Category Archives: Books

Advocates react to Utah ban of 13 books in schools and libraries: ‘It’s a tragedy’

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Utah is first in the US to outlaw titles statewide they deem ‘indecent’ as free speech advocates worry about impact

Library associations, free speech groups and advocates are expressing outrage and concern after the state of Utah ordered 13 books to be removed from public school classrooms and libraries in accordance with a new state law that passed earlier this year.

“It’s a tragedy,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.

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Utah outlaws books by Judy Blume and Sarah J Maas in first statewide ban

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State has ordered books by 13 authors, 12 of them women, to be removed from every public school, classroom and library

Books by Margaret Atwood, Judy Blume, Rupi Kaur and Sarah J Maas are among 13 titles that the state of Utah has ordered to be removed from all public school classrooms and libraries.

This marks the first time a state has outlawed a list of books statewide, according to PEN America’s Jonathan Friedman, who oversees the organisation’s free expression programs.

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Liza Minnelli announces memoir because documentaries ‘didn’t get it right’

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Cabaret star says she felt ‘mad as hell’ after hearing stories from people who didn’t know her or her family, and will release untitled book in 2026

Liza Minnelli is to release a memoir after she claimed previous screen depictions of her life “didn’t get it right”.

The 78-year-old US actor and singer will release the book in spring 2026, which will take readers through her career, struggles with substance abuse and love life.

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Liverpool library torched by far-right rioters raises repair funds

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Appeal for donations to repair fire damage caused to Spellow Hub library has raised more than £120,000 in two days

A fundraising campaign has raised more than £120,000 to help repair a Liverpool library and community hub that suffered severe fire damage after being targeted by rioters on Saturday night.

Nigella Lawson and children’s laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce are among those who have donated to the gofundme page, which was set up on Sunday afternoon in aid of Spellow Hub library.

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Francine Pascal, creator of the Sweet Valley High books, dies aged 92

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Author’s long-running high school book series sold more than 200m copies and led to a hit TV show

Francine Pascal, creator of the long-running Sweet Valley High book series, has died at the age of 92.

According to the New York Times, the author died in New York City as as result of lymphoma. The news was confirmed by her daughter Laurie Wenk-Pascal.

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Trump told nephew to let his disabled son die, then move to Florida, book says

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Fred C Trump III calls comment ‘appalling’ in new book All in the Family, to be published next week

Donald Trump told his nephew he should let his disabled son die, then “move down to Florida”, the nephew writes in a new book, calling the comment “appalling”.

“Wait!” Fred C Trump III writes. “What did he just say? That my son doesn’t recognise me? That I should just let him die?

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Angela Merkel chooses privacy over publicity as she celebrates turning 70

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Once seen as the world’s most powerful woman, the former German chancellor is now immersed in the arts – and not only as an admirer

At the peak of her career, she was hailed as the world’s most powerful woman and the de-facto leader of the EU.

But as Angela Merkel turns 70 today, there will be no gathering of dignitaries to pay tribute to her legacy. Instead, she will celebrate entering her eighth decade “in private”, a spokesperson for her office told the German news agency dpa.

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Billie Eilish latest star to read CBeebies bedtime story

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Oscar-winning singer chooses book by Oliver Jeffers that highlights importance of protecting nature

Billie Eilish has become the latest star to read a CBeebies bedtime story, having chosen a book that teaches children about interacting with nature.

The Oscar-winning singer of What Was I Made For? and Birds of a Feather read This Moose Belongs to Me by the author and illustrator Oliver Jeffers.

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Booktopia will not fill orders and may not issue refunds, say administrators

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Customers left out of pocket who placed orders have now become, in effect, unsecured creditors

The administrators handling the collapse of Booktopia have announced that orders placed with Australia’s largest online bookseller will not be filled – and there may be no refunds either.

It means out of pocket customers who placed orders prior to the company entering voluntary administration have now become, in effect, unsecured creditors – which voids store credits and gift cards too.

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Alice Munro knew my stepfather sexually abused me as a child, says Nobel laureate’s daughter

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Andrea Robin Skinner says her stepfather sexually assaulted her when she was nine, but her mother said she ‘loved him too much’ to leave him

The daughter of Nobel prize winner Alice Munro, Andrea Robin Skinner, has alleged that her stepfather sexually abused her as a child, and that her mother stayed with him even after he admitted to the abuse.

Skinner revealed the allegations in an essay and a news article in Canada’s Toronto Star on the weekend, writing about how her stepfather, Gerald Fremlin, began sexually assaulting her in 1976 when she was nine years old and he was in his 50s.

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Peter Navarro defends himself in new book while still in prison

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The New Maga Deal full of errors and omissions from former Trump adviser convicted of contempt of Congress

In a book due to be published a day before his release from prison this month, the former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro praises Donald Trump’s Maga movement – and claims to list errors and omissions that led to his four-month sentence for criminal contempt of Congress, for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House January 6 committee.

