Book Reviews John K. Cox Jurij Koch / Courtesy of Domowina-Verlag In the 1950s, a girl whom Jurij Koch knew in high school moved away from their hometown of Cottbus in East Germany. It was a case, he says in his recent memoir, of “Weg von Ulbricht, hin zu Adenauer” (Away from Ulbricht, over to Adenauer). Her mother took the girl to the West, before the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961. This is a familiar enough arc of events, but, as it turns out, the motivation behind the move is probably not something that most people outside of Germany would have considered. The reason was ethnic. Little Greta was growing up surrounded by Sorbs in the southeastern part of the country. The Sorbian language reminded her mother of Polish, and she had had quite enough of the Poles in her pre-1945 home farther east. In addition, Greta’s family was Protestant and they felt awash in a “Catholic sea.” So off they went, leaving the author of this autobiography—who, well, yes, had a crush on Greta—scratching his head. Like so many other scenes in this engaging book, this story blends the customary with the unexpected to stretch our understanding of what is “German.” Like so many other scenes in this engaging book, Koch’s memoir blends the customary with the unexpected to stretch our understanding of what is “German.” Windrad auf dem Dach (Domowina-Verlag, 2016) is the second volume of Koch’s memoirs to be published in German. Currently in his... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2020-01-27 20:47:13 UTC ]
Memoirs of faith by Rachel Denhollander, Tom Voss and Rebecca Anne Nguyen, Helen Prejean, and others teach and reassure readers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-06-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Serpent’s Tail will publish a new memoir by British-Zimbabwean author Alexandra Fuller. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-06-13 15:11:33 UTC ]
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Adam Kay is sending his exposé of life as a junior doctor during the leadership candidate’s time as health secretary to highlight how he ‘left the NHS in tatters’Adam Kay is sending a copy of his bestselling memoir about life as a junior doctor, This Is Going to Hurt, to all 330 Conservative MPs... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-06-12 11:40:05 UTC ]
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Books are a go-to gift for Father's Day, but if you rely on chain bookstore displays, you'll probably find a lot of the same things: cookbooks with recipes for grilling obscenely large hunks of meat, ghostwritten memoirs by pro athletes, and techno-thrillers featuring very long descriptions... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-11 17:30:00 UTC ]
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Newly retired NBA star Dwyane Wade will tell the story of his life and celebrated basketball career in a new memoir. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-05 17:29:40 UTC ]
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Colin Dayan's brief but explosive memoir of her relationship to her mother should find a place among the more indelible life histories of the last several years. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-05 16:00:01 UTC ]
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In musician and magician Rob Zabrecky's new memoir, "Strange Cures," the Los Angeles of the 1980s and early '90s is an alien landscape of raucous underground nightclubs, seedy Hollywood crack dens and low-rent Silver Lake duplexes; and the Valley is a place where errant teens roam free, sans... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-05-30 18:01:20 UTC ]
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Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry will tell the story of her career as a musician and actress in a new memoir set for release this fall. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-05-30 16:44:35 UTC ]
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Pop sensations the Jonas Brothers will tell the story of their lives in the music world in a new memoir. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-05-29 17:59:56 UTC ]
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Her Body and Other Parties, by Carmen Maria Machado I've absolutely loved this collection of short stories, which floats between the weird and the queer, passing horror, black comedy and feminism along the way. Doubles and others are especially important: a wife enters her wife’s dream when they... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-04-11 08:49:28 UTC ]
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As a recipient of the Arts Connects Us Grant I travelled to Ghana and Sierra Leone to meet with writers and publishing professionals working in the field of books for young readers to foster creative and collaborative exchanges between those contacts and publishing professionals and readers in... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-03-19 11:10:28 UTC ]
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A few months ago, after I picked up and devoured a beautifully written memoir by Elisa Hategan and was left with a serious Continue reading at HuffPost
[ HuffPost | 2017-01-03 15:48:11 UTC ]
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