For people who came of age in the '80s, the author says, "Slasher movies, Stephen King and Twin Peaks all got mixed with our reality, which was already full of the language of horror: the disappeared, the children of the dead, children of the lost generation." - The Guardian (UK)
The author of Little Fires Everywhere says that as she wrote during the Trump years, she "wanted to look at what had happened in the past, and the dark times in which we have dealt with authoritarianism, and to remember that we’ve gotten through it before." - The Guardian (UK)
Andrea Elliott: "The intensity of my reporting stems from a belief that well-told stories—those with depth and nuance—are the product of intimate knowledge. And that comes from being with people, day after day, deeply immersed in their lives." - LitHub
Tsitsi Dangarembga held a sign in 2020 that read, "We want better. Reform our institutions." On Thursday, she was "convicted of participating in a public gathering with intent to incite public violence," fined, and given a suspended sentence. - The Guardian (UK)
"Local bartenders, retirees, restaurant workers and marketing professionals joined other Pride-goers to create a buffer around the store's entrance. Someone started playing music from a mobile speaker, kicking off sporadic dancing under the early afternoon sun." The right-wingers ended up outnumbered 10-to-1. - The Guardian (Montana Free Press)
The problem arises because people use different words for the same thing. Your wallet is stolen, and you’re going to google what to do. But what term should you use? Police or support? Theft or security? Security, it turns out, is the answer, as you find out after time wasted in several futile guesses. - American Scholar
If anything, six years between the publication of the original text and its English translation is rather speedy, especially for a literary work whose author is not a known quantity in the United States. - LA Review of Books
Skim an Axios story, and it will fly past so quickly you’ll have no idea what it says. You have to read carefully to grasp its basic meaning. Then you have to waste even more time trying to figure out how much to discount for bullshit hype. - The New Republic
“Readings can afford to pay a living wage to its workers. This is a multi-store business that, until 2021, posted profits for 25 consecutive years, and which in the past year has spent considerable amounts of money opening both a new store branch and a warehouse, without consulting workers.” - The Guardian
The most obvious is that, for the first time, all are by writers of colour. A glimpse between their covers reveals something else though. Namely, an embrace of magical realism and the unsettling that have been a feature of mainstream Canadian and international fiction for a while now. - The Globe & Mail (Canada)
"Where a mens' retailer once stood in the boutique clothing and cafe mecca of Little Collins Street, changing rooms have been transformed into cozy mirrored reading booths. ... (These are) areas that were aching for some love following the crippling impact of six lockdowns over 19 months." - Bloomberg CityLab
"(It's) like staining all the color out of our words, and it happens with overuse. Another way to describe it is supply and demand. When we use a word too much and there are too many excellents and beautifuls floating around, each becomes less valuable." - Literary Hub
"This will adapt the book industry to the digital era by restoring an equilibrium between large e-commerce platforms, which offer virtually free delivery for books," said a government statement "The €3 delivery fee is not dissuasive for book buyers and the €35 threshold will favour grouped orders." - Euronews
The actor, who died in 2016, kept impeccable diaries with sketches and accountings. About the first Harry Potter: "The film should only be seen on a big screen. It acquires a scale and depth that matches the hideous score by John Williams." - The Guardian (UK)
"By 1999 I’d gone through 15 years of formal education, including a three-year English degree, without ever being given a book to study that made any reference whatsoever to the presence of individuals like me in the country in which I was born." - The Guardian (UK)
