What We're Reading – October 2019

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine EvaristoSince studying Lara as a student, I have been a fan of Bernardine Evaristo’s work, and am delighted to see her win the Booker Prize this year. Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives of twelve black characters with different backgrounds and experiences, most of whom identify as female, living in London. I’ve enjoyed getting to know them through my reading and seeing how their lives are linked or overlap in different ways. What I found particularly interesting about this book is how each character responds in their own way to the universal questions of self and identity, particularly the tensions between personal, public and political gender discourse and the effect it has on the relationships the characters have with others. This feels like a very important book, and a must-read if you’re interested in what’s happening in UK fiction today.Rachel Stevens, Director LiteratureCommon People - An Anthology of Working-class Writers (ed Kit de Waal). An exceptional collection of essays, poems, memoir and short stories celebrating working-class life, culture and literature. There are many highlights, but I especially recommend Lisa McInnery’s essay ‘Working Class: An Escape Manual’, which considers how working-class writers and artists are co-opted into other identities when they achieve success. Debut author Adam Sharp’s ‘Play’, a memoir of his relationship with a substance-addicted father, is poignant and deftly handled - he’s a writer to... Continue reading at 'British Council global'

[ British Council global | 2019-10-30 09:49:28 UTC ]

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


Shrewsbury's Button & Bear children's bookshop to close

Children's bookshop Button & Bear in Shrewsbury is to close blaming the "fickle" high street and customer expectations on price. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-08 23:59:54 UTC ]
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Unpacking Wharton’s Library

IN 1984, George Ramsden, a 30-year-old British bookseller who had never read anything by Edith Wharton, bought her personal library for $80,000. He kept the books in a room above his bookshop where he would invite select visitors to view them by asking if they wanted to come up and see “Edith.”... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-06-08 12:30:25 UTC ]
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Free 'global voices' anthology released to coincide with World Refugee Day

A digital collection of "global voices" will launch to coincide with World Refugee Day (20th June 2020).  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-08 08:51:48 UTC ]
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Macmillan Children's pre-empts Norse Gods adventure series

Macmillan's Children's Books has pre-empted a middle-grade trilogy by debut author Cat Weldon, set in the world of the Norse gods.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-08 07:23:35 UTC ]
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Literature on Lockdown 8: #BlackLivesMatter

The sadness, exhaustion, anger and frustration that have been expressed by Black people across social media this week have, of course, been felt for centuries.But, by living so much through our screens right now, observing video footage, scrolling through reposted statements and infographics,... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2020-06-05 16:46:27 UTC ]
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This Week's Bestsellers: June 8, 2020

‘How to Be an Antiracist’ and other books addressing systemic racism return to our bestseller lists. Plus musician Mikel Jollett debuts with the memoir ‘Hollywood Park,’ and science journalist James Nestor discusses the importance of ‘Breath.’ Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Book Deals: Week of June 8, 2020

Among the notable deals last week were the sale of a memoir from a PBS NewsHour correspondent, a novel about a woman who gives birth to an owl, and international bestseller Michel Faber’s latest novel. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The Late-Night Revelations in “The Shapeless Unease,” a Memoir of Insomnia

Katy Waldman reviews “The Shapeless Unease,” by Samantha Harvey, a memoir about the author’s yearlong battle with chronic insomnia. Continue reading at New Yorker

[ New Yorker | 2020-06-04 18:55:26 UTC ]
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Puffin acquires 'truly original' picture book about climate change

Puffin has acquired The Bear in the Stars by debut author and print-maker Alexis Snell.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-04 13:19:07 UTC ]
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‘No reader is too young to start’: anti-racist books for all children and teens

It’s never too early to learn that racism is wrong and we should be doing something about it. These books will help show our kids how, writes publisher and bookseller Aimée FeloneDo the work: Layla F Saad’s anti-racist reading list The weight of the world seems heavier than ever right now. The... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-06-04 07:00:00 UTC ]
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Little A acquires Greene's 'Jew(ish)' memoir

Little A, an imprint of Amazon Publishing, will publish Matt Greene's memoir, Jew(ish): A Plea.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-04 01:10:30 UTC ]
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Griffin and Nott make RSL Christopher Bland Prize shortlist

Anne Griffin and David Nott have made the shortlist for this year's £10,000 RSL Christopher Bland Prize, which goes to a debut author aged 50 or over. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-03 14:09:31 UTC ]
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Less! Less! Less!: How the miniseries took over television

From Quiz to Chernobyl, the one-off television series is the perfect antidote to the relentlessness of multi-season shows. But do they ultimately leave us wanting more?Broadcast across three nights as lockdown kept us glued to our sofas, ITV’s Quiz was the first new drama in a long time that... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-06-02 14:27:30 UTC ]
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A Summary and Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Man of the Crowd’

‘The Man of the Crowd’ is one of the shorter short stories written by Edgar Allan Poe (who pioneered the short story form when it was still an emerging force in nineteenth-century magazines and periodicals). Written in 1840, the story is deliciously enigmatic and, in some ways, prefigures later... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2020-06-02 14:00:22 UTC ]
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Wayétu Moore Escapes a Civil War in Liberia. In America, She Encounters a New Kind of Danger.

“The Dragons, the Giant, the Women” is a migration memoir of separations, relocations and reunions. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-06-02 09:00:08 UTC ]
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Personal Space: Matt Ortile on Grindr, Sex, and Decolonization

On this episode of Personal Space: The Memoir Show, Sari Botton interviews Matt Ortile, author of the memoir The Groom Will Keep His Name: And Other Vows I’ve Made About Race, Resistance and Romance, published by Bold Type Books. Ortile writes about owning his identity as a gay,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-06-01 20:04:21 UTC ]
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Transworld acquires motherhood memoir from Margaret Reynolds

Transworld has bought UK and Commonwealth rights for memoir The Bright Field by Margaret Reynolds, professor of English at Queen Mary, University of London.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-01 08:56:53 UTC ]
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W&N to publish Moore's Hollywood memoir

W&N has acquired Miss Aluminium, a memoir by Susanna Moore describing her experiences in Hollywood in the 1970s and her own "hard-won arrival at selfhood". Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-31 19:23:49 UTC ]
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20 New Asian American Books to Read Right Now

It’s been just over 45 years since the publication of Aiiieeeee!, a groundbreaking and trailblazing anthology that established the category of Asian American literature. Since then, we’ve seen the amalgamation of great organizations centering around Asian American Pacific Islander literature,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-05-29 11:00:00 UTC ]
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I Didn’t Have a Plan: The Millions Interviews Nick Flynn

My approach to memoir writing demands a different schedule. It may be more organized. I take notes, I write in condensed bursts. I do that with poetry also, but the process is more alchemic. It’s uncontainable. It’s fluid, I can drift in another realm. The post I Didn’t Have a Plan: The Millions... Continue reading at The Millions

[ The Millions | 2020-05-29 10:00:01 UTC ]
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