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"


Margery Kempe Had 14 Children and She Still Invented the Memoir

Not many people know this, but the first memoir in the English language was probably written by a mom who cried a lot.  The Book of Margery Kempe is mostly the kind of text you read if you’re a medievalist, or maybe an English major at a women’s college, although I was an English major […] The... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-02-27 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: February 27, 2020

“I try to hide how unreal those two deaths are to me. No, not unreal. It’s just I can’t make them matter.” Elizabeth Tallent on death, silence and the intimacies of sadness. | Lit Hub Memoir Pod Save America’s Dan Pfeiffer lays out a plan for the future of democracy. | Lit Hub Politics “It’s […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-27 11:30:28 UTC ]
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Headline picks up The Yorkshire Forager

Headline has picked up The Yorkshire Forager, a “wonderfully wild” memoir and field guide by forager Alysia Vasey. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-27 10:30:25 UTC ]
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Hodder snaps up debut author's reimagining of Siege of Troy

Hodder & Stoughton has snapped up debut author Claire Heywood’s “vivid and illuminating reimagining of the story of the Siege of Troy”, Daughters of Sparta. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-27 00:11:49 UTC ]
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Nicole Chung Talks Anthologies and the Nerdy Joys of Structure

In this episode of Reading Women, Kendra talks with Nicole Chung about the anthology she co-edited, A Map Is Only One Story out now from Catapult. From the episode: Kendra: Today, I’m talking to Nicole Chung, the editor in chief of Catapult Magazine and also one of the co-editors of the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-26 09:47:43 UTC ]
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Religion Book Deals: February 26, 2020

Zondervan nabbed a new book by Christian hip-hop artist Lecrae; Jordan Lee Dooley brings two books to WaterBrook, a memoir on autism lands at Brazos, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-02-26 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Unbound launches memoir from Coppafeel! founder Kris Hallenga

Unbound has launched memoir How to Glitter a Turd from Coppafeel! founder Kris Hallenga. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-25 23:24:09 UTC ]
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“Shame Was My First Drug”: A Conversation with Erin Khar

ERIN KHAR’S TENDER, at times desolate, yet boundlessly hopeful memoir Strung Out: One Last Hit and Other Lies That Nearly Killed Me is, in many ways, a love letter to her oldest son, Atticus. Startled by a story he’d heard on the news about a successful dermatologist who had died of a drug... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-02-25 20:00:40 UTC ]
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Watch Mitchell Jackson give away 125 copies of his memoir on 125th Street in Harlem.

It’s damn near inevitable—someone asking me “who do I write for?” Most times I say, I’m writing for a 20-year-old version of myself, a young man who wasn’t a reader, but who might’ve been had he been exposed to the right books; who wasn’t an intellectual, but was ever curious; who listened to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-25 19:00:48 UTC ]
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Flooding forces Shrewsbury children’s bookshop to close

Button & Bear children’s bookshop in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, has been forced to close today (Wednesday 25th February) owing to rising floodwaters. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-25 14:31:43 UTC ]
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Mirror Books pre-empts memoir of first NHS baby

Mirror Books is set to publish a memoir by Aneira Thomas, the first baby born on the NHS. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-24 20:50:00 UTC ]
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Gollancz bags Adam Simcox's "gritty" supernatural crime series

Gollancz will publish the first three books in debut author Adam’s Simcox’s series The Dying Squad. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-24 05:25:42 UTC ]
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Whistleblower Has a Hidden Power

The memoir from the former Uber engineer Susan Fowler is a life story that doubles as a cultural indictment. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2020-02-23 12:00:00 UTC ]
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A Bite of the Apple by Lennie Goodings – essential literary memoir

The Virago publisher is eloquent and inspiring on writing – but her memoir lacks grit and gossipLennie Goodings has had a long and highly respected career in publishing. She is chair of Virago Press, the pioneering publishing house that champions women’s writing. She’s been with Virago since the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-02-23 09:00:48 UTC ]
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Trump Is Directly Trying to Block Publication of John Bolton’s Book

The president has called his former national security adviser a traitor and says the highly anticipated memoir shouldn't be published before November. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2020-02-22 15:12:08 UTC ]
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Book review: Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener

This amusing memoir feels like a Silicon Valley version of The Devil Wears Prada. Continue reading at Stuff

[ Stuff | 2020-02-21 16:00:00 UTC ]
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Panel Mania: ‘Banned Book Club’

Kim Hyun Sook’s irresistible memoir conveys her political and social awakening with equal measures of hilarity and terror. The post Panel Mania: ‘Banned Book Club’ appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions

[ The Millions | 2020-02-21 11:00:33 UTC ]
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Looking at Gish Jen and the Conglomeration of Others

This week, Karen Thompson Walker reviews Gish Jen’s new novel, “The Resisters.” In 1999, Jean Thompson wrote for the Book Review about “Who’s Irish?,” Jen’s collection of short stories about the ambitions and compromises of immigrants and their children. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-02-21 10:00:05 UTC ]
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Mikel Jollett Crafts a Heartbreaking Memoir of Staggering Growth

The author, born into the Church of Synanon cult, tells his heart-wrenching story of love and redemption in words and music. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-02-21 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Holocaust survivor's 'courageous' memoir to Michael Joseph

Michael Joseph is posthumously publishing the memoir of a Jewish dressmaker who survived three concentration camps. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-21 04:05:58 UTC ]
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