Cultural Cross Sections Shohreh Laici Photo of Tehran by Xiquinho Silva / Flickr A writer in Tehran incapable of entering the US under the Muslim travel ban encounters Michelle Obama’s Becoming in a beauty salon. Reading the Farsi translation, she finds encouragement in its pages. Every Fourth of July, I question my American friends’ patriotism. I email them Independence Day congratulations, attached with pictures of the American flag. Many of my American friends don’t show much interest in my Fourth of July congratulations. Like my friend Sam. He thinks differently about the idea of the flag, national anthem, and patriotism. Sam believes that the flag is not sacred; it’s just a symbol. He says he doesn’t need to wrap himself in the US flag to demonstrate that he is a patriot. To him, patriotism is more than just following a flag and cheering for the politicians who wave it. Although Sam was born and raised in a military family with right-wing political views, he is very leftist. Since November 2016, Sam has lived in a number of European countries and recently settled down in northeastern Africa to serve as a health consultant. He doesn’t like living in the States anymore and thinks of himself as a citizen of the world. Once I asked Sam how he feels when some people of other countries—including Iran—burn the US flag. He smiled and said, “I understand that it’s a statement. We—the Americans—burn our flag to make a statement,... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2019-11-26 14:55:39 UTC ]
The L.A. Times Book Club dove into stories across the world and close to home in 2021. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-12-16 15:00:17 UTC ]
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Facing difficult comparisons to last year when Barack Obama's 'A Promised Land' was piling up huge sales numbers, unit sales still increased 9.7% last week over 2020 as adult fiction sales jumped 35.3%. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-12-02 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Auto-narrated audiobooks will not replace human narration but will help "elevate" text-heavy books and help eliminate the gap between e-books and accompanying audiobooks, says Ani Attamian, head of publishing partnerships for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Google. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-20 01:45:35 UTC ]
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Rock legend Bruce Springsteen and former President Barack Obama have written a book based on their podcast conversations, to be published globally by Penguin Random House in partnership with Higher Ground. The book chronicles, as Obama said in the book’s introduction, the men’s “shared... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-07-22 15:49:00 UTC ]
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The canon of popular American literature not only unified the culture, it helped create the national narrative of individualism and self-reliance. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2021-07-16 14:03:05 UTC ]
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YA book Blackout (Electric Monkey) has been picked up in a nine-way auction by Netflix with Michelle and Barack Obama’s Higher Ground Productions and Temple Hill Entertainment. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-14 21:05:47 UTC ]
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Katie Kitamura’s new novel follows an interpreter in The Hague who’s involved with a married man. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-07-13 05:17:24 UTC ]
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Former President Barack Obama released his summer 2021 reading list and it's packed with outstanding books to pick up. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-07-12 11:42:22 UTC ]
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The ALA Annual Conference will again be virtual-only in 2021—and for many ALA members, that’s actually great news, as it broadens access to one of the most ambitious and impressive programs of the Covid-19 era. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-06-11 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Obama will close the 2021 ALA Annual Conference, which is virtual only, on Tuesday, June 29. He will appear in conversation with Lonnie G. Bunch III, the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian and first African American appointed to the role. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-06-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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A scholar of American literature at Stanford says it’s worth publishing. The agents representing the Steinbeck estate strongly disagree. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-05-27 14:53:04 UTC ]
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At the Chicago Review of Books, Eric Nguyen discusses his new novel, Things We Lost to the Water, and how Vietnamese American literature processes the ongoing influence of colonialism, as seen in two of the book’s characters, Công and Ben. “Công’s narrative is parallel with Ben’s, who doesn’t... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2021-05-17 20:30:35 UTC ]
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Former President Obama joined filmmaker Ava DuVernay for a conversation about "A Promised Land," his legacy and activism during a Book Club event. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-04-22 04:32:01 UTC ]
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Barack Obama and filmmaker Ava DuVernay will discuss the former president's memoir "A Promised Land" April 21 in a livestreamed event for the L.A. Times Community Book Club. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-04-16 01:25:03 UTC ]
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The debut melts down striving immigrant tales, Old West mythology and madcap thrillers to produce an invaluable new alloy of American literature. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-04-06 12:00:00 UTC ]
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CMA says it is considering whether Penguin Random House’s $2bn deal would lessen competitionAuthors fear the worst if Bertelsmann takes over Simon & SchusterThe UK competition watchdog has launched an investigation into Penguin Random House’s $2bn (£1.45bn) takeover of Simon & Schuster,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-03-22 09:00:30 UTC ]
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From LOLITA IN THE AFTERLIFE, edited by Jenny Minton Quigley. Reprinted by permission of Vintage Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Essay copyright © 2021 by Robin Givhan. Compilation copyright © 2021 by Jenny Minton Quigley. The... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-03-17 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Last March, amid the myriad upheavals and uncertainties that marked early pandemic life, various scientists and public health officials started to model out how many cases and deaths we might be looking at in the long run, and the press, unsurprisingly, took great interest in their work. A team... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-02-23 13:34:38 UTC ]
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Winter Institute 16 kicked off yesterday as a virtual gathering of booksellers. Inspired by such high wattage speakers as Barack Obama and Amanda Gorman, booksellers celebrated their past while charting their future. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-02-19 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Gershom Gorenberg reveals the intelligence campaign that shaped the war and the region. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-02-12 13:00:00 UTC ]
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