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"


Granta signs 'moving' memoir by Elizabeth Miki Brina

Granta Books has acquired a "moving and tender memoir", provisionally titled Let Us Speak of Okinawa, by Elizabeth Miki Brina. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-07 04:10:05 UTC ]
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Viking to publish companion journal to Obama's Becoming

Viking will publish a companion journal to former US First Lady Michelle Obama’s bestselling memoir Becoming later this year. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-06 15:05:01 UTC ]
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Kroscoczka’s ‘Hey, Kiddo’ Wins Book of the Year at Harvey Awards

'Hey Kiddo', Jarrett J. Kroscoczka’s bestselling gaphic memoir about familial dysfunction, won Book of the Year, while Fun Home author Alison Bechdel and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola were inducted into the Hall of Fame at the Harvey Awards ceremony, held Friday evening during New York Comic Con... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-10-06 04:00:00 UTC ]
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A Great Spirit Trapped in a Tiny Life: On Cherríe Moraga’s “Native Country of the Heart”

CHERRÍE MORAGA HAS been an iconic figure in queer and Latinx literature since the 1981 publication of This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, an anthology she edited with the late Gloria Anzaldúa. Bridge was among the first explorations of how people and communities with... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-10-04 17:00:25 UTC ]
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What is it about bookshops….?

Ahead of Bookshop Day, bookshop owner Sarah Dennis highlights what makes independent bookshops special.     Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-04 03:15:59 UTC ]
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Mac Conner, Illustrator for Ads and Magazines, Dies at 105

In the 1950s and ’60s, Mr. Conner’s art helped sell airlines and overalls and accompanied short stories in The Saturday Evening Post and elsewhere. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-10-03 21:16:21 UTC ]
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Animating Tension: A Conversation with Leslie Jamison

LESLIE JAMISON IS NO STRANGER to tough questions. In fact, she’s undyingly attracted to them. Her three previous works — the novel The Gin Closet (2010), the essay collection The Empathy Exams (2014), and the memoir The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath (2018) — all deal explicitly with... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-10-03 12:30:39 UTC ]
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What Does Accountability Look like in the #MeToo Era?

Note: Masie Cochran is Jeannie Vanasco’s editor for her memoir Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl. “I’ll tell him: I still have nightmares about you,” Jeannie Vanasco writes early in her second memoir, Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl. The “him” in question is Mark, a man... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-10-03 11:00:04 UTC ]
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Booksellers gear up for Super Thursday ahead of Bookshop Day 2019

Retailers are gearing up for a bumper Super Thursday ahead of this Saturday's Bookshop Day 2019 when events will be taking place up and down the country. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-03 08:58:18 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury snares Kennedy's debut short story collection and novel in 9-way auction

Bloomsbury has acquired Irish writer Louise Kennedy’s debut collection of short stories and her first novel in a "fiercely contested" nine-way bidding war, ahead of this month’s Frankfurt Book Fair. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-02 22:07:05 UTC ]
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Our New Sci-Fi Anthology Will Be Your Tour Guide to the Future

Future Tense Fiction: Stories of Tomorrow is a thought-provoking excursion into the futures we would and would not want to live in. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2019-10-02 16:18:40 UTC ]
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7 Novels about Americans of Color Living Abroad

Did you know that there’s an entire genre of books dedicated to white people going to Nepal to find themselves? I didn’t either! But it’s not so surprising since the release of Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir Eat, Pray, Love, and its 2010 film adaptation, which has caused an uptick in tourism to... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-10-02 11:00:13 UTC ]
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Amazon Charts: Louis moves up Theroux the non-fiction charts

Louis Theroux's Gotta Get Theroux This (Macmillan) has toppled David Cameron's For the Record (William Collins) at the top of the Amazon Charts Most Sold: Non-Fiction chart, with the documentary maker's memoir notching up more listeners on Audible than readers on Kindle. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-02 07:19:21 UTC ]
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“The Faster You Pour It Down”: On Charles Bukowski’s “On Drinking”

ONE DAY IN a Los Angeles bookshop in the mid-1970s, a thick City Lights softcover with a stark black-and-white spine magnetized a suburban adolescent’s eyeballs. “BUKOWSKI” the cover read at the top in big block letters, and at the bottom, in smaller letters: “Erections, Ejaculations,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-10-01 17:00:44 UTC ]
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A Woman Confronted Her Rapist 14 Years Later. Here’s What He Said.

In her memoir “Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl,” Jeannie Vanasco seeks answers to her trauma. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-10-01 09:00:06 UTC ]
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Of moles and men: A memoir about the virtue of letting nature alone

Marc Hamer probes the essence of nature, solitude, and the accommodations we make between deeply held beliefs and our everyday behavior. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-09-30 21:10:04 UTC ]
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Of moles and men: A memoir about the virtue of letting nature alone

Marc Hamer probes the essence of nature, solitude, and the accommodations we make between deeply held beliefs and our everyday behavior. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-09-30 21:10:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Of moles and men: A memoir about the virtue of letting nature alone

Marc Hamer probes the essence of nature, solitude, and the accommodations we make between deeply held beliefs and our everyday behavior. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-09-30 21:10:04 UTC ]
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In 'Know My Name,' Chanel Miller Takes Back The Humanity She Was Denied

Miller, known for years only as Emily Doe in the Stanford sexual assault case, has written a memoir that lays bare the complicated truths about survivorhood. Continue reading at The Huffington Post

[ The Huffington Post | 2019-09-30 17:39:54 UTC ]
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Archer, Keyes and Halls headline Bertrams Christmas conference

Jeffrey Archer, Marian Keyes and Stacey Halls were among the authors at this year's Bertrams Christmas conference which saw Abingdon indie Mostly Books win bookshop of the year. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-30 10:31:00 UTC ]
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