What We're Reading – February 2020

Sensible Footwear: A Girl’s Guide by Kate CharlesworthMy favourite place to be is partway through a book that I have just realised is becoming an all-time favourite. This month, it happened with Kate Charlesworth’s graphic memoir, Sensible Footwear: A Girl’s Guide, a political history of gay rights in the UK and a personal history of her place in the struggle.Born in 1950, Charlesworth left for university as a not-yet-out lesbian in the year that homosexuality was decriminalised. She renders her childhood home, cramped yet somehow empty, with stark precision, then offers sweeping full-page drawings of her first gay bars – or rather, spaces coded as gay because of their dingy corners, daring clientele, and raucous singalongs of Gilbert and Sullivan. Gay rights marches, Section 28, the AIDS crisis, second-wave feminism and the journey towards civil marriage all appear, threading in and out of Charlesworth’s life in traditional comic book panels, or captured in colourful spreads like a dreamed scrapbook.Beyond the fight for rights and recognition, Sensible Footwear also celebrates the joyful community spirit of queer culture, where a single kiss on television, or a shared passion for a poet, can have a deep emotional resonance for LGBTQ+ people to connect over. From the overlapping dialogue balloons as Kate and her friend Jacky both dance around coming out to one another – each trying to admit their sexuality in subtle, abstract ways – to the page on Drew Griffiths of the... Continue reading at 'British Council global'

[ British Council global | 2020-02-14 09:49:28 UTC ]
News tagged with: #late 80s #graphic novel #comic book

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What Should You Read Next? Here Are the Best Reviewed Books of the Week

Jenny Erpenbeck’s Kairos, Deborah Levy’s August Blue, and Frieda Hughes’ George: A Magpie Memoir all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.” * Fiction 1. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (New Directions) 10 Rave • 3... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-06-09 08:53:52 UTC ]
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7 Splash-Proof and Water-Proof Kindle Cases for Summer Reading

Grab one of these waterproof Kindle cases before you head out on any summer adventures. Your book/ereader will thank you.- Kate Krug Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-06-07 10:32:00 UTC ]
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Reading at Full Volume: Seven Books That Feature Rock Music

I’ve been working on a theory about novelists lately: most of us wish we were rock stars. I’m basing this on a few things, like, for example, who wouldn’t want to be a rock star? Also, with all our anonymity, social anxiety disorders, and how we tend to be at our best while wearing sweatpants […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-06-07 08:52:59 UTC ]
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10 New Manga Releases of June 2023 to Round Out Your Summer Reading List

The new manga releases out June 2023 include isekai, a slice-of-life romance, a new story from the creator of Chainsaw Man, and much more! Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-06-06 10:31:00 UTC ]
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WATCH: Dua Lipa visits a women’s prison reading group.

Working with the Booker Prize Foundation, Dua Lipa recently visited HMP Downview, a women’s prison in Surrey, to get a firsthand glimpse of Books Unlocked, a program set up by the BPF and the National Literacy to foster a culture of reading for incarcerated people. Lipa, who recently launched a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-06-02 14:54:54 UTC ]
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What We're Reading: Hay Festival

Take a look at previous What We’re Reading blogs for more reading inspiration. Hungry Ghosts, by Kevin Jared HoseinI'm thoroughly enjoying Hungry Ghosts, the debut novel by Kevin Jared Hosein, who won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2018, and whom I had the pleasure of hearing read at the... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2023-06-01 06:19:41 UTC ]
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10 books to add to your reading list this June

Bethanne Patrick's 10 recommended books for June include long-awaited fiction from Lorrie Moore and Jenny Erpenbeck, strong debuts and surprising histories. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-05-31 13:30:42 UTC ]
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ChatGPT is basically a Gen X’er who stopped reading in 12th grade.

Turns out our soon-to-be AI Overlord, ChatGPT, has a worldview based in the 19th-century canon, Gen X sci-fi favorites, and the social dynamics at Hogwart’s School For Lil Magicians. According to this profile at Business Insider, a data scientist has reverse-engineered ChatGPT’s reading list by... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-30 15:25:12 UTC ]
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9 Science Fiction Reads for Every Mood

Whether you're looking to belly laugh, contemplate the future of humanity, or dig into conspiracy theories, I have a sci-fi read for you! Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-05-30 10:34:00 UTC ]
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New Historical Fiction to Read This Summer

These books rewind time, depositing readers in the Cumbrian countryside, coastal Maine, rural Wyoming and beyond. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-05-26 15:30:50 UTC ]
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Publishing On and Off the Page: A Reading List of Books About Book People

Readers love to read about book people almost as much as writers love to write about them (I love to do both). My latest novel, On Fire Island, follows uber-talented young book editor, Julia Gold and literary wunderkind, Benjamin Morse, through their journeys on and off the page. Threaded in... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-26 08:52:35 UTC ]
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Read Marilynne Robinson’s 1988 review of Raymond Carver’s final collection.

Raymond Carver, one of the most beloved and influential short story writers in the history of American fiction, was born eighty-five years ago today. Below is a New York Times review of Carver’s final story collection, Where I’m Calling From, written by future Pulitzer Prize (and Orange Prize,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-25 17:31:12 UTC ]
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What We're Reading: Hay Festival special

Take a look at previous What We’re Reading blogs for more reading inspiration. Hungry Ghosts, by Kevin Jared HoseinI'm thoroughly enjoying Hungry Ghosts, the debut novel by Kevin Jared Hosein, who won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2018, and whom I had the pleasure of hearing read at the... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2023-05-25 16:57:18 UTC ]
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A More Introspective End of the World: A Reading List of Quiet Apocalypse Books

Apocalypse brings to mind cataclysmic events, often involving Mad Max-esq fighting, cannibalism, and what horrors one must endure, or commit, to survive. I love such stories. I like to imagine that I would survive, thrive even, conveniently forgetting that my life of indoor pursuits, reading,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-25 12:26:54 UTC ]
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It’s Very, Very Complicated: A Reading List of Friendships That Are All Over the Place

All my reading and life experience has guided me towards a very basic truth: friendships are like hairbands. Some feel like they stretch endlessly; some snap with the slightest amount of pull on them. Some lose their elasticity after a while but still prove to work in a pinch; others never had... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-19 08:52:32 UTC ]
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20 Must-Read Short Stories on Audio

These must-read short stories on audio will help you break out of reading slumps and give you a taste of an author's style, like Some People Have Real Problems by Brit Bennett. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-05-17 10:36:00 UTC ]
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Publishing Industry Sales Inched Up in February

Gains in religious and higher educational publishing offset dips in the trade segments in February, resulting in a 0.2% sales gain for the 1,240 publishers that report sales to AAP's StatShot program. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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US February Statshot: Audio in Adult Titles Surpasses Ebooks

In books for adults as a sub-category, audio surpassed ebooks for the first time, according to February's StatShot. The post US February Statshot: Audio in Adult Titles Surpasses Ebooks appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-05-11 17:31:45 UTC ]
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Copiers, Cubicles and Colleagues: A Reading List of Office Novels

I am nostalgic for the bygone office life, for that first real job in our twenties when the word “colleague” encompassed both friend and coworker, when work meant hanging out with them during the day, and social life meant hanging out with them late into the night. It was with those peers that... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-05 08:53:59 UTC ]
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How a Riverside bookstore, a cultural oasis, got a new lease — drag readings and all

Not long after its drag queen story hours attracted protests, Riverside's Cellar Door Bookstore got evicted. But at this oasis of inclusion, the show will go on Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-05-04 13:00:17 UTC ]
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