Categorising fiction may help to sell books, but it says little about how writers write or readers readIn her Reith lecture of 2017, recently published for the first time in a posthumous collection of nonfiction, A Memoir of My Former Self, Hilary Mantel recalled the beginnings of her career as a novelist. It was the 1970s. “In those days historical fiction wasn’t respectable or respected,” she recalled. “It meant historical romance. If you read a brilliant novel like I, Claudius, you didn’t taint it with the genre label, you just thought of it as literature. So, I was shy about naming what I was doing. All the same, I began. I wanted to find a novel I liked, about the French Revolution. I couldn’t, so I started making one.”She made A Place of Greater Safety, an exceptional ensemble portrayal of the revolutionaries Danton, Robespierre and Desmoulins, but although the novel was completed in 1979, it wasn’t published until 1992 – widely rejected, as she later explained, because although she thought the French Revolution was the most interesting thing in the world, the reading public didn’t agree, or publishers had concluded they didn’t. She decided to write a contemporary novel – Every Day Is Mother’s Day – purely to get published; A Place of Greater Safety emerged only when she contributed to a Guardian piece about writers’ unpublished first novels. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-11-27 12:30:00 UTC ]
You get historical fiction and mystery plus some armchair travel — what's not to like? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-02-27 11:30:00 UTC ]
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What’s Aisha Sabatini Sloan reading? Diana Arterian on the author’s nightstand. | Lit Hub Criticism “The intimacy I feel with what my home once was cannot be reconciled with what downtown has become.” Emma Dries reflects on her childhood home and how 9/11 changed downtown Manhattan forever. |... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-02-22 11:30:18 UTC ]
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“I’ve been prank-calling Justin Torres for like two decades,” says the poet and performer, whose new book is called “Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt: A Memoir in Verse.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-22 10:00:27 UTC ]
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In today's new releases, there's an epic story of a conjuror-made safe haven in 1830s St. Louis, a feminist retelling of Zorro, a Cambodian food-based memoir of survival, and more. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-02-20 13:30:00 UTC ]
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It’s another Tuesday, and that means that a bevy of beautiful new books are out. And it’s a brilliant bevy indeed: below, you’ll find twenty-three new titles to consider that span an incredible range, including a raw new memoir from Leslie Jamison on motherhood and the self; the esteemed... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-02-20 09:46:58 UTC ]
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Kate Sidley on writing in the aftermath of a home robbery: “When bad things happen, they happen off-page, out of sight, and with a certain delicacy.” | Lit Hub Memoir Lockdown may be over, but what did it to to our collective sense of balance? How the pandemic ruined our understanding of “free”... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-02-19 11:30:44 UTC ]
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As his own life unfolds, an artist reconsiders his reaction to Joan Didion’s memoir about loss. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-17 10:04:10 UTC ]
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From cancelled books to ‘review bombing’, it might seem as though the website can make or break a career. But how influential is it really?Something dramatic happens on a social media platform every day. On Goodreads, the anachronistically designed website for logging, rating (out of five) and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-02-17 09:00:10 UTC ]
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Silicon Valley’s top pundit dishes on her memoir Burn Book, immature billionaires, and whether she’s actually mean. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2024-02-15 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Britney Spears is perfect and her nasal voice with a Southern accent and just the right touch of vocal fry is perfect. Which is why I was so surprised to hear Michelle Williams, an actress who is also perfect, read the audio version of Britney’s memoir with a bit of a drawl but mostly very […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-02-15 09:55:31 UTC ]
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In her memoir “I Heard Her Call My Name,” the author reflects on her life and embarking on a gender transition in her late 60s. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-14 10:02:14 UTC ]
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His charming memoir “What Have We Here?” traces the path from a Harlem childhood to “Star Wars,” while lamenting the roles that never came his way. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-13 10:00:45 UTC ]
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From England and France to the deepest Arctic and northern China, these stories will transport you. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-11 10:00:24 UTC ]
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The Irish novelist and playwright on the positives of ageing, his struggles with depression and a golden age of Irish writingSebastian Barry, 68, is the author of 11 novels and 15 plays. Five of his books have been long- or shortlisted for the Booker prize, and his novels have won numerous... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-02-10 18:00:48 UTC ]
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The Promised Land, which releases in Toronto and Vancouver on Feb. 9, is an impressively directed piece of historical fiction — even if it isn't a masterpiece. Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2024-02-09 09:00:00 UTC ]
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Murder at a school reunion, a memoir on motherhood, disaster bisexuals in love, and more of today's best book deals! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-02-05 17:04:05 UTC ]
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Lucy Sante recounts the trials and joys of her gender transition in the memoir “I Heard Her Call My Name.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-03 10:14:55 UTC ]
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The actor reads “Collision of Power,” a new memoir by the famed former editor of The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-02 10:00:17 UTC ]
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The following is excerpted from Cold Crematorium:Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz, József Debreczeni’s firsthand account of his deportation to Auschwitz, from Hungary, in May 1944. * The long train, comprised of low boxcars with German insignia, was grinding to a halt. “We’re stopping,” the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-01-25 09:53:48 UTC ]
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Crystal Hefner writes in her new memoir that she confronted her late husband about “little spy holes” in his bedroom. Continue reading at HuffPost
[ HuffPost | 2024-01-23 23:35:37 UTC ]
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