Category Archives: Books

Barbara Ehrenreich, author who resisted injustice, dies aged 81

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Writer of the 2001 bestseller Nickel and Dimed died on 1 September, her son announced

Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of more than 20 books on social justice themes ranging from women’s rights to inequality and the inequities of the American healthcare system, has died at the age of 81.

The news that Ehrenreich had died on 1 September was released by her son, Ben Ehrenreich, on Friday. He accompanied the announcement with a comment redolent of his mother’s spirit: “She was never much for thoughts and prayers, but you can honor her memory by loving one another, and by fighting like hell.”

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Works by Mexican writer Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz recovered from auction

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Two books containing 17th-century works by pioneering feminist poet and nun saved from US auction and returned to Spain

Two precious and well-travelled books containing works by the Mexican nun, writer, composer, poet and proto-feminist Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz have been saved from auction in New York and returned to Spain, where they were printed almost three-and-a-half centuries ago.

Sister Juana, who was born in mid-17th century Mexico to a Spanish father and a Mexican mother of Spanish descent, possessed a thirst for knowledge and a mind that would eventually mark her out as one of the greatest figures of the Golden Age of Spanish literature.

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El Alto: graphic novel depicts Bolivia city’s future as Indigenous and robotic

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Altopía imagines the bustling working-class city that overlooks neighbouring La Paz in 2053 – with coca-chewing cyborgs and minibuses with legs

Travellers flying into the Bolivian capital of La Paz land in El Alto: a working-class, Indigenous city of countless terracotta houses. Most visitors pay it little attention as the taxi whisks them down to La Paz.

But this one-time satellite city has now outgrown the political capital – and many see it as a symbol of the country’s future.

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Leïla Slimani: ‘Attack on Salman Rushdie shows why we must not censor ourselves’

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The bestselling author fears she too could be a target but says terrorists cannot be allowed to win

The bestselling author Leïla Slimani says the knife attack on Salman Rushdie has left her and other writers afraid, but that they have a “duty” to keep making public appearances and resist censoring themselves, despite the dangers.

The French-Moroccan writer, whose novels include Adèle, Lullaby and The Country of Others and is Emmanuel Macron’s personal representative for the promotion of French language and culture, said defending her freedom as a writer “feels even more important than before” and was an act of resistance.

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Spanish civil war book reveals hidden history of female journalists

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Women less interested in ‘macho competitiveness of violence’ in conflict, says author

A new book has shed light on the little-known history of nearly 200 female journalists from 29 countries who covered the Spanish civil war.

While Ernest Hemingway and Arthur Koestler were among writers who made their names reporting on the war, Bernardo Díaz Nosty’s 900-page Periodistas extranjeras en la Guerra Civil (Foreign Female Journalists in the Civil War) uncovers the story of 183 women whose writing gave a new slant on the 1936-39 conflict, distinct from the masculine and bellicose tales of life on the frontline.

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Texas school district pulls the Bible, The Bluest Eye and other books from library

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School board in Dallas-Fort Worth area requires reviewing books facing challenges from parents

A Texas school district is scrambling to remove books from its library shelves ahead of the fall semester, after they were challenged by parents and community members. Among the books removed are a graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, and the Bible.

It’s not clear why more than 40 books were challenged.

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Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame, one of Somalia’s greatest poets, dies aged 79

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Somali social media has been flooded with tributes to the man better known as ‘Hadraawi’

Messages of condolences continue to pour in from around the world following the death of Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame, regarded as one of Somalia’s greatest poets.

Warsame, better known as “Hadraawi”, died in Hargeisa, in Somaliland, on Thursday at the age of 79.

The snake sneaks in the castle:

although it’s carpeted with thorns

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Salman Rushdie: writers gather in New York to read author’s works in solidarity

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Event organized by Pen America champions freedom to write after novelist survived assassination attempt last week

Crowds gathered near the steps of the New York Public Library in midtown Manhattan on Friday morning, as writers read works by the novelist Salman Rushdie, who survived an assassination attempt in western New York last week.

The event, Stand With Salman; Defend the Freedom to Write, was organized by Pen America, the library and Rushdie’s publisher, Penguin Random House.

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Salman Rushdie ‘road to recovery has begun’ but ‘will be long,’ agent says

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Author is off ventilator and able to talk after suffering stab wounds to his neck, stomach, eye, chest and thigh in New York attack

Salman Rushdie’s “road to recovery has begun” but “will be long” after his stabbing in western New York late last week, the novelist’s agent has said.

“The injuries are severe,” the agent, Andrew Wylie, said Sunday in an email to the Guardian, alluding to stab wounds that the author suffered to his neck, stomach, eye, chest and thigh two days earlier. “But his condition is headed in the right direction.”

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Salman Rushdie attack: suspect pleads not guilty to attempted murder charge

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Suspect from New Jersey is accused by prosecutors of ‘preplanned’ attack on author in New York before being remanded without bail

The man suspected of stabbing the novelist Salman Rushdie at a literary festival in western New York pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault at a court appearance on Saturday.

District attorney Jason Schmidt alleged on Saturday that Hadi Matar, 24, took steps to purposely put himself in position to harm Rushdie, getting an advance pass to the event where the author was speaking and arriving a day early bearing a fake ID. “This was a targeted, unprovoked, preplanned attack on Mr Rushdie,” Schmidt alleged.

