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Nielsen BookData Online Why Women Read Fiction: The Stories of Our Lives Helen Taylor (Emeritus Professor of English, Emeritus Professor of English, University of Exeter) (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Oxford University Press
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Pub Date:
27 Jan 2022
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 304pp h210mm x w132mm x s24mm 290g 30 half tone Illustrations ISBN13: 9780198827696 ISBN13: 978-0-19-882769-6 ISBN10: 0198827695 EAN: 9780198827696 x Description: Ian McEwan once said, 'When women stop reading, the novel will be dead.' This book explains how precious fiction is to contemporary British women readers, and how they draw on it to tell the stories of their lives. Female readers are key to the future of fiction and-as parents, teachers, and librarians-the glue for a literate society. Women treasure the chance to read alone, but have also gregariously shared reading experiences and memories with mothers, daughters, grandchildren, and female friends. For so many, reading novels and short stories enables them to escape and to spread their wings intellectually and emotionally. This book, written by an experienced teacher, scholar of women's writing, and literature festival director, draws on over 500 interviews with and questionnaires from women readers and writers. It describes how, where, and when British women read fiction, and examines why stories and writers influence the way female readers understand and shape their own life stories. Taylor explores why women are the main buyers and readers of fiction, members of book clubs, attendees at literary festivals, and organisers of days out to fictional sites and writers' homes. The book analyses the special appeal and changing readership of the genres of romance, erotica, and crime. It also illuminates the reasons for British women's abiding love of two favourite novels, Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. Taylor offers a cornucopia of witty and wise women's voices, of both readers themselves and also writers such as Hilary Mantel, Helen Dunmore, Katie Fforde, and Sarah Dunant. The book helps us understand why-in Jackie Kay's words-'our lives are mapped by books.' _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Stella Takis Wurger (Author) Liesl Schillinger (Translated by) Series:
Edition:
Main
Imprint:
Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
Publisher:
Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
Pub Date:
06 Jan 2022
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United States Paperback / softback 208pp h198mm x w129mm x s15mm 183g ISBN13: 9781611854480 ISBN13: 978-1-61185-448-0 ISBN10: 1611854482 EAN: 9781611854480 x Description: In 1942, Friedrich, an even-keeled but unworldly young man, arrives in Berlin from bucolic Switzerland with dreams of becoming an artist. At a life drawing class, he is hypnotized by the beautiful model, Kristin, who soon becomes his energetic yet enigmatic guide to the bustling and cosmopolitan city, escorting him to underground jazz clubs where they drink cognac, dance and kiss. The war feels far away to Friedrich, who falls in love with Kristin as they spend time together in his rooms at the Grand Hotel, but as the months pass, the mood in the city darkens as the Nazis tighten their hold on Berlin, terrorizing any who are deemed foes of the Reich.One day, Kristin comes back to Friedrich's rooms in tears, battered and bruised. She tells him that her real name is Stella, and that she is Jewish, passing for Aryan. More disturbing still, she has troubling connections with the Gestapo that Friedrich does not fully understand. As Friedrich confronts Stella's unimaginable choices, he finds himself woefully unprepared for the history he is living through. Based in part on a real historical character, Stella sets a tortured love story against the backdrop of wartime Berlin, and powerfully explores questions of naivete, young love, betrayal, and the horrors of history. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________