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"


Toppings bookshop to expand in move to listed building

Bath bookshop Toppings & Company is to move to a listed Georgian building, and will begin expansion building works next year.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-08 18:39:07 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Weekly: November 2 – 6, 2020

“The Babur Nama is an oddly modern text, almost Proustian in its self-awareness.” William Dalrymple on the 16th-century memoir far ahead of its time. | Lit Hub Biography “We have had no truth and reconciliation process.” On the renaissance of American white supremacy, a conversation with Isaac... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-07 12:30:24 UTC ]
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Megan Rapinoe Has a Lot More to Say

Don’t expect the usual bromides about hard work and resilience in “One Life.” The soccer star’s memoir gets into her political awakening as much as it does her sports career. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-11-06 10:00:28 UTC ]
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A narrow path through

As I wrote back in March, the enforced closing of bookshop doors is a terrible story for the editor of The Bookseller to report: it’s a gut-punch, and if you were on social media last Saturday at around 6.30 p.m.—when the Prime Minister announced the decision to shut non-essential retail in... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-05 23:57:12 UTC ]
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First Bookshop Heroes list unveiled

A new annual initiative celebrating the best of bookselling in the UK and Ireland sees 29 Bookshop Heroes hailed for their efforts in reaching readers with books—and beyond. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-05 23:21:06 UTC ]
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Yinka, where is your editor? Part 1

Debut author of Yinka Where is Your Huzband, Lizzie Damilola Blackburn, and her editor Katy Loftus at Penguin, dish the dirt on the reality behind the dream of being published. THE AUTHOR: LIZZIE DAMILOLA BLACKBURN Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-05 21:40:55 UTC ]
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Bookshop Heroes share top bookselling tips

Some of our inaugural Bookshop Heroes — the best individual booksellers in the UK and Ireland — share the skills that are key to running a bookshop.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-05 16:20:56 UTC ]
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Bourne unites authors in bookshop support campaign

Author Holly Bourne has launched a campaign to support bookshops during lockdown, involving more than 300 writers so far.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-05 06:38:02 UTC ]
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Comedian Norcott's 'smart' memoir to Monoray

Monoray, part of the Octopus Publishing Group, has acquired Where Did I Go Right?: How The Left Lost Me by comedian and writer Geoff Norcott.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-05 03:36:21 UTC ]
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Intern’s Pick, by Sydney Stutler

Intern’s Picks Andrzej Sapkowski The Last Wish Trans. Danusia Stok Sword of Destiny Trans. David French Orbit “And our destiny. It isn’t a fairy story, it’s real life. Lousy, evil, onerous . . . not sparing anyone, neither witchers, nor queens” (Sword... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2020-11-04 14:28:19 UTC ]
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Destination: New Zealand, by Madeleine Dorst

Cultural Cross Sections From the town of Kaikoura on the South Island / Photo by the author New Zealand may be best known to many as Middle Earth (and that’s not a bad rep to have), but the country has much more than just the snowcapped Pass of... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2020-11-03 17:25:10 UTC ]
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The Things They Carried is finally being adapted for film (and the cast is insane).

Since its publication in 1990, Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, a linked collection of semi-autobiographical short stories about the Vietnam War, has become a modern classic—in fact, its title story is the most frequently anthologized piece of short fiction in the last three decades, and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-03 15:27:57 UTC ]
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Cape snaps up 'exquisite' memoir from Hewitt

Jonathan Cape has snapped up an “exquisite” memoir about the challenges facing gay men today from acclaimed poet and Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year shortlistee Seán Hewitt. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-03 07:03:12 UTC ]
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Second print run for British bookshops travelogue

Fairlight Books is ordering a second print run of its c.e.o. Louise Boland's travelogue, Bookshop Tours of Britain.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-03 02:57:21 UTC ]
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Retail site Bookshop makes £65k sales on UK launch day

New online retailer Bookshop.org secured sales of around £65,000 in its first day, making £16,000 for indies. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-02 12:21:42 UTC ]
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Click and collect might not suit us all, say indie bookshops

Indie bookshop owners and managers are gearing up for a second lockdown with optimism, though some are divided over the viability of click and collect services. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-02 12:15:49 UTC ]
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Riot Recommendation: 53 of the Most Outstanding Short Stories You’ve Read

We asked for your favorite short stories and got a long list! Here are 53 of the most outstanding short stories our readers have read. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2020-11-02 11:31:00 UTC ]
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Manilla bags memoir from Children of God member

Bonnier Books UK’s new literary imprint Manilla Press has acquired a "powerful memoir" from debut author Bexy Cameron exploring her childhood in the notorious cult Children of God. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-02 00:29:45 UTC ]
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YA thriller about Native American teen to Rock the Boat

Oneworld imprint Rock the Boat has signed a "unique and compelling" YA thriller and coming of age story centred on a Native American girl, Firekeeper’s Daughter, by debut author Angeline Boulley.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-01 23:11:25 UTC ]
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The Dark History of Eastern California: A Conversation with Kendra Atleework

FEW WRITERS MANAGE to capture the essence of the California that exists beyond the images typically offered up by film and television — palm trees, beaches, gridlock, Hollywood, Kardashians; images the rest of the country seems so willing to accept about us “out here.” Kendra Atleework’s new... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-11-01 18:00:10 UTC ]
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