Top Stories
Stories in BookClub that you’ll love, handpicked by our team.
Holiday Pen Pal
The holidays are coming and it’s tough. This will be my second holiday season without my husband. Only last year it all happened so quickly after he died, I didn’t even have the time to think about it. I was overwhelmed with grief and simply didn’t care to please others with my presence. But now it’s been a year since Andrew’s death and I feel like some people expect me to move on, and join the festivities.
By Martyna Dearing2 years ago in BookClub
Do You Really Want to Read That?
I seem to have missed something very important. You have noticed that my other pieces this week have been stories about the shenanigans – a wonderful word, I think – in both Canada and the United States with the Speakers of our respective Houses (ours was chosen after a quick vote; the one down south does not really exist yet, and may not exist for quite some time). I commented to a reader of my piece on how the Republican Party seems to be akin to a pack of dogs that are just on the edge of becoming feral. This is fair. My other work involved poetry, a short story, but also, I decided to repost two particular pieces about this week’s other big news: the Nobel Prizes. Physics, Chemistry and Medicine have been covered so far, and this article will be published after the prize for Literature is handed out on Thursday…unless there is another delay as there was in the year that Bob Dylan became a laureate. Anything is possible (Jon Fosse anyone?)
By Kendall Defoe 2 years ago in BookClub
THIS IS NOT WHAT JANE WANTED. Content Warning.
It must be hard trying to adapt an unfinished book into a series television show. Especially an unfinished book with only 11 chapters. But Sanditon (2019), I would like to believe, truly tried their hardest to make the most out of what Austen started more than 200 years ago.
By The Austen Shelf2 years ago in BookClub
Banking and slavery in the 18th-19th Century
In the book "The Devils Half Acre", by Kristen Green, she highlights the practice of utilizing slaves as a means of collateral for the purpose of banking. I must say that I never before thought of people being a means of asset ascertainment to loans from a banking institution, neighbors and friends.
By Novel Allen2 years ago in BookClub
Book Review: The Phoenix King by Aparna Verma
In a kingdom where flames hold magic and the desert hides secrets, an ancient prophecy comes for an assassin, a princess, and a king. But none are ready to face destiny—and the choices they make could burn the world. “If we carry the burdens of our fathers, we’ll never know what it means to be free.” For Elena Aadya Ravence, fire is yearning. She longs to feel worthy of her Phoenix god, of her ancestors who transformed the barren dunes of Sayon into a thriving kingdom. But though she knows the ways and wiles of the desert better than she knows her own skin, the secrets of the Eternal Flame elude her. And without them, she’ll never be accepted as queen. For Leo Malhari Ravence, fire is control. He is not ready to give up his crown—there’s still too much work to be done to ensure his legacy remains untarnished, his family protected. But power comes with a price, and he’ll wage war with the heavens themselves to keep from paying it. For Yassen Knight, fire is redemption. He dreams of shedding his past as one of Sayon’s most deadly assassins, of laying to rest the ghosts of those he has lost. If joining the court of flame and serving the royal Ravence family—the very people he once swore to eliminate—will earn him that, he’ll do it no matter what they ask of him. But the Phoenix watches over all and the fire has a will of its own. It will come for all three, will come for Sayon itself….and they must either find a way to withstand the blaze or burn to ash.
By Marie Sinadjan2 years ago in BookClub
I Got My Book In a Library
I had some exciting news in my email. A few months ago, I sent a few of my poetry books over to the National Poetry Library in London. I really hope to one day actually visit the place someday, because I think it will be a place where I love. I already adore the Oxford Poetry Library. A lot of the libraries near me don’t have a lot of poetry books, so it’s really nice to know there are libraries dedicated just for poetry.
By Chloe Gilholy2 years ago in BookClub
Infernal Insight
I feel like something of a fraud teaching Dante’s Inferno for two reasons: 1. I must rely upon an English translation to do so effectively. I can tell a bolgia from a boulder and contrapasso from contraception, but my Italian is primitive at best. 2. I do not take the metaphysical or theological foundations of Dante’s work very seriously, insofar as I have a fraught relationship with Catholicism and remain obstinately agnostic. In spite of these considerations, I have continued to guide students through a translation of this astonishing text for many years as part of an introductory course in Comparative Literature. I think it would be irresponsible to ignore Dante's work in such a context, given its enormous historical and artistic significance. In the process, my understanding of moral and ethical matters has undergone a radical transformation. I have come to see betrayal as the most dreadful of transgressions, and to recognize that contemporary culture actually promotes and rewards the traitor at every turn.
By D. J. Reddall2 years ago in BookClub
Comics
They were only comics. Well, comic books. My older brother Steve would set me on his lap in the living room. We always perched in the rocking chair furthest from the kitchen, the one that spun all the way around (& drove mom crazy when we did it). The comics tended to be either from the Marvel or DC universes—Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Spiderman, Green Lantern, The Phantom….
By Randy Wayne Jellison-Knock2 years ago in BookClub