But Navarro makes striking errors and omissions of his own, including jarringly misidentifying Ashli Babbitt – the Trump supporter shot dead at the US Capitol who became a martyr to many on the far right – as a US marine corps veteran.

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Greek poet who inspired Forster, Hockney and Jackie Onassis emerges from the shadows

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The writer Constantine Cavafy was largely unpublished in his lifetime, but was revered by artists. His archive and Alexandrian home are now on show for the first time

It was the backdrop to a literary world of the lost Levant. Away from the sea, on a narrow street in the old Greek quarter of Alexandria, 10 Rue Lepsius was the home and creative sanctuary of Constantine Cavafy.

For 26 years, it was here that the poet, a bureaucrat in British-run colonial Egypt, held court, treating writers such as EM Forster to long candle-lit nights of talk over liquors and what the English novelist later recalled as “small bits of bread and cheese”.

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‘It’s a snowball effect’: the generation Z book club making waves in New York

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Cassidy Grady’s Sunday reading series ‘Confessions’ seeks fresh avenues for creative expression in wake of pandemic

Reading nights and avant-garde literary groups are rapidly emerging as platforms for younger generations to foster community and creatively share personal narratives – and one new series is making waves in New York.

Literary events are on the rise across the US, with CNN citing that book club listings have grown 24% in 2023 from the previous year.

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Gretchen Whitmer wants to meet far-right plotters who tried to kill her, book reveals

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Exclusive: Michigan governor and potential Biden replacement writes in memoir True Gretch of desire for ‘face-to-face’ talks

Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan widely spoken of as a possible Democratic candidate for president should Joe Biden cede to growing pressure and leave the race, wants to meet members of a far-right militia who plotted to kidnap and kill her.

“I asked whether I could meet with one of the handful of plotters who’d pleaded guilty and taken responsibility for their actions, just to talk,” Whitmer writes in a new book, of the plot motivated by resistance to Covid public health measures and revealed with 13 arrests in late 2020.

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Thousands of Albanians honour author Ismail Kadare in Tirana

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PM pays tribute to country’s best-known novelist as coffin is covered in national flag and flowers

Thousands of Albanians have gathered in Tirana to pay tribute to their country’s best-known novelist, Ismail Kadare, who died on Monday after a heart attack.

Flags flew at half-mast as the 88-year-old writer and poet’s coffin lay in state in the entrance hall of the Opera and Ballet theatre in Skanderbeg Square, surrounded by National Guard officers.

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Australia’s largest online bookseller Booktopia enters voluntary administration

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Insolvency advisers are assessing the business while options for its sale or recapitalisation are explored

Booktopia has entered into voluntary administration, but will continue filling orders and selling to the public under supervision from an insolvency adviser.

Australia’s largest online bookseller announced the move on Wednesday, two weeks after it went into a voluntary suspension of share trading.

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Miles Franklin award 2024: Alexis Wright continues dream run as shortlist announced

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Much-lauded Praiseworthy joins works by Gregory Day, André Dao, Sanya Rushdi, Jen Craig and Hossein Asgari competing for Australia’s highest literary honour

Alexis Wright continues her dream run with the acclaimed novel Praiseworthy, one of six books announced as the shortlist for the 2024 Miles Franklin literary award, Australia’s highest literary honour.

Announced on Tuesday, the other five books up for the $60,000 prize are Gregory Day’s The Bell of the World, André Dao’s Anam, Sanya Rushdi’s Hospital, Jen Craig’s Wall and Hossein Asgari’s Only Sound Remains.

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South Carolina implements one of US’s most restrictive public school book bans

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Education superintendent and Moms for Liberty ally drafts law requiring all reading be ‘developmentally appropriate’

South Carolina has implemented one of the most restrictive book ban laws in the US, enabling mass censorship in school classrooms and libraries across the state.

Drafted by Ellen Weaver, the superintendent of education and close ally of the far-right group Moms for Liberty, the law requires all reading material to be “age or developmentally appropriate”. The vague wording of the legislation – open to interpretation and deliberately inviting challenge – could see titles as classic as Romeo and Juliet completely wiped from school shelves.

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Open letter in India calls for withdrawal of go-ahead to prosecute Arundhati Roy

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Over 200 signatories urge government to reverse decision enabling action against writer under anti-terrorism law

More than 200 Indian academics, activists and journalists have published an open letter urging the Indian government to withdraw last week’s decision sanctioning the prosecution of the Booker prize-winning author Arundhati Roy under the country’s stringent anti-terrorism law.

“We … deplore this action and appeal to the government and the democratic forces in the country to ensure that no infringement of the fundamental right to freely and fearlessly express views on any subject takes place in our nation,” the group said in the letter.

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Donald Sutherland, Don’t Look Now and Hunger Games actor, dies aged 88

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The prolific actor appeared in more than 190 films and TV shows and was a vocal anti-war activist

Donald Sutherland, whose acting career spanned six decades and included starring in such highly acclaimed films as Don’t Look Now, M*A*S*H and The Hunger Games, has died aged 88.

He died in Miami after a long illness, confirmed by his representatives.

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