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Last week I attended the second Green BIC (Book Industry Communication) Brunch focused on reducing waste in the supply chain. I am trying to educate myself about all aspects of book publishing and as sustainability is a topic I like to keep open in my everyday life I took advantage of this opportunity.

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I believe I must have first read Henry James at university but I have no recollection of it. Then, I remember finding What Maisie Knew in a second hand bookshop and after that I was gifted The Aspern Papers. I like the elaborate sentences and sturdily built characters – each with their very own idiosyncrasies. I have been slowly amassing James’ works and have delighted in Colm Tóibín’s The Master. Nevertheless, I only read The Portrait of a Lady last year and this mainly because I bought John Banville’s Mrs Osmond and wanted to be acquainted with the ‘prequel’.

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I was going to write an article about my most recently acquired books only to discover that I have lost one of them. I thought that through the years of changing flats and even countries I managed to shake off the little (well, I don’t really know what he/she looks like) sprite that resided in my Mum’s flat and delighted in misplacing various things only to let me find them back in the place I checked multiple times previously. I am sure you are familiar with the creature. I have not encountered it during my stay in the US (possibly due to Visa problems) and have not had the pleasure in the UK until now. Ha! Maybe the creature dwells in my ‘pre-US’ book collection. Maybe it is its guardian.

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This week I have had 23 boxes delivered from a storage space in Prague. Twenty of those boxes were full of books that I collected throughout my life up until the point of my move to the US four years ago where I started a new “collection”.

I have twelve more boxes to unpack and neatly organise on my generous bookshelves, what a feast! I am finding duplicates (what is it about Flannery O’Connor that makes me want to own multiple copies of her work?), despite my diligent updating of a list of books that I own, and I managed to find a home for one of a double with my next door neighbour. Which edition of Wendy Cope’s Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis do I keep? The one with Faber and Faber’s “f”-design, or the sleeker bright red one? I opted for the “f”s as I think the sleek red one will catch somebody’s eye quicker…

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When the Black Lives Matter protests erupted across the United States in May 2020 my husband’s Seattle-based company reached out to its employees and offered to pay for the Ijeoma Oluo’s book and I said, yes, please.

I read Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race a couple of years back and wanted to continue the conversation. I was also interested in the US perspective, having lived there for three years until early this year.

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Yesterday I attended a Guardian Masterclass book club with Jeanette Winterson. I remember reading her Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit at my Erasmus  exchange year at Trinity College in Dublin. I liked it but I still remember a vague feeling of discomfort, probably as the openness of her book on the topic of homosexuality was new to me. My Prague curriculum did not include openly queer pieces of work and I do not remember ever discussing it in our seminars (although, this may be my memory failing me).

Since then, I have collected a number of her books but have only read one more – Written on the Body. When I tried to buy the Frankissstein  yesterday I was told they have three copies coming as one of the booksellers is a big fan and sells it to people all the time.

 

Recommended

   

The Guardian: On the brink of a Booker: 2020's shortlisted authors on the stories behind their novels

As the winner of the Booker Prize 2020 is to be announced on Thursday 19 November, let us have a closer look at the finalists. I have only read one of the shortlisted books but I have another one waiting on my shelf and two more that I would like to purchase. Watching The Guardian Live Booker Prize shortlist readings (embedded in the article) I found myself quietly and distantly smiling throughout the evening spent with writers, yet again.

'It had been on my shelf for years': Guardian readers share their lockdown reads

Now that the weekly "Tips, Links and Suggestions" column has ended, I will keep looking for fellow-readers' recommendations as I often find them enticing. The first ones I came across were of the "classics" in multiple sense of the word.

"Tips, links and suggestions" by The Guardian readers, week of 26 October 2020

This was my favourite weekly column for inspiration about what to read next. I enjoy the mix of the latest bestsellers and obscure works from centuries ago, as well as, original comments by the readers.

Where to start if you want to get into black young adult fiction by Leah Cowan

I know very little, read nothing, about Young Adult fiction since I have been looking down on it for some reason. I think it is the genre name that confuses me. I have not been aware of it until I moved to the US four years ago and, thinking about it, I am sure it has its purpose but for me the only age division in books was children's and the rest. I am sure by now it is also being used on the Czech and Slovak book market but it was not something I came across growing up.

Thanks to Where to start if you want to get into black young adult fiction by Leah Cowan I will certainly be looking up some of the books mentioned. I believe the narratives of quest and overcoming obstacles might be just what we all need right now.

"Rethinking ‘Diversity’ in Publishing" Report

First, I came across an article in The Guardian: “'I stuck my foot in the door': what it is like to be black in UK publishing”  and that led me to the report on diversity in publishing called “Rethinking ‘Diversity’ in Publishing”

The report then made me wonder about the books by non-white authors I have read and whether and/or to what extent they are conforming to the white, middle-class readers’ supposed perception of what a non-white author should be writing about.

 

Bestsellers

 

UK

  1. Richard Osman: The Thursday Murder Club
  2. Joe Wicks: Joe’s Family Food
  3. E. L. James: Freed

Week ending 18 June (Direct from trade sales)

USA

  1. James Patterson, Bill Clinton: The President’s Daughter
  2. Elin Hildebrand: Golden Girl
  3. Dav Pilkey: Dog Man: Mothering Heights

Through 12 June (Publishers Weekly)

Ireland

  1. Trisha Lewis: Trisha’s 21-Day-Reset
  2. Sinéad O’Connor: Rememberings
  3. Jane Casey: The Killing Kind

Week ending 12 June (Based on Nielsen BookScan for Irish Consumer Market)

France

  1. Dubu Chugong: Solo leveling
  2. Zep: Titeuf; la grande aventure
  3. Riad Sattouf: Les cahiers d’esther; histoires de mes 15 ans

Week ending 13 June (Based on Edistat)

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