Most musicians can only make money on the platform by writing songs inoffensive enough to get on to one of its vapid playlistsIn the hands of some of its most gifted practitioners, songwriting is a kind of emotional alchemy. For the past week, I have been returning to a perfect example: Every Time the Sun Comes Up by the US singer Sharon Van Etten, which was released in 2014. Its lyrics might be fractured and fragmented, but it is an almost perfect portrait of self-doubt and downward spirals: one of those songs that captures feelings so deep that they go way beyond words.I went back to that song as I read a superb new book that has both educated and profoundly depressed me. Mood Machine, by the New York-based journalist Liz Pelly, is about the music-streaming giant Spotify, and how it attracted its current 615 million subscribers, making a billionaire of its Swedish co-founder and CEO, Daniel Ek. But its most compelling story centres on what Spotify has done to people’s appreciation of songs and the people who make them – much of which is down to the platform’s ubiquitous playlists.John Harris is a Guardian columnist. His memoir Maybe I’m Amazed, about his autistic son James and how music became their shared language, is published on 27 March. For more information, visit maybeimamazed.substack.com Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2025-03-09 16:38:43 UTC ]
Ebury has signed a memoir from poet and novelist Helen Mort which it says could do for climbing what other books have done for running and wild swimming. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-20 11:08:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The former Uber engineer paints a damning portrait of the culture Travis Kalanick built. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2020-02-19 21:07:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Greta Thunberg’s "raw and powerful" family story, written largely by her mother Malena Ernman, will be published by Allen Lane on 5th March. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-18 15:10:37 UTC ]
More news stories like this
R. Eric Thomas’ debut memoir Here for It: Or How to Save Your Soul in America challenges what it means to be “other.” Thomas delves into his experiences as a black, queer Christian—moving from his childhood in Baltimore to his struggles with private school and an Ivy League. This hilarious... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-02-18 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
It’s hard enough for memoir writers to figure out their relationship to “truth.” Our memories are faulty, and our real lives rarely offer tightly-plotted stories or clear lessons—so is your responsibility to the reader to be scrupulously accurate, or to give them some kind of insight into... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-02-18 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Picador is publishing The Running Book: A Journey through Memory, Landscape and History by Irish Book Award-winner John Connell. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-16 17:12:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this
His diverse body of work included novels, plays and a memoir about Ernest Hemingway. He was also a partner with his friend Paul Newman in business and charity. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-02-16 15:37:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this
His diverse body of work included novels, plays and a memoir about Ernest Hemingway. He was also a partner with his friend Paul Newman in business and charity. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-02-15 21:06:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this
TO BE A STRANGER in your own land is alienating enough, but to be a stranger among your own people? That vexing question is at the heart of two books — one a Bildungsroman, the other a memoir — by Arab authors whose narratives might be best described as the misadventures of the insider-outsider.... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-02-15 18:00:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this
IF YOU WERE a depressed young woman in the 1990s, Elizabeth Wurtzel’s memoir Prozac Nation (1994) was required reading. I remember standing in a New Jersey Barnes & Noble, tenderly taking the book from the shelf, and turning it over in my hands. Who was this woman on the cover? She looked so... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-02-14 13:30:58 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Free agent NFL quarterback and social activist Colin Kaepernick plans to publish a memoir via his own publishing venture and release an audiobook version of the untitled book via an exclusive deal with Audible. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-02-14 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Shetland literature has a short history. Or, more accurately, the long history of Shetland literature has been truncated — the result of a double disadvantage, as far as official histories are concerned: an oral culture, in which few people could read or write, and a language that died out... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2020-02-13 12:54:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Colin Kaepernick announced on Thursday that he will release a memoir this year under his new imprint, Kaepernick Publishing. He also has partnered with Audible for a multiproject deal. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-02-13 12:35:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this
This week on The Maris Review, R. Eric Thomas joins Maris Kreizman to discuss his new book, Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America. On choosing the moments that go into a memoir: Maris Kreizman: Your memoir collection is very much about figuring out who you are and being comfortable... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-13 09:47:59 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Explorer and biologist Roman Dial reflects on parenting in this memoir of the search for his son, who vanished while solo hiking in Costa Rica. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-02-12 23:38:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Explorer and biologist Roman Dial reflects on parenting in this memoir of the search for his son, who vanished while solo hiking in Costa Rica. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-02-12 23:38:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The pop star-turned-fashion mogul was always defined by men. Now, she’s defining herself. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-02-11 13:43:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Adrienne Miller’s memoir chronicles her tenure as fiction editor of Esquire in the 1990s and her rocky relationship with David Foster Wallace, the era’s iconic novelist. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-02-11 10:00:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this
When you’re writing a memoir, you find that you’re obliged to confront your own ideas about the nature of memory. In Gore Vidal’s own splendid memoir Palimpsest, he suggests that when we remember an event, we don’t remember it as it actually happened, but rather that we remember our memory of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-11 09:48:31 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Vivian Gornick and the revolution that won’t end: John Freeman profiles the author of Unfinished Business. | Lit Hub “What are we to do with the art of profoundly compromised men?” Zan Romanoff on Adrienne Miller’s memoir of life with literary men, including David Foster Wallace. | Lit Hub “It... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-10 09:49:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this