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7 Books About the Stigma of Menstruation
When I started writing my memoir, The Cycle, about being diagnosed with Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), I had rarely seen periods in literature, much less PMDD, with the exception of some health textbooks. In fact, my entire understanding of what a period was supposed to be like was shaped by a resounding silence. Periods happen…
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The Hindu on Books | The pull of graphic novels, remembering Rukmini Devi Arundale and more
(This newsletter comes to you with book reviews, reading recommendations, interviews with authors and more. Subscribe here.) Welcome to this edition of The Hindu on Books Newsletter. When Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel, Maus, about the Holocaust, was banned in several schools in America, he said in an interview: “We haven’t learned much from the past, but…
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He Rescued 1.5 Million Yiddish Books. Now He Will Have Time to Read Some.
Aaron Lansky was a young graduate student in Montreal in the late 1970s when he had an epiphany that changed the course of his life. He had been taking courses in Yiddish literature at McGill University, but was finding it hard to find the books he needed. At times, he relied on older neighbors in…
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How one poet is bringing literature to prisons, and how you can help
At age 16, Reginald Dwayne Betts was tried as an adult and sentenced to prison. After surviving solitary confinement, he is now a poet, lawyer and award-winning MacArthur “genius” grant recipient. He’s also a man on a mission: in 2020, with a grant from the Mellon Foundation, he founded Freedom Reads, a first-of-its-kind initiative that…
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Opinion: ‘Dune: Part Two’ falls into a familiar – and telling
Editor’s Note: Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) is a freelance writer in Chicago. The views expressed here are his own. View more opinion on CNN. CNN — Frank Herbert’s “Dune” novels struggled with their debt to colonial adventure literature. The books revel in swash and buckle and Mighty Whitey heroes lifted from the milieu of writers as various as Edgar Rice Burroughs, James…
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States try to strip sex from literature in libraries, schools
State lawmakers are getting creative in their attempts to control what young people read. Across the U.S., we’re seeing legislation aimed at school materials and public libraries. These measures often wear the mantle of “parental rights” or “protecting kids” from obscenity. But in practice they tend to take aim at any books depicting sex or…
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Reading Den creating a “sexy literary scene” at one of Denver’s coolest bars
Sexiness sells. But outside of steamy romance novels, how does that apply to literature? What’s the carnal thrust of listening to someone read — even at a bar, where flirtatious glances rain from the ceiling? You’d be surprised. “Part of the magic of reading a book is in the sharing that happens afterward, when you…
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LIST: Winners of the 41st National Book Awards
MANILA, Philippines – The Manila Critics Circle (MCC), together with the National Book Development Board (NBDB), held the 41st National Book Awards at the Areté at the Ateneo de Manila University on Saturday, February 24. Since 2008, the MCC and NBDB have been giving Filipino authors across the country recognition for their craft through the…
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Books and Black History collide in ‘Literature As Liberation’ event in Knoxville
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Purchase a book, participate in read-alouds, test knowledge in Black History trivia and get rapid-fire book recommendations all in one event. Literature as Liberation: A Black History Month Celebration will take place at The Bottom at 2340 E. Magnolia Avenue on Feb. 24 from 12 p.m. through 3 p.m. The event is…
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8 Literary Book Titles Likely to Rile Book Banners
Several months before my short story collection Sex Romp Gone Wrong was published, I started joking that my new book was already banned in Florida and Iowa. It wasn’t entirely a joke. Both states had recently passed legislation requiring any materials depicting sex to be removed from school libraries. The laws also said schools couldn’t…