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Rushdie attack prompts questions over security at New York event

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Suspect had a ticket for Chautauqua event but some say protections should have been enhanced given sensitivies

A day after the bloody attack on Salman Rushdie in western New York, questions are being asked about how the perpetrator gained untrammeled access to the event with apparently minimal security precautions.

Rushdie, 75, was attacked at 10.47am on Friday, moments after he had sat down on stage in the Chautauqua Institution, a historic community of artists and thinkers about 15 miles south of Lake Erie. The auditorium, which accommodates about 4,000 people, was two-thirds full.

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Salman Rushdie is on ventilator and may lose an eye after attack, agent says – as it happened

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Here are more reactions on Rushdie’s stabbing from those in the writing community, from Maya Yang for the Guardian:

Journalists, writers and celebrities reacted with shock and horror after author Salman Rushdie was attacked onstage at an event in New York state on Friday.

Rushdie was attacked as he was about to deliver a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York, according to witnesses. Police later said he had been taken to hospital with an apparent stabbing wound to the neck.

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A tsunami of outrage: Salman Rushdie and The Satanic Verses

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The writer had no idea his novel would unleash such anger and become a litmus test of freedom of expression

When Salman Rushdie wrote his novel The Satanic Verses in September 1988, he thought its many references to Islam might cause some ripples.

“I expected a few mullahs would be offended, call me names, and then I could defend myself in public,” Rushdie would tell an interviewer much later.

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Salman Rushdie: timeline of the novelist’s career

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The critically acclaimed writer rose to fame in 1981 and later received death threats for The Satanic Verses

Sir Salman Rushdie has been attacked and stabbed in the neck while appearing at an event in New York.

Here is a timeline of his controversial, critically acclaimed career:

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Jared Kushner: I stopped Trump attacking Murdoch in 2015

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In forthcoming memoir, obtained by the Guardian, former adviser claims to have made hugely consequential intervention

In a forthcoming memoir, Jared Kushner says he personally intervened to stop Donald Trump attacking Rupert Murdoch in response to the media mogul’s criticism, at the outset of Trump’s move into politics in 2015.

In the book, Breaking History, Kushner writes: “Trump called me. He’d clearly had enough. ‘This guy’s no good. And I’m going to tweet it.’

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Trump said sorry to Cruz for 2016 insults, Paul Manafort says in new book

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In a memoir obtained by the Guardian, former campaign manager risks embarrassing powerful rivals with description of apology

Donald Trump made an uncharacteristic apology to Ted Cruz after insulting his wife and father during the 2016 campaign – only for the Texas senator still to refuse to endorse Trump at the Republican convention.

In a new memoir, Trump’s then campaign manager, Paul Manafort, writes: “On his own initiative, Trump did apologise for saying some of the things he said about Cruz, which was unusual for Trump.”

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So, Prince Harry’s memoir is done – but what’s likely to be in it?

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Ghostwritten book, with interviews conducted mostly during ‘peak rage’, expected to be published by end of year

The manuscript is, reportedly, written; the ink now dry. Publication is said to be on course to capitalise on the lucrative Christmas market.

Few crumbs, if any, of the contents of the Duke of Sussex’s much-anticipated memoirs have so far emerged. “It’s juicy, that’s for sure,” one source told the Page Six website, with another adding: “There is some content in there that should make his family nervous.”

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Trump chief of staff ‘shoved’ Ivanka at White House, Kushner book says

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John Kelly, who Kushner and wife saw as ‘consistently duplicitous’, ‘showed his true character’ in hallway incident, memoir says

While chief of staff to Donald Trump, the retired general John Kelly “shoved” Ivanka Trump in a White House hallway, Jared Kushner writes in his forthcoming memoir.

The detail from Breaking History, which will be published in August, was reported by the Washington Post.

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Blake Bailey, biographer accused of harassment and rape, to publish memoir

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Bailey’s book on Philip Roth was pulled after former students said he abused them

The author of a Philip Roth biography that was taken out of print by its original publisher last year after allegations that he raped multiple women and groomed his former middle school students for sexual encounters when they were older is gearing up to publish a book billing itself as a warning tale of so-called cancel culture.

Blake Bailey’s latest work is scheduled to be printed by the controversial Skyhorse Publishing, which picked up his Roth book and an earlier memoir after WW Norton took it out of print and pledged to donate money to sexual abuse organizations equaling the advance it had paid to the biographer.

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Diana Kennedy, influential guru of Mexican cuisine, dies at 99

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Politicians and chefs pay tribute to the ‘Indiana Jones of food’, who helped preserve and popularise Mexican recipes in the English-speaking world

Diana Kennedy, the British-born food writer who dedicated her career to promoting the richness and diversity of Mexico’s culinary heritage and helped to popularise the national cuisine in the English-speaking world, has died aged 99.

The Mexican culture ministry confirmed Kennedy’s death at her home in Michoacán and paid tribute to her legacy, saying that she, “like few others”, understood that conserving nature and its diversity was crucial to upholding the myriad culinary traditions of Mexico.

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