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"


Elisabeth Sifton, Editor and Tamer of Literary Lions, Dies at 80

She was also a publisher and an author whose memoir affirmed that her father, the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, had popularized the Serenity Prayer. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-12-13 22:52:39 UTC ]
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The employees at iconic NYC bookstore McNally Jackson have voted to unionize.

Earlier today, the employees of the New York City-based indie bookshop McNally Jackson voted to join the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU). RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum says, “We’re proud to welcome the workers of McNally Jackson into our union. Tonight, they showed that... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-12-13 20:10:34 UTC ]
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Revisiting André Aciman’s Eccentric Family

This week, Josh Duboff reviews André Aciman’s “Find Me,” the sequel to his 2007 novel “Call Me by Your Name.” In 1995, Barry Unsworth wrote for the Book Review about “Out of Egypt,” Aciman’s memoir chronicling the family that shaped his life. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-12-13 10:00:09 UTC ]
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W&N pre-empts 'breathtaking' memoir from Shadrick

Weidenfeld & Nicolson has pre-empted a “breathtaking” memoir from Tanya Shadrick about waking from a coma. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-12 23:53:18 UTC ]
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Apple TV+ will drop every episode of ‘Little America’ on January 17th

Little America, the anthology series based on true stories about immigrants in the US, arrives on Apple TV+ on January 17th. Apple will release all of season one's episodes at once, rather than weekly as it's done with other shows, and more than a mo... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2019-12-12 23:19:00 UTC ]
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Her Francophilia Saved Her From the Death Camps, but Not From Great Danger

In “A Bookshop in Berlin,” Françoise Frenkel describes a life devoted to French literature and her escape from the Nazis across occupied France. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-12-12 16:02:39 UTC ]
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Lilly Dancyger Wants You to Embrace Your Bad First Draft

In our series “Can Writing Be Taught?” we partner with Catapult to ask their course instructors all our burning questions about the process of teaching writing. This time we’re talking to Lilly Dancyger, editor at Narratively and author of the forthcoming memoir Negative Space. Lilly’s next... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-12-12 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Bookshop Heroes to be crowned in new Bookseller feature backed by BA and HarperCollins

The Bookseller is to create a Rising Stars-style listing of individual booksellers to coincide with the Booksellers Association Conference in September 2020. The Bookshop Heroes special, supported by the BA and sponsored by HarperCollins, will be published to coincide with the annual conference.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-11 22:52:50 UTC ]
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5 Goals for Making Your Anthology the Best That It Can Be

Marika Lindholm, co-editor of the new book We Got This: Solo Mom Stories of Grit, Heart, and Humor offers 5 tips to creating a more appealing and successful anthology. The post 5 Goals for Making Your Anthology the Best That It Can Be by Marika Lindholm appeared first on Writer's Digest. Continue reading at Writer's Digest

[ Writer's Digest | 2019-12-11 10:00:21 UTC ]
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The Lost Books of Jane Austen by Janine Barchas review – how Austen's reputation has been warped

A deliciously original study of the cheap editions of Pride and Prejudice and other novels – ignored by literary scholars – casts new light on her readershipJane Austen aficionados think that they know the story of their favourite author’s posthumous dis-appearance and then re-emergence. For... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-12-11 07:30:31 UTC ]
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Alastair Campbell's mental health memoir to John Murray

Former political aide and author Alastair Campbell is publishing a "candid" and "empowering" memoir about his struggles with mental health Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-11 06:30:30 UTC ]
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Quiller buys prison memoir of NatWest Three member Darby

Quiller has bought the memoir of former British banker Giles Darby, one of the NatWest Three who was jailed in the US for his involvement in a $7m fraud. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-10 16:17:14 UTC ]
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Bob Geldof anthology snapped up by Faber

Faber will publish a book from Bob Geldof, Tales of Boomtown Glory, which it describes as “the musical life and times of one of our most powerful singer songwriters” Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-10 12:26:27 UTC ]
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Fourth Estate triumphs in six-publisher auction for O’Neill’s Belfast memoir

Alix O’Neill’s memoir of growing up in a Republican area of Belfast during the 1990s has gone to Fourth Estate Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-10 02:33:14 UTC ]
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Doubleday signs debut author Anna Bailey in 'major' pre-empt

Doubleday has signed a "major" pre-emptive deal for world rights in two books from Anna Bailey with the first offers already in from France and Italy. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-06 15:35:31 UTC ]
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How Journalism Made a Poet Out of Me

In 1977––just three years after the publication of Tom Wolfe’s The New Journalism, a landmark, incendiary anthology that declared journalists using fictional technique had erased the novel as literature’s dominant form—I was fresh out of college and had just landed my first job as a journalist.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-12-06 09:48:12 UTC ]
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Weekly E-Ranking: Blue Moon grabs third number one

Lee Child’s Blue Moon has boomeranged back into the Weekly E-Book Ranking top spot, a week after Philip Pullman’s collected His Dark Materials sensationally knocked the 24th Jack Reacher title from the number one. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-06 08:47:34 UTC ]
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Edelweiss, Edelweiss? Julie Andrews Loves Reading About 18th-Century Plant Hunters

“I’m fascinated by stories of how the various plant specimens we take for granted today were originally discovered,” says the actor, whose latest book is “Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years.” Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-12-05 10:00:03 UTC ]
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'Crawdads,' 'Becoming' Top Amazon 2019 Lists

Led by sales of such of powerhouse titles as Delia Owen's wildly popular novel 'Where the Crawdads Sing' on the fiction list, and Michelle Obama's memoir 'Becoming' for nonfiction, Amazon released lists of the e-tailers top selling books of 2019. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-12-05 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Mitch Albom Reads From His New Memoir Finding Chika

Storybound is a radio theater program designed for the podcast age. Hosted by Jude Brewer and with original music composed for each episode, the podcast features the voices of today’s literary icons reading their essays, poems, and fiction. In our first episode, Mitch Albom reads an excerpt from... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-12-03 09:47:32 UTC ]
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