Just Sayin’ by Malorie Blackman review – against the odds

The former children’s laureate shares her sometimes enraging story of rejection, determination and resilienceAt the beginning of Malorie Blackman’s engrossing and often shocking memoir, the former children’s laureate asks: “Why am I an author?” What she goes on to tell us certainly shows how she was able to succeed: absolute determination, powered by rejection and by the love and support of others.The memoir eschews a strictly chronological approach. There are five themes – Wonder, Loss, Anger, Perseverance, Representation and Love. The prose and occasional poem contain intimate, often painful and sometimes funny insights into the author’s life.Born in south London in 1962, Blackman’s parents were part of what’s now referred to as the Windrush generation – British citizens encouraged to move to the UK after the war. In Barbados, her father had been a master carpenter. In the UK he drove buses. Her mother worked in a factory, denied further education back home, since school money was saved for the boys. It was a “staggered” family – Blackman’s parents coming to England first, her older Barbados-born siblings joining them later. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2022-10-19 06:30:17 UTC ]

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S&S Nabs Ruhl’s Memoir, 'Smile,' in Seven-Figure Deal

In another major pre-Frankfurt Book Fair sale, Marysue Rucci at Simon & Schuster paid a rumored seven figures for a memoir by playwright Sarah Ruhl called 'Smile.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-10-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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How to Write a Compelling Memoir (and Stay Sane in the Process)

In this post, Tanja Panjevic shares how to write a compelling memoir and stay sane in the process. In this post, she describes nine tips, including clarifying your scope, how to correct course as you go, and more. The post How to Write a Compelling Memoir (and Stay Sane in the Process) by Tanja... Continue reading at Writer's Digest

[ Writer's Digest | 2019-10-09 22:34:20 UTC ]
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Virago signs Cowan's family memoir and history of Foundling Hospital

Virago has signed lawyer Justine Cowan’s mix of family memoir and history of the Foundling Hospital – including the story of her own mother who grew up in its care. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-08 19:52:13 UTC ]
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A popular blogger ponders a simpler life in ‘Enough’

Shauna M. Ahern, also known as Gluten-Free Girl, delivers a beautiful memoir about finding contentment. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-10-08 17:13:08 UTC ]
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Michael Joseph snaps up 'mesmerising' memoir from GP

Michael Joseph has landed the "mesmerising" and "electrifying" medical memoir by GP Tom Templeton. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-08 09:53:57 UTC ]
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Rihanna: the only girl in the world whose memoir comes with a marble pedestal.

If you wanted to see a lot of photos of Rihanna, you could follow @badgalriri on Instagram OR you could buy this 504-page “visual autobiography.” (Think Kim Kardashian’s Selfish but probably way better.) Rihanna is a 15-pound doorstopper that features 1,050 photographs of the singer, following... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-10-07 19:36:56 UTC ]
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Granta signs 'moving' memoir by Elizabeth Miki Brina

Granta Books has acquired a "moving and tender memoir", provisionally titled Let Us Speak of Okinawa, by Elizabeth Miki Brina. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-07 04:10:05 UTC ]
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Viking to publish companion journal to Obama's Becoming

Viking will publish a companion journal to former US First Lady Michelle Obama’s bestselling memoir Becoming later this year. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-06 15:05:01 UTC ]
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Kroscoczka’s ‘Hey, Kiddo’ Wins Book of the Year at Harvey Awards

'Hey Kiddo', Jarrett J. Kroscoczka’s bestselling gaphic memoir about familial dysfunction, won Book of the Year, while Fun Home author Alison Bechdel and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola were inducted into the Hall of Fame at the Harvey Awards ceremony, held Friday evening during New York Comic Con... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-10-06 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Animating Tension: A Conversation with Leslie Jamison

LESLIE JAMISON IS NO STRANGER to tough questions. In fact, she’s undyingly attracted to them. Her three previous works — the novel The Gin Closet (2010), the essay collection The Empathy Exams (2014), and the memoir The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath (2018) — all deal explicitly with... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-10-03 12:30:39 UTC ]
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What Does Accountability Look like in the #MeToo Era?

Note: Masie Cochran is Jeannie Vanasco’s editor for her memoir Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl. “I’ll tell him: I still have nightmares about you,” Jeannie Vanasco writes early in her second memoir, Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl. The “him” in question is Mark, a man... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-10-03 11:00:04 UTC ]
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7 Novels about Americans of Color Living Abroad

Did you know that there’s an entire genre of books dedicated to white people going to Nepal to find themselves? I didn’t either! But it’s not so surprising since the release of Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir Eat, Pray, Love, and its 2010 film adaptation, which has caused an uptick in tourism to... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-10-02 11:00:13 UTC ]
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Amazon Charts: Louis moves up Theroux the non-fiction charts

Louis Theroux's Gotta Get Theroux This (Macmillan) has toppled David Cameron's For the Record (William Collins) at the top of the Amazon Charts Most Sold: Non-Fiction chart, with the documentary maker's memoir notching up more listeners on Audible than readers on Kindle. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-02 07:19:21 UTC ]
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A Woman Confronted Her Rapist 14 Years Later. Here’s What He Said.

In her memoir “Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl,” Jeannie Vanasco seeks answers to her trauma. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-10-01 09:00:06 UTC ]
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Of moles and men: A memoir about the virtue of letting nature alone

Marc Hamer probes the essence of nature, solitude, and the accommodations we make between deeply held beliefs and our everyday behavior. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-09-30 21:10:04 UTC ]
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Of moles and men: A memoir about the virtue of letting nature alone

Marc Hamer probes the essence of nature, solitude, and the accommodations we make between deeply held beliefs and our everyday behavior. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-09-30 21:10:04 UTC ]
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Of moles and men: A memoir about the virtue of letting nature alone

Marc Hamer probes the essence of nature, solitude, and the accommodations we make between deeply held beliefs and our everyday behavior. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-09-30 21:10:04 UTC ]
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In 'Know My Name,' Chanel Miller Takes Back The Humanity She Was Denied

Miller, known for years only as Emily Doe in the Stanford sexual assault case, has written a memoir that lays bare the complicated truths about survivorhood. Continue reading at The Huffington Post

[ The Huffington Post | 2019-09-30 17:39:54 UTC ]
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A vintage Benson & Hedge's ad evokes a cheekier (but no less deadly) era of cigarette marketing

Sometimes an ad gets just a little too truthful for its own good.  By the time this 1972 full-pager for Benson & Hedges 100’s ran in Life magazine, smoking was widely understood to be associated with a range of serious diseases. So, sure, let’s equate using our product to jumping out of a... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-09-30 09:00:00 UTC ]
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Ebury wins Robyn Wilder's 'deeply moving' memoir at four-way auction

Ebury has won a four-way bidding war to publish journalist Robyn Wilder’s “funny, frank and deeply moving” memoir, Reasons to be Fearful. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-27 07:15:43 UTC ]
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