What We're Reading – April 2019

Her Body and Other Parties, by Carmen Maria Machado I've absolutely loved this collection of short stories, which floats between the weird and the queer, passing horror, black comedy and feminism along the way. Doubles and others are especially important: a wife enters her wife’s dream when they are apart; a girlfriend fades until her girlfriend accidentally falls through her in bed. Most noticeably, in the magnificent story ‘Especially Heinous’, detectives Stabler and Benson from Law & Order: SVU meet Abler and Henson, who always get to the crime scene first but do nothing about the beautiful murdered girls whose deaths fuel most episodes of Law & Order: SVU. Machado’s stories are direct, fast-paced, and funny, yet there’s always a slow-moving malevolence to them, a hidden seriousness, a careful confusion, and a sense of meaning that’s just out of reach for the characters. I can’t wait for her second book – a memoir – to be published later this year. Swithun Cooper, Research and Information Manager   Ordinary People, by Diana Evans Just shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize. Ordinary People is the story of two couples in the second flush of marriage, wondering about where their lives together are going and what compromises they’ll have to make along the way. It’s also a love-letter to London, and to the music of John Legend. I’m enjoying Diana Evans’ lyrical writing style and in depth exploration of her characters inner lives, their frustrations and complex... Continue reading at 'British Council global'

[ British Council global | 2019-04-11 08:49:28 UTC ]

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Lit Hub Daily: January 15, 2021

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9 Graphic Memoirs and True Stories by Women

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Duchess of York’s first novel to be published by Mills & Boon

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In ‘Aftershocks,’ a Search for Home in a Life Around the World

Nadia Owusu’s beautiful and unsettling memoir is an attempt to understand what it means to be rooted and rootless. Continue reading at The New York Times

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Film review: in My Salinger Year, hope and optimism win out

Based on Joanna Rakoff's memoir of working for JD Salinger's agent, the film lacks some of the wit but none of the heart of Joanna's story. Continue reading at The Conversation

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Virago to publish memoir from Dame Eileen Atkins

Actress Dame Eileen Atkins, aged 86, will publish her memoir with Virago in October 2021.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

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Here’s a list of everything Haruki Murakami has ever compared to writing.

Today, Haruki Murakami celebrates his 72nd birthday—and we’re celebrating by diving into his recorded interviews. Murakami rarely gives interviews, but the ones he does are packed with insight into how he approaches the writing process. His memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running digs... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

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Gabriel Byrne’s ‘Walking with Ghosts’ is a revelation in unexpected ways

The acclaimed actor’s memoir takes us far from Hollywood to his Irish childhood. Continue reading at The Washington Post

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There Are as Many Americas as There Are Pedros

“The world will come between you,” writes Marcos Gonsalez in the prologue of his memoir Pedro’s Theory: Reimagining the Promised Land. The you here refers to both the author and his father, an immigrant from Mexico, captured in a photograph from the author’s childhood. “Hundreds of years of... Continue reading at Electric Literature

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A Memoir That Sees Only the Tip of the Melting Iceberg

In “Unsolaced,” Greta Ehrlich tells a story of personal discovery against the backdrop of the climate crisis. Continue reading at The New York Times

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Am I Argentine? On Identity, Tradition and Finding Ties to One’s Homeland

I consider myself Argentine. I tell people it is not only part of my origin story but my identity. My first novel is titled Hades, Argentina, and to my friends I’m sure that seems fitting, the natural summation of my life and literary ambitions so far. But the truth is I had never been to […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

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A Filipino Freedom Fighter’s Life, Relentlessly Annotated

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My Life Is a Result of the Legacy of Colonialism

I first read Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir Aftershocks in June, as the United States—led by the white nationalist backed Republican administration—was several months into a still ongoing unchecked global pandemic which was disproportionately killing Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous Americans.... Continue reading at Electric Literature

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Book Review: ‘Saving Justice,’ by James Comey

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Gary Paulsen’s Real-Life Survival Guide

“Gone to the Woods” is a memoir so rife with childhood trauma he wrote it in the third person. Continue reading at The New York Times

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“When They Go Low, We Go High”: Keeping Calm in the Critical Race Memoir

IN THE DAYS FOLLOWING the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Archive of American Folk Song dispatched its field workers in 10 different regions across the United States to solicit average Americans’ opinions about the bombing and FDR’s ensuing proposal for a declaration of war. A second round... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

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Abeer Hoque Is Going to Be Nice to You and You’re Going to Like It

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Scribe to release Biden memoir for first UK publication

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‘W-3,’ a Memoir That Recalls Suffering Without Sentimentality or Sensationalism

Bette Howland’s 1974 memoir, recently reissued, recounts her time in a psychiatric ward and the people she met there. Continue reading at The New York Times

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The Storefront (place)

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