Shanny's reading

Record of books I've read and my favourite literature-related stories by shanny.basar@gmail.com, freelance journalist

By Shanny Basar

Books
How John Steinbeck ‘opened up’ The Grapes of Wrath's readers
The Guardian - Sam Jordison
When Steinbeck finished The Grapes of Wrath in 1938, he expressed doubts about its quality. Since then, critics and the public alike have decided that he needn’t have worried. Sure, there are some exceptions:
Books
Olivia Laing splits James Tait Black prize win with fellow shortlistees
The Guardian - Alison Flood
Olivia Laing, who this weekend won the £10,000 James Tait Black award for her debut novel Crudo, will not be taking all of her winnings home with her. Instead, the acclaimed author has announced she will
Indian History
‘What honour is left when we have to take orders from traders who haven’t yet learned to wash their bottoms?’
indianexpress.com - William Dalrymple
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire William Dalrymple Bloomsbury Publishing 576 pages Rs 699 One of the …
Slavery
The 1619 Project details the legacy of slavery in America
pbs.org - PBS NewsHour
Today, the New York Times published the print edition of the 1619 Project. The name marks this month's 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first …
Poetry
Ode to the poem: why memorising poetry still matters for human connection
theconversation.com - Veronica Alfano
Memorising poetry was once common in classrooms. But it has, for the most part, gone out of style. There are good reasons for this. Memorisation can …
George RR Martin: ‘Game of Thrones finishing is freeing, I’m at my own pace’
The Guardian - Sarah Hughes
If George RR Martin could be granted one wish, it would be for more time. The bestselling author of the Song of Ice and Fire saga, the books that became television phenomenon Game of Thrones, is in London
Books
Reader, I downloaded him: boom times for the literary long listen
The Guardian - Nosheen Iqbal
Four hours of Beatrix Potter, 10 hours of Marcel Proust, or 72 hours of Sherlock Holmes. How about every single word of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and George Eliot’s Silas
Form, Faith, and Freedom: Wendell Berry on What Poetry Teaches Us about the Secret of Marriage
Brain Pickings by Maria Popova - Maria Popova
“The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.” I often think that literature is the original internet, each footnote and citation and allusion a hyperlink to
Indian History
William Dalrymple on the importance of the East India Company and his new book The Anarchy
www.youtube.com
Indian History
Peterloo and Amritsar – 100 years apart but united in the bloody history of Britain's empire
The Conversation UK - Deana Heath
At St Peter’s Field in Manchester, England on Monday August 16 1819, an estimated 18 men, women and a child were massacred by British cavalry and up …
Philosophy
Underland: An Enchanting Journey into the Hidden Universe Beneath Our Feet
Brain Pickings by Maria Popova - Maria Popova
“Into the underland we have long placed that which we fear and wish to lose, and that which we love and wish to save.” “To sense this world of waters known to the creatures of the sea we must shed our
George Orwell
Five Books: The Best George Orwell Books, recommended by D J Taylor
fivebooks.com - by George Orwell
Could you tell us a bit about who George Orwell, born Eric Arthur Blair, was? In some ways, he was a very conventional product of his time. He was …
Opinion (UK)
Peterloo was the massacre that led to a new democratic era
The Guardian - Richard J Evans
Two hundred years ago, on 16 August 1819, the event we’ve come to know as the Peterloo massacre took place, as a public meeting on St Peter’s Fields in Manchester was violently broken up by troops acting
Popular Fiction
The Tale of Genji: The world’s first novel?
BBC Culture
Written 1,000 years ago, the epic story of 11th-Century Japan, The Tale of Genji, was written by Murasaki Shikibu, a woman. Written 1,000 years ago, the Japanese epic The Tale of Genji is often called
Barack Obama
Barack Obama’s 2019 summer reading list celebrates a diverse group of authors
Vox - Catherine Kim
