The Most Beautiful House in the Neighborhood, by Kristina Gavran

Fiction Photo by Peter Boccia / Unsplash After renting a room in an Indian family’s house in England, the Croatian tenant becomes privy to one member’s dreams of return. “This is it!” Parvati, a young Indian woman, shows me a tiny room with scarcely space for a bed, a chest-of-drawers, and a chair. The place is so small we can barely both fit in it. The walls are covered in scruffy wallpaper, moisture has accumulated near the windows, and the curtains smell of dust. So, the room is minute, the house is neglected, the street is nondescript, and it is a long way from the city center. They told me it is known as Little Asia. It’s not ideal, but I don’t have a lot of money. I moved to England two weeks ago and urgently need a place to lay my head. Parvati is charging a reasonable rent, and I don’t need much. Also, I like her family. Her husband, Arjun, and two sons with big brown eyes greeted me excitedly when I entered the house. “I’ll take it!” I nod. Parvati claps her hands joyfully and then steps to the window and opens the curtains. “And here is the garden,” she says timidly. I peep out of the window. Before my eyes emerges a typical English backyard, only this one is entirely overgrown and unkempt. You can barely see to the fence, it is so overrun with ivy. The roof of the garden-shed has collapsed, the walls are higgledy-piggledy, and it looks as if the whole lot is about to collapse. Potted plants, rain-soaked toys,... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'

[ World Literature Today | 2021-06-07 20:25:08 UTC ]

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US Book Industry Charitable Foundation Raises $1 Million for Bookstores

Ingram Content Group seeds Binc's 'Survive to Thrive' bookstore grant program, with additional major support from publishers and Bookshop.org. The post US Book Industry Charitable Foundation Raises $1 Million for Bookstores appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-04-01 14:26:57 UTC ]
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Show Your Nerd Pride With These Bookstore Pins

10 swoon-worthy bookstore pins that'll show off your nerd cred -- and make you want to hit your local indie ASAP. - Kelly Jensen Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2021-03-30 10:38:00 UTC ]
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Tuning into Radio You: A Conversation with Writer-Songwriter Ellen Adams, by Wendy Call

Interviews   Ellen Adams is a singer-songwriter and prose writer who splits her time between Seattle and Montreal. She has been a Lambda Literary Fellow for nonfiction and a Fulbright Fellow researching politically engaged contemporary art in Thailand.... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2021-03-29 13:25:33 UTC ]
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Finalists Named for Bookstore and Rep of the Year

The five finalists for 2021 Bookstore of the Year reflect the changes that have taken place in the ways that bookstores serve their communities and the increasing role of activism in bookselling today. The five finalists for Rep come from commission groups, Ingram, and the Big Five. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-03-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent bookstore owners look back at a year spent trying to stay afloat. Not all of them succeeded.

Bouncers, hand deliveries and debt became the new reality for shop owners across the country. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-03-15 12:00:00 UTC ]
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How We Planned Our Very First Virtual Bookstore Event in a Matter of Hours

One of the biggest books of this past plague year was Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile. The success of the book is no surprise, Larson’s books are perennial bestsellers and he’s a hell of a storyteller. But the core narrative, the perseverance of the British people in the face of Nazi... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-03-12 09:50:38 UTC ]
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Moe's Booksellers Unionize

Employees at Moe’s Bookstore in Berkeley, Calif. announced that they have formed a union and joined the International Workers of the World (IWW). Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-03-11 05:00:00 UTC ]
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18 books that capture the spirit and essence of living in D.C.

These works, recommended by local authors and bookstore owners, remind us just how special Washington is. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-03-04 15:43:50 UTC ]
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What’s the most-filmed bookstore in the world?

There’s something thrilling about watching a movie or a TV show and finding that you recognize the characters’ surroundings— that you have stood on that street corner or peered into that shop before the characters, before that story begins. As someone who has been basically nowhere, I find it... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-26 20:13:15 UTC ]
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Farewell to Ferlinghetti

In the middle of the pandemic, City Lights bookstore is still open and it’s thriving. But yesterday it said goodbye to its eternally hip hundred-and-one-year-old cofounder, the poet, publisher, and community activist Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Continue reading at The Paris Review

[ The Paris Review | 2021-02-24 15:21:05 UTC ]
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My Two Favorite Bookish Places in Seoul

Grow your future travel wishlist with a quick tour two bookstores in Seoul: its oldest bookstore as well as an underground bookstore. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2021-02-24 11:38:00 UTC ]
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Lawrence Ferlinghetti obituary

Poet whose outlook spanned anarchism, ecology and small business, as founder of the City Lights Bookstore in San FranciscoLawrence Ferlinghetti, poet, artist, activist and founder of San Francisco’s famous City Lights Bookstore, who has died aged 101 of interstitial lung disease, was the least... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-02-23 22:42:13 UTC ]
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Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Poet Who Nurtured the Beats, Dies at 101

An unapologetic proponent of “poetry as insurgent art,” he was also a publisher and the owner of the celebrated San Francisco bookstore City Lights. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-02-23 20:23:41 UTC ]
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Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet and titan of the Beat era, dies at 101

Ferlinghetti was the co-founder of the legendary City Lights bookstore and a champion of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-02-23 18:50:28 UTC ]
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Feast your eyes on this gorgeous Tokyo bookshop-slash-hotel.

While we’re all still in varying levels of lockdown, here’s a new travel destination to dream about: Book and Bed Tokyo. Book and Bed is an “accommodation bookshop”: a bookstore first, hostel second, so avid readers don’t need to pay attention to the time while browsing. At each of Book and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-23 16:53:41 UTC ]
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Lawrence Ferlinghetti, literary citadel of San Francisco, dies at 101

The acclaimed poet was longtime proprietor of City Lights, the San Francisco bookstore and avant-garde publishing house that catapulted the Beat Generation to fame. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-02-23 06:26:33 UTC ]
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Nappy Roots Books, a Bastion and a Haven: A Conversation with Camille Landry, by Alex Crayon

Current Events On a visit to an Oklahoma City bookstore, Alex Crayon finds more than books. When I pulled into the snow-covered parking lot of Nappy Roots Books in northeast Oklahoma City, the first thing I noticed were the posters. Handwritten signs... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2021-02-22 21:59:22 UTC ]
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Wildwoman subscription business launches online bookstore

Self-care and non-fiction subscription box business Wildwoman has launched its own online bookstore to help cope with the pandemic's effects on business. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-16 04:31:10 UTC ]
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Meet the bookstore owner behind National Black Literacy Day.

Chicago’s only Black woman-owned bookstore opened in the summer of 2019. Over the past two years, Semicolon has served as a vital and vibrant cultural hub and gallery space. Last summer, as the coronavirus began to tear through our country and small businesses had to close their doors, Semicolon... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-12 16:25:48 UTC ]
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Villarosa Joins Tattered Cover to Curate BIPOC Books

Clara Villarosa, the founder of two iconic bookstores, the Hue-Man Experience in Denver and the Hue-Man Experience Bookstore & Cafe in New York City, will curate BIPOC books for the Tattered Cover Bookstore. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-02-10 05:00:00 UTC ]
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