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"

English language bookshop Coven reaches crowdfunder goal

Coven, an English language bookshop and café in Paris, has fulfilled its crowdfunding goal of around £21,000 to open a store dedicated to "intersectional feminism, engaged literature and ethical hospitality". Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-08 16:28:22 UTC ]
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The White House wages war on transparency: Iran edition

In the days since the US military killed Qassem Suleimani, Iran’s fêted top security official, Iran’s leaders have repeatedly threatened retaliation. Yesterday, they volleyed ballistic missiles at two bases that house US troops in Iraq. No casualties were reported. On Twitter, Mohammad Javad... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review

[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-01-08 13:07:07 UTC ]
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Deborah Orr | 'The more humble my beginnings, the more I appeared to have achieved'

Motherwell, the incisive memoir by Deborah Orr, unpicks the complexities of familial relationships. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-08 09:25:51 UTC ]
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Elizabeth Wurtzel, 'Prozac Nation' Author And Memoirist, Dead At 52

Wurtzel, who had breast cancer, gave new breath to the memoir and was a new voice for those struggling with clinical depression and addiction. Continue reading at HuffPost

[ HuffPost | 2020-01-07 21:47:12 UTC ]
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Elizabeth Wurtzel, journalist and author of Prozac Nation, dead at 52

Author of bestselling memoir about clinical depression, which made her ‘a hashtag before there was Twitter’, died from metastatic breast cancer Elizabeth Wurtzel, journalist and author of bestselling memoir Prozac Nation, has died at the age of 52.Writer David Samuels, Wurtzel’s friend since... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-01-07 16:51:54 UTC ]
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A Complete Guide to the Handful of Proper Nouns Anna Wiener Uses in Uncanny Valley

One of the first things you notice about Wiener’s Silicon Valley memoir is her elegant, strategic elision. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2020-01-07 13:30:02 UTC ]
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On the Short Stories That Inspired a Russian Czar to Free the Serfs

My Afghan godfather, a bristling military man, who at one time back in the 1930s held the all-India motorcycle speed record, spoke of A Sportsman’s Notebook as one of the two or three books that formed and continued to inform his mind. I remember his copy of it lying on his bedside table,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-07 09:48:06 UTC ]
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'Nobody in Tesco buys spy books by women': how female authors took on the genre

Publishing’s long established boys’ club in espionage fiction is having its cover blown by a new school led by Stella Rimington, Manda Scott and Charlotte PhilbyWhen Stella Rimington, the former director general of MI5 and spy author, wrote a new foreword last year to The Spy’s Bedside Book,... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-01-07 09:00:54 UTC ]
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Wakefield indie to shut bricks and mortar bookshop and move focus online

Wakefield indie Rickaro Books will close its bricks and mortar bookshop in March and move its focus to its website selling rare and antique books. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-07 01:28:46 UTC ]
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Lemn Sissay's memoir shortlisted for Slightly Foxed Best Biography Prize

Lemn Sissay’s account of his childhood in care My Name is Why (Canongate) has been shortlisted for the 2019 Slightly Foxed Best Biography Prize along with Francesca Segal’s story of sitting "vigil" for her premature twins, Mother Ship (Chatto & Windus). Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-06 22:27:54 UTC ]
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Galley Talk: 'The Roxy Letters'

Mary Webber O'Malley of Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, Ill., recommends 'The Roxy Letters' by Mary Pauline Lowry. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-01-06 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Galway's Kennys Bookshop marks 80 years of trade

The independent family-run Kennys Bookshop & Art Gallery in Galway, Ireland, is celebrating 80 years in business this year after attributing its success to "innovation and experience". Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-06 04:40:44 UTC ]
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A Tech Insider Stylishly Chronicles Her Industry’s ‘Uncanny Valley’

Anna Wiener’s memoir captures the dreams, delusions and general absurdity of Silicon Valley in indelible detail. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-01-03 10:00:08 UTC ]
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Revisiting American Short Stories Selected by John Updike

This week, Annalisa Quinn reviews John L’Heureux’s story collection “The Heart Is a Full-Wild Beast.” In 1984, L’Heureux wrote for the Book Review about “The Best American Short Stories 1984,” selected by John Updike. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-01-03 10:00:04 UTC ]
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Virago pre-empts Chloé Cooper Jones' memoir

Virago has pre-empted Chloé Cooper Jones' "game-changing" memoir about disability as US rights were snapped up by Avid Reader Press in a "major auction". Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-03 01:28:14 UTC ]
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English language bookshop crowdfunder has week to raise £7,000

A crowdfunding campaign to create a “feminist safe haven” bookshop in Paris has only a week left to raise the remaining £7,000 needed to secure premises, after securing two-thirds of its financial target. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-02 16:26:28 UTC ]
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Yearning for Transcendence

TWO CULTS FEATURE in Sands Hall’s memoir Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology, as the author jokes to an old friend in its early pages. There’s L. Ron Hubbard’s “religion,” of course, which ensnares Hall — via a charismatic Scientologist boyfriend — after she moves to Los Angeles in 1980 to... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-12-31 20:00:14 UTC ]
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“Still Evolving”: A Conversation with Staceyann Chin

STACEYANN CHIN MADE a name for herself performing poetry on Russell Simmons’s Def Poetry Jam, but her work extends beyond her electrifying spoken-word performances. She is a civil rights activist and teacher, published a critically acclaimed memoir in 2009 called The Other Side of Paradise,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-12-29 18:00:18 UTC ]
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Tremain, Kay, Shrigley in New Year's Honours

Novelist Rose Tremain has been made a Dame in the New Year's Honours list. Meanwhile poet and novelist Jackie Kay, the Scots Makar, receives a CBE. Sir Elton John, author of autumn memoir Me (Macmillan), is made a Companion of Honour. Among those receiving OBEs are artist and author David... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-27 17:04:32 UTC ]
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