Frank Cottrell Boyce has discovered some new literary heroes at the most beguiling library in the world, The International Jugendbibliothek. It was set up after the second world war by a Jewish refugee after Nazi book burning and banning. Here Frank tells us all about it – and kicks off a discussion on the missing classics in our livesWe also share a first chapter of Pushkin Press’s The Secrets of Blue Glass, (AKA the Japanese Borrowers) by Tomiko Inui, published this month for the first time in English, but beloved in Japan since 1967)I found myself some new heroes this week. When Germany was rebuilding itself after the war, a Jewish refugee who had made it to Britain in 1936 decided to give up her comfortable job at the BBC and go back to Germany and help. Her name was Jella Lepman and her speciality was children’s books. The Nazis had burnt and banned children’s books. They had destroyed the infrastructure of the Imagination just as surely as the Allies had destroyed the road network. Jella Lepman wanted to rebuild that infrastructure. With no budget, she blagged and begged books from foreign publishers, laying down the foundations of a library of international children’s books. Related: The best British children's illustrators in the Bratislava awards – in pictures Related: The 10 best Pippi Longstocking quotes Related: Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt - review Related: What are your favourite books in translation? Related: 'Oh, what happiness!' - 10 best... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2015-07-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Next month, Marvel Comics will release a new application to add content enhanced with augmented reality to some of its comic books. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2012-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Lionel Shriver deftly handles terrorism, politics and satire in 'The New Republic.'It takes guts to write a satire about terrorism — and Lionel Shriver has guts. She has already published biting novels about the failings of the U.S. healthcare system ("So Much for That") and a school shooter... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A look at AT&T's Bell Labs documents what in its heyday was truly a marvelous innovation machine and focuses on a handful of compelling narratives.For generations of industry research executives, AT&T's Bell Telephone Laboratories served as an inspiration: a warren of youthful scientists... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Thane Rosenbaum skillfully mixes fantasy and tragedy in 'The Stranger Within Sarah Stein,' whose heroine weathers her parents' divorce with pluck and defiance.Young adult novelists are increasingly tackling darker subjects: kidnappings, drugs, rape. But few have delved into so many dark subjects... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Oxford University Press has appointed a new commissioning editor with a view to expanding its... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In 'These Dreams of You,' Steve Erickson writes incisively and movingly about issues of family and race, but the novel goes off the rails with tangents.Zan Nordhoc's unhappy family is certainly unhappy in its own ways in Steve Erickson's new novel "These Dreams of You." For instance, in a... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hachette Book Group has appointed Evan Schnittman to the role of executive vice president,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In 'The Escape Artists' by Noam Scheiber and 'Confidence Men' by Ron Suskind, President Obama's economic recovery plan and his advisors are in the spotlight, but the books' analyses are off the mark in places.On Oct. 28 and 29, 1929, when the great crash devastated the stock market, Herbert... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Barrington Stoke is the latest publisher to enter the early reader market. Its new series,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Booksellers Association is calling for publishers to nominate titles for the Independent... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bonnier-owned Autumn Publishing Group is to launch Smellessence, a division which will use new... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The London Book Fair is criticised by a leading Chinese dissident for inviting only writers approved by the Chinese communist authorities. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2012-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By encouraging readers to tackle longer, more sophisticated novels, the queen of daytime TV may have hurt overall fiction sales. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2012-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Works is enhancing its retail experience around books, creating genre sections, themed window... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fewer than one in ten students purchase ebooks, while 88% of undergraduates still use printed... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google may have started out as a search engine, but the scope of its services has grown considerably in the 20-plus years since its origin. Of the many products in its grand stable, Google Translate has become a workhorse platform, lending its multi-lingual chops to Chrome, Google +, Android,... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Late New York Times journalist Anthony Shadid writes about insights gained rebuilding the war-ravaged home of his great grandfather in Lebanon in 'House of Stone.'A yearning for home, wherever that may be, is one of many themes that the late New York Times journalist Anthony Shadid so deftly... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Tinderbox: How the West Sparked the AIDS Epidemic and the How the World Can Finally Overcome It' describes what spread the pandemic and what could rein it in.Tinderbox Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Controversial political and social issues are examined with an intellectual passion.Thinking the Twentieth Century Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In reckoning with her friend's suicide, the author pulls readers into that empty space where loss and grief reside.The Guardians: An Elegy Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#sarah manguso