The wild bunch: Kate Mosse on why we love out-of-control women

From The Girl on the Train to Gone Girl, badass women rule in today’s blockbusters. Author Kate Mosse picks her favourite justified sinnersThis year has been, in fiction at least, the year of the wild woman. Novels driven by vengeful, unreliable female narrators and psychopathically flawed protagonists have topped the bestseller charts – Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train, Renée Knight’s Disclaimer, Lisbeth Salander in The Girl in the Spider’s Web, following in the footsteps of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. Complicated, flawed, delusional, violent, transgressive and out of control, these are women seeking retribution and taking matters into their own hands. Mad, bad or misunderstood, they are satisfying to read about and satisfying to write. So where do such characters come from? One of the most commonly asked questions at any literary event is how a character comes to life. Is character the keystone, the first component of a novel? Or is it an idea that first whets the author’s appetite? A period or an object? Or imagination, pure and simple? We give different answers, of course, because we each have our own technique. Besides, the various inspirations for a new book often happen near-as-dammit simultaneously and unconsciously, with lots of conflicting ideas rushing forward at the same time. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-10-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #bestseller charts #paula hawkins #lisbeth salander #gillian flynn #literary event

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Women writers dominate Waterstones kids' shortlist

Female authors account for the vast majority of this year’s Waterstones Children’s Book Prize this year, with 15 of the 18 titles written by women (see full shortlists below). The prize is divided into three categories – best illustrated book, best fiction for 5-12s and best book for teens –... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book prize #illustrated book #vast majority #waterstones children #books shortlisted #steve antony #rob biddulph


Do you love Amazon? There's a Valentine's Day sale going on

Amazon, originally known as a book seller, has become an all-around retail super store with a growing list of its own electronics. Sales are not infrequent as the company tries to push its devices, in many cases selling them at a loss with plans to make up the money once the customer is... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2015-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #day sale #book seller #growing list #special gift


2015 Kate Greenaway Medal picture book prize longlist - in pictures

Discover the 20 longlisted contenders for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2015, including former children’s laureate Anthony Browne, Mini Grey, Jim Kay, Catherine Rayner, Shaun Tan and Chris Riddell (with two nominated titles on this year’s longlist)Find out about the 2015 Carnegie medal... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-02-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #mini grey #jim kay #catherine rayner #shaun tan #chris riddell #nominated titles


Virago Press gives women writers a voice: from the archive, 26 January 1981

Carmen Callil’s publishing company has set about proving that there are many excellent but neglected women writers well worth publishing and reprintingMore women than men buy books; more women read books and more women write books, especially novels, and they always have. Yet women writers are... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ursula owen


Love and the Single Christian: Books Encourage, and Urge Caution

New books from Christian publishers offer hope, advice, and a bit of tough love for singles looking for romance. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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VIDEO: Meet the Author: Kate Saunders

Nick Higham meets Kate Saunders who has won the Costa children's book award for Five Children on the Western Front. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2015-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #costa children #kate saunders #book award


Canadian University Acquires Novels With Oscar Wilde Link

The University of British Columbia Library has acquired two rare, 19th-century novels that scholars believe may have been written by Oscar Wilde. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-01-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #oscar wilde


Trade debates women and leadership

Concerns about a lack of women in the topmost positions at major trade publishers have come to the fore after the announcement that Little, Brown c.e.o. Ursula Mackenzie is departing her role. Mackenzie will become chairman of the company on 1st July, with David Shelley taking over the c.e.o.... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ursula mackenzie #1st july


Force Your Children To Love Architecture With These Cutesy Picture Books

Curtain walls get kid-friendly. Here's a conundrum for overeager design-loving parents everywhere: How do you explain to a seven-year-old the wonders of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye or Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building? How do you make a pre-teen see the beauty of the built world, and the... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2015-01-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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We love the Gruffalo, what other books are great for our bilingual family?

The Book Doctor seeks out books for a German-English couple who want children’s books that reflect their duel heritage I’m German and my wife is English. We are bringing their children up bilingually. I especially like the Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s picture books because they bring... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-01-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #julia donaldson #axel scheffler #hear stories


My Love Language Is Silent Condescension

I’m a firm believer in judging books by their covers, and the cover of the 10-million-selling relationship self-help book The 5 Love Languages isn’t promising. A stock-photo couple embraces on a garish purple beach, the sunset spraying fake lens flare into the foreground. The subtitle... Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2015-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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How a Virginia bookstore found loving homes for cats

The independent bookstore Tales of the Lonesome Pine works with a local animal shelter to bring cats into the store and search for a permanent home for them using social media. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #permanent home


The Only Comic About Gladiator Women in Space Prison You Will Ever Need

Comic book writer Kelly Sue DeConnick's Bitch Planet is a sci-fi tale about gladiatorial ladies in space prison that takes some of the most exploitative tropes about incarcerated women, tears out their sexist heart, and shoots what remains into outer space. Here's why it's essential reading. ... Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2014-12-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #outer space


William Heinemann to publish long lost love letters

William Heinemann has acquired a “significant” collection of erotic letters from a young woman to her lover dating from the 1920s. Selina Walker, publisher at Century and Arrow, bought UK and Commonwealth (excluding Australia New Zealand) rights to the collection, edited by Jean Yves Berthault... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #william heinemann #young woman #bought uk #zealand rights #kerry glencorse


Kindle app update adds X-ray, push notifications, better audiobook controls

The Kindle’s X-Ray feature is an excellent differentiator from other eReader apps. It’s like a specialized Wikipedia for each Kindle book, curating details about characters, locations, history, and many other facets of both fiction and non-fiction texts. The X-Ray feature is finally available in... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2014-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book isn #push notifications #x-ray feature


Panel Mania: Nature's Beauty and Cruelty in 'Love: The Tiger'

'Love: The Tiger' by Frédéric Brrémaud and Federico Bertolucci presents a day in the life of a Bengal tiger with stunning painted art. An award winning story in Europe, it's coming to the US for the first time. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Wild Wyndhams wins at Biographers' Club

Claudia Renton’s book about the influential Wyndham sisters has been awarded this year’s £3,500 Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize. Her win for Those Wild Wyndhams: Three Sisters at the Heart of Power (Collins) was announced at the Biographers' Club dinner on Friday 21st November. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #biography prize


Local leaders furious with new Barbie book that says women need men’s help to code

Barbie really wants to program a computer, but she can't do it without the help of her two male friends. That's the story that has set off a social media firestorm Wednesday after Random House published a book about the Mattel doll called "Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer." Women are... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal

[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2014-11-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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For the Love of Gospel Music: Robert Darden

Robert Darden is both a scholar and an evangelist of black gospel music, seeking to preserve it through archival work and to write its history. His new book illuminates how spirituals carried messages not only of hope for the next world but freedom in this one. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-11-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #gospel music


Rebuck's maiden speech champions women's literacy

Penguin Random House UK chair Gail Rebuck has used her maiden speech in the House of Lords to champion greater literacy for the “most marginalised and excluded women in our society”, saying the literate woman is “a potentially empowered woman”. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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