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 ]

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SUCH A PRETTY GIRL is a Necessary, Compelling Memoir

On Nadina LaSpina’s SUCH A PRETTY GIRL, a new memoir about being disabled in Sicily and New York from the 50s onward. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2019-07-24 10:33:40 UTC ]
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Five Weeks in Rimbun Dahan, by Dipika Mukherjee

Cultural Cross Sections Dipika Mukherjee A writer travels from Chicago to a residency in rural Malaysia, where part of her novel-in-progress is set. While encountering the many living creatures who surround her and making progress on her work, she... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2019-07-23 13:14:38 UTC ]
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The Fire Last Time

THE TRAGEDY OF THIS slim, self-satisfied little memoir about the 2007–2008 financial crisis is not what it gets wrong. Indeed, four of its central arguments are important and exactly right: (1) that extraordinary measures and creative innovation and improvisation saved the entire financial... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-07-22 19:00:44 UTC ]
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Their Daughters Were Having Cats Instead of Children

A new collection of Bette Howland's short stories restores a powerful voice to the canon. The post Their Daughters Were Having Cats Instead of Children appeared first on Guernica. Continue reading at Guernica

[ Guernica | 2019-07-22 11:00:20 UTC ]
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Open Pen and Newham Bookshop to host latest indie homeless fundraiser

Indie press Open Pen and Newham Bookshop are joining forces to host a fundraiser for the homeless in East London. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-22 07:47:05 UTC ]
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S&S Children’s signs debut author and illustrator Alice McKinley

Simon & Schuster Children’s UK have signed a two-book deal with debut author and illustrator Alice McKinley, including Nine Lives Newton, which was the subject of a US pre-empt at the Bologna Book Fair. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-22 03:50:48 UTC ]
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Unbound launches YouTuber Jack Maynard's memoir

Crowdfunding publisher Unbound has launched YouTuber Jack Maynard's memoir and guide to living online.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-22 01:52:22 UTC ]
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Dispatches from the Future of a New China

TRANSLATED BY KEN LIU, Broken Stars is a welcome second collection of 16 Chinese speculative fiction short stories and three short essays recounting the genre’s recent cultural and academic prominence. The volume gives voice to an eclectic group, serving as a who’s who of SF authors, critics,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-07-20 19:00:31 UTC ]
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Retail spotlight: Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop and The Blessington Book Store

We talk to Galway institution Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, which will celebrating its 30th birthday in October, and Nibbies Children’s Bookseller of the Year shortlistee, The Blessington Book Store.   Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-18 23:52:32 UTC ]
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Women Writing Taiwan, by Amy Lantrip

Book Reviews Amy Lantrip   Photo by Ethan Chiang / Flickr Contemporary Taiwanese Women Writers: An Anthology (Cambria Press, 2018) is a collection of short stories in translation featuring contemporary Taiwanese authors.[i] This compilation is diverse... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2019-07-18 14:13:08 UTC ]
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On Interracial Love: Why James Baldwin’s “Another Country” Still Matters

JAMES BALDWIN HAS GROWN into the wise, guiding elder of the United States’s fractured racial conversation. His presence is at times almost palpable. Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote his memoir Between the World and Me (2015) as a letter to his teenage son, directly invoking Baldwin’s addressing his... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-07-18 12:30:39 UTC ]
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Foyles joins forces with Jacaranda to celebrate black British writers

Foyles bookshop has joined forces with indie publisher Jacaranda for its Twenty in 2020 initiative, celebrating black British writers. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-17 20:34:16 UTC ]
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Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens’ memoir serves up calm wisdom

John Paul Stevens’ memoir “The Making of a Justice” and the biography “Oliver Wendell Holmes” are must-reads for legal buffs. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-07-17 19:13:55 UTC ]
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Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens’ memoir serves up calm wisdom

John Paul Stevens’ memoir “The Making of a Justice” and the biography “Oliver Wendell Holmes” are must-reads for legal buffs. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-07-17 19:13:55 UTC ]
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Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens’ memoir serves up calm wisdom

John Paul Stevens’ memoir “The Making of a Justice” and the biography “Oliver Wendell Holmes” are must-reads for legal buffs. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-07-17 19:13:55 UTC ]
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Justice John Paul Stevens Had Some Things to Say Before He Died

Stevens’s “The Making of a Justice” is both a personal memoir and a meditation on the law. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-07-17 13:32:04 UTC ]
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Flame Tree signs deal for CWA crime anthology

Flame Tree Publishing has signed a deal with the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) to publish the latest anthology of stories by CWA members. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-17 13:07:23 UTC ]
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Gardners strikes deal with ecommerce firm Monwell

Gardners Books has joined forces with ecommerce firm Monwell Ltd in a new partnership that will see the wholesalers take over the Guardian Bookshop account from Bertrams.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-16 23:50:20 UTC ]
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Lakeith Stanfield will star in an adaptation of Kwame Onwuachi’s Notes From a Young Black Chef

Last night, Variety reported that Lakeith Stanfield (also known as the actual best part of Atlanta, there I said it, don’t @ me) to star in a feature film adaptation of Kwame Onwuachi’s Notes From a Young Black Chef—which is an essential cooking memoir that you should go read immediately if you... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-07-16 14:28:13 UTC ]
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It’s My Story and I’ll Pitch if I Want To

Imagine that you are a character from a classic tale pitching your memoir to a literary agent. You know that it will become the next bestseller. Write your query letter, story synopsis, or elevator pitch to the agent.  The post It’s My Story and I’ll Pitch if I Want To by Cassandra Lipp appeared... Continue reading at Writer's Digest

[ Writer's Digest | 2019-07-16 09:00:28 UTC ]
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