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What are you waiting for? Our newest list has 17 books that you need to read ASAP.
http://ow.ly/EpXr50ILXi4 Penguin Random House Grand Central Publishing New Directions St. Martin's Press Doubleday Books Henry Holt Basic Books Astra House Books Restless Books Melville House Publishing Akashic Books Unnamed Press Simon & Schuster Random House Scholastic Charlesbridge Publishing
In addition to donating, supporting refugees, and protesting, there is something else we can do from afar, in the midst of devastating violence towards Ukraine. We can read.
Discover our reading list of powerful, transcendent works to help us further understand the people experiencing violence in Ukraine, and the regime behind it.
Some of the greatest works we know today are as a result of samizdat, the “self-publishing” or underground publishing of dissenting literature, poetry, and writings during the Soviet era. Sharing ideas continues to be one of the most powerful forms of protest we have for the long-term. For the full article on Stir Vancouver (
https://www.createastir.ca/articles/reading-list-ukrainian-russian-eastern-european-authors).
Featured Books:
1. Lucky Breaks by Yevgenia Belorusets N.D. Publishing
2. Voroshilovgrad by Serhiy Zhadan Deep Vellum Publishing
3. The Big Green Tent by Ludmila Ulitskaya Picador books
4. Deaf Republic: Poems by Ilya Kaminsky Graywolf Press
5. Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: Adventures in Modern Russia by Peter Pomerantsev Faber Books
6. Short History of Tractors in Ukraine by Marina Lewycka Penguin Random House
7. Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov Melville House Publishing
8. Fieldwork in Ukrainian S*x by Oksana Zabuzhko Amazon Publishing
9. Life Went on Anyway: Stories by Oleg Sentsov Deep Vellum Publishing
This week's Bookin' features Carissa Véliz, associate professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford. Her new book is Privacy is Power: Why and How You Should Take Back Control of Your Data, which is published by our friends at Melville House Publishing. Topics of conversation include the surveillance economy, 1984, what nefarious purposes our data is being used for, smart TVs, what happens when you look at your phone first thing in the morning, Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, crises, whether kids will end up suing their parents over Facebook posts, what we can do to take power over our data back, and much more. Copies of Privacy is Power can be ordered from Quail Ridge Books with FREE SHIPPING.
Editor Laurie Muchnick recommends Ukrainian fiction in translation that will help readers understand the country on its own terms.
https://bit.ly/3JbKATW Deep Vellum Publishing Melville House Publishing Amazon Publishing
To celebrate 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 & 𝘖𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 turning 100, we’re shining a spotlight on each of the stories in what some consider to be Katherine Mansfield’s finest collection. First up: ‘At the Bay’!
‘At the Bay’ is one of Mansfield’s longest stories - it was first published as a twelve-part serial in the London Mercury in January 1922 and is currently published by Melville House Publishing on its own as a novella (as well as in other collections of Mansfield's work of course). It charts the course of a summer’s day in a sleepy seaside village, focusing on the Burnell family and people associated with them. The setting is recognisable as Days Bay/Eastbourne, on the opposite side of the harbour to Wellington. The Burnell family, who first appeared in ‘Prelude’ published by Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s Hogarth Press in 1918, is based on Mansfield’s own family and the character of Kezia is thought to be based on Katherine herself as a child.
After finishing the story in September 1921, Mansfield wrote to her friend Dorothy Brett “It's about 60 pages. I've been at it all last night. My precious children have sat in here, playing cards. I've wandered about all sorts of places—in and out—I hope it is good. It is as good as I can do, and all my heart and soul is in it … every single bit. Oh God, I hope it gives pleasure to someone… It is so strange to bring the dead to life again. There's my Grandmother, back in her chair with her pink knitting, there stalks my uncle over the grass; I feel as I write, “You are not dead, my darlings. All is remembered. I bow down to you. I efface myself so that you may live again through me in your richness and beauty.” And one feels possessed. And then the place where it all happens. I have tried to make it as familiar to ‘you’ as it is to me. You know the marigolds? You know those pools in the rocks, you know the mouse trap on the wash-house window-sill? And too, one tries to go deep—to speak to the secret self we all have—to acknowledge that. I mustn't say any more about it.”
A few weeks ago the BBC broadcast a feature about literary works set on a single day, including ‘At the Bay.’ James Marriott, writer and host of the programme, describes ‘At the Bay’ as a personal favourite. The whole feature is great, but if you’d like to hear the section on ‘At the Bay’, it begins at 27:39 of the recording:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0014222
On Friday, February 25th at 1pm ET, join Patrick Strickland in conversation with Shane Burley on The Marauders: Standing Up to Vigilantes in the American Borderlands, published today by Melville House Publishing.
RSVP:
Bravo to McNaughton & Gunn client Melville House Publishing! "When Dennis Johnson and Valerie Merians founded Melville House 20 years ago, they had no idea their small press would eventually become one of the country’s most respected independent publishers. Yet here they are."
This week's Bookin' features Sasha Fletcher, author of Be Here to Love Me at the End of the World, which is published by our friends at Melville House Publishing. Topics of conversation include how cold it has to be outside to excrete billionaires in the street, the lengths one must go to in order to collect on one's invoices, scaremongering re: nuclear missile attacks, what it means to be President, police, angels, and much more. Copies of Be Here to Love Me at the End of the World can be purchased from Quail Ridge Books with FREE SHIPPING.
Morgan's top three of 2021: THE FUGITIVITIES by Jesse McCarthy (Melville House Publishing), GUMBO YA YA by Aurielle Marie ( University of Pittsburgh Press / Pitt Poetry Series), and A DOOR BEHIND A DOOR by Yelena Moskovich (Two Dollar Radio)!
Find them all on our site:
https://whitewhalebookstore.com/