Former President Barack Obama shared a summer reading list on Instagram filled with mostly fiction works that touch on big themes about race, gender, and class. The president’s recommendation post — part
The Guardian view on Peterloo, 200 years on: a defining moment
The Guardian - The Guardian view
We are what we remember. The massacre of men, women and a child at St Peter’s Field in Manchester, 200 years ago on Friday, had a seismic impact and has reverberated ever since. Around 60,000 people –
Russia
Russian Gerasim Lebedev pioneered Bengali theatre in the 1700s
Quartz - Karen Stapley
Whilst browsing through a list of inhabitants of Calcutta (Kolkata today) in the 1790s, one particular entry caught my attention. In June 1794, a Russian musician by the name of Gerasim Lebedev was listed
Books
Robert Macfarlane finally wins Wainwright nature writing prize
The Guardian - Alison Flood
After making the shortlist for the UK’s top nature-writing award three times, Robert Macfarlane has finally won the Wainwright Golden Beer book prize for what judges called his “best book”: a journey the
Sally Rooney’s ‘sensuous lips’: why male book critics diminish female writers
The Guardian - Sian Cain
“A startled deer with sensuous lips”: what comes to mind? A hellish phantasm of a doe-human hybrid that will definitely stalk and kill you in a dream tonight? Or Sally Rooney’s face? Writing in the Swiss
Afterlife
Big Brother’s long afterlife
The Economist
“1984” might have become irrelevant when the Soviet Union fell. But it didn’t The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell’s “1984” By Dorian …
Barack Obama
Barack Obama just revealed his summer reading list (and he's got impeccable taste)
Entertainment Weekly - Sydney Bucksbaum
Just because it’s already the middle of August (where did the time go?!) doesn’t mean it’s too late to get started on your summer reading list. But with so many new books released this year, how are you
Books
Taking a stanza: Simon Armitage cancer poem engraved on a pill
The Guardian - Alison Flood
Simon Armitage’s latest poem, a “bullet / with cancer’s name / carved brazenly on it”, is yet to be printed or read aloud by the poet laureate from the stage. Instead, the work has been engraved by micro-artist
Iceland
Roy Jacobsen on the Backbone of Nordic Literature: the Sagas of Iceland
lithub.com - By Roy Jacobsen
A couple of years ago Iceland was chosen as ”Schwerpunkt” at Frankfurt Book Fair, where a new German translation of The Icelandic Saga was to be …
Literature
Too busy? Distracted by your phone? How to love reading again
The Guardian - Marianne Eloise
In 2019, books are not just a last resort when the wifi is down. There are Instagram accounts, podcasts and even subscription boxes dedicated to reading. Chances are you’ve noticed your friends joining
Toni Morrison
What Toni Morrison Knew About Trump
The Atlantic - Syreeta McFadden
In her 1993 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, the late author cautioned against the distraction of the “political correctness” debate. I think a lot about Toni Morrison’s 1993 Nobel Prize lecture. Morrison,
C.S. Lewis
Machines Like Me, But They Love You
publicbooks.org - Erik Gray
In almost any book about artificial life, there comes a moment when the humans, like Victor Frankenstein, are obliged to confront the full reality of …
How to Write with Style: Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Keys to the Power of the Written Word
Brain Pickings by Maria Popova - Maria Popova
“The most damning revelation you can make about yourself is that you do not know what is interesting and what is not.” Kurt Vonnegut (November 11, 1922–April 11, 2007) has given us some of the most timeless
'I wanted to carve out a world both culture specific and race-free': an essay by Toni Morrison
The Guardian - Sign in
I suspect my dependency on memory as trustworthy ignition is more anxious than it is for most fiction writers – not because I write (or want to) autobiographically, but because I am keenly aware of the
News (U.S.)
Toni Morrison was the Nobel prizewinning chronicler of African-American life
The Economist
Death of a literary iconToni Morrison was the Nobel prizewinning chronicler of African-American life Her books examined and revealed the legacy of …