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 ]

Other news stories related to: "What We're Reading – April 2019"


Susan Fowler’s Memoir Shows Uber Was an Even Worse Place to Work Than We Thought

The former Uber engineer paints a damning portrait of the culture Travis Kalanick built. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2020-02-19 21:07:39 UTC ]
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Beyond Jokha al-Harthi: Women Writers from the Gulf

When Jokha al-Harthi and Marilyn Booth won the Man Booker International Prize last year, for Booth’s translation of Sayyidat al-Qamr (Celestial Bodies), many hurried to note that al-Harthi was the “first Omani woman writer” to have a book in English translation.While true, this may give the... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2020-02-19 10:26:57 UTC ]
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10 new books to get you through the week.

Every week, the TBR pile grows a little bit more. It’s getting precarious. It’s taking up your whole nightstand. It’s threatening to crush you in your sleep. Well, what are you waiting for? Get cracking. What are you reading this week?   FICTION Brandon Taylor, Real Life (Riverhead) Brandon... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-18 16:20:28 UTC ]
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Greta Thunberg family memoir coming in March

Greta Thunberg’s "raw and powerful" family story, written largely by her mother Malena Ernman, will be published by Allen Lane on 5th March. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-18 15:10:37 UTC ]
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I Want to Speak for Myself, Not the Whole Latinx Community

It’s hard enough for memoir writers to figure out their relationship to “truth.” Our memories are faulty, and our real lives rarely offer tightly-plotted stories or clear lessons—so is your responsibility to the reader to be scrupulously accurate, or to give them some kind of insight into... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-02-18 12:00:00 UTC ]
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R. Eric Thomas Wants to Save Your Capitalist Soul

R. Eric Thomas’ debut memoir Here for It: Or How to Save Your Soul in America challenges what it means to be “other.” Thomas delves into his experiences as a black, queer Christian—moving from his childhood in Baltimore to his struggles with private school and an Ivy League. This hilarious... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-02-18 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Picador to publish memoir from John Connell

Picador is publishing The Running Book: A Journey through Memory, Landscape and History by Irish Book Award-winner John Connell. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-16 17:12:56 UTC ]
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A. E. Hotchner, Writer and Friend of the Famous, Dies at 102

His diverse body of work included novels, plays and a memoir about Ernest Hemingway. He was also a partner with his friend Paul Newman in business and charity. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-02-16 15:37:39 UTC ]
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A. E. Hotchner, Writer and Friend of the Famous, Dies at 102

His diverse body of work included novels, plays and a memoir about Ernest Hemingway. He was also a partner with his friend Paul Newman in business and charity. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-02-15 21:06:55 UTC ]
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Septemberland, How to Find Your Way in a Post-9/11 Dystopian World

TO BE A STRANGER in your own land is alienating enough, but to be a stranger among your own people? That vexing question is at the heart of two books — one a Bildungsroman, the other a memoir — by Arab authors whose narratives might be best described as the misadventures of the insider-outsider.... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-02-15 18:00:32 UTC ]
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Elizabeth Wurtzel and the Feminist Disability Memoir

IF YOU WERE a depressed young woman in the 1990s, Elizabeth Wurtzel’s memoir Prozac Nation (1994) was required reading. I remember standing in a New Jersey Barnes & Noble, tenderly taking the book from the shelf, and turning it over in my hands. Who was this woman on the cover? She looked so... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-02-14 13:30:58 UTC ]
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Colin Kaepernick Launches Publishing House, Has Audible Audio Deal

Free agent NFL quarterback and social activist Colin Kaepernick plans to publish a memoir via his own publishing venture and release an audiobook version of the untitled book via an exclusive deal with Audible. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-02-14 05:00:00 UTC ]
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A brief (and inadequate) introduction to the writing and writers of Shetland

Shetland literature has a short history. Or, more accurately, the long history of Shetland literature has been truncated — the result of a double disadvantage, as far as official histories are concerned: an oral culture, in which few people could read or write, and a language that died out... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2020-02-13 12:54:04 UTC ]
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Colin Kaepernick to release memoir through his own new publishing company

Colin Kaepernick announced on Thursday that he will release a memoir this year under his new imprint, Kaepernick Publishing. He also has partnered with Audible for a multiproject deal. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-02-13 12:35:32 UTC ]
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R. Eric Thomas: ‘Don’t Bleed All Over the Congregation’

This week on The Maris Review, R. Eric Thomas joins Maris Kreizman to discuss his new book, Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America. On choosing the moments that go into a memoir: Maris Kreizman: Your memoir collection is very much about figuring out who you are and being comfortable... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-13 09:47:59 UTC ]
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He raised his son to love wild places. Then his son disappeared.

Explorer and biologist Roman Dial reflects on parenting in this memoir of the search for his son, who vanished while solo hiking in Costa Rica. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-02-12 23:38:32 UTC ]
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He raised his son to love wild places. Then his son disappeared.

Explorer and biologist Roman Dial reflects on parenting in this memoir of the search for his son, who vanished while solo hiking in Costa Rica. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-02-12 23:38:32 UTC ]
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The juicy details of Jessica Simpson’s memoir are only part of her misunderstood story

The pop star-turned-fashion mogul was always defined by men. Now, she’s defining herself. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-02-11 13:43:43 UTC ]
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Sexism and Genius Collide ‘In the Land of Men’

Adrienne Miller’s memoir chronicles her tenure as fiction editor of Esquire in the 1990s and her rocky relationship with David Foster Wallace, the era’s iconic novelist. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-02-11 10:00:07 UTC ]
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What to Leave In, What to Leave Out: My Conversations with David Foster Wallace

When you’re writing a memoir, you find that you’re obliged to confront your own ideas about the nature of memory. In Gore Vidal’s own splendid memoir Palimpsest, he suggests that when we remember an event, we don’t remember it as it actually happened, but rather that we remember our memory of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-11 09:48:31 UTC ]
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