‘I emerged painfully transformed from her books’: Han Kang readers on her Nobel literature prize
From penetrating words to images that linger in the mind, Han Kang readers tell us what her work means to them
Forced to close in China, a beloved bookstore finds a new home — in D.C.
Jifeng Bookstore’s journey from Shanghai to Dupont Circle spanned six years and seven thousand miles.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/09/04/chinese-bookstore-dc-jifeng-books/
The beautiful chaos of Jason Reynolds’s bookshelves
The celebrated author of “Ghost,” “Long Way Down” and other titles for young readers walks us through his eclectic collection of books and literary artifacts.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/interactive/2024/jason-reynolds-book-tour-home/
https://lithub.com/what-the-deliberate-targeting-of-libraries-reveals-about-the-nature-of-war/
Letter from a Region in My Mind
‘Whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves.’ —James Baldwin
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/11/17/letter-from-a-region-in-my-mind
Scene of destruction at the Factor Druk printing house, after it was hit by a Russian missile in May.
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/18/nx-s1-5041979/russia-ukraine-war-books-publishing-literature-kharkiv
FOR TEN YEARS or more, my weekday alarm is set for 6:23. I get moving, meditate like I have for 40-some years, text a Cleveland friend to let him know I’m still alive. C-SPAN at 7:00 on my phone like radio. Make the bed. Exercise briefly with some light weights. Make sure the lights are off and the refrigerator door is closed, and head out. I love the routine.
These classic ’60s books shout from the shelves to be read again .
Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Harper Lee and others asked provocative, brave questions about many of the same urgent issues we face today.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/06/28/national-book-awards-1960s/
Meet the people behind three of the UK’s brilliant independent bookshops
Rebuilding from a fire, competing with Amazon and launching during lockdown – how these indies continue to thrive
https://apple.news/A2OnLISprSaSo1XLYZgdOTg
‘I'm not telling you to make the world better, because I don't think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I'm just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment. And if you ask me why you should bother to do that, I could tell you that the grave's a fine and private place, but none I think do there embrace. Nor do they sing there, or write, or argue, or see the tidal bore on the Amazon, or touch their children. And that's what there is to do and get it while you can and good luck at it.’
~Joan Didion
I JUST READ THIS TWICE IN A FEW MONTHS. I read it on the subway only, on the way with my sign in the morning. I keep it in the old Patagonia bag I take with me. So it was slow going, a couple pages a day. The train trip is short and I usually stand on the more-crowded return train. ANYWAY, it’s quite a book. Won the Pulitzer Prize. I may read it again. A memoir. A Taiwanese-American student at Berkeley. Why would I read it twice and maybe/probably again? An honest-seeming voice, good details. Very good details. A real life.
Nell Irvin Painter’s understanding of America is beautiful and bracing.
We should listen. “I Just Keep Talking” brings together wide-ranging and pointed essays by the author of “The History of White People.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/06/12/nell-irvin-painter-just-keep-talking-essays-review/
THE SIGN is by the door ready for 7:40 in the morning when I take it with me to the subway downtown. Many of the same people see me every weekday when I hold the sign on Chambers Street. Some give a thumbs-up every time. A bright-faced Latino young woman folds her hands prayerfully and moves her mouth shyly without making any sound and says, Thank You. Sometimes I say to her, sometimes I say it to others: It Would Change the World.
States begin to push back on book bans – by banning them
2:14 PM EDT June 4, 2024
As a record number of school districts face bans on certain books and lawmakers enact measures that limit what can be taught about race and sexual identity in the classroom, some states are moving to counter the measures with laws that prohibit banning books.
From a novel sequence that dispenses with much of what we expect from fiction to fearlessly honest memoirs of motherhood and divorce, Cusk is a challenging writer. But also a genius
https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jun/04/where-to-start-with-rachel-cusk
NBC investigative reporter Mike Hixenbaugh looked at how issues around race and identity are playing out in school districts around the country. He was interviewed by Chalkbeat story editor and author Cara Fitzpatrick.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?534839-1/after-words-mike-hixenbaugh#
The lasting impact of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the U.S.A’
’ Steven Hyden’s “There Was Nothing You Could Do” explores the blockbuster album, which turns 40 next month.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/05/23/born-in-the-usa-bruce-springsteen-book-review/
https://lithub.com/in-honor-of-duke-ellington-here-are-15-great-books-about-jazz/
At last, a midlife-crisis novel that’s not about a man
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-05-15/review-miranda-july-all-fours-novel