosen as its new chief legal officer, effective July 29.  As CLO—which CEO and editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal identified in a statement as a top priority position to fill since the magazine... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2019-07-25 18:40:50 UTC ]
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The New York Times profiles Louise Erdrich’s Native American-focused bookstore.

The New York Times books section today featured a lovely profile by J. D. Biersdorfer of Birchbark Books & Native Arts, the Minneapolis bookstore owned by National Book Award-winning writer Louise Erdrich which provides indigenous-language guides, literature and crafts, alongside the latest... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-07-25 17:50:55 UTC ]
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Weirdly specific mix tape Vol. 6: The post-apocalyptic road trip

In these novels, the idyllic images of life on the road are replaced by something more sinister. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-07-24 15:55:08 UTC ]
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These Middle-Grade Novels Are Some of the Most Formally Innovative Works of Our Time

When I took my copy of Lemony Snicket’s The Carnivorous Carnival up to the check-out line at Barnes and Noble, the cashier flipped through the book and paused.  She was sorry, she said, after a couple more puzzled page flips. There appeared to be a misprint. She called an employee in the kid’s... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-24 11:00:17 UTC ]
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The Fire Last Time

THE TRAGEDY OF THIS slim, self-satisfied little memoir about the 2007–2008 financial crisis is not what it gets wrong. Indeed, four of its central arguments are important and exactly right: (1) that extraordinary measures and creative innovation and improvisation saved the entire financial... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-07-22 19:00:44 UTC ]
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Former Bloomberg CRO Keith Grossman Tapped as Time President | People on the Move

[caption id="attachment_81710" align="alignright" width="150"] Keith Grossman[/caption] Time appointed Keith Grossman as its new president in an effort to build out its leadership team, following the sale of the magazine to Marc and Lynne Benioff from Meredith Corp. last September.  Starting... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2019-07-18 16:48:42 UTC ]
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The New York Times would like to have a private word with you

Welcome to the latest edition of Ad Age Publisher’s Brief, our roundup of news from the world of content producers across digital and print. Got a tip? Send it our way. Joining us late? Here’s the previous edition. A private word: Back in April, The New York Times announced the launch of... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-07-17 18:51:36 UTC ]
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Montalbano author Camilleri dies, aged 93

Andrea Camilleri, author of the Inspector Montalbano series, has died at the age of 93. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-17 02:58:54 UTC ]
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26 Of The Best Comic Book Covers Of All Time

Book Riot has talked about the best comic book artists working today and what makes a great cover in general. ... Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2019-07-12 10:35:23 UTC ]
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Google placed 'Stranger Things' AR ads in 'The New York Times'

If you see advertisements for a mall that look like they came straight out of the '80s on today's print edition of The New York Times, fire up Google Lens. Those neon-colored ads are most likely for Starcourt, the fictional Hawkins, Indiana mall that... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2019-07-11 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Chuck Wendig on the Time He Enraged a Bunch of Tolkienites

What was the first book you fell in love with? Certainly it’s hard to say, for sure. I’ve loved books for so long! I remember a book called Our Universe, from National Geographic, which was this big unruly thing, and I remember being most captivated by their painted imaginings of what... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-07-10 08:50:05 UTC ]
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Translation scoops Commonwealth Short Story Prize for first time

Cypriot author Constantia Soteriou has won the £5,000 Commonwealth Short Story Prize with 'Death Customs', marking the first time the prize has been awarded to a translation as the judges choose an all-women line-up of regional winners.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-09 20:13:50 UTC ]
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In these fractious times, there’s fresh appeal in Walter Bagehot’s praise of dullness

James Grant’s biography shows why Bagehot was called ‘the greatest Victorian’ — and why we should pay attention to him now. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-07-03 12:00:00 UTC ]
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L.A. Times Book Club Launch

L.A. Times Today airs Monday through Friday at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Spectrum News 1.  Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-28 23:02:32 UTC ]
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Quartz lays off business-side employees for second time this year

The business news publisher has laid off 11 commercial-side employees over two stints in 2019. Some of those roles remain unfilled, as Quartz pours more resources into its nascent membership program. The post Quartz lays off business-side employees for second time this year appeared first on... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2019-06-28 04:01:26 UTC ]
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Poetry presses thrive as readers turn to verse in straitened economic times

Many thriving poetry publishers in the North have likened its recent boom to its popularity under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, arguing the form offers a unique type of human connection.   Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-06-27 18:24:04 UTC ]
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