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"


Corvus strikes two-book deal with debut author Katy Cox

Atlantic's Corvus imprint has acquired two novels from debut author Katy Cox, including M is for Mummy, a "warm and witty" story about parenting an autistic child.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-11 05:57:45 UTC ]
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Arabic Literature and Antiquarian Bookshops: A Conversation with Richard van Leeuwen, by Alex Crayon

Interviews Richard van Leeuwen is a senior lecturer in Islamic studies at the University of Amsterdam. This year, he won the 2020 Sheikh Zayed Book Award in the Arabic Culture in Other Languages category for his book The Thousand and One Nights and... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2020-08-10 20:32:46 UTC ]
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Hodder acquires 'hopeful' memoir on choosing to parent alone

Hodder & Stoughton has acquired Liv's Alone by Liv Thorne, an "honest and hopeful memoir that captures the joy and the challenge that is parenting alone by choice". Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-09 12:38:16 UTC ]
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What is a bookshop for?

The Zoom call was going well. I liked the technology on show, and I felt bookshops could definitely benefit from using it. It provided a way of alerting the bookshop - ahead of a visit - when someone with a disability (or who needed additional help) would be arriving at the shop. Staff would be... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-09 12:28:32 UTC ]
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Better titles for ex-Trump staffers’ memoirs.

Another day, another announcement of a memoir from a former Trump collaborator. This time, it’s Fiona Hill, an ex-advisor who testified in Trump’s impeachment inquiry, whose “views about the future of a polarized America” will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2021. I have nothing... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-08-06 19:59:16 UTC ]
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MCB flies in for Morayo's fairy fiction series

Macmillan Children's Books has won a multi-publisher auction for a young fiction series by debut author Lola Morayo. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-06 14:22:34 UTC ]
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How a writer learned to open up about Dad's secret sex books

Sara Faith Alterman's "Let's Never Talk About This Again" is a memoir about strange family dynamics, love, grief and the benefits of finally opening up. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-08-05 18:00:51 UTC ]
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Waterstones shuts Milton Keynes centre branch

Waterstones has announced the permanent closure of its bookshop in the Centre MK Shopping Centre, Milton Keynes, over “excessive” rent demanded from its landlord. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-04 18:17:36 UTC ]
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Dead Ink and Bloomsbury showcase Northern literary talent in new anthology

Dead Ink Books and Bloomsbury are publishing Test Signal, a "ground-breaking" anthology of the best contemporary Northern writing. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-04 18:01:19 UTC ]
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Dissecting Pain: An Interview with Alisson Wood

It would be easy to summarize Being Lolita as a memoir about a toxic, exploitative relationship between a high school English teacher and his student, and it is about that—but it’s about that in the way Walden is about a pond. Continue reading at The Paris Review

[ The Paris Review | 2020-08-04 16:08:33 UTC ]
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Personal Space: Morgan Jerkins on Making Unexpected Family Discoveries

On this episode of Personal Space: The Memoir Show, Sari Botton interviews Morgan Jerkins, author of Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots, published by Harper. In this fascinating historical memoir, Jerkins explores her identity and heritage by tracing... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-08-03 19:36:31 UTC ]
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Chicago Brewery Crafts Beer for Hat & Beard Fall Release

A Chicago brewery is partnering with Hat and Beard Press to cross-promote craft beer and a new collection of short stories by Sam Weller by brewing an Imperial stout with a label that replicates the cover of 'Dark Black.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-08-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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How Poetry Helps Us Through Grief

A former U.S. poet laureate’s new memoir reflects on the power of storytelling to reconcile past traumas—and offers lessons for surviving the cataclysms of the present. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2020-08-01 12:00:00 UTC ]
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In ‘Memorial Drive,’ Natasha Trethewey reclaims her mother’s life from the man who took it

Trethewey’s memoir is a tribute to a life snuffed out by a brutal man, a fractured judicial system and a patriarchy as old as Methuselah. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-07-31 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Green Tree acquires Liz Fraser memoir

Bloomsbury's Green Tree is to publish Liz Fraser's memoir Coming Clean: A True Story of Love, Addiction and Recovery next year.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-31 11:02:40 UTC ]
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A Queer Memoir About Navigating Toxic Masculinity

I met David Adjmi at a fancy writing residency. The kind of place where you work all day alone and then eat dinner together, have a drink in the parlor afterwards. I remember a night when someone suggested watching a movie. As people were perusing the house copy of the criterion collection... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-07-31 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Book Deals: Week of August 3, 2020

Scribner buy a book about American’s first female astronauts, Matthew McConaughey sells a memoir to Crown, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-07-31 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Personal Space: Laura Lippman Dares to Focus on Herself

On this episode of Personal Space: The Memoir Show, Sari Botton interviews Laura Lippman, author of My Life as a Villainess, published by William Morrow. In this wry essay collection she writes movingly about becoming a mom in her fifties, choices she made in her career as a journalist and a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-07-30 18:00:43 UTC ]
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In ‘Memorial Drive’ a Poet Evokes Her Childhood and Confronts Her Mother’s Murder

The new memoir by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey is an aching investigation of trauma and art. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-07-30 10:06:53 UTC ]
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How “Memorial Drive” Tries to Make Sense of a Mother’s Murder

Katy Waldman writes about “Memorial Drive,” a new memoir by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey, who pieces together memories of her mother, who was murdered by Trethewey’s stepfather. Continue reading at New Yorker

[ New Yorker | 2020-07-29 10:00:00 UTC ]
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