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purely to get published; A Place of Greater Safety emerged only when she contributed to a Guardian piece about writers’ unpublished first novels.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 ]
“Polostan” sets up a historical fiction series about espionage and revolution in the early 20th century. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-10-15 09:01:27 UTC ]
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Al Pacino's book is an eccentric mix of self-reflection and career reframing as one of Hollywood's giants talks about his troubled youth and rise to fame. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-10-12 14:00:51 UTC ]
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A guide to Cormac McCarthy’s literary influences, from Beowulf to Foucault. | Lit Hub Criticism From barroom chats with Raymond Carver to the aperçus of Thomas Piketty, Douglas Unger explores class consciousness in American letters. | Lit Hub Memoir Steve Wasserman deconstructs the environmental... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-10-12 10:30:17 UTC ]
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Ina “The Barefoot Contessa” Garten has the #1 book in the country with the memoir ‘Be Ready When the Luck Happens.’ Plus BookTok fave Lynn Painter returns with a new YA novel, and actor and comedian Kate McKinnon makes her middle grade debut. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-10-11 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Her new memoir is a master class in how selective attention and empathy can insulate someone from the pains that trouble the rest of us. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2024-10-10 11:06:00 UTC ]
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A total of 1,900 titles are being published today, including a Rebus from Ian Rankin, memoir from Miranda Hart and children’s fiction by AF SteadmanBooks by Boris Johnson, Stanley Tucci and Miranda Hart are among those being published today, on this year’s “Super Thursday” – the day when more... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-10-10 07:01:36 UTC ]
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"I think he had kissed Tatum O'Neal," she wrote in her newly published posthumous memoir. Continue reading at HuffPost
[ HuffPost | 2024-10-08 17:24:18 UTC ]
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The Lit Hub Author Questionnaire is a monthly interview featuring seven questions for five authors with new books. This month we talk to: Charles Bock (I Will Do Better: A Father’s Memoir of Heartbreak, Parenting, and Love) Kay Chronister (The Bog Wife) Mike Fu (Masquerade) Kate Greathead (The... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-10-08 08:56:09 UTC ]
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An Oct. 7 survival memoir and a chronicle of theft in 1948 grapple with the history of a war-torn region. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-10-07 09:00:20 UTC ]
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Actor Adam Pearson feels disfigurement onscreen is often presented as a problem. He sees it very differently. He talks about karaoke in Croydon, rivalry with his twin, Oscar ambitions – and why his mum refuses to believe he’s famousAdam Pearson has a longstanding argument with his mother,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-10-06 10:00:02 UTC ]
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Slim and full of obfuscations, her memoir touches on business ventures and raising her son, but barely grapples with the mysteries of her marriage. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-10-05 19:18:55 UTC ]
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Beth Rigby’s withdrawal after not being allowed to record conversation follows BBC cancellation over notes gaffeSky News has pulled out of an interview with Boris Johnson after its political editor was told she could not make an audio recording or transcript of the talk.The former prime minister... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-10-04 18:51:26 UTC ]
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Books about ballet dancers are, invariably, books about growing up. Whether it is a young child desperate to win a place at a ballet school, a ballerina escaping from a dangerous relationship, or a memoir about finding a sense of belonging in the dance world, ballet books return again and again... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-10-04 11:05:00 UTC ]
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Sold at half price, the former PM’s apologia of his career has outstripped sales of recent novels by Sally Rooney and Richard OsmanBoris Johnson’s memoir, which is published next week, is already topping the Amazon UK Books Best Sellers list, outselling recently published novels by Sally Rooney... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-10-04 11:00:09 UTC ]
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In his debut, 'Tell Me Something, Tell Me Anything, Even If It’s a Lie: A Memoir in Essays' (Heyday, Oct.), Steve Wasserman collects 30 of his essays, spanning 45 years in journalism and publishing. We asked him for his takes on today’s book biz. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-10-04 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Many people wondered if the clip to promote the former first lady's upcoming memoir was actually a campaign ad for her husband's opponent. Continue reading at HuffPost
[ HuffPost | 2024-10-03 17:00:08 UTC ]
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Television commentator and the moral conscience of snooker through his campaigning journalism on the sportClive Everton, who has died aged 87, was known to millions worldwide as the calm, authoritative voice of televised snooker, but of even greater importance was his work as a campaigning... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-10-03 16:19:28 UTC ]
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“Every night the same nightmare interrupts my sleep.” With this sentence Scholastique Mukasonga begins her debut Cockroaches, a memoir that came out in French in 2006. That year, Mukasonga was fifty. She had been living in Normandy since 1992, when she moved there hoping to find employment as a... Continue reading at The Paris Review
[ The Paris Review | 2024-10-03 15:01:54 UTC ]
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Melania Trump writes in her upcoming memoir that a woman has the right to an abortion, The Guardian newspaper reported on Wednesday, while her husband, Donald Trump, backs the ability for U.S. states to restrict the procedure. Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2024-10-03 01:19:18 UTC ]
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A purported Kim Porter memoir is pulled by Amazon after 'a dispute regarding this title.' The removal comes after Porter's kids with Diddy called the book fake. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-10-02 21:36:05 UTC ]
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